Happy New Year’s, everybody – it’s technically New Year’s Day back home, but 12.45PM on New Year’s Eve here. Which means that while I prepare for my host family’s New Year’s dinner, you guys are preparing for the Warkworth Rodeo. And I do believe that this is the first year of my life I HAVEN’T been, excluding, obviously, the first couple of years when I was simply too young. Weird, isn’t it.
It’s a little worrying that my class still haven’t found a venue for their New Year’s party that isn’t Sandoy (another island, bit difficult to walk into town from there) or Streymnes (only slightly better. May as well be on another island). I do hope they find one because this is the land of partying and I need to bring in the NewYear in style. I’m sure they will ... this is, after all, also the land of the last minute and anyone who has been here or known Faroese people will most probably agree.
I live in hope.

Yeah so anyway, what has gone on this week? CHRISTMAS!
We were in Klaksvík for Christmas, late as I think I mentioned in my last post because of a huge storm that prevented us from driving there. We made it though, the next day, which was fine as Faroese Christmas doesn’t begin officially until 6PM on Christmas Eve. So we had dinner first at my host aunt’s place – duck and New Zealand lamb with reyðkal (red cabbage with vinegar and sugar – best thing EVER) and potatoes and other stuff I seriously can’t remember but there was a lot of it. And then we opened the gifts. My host family got me the most beautiful brooch – pure Faroese silver, big and intricately designed. It’s one of those they use on the national costumes, and as it turns out they all have names – mine is called Vár, or Spring.
And my host aunt Sára knitted me a Faroese scarf with the Faroese knitting pattern and Faroese wool. It’s beautiful. I had been considering buying one so now I’m rather glad I didn’t.
On Christmas Day we went back to my host grandad’s for ræstkjøt (rotted boiled meat with salt). That was nice as the entire Klaksvík family came.
On Boxing Day we had a kind of family reunion with my host dad’s family which was extremely cool as I got to meet all of my host cousins from Suðuroy and those I hadn’t met in Klaksvík. It was rather fun. We ate smoked Greenlandic fish and pork and duck and lots of other delicious things. Everyone left at about 8PM after a massive dessert and Jóhanna and I headed out to visit some people at about 10. You see, it’s a tradition here that on boxing day you have to stay out until the sun comes up. Which, quite frankly, is ridiculous as this is the middle of Faroese winter and the sun doesn’t come up until 10.30AM. Makes for a fun night, though.
On the 27th, we were invited to tour the biggest trawler in the North Atlantic, and also the newest – the Skálaberg. Beautiful boat – they had a gym and a sauna and all sorts of lounges and things on board. It’s only 2 years old – the 5th generation of Skálabergs. And then we went back to my host cousin Jóhan’s place where we met his wife and baby (very cute – was sleeping outside when we arrived. They do that here, bundle them up warm and put them in a sheltered place and they don’t get disturbed). And then we had ris a la mange, the dessert most Faroese people have for Christmas, and this other thing that Jóhan’s wife brought out which was more or less pavlova! But super pavlova. With icecream on top and chocolate and almonds in. It was delicious. And I have the recipe.

Yeah, so that was my Christmas – we came back to Havn that night and on the 29th I went to my friend Ronja’s 18th ... epic night, got home at 6AM but that included time spent in town, somehow we wound up in the clubs. Enjoyable night.

Anyway, I think that’s it for this week – hope Christmas in NZ was equally enjoyable, sure it was! And enjoy New Year’s – I bet you’re all partying in 2008 as I write this.

Góðan morgun, ein gleðilig jól og eitt gott nýggjár!
The above says: ‘Good morning, merry christmas and happy new years!’ in Faroese. Woohoo!
Well, I didn’t blog yesterday – know why? It’s Christmas. Or, it was the 23rd of December. And we had lots to do – I had to pack my suitcase for Klaksvík and get ready for the Opening Presents Session (ie wrap stuff) and here’s the clincher: make 42 Christmas mince pies.
I’m PROUD of my 42 mince pies because I made them totally from scratch – the mince AND the pastry. That’s some serious good efforts right there, especially as the mince involved suet. Never again. Ugh!
We were meant to go to Klaksvík yesterday which was why everything was such a rush. In the end, though, we didn’t, as a huge storm broke yesterday morning which would have made driving very, very difficult. The storm did calm in the end but by then it was too late to head out and so here I am on the morning of the 24th, stil in Tórshavn.
Morning. I hate that word. Morning. It’s 7.46AM on the 24th of December and I wish it wasn’t. The whole wakeful thing this early in the holidays ain’t good. And why am I awake? Because thanks, parents, New Zealand called me at 6.30AM. OUCH! Darned time difference. For future reference, anybody who ever feels like calling me which is really nobody but however, New Zealand is 13 hours ahead of the Faroe Islands.
But yes, anyway, here I am trying to think of something to do with myself as I really stand no chance of getting back to sleep now, even though I only made it to bed at... 2AM. Damn. So I figured I would write a blog seeing as one is overdue anyway. And so here I am. I shall tell you about Christmas in the Faroe Islands, 2007.

First BIG IMPORTANT THING: Snow. There isn’t much of it this morning but there’s a tiny bit. Which makes me happy as I can now say we had snow at Christmas. And Klaksvík is more Northern anyway so hopefully there will be more there! I live in hope. But yes, sometimes it snows at Christmas but it hasn’t for 5 years so it’s way overdue.
Second important thing: Tradition here demands that families with small children dance around the Christmas tree. I thought this was the cutest thing I had ever heard of and was very determined to dance around the Christmas tree and so, though my host aunt and uncle’s Christmas tree normally resides in the corner of the room, they have moved it into the middle so we can ‘dansa rundt jólatræið’. I am very much looking forward to it.
Third important thing: Present opening takes place on Christmas Eve in the evening. Which means that strangely enough I will be opening my presents at the same time as you guys in New Zealand.

Ah, bother. I think it’s raining. The little snow there is is fully going to wash away, darned Faroe weather. But ah well.

Um, so my last week. WELL. School finished on Thursday and we had a really hilarious day just sitting around and eating leftover candy from my Christmas concert. Which went really well and we made lots of money from it, even though I sang. We had a few invasions of small children onto the stage but we did OK. Anyway, last day of school we ate leftover candy and used leftover face paint to decorate ourselves. It was extremely entertaining – all our classes were cancelled except for English, and even then the teacher brought tea, coffee, carrot cake and a movie and we just sat and relaxed for an hour and a half. And yeah, then most of the class left and a bunch of us just sat around relaxing, watching youtube, etc etc. It was a great day.

Anyway, I am very, very tired and I have a long day ahead so I am heading back to bed.
Love you all, merry Christmas!

Darn, a day late.
This is going to be a quick blog as today is proving to be one of the busiest days of my life, no actually, this past week in general. You see, I am performing in two concerts this evening for small children and we started practising on Thursday. Seriously. So it's a little hectic - though awesomely fun. I've never ever considered spending so much time intensively with any of my classes (excluding camps and such) but here it just WORKS. So well - everyone gets along and everything runs perfectly. Or it would if anyone knew what on earth we were doing ...
So here it goes: my weekend. And this is an extreme example, not all of them are so intense, but well ... most.
Thursday: practice for concert from 1.30PM until 8PM.
Friday: practice for concert from 8AM until 10AM and then again from 1.30PM until 7PM. 11PM go to a metal concert at a bar in town, then hit the clubs. Get home at 7AM.
Saturday: Sleep until 11AM. Get up, go to the theatre (2PM until 5PM), have dinner, leave to go to formal birthday party for my friend Lilja at 7PM. Stay for 45 minutes, go to concert at 8PM until 11PM. 12PM: Go back to Lilja's for the REAL party. Stay there until 4AM, then head into town to go clubbing. Get home at (seriously) 10AM.
Sunday: Sleep until 11.30AM, get up, start practise at 12PM until 6PM, go home, have dinner, head back to school for practise from 7PM until midnight.
Monday: Get up at 5AM, head to school for practise starting 7AM until 10AM. More practise from 11.30AM until 12.

Yeah so that's where we are now - it is 12.25PM on Monday and I am just about to head home to get some throat things to make me sing like an angel and get changed into my LBD and leggings and heels to look all important and nice. And I shall be singing Can You Feel The Love Tonight for 200 small children. Twice - concerts tonight from 3.30-5.30PM and then 6-8PM. I am also playing the keyboard in the band. Rah!

Um, yeah. Stuff has happened in the last week but for the life of me I cannot remember it ... I'm sure it will come to me eventually ... ooh, I've started wearing silk pants. I randomly bought two pairs a few weeks back for like $7.50 each (30kr, awesome sale) and I have decided I never want to wear other pants as long as I live, these things are great.

We had ræstkjøt for dinner last night - half dried (well, really rotted) meat that has been boiled. You have no idea how good that stuff is. I love it. Favourite Faroese food, though ræstan fisk is also really good. Can't decide.

Ooh, and Christmas is in ONE WEEK! I can't wait - I am counting down the days and my friends keep having to correct me because I add a day. Keep forgetting they celebrate on the 24th here. I actually cannot wait!

Anyway, I am heading out - may be able to get a few hours sleep before I get ready.
Much love to all who read and more love to all who comment,
Kelsy

Hey, it’s The Girl With Too Much To Do again ...
It’s Monday evening and I am way too tired to be sitting in front of a computer but I really must get this blog published and I shall do so tomorrow morning. My Sunday blog will arrive on Tuesday evening in New Zealand.
So yeah. How did you like the last one? And the photos ... I put in photos, didn’t I? I can’t remember ...
But yes, I was way way way too busy yesterday to blog – you see, I went on tour with my orchestra. We played in an old people’s home first, then we went to the tiny, tiny town of Kaldbak where my friend Sunniva lives, then we went to Argir, a sort-of suburb of Havn, then we went to Norðradalur, probably one of the smallest villages I have ever seen – it had 4 houses. But Syðradalur, that one is smaller – it has 2 houses. The Syðradalur people came to our performance at Norðradalur, though, along with many, many people from other surrounding villages. The point of the tour was that we were accompanying the lighting of the town Christmas trees in all of these places – every town has a Christmas tree here, but it does make me laugh as they are so obviously imported – the trees that grow here don’t grow so big, and the ones they use as town trees are fairly large (and outside) and very lit up. They’re beautiful. The one in Havn is particularly impressive but I suppose one would hope that of the capital Christmas tree. Anyway, it really harks back to the times when Warkworth had a town Christmas tree and we used to all sit in MS Engineering and watch it getting lit.

Hmm, so what else has been going down here in the Faroes? Well, I am preparing to mail the Christmas Package tomorrow – it has 13 days until Christmas Eve, 12 and a half including time difference, so I desperately hope it makes it on time! Speaking of Christmas Packages, many thanks to everyone who included stuff in mine – everything is fantastic and all the presents look very exciting – of course I haven’t opened anything yet but my host family’s gifts are all wrapped and stowed in my closet waiting to be taken to Klaksvík for the host family Christmas. I can’t wait! Ooh, but Mum did send them a lovely book on Warkworth which they couldn’t help but open and they love it – each member of the family is taking turns to read it and no doubt we will take it to Klaksvík to show the extended host family. It was fun, too, for me to see all the beaches and such.

Beaches seem very, very far away right now – one would be mad to swim here in the winter. It sat on about 0 degrees today and just below at some points. Very, very cold, but oddly enough it doesn’t seem so bad. It all depends on where in the world you are, I have concluded – if the temperature reached 0 degrees in New Zealand, we would all be dying of hypothermia, but here in the Faroe Islands one can leave the house in open shoes and without a scarf. It just ... doesn’t seem so chilly. Though, having said that, there was no snow today and also no wind. The wind makes a huge difference as it comes from the North usually. But I am hoping for snow soon. They have predicted rain this week but if the temperature sits on zero, it will become snow. I live in hope!

Yeah so ... I have been in the Faroes over four months. Which means I have less than seven left. It’s Christmas, for goodness’ sake ... New Years’ is equally soon. When I first arrived I could never have considered Christmas here, in the cold. And having been here so long. It’s scary how fast this exchange is going. The weeks are, honestly, like days, because there is always something to do. Orchestra practice, then orchestra hugnakvølds (cosy evenings – that’s hard to translate because we just don’t do it), big band practices – two of those, concerts, so many concerts ... I have another now – we are playing Christmas morning in the Havnarkirkja (Havn Church) but I shan’t be here for that because I will be in Klaksvík. Then there’s everything my class organise – this weekend it looks like we’re going to the island of Sandoy for a very long class party (3 days! These people like to party...). And we bowl. And go to the movies and out to dinner and all sorts. And then I have my Faroese evening classes – two of those a week. And choir practice on Thursdays. I never seem to be at home. And when I am I’m always doing homework and practicing the piano (for another concert) and wrapping Christmas presents and doing goodness knows what else, but there’s almost always something. Yes, I can see this exchange going extremely quickly.

I’m currently very proud of my class as we won a big, prestigious prize. A month or so back I think I mentioned Verkætlan, the project we did (we got two days off school for it). Well, this year my school ran Verkætlan as a competition and the winners were announced on Friday night at a school kvøldseta (same as hugnakvøld and equally untranslatable). My host mum was determined that I go for some reason, though she wouldn’t tell me why and when they began announcing the winners of Verkætlan 2007 I began to get suspicious – was this what she meant? So I was looking around for anybody at all in my class and I was seriously, the only one. Sure enough, 07Y were announced as winning first for Verkætlan for our project, ‘Grønur Skúlin’ (The Green School) and I had to go up and accept the prize. But that was OK – we won 2500kr, which is equal, more or less, to NZ$625. A little bit more than the interhouse prizes of $20 worth of hot chips at Mahu! But yeah, none of us expected it so this morning we celebrated by doing very little in physics. Though I also do very little in physics so it didn’t really worry me much.

Finally, I got my first report on Friday, and guess what – I passed everything! Physics was a very close call but I got 10 on chemistry – the marking scheme is very odd but 11 is more or less the highest mark. 12 doesn’t exist, 13 does but they don’t give it out unless it’s Nobel-prize-winning stuff. I was amazed with my chemistry mark as I generally sleep in class but I suppose the teacher liked the reports I’ve handed in! And I got 11 in English, naturally. And yeah, passed everything, gosh I was amazed. My final mark was 8.5 which is actually pretty good and better than a lot of the people in my class got. So I was extremely happy with that. I also got the second highest mark on my Maths test but I think I mentioned that. THAT was impressive as it was written in Danish – thanks, Silja, for helping me with my Danish, it is doing me many, many favours as all the schoolwork is written in it!
But yes, anyone thinking of going on AFS and scared of failing stuff, disregard everything they say about school. I didn’t expect to pass anything, let alone in my first four months, and I am one of the top students in my class. Beat the system!

Anyway, I am going to head off and do my French homework (je t’aime la langue Française, elle est belle!). O joy!
Love, Kelsy

Hi everybody!
(Hi, Doctor Nick!)

Well. Here I am writing a blog on a ... Tuesday evening (just had to check that one out) but this one won’t be posted until Wednesday morning/afternoon (if we’re lucky) and so it should be online on Wednesday night New Zealand time. So, tomorrow night. Or tonight, if we’re speaking Nzish.

Sorry I’m late again, I just keep running out of time! It’s an issue. I have more and more on these days. Especially concerts, I don’t know where they all come from! Though it could have something to do with the fact that I have just joined yet another band – GHM, a big, pretentious, prestigious orchestra here in the Faroe Islands. It’s run by the music school (as are my other two bands) and involves every instrument playable with the mouth. Odd way to explain but so it goes. But yes, I do have rather a crazed itinerary for the next month ... on Sunday the 9th (the coming Sunday – that rules out the next blog being on time) I am touring with GHM to three neighbouring towns around Tórshavn – it’s called Jólatræ (the Christmas Tree Tour) and involves playing outside. It snows lots now so I’m not looking forward to it so much but we do get a tour bus so that shall be fun! On the 17th of December I have another concert, this time with my class, who are fundraising for their trip next year to Turkey. The concert is for small children and so far I am in a choir, singing a solo, playing solo piano, saxaphone, and in a band. So that should be fun ... I don’t really mind, the alternative was face painting. Then, on the 19th, I have this crazy, crazy concert – we’re performing on the Jólaskip or Christmas ship (this is with GHM, the aforementioned orchestra that I have just joined). The Jólaskip is a Faroese tradition and every city has one (every town, rather) and they light them up with Christmas lights and get bands on them playing Christmas carols and then you can row out to them in your little dinghies and wander around for a bit – drink gløgg (mulled wine) and eat holukøkur (literally holy cakes but more or less just deep fried pancake dough served with jam and icing sugar). Ooh, and on Saturday (forgot this one – bother) I am singing with my school choir at some flash function the school is throwing in aid of Verkætlan which I do believe I explained in my last blog. Possibly the one before. But yes, our Verkætlan was a competition and so the winners will be announced on Saturday. And we are also singing.
And I performed two concerts last Tuesday night, though I had only intended to play one. Both of my big bands were performing in the Miðlahúsinum, which is a tiny, tiny venue in the centre of town. I only knew that the non-professional band was playing and so brought my music only for that one, but when the professional band arrived straight afterwards and asked politely where exactly I thought I was going, I wound up playing with them as well. It was, of course, a huge honour as I am the youngest in the band and quite possibly the least trained – all the musicians in it are incredibly good.. That concert especially was amazing – the music that band plays is so tight and just fantastic. They are touring next summer, and I do cross my fingers that they do it before I leave, so that I can go with them, because they’re either going to Iceland or Greenland (Silja, if we come to Iceland, you are so coming to watch).
So yes, that’s my concert schedule for December – I have a suspicion that the big bands have more dates planned for the Christmas break. I must start getting photos of these things!

On Saturday night was my school’s Christmas ball – the ball here does not mean the same thing as it does at home, mind. Ball is Faroese for party. And this was one big party – and superhero themed! I went as Pippi Longstockings and the plaits especially went down rather well as Stacey and I had wired them up. I had mismatched socks and everything, and a great 60s cocktail dress with polkadots that I bought for 35kr ($8.75) in a second hand shop. But yes, everyone dressed up and it was a great night – I have a few photos from my class pre-party which I may put up at some stage. If I have a free class sometime (hopefully tomorrow, as I have biology, physics and Faroese – officially the worst day possible).

Hmm ... what else has happened since I last blogged? Well, Stacey is in Edinburgh, though she hasn’t been for long and won’t be for much longer – she went on a cruise to Scotland with her host family where they actually spend more time on the boat than in Scotland. It’s crazy – they seriously get 20 hours in Edinburgh. The whole affair is geared towards shopping and takes about 90 hours. But when I got home from evening school tonight, my host parents informed me with amusement that Stacey’s host mum, Turid, had rung them in a total and utter panic – Stacey has Lost Her Passport and may well be stuck in Edinburgh for a while if they can’t straighten the matter out. I await news of developments eagerly as it is so a Stacey-ish thing to do – at the [rather swanky] AFS 50th anniversary a month or so back, she successfully lit the table decorations on fire, much to my amusement ... while Stacey was yelling at me for laughing and trying desperately to find water, the girl across the table quietly picked the burning leafy things up and blew them out. Haha.

Ooh, on Saturday we had the Lighting Of The Town Christmas Tree. Very important and thousands of people go to it ... seriously, there were three thousand there to see it lit on the weekend. They lowered a Santa from a crane and he lit the tree. Being a Santa in the Faroe Islands is officially not the world’s most desirable job ... I’m intrigued as to where they got the tree, personally, as there aren’t any here and what few do grow in people’s gardens don’t grow anywhere near as big as this monster. So definitely an import. Odd, really. But yes, we went to watch the lighting and then went into a bar and drank gløgg and ate holukøkur. Gløgg is intriguing stuff, really ... mulled wine served hot with raisins and almonds and a lot of ginger. Delicious, to tell the truth.

Anyway, it’s way past my bedtime so I am going to load this onto my flashcard and hit the sack.
Love you all,
Kelsy

P.S You guessed it – please comment. Question: does anyone from AFS North Shore read this? I’m sure I put the address in my last email ...