and here you are/and here you are/blow out the door

Hi Everyone,

Just thought I'd send a little update from Iceland to let you know how everything's going here. I love Iceland, and the city of Reykjavik is an amazing place to live. We have an apartment right off the old harbour (don't judge me too harshly for the pictures in the right-hand column because we don't have a camera yet, so we've had to make due with the photo option on Jeramy's cell). The blue and red trawlers in the second and third photo are being patched and painted right outside our front door!

We've been here three weeks now and time is going by too fast. Winter has arrived, as of yesterday--big snowstorm. The wind is cutting and the air is very damp, so we are off to buy winter parkas today. It's funny, but I didn't actually own a parka in Canada, only a woolen knee-length coat that isn't warm enough to beat the wind here. 

We went to the Blue Lagoon this past Saturday and we're going horseback riding in the country this coming weekend. Icelandic horses are gorgeous animals and I can't wait to get out of the city for a while. Both Jeramy's parents and my Aunt and Uncle are coming for Christmas, so I've had a wonderful time thinking of all the things we're going to do once they get here. We'll definitely go back to the Blue Lagoon, and we're thinking of spending actual Christmas on the Westman Islands, which are a two-and-a-half hour ferry ride from the southern coast.  

I've spent a lot of time walking and busing around the city. We've also been to a couple of pools in Reykjavik--going to the pool is a huge activity here because of all the natural hot water. There are tons of pools around the city, and people of all ages spend a lot of time in the large outdoor hotpots year round.

When I first arrived here, Jeramy read in the Reykjavik International Literary Festival 2009. The writers' festival featured a lot of writers from Canada, so it was nice to see so many familiar faces. The craziest part was that on my first day here (my plane arrived in Reykjavik at 6am), Jeramy and I decided to stop by an interview with Michael Ondaatje at the Nordic House (a cultural centre near the University). When we arrived, we had missed the interview (Jeramy had a class so we were late getting there), but everyone was mingling and having drinks. Soon enough, the crowd was getting on a bus and we were asked to go along (completely unplanned for us). We drove out to a penninsula near Reykjavik--and it turned out that we were visiting official home of the President of Iceland! We each met him and shook hands with him and then heard him deliver a speech about Iceland and the arts. Very surreal. Jeramy read the next day with some other amazing Canadian poets.

Also soon after I arrived I bought a pass for the Reykjavik International Film Festival. It was wonderful (although not quite as unexpectedly fantastic as meeting the president)--so many actors, writers, and directors around the coffee shops in town. I went to a ton of films (highlights included a Swedish film called _The Girl_, a Greek film called _Dogtooth_, and Lars von Trier's new film _Antichrist_). I was delighted to see that they had an entire category of the festival to "Focus on Canada" and a Canadian film took home the top prize of the festival--Xavier Dolan's _I Killed My Mother_.

The only down side to Iceland so far is that I've been kind of lonely here--I'm used to having so many wonderful friends around me! This weekend I started hanging around with another writer from Canada who is lovely and has a lot of Icelandic friends here already. She invited Jeramy and I to an open mic on Saturday night--which was all in Icelandic. It was very neat to sit through an evening of poetry and not understand a thing.

I miss Canada and all my friends and family. I hope everyone is well and I'm thinking of you all.

Take care,

Brecken