Where we Live

This is the drive way of the property we're staying on.

This is the view from the kitchens windows,

This is the kitchen,

Another Post

A.J. here again.

Went fishing again...got pictures this time. fed lots of people.

One picture is of me with my catch...me and Unnar with the big fish that i caught that got away from him earlier, and then me doing a happy dance. the other picture is the ocean. it was beautiful where i took that picture. picture does not do it justice.

we had some horse for supper the other day. good enough.

learned about old wall making (see last post). quite the adventure. i have a new appreciation for that as an art. i don't know if i am cut out for that. thats all from me for now.

A.J.

Finally a NEW post

I've been really discouraged because i noticed that nobody ever comments on things i write...only what Ang writes :)

anyhow, here is the low down. i got lots to write. it won't be chronological, but it should all be there. i will write semi-point form. iwill try and explain the pictures too.

i was reading a brochure that we have here at the guesthouse about a guy named brother clifford. his story was really interesting to me, but the way it ended, i thought he was dead. i asked about him, and they said he had stopped byt he guesthouse not long ago. he stopped by again a few days ago. obviously he is not dead.very neat guy, but unfourtunately won't be back in iceland agin after this trip. not my story to tell, but it's too bad either way. please check out his site. http://www.brotherclifford.com/ there is another site called

http://www.highwaysforjesus.com/ but i never looked it up. you can if you like. the first thing he said to me was "will i see you in heaven?" i said "yep, you sure will," to which he replied "you make sure of that then." :) great guy

point of interest...it has been very very windy here the last few days apparently it is some of the leftovers from Hurricane Ike. crazy. the whole building seem to be shaking the other night. at 3:30 in the morning Ang told me she was worried about all the clothes on the clothesline, and how she'd find it hard to sleep...that was my cue. i went and rescued all our clothes in a crazy storm. true love :)

like i mentioned before, (i think) our friends Bogga and Agust were with us for the last week. it was so fun hanging with them. we all have lots of plans for our last week in the capital before we go. we are going to eat at Agust's restaurant which is like one of the coolest places to go. he has managed/owned 3 restaurants now, and he always seem to win awards. the last 2 have won top 100 new restaurant awards. his last restaurant (the seafood cellar) was where we went last time we were here. That is where Ang had the best ever salmon steak...i on the other hand still don't like fish, and will probably order lamb when we go. speaking of eating, we men all sent our wives on a womens night out. they went to a really nice little place in a beautiful town called Seydisfjordur. they had reindeer, goose, char, and icelandic lobster which are much

smaller but are supposed to be very sweet. they really enjoyed it.

about Agust restaurant...here is the site http://www.fiskmarkadurinn.is/

it means "the fish market"

i still don't have the pics from Unnar of the fish we caught. they will be up eventually.

did we tell the story about the boat?? i don't think so. if so then sorry but if not, here is condensed version:free boat ride...go early...boys throwing rocks in lake...i have bad feeling about this but don't say anything...isaac beans me with a big rock in the temple...i have really bad feeling now...Ang turns to check on me...Elliot falls in huge puddle...Ang and Isaac go for nice free boat ride with waffles...A.J. has headache, and takes crying Elliot home to bath and change. funny eh??

there are no stop signs in the town...only yields and roundabouts. it's great.

found crazy huge mushrooms. they look like theyare from the super mario brothers games. the large one is probably 15 inches across, just so you have a reference

Ang is now playing vball on sunday and tuesdays and got asked to coach...and get paid. she starts next week teaching/coaching 5-6 year olds and 10-12 year olds on tuesdays and thursdays. for those who want to ask about how she is getting paid without a work permit...it's cash.

we are building a driveway on the property right now so i've able to put all my landscaping digging skills from the past few summers to work here.

the lady that Ang met (she is the wife of one of Unnars co-workers) that got her into vball is also looking into some job prospect for me with the big controversial Aluminum plant on the east side of the island. the company is Alcoa (huge company). we'll see if anything happens with that. it is in a little fjord town. i was there the other day, and have to go through it tomorrow to build a wall

(next point). it isn't a very pretty town although i saw it in a huge wind and fog storm (because of Ike) It is about 30 min from where we are. she found out i used to do accounting so she is talking with her supervisor about possibilities. she is very nice to do that as she doesn't really even know us. Alcoa bought the small town an indoor football (i mean soccer, but they call it football, so now every time you see me write football i mean soccer..ok?) field which cost around 10million $$. crazy.

building a wall. there is a guy i met through the church who builds old looking stone walls. i've done a lot of landscaping, and although i don't like heavy lifting and hurting my back i do like the design and art side of it. there is tonnes of that in what he does. i am going to work with him for a day just to be part of it. a day is all i can spare right now. maybe more in the future. check out his site as well.

http://frontpage.simnet.is/bensib/

once a year farmers round up all the sheep to tag, slaughter, and house for the winter. we went to see them do it, but it was done once we got there. we hopped in the pens and took some pictures. one of the pictures is of me catching one (not as easy as it looks in nicer clothes).

the other picture is of Ang, Isaac, Elliot, David red-haired, Bogga and her boy Pall.

i am learning about graphic design from Unnar. very interesting. i like working on a mac. i've come up with some cool designs and ideas already, but i know i have LOTS to learn. fun though.

most people are f1 (racing) fans, so i really like that. lots to talk about.

everyone here watches english football. they told me i need to pick a team to cheer for. really, everyone just cheers for 1 of the top 4 teams. i chose Chelsea. we also went to see the local team play. they are in a lower division, but still had paying fans, a beautiful field, and 3 refs. it was a neat experience. the take a bottom division mediocore teams season game as serious as we inWinnipeg would take the two best teams in the finals. i really enjoy football so it is nice to be in a place where others do to. i started playing at lunches on wednesdays with some guys so that's good for me. the other day iceland was playing scotland in a world cup qualifier match. scotland has playing in iceland twice in the last 20+ years, and i've been here both times. once in 2002 and now in 2008. iceland lost :(

now for the last few descriptions of pictures:

-some icelandic horses

-isaac by some farm equipment. he loves it.

-elliot on an old snowmobile.

- all the kids around for one of the boys 4th bday.

- all of us went down to the water to hang out. this is where we found the mushrooms. nobody got hit in the head this time

-Bogga holding Anna, Agust holding Pall, and me holding Elliot around one of our very common communial suppers. good times. thats all for now. enjoy.

A.J.

some pictures will follow

so this is A.J. again. I felt like i should right some more just because. so i will leave off after swimming that Ang talked about last post. Unnar and I went fishing with our boys, and on my first cast i caught a trout....like i said, pictures will follow. then just before we left Unnar caught one (he also caught a rock). they were the same kind and about the same size. it was right out the back here in a small river that flows into a larger one. we brought them back and Alda prepared them for lunch. I actually kind of liked it. it was the best fish i ever had. fresh fish caught by yourself, prepared by friends, was kind of good. i still wasn't totally into it. i would prefer chicken...or farmer sausage :)
we've gone fishing twice since, but no luck. although on the way back we found a wild blueberry patch and Isaac ate a bunch of them and had a blue face. later that day when we caught the fish we were going for a boat ride (free on that day). as we were waiting, the boys were throwing rocks in the lake/river and i had that feeling someone would get hurt but i didn't want to say anything because it just sounded negative....then i got hit. isaac accidentally threw behind himself and hit me in the temple with a large rock. as i was writhing in pain, Ang turned around to check on me which gave Elliot just enough time to fall into a huge puddle and get soaked head to toe. Elliot and I did not have enough time to go back and get him changed and go back, so Ang and Isaac went on the 2 hour ride without us.
The other night Ang got invited to play vball by the wife of one of Unnars co-workers who came to the farm with his family to get some pictures done by Agust. did you get that?? so Ang went and had fun and met a few more people. she was certainly able to hold her own. in fact, she is going again on tuesday...and every other time they play as well. :)
our friends Bogga and Gusti (short for Agust....a different Agust then the one who lives here) came from the city yesterday to visit with us and Unnar and Alda for a few days. we've had lots of laughs already, and we have been making plans for when we go back to the city. Agust owns a restaraunt which is in the top 100 new ones in the world...this is the 2nd restaraunt that that has happened with for him, so he is on a role. it was with him that Isaac and I went fishing today and didn't catch anything except some blueberries.
I also met a guy from the church here that does landscaping. i hope to go with him later this week about 45 minutes away to build a large stone wall in front and behind a church. the kind of wall that will look a couple hundred years old when it's done. i get to make a little piece of history..or at least i hope to. well that is all for now. it's a blast. hope all is well with you. later

A.J.

Week 1 in Eyjofsstaðir

We have been at Eyjolfsstaðir exactly a week yesterday. Here´s what we have been up to...

The picture of us was taken on our drive to Eyjolfsstadir. It's a glacier lagoon called Jökulsarlon, which is really beautiful and the view is always changing. The ocean is across the highway...truly an amazing sight.

A.J´s been helping out at the guesthouse. He´s been checking guests in and out, preparing and cleaning up breakfasts, and doing general maintenance work after the guests leave. There have been guests every night, but it´s beginning to slow down since fall is here and the tourist season is coming to an end. There´s one big group left to come at the end of October.

We´re living in the guest house. Alda & Unnar were looking into the option of renting a summer home, which are across the highway and down about 1 km in at the bottom of some mountains. All the homes were mostly booked, as well the rent had increased since last summer. They offered to look into it some more, but after our first night in the guesthouse we knew it would suite us just fine. And really we prefer to be on the property with them, and the other families. It´s fun just being able to walk over to their homes at anytime. I think it would be tougher to adjust to rural living if we were off on our own, and having to travel every time we wanted to see someone. We have one of the larger rooms in the guesthouse where we all sleep. It also has a cozy corner with a recliner chair I have been enjoying curling up to read while Elliot naps the last few days. Washrooms, and showers are right out our door, and we have full access to the big commercial kitchen (which is fun to cook in!), and laundry facilities with a huge washer & dryer (I´m able to get at least 2 loads of laundry in one). We´ve been sharing most of our suppers together with Alda & Unnar, Davið, and Isabella. Last night we went to Agust and Kolbrun's (they have 3 children, ages 6, 4, and 4 months). Always nice to visit one on one and get to know them more. I did a first grocery shop the other day, went good because I had one of the girls (Kristjana, 10) who lives in the wooden house (across from us) helping me with reading Icelandic.

There are 3 families living at Eyjolfsstaðir. Alda & Unnar, Davið, and Isabella, live in an upstairs suite, Agust & Kolbren (and their 3 kids) live in the downstairs suite. This house is also across from the guesthouse. Then Bjartur & Alfheidur and their 3 children (Katrin 13, Kristjana 10, and Arni 6) live in another house, also across from the guesthouse. Isaac has been enjoying having freedom to just run outside, he´s been invited to just run over to the houses and play anytime but still always wants us to come with him. He´s adjusting well. A few days ago he was sad riding into the town down the road (Egilsstaðir). He was missing home, and wanted to go back to Winnipeg. Then the next day we were building a train track and he yelled out I´m loving it here, I like everything here. He definitely understands how far away we are, but also enjoying his new surroundings too. He know´s he´ll still be 4 when we come back to Winnipeg, and we´ll be celebrating Elliot´s 2nd birthday.

We've been berry picking twice now. First time was for blueberries which are everywhere, all through out the mountains. And yesterday, the boys and I went with Alda and Davið to the only large forest in Iceland to pick some Icelandic berries to make jam. When ripe they are red, but we were picking them green because they have a natural gelatin in them and then you don't have to add any when making the jam. We had fun, the boys were more interested in what Alda brought for snack. So once we had that, then they go into the bushes to pick. Alda told me about these other berries high in the trees that are just for the birds. As the fall season ends the berries begin to age and go rancid. The birds eat lots of them, just before winter, and end up getting drunk from them. They fly into trees and each other (this is just in the forest) she´s never seen them like this around Eyjolfsstaðir. funny. As we were picking we heard this man yelling but couldn´t see him for the longest time. Then we saw this leg hanging out of a tree. We were picking right where they were beginning to shoot another clip for a children's television show. The director (who is also a well known actress in Iceland) came over and chatted with us, well Alda, said hi to the boys, and then she headed back to work. As we moved to a different part of the forest, another actress came out of the tree. They were covered head to toe with green paint and dressed like tree fairy´s. The boys were definitely wondering what was going on. None of them volunteered to have a picture with them, but eventually said a quite hello.

Elliot has definitely turned up his personality a notch this past week. A.J. and I have often looked at each other saying "who is this guy?". It´s been so fun hearing him say and try new words all the time. The Icelandic words, at least some of them, he does really well at. When he says Unnar´s name he yells every time, and say Unn NARRRR! Also he's still really into wearing his sunglasses. He's worn them so much that now the lenses have popped out. But they are still the first thing he looks for in the morning and the last thing he puts away before bed. So great.


Today was A.J.´s first day off from any guesthouse responsibilities, so after breakfast we headed into Egilsstaðir and went swimming. Their pool is outdoors, but super warm so of course I loved it. We all did. Elliot is super brave in the water, and could just touch in the kids pool so he wanted to walk around on his own. Of course we were close by as he would get so exited about doing it himself that he´d start taking in big drinks of water and coughing. Issac did great, had his goggles on even though he won´t put his face in the water yet. When we asked him to, he just told us he only does it his way...which is blowing bubbles. Realized the only thing I forgot to pack was my bathing suite! I went in anyways. Had some interesting looks, people probably just thought it´s some strange foreigner thing to do.

Isaac was thrilled to help his dad cut the grass for the first time. He didn't ask to get down for well over an hour. Elliot was interested but was okay with just watching.

That's all for now. Always more pictures I'd like to post but will have to wait for another time.