Working Girl?

Well, here I am at the bank. Working hard, as you can plainly see. Strangely enough there is nothing for an English speaking, banking world ignoramus from Minnesota to do at a small town bank branch in Fáskrudsfjördur. Shocker. I had to sign a privacy agreement and then was promptly settled at a computer and told to ask if I had any questions. Questions about what, you may ask. I have no idea. My cousin Halla (sounds like Het-la), works here and is very nice. She showed me a few jobs I can do occassionally with the attached post office and also said it is usually pretty quiet here so it is ok to use the internet. Thank god. Actually I think I will bring my Icelandic textbook and use the time to study each morning. That would be a good use of my time.
At noon I will walk back to the shop where Elísa and Stefán work and help out around there from 1 to 5 o´clock or so. I´m not certain what I will be doing there either, so that will be another adventure. I´ll be fine back in the kitchen cooking or washing up, but I think I will be pretty useless up front with customers and the computer system.

On Saturday I went with Bogga and her son Stefán Alex to Egilsstaðir where we went to a party in the woods. There was free food and live music and people everywhere. We had pylsur (hotdogs) and pancakes with rhubarb sauce, and coffee made over a campfire - apparently here I drink coffee all the time, though I never touch the stuff at home. I was introduced to two different sets of relatives, one of which is going to set up an evening for me to go to Breiðdalsvik for dinner with his family. Another interesting thing about this festival, the Kókómjólk mascot was running around the whole time. This may only be amusing to the Snorris, or at least hold some special meaning for them. Kókómjólk.
Later that afternoon, Bogga and I made a last minute decision to drive to Seyðisfjördur to meet a relative-in-law at what was basically descibed as a gathering for Atheists. Our curiousity was peaked. The gathering was actually held on the cliffs at Skálanes /Scow-Lan-Es/ which is about 10 km past Seyðisfjördur (civilization). We forded 3 rivers and bumped along dirt roads in the Land Cruiser until we came to a beautiful, huge, red house which I guess is a hotel/restaurant/research base. We walked out to the cliffs, but just missed the presentation on the old gods. We were told it was pretty tame. No heathens running around naked or anything. We met the pair that was doing the presentation and they filled us in on some of the information from the presentation. Bogga and I ate a really nice dinner at the restaurant and talked to all the people staying at the hotel for the summer, working or researching. There were people from Scotland, England, Germany and Finland.

On the way home we stopped to pick up Stefán Alex where we had left him with Thorhildur (Bogga´s sister) in Egilsstaðir and then made another stop in Reyðarfjörður at Bogga´s other sister´s house to pick up her son Marteínn (Martin) for a sleepover with Stefán Alex. I got to meet that branch of the family then too. On the way back the two boys riddled me with questions in a mix of English and Icelandic. I think I could learn a lot from these 11 year old cousins. They asked if I had any pets and when I told them about Buddha, Stefán Alex thought it was hilarious to say, "Buddha the Bulldog" over and over. "That sounds like a cool name," he told me as he chanted it again and again, laughing.
Sunday morning I had my first bit of quiet time. Elísa and Stefán were at work so I slept in a little bit and then spent a leisurely morning on facebook. I went fishing with Bogga and the boys in the afternoon, which was fun, but cold. Then, we made a series of housecalls to meet other relatives. Being here with my family has been very busy. I have met so many cousins, aunts, uncles and the like that I can´t keep anyone straight except for the main cast of characters (Elísa, Stefán and their daughters´ families). Also, everytime I go to meet someone new they feed me the most wonderful desserts and coffee. I am going to have to increase my use of "Nei, takk" (No, thank you) when the dessert trays are passed around at these tea parties or else I´m going to have trouble fitting into the clothes I brought with me.