Well, my safety net disappeared this afternoon. My English speaking cousins are going out of town until Sunday, so I´ll be sort of on my own as far as communication goes with my host relatives. I had a few moments of panic when Bogga and Thorhildur left today, but then Elísa (called Lísa) decided to make kleinur (like twisty little cake donuts for those of you who have never had them), and suddenly I had a foothold. Baking is something I can wrap my head around no matter where I am or what language is being spoken, it turns out. There was a lot of gesturing involved, but I was also thrilled with the amount of what Lísa was saying that I DID understand. It was in context of course, but still. I´m learning. I also went out on a limb and tried to actually speak Icelandic more than I have with my family up to this point. I´m sure it was pretty agrammatical and didn´t make sense a lot of the time, but I managed to communicate in a language I´ve only been learning for a short while, so I was happy. I had a lot of fun with Lísa and Stebbi (nickname for Stefán which is pronounced Stepi) making the kleinur, and then as a bonus we also made ástapungar which are sort of like kleinur, but have raisins in them and are a little sweeter tasting. I´m a big fan of both of them, and with a mountain of them in front of me, I may have gone a little overboard on the taste tests. It was soon after the kleiner binge that I made my first language faux pas. I told Lísa and Stebbi "Ég er full" (full is pronounced with a lateral lisp on the l´s, making it sound like futch). Both of them looked at me and Lísa laughed and walked away. Stebbi told me that means "I am drunk," not "I am full." Stupid Icelandic dictionary. I said it so confidently too, I was bummed that it backfired. It made me giggle all the way home actually, so I wasn´t too tramatized by the experience or anything.
The bank was low key again. I worked on my ancestry.com information and ordered my university transcripts to send to the school district where I´ll be working in the fall. So it was a productive work day in a bank, just not a productive work day working for the bank. I´m expecting more of the same tomorrow, but not sure what my time at the shop will hold in the afternoon. Lísa and Stebbi have the running of the place down to an art, so so far I´ve just been trying to stay out of the way. I was able to be useful a couple of times today, which felt good. A busload of Italian tourists came in and I made hot chocolate, and I helped with the baking and cleaning up too, of course. I´m hoping to build on that as the weeks progress.
I think I might step outside and go for a little walk around town now. It stopped raining for the first time in a couple of days and I feel like I should take advantage of it. There are more big clouds coming in, so I better act fast.
Stebbi at the shop
Lísa making kleinur at the shop
Lísa and Stebbi´s house, where I am staying
Kleinur og mjólk, the best combination
Fresh out of the kettle
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