Well hey hey, late again, but that's my culture now ... (in case I hadn't mentioned it before, everybody in the Faroe Islands is customarily late. As a rule.)

Um well, what has happened in the last week? Well, first things first, I got the week off school last week which was a total bonus except for the massive essay I had to write (for Faroese class but I got to write in English because even Faroese people can't write Faroese properly. Nice, huh?). But I only got 4 days while everyone else for 5 BECAUSE I was scheduled to fly out to Iceland at 11AM on Friday morning. And I did and hoorah, here I am in the 'land of the ice and snow, the midnight sun where the hot springs blow' to quote the trusty Led Zep.
And they have all these funny letters on the keyboard like þ and ð and ö and so excuse me if they pop randomly into my words, they're not meant to be there. Unless the words are Icelandic which is unlikely!

Um, yes. I am sitting here at Silja's house - for those of you who don't know Silja (and I pity you) she was my host sister back in NZ on AFS for a year (except I was only there for 6 months so I guess the other 5 don't really qualify) and I have finally made it up to Iceland to visit her. And, by finally, I mean 2,5 months after she made it back to Iceland. Haha. No rest for the wicked. But so far she seems to be handling me fine ... I have also met her mum, and her dad and her brother, all of whom I heard so much about in New Zealand so it's really cool to finally meet them. As Silja says, though, it's extremely weird to be together again on the other side of the world. It's like we are in the wrong country. But it's amazing and awesome and great all the same.

Uh, so yeah, I landed on Friday at about 12.30PM local time and headed to Silja's school with her where I went to her chemistry class (it was pretty fun if a little random) and met her friends. After that, we headed home and hung out for a while discussing stuff and the like. At 7PM(ish) her dad and stepmum picked us up and we went out for dinner with them to a pizza place where we got a really nice dinner of pizza (the waitress picked mine as I was incapable) and just discussed stuff ... I told a lot of stories that Silja had apparently neglected to tell them and yeah, 'twas a right laugh. Then we went to a concert which Silja's dad shouted, and it was fantastically great - if Icelandic and so pretty un-understandable. They had a fantastic sax guy. Look them up if you're bored - Sálin Hans Jón Míns is their name and they're really good even after they've played for 20 years. The concert was from 10PM until 12.30AM and as we went in we saw the Northern Lights, only for a minute or so but in green, pink and purple which was so extremely beautiful.
And yeah, afterwards we headed home to sleep!

On Saturday morning the plan was that Silja would get up, go to work, come back, pick me up and we'd head out Reykjavík sightseeing. Sadly she never made it out of the house before she fell asleep again and we wound up heading out at about 11ish and making a really shoddy job of the offices she was meant to clean before running off into Reykjavík to check everything out.
Reykjavík is beautiful and I love it. We went to a place called Perlan (the Pearl) which is a massive building built mainly out of water tanks that supply Reykjavík with water. There's a huge glass dome on top and a deck which you can walk around and see clear to the mountains on all sides. We were really lucky, as I flew in to the best weather Iceland had possibly ever seen - the bluest, clearest skies and not a wisp of cloud or breath of wind. It was beautiful and we could see all the way to this glacier way in the North. It was amazing.
Then we went to the only white beach in Reykjavík which is handmade and features snow and a pool of up-heated ocean, which is cool. Or warm. Silja and I found it pretty hilarious as it was about 5 degrees and we posed on the sunbeds they have there. They also have a volleyball net and all manner of beachy stuff - it's like they're really trying to turn it into Hawaii or something. It's very picturesque, but it's also very cold.
Following this we headed to a beautiful big church which is yeah ... massive and just pretty and can be seen from most places in Reykjavík. We headed in and looked around, there was a huuuuuuuuuge organ, and then we walked downtown, investigated the shops and the pond which was heavily frozen and which people were riding bicycles across (so we walked on it, just to say we did). And so we headed to Kolaportið which is the huge fleamarket on the waterfront. I scored some nice second hand clothes which Silja is now modifying and which are very cool. Eventually we headed home, and made a really interesting dinner, the recipe for which I am including below:
1. Overcook rice.
2. Put too much chili powder on the chicken.
3. Burn chili powder.
4. Find a random curry sauce a la internet recipe.
5. Take curry sauce recipe and put in every second ingredient.
6. Mix.
7. Eat.
That was risotto according to Silja and Kelsy.
The next day being yesterday we went snowboarding or rather Silja did and I spent the entire day sitting on my ass in the snow (what can I say, I have zero natural balance). Which was fun as the day was beautiful and there were lots of snowy holiday makers to watch including one guy who kept rocking up who was just as bad as we were. Or, I was. And it was really ironic as we waited two whole hours in a queue just to get the boards and boots (which are uncomfortable but hey). But yeah, it was pretty fun, especially when I bailed hard out on my back going up the lift! Seriously, I made it like 4m, I believe.
After we did that, we came home, got some hot chocolate, and then Silja and I headed out to the Blue Lagoon which is the most beautiful place in all the world (and very, very blue). Pictures and the like can be found on www.bluelagoon.com and yes, it's all very exciting. We sat in hot water and picked up mud with our feet and saunaed and spaed and all sorts of lovely geothermal things for a while. It was very, very nice. And warm. Except we had to run outside in the cold in bikinis before we got into the water, which was unpleasant. But yes, it's lovely and anyone who ever goes to Iceland HAS TO GO TO THE BLUE LAGOON because it is great.
Then we went home and had a really really good dinner involving lamb and baked potatoes (which I failed at having never had before). But yeah, we did OK!

Today we were going to go the Golden Circle (google it) but we never quite made it and we intend to go tomorrow. Early. Which means getting up at a normal time. Ouch. But yeah, today we wound up heading to the mall where I had Chinese food for the first time since I´d left New Zealand (and even seeing a mall was exciting as were the motorways we had to drive on to get there). And Silja bought pants and moisturiser and yes, it was fun. And I bought a hip flask with Iceland on it (..?).
And so we headed home and ate dinner which was leftovers of pretty much the entire weekend's food. And really good.

Anyways, that's a seriously long blog so I shall head off. Yay! And yeah, go to bed ...
Goodnight!