Inspired by Iceland

 So if you've seen my shutterfly website you've seen my pictures from the last two events I've done through Inspired by Iceland. It is a new tourism campaign here in Iceland, and it is absolutely awesome and would probably only work in Iceland. Basically people post videos inviting tourists to do activities with them. The president had pancakes at his house, the mayor invited people to have sushi, my friends did a jeep safari today, and so far I have walked an Icelandic Sheepdog named Mosi, I went mussel picking and saw sheep being sheared yesterday, and today I did yoga! All for free! It is starting to get attention and yesterday when we were picking mussels there were people filming us. They have been following some of the recent invitations and are interviewing people and filming the different invitations. Here is the website where you can check the invitations; my friends and I check it daily! http://invitations.inspiredbyiceland.com/invitation/list

So last Friday (the 5th) we (Emily A, Vanessa, and I) walked an Icelandic Sheepdog named Mosi with his owner and two other exchange students around the pond. His owner told us about the breed and we each took turns walking Mosi. The Icelandic Sheepdog was recently recognized by the AKC as its own breed. They are good family dogs, are small-medium sized, friendly, and energetic although they shed a lot. Mosi was really cute, doesn't really bark, and breeds so I think we should get a puppy...:) He even has his own facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sindra-Mosi/187041648224 

 Side note: last weekend on Saturday I went to see Mammút perform at Bíó Paradís, an independent movie theater, for about 40 minutes and then saw a documetary, An Independent Mind, brought on by Amnesty International. I went with my friend Akeem because he loves Mammút. We sat down in the movie theater lobby at a table eating popcorn and watching them perform a few feet in front of us. Then we saw the documentary which was really good. It was about the right to freedom of expression. It followed eight characters from around the world attempting to exercise their right to freely express themselves. Their stories included facing the threat of imprisonment for drawing a cartoon of the President (Algeria), being sent to a labour camp for telling a joke, being tortured for writing a poem (Syria), and being forced into exile for singing a song (Mali).


Back to Inspired by Iceland. Yesterday (11.11.11!!) a bunch of exchange students and I rented a van and drove 70km to a farm Bjarteyjarsandur. 8 of us went: Lauren, Emily, Begga, our friend Cecilia from Sweden, and Jake and his two friends Lukas (Czech Republic) and Elise (Vancouver). To get to the farm you had to drive around a fjord (the same one I had driven around to go up North) and it was so beautiful. We had great weather, it was sunny and warm out about 50 F. We were a little late so we met the farmers down at the beach. Three horses were hanging out there and two dogs and I was so happy. The dogs were border collies and were "wicked smaht". They would pick a rock out, bring it to you, and then you would throw it and the two dogs raced each other to get the rock. And every time they got the exact same rock you threw even though the whole beach was rocky. I think I threw more rocks to the dogs than I found mussels :) . Then we headed down to the waters edge and were told how to find the mussels, which size to look for, and how to clean them. Lauren found a HUGE mussel and we were told it was a different kind called a horse mussel (we had been getting blue mussels). Arnheiður (the women organizing this invitation) told Lauren that she would experiment with it. So after about 45 minutes our fingers were freezing and we headed back to the farm. We had free coffee and desserts while Arnheiður cooked the mussels. We all sat at a big table and talked. There were a few other people who also came, one was from Minnesota, one from South Africa, and one from NY (she was here for work as a journalist). There were two kinds of mussels, one batch was cooked in butter with onions, carrots, and herbs from the garden, and the other batch was cooked in beer. They were both good but the butter ones were definitely my favorite. Arnheiður kept bringing out bowls of mussels and we also had garlic/cheesy toast. It was a mussel feast! We must have had about 8 bowls of mussels, it was never ending. She cooked the horse mussel and Lauren ate some of it, although she was a little scared of it. After our feast Arnheiður told us her husband was going to the barn to shear sheep so we all went to see that. There were so many sheep in the barn and some were sheared, some with intense horns, and a lot of different colors. We watched three sheep being sheared and then looked at some of them for a while. Then we headed back to say goodbye to Arnheiður and to thank her. It was an awesome day and the farm was in one of the most beautiful spots I've been to. We got back to Reykjavik around 6 and Lauren, Begga, and I walked down Laugavegur (the main shopping street downtown) for a while going into some shops, and then we had dinner--soup in a bread bowl! It was yummy.

This is the beach and the buildings in the distance is the farm.

Food!

Everyone that rode in our van.

Sheep Barn!

This morning (Saturday 12th) I woke up for another invitation that I was doing with Vanessa. We did vinyasa flow yoga at this studio from 10:30 to 11:45. It was kind of far away so we took the bus. Vanessa wanted to get there earlier than I so she left on another bus. It was the first time I took the bus by myself and went someplace I didn't know. It took me a couple minutes to find the yoga studio but I finally did and made it on time. I was pretty proud of myself for doing it on my own. The class was good and it was warm in there so we sweated a lot. The instructor would walk around and correct us so it was nice to actually get some feedback. I hadn't done yoga in awhile either so it was nice to do it again. Elise was also there and a couple other exchange students I recognized. Tonight is our friend Elizabeth's birthday party upstairs in the attic so I will probably stop by for a bit. Then tomorrow I will be packing and getting ready for Berlin and Prague!! We are leaving early Monday morning for a whole week! I am going with Lauren and Akeem and am really excited! I've never been to "mainland" Europe before.