hello & welcome

or, how i learned to stop worrying and walk everywhere

SONG OF THE WEEK: “All Along the Watchtower” Jimi Hendrix

Everyone told me Reykjavík would be windy. No one told me that the wind smells, depending on direction, of either sea salt or sulfur. The water in the kitchen and the bathroom has a faintly sulfurous smell, one that took me a few hours to identify. It isn’t a bad smell, isn’t overpowering, but just barely noticeable, one of those subtle signals that you’re somewhere different.

The terrain is strange, but more noticeably so when you are high enough off the ground to see hills in the distance, craterous and sparsely vegetated. On the drive home from the airport, I kept thinking of those models of the planet Mars they put in museums. The ground is somewhat unremarkable, yellowish-brown and rough-looking, like waves hardened to dirt. It gets darker and softer as you approach the city and the coast.

Reykjavík itself is beautiful, cleaner than any American city I’ve visited, but certainly smaller. My window overlooks a relatively busy street corner. Right now, rush hour is just beginning. The cars here are smaller, the license plates plainer than I’m used to from home. The streets are not broad enough to accommodate the monstrous trucks Americans seem to love, but the sidewalks on either side are broad enough that a couple, walking side by side, have room to push their double stroller.

The area I’m in is very residential. I wandered around it yesterday for several hours trying to find a grocery store. There are plenty of playgrounds, family homes, and nursery schools. I did, after some time, find myself in a tourist district with several expensive looking restaurants and plenty of obvious tourists. I was stuck behind a slow-walking family for several blocks speaking an obviously non-Icelandic language, which I struggled to identify. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize they were British.

I eventually found a store much closer to my apartment, and bought some basic groceries. I knew enough to get through the shopping portion, but still had a moment of humiliation when the cashier tried to speak Icelandic to me and I could only respond in English. She was unfazed and smiled very kindly at me before moving on to the next customer. I went home, made dinner, and promptly fell asleep in my clothes. I woke up a few hours later, disoriented, thinking it was 9:30 the next morning. It was still 9:30 that night— the sun just hadn’t set yet.

Today I woke up, made breakfast, and immediately had to deal with a power outage in the apartment. My roommate, who I had not met until this moment, was helpful, but knows about as much Icelandic as I do, so figuring out the right switch took some trial and error. After a delayed start, I walked to Kópavogur, a separate township about four miles from Reykjavík, to find the immigration office. I wanted to visit and make sure I knew the route before tomorrow, when I have to have my photo taken for identification purposes. I also thought walking the city might help orient me a little better. The walk was long, about an hour and a half, but pleasant. I could take the bus, but I don’t feel especially confident navigating the bus system at this point, and this appointment is essential— I need to have my picture taken within a week of my arrival, and there are no other slots open in August. I’ll wear better walking shoes tomorrow, when I go back.

I’ll also have to stop by the student center to get access to the campus intranet and enroll in classes. It’s very close to my apartment, just a few blocks away. I can’t get access to the intranet until I have my kennitala (Icelandic government ID number), which I can’t get until I go to the photo appointment tomorrow.

If this is all sounding a bit like a to-do list, you’re getting a good look inside my head right now. Plenty to do when you move to a foreign country, as it turns out.

That’s all for now. It’s a little early for dinner, but I am getting hungry, and I didn't have time for lunch today. My posts in the future will hopefully be longer, more interesting, and less about my day-to-day life. I’ll also try to include some information about what I’m reading or translating once I get into the full swing of my studies. For now, I leave you with this picture of an inlet I took on my walk today.