Nothing Really

Yesterday the clouds were soft blankets of blue and purple and grey when I sat in the bus on my way home. In the horizon, just above the mountains, there was a wide stripe of orange sunset and the mountains were white and distant and dark behind a haze of blue air. Just above there were holes in the clouds and clear light-blue sky was peaking through.

Why do I tell you this? It's nothing extraordinary I assure you, actually if anything the sky was a bit less interesting than usual. But I have time to write tonight.

I fell ill Monday night. That's always how it goes. Right when you're finishing your crazy crazy workload you get ill. So I cancelled my dance teaching and ended up spending an hour overtime helping my math students. Well, that's how it goes. To justify skipping one work but still going to another: I really felt like I could handle standing up and talking at the same time but not jumping up and down and yelling at the same time. That's the difference between teaching math and belly dance actually, pretty much the same otherwise.

So yes, I'm almost finished with my Probability and Statistics. Three more days next week. And then we'll see what other busy schemes will prevent me from blogging.

Redefining Busy

Did I complain about being too busy? I wasn't. Now I am.

But there's only two weeks or so left of this type of busy. I'm teaching an intensive course at the Reykjavík University. Math.

And I still have my dance teaching in Akranes. Did you know that? Maybe you didn't. I was going to write about it, you know. But it just never happened. I'm a half time dance teacher and a half time math teacher now. And no time student apparently. Well, except a dance student. Oh, and I'm learning Icelandic too.

Gonna be busy again now.

Pulla-swans

In Finnish the ducks (mallards I think, actually) that live in the urban areas are called "pulla"-ducks. Pulla being the extremely Finnish bakery that can in fact be found anywhere in the world. Why the Finns call it extremely Finnish, I'm not quite sure, it might have something to do with the amount of pulla that we eat or maybe we simply mean the distinct dry breadlike quality of the pullas that you can buy in plastic bags in any grocery store and that are without exception served at any meeting, celebration or house call everywhere in the country.

My point being that here in Iceland they have "pulla"-swans. And here's a video to cheer you all up. It was taken during Mari and Kari's visit.



It is Tommi, of course, feeding the swans.

Trucks Are Striking and the Traffic is Stuck

This is how it sounded like Thurday afternoon at our place. Watch with your speakers on since the sound is the main point, not the images. I would have added only the sound if I knew how to add sound files here... It is again, as so many times before, from our kichen window from which everything at all interesting seems to be recorded around here.



The protest was conducted by a whole lot of trucks driving snail speed in the middle of the lanes in the main traffic veins in Reykjavík. I did not actually see any of the trucks but on Tuesday I was almost late for my class in Akranes although I left quite early, we were driving 10 km/h out of Reykjavík.

The truck drivers are protesting agains the high gas prizes and the regulations on the lengths of permitted driving time without resting. They claim that the new EU regulations are not suitable for the Icelandic conditions. I quite agree. Try to drive in a blizzard of 22 m/s in complete dakness on an icy road twisting and turning between the mountains and the sea. I assure you this is nothing extreme yet. The locals still swish past 90 km/h.