Icelandic Summer ´05

Tesia´s Adventures

2005-07-25T12:16:00.000-04:00

Hæ Hæ!
Tesia writing here to post some of my recent excursions that I unfortunately had to live without the joy of Meghan and Casey. First I must mention that, well if you know me, you know I love my music and going to concerts. So one thing I was extremely bummed about not being home for the summer was not getting to see any shows. But leave it to Icelanders to bring me a show that never in a million years would I go to see in america. Yes folks...Snoop Doggy Dogg was in the house! It was quite entertaining (minus the short porn video that opened up his show) as I held little Kristofer on my shoulders and danced away with Edda. Takk fyrir Iceland.

More importantly was my trip to Paris over the weekend. It truly was so hard to leave my fellow Americans in Iceland, with The Swan and Desperate Housewives and black-out nights (that if you are lucky they will inform you of) and jet off to another country. It was a weekend filled with walking and standing and more walking. The Eiffel tower was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen though and it felt so good to lay in the grass around it with Darri snoring and me and my Harry Potter, catching some rays. I also captured history as we saw Lance Armstrong win his 7th Tour de France. What an experience to be in a crowd with people from all over, cheering on every single racer that went by. Dinners were so delicious, as was the bottle of wine I shared with myself at each one! Wine=good stories=Darri is on the debate team, but don´t worry that is cool in Iceland=) Hopefully I will be getting some pictures posted soon so you all can see some of the moments that made my weekend.

New Pictures From Camping

2005-07-19T11:06:00.000-04:00

http://www.bingimar.is/old/page2/page19/page19.html

Check out a few more pictures from our Icelandic Camping Adventures a while back.. courtesy of Bjarni...aka..BJ...aka..Barney. There are a few better views of the attack of the killers birds!!!

Friday July 15, 2005

2005-07-15T10:31:00.000-04:00

Today was a little out of the ordinary from our normal Friday´s here in the land of ice. Normally we get to sleep in till 11 but with the tournament starting today we had to be in at 9. So we all were handed a camera and sent out to the fields to take as many pictures as we could before the batteries died, which happened about every 15 minutes. Casey and Meghan even got to referee a few of the football games, while Tesia worked hard on the computer finding a hotel room for her visit to Paris next weekend. One plus to this Friday....NO HOT DOGS!!! Music to our ears. Picture taking lasted till about 2:30 where we then raced home to get in the pre-game nap. The team met at Breidablik and then we bused the 40 minute trip to Keflavik where the ugliest bit of soccer was played out. We came out with a 1-0 victory, but it was a hard battle in the monsoon that was brought upon us. Thus we were soaked and had to give in to the team shower after the game. After donuts and bread we loaded back on the bus where we were presented with a few gifts from Toyota(for being so sweet) as well as some bjors and bacardi breezers to cheers another win and the beginning of a much needed 15 day break. The week ends and the weekend begins....

Thursday July 14, 2005

2005-07-14T08:15:00.000-04:00

Today marks one of the most joyous days of our stay here in Iceland- we officially have a car!! Although our 2 mile walk to work at 830 AM in the rain and cold every morning sometimes caused turmoil, we now look upon those days for making us stronger and more durable Icelanders. So our day began driving to work then partaking in our usual activities of coaching a bunch of butt nuggets we call children. We have began nicknaming a few, some we might even go to hell for, but one must do whats necessary to survive. We have a little girl we named 'Nei takk´ (no thank you) who constantly asks us to pick her up and we simply say ´Nei takk´ then theres good ol´Crotch Grabber´ which we feel is explanatory in its self. Today we cooked the gourmet meal of chicken fagitas with rice and salsa, our specialty. As we slave over the frozen fagitas that we just put in the oven, we jam out to our theme song 'Lunch Lady Land´ by Adam Sandler. We feel that our efforts have been so extensive that ´Icelandic chef\food preparer\server´will suffice on our resume which of course will go next to the twenty five soccer camps that we´ve coached- yes we are athletes now and forever. The afternoon was centered around getting ready for the ´Breidablik Tournament´which is held every year and a very big event. We were given the more intense jobs of rolling posters and stuffing them in bags with soccer balls - our bosses obviously saw our resumes- we cleaned floors, vaccumed, you name it we were on it. After that lovely afternoon of child labor, we DROVE home for a brief period to nap and eat only to return to Breidablik to record an exciting evening of the opening ceremony. We were armed with cameras as hundreds of lil icelandic girls marched around, cheering for their team, and not being obnoxious at all. We were like the paparazzi on Jennifer Aniston- we were pushed, called names, and fought to get the perfect picture- the reward of capturing these young women´s child memories meant more to us. The night finally came to an end and we left satisfied with the a job well done. It´s Thursday so it was ´The Swan´and 'Desperate Housewives´ that rocked us to sleep. Just another day for us foreigners.

Wednesday July 13, 2005

2005-07-13T12:05:00.000-04:00

The three of us girls did not quite get the amount of sleep we needed for a productive next day so our faces were not exactly beaming with rays of sunshine as we ate our breakfast and hurried out the door to get to work. The day after a game always causes our old bones to ache just a little more than our youthful days many moons ago. Work seemed to go along just as usual- coaching, cooking, child labor, practice- wait... practice was not usual. apparently Benni and Karl thought that our celebratory high fives were not quite up to par so they hired an icelandic hip hop dancer to teach us some moves. Meghan sure can get down! Following the fun came the hard part-getting our problems out on the table. Yes tears were shed but WE GOT A CAR!!!! Now Iceland had three happy Americans who retreated back to Engighalli apartment 17 for movie night. Tesia´s pick, You Can Count On Me, I must say was a winner and would recommend seeing it if you have not. Two more days left in the week!

Tuesday July 12, 2005

2005-07-12T11:51:00.000-04:00

Game Day:
Today starts with a ride to work thanks to the wonderful Agust and then leads into coaching the kids even though we try very hard to get out of it this morning. Lunch is filled with lasagna and bread, delicious! The exciting part of game days are we get to leave work by 1:00 and go back to our odorless apartment and sleep until 5:00. At this point Casey takes her pre-game shower and we all get the nutrition we need to play 90 minutes of football. Before the game we meet in the white house for banana´s, apples, and powerade and the pre-game talk...that we never understand. Tonight we played Keflavik for the Visa Cup quater-finals and despite not playing the best soccer, we come out on top with a 3-1 victory. This is cause for bread and cheese and bits of chocolate heaven in the white house. Both teams get together and eat and talk, kind of a nice post game activity. Usually the three of us hurry back to the apartment to shower(because we do not feel the need to get naked with the rest of the Icelanders in the locker room) and prepare for the best part of Tuesday nights...THE CONTENDER!!! Tonight we went over to our Icelandic family to watch with Karl and Elisabet...Manfredo won in a great fight=) And now we could all go to bed satisfied with nothing to complain about, haha!!! This is an American Tuesday in Iceland...

A week in the life of Iceland

2005-07-11T13:27:00.000-04:00

This is the true story of three americans, picked to live in Inga´s apartment and have their lives ruled by futbol and find out what happens when people stop speaking enlish and start being real Icelandic. The Real World Iceland.
For this week and this week only we will be adding a daily blog to give you a realistic grasp on how our life is lived, through good and bad, through rain and wind. We will give you the hard and exciting events that we deal with every day. Please do not hesitate to add your own comments to our website, blogs, and pictures. Bless

Monday- July 11th, 2005

2005-07-11T09:46:00.000-04:00

8:15AM we awake to the dreadful sound of our high tech alarm clock aka cell phone. As inviting as the rain and wind might be to our fellow Icelanders, we loath the second our feet fall from our bed to touch the frigid floor- our day begins on a great note per usual. We stammer to make a breakfast suitable for each person- Casy: Skyr with Cheerios, Tesia: frosted cheerios or lucky charms, Meghan: Skyr with Peanut Butter. Skyr is a type of yogurt, almost a custer, that is low in fat, high in carbs and could be used as dowlry here by the way they obsess over it. We have joined the bandwagon as you might gather. Although we get up at 8:15AM and plan to leave our apt. at 8:30, which is obviously highly ulikely and we´re fully aware of it, we continue to depart for our journey to work around 8:40AM. With each step of our two mile (or as the Icelandic say- 4.4 kilometers) our fondness for the Icelandic summer only gathers steam. We arrive about ten minutes late, per usual, and begin by checking whats on the schedule for lunch: poss bologna lasagna, soup, chicken fagitas with rice, skyr and bread, or pasta and hot dogs- we dont know, maybe its the usual cotton or maybe even a thong, but maybe its something i´ve never seen before. Today we get lucky with star soup so we head on down to Fifan and each take a field to watch the kids play 4 v 4 and see who can fall down and start crying the most. 11:00 it was time to start cooking, 12:00 we serve, 1:00 the real fun began...rolling 700 icelandic womens national team posters up for two hours. We put our college educations to a true test with this task, came out on top=) Since our imaginary car is out of gas, two of us head to the gym(Casey and Meghan) and one of us sits at Breidablik catching up on sleep(Tesia)until it is time for practice, in the rain of course. So that is a typical Monday in Iceland-stayed tuned for as the saga continues tomorrow;-)

Directions on how to see our pictures

2005-06-30T18:58:00.000-04:00

OK...We finally got most of our pictures up and available for everyone to enjoy. You need to have an account with Kodak though in order to see them so we went ahead and made a general account for everyone to use. When you click on the link, a new page should pop up asking for an email address and password. The Email Address is : icelandsoccer@yahoo.com and the password is: soccer If you have any troubles send us a line and we will do what we can to fix it. Once Again...We hope you enjoy seeing them as much as we enjoyed taking them=)

Day #2 Indep. Day Wked

2005-06-24T12:06:00.000-04:00

We awoke Saturday morning as if Iceland had kicked our ass the night before. Mentally prepared for a day of detox and movie watching, we slothed about the apartment with blinds down and lights off. Our bodies were put into shock when we receieved a call from our friend Bjarni whom we had ´apparently´ discussed going camping with the night before. Unlike us, he had remembered that we said we wanted to go and convinced us to pull ourselves together for a great night in the countryside of Iceland. Our hearts were saying ´You´re in Iceland once and this will be a great adventure´but our bodies were saying ´if you even think about going i will... ´ We ignored our bodies and grabbed warm clothes, sleeping bags, food and drinks, then packed into the car with Bjarni for a 2 hour car ride- exactly what we hoped to do that day. The car ride was uneventful and quiet, with the exception of one american disposing of the poison she had drank the night before at a gas station bathroom. again she will remain nameless. casey. The drive was full of mountains, lakes, streams, waterfalls, and open grassy plains that none of us saw because we were passed out. We finally arrived at our destination, Snjófell, a campsite right near the glacier, surrounded by mountains on one side and the ocean on another. We stepped out of the car into a world more beautiful than we could´ve dreamed. We set up our large and very orange tent which had its own covered porch area and slowly started to come back to life. We began grilling some cheeseburgers and settled into our tent to avoid the 4°C wind chill that seemed to go straight to your bones. After consuming large amounts of food we decided to explore the cliffs and scenic areas of the campsite- a gloorious idea at the time but would come to have almost tragic consequences. We walked along the cliffs edges, even climbed down onto the rocks below as the artic water splashed and waves broke almost on us. We decided to continue our tour a little further, still enjoying these beautiful scenes and taking them all in. We finally reached the area which Bjarni had insisted we visit, only to realize that A.} it was no big whoop- a few houses and sheep (the usual in these parts) B.} it was midnight and no help was around and finally C.) we were on the complete other side of the glacier and just now were turning around for the walk back! We decided to walk around the other side of the glacier only to realize that was completely ridiculous and stupid- so we turned back to the path that led us there and began the voyage to camp. This once simple walk that was suppose to inspire and make us more cultural with our new land had turned into a death march full of cliffs, slippery rocks with the last stage that would truly determine if we were fit to survive in this land. After a total of two and a half hours of walking, we began to see glimpses of civilization and camp was nearing. All that stood between us and the camp site was a field, but not just any ordinary field, it was the home of a particular bird that has been known to put holes in peoples heads. When we first heard this poposterous claim we laughed it off but now, the birds would be laughing at us. We became eager to get back quickly so we decided to walk through this field instead of around it, mistake #1. Within a few meters we sensed trouble was at hand- the birds were swarming above us and their chirping became louder. Out of now where a bird came swooping down only missing us by inches. Soon, other birds followed suit, this was our Pearl Harbor. We dodged, ducked, dove, dipped, and dodged best we could. Mistake #2 occured when Meghan tried to take charge and began running through the field. Without realizing what she had done, Meghan had grabbed the attention of all the birds who were now in full force trying to take her down. As Meghan continued her charge, screaming like a little school girl the entire way, the others scattered to safety but one was not so fortunate. Tesia, froze in fear as one bird continued his attact on her head, swoooping, diving, cawwing, trying to grab her head with his talons or spear her with his pointy beak. Tesia cried out for help but it did not come- we were paralyzed in laughter that unabled us to make any effort for her safety. Tesia sooned gathered courage to make a final charge ahead to safety as we were all relieved and in need of a new pair of pants. We came back to a camp full of drunk Icelanders where we sat and watched a grown man grab a liquor bottle half full with his mouth, tip it back and finish it without a flinch. Buuuubalicious became our favorite immediately. Although the shanangans continued throughout the night, we decided that we had enough inspiration and culture for one day and hit the tent. All in all, the walk was full of laughter and memories that we were only able to appreciate as we look back on it. The trip was another successful event during our Icelandic Summer.

Independence Day Weekend

2005-06-24T11:34:00.000-04:00

Our weekend began on Friday, June 17th with no soccer camp or hot dogs to grill, instead it was a morning of sleeping in and waking to the most beautiful day in Iceland thus far. So of course we put on the bathing suits and took chairs out on our deck and basked in the 20°C weather. Later in the afternoon we joined our Icelandic family (Karl, Elisabet, Edda and Kristofer) for the town of Kopavogur´s annual parade. The parade involved a band in the front and then the whole city walking behind them for 4km to the park and pool where we listened to performances on stage..not understanding a word that was being said. Meghan, the daredevil that she is joined Edda on the fall of death roller coaster ride, yes she is quite the screamer! All that sitting in the sun worked us up quite the appetite so where better to go for a hearty icelandic meal than T.G.I.Fridays=) We then ventured back to the apartment to prepare for the celebration of Independece downtown- OH JA! We dressed in our finest man killer outfits and mixed up a few juice appetizers then headed out. We walked all around the streets, attempting to blend as best we could, trying to find a bar that would best suit our cultural senses- which we finally did- Nelly´s- a great, fun, and loud singing band playing bar to us but to most Icelanders its known as the gay bar. Apparently no one felt the need to inform us of that. We ended up singing along to the numerous American songs, of course blending in with the rest of the crowd beautifully, and ended up sitting with a bunch of raunchy Englishmen who turned out to be quite delightful. Beers were drank, shots were taken, then 2 am hit and the crowd began to change. The band left, the lights dimmed, and the disco music was in full throttle- it seemed as tho the cast of FAME had taken over the dance floor and gay men appeared from every corner. After numerous losses in the dance off between our table and the rest of the dance floor we headed out for another bar to gain our pride back. Soon after arriving our night ended based on the poor health of one american, who will remain nameless. casey. Naturally we hit up a food stand on the walk back- Icelandic Waffles- which is now our reasoning for going downtown any day or night of the week. Love at first bite. Another eventful and successful experience during our Icelandic summer.

Vestman Island Trip

2005-06-04T15:04:00.000-04:00

Outside the plane

2005-06-04T14:52:00.001-04:00

Vestman Island Soccer Pitch

2005-06-04T14:52:00.000-04:00

Aerial View of Iceland

2005-06-04T14:46:00.000-04:00

Teammates

2005-06-04T14:40:00.000-04:00

Pre-flight on Fokker Airlines

2005-06-04T14:38:00.000-04:00

On the field before the game!

Introduction

2005-06-04T14:04:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope enjoy the stories and pictures we will be sharing with you as we journey through Iceland this summer.

Love,
The American Cool Biker Babes