Contract? Visas?

"we are working on this... a lot of paperwork!" Uhuh. It's a country of 300,000 people, and it sounds like 90% of them must be bureaucrats - how long can getting a contract sent out take?! It's now nearly 4 months and counting...

An address!

We'll be living in/at/on Víðihlíð in Reykjavik. Yay! We'll have a spare room, so start preparing your visit now! Check out our street in GoogleEarth, or have a look on the maps:
A map of Reykjavík: http://www.backman.is/mapofrvk/
The University is here: http://www.backman.is/mapofrvk/part1.html

Flat #2

I've just heard from Flat #2, and it sounds quite lovely - the owners (who live upstairs - it's one of those houses they have in Europe where each floor is self-contained, and when the teenage kids move out, the bottom floor gets rented out) both work at the uni too. I've accepted it ($2,000 per month, sounds cheap!), and hopefully hear back about it soon!

Flat #1 "not available"

The close flat is no longer available! (Person decided not to move.) So House-elf Margrét said we should write personally to the owner of flat #2, and plead our case, saying what lovely, quiet, responsible, interesting people we are. Flat #2 is the fully furnished one - hopefully they respond soon. I started the email in Icelandic, because one of the few things I can do is say 'Hi! My name's Tania!' ;)

After the initial disappointment and some trawling on YouTube, L & I have decided that maybe it's better we're not right in town - we saw someone's video looking down from their balcony at 3am, where it's daylight, and the streets are chockers with cars & people, and the noise echoing up the street is like it's the middle of the day!

I'm looking forward to seeing what their words for 'day' and 'night' mean: in Norwegian 'dag' means ~6am-~7pm, (with 'ettermiddag' being around midday-7pm), 'kveld' means ~7pm-midnight, and 'natt' means midnight-6am. Daylight (or the lack of) doesn't change this. I remember coming home from a bbq dinner with E & her 5 year-old daughter, where Daughter was talking about the tv she was going to watch when we got home. E told her she was actually going to bed, because it was night-time. Daughter replied (shading her eyes from the glaring sun), "But I can see the sun right there!". The Viking's reply: "Yes, I know it's broad daylight. But it is nonetheless night!" ("Ja, men da e natt forda!")

We're not criminals

Got our criminal record checks back a couple of days ago, and neither of us have a record. That the Australian Federal Police know about. :) L chucked a tanty when I said we'd probably have to send over the hard copies, because "the piece of paper is forgable in the hard copy, so why can't we just email a pdf scan of the things?!"

Applied for a flat

okay, we've said we'd like to live in the small-but-close-to-everything flat, and we'll find out next week if it's still available. House-elf Margret has said she'll help us buy a bed and mattress before we get there, because the house is furnished with a washing machine only, which she said 'might be a bit uncomfortable'. Fingers crossed!

applications update

It turns out that our employer is supposed to organise our person number for us, even though it's in the section of the work/residency permits that we have to fill in.

"housing"

We've been offered a choice from 2 places to live in via House-elf Margret. Both are in houses with 2 flats, the owner lives in the other flat, and we would share the garden. #1 is very close to uni and shops, but only 60m2 and not fully furnished; ISK 70,000 per month (~ $1,400). #2 is fully furnished and around 100m2, but nowhere near uni, shops or public transport; ISK 99,000 (~ $2,000) per month! "This is a good flat for good price but rather bad location if you don't have a car." Um? I guess no-one likes walking or bike-riding when it's dark and icy...

Not sure if we'll get more offers, hope so!

A map of Reykjavík: http://www.backman.is/mapofrvk/
The University is here: http://www.backman.is/mapofrvk/part1.html

Flat 1: Bræðraborgarstígur, MAP 7
Flat 2: Víðihlíð, MAP 3

House-elf

So, we now have a person who I've been picturing as a kind of elf for some reason, helping us to find a place to live in Reykjavik. We're requesting 2 bedrooms, because of the number of people who have said they're going to come for a visit. So, if you haven't already, you should look to see whether Iceland fits your idea of a good holiday destination in 2008!

Iceland Uni HR joins quest for visas

Finally! An email about our visas from Admin Oskar at Iceland U, who states that "We know the process very well"! Excellent. So, we've sent off our criminal record check to the Federal Police of Australia, because that's the very first thing we need to do. In fact, we already sent it off, but I think L said we needed to include photocopies of our passports too. So, tomorrow then. :)

Admin Oskar also said that "'Place of residence' is the first issue to be solved", so it looks like we might have an address soon. Although L is moaning on and on about finding out my salary, so I've asked about that again too.

So, what will we find out first: whether we have a secret criminal record, who our landlord will be, or how much dosh we'll have to spend on touristing around Iceland... Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of ... Iced-Tee!