Dream Clouds

On Tuesday night I dreamt about these clouds. I was in an old city with church towers and narrow grey stone streets and there were mountains around. It had just been raining. The sun was setting behind the mountains and there were clouds all around just above the mountains and further down descending along the slopes of the mountains. The setting sun made the couds shimmer in yellows and oranges and pinks and purples and also in blues as there was clear blue sky just behind them peaking through.

Quite predictably I had my camera with me and I was taking a video of all this and as I turned around I found even more amazing softly changing formations of clouds and light. The mountain on that side was covered with a full dark green forest and as I let my camera slowly move upwards along the side of the mountain the clouds were once thin veils, once thick layers on top of each other and once smooth surfaces of white and once all of that at the same time amongst each other and on top of each other and behind it all the setting sun was turning the clouds into pink and orange and blue and the colours were constantly changing and making more and more patterns on the sky. And I got it all on tape.

And so on Tuesday after my dream as I was driving back home from Akranes where I teach my belly dance classes, I saw my dream clouds in real life. I have no pictures to prove it as I was tired and didn't see a good spot to stop and also it was really quite windy and I didn't feel like opening the doors anyway. You'll understand: windy here means windy in a way that you don't want to open the car doors as you're afraid that they might fly away.

I noticed it already in Akranes as I stood outside the studio door. There were dark grey almost black clouds above Akrafjall but in the hollow of the mountain there was a hole with blue sky and a shimmer of white. And as I drove out of the town there was a shimmer of cold in the horizon just north of Akrafjall and underneath the black thick layers of rain clouds that streched over the sky. But looking over the water towards south east as I was driving towards the tunnel there were my dream clouds framing my Esja.

The mountain was different of course. No green trees but just shapes of browns and greys and greens that make up the forms of the slopes here. And no gold either. But the clouds had ascended down on top of the mountain and in the middle where there's a lower part the clouds were such soft mist that it looked grey and silver and blue at the same time. And around and on top of the mountain the clouds were in thick pillows and in transparent sheets and above against the blue sky they took every possible formation and there was a setting sun of course that coloured some of the clouds orange and pink and some of them were still blue against the sky.

About 15 minutes later I drove into the cloud. It looses all the dreamy qualities then of course and becomes just a dark raining wet mist and in the end you can't really see anything anymore. And then it becomes another dream altogether driving in the mist and seeing the turns of the road only just as they come and the mountains only as dark walls rising up and up just beside you when you drive close by.

What You Can Achieve in 5 Hours with 18 Phone Calls and 13 Text Messages

On Monday I was on phone with Josy who mentioned that there would be some gigs on Saturday that she would need my help with. Ok I say. She'll call me later. She needs to give me the key.

Then later in the week I try to reach her but she has already flewn to Stockholm to a belly dance festival (she got the third place in the competition, congatulations!!!) and isn't answering any messages. I worry all week. I call Marie and harass her as well even though she has nothing to do with it. Then on Friday night I finally get a hold on Josy and around 00:00 she sends me a text message, there's only one teaching gig on Saturday, at 1pm. I set my alarm and go back to sleep.

This morning I wake up and such and aroud 10am I call Josy. So the gig's at the studio? What should I do with them? What music should I use? Where are the belts? Ok, easy, I can do this, I'm even almost recovered from my persistent flu. Where do I get the key? - The key? You don't have a key??? Oh! Oh! Call my friend she has a key, here's the number.

So I call her friend. But she's at work and won't finish until later and the key's at her place. Obviously she can't help me. I sms Josy. I call Marie again. Does she have the phone number of X? Or what about Y? Josy doesn't answer her phone. We think that she must be attending a class there. Luckily there's a registry online with absolutely everybody's phone numbers. Bless Iceland! But we don't know anybody's last names. We try with their addresses. Right around this point I suggest to Marie that maybe we should be detectives. But Marie knows Jóhanna's last name! She, however, is in Stockholm with Josy. I call her, though, maybe she can find Josy for me?

Jóhanna is an angel and answers. No she can't find Josy, but who would have a key? Probably A and B, but she doesn't have their phone numbers. Now it's an hour and 20 minutes before the gig starts. But Jóhanna has the number of one of the teachers!

I call her. I'm Saara, I'm supposed to be teaching a gig for Josy, would you happen to have a key to Magadanshusið? Yes, she has a key!!! She's at home. And it's not far away! I run out immediately. I walk to her place (20 minutes), I get the key, I walk to Magadanshusið (another 20 minutes or so). When I get there I even have an extra 20 minutes to find everything and select the music and finalize the lesson plan. And so exactly at 1pm I sit down to wait for the group of students. Yes!

Quarter past 1 I call the number Josy gave me. Maybe the group got lost and are trying to call Josy who isn't answering? There's an answering machine. After another 10 minutes I call them again. I send an sms. I send and sms to Josy. Did they try to reach her? I send an sms to the owner of the key, the gig is running late, I'll be late too getting the key back.

After an hour Josy answers. No she hasn't heard from them. Yes, it was absolutely 1 o'clock. Absolutely today. There's nothing you can do. Go home. So I return the key and walk home. I get home around 3pm.

Now what's the moral of the story? It is this: It is a good thing to have a blog, even though you have had the crappiest day ever and absolutely every little thing has gone wrong, at least you have gained a story.

Spring

Happy First of May!

















This is not from Iceland of course (as you can see trees!) even though last week was Sumardagurinn Fyrsti, the First Day of Summer, which is an old old Icelandic holiday for the celebration of the end of the winter and the arrival of the summer. The appropriate greeting is Gleðilegt sumar, happy summer, to which you respond with Takk fyrir veturinn, thank you for the winter. Even though it is usually still quite wintery here during that time, last Thursday it was grey and rainy.

But I flew to Finland on Friday and there the Spring had already arrived. The picture above is from the Haltiala Arboretum, where we went for a Sunday walk. More pictures will be promised later with flowers, more green leaves, water, dogs, cows and even a one week old lamb.






















Here we have some authentic Icelandic grass though. I saw it yesterday when I was coming home from work. This is actually our building. Notice the bright sunlight even though it was past 8pm.

And today it's another first, namely the First of May, yet another holiday. You have it at least in all the Scandinavian countries. You call it the First of May or May Day or Labour Day or Workers Day. The ancient history of the holiday is the same as for the First Day of Summer, namely it is a celebration of the Equinox, the day when days start to be longer than nights. However, I'm now quite confuced since the celebration seems to be quite off: equinox happens around March 20th.

In Finland though, the biggest celebration is on Walpurgis Night, the eve of First of May, the current atmosphere of which is aptly described by Wikipedia: "The celebration is typically centered on plentiful use of sparkling wine and other alcoholic beverages." This year I'm celebrating my third Vappu away from Finland.

















Today we were quite impressed by the workers parade in Reykjavík. The parade started from Hlemmur, the main bus station close to where we live and marched down Laugavegur all the way to Aðalstræti, where the speeches started. They had two marching bands and a lot of flags and banners and at least a third of the city was present. Which of course isn't such a huge amount of people yet and today was a very beautiful day. The sun was shining from the clear sky, it was warm and we almost sat outside for lunch.
To get you in the mood, here's the first marching band.



And some more pictures here.

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.