I can´t wait!!!! ooohhhh, I´m going north with Erna this coming Monday, and I´m looking soooooooooooooooooo much forward to it!!!!

Actually, the clouds over Esjan are disgustingly pink right now. Wery pretty, but wery disgustingly pink. Sunset in early summer in Iceland... or maybe it´s the sunrise this time. How on Earth should I know?

Election day in all of Iceland. I was walking barefoot in my sandals here in Reykjavik (we hate to admit this but many Icelanders haven´t yet realized how un-cool it is to wear socks with your Tevas...) while my compatriots in the East are dug under fifteen fet of pure white snow (hey, I may be exaggerating slightly but it´s such a great song!). Do our politicians really and seriously think that some monstrous power plant and an even more monstrous aluminum smelter will make anyone want to move to that part of the country??? I mean, snow in late May is only cool if you´re on Baffin Island. Or a penguin in the Antarctic. Correct me if I am wrong.

Oh, yes, the elections. Interesting indeed. Both my father and my mother tried to influence my choice today and both of them totally ignored my protest. I tried to point out to them that they are violating the laws of the Republic and of democracy by showering me with propaganda on election day. They couldn´t care less. This is what we call a parent-problem. When parents don´t listen to their children and want all the attention for themselves. Little did I know when I went through this phase at the age of 3 that it would re-visit me when I was in my late twenties, and that I would be the one suffering.

Tomorrow, you´ll find me in the garage (if I don´t get lost in there, that is; everything else in there is lost...). I have to find my compass, my map, my GPS and my steel thermos. Wish me luck. It might come in handy!

Ég þakka stórkostleg viðbrögð við athugasemdakerfinu mínu (ef maður skrifar á íslensku þá er eins gott að skrifa bara allt á íslensku).

As usually, nothing has happened. Went to an Icelandic physiotorturer today to try and get my shoulder in shape for the hike with Erna next week, as you can see I really use time for my advantage. The physiotorturer was ok, used a bunch of words I didn´t understand (probably referring to some stuff I didn´t know existed anyway) and set up a training program as if I´d expressed a desire to participate in the Olympics for dislocated shoulders being held next week. Interesting.

Need to do something more about my Masters. That is, I need to find/create a M.S. project. Any ideas???

hohoho, have just installed a commenting device. Now you can finally tell me what you think, I'm sure you've been waiting for this!!!

Erna just told me that a friend of hers met Bono at a bar in East Village in NYC the other day. They chatted for a while. Why the hell am I not in NYC, chatting with Bono???

Og Bríet er flott líka!

Bono rúlar. Ekki spurning... dregur Paul O'Neill, fjármálaráðherra BNA, með sér til Afríku að sjá hvernig raunveruleikinn lítur út. Skemmtilegt að þessir tveir séu nafnar, en eins og flestir alminnilegir U2-aðdáendur vita heitir Bono einmitt Paul Hewson.

Svo eru Húmanistarnir athyglisverðir. Ég bara verð að viðurkenna að ég hef lítið sem ekkert á móti stefnuskrá þeirra, svona við fyrstu sýn (hef náttúrulega aldrei lesið þetta plagg áður, trú lýðræðishefðinni sem hann Metúsalem forsprakki þeirra fárast svo yfir þessa dagana). En Stína ætti að halda stafsetningarnámskeið fyrir frambjóðendur...

this was amusing... reminds me of when I was 11 and was sent together with 3 other Icelandic kids as small ambassadors for Peace on Earth to Thailand. Not that I didn´t want to go... CISV organized the summer-camp, in some rage of optimism that one day this planet will enjoy peace:

Here in this village you may see
children living happily
different race and different land
here we come to understand
one anothers point of view
learning through the things we do
how alike am I to you...

Hmmm... I´d like to guess that we learned a lot in the camp in Thailand. Anu, a thin and pretty Indian girl showed me how to crush grasshoppers under your feet and cut lizards in two (and how the tail keeps on swinging after being cut off the torso...), Joseph from the Philippines was a perfect incarnation of Garfield and the other Indian girl, who was big and excessively premature, taught me to write "air conditioning". I´m sure it has made the world a better place.

The new United States of Israel... endless supply of stuff you´ll never find in here.

Hruff... someone lost my blog. How dare they?!?! "Page not found"... I´m filing a complaint.

It´s been a long time since my brain was so active as it has been today and walking home from downtown my head was bursting with ideas and things to tell you. All that remains is... you see, I´d be a hopeless writer. Plagued by writer´s block before I even start to write anything. It´s probably just a case of sore brain, after too hard a workout. Anyway, was quite intellectual today, discussing art (or having art explained to me) and politics with my artist-friend Markús and our politically-engaged friend Linda Rós.

Smuff... page still lost. Since it may be lost until the end of days I don´t see any point in writing more. Have a nice evening.

ok, you folks have to be kind to me nw. Just installed some rating device on my blog where you can tell me how much you love it or loathe it. Living dangerously, that´s what it is!!

Am writing my blog at Stína´s place. Came here to eat cakes and visit the family. The talking twins and Jón with the pink shirt. Life in the slow lane... "DON´T drive your car on the piano, Valli!!!" My photoalbum from South America and the Antarctic got decorated with some green and purple Crayola Crayons. Neat. The boys are wonderful, as long as I´m not changing their nappies ;)

What a wonderful day yesterday. My brother got married in this old and beautiful church, next door to the president´s house, to his long-time girlfriend Addý. But it wasn´t her who walked down the aisle with her dad, it was a fairy tale princess. She was sooo beautiful! So, of course, were Júlíus and our dad and her dad, all dressed up in the new Icelandic men´s costume. We Icelanders are such a beautiful nation :) The party afterwards was good, a cocktail party lasting until well into dinner hours, and then a gorgeus dinner at Lækjarbrekka, and then checking out the nightlife of Reykjavík with dad and Sigga (his wife)!! Met her kids at the oh so fashionable Kaupfélagið, it was good. Mom was sick and couldn´t make it to the wedding, and my younger sister Lára stayed home with her. Shame.

Stína and I are going out to check which café is the coolest. I feel like a hillbilly here in fashionable Reykjavík after having been a Svalbard-girl for so long. Where a Lomatex scooter-dress is the coolest thing. But I like it. Love it. Especially after having used make-up yesterday, after more than half a year without. Why are we doing this?? What is the point?? Am planning to further cultivate the hillbilly within. Maybe I should change the blog description: A celebration of hillbilly-ism!

"Velkomin heim" - Icelandic patriotism makes me want to puke. Even if all the foreigners I´ve met think this is so sweet.

Anyway, I´m back in Iceland. Really don´t know if to say "home" in Iceland. But it´s nice to be back, hearing dad and his wife talk to the TV-news and looking over Sundin blá; the harbor area of Reykjavik with its backdrop of mountains painted pink in the evening sun... *sigh* Hope the weather will be equally fantastic tomorrow as it was today, since my brother and Addy really do deserve it for their wedding.

Will any of you be surprised when I tell you that my last evening in Svalbard this time was another health hazard?? It took off very innocently, with a delicious dinner up in Nybyen (the furthest reaches of town, where the UNIS-students live in utter isolation from the rest of the town´s inhabitants) and me showing off my S-America and Antarctica slides. We were only going home afterwards BUT the irresistible Puben simply sucked us into it´s murky, dark interiors. Já já. Met some more friends there and after closing time we went to my place, continuing the party and trying to keep the promise I made to Henrik, my winter-season flat mate, as he left: That his half-full bottle of pure Russian vodka would be annihilated a.s.a.p. We didn´t make it, but had a fantastic time (probably therefore...). Helen was in THE best mood I´ve ever seen her in, and together we performed my historic polar bear encounter from Akselöya in such a vivid manner that it left me on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Couldn´t sleep all night! Thus the health hazard...

Not nice to leave Longyear. It feels like home now. I´ve actually been away from Iceland for so long now that it doesn´t really feel like home anymore. It´s what happens when you loose contact with people and with the mentality of a place in general. Have definitely lost all contact with the Icelandic mentality. It´s exciting, all these things that happen when you move out of your territory and learn to see it in a totally new perspective. Received an e-mail from Arnon today where he says the same is happening to him. Really exciting!!!

Anyway, plan to enjoy my time here on Frón.

Being here is a major health hazard. Yesterday Puben invited us, the Safari/SPOT guides, for a party. Pizza and beer and a whole jerrycan (20 liters!!!) of some obscure, terribly delicious drink. We were 15 or 18 people there, and damn me, who of you guys would still be sober after drinking (on the average, NB) more than a liter of such gudaveigar!?!?! Poor us, being continually exposed to these hardships. Henrik and I tried to watch telly in the wee hours of the morning, when we made it home (way before many other people who apparently never made it home... Anne... hmmmm....) but Henrik's head was swimming (or so he told me, it looked firmly in place to me...) so he fell asleep almost instantly on the sofa. I however enjoyed an episode of Miami Vice and then the last minutes of a very strange film about... well, they were transvestites but what more/else I never really understood. Had some few good laughs though, but maybe not in the places the director would have wanted me to. Then sent Henrik to bed, since it's easier to ignore his snoring when he's packed up in his own bed in his own room. Sorry about that, Henrik :)

I'm glad I'm getting sykepenger from the Norwegian state. I need it, in this unhealthy place.

Have found a German girl and her German friend to join me on a trip to the Sahara and western Africa. Her name's Anne, she's visiting Helen here in Svalbard. Of course these two are geologists, you need to be an idealist I guess to do both these things. Travel with jeep or motorbikes or camels through the Sahara, and study geology. But the best thing about her is that she really really really likes Nick Cave. Now I couldn't go to Africa without someone like that.

The good weather here is attaining a status of a natural catastrophy. How can the weather here be gorgeous so many days in a row??!?!?!?

Am still struggling with Beckerman. Guess I'll never finish...

The weather is so incredibly wonderful here in Svalbard at the moment. And has been for the last few days. Sunshine, hardly a cluod in the sky, hardly a breeze in the air. A time for being outdoors. Did my boss a favor and went as a 2nd guide to the ice-cave today, it was actually very nice to get a bit out of town.

Next Thursday will see me leaving Longyearbyen. Glupp. Will be back in Iceland on the 17th, the day before my bro's getting married. It'll be nice to be home again, eat some pulsur med øllu og hraun og eitthvad annad gummuladi... and the freeze-dried food I'm bringing home for my friend Erna and I (for the trek...). Then I'm going back here on the 11th, so I'll miss my brother's thirtieth birthday. Svalbard is actually making me miss out on quite a few festive occasions. Sorry about that, folks, you'd understand why if you came up for a visit and saw what this place is all about!!!

Am going out to enjoy the sunshine. Hurray!

Sorry, Beckerman, your first name is Wilfred and not William. And sorry, all Williams of this world.

No, now I'm being usaklig, as the Norse would put it. That's a bad thing to be, according to Arne Næss. Actually there's a lot of interesting points in Beckerman's book. Should I discuss them at any length here? Nope, still have sooooo many slides to put into frames. Am actually writing this with the light from the light-table behind me. And my workmate Håkon just asked me if I've "grodd fast" here at Erik's desk. Scary scary...

Today my friend Erna has made me so happy. She now lives in New York and is coming home to Iceland in May/June for a 12 day visit and we have decided to go on a long trek together in NE-Iceland. Trek, or Shakira-style mud-crawling, don't know which it'll be, but we're planning to make our way from Mývatn to Ásbyrgi in as much as 6 days. Gee, I'm looking sooooooo much forward to it!!!! It's a trek I've wanted to do for a long time, and doing it girlie style with Erna is going to be fabulous!! Also I've never been on a long trek in Iceland in early summer (of course there's a reason for people not doing too much trekking at that time of year) and am looking forward to it as a new challenge. Yes!!

Being sykemeldt is really turning out to be bad for my health... it gives you too much time to party! Last Sunday we had an avslutningsfest (end-of-season party - even if the season is still going strong) and it was hard work, starting at 7 p.m. and finishing at 6 the following morning. But man, it was such good fun! It all began in Kroa (the hunting-cabin-style restaurant in town) with a HUGE dinner (half of which I gave to Per Martin because he's still growing), and some gudaveigar, half of which I didn't give to anyone but kept it all for myself ;) Soon a guitar popped up and Ragne and Sivert became responsible for keeping everyone singing. That included, among other things, a red-haired Icelandic girl standing on the big rould table singing a heavy-metal version of the Swedish classic "Vem kan segla" for her workpals, and later calming down a bit as she sang her favorite Vísur Vatnsenda-Rósu as a small tribute to all the nice guys she works with (some of you might remember that same red-haired girl complaining on this site about them being mind-crippled idiots... mmm... PMS.... hmmm....), oyoyoy. Very good we don't have these parties more than once a year!! When Kroa kicked us out (they closed, we were very well-behaved...) the party moved to Puben where the guide-gang mixed with the locals and all the muddle went then to Kjell's place (he's the most philosophically-minded guide of them all) to continue discussing Bjørk's lyrics (or was it I lecturing on it??). Hard work as you see, but very rewarding! Until Monday morning, that is, when I had to get up and meet some Icelandic media-people at UNIS. They were very nice, but I didn't really get to know any of them since I couldn't take them on their trip to Barentsburg today because of the sykemelding....

Asch, the slides are waiting!

Best news since last: Aung Saan Suy Kuy (I'm writing this from memory - no guarantee for spelling here) has been released from her house arrest. Yippi!!!

The weather is just perfect!!!!! The sun shines and it's a few degrees minus, and all is well. And beautiful.

Have actually been having a nice time, even if I can't really recall what I've spent my idleness on in the last few days. Have a vague feeling that some of my workmates think that I'm some sort of a chicken not to have started working yet (in the beginning they didn't tire to remind me of the superman who started working two weeks after a similar accident), but who cares, anyway??

William Beckerman is a man that makes me sad. For him. It's so sad to see that people like him actually exist, people who have been completely denied the gift of seeing any further than their own nose, let alone sensing how small and unimportant we humans are in the greater scheme of things and thus how big and exciting and bubbling with power nature is. He exposes this absolute lack of connection with nature in a book called "Small is stupid". Wonder how tall he is...

Since I've almost managed to pay up all my debts related to my S-America trip this winter I figured out I could afford a new woolen hat at Arctica today. It's brown and cute and has an antenna on top. Love it.

A very important day for the liberation movement of women: It's been exactly half a year since I last smeared make-up in my face. And I don't miss it, to be honest. It feels terific!!

Am getting further and further into "I Have Seen The World Begin". Last night, before lying down to sleep, I read about the terror-regime of the Red Khmers in Cambodia, after that reading I just have to put a link here to Amnesty International's stop torture campaign.

Does anyone of you know where the word "viking" comes from? I sure don't but I'd like to, so if you do, tell me!