Language Lesson

Now for something more fun...languages!
As some of you may or may not know, I am taking Icelandic language courses along with other courses that are directly related to my program back in Ottawa.
As few of you may know, I am very bad at learning languages even if I am very motivated.

Here I list some difficulties with my Icelandic. In phonetic and phonology classes I would always try pronouncing these in class and then laugh and be glad that English didn't have these, but now this is the real thing!:

• it's hard to pronounce the trilled [r] and also they have many different types of [l]'s: a voiced and voiceless [l] and then a voice and voiceless velar [l]
  
• in general the approximants/liquids are hard.
  
• phonologically, there are no voiced stops. the contrast is between aspirated and unaspirated stops.
• there is a fricative velar, which sounds like [g] except that you never fully close or release. it's the first language where i've encountered that and it's very exciting!
• they have voiceless nasal stops. they are a bit weird and come at the end so it's a bit difficult
• there are a lot of consonant clusters that I'm not used to, like þvo. Try saying (thvo) without adding any extra sound between th and v!

With diphthongs and monophthongs together, the language has 13 vowels. That's a lot.

Of course you came here to read this entry and I'm just blabbering on about linguistic stuff. You're thinking, "I want to know some phrases!"
Well, here you go:

Hello - goðan daginn
Goodbye - bless
See you - sjáumst
I like learning Iceland - Mér finnst gaman að læra íslensku

And so on and so forth.

Iceland is Going Down!

Glitnir and Landsbannki banks have been acquired by the government. Discussions ensue. I wouldn't be so nervous if people would stop talking about it. Then again, it's more exciting than talking about the weather. What sucks is that Icelandic food is so dependent on imports that all we will be able to afford to eat are probably domestic tomatoes, mushrooms (sveppir), bananas and chocolate bars. People in my residence have been going to Bonús and actually stalking up on canned products like they do in the movies! This one person bought 14 cans of beans, while another one bought 12 cans of tuna. Hmm. Maybe I should go too, before the prices go over the roof.
Of course I´ve been completely ignorant of economics until now so take what I´m saying with a can of tuna.

On to a completely different topic. I just can't get over how small this city is. Wherever or whenever I walk, I am bound to meet someone I know along the way. No one is a stranger, everybody is somehow connected to everybody else, and not in the sense of six degrees of separation either. More like one or two degrees. So even if I go out alone for a walk (or to Bonús 30 minutes away) I'm never really alone because I will always stop and chat to somebody on the way. Or if you go into any building, say a café, someone you know will be sitting there. I find that's what makes living in Reykjavík so unique - the big city amenities with the village feel.

It's Going to be a Long Winter

I do love harsh environments and cold climates. Hence my moving from Toronto to Ottawa, and then from there to Iceland. Winter has come down upon us people living in Iceland on October 2. In Canada, I used to judge the harshness of the season depending on how cold it was at Halloween. Now, it's before Thanksgiving and this has happened. Last night I had to pull out my winter jacket. I was holding out because it's sort of a last resort jacket. Oh well. A student from North Dakota says that this could happen where he's from, but I've never had this in the southern latitudes of Ontario. The wind and sun is quickly melting the snow away already.


Here is some proof of the sudden change in weather:

In the afternoon. Beautiful, sunny, not that cold, no sign of impending snow.

In the morning. Obviously not the same place as above. But hopefully you get the picture.

I Can't Sleep At Night!

*Disclaimer: You know how I am. I can complain a lot. This message below is sort of a whiny complaint.*

After a hard day of being almost blown to pieces by the wind and hours of school, I finally lie down to sleep. I fall asleep right away, but then I start to think-dream. In my dreams the króna, the currency of Iceland, keeps on falling and falling while the Canadian Dollar remains relatively stable. I wake up to realize that this is not a dream and every couple of hours I cannot help but keep on waking up to this nightmare. This has been happening for the past couple of days (the not being able to sleep, not the downfall--that has been happening for weeks).

One of the first things on my mind when I got here was to transfer most of what I saved for this year to Króna land. Almost right after I did that, the exchange rate began to fall, fall, fall. When I got here it was 100 Kr=0.78 dollars. Now it is at about 100 Kr=1.02 dollars. Of course I am no financial analyst and I did not have the foresight (in fact I was thinking of transferring ALL the money in my bank account at once until my father questioned the procedure). Even before I came here I was advised to just used debit/credit cards (with either a 2.5% fee or a $5 charge each time).

It's not like I need the money - I prepared for a bad exchange rate - but some people are on scholarship, some people are working making a lot compared to Canada's low low wages, some people are doing both. Some people are using their credit cards. I just feel like I'm getting ripped off every single time I make a transaction. I deserve better bang for my buck.

________

There I got that off my back. Enough of that. In other news, a group of us wanted to go explore the Westfjords this weekend but we heard it's snowing there already and that some of the roads may be impassable. That means I may have to wait until at least April or May to go. And from October onwards, the bus companies are now closed until May. I can physically feel life beginning to shut down day by day - the dying light, the dropping temperatures (yesterday it was 3 degrees), the unavailable service. I came to Iceland to travel around the country but now I'm stuck in Reykjavík! I must find a way to get out somehow.

One Month Ago...

It's the last day of September. The days are getting shorter, and I have been in Iceland for a month and two days.
The (material) thing I miss the most is Chinese noodles and the variety of pasta there was available at La Bottega.
The thing I miss the least about Canada is the pollution.
I still haven't gotten used to the thought of showering absolutely naked in public. I finally went to my first group yoga class today. That's a sign of finally settling down. But it still hasn't hit me yet that I'll be staying here for 8 more months. Lots of people will have left by the end of December and I might not ever see them again.
I have nothing else to say for today.