Hello, this week Kelsy is blogging on a Monday ... Sundays have apparently gone out the window but I just have so much to DO on a Sunday, like homework that is due on Monday. And waking up at midday. And tidying stuff. And writing letters. Reading books and wrapping Christmas presents ...

Yes, so Christmas is fast approaching!
Last week, while working on the project I mentioned in my last blog, I went downtown with Hanus and Jeffri to get pizza (we were really working extremely hard - *cough*) and we discovered that they'd started decorating the town! Now I am going to get photos but for now I can only describe the garlands of greenery (fake, of course, greenery doesn't grow her) with big, neon stars and lit up red hearts that are hanging across the streets (which, by the way, are almost all cobbled which just makes everything cosier). I am just waiting for it to snow again - I can't wait to see Tórshavn looking really Christmassy.
And the bakeries are all making peber nødder (pepper nuts, literally, like little tiny round gingernuts with lots of cinnamon) which are a traditional Faroese Christmas treat. And quite delicious.
AND, there are little stalls springing up all over town selling everything Christmassy you could imagine - decorations, giftwrap, Christmas foods, presents, souvenirs. They just sit out on the street in the [almost and soon-to-be] sub-zero temperatures, quite happily distributing their wares. According to my host family, there are going to be lots more.
Best of all, my class, who are amazed with the lack of Christmas decorations we seem to have in New Zealand, have organised a Christmas-decoration-night for ME, in order to teach me how to make advent candles (daily and weekly), wreathes, and lots of other unbelievably quaint decorations they love here, and make themselves.
I am rather looking forward to Christmas, or Jól, as it is here, though it will be very different - they do the whole gift exchange thing on Christmas eve (Jóla-aftan).

I had night-class this evening which was fun, and as Stacey and I were walking back into town to catch the bus (the school is in Argir which is really far out), one of the fellows in the class who was from Brazil offered us a lift home. As it was sitting on about freezing, we gladly accepted and he dropped us back in Hoyvík, which was nice of him. After dinner, I was attempting to read the paper (Faroese as a written language is insanely difficult but also new - only about a century old) and lo and behold, here is Santos, dude who drove us home. As it turns out, he's in the national soccer team for the Faroes. And rather good. I do tend to miss these things ...

The project last week went rather well, though it did eventuate that I was the only one in my group who knew how to use Publisher, and so I engineered the entire layout for our magazine. I didn't mind at all, as it meant I was doing something to contribute. It was a wee bit of a worry, though, as our deadline was 2.30PM on Friday, and our job was to put everyone else's work together into the aforementioned magazine. Issue with this being, we couldn't finish until everyone finished. As a result, at 2.15PM we started glueing the [30 page] book together and at 2.28PM Hanus (who thankfully lives just above the school) grabbed the lot and ran barefoot and jacketless down to the school, stapling as he went. I took pity on the poor fellow and took down a jumper and some shoes when Jeffri and I wandered down a few minutes later, having tidied some stuff up and donned jackets AND shoes. But yes, that was a fun project. We think our magazine will get a good mark, so that will be great!

I have had a great weekend - on Friday night we went to a concert in Fuglafirði where Guðrið Hansdóttir, Heiðrik and The Ghost were playing - three very good Faroese acts. There was a discotek afterwards - basically just a dance - and so we stayed until 4AM when the bus was SUPPOSED to take us home. Sadly, it didn't. We rang the company and tried to locate the bus, and the Mentanarhusið staff rang the company and tried to locate the bus, but the company couldn't be contacted, nor could the bus be located. In the end, one of the security guards who happened to live in Tórshavn drove us home. We couldn't figure out if his name was Pætur or Knut, so we called him PK. Haha. The best bit was, they asked us to sweep out the hall in order to earn our ride home. No problem, said we, so we hijacked the DJ station and put on some cleaning music, and swept for our lives. Afterwards we were all given free drinks and some food and we sat about and listened to music. It was fun.

Then on the Saturday night (Leygarkvøld), I attended a class party, thrown by my good buddy Jógvan - pronounced Yegvan. Intriguingly, the class was booked into our usual dinner restaurant, hvonn, at 4PM - this did seem a bit early as usually we book for 6. Or 7. Or 8 ... but no. The party started pretty early, too, which was actually kind of a relief as it finished early - well, early for here, which was about 3AM ... usually we party until daylight. But that was an awesomely fun party. We had a whipped cream fight. Haha.

Hmm, and nothing interesting happened at school today, though those of you with bebo can find all class party photos on there - I did discover in biology today that I can quietly sit using someone's laptop without the teacher noticing. Or perhaps he does, but dismisses it as the exchange student doing .. something. Haha.

Anyhoo, I shall be heading off to bed as I have an early start tomorrow and English (yay! Something I can contribute to!) first.
Kelsy xox

P.S PLEASE COMMENT. Anybody can if you click on comment as anonymous (comments by the way, are called acknowledgements in my blog). Then you can do it without using an account with google OR blogger, so this is Good. Please comment - gives me inspiration and motivation and goodness knows what else to write more. Takk fyri!!

P.P.S I am teaching my class New Zealandic, as they call it. And general English slang which they find hilarious. Phrases like 'Hell's teeth' and 'Wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him' entertain them immensely - any suggestions? And another thing - how do you explain 'diddums' to someone with bad English?! Help!