buses: the saga continues

So, today I added another item to the list of 'Oh my god, let me tell you about my bus trip today' things. My bus route changed today. Not in a 'Please note, we're announcing a change to bus route #1, and it'll now travel down Vatnsmýrarvegur instead of Njarðargata' kind of way, but in a 'I'm sick of sitting behind these cars waiting for the green left-turn arrow at these traffic lights at Njarðargata, when the straight ahead people get to go, I want to go that way too' kind of way. I'm completely serious. We *were* waiting in line, to turn left. You know, to follow the usual route home. But then suddenly, out we pulled, and off we tootled down the Hringbraut, to the next set of lights instead, where there were no cars waiting to turn.


Vis større kart

Yes, we did join back up with our route, and no, I don't *think* we missed any stops, but that's not to say we wouldn't have if there had been a queue at the lights at Vatnsmýrarvegur too. I'm wondering now if this is one reason why I had trouble the first few weeks working out where I was on the bus. And I'm also wondering if this has ever happened to anyone else?

a first time for lots of things

Just had my first official Icelandic lesson, and it was brilliant - exactly the right level :) I feel like such a cheat, already having West Norwegian to help me (especially when I look at the poor souls who have been learning Icelandic for years, but only have English, or English and Polish to help; although the Swedish speakers fare a little better).

As you probably know if you've seen the photos, we had an awesome weekend up in Akureyri with a mate's dad: first time swimming outdoors, first time skiing, first symphony orchestra concert, first shovelling of snow, first taste of traditional Icelandic food (dried fish, sheep's head bits, sheep's testicles, cod-liver oil), first crepes (next lot tonight at a mate's place - it's Pancake Tuesday), first museum visit, first Chinese take-away (ask Luce how much it cost, I can't bear to think about it), first domestic flight, aaaaaaaand we got to see the northern lights for the first time, on our walk home from the airport (also another first for me) in Reykjavík.

Workwise, I've finished transcribing the recordings I made in Denmark, and can now start entering the data to have a good look at it. While it's taken a billion years to sort through, it's been worth it, because there are a few occasions where I realise that I've misheard something, or got the wrong impression about the dialect, the first time round. I've sent off my first abstract for a conference in June in Edinburgh. And we had our first Icelandic Syntax Discussion Group meeting last week, and it was seriously fun - just playing around trying to understand someone's tricky theoretical analysis of an obscure fact in a couple of obscure Norwegian dialects. *bliss*

I love it here!