Day 13

Yesterday (day 13) was the day that all participants split up to meet their Icelandic relatives they'll be staying with for three weeks.  Almost half the group is staying with relatives in Aukreyri (in the central area of northern Iceland).  The way it was scheduled with my first host, a woman who lives in Reykjavik, I was the last one to be picked up from the hostel.  So I was able to watch everyone else leave and share the sad feeling that we wouldn't get to see each other for another three weeks after spending these past two weeks so close together.  Finally after sitting for four hours in the hostel common room watching the others be taken to the airport or picked up by their relatives, I was picked up by my host.  My host is a woman in her 60s who lives alone and unfortunately is currently getting over a very bad cold.  Once we got to her apartment she set out a nice snack with bread and cheese that we ate while watching the Iceland-Nigeria world cup football game.  We were both sad to see that Iceland lost 0-2.
After the game finished, we drove downtown to a small bar/restaurant to listen to her son sing American jazz music as part of a band.  The music was very relaxing and started to make me a bit tired by the end of their performance.  At the bar, we met some of her son's friends as well as some of her other family members.  Once the performance finished, we came back to her apartment and picked up some quick dinner along the way.  Then I met up with another Snorri participant, the only one else who is staying in Reykjavik, at the pool Sundhöll.  We talked about our new host families at the pool then walked around and got gelato.  I really enjoyed seeing a familiar face again because I felt a little lonely as a result of not having a ton of people my age around me anymore after I had adjusted to living that way for two weeks.  It was quite a living environment change to go from taking classes with 16 other young people to staying with one woman who is much older than me and isn't the most active because of her cold.  Nevertheless, she has been a great host so far and has made fun plans for me to do activities with her other family members this weekend.  Yet, one of the many positives of meeting my host family was that I was finally able to do my laundry. I'm so thankful that she let me do my laundry at her place shortly after I arrived because I was almost out of clean clothes after spending two weeks in a hostel with no access to a laundry machine!

Here is a photo of my host, Svona, and myself:

This afternoon her sister is supposed to take me to a swimming pool that has a wave pool in the facility I believe.  Then we are going to see a movie that I'm hoping the other Snorri participants we will able to watch with us!
In other news, on Monday afternoon I will be picked up by my second host family who lives in Akranes!  I'm excited for this homestay because the town looks beautiful and the family I'm staying with as well as my volunteer placement has people around my age!