Samning um Akureyri

I just finished my report on Akureyri and wanted to share it. I put a translation there too. It's a masterpiece! I'm so proud and it only took me about 2 hours to write. Kind of sad because it's basically a second grade report. Oh well. I'm still really proud of it.

Akureyri er fjórða stærst borg á Íslandi og er kölluð ‘Höfuðstaður Norðurlands’. Hún er staðsett á suðvestri hliðinni Eyjafjarðar og er umlukt hjá fjöll. Þrátt fyrir stað hennar, veðrið er fallegt, einstaklega á sumarin þegar það er sextíu stiga (tuttugu stiga C). Í Akureyri það er bókasafn opinber, listasafn, og Akureyrarkirkja. Það er náttúrugripasafn hvar er hægt að læra um alla fugla Íslands og önnur jurtir og dýr. Nyrðastur grasgarður veraldar er í Akureyri og það er með miklar jurtir af Íslandi og öðrum staðnum. Í Akureyri það er líka frábær háskóli sem heitir Háskóli Akureyrar. Í háskólanum er hægt að læra lögfræði og félagsvisindi, heilsu, menntun, eða verslunarfræði og vísindi. Eitt háskólapróf er kennt á ensku (tölvufræði). Háskólinn er með frábær fjarkennslu fyrir nemendur sem búa á Íslandi og nemandaskipti við aðra skóla. Í stigi persónulegu, Akureyri er uppáhaldsborgin mín úr veröld. Mig langar til að búa þangað framvegis. Það er ein ástæða ég er að læra íslensku!

Akureyri is one of the largest towns in Iceland and is known as the capital of Northern Iceland. It is located on the southwest side of Eyjafjörður and is surrounded by mountains. Despite being so far north, the climate is beautiful, especially in the summer when the average temperature is in the upper 60s (around 20 C). In Akureyri there is a public library, art museum, and Church of Akureyri. There is a nature museum, where you can learn about all the birds in Iceland and other plants and animals. The world´s northernmost botanical garden is located in Akureyri and contains many Icelandic and foreign plants. There is also a great university called University of Akureyri. At the school you can study law and social sciences, health sciences, education, or business and science. A major in computer science is taught in English. The school has a good distance learning program for students that live in Iceland and an exchange program with other universities. On a personal note, Akureyri is my favorite town in the world and I hope to live there someday. That is a great part of the reason I am learning Icelandic.

I felt a little guilty because maybe London is my favorite city, but I didn't quite want to get into that.

P.S. I received my diploma today!

Weird

I was just listening to Easy To Please, my namesake song, and was transported back to April 2001. That was incredible. Hi, 20 year old Emily!

Long day

Today I was working on a thing with my coworker Brian for about 4 hours (ok, it was probably only 2 or at most 3) and I was ready to kill myself at the end. I was sooooo annoyed with it. I finally figured out the problem and it was the stupidest thing ever (Brian agrees it is dumb). I was going to report a bug on it but it's SO dumb I don't even want to look at it anymore. I'll probably do it tomorrow though.

Then I was drinking some green tea and I got wired. It was funny because I don't usually react to caffeine. It could have been something else in it, I guess. I'm exhausted from that stupid bug though. That was probably the hardest I've worked on something in a while, mostly because I couldn't figure it out. That was due to the fact that it was such an idiotic bug. Neither of us thought to look at what it ended up being. Anyway...

Lost season finale is on tonight!

There was an earthquake in Iceland today. I'm going to ask around at my school to see if everyone is ok. Crazy...it looks like only minor injuries but still, crazy. It was in Selfoss and I don't know anyone there, but you never know.

Oh! I got a hold of my best friend from high school, Melissa, and I am going to see her this weekend. I can't wait!! I have not talked to her literally in years. I was going to go to Nancy's because she's having a garage sale but I will be out of town now. I am boring myself with this blog entry. Good bye. BAD BYE! (Simpsons)

Here are some pictures I took today. I didn't see the goslings but I saw some ducklings. :)

Posti fimmtándi

Fares to Iceland in October are so cheap from here. I guess they must have a hub here. Does anyone want to go...I can speak Icelandic. It would be a breeze. Fares are around $550. Plus we could see the Iceland Airwaves festival and meet my teacher and two or three of my classmates. Why don't I have a million dollars? :(

Post #490b

I saw some baby geese at the park today. I saw them yesterday too; I will take my camera tomorrow.

 

Those espresso beans smell gross. How can you guys eat those?!

 

Today's speaking class was the best yet. :) We all made plans to meet in October in Iceland for Iceland Airwaves. We'll see how that goes for me.

97th post of the day

I am waiting for class to start. I'm so in love with the fact that sigurros' new album title is in Icelandic. I feel like I'm part of a cool club! I can say it perfectly and I even know what it means!!! I wonder if I should bring it up. I'll bring it up on Thursday for sure if not today. My teacher likes them. (But who doesn't?) I'm so excited.

Exciting 2!

In my class this week we are learning about Northern Iceland, and our assignment is to do a report on a place in Northern Iceland. I'm totally doing Akureyri!!!!!!!!!!!!

EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sigur Rós has an album coming out in a month! I so hope they come here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I love these song titles, #3 is one of my favorite things to say!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wouldn't it be just our luck if they came here on the same day of the wedding? Let's hope not. I think they might already be booked that day anyway. Anyway the album cover is the back sides of some naked people. I cannot wait to hear it, I'm going to download the single tonight.

 

með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

1. gobbledigook
2. inní mér syngur vitleysingur
3. góðan daginn
4. við spilum endalaust
5. festival
6. suð í eyrum
7. ára bátur
8. illgresi
9. fljótavík
10. straumnes
11. all alright

Annoying

I'm still trying to look for a dress for the wedding. I don't want a polyester one because they accentuate hip flaws, yet every single dress is polyester (wtf?). Seriously, try to find a black dress that would fit me that isn't polyester. So I'm like, ok I can find a slip with some structure. Nobody carries them. I'm more than a little frustrated here. My mom never had trouble finding slips when I was little, when I hated them.

 

Anyway, I did yoga tonight and it was really weird. I'm very out of practice. I don't have anything else to say.

Blog

I just found the blog for The Soup...I know what I'll be reading for the next 2 days.

 

You guys should watch Peep Show. It's a BBC show. The first season is on netflix but there are 4 seasons. I watched the first two like 2 years ago when it was on BBC America and loved it but just downloaded the rest this weekend because I saw something about it on AV Club. I was laughing my f-ing ass off. I have never laughed so hard at a show. I almost want to watch them all again right away. Seriously great show. The "comedy duo" (Sorry) also has a sketch show called That Mitchell And Webb Look. I have only seen that once or twice but I liked it. One that I did see was a sketch about an argument over how cheese is made. It was pretty good. Heart

I saw ducklings today on my walk!

I've been pretty quiet lately, I guess. I've been weirdly busy. For one thing, my class has gotten pretty hard-core in the last two weeks. I've spent a ton of time writing. But they say I've been doing well! I can string together semi-complicated sentences now. Because I want to show off, I'm going to put the questions that I wrote about where I live and where I'm from. We're supposed to give them to the other students next week and then they take them and answer them.

Hvaða borg er tvíburi við St. Paul? What is the twin city with St. Paul?
Hvað heitir fræga áin sem aðskilur borgirnar? What is the famous river that divides the cities?
Hvað heitir staðurinn þar sem Sigur Rós spilaði á konsert árið 2006? What's the name of the place where Sigur Rós played a concert in 2006?
Hvað heitir fræga kirkjan í St. Paul? What's the name of the famous church in St. Paul? (Why did I put that question? That's weird)
Í hvaða ríki er St. Paul? What state is St. Paul in?
Hvað heitir frægi spítalinn í Rochester? What's the name of the famous hospital in Rochester?
Hve margir búa í Rochester? How many people live in Rochester?
Hvað heitir stöðuvatnið sem er frægt fyrir gæsir í Rochester? What's the name of the lake in Rochester that's famous for geese? (again, wtf?)

Anyway, there those are. I don't know why I made them so specific. My teacher talked to me about it later after I wrote them and she said to just write general questions about my country. I was like, the entire country? I swear she said before to make some about the city I live in and some about where I grew up, so I did. Whatever. They seemed to like the questions anyway. Both of my teachers said they were hard sentences and thought I did well. Yay

Then today I was writing some sentences with adjectives and it was really weird. I guess I don't use many adjectives. Especially not for something like a stapler. I picked bad nouns. Oh well.

There was a thing on AV Club about their trip to the All Candy Expo. It was hilarious. You all should read it, especially the part about Sweet Tea Pastel or whatever it's called. They were talking about these things called Crackheads which are chocolate covered espresso beans. Some other people commented about them and said their name fits them. You can only find them online apparently so I bought some for Adam because he drinks a lot of coffee and uses caffeine a lot for study help. If he doesn't like them I'll give them to one of yous alls because I hate anything about coffee and I know at least two of you like chocolate covered espresso beans, except for that one time they made Emily jittery.

I'm POed that Battlestar Galactica isn't on today, but not really, because it's kind of crappy these days. I was also POed that Lost wasn't on last night. But, American Idol sort of made up for it. I thoroughly enjoyed the show, and I was so surprised at my reaction. I should go back and read at my earlier blogs about the show and what I thought about David Cook. I think I kind of liked him, I don't know. I can see being annoyed with him before because of his seeming likeness to Daughtry. But I was pleased with him, of course, overall, because he sang other stuff like Music of the Night extremely well. BLAH BLAH BLAH I'm boring myself right now. Whatever. I like him and I cried at the show, the end. I got over it. I can't afford to be falling in love with everyone who sings some kind of song. He's great though and sure I'll buy his album probably, unless he switches gears and sings with Chad Kroeger or something. Then I'll probably boycott it.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love AV Club? I was reading it last night and realized I have never "been" in a "group" that I fit in with so well. All the hating on stuff and not liking certain things for dubious reasons, such as because someone else liked it first or it's too popular...so me! And yet they still have their guilty pleasures. And it's completely about pop culture. I love it. I only wish there was a different sort of community that was more interactive instead of just comments. But, they're changing it, so we'll see what it turns out to be. Speaking of that, I got the new Death Cab album and it got an A on there so I feel it is acceptable to like it. (Kidding, but only partly). I've pared it down to the songs I feel like listening to and it's down to slightly less than half. I guess that's acceptable. Some albums are pared down to one, so at least it isn't that bad. And honestly, DCFC is one of my favorite bands and they too have one album that has been pared down to zero. So nobody can win all the time.

D.C.

I am literally in love with him. I started crying multiple times during the show. Especially when he cried. I thought the last song was really good. It's one of my favorite songs. Breathy can suck it!! I'm trying to vote but I've only gotten through once in half an hour. I'm doing texts too.

Hi

I'm here, just busy.

Awesome

I can play my way through Viðrar vel til Loftárása! I am having fun playing with the song playing. Now, time for me to go sleepy.

Fun at Elizabeth's

Today I received my piano from Fedex. It was the heaviest thing I've ever tried to lug somewhere. It was delivered to the office and I called and asked if they could lend me a cart to bring it up, so they did. But it was still heavy. The box was completely open for some reason.

Daniel found a new bed. I love this picture so much. (I would like to note that my apartment was spotless yesterday and now is a mess because of this gigantor thing)

Here is some damage on the piano. I asked the guy if it was from shipping or if it was like that. (It was refurbished). He said he didn't know. I think it was from shipping. And there are my new shoes, too.

The next two pictures are of Daniel reacting to the bird sound on the piano. He ran all over the place trying to find it. Please excuse the 100 blankets on the futon.

I would also like to note that since I don't have any books with me at the moment, I printed out some sheet music of songs I knew I'd played before, and was very pleasantly surprised that I could still play fairly well. I also transcribed part of a Sigur Rós song and that went well too. :)

"Cyclone" in "Burma"

There are a few things I've found interesting about the "cyclone" in "Burma". First of all, it's weird how storms in other parts of the world are called different names. I was sure that cyclone was another word for hurricane, but apparently a hurricane is actually a cyclone. Tsunami is another one. It seems like tsunamis and cyclones would never happen in the US...it would be tidal wave and hurricane. Not that I care, it's just interesting. Secondly, what's with everyone going "Myanmar, formerly known as Burma"? Does anyone actually go..."Myanmar? WTF? OHHHH....Burma, I get it now." Myanmar has been Myanmar as long as I've known it. Oh, I just wikipedia-ed it and I guess it's a controversial name because of the government. That makes a lot more sense. I thought it was just nobody thought we would remember what country it was. Russian Federation? WTF? Ohhhhh.......the USSR! Ok. France?? Oh yeah I remember now, Gaul!!!

11 hour day

We had a giant server problem right when I was about to leave today so I ended up sticking around until almost 8. It wasn't even the largest of problems, it was just that it took forever to get a hold of anyone.

I purchased the piano on ebay today and it was 25% cheaper than at stores. I'm pretty pleased.

I need to go lay down.....................

Back again

Video for Brighton's pleasure

Odd again

I just saw a clip of Madonna's movie and the song Ágætis Byrjun (the acoustic one from the newer album) is on in the background.

Scrabble

I just had to brag that I just got 108 points on one turn. w00t!

Odd

I had a really odd few days, mostly at work. I don't really want to get in more detail than that, I guess. The only other thing I will say is my boss confuses me.

 

My kitten is super, super affectionate since going to the vet on Monday, even more than usual. He will not unattach himself from my leg. Last night I was awakened by whiskers on my face because someone was that close to me.

 

I watched this movie last night called "Funny Games" (the original one). It was really interesting. It's supposed to be a statement about violence in the media, and boy, was it. Crazy. I don't know if I've processed it enough to say more than that.

 

I also read a book this week called "The Lovely Bones". I had heard a few things about it before I read it and expected it to be extremely upsetting because it's about a girl getting raped and killed at 14. But it was actually not upsetting in that way at all. It was very sad, but it was almost a little too saccharine. Peter Jackson is making a movie out of it (due out in 2009). I feel like the saccharinity of it will be even more noticeable in the movie. I hate to say I wanted it to be a lot darker, but I did. It reminded me of Touched By An Angel, actually, or something like that.

 

I talked about the book in my class today (it was Icelandic Labor Day yesterday so class got moved) and I was a little reticent because she has two young daughters. But she said it sounded really good and is going to read it. I was proud of myself in class today, words were just flying out of my mouth! I am for sure much farther along in this at this point than I ever was in Spanish. I feel as though I am about halfway fluent, at least in writing. And I mean fluent in the sense of getting by, not scientific writing or anything.

 

Well, I'm about to clean and watch BSG, which by the way was incredibly boring last week, and prooooooooooooobbbbably work on my website this weekend. I'll plan out tonight what to work on and then I guess work tomorrow and Sunday. I am also on the verge of getting the piano. I'm still very hesitant to get it, but am leaning ever so slightly toward it. I might look online to see if there are deals anywhere.