University of Iceland

Hey everyone! So, this week I wanted to write about what it is like to go to a university in Iceland. It´s hard but kind of cool. Hard in the sense of the language and cool in that the have events with alcohol on campus. Lets see, at orientation I was excited about the opportunity to meet new people and I spilt a glass of water down my pants so instead of making new friends during the only social time we had I was in the bathroom under the hand dryer trying to make it look like I didn´t pee in my pants. It brought a good laugh though. I have met 2 American girls with Icelandic boyfriends (I think we are starting a trend maybe) in my Icelandic Vocabulary class, which is nice to know people who are in the same situation as me. Plus I met a girl from Virgina which is really close to my home! They are just studying the language though. Which leads me to a really hard part about studying. Not only am taking 2 classes to learn the language but I´m also working on securing my masters project and taking a genomics class. I was taking a Human Genetics class on top of all that but I had to drop it. It was too much plus it was taught in Icelandic, the powerpoints were in Icelandic, and the lab protocols were in Icelandic. Then the professor told me that the final (50% of your whole grade) was based on what was said in class...hmmmm I hope you all can see the difficulty in that! So I dropped it and I´m moving at a snails pace through my master project but hopefully it´ll pick up once I´ve learned the language better. I was SO worried about doing it all when I got here and I´ve come to realize that life doesn´t always go as planned (which is hard for me because I'm a stubborn person). So maybe I have to take some extra time to learn the language before I can move forward but you have to take baby steps before you can walk. By the way I would like to say that I was through the roof excited about learning the alphabet song in Icelandic! haha seems weird because it´s so elementary but it was important to me. So, the interesting differences between Catawba (my undergraduate) and the University of Iceland (postgraduate). First of all, they have a policy at the university where the stop the class for a 5 minute coffee break half-way through the class. Which is awesome because sometimes your brain needs a minute to break whereas at Catawba they just keep going. Also, the university has events on campus which provide alcohol. That would never EVER happen at Catawba. For example, this weekend that just happened the university was having an October-Fest at the university campus. They had drinking competitions and you just paid for a ticket and they had alcohol and German foods. It was so cool. Catawba won´t even let you have your door open when you are drinking in your dorm room! It´s just a completely different atmosphere. Also, there are student groups on campus when I got here for orientation that were advertising for new students to come out and enjoy FREE BEER at local bars. To be fair though we are talking Europe where the drinking age is lower and everyone at the university is old enough to drink. Well, I´m off to watch my boyfriend play basketball tonight! Áfram KR!! I´d like to also say congrats to Finnur´s brother Gummi and his girlfriend Fia they just had a baby girl today!! Keep reading everyone and feel free to leave me comments.

Holy cow, it´s been almost 2 months since I´ve blogged. There has been so much going on! Well after 2 months in Iceland, I have had about 3 or 4 break-downs (nothing major). When I first decided to move to Iceland, I thought of myself as a really strong person that can do anything she decides to. Well, hello real world! Moving to Iceland has been the hardest thing I´ve ever done, HANDS DOWN! My whole life is uncomfortable and changed in ways I never thought about before. It has broken me down, but now I´m working on putting who I was in America (strong, independent, social) back together here in Iceland! Imagine trying to go to the grocery store to buy food and you have no idea how to. Let me tell you about that story! I got instructions from my boyfriend to go to the bank then to the store which is right near it. It took me 3 trips going there and home (the 3rd trip I had to make Finnur go with me) just to get to the bank and the store. First I didn´t know how to get into the ATM...went home, which by the way you have to swipe the debit card to open the door to the booth! Then I couldn´t read the Icelandic on the ATM had to go home again. It was frustrating! I didn´t give up though and I even went to the post office all by myself the other day!! Progress. Another thing that makes me want to hide under the covers...social life in a language you don´t know! So, imagine sitting at a party where everyone is speaking another language and you just sit there with no clue whats going on! It´s super hard. I just try to put my few words I know into the conversation. I´m lucky to have my boyfriend though. He whispers translations into my ear so I can keep up with the conversation. He´s great. Finnur has an English basetball player on his team so now when we go out and he´s there...people are even more likely to speak English, which is nice. Lately though, I have picked up on a lot more words! I even understood what my boyfriend and his mom were talking about the other day! Also, I met 2 American girls with Icelandic boyfriends (we are starting a trend ;) ) in my language class. The final factor to my break down...homesick. Not only am I moved out of the house for the first time...it´s in a place where they don´t have anything like home. I´m lucky that my friends and I keep in close touch because I would be so much more homesick. I can´t find any of my favorite home foods, lotions, shampoos, and the little things that I loved at home. I wish I´d stocked up more when I came here. I know this all sounds really complaining, but I´m not sharing this to complain (well maybe a little, I mean isn´t blogging about getting your thoughts out)...I´m sharing all of this to prepare anyone reading this that might be making a similar big move to a foreign country! I was not prepared for any of this and I hope that others might read this and be a little more prepared for what´s ahead. To be honest though, I don´t think anyone could have 100% prepared me for this! I will try to write more often so you can hear the stories of my life in Iceland. Keep reading and thanks!