meine lieben Leserinnen und Leser. ich hab grad n Essay geschrieben und möchte es euch präsentieren. Ich musste für einen Kurs meine Island-Erfahrung zusammenfassen. Ich dachte mal, es gehört ganz gut hier rein. Tut mir Lied wenn mein Englisch zu schlecht und tut mir noch mehr Leid wenn euer Englisch noch schlechter ist. Wie immer gilt: Wer Schreibfehler findet, darf sie behalten. Viel Spaß.

How to survive Iceland

a guide from an exchange student from the year 2010

     First of all: forget most of the things you've been told about Iceland, especially when you saw it on the TV. Most of the good, but also most of the bad things. Let's talk about weather. Iceland is truly big and has a big variety of landscape and climate as well. There are places in this country where the temperature reach -40 in the winter, but you will hardly be at such places at all, I don't speak about living there. As an exchange student you will most likely stay in the capital, in Reykjavik, and you will wonder about the name of the country, because you will be lucky if you see any snow in the wintertime. While the whole Europe is suffering under temperature -15 with blizzards blocking the streets all the time, in Reykjavik the temperature never gets under -5 in winter and in summer it is +15 or +20. It is true, that the weather can change really fast, rain and clouds come out of nowhere, but the good thing about it is that the rain also disappear when you are not expecting this. And you will be surprised how much sun you will get, especially in the summertime. Anyway, don't pack too much warm clothes, be rather prepared for November-weather during 5 months of winter.
     Icelandic nature. It is really true, Icelandic nature is the most worth seeing it thing in this country. You will need good shoes, a warm and (!) waterproofed jacket and many pairs of socks. Buying a good Icelandic sweater is also a good investment. It can get really windy, really cold in the mountains, near glaciers and an small islands. But please, don't mix up the countryside and Reykjavik, don't walk in the city like you are on a hiking trip, this looks ridiculous. So forget surviving Iceland, it is more like living here in this country. Don't forget sunglasses, some t-shirts and suncream for the summer - you will be surprised how good the northern sun can burn your skin, especially if it's shining the whole day. And take you swimming suit and a towel as often as possible with you. You will be surprised how many hot springs and swimming pools you will find. But back to the nature: to spend a while in Iceland and not to see any of it's true beauty is a waste of time. Colorful sulfur landscapes, geysers, fjords, glaciers, glacier rivers, waterfalls - frozen or not frozen, but always free to see, unless you have fog all around you, which happens sometimes in Iceland. There are some trees in Iceland, mostly it's small birches, but there are some forests around Reykjavik and Akureyri as well. When you travel in Iceland you will get familiar with names such as Snæfellsness, Landmannalaugar, Vik, Myvatn, Dimmuborgir, Westfjords and Vestmannaeyjar. There are no words which can describe the beauty of this places, you have to see them on your own. Just make sure you don't waste your time and money on such Icelandic offers like "whale watching" or "the golden circle". If you want to behave like a tourist go to Egypt or Spain or something. Iceland is a really wrong place for this. Of course you will find a lot of tourists paying 100€ to get on a boat and see a tail of a whale 1 km far away maybe or maybe not or to take a bath in the Blue Lagoon with hundreds other tourists while a lot of absolutely free hot springs are waiting outside in the nature.
     Icelanders. I already told that Icelandic nature is incredibly unique and beautiful. And you might have heard that Icelanders are very conscious about the environment and are in love with the nature. Forget it. Icelanders are influenced by the American wasting culture, they love to drive big car leaving their engine on all the time and they are using the thermal energy to run huge aluminum smelts. The only reason why Icelandic nature seem to be so pure and untouched is that Iceland just has not enough population to destroy it, to build a lot of highways, factories and rail ways. Nevertheless, you can always drink Icelandic water (in Reykjavik you just have to ignore the sulfuric smell of the hot water, you will get used to it), to breath Icelandic air is a pure pleasure, and the lack of highways and trains will make you enjoy every kilometer of your journey around the country and see things which see most Icelanders never want to see. They live more and more in the area of Reykjavik and hardly want to go somewhere else. If you want to get to know many Icelanders, you have to make the first step. First you will find them rude and arrogant. You will make the experience that they just go away without saying something once they know that you are not from Iceland. And look very strange at you when you try to speak Icelandic with them. But then you will recognize how friendly and how helpful they can be. One Icelander just took me on a tour around Reykjavik with his car and another one just let the cinema open for me and my friends, so we had our private cinema for one night. Such things are possible, but you have to work an it. Also you have to work on learning Icelandic, because it is really hard to get out if the circle of Erasmus students. There is an Icelandic language course in summer in the West Fjords. Take it. There is another one during the semester in the university, and also one for foreigners in the "multi kulti" store on Barónsstígur. Take it, do it, and it's still not enough. Really everybody speaks here almost perfectly English and some old people who don't, speak pretty well German or Danish - the will rather wanting to explain something to you in Danish then to speak with your strange Icelandic. But the hard work pays off - Icelandic language is very old and beautiful and pure as well, although the Icelandic of the young people is polluted a lot by English words, more then I ever experienced in other languages. You should get used to such words as "næs" (nice) or "bissí" (busy). And don't worry about improving your English in this country. You will do it, no matter if you want or not.
     The Student life. There is one secret about the Language Course in Núpur in the Westfjords: you don't learn any Icelandic, but you will have better English and 90 friends after it. This is where it all starts, this is where you get your Icelandic family of Erasmus students. Do it or you will regret it. By the time you are in Reykjavik you will already have so many people to spend time with, which guarantees you a really good time during your semester or two in Iceland. This is not special for Iceland, this happens everywhere with the exchange students: chaos, maybe first experiences of living alone, living with friends, special relationships between people from different countries when they know that they have to go away from each other. A lot of dramatic moments, of course, but also a lot of happiness finding true friends, because the strong experiences are binding people so strong together as it they would know each other for 20 years. And then, in winter, guys playing football in the snow and girls are knitting in the long, dark hours. And you will find out that it is impossible to walk on Laugavegur and not to meet someone you know and you can talk to. In the rare moments when this doesn't happen you just go to The Church (you will know which one - you see it everywhere in the town) and look into one of many many guesthouses where students are living: there will be always something going on. And be prepared to get to know all the German, Spanish, French and Finnish people and, of course, British people, their habits and accents. It will be a part of your normal life knowing that when a Spanish student says "I like too much" a German one, aware of the rules of the English languages, replies "this goes not!" and will ask you, what are you "sinking" about it.
     Akureyri. A lovely town of 17. thousand people, the capital of the North. If you are becoming a lucky member of a university in Akureyri, don't worry: you can spend a really nice time there, the students are not that much, so it will be like a big family and you will know personally every exchange student. And there is a bigger possibility to get in touch with the Icelanders. Also Akureyrian water doesen't have this awful sulfuric taste like in Reykjavik, in Akureyri it never gets as windy as in Reykjavik and in general the weather is better: a lot of snow in winter with a bit colder temperature but also warmer summers with more sun. The buses are for free. And, hearts all over the town. Akureyri is the city of love, you should know it.
     Icelandic night and day life. The most strange thing about Iceland: on one hand you are in the middle of nowhere on the other hand you feel like in the middle of the world. Icelandic bands don't go on tour around Iceland, because there is nowhere to go: 75% of the population lives on 5 km2 in and around Reykjavik. So it is very likely to see all famous Icelandic people just on the street or in the next cafe. I saw Björk ones and I saw the car of the Icelandic president twice. This does not surprise me anymore. But this is also a part of the Icelandic experience: all the concerts of the Icelandic bands in Reykjavik. The style of the Icelandic bands is not for everybody, many of them are, like my English friend says, "sigurrossy", asleep and slow music, perfectly matching to the image of Iceland. But if you want, you will find music from Iceland you like: the music scene has many unique and nice bands, just don't compare everything to Björk and Sigur Ros. And this bands can be everywhere: in clubs, in book stores, in the university, on the street and even on Hlemmur, the bus station - and half of them are for free. Don't miss the "Icelandic Airwaves", the festival where you can be sure to see the most active Icelandic bands of this time. Like I said, there is nowhere else to go and no foreign bands come to Iceland. Reykjavik just don't have any big concert halls and big discos, like we are used to see them in the rest of the Europe since the 80's. Everything in Iceland seem to be frozen in time more or less. Icelandic clubs are very special. They are small and with very concentrated energy inside. And they are always crowded on the weekends. This is a typical Icelandic party: very crowded, everything is moving and everything is very wild. (just watch 101 Reykjavik..) You get beer spilled all over you clothes, there will be a lot of broken glass under your shoes, but the experience of the Icelandic rude friendliness and taking everything easy will take over you and you will enjoy the party no matter if it's the mainstream music in Zimsen or Oliver, rock in the Bar 11, electro in Factory, alternative music in Bakkus or pure hell in Kaffibarin. Icelanders usually don't drink during the week, but they get really drunk on the weekends. So you definitely will not get bored of the nightlife in Reykjavik, just be ready that all the names I listed will not exist any more, because all the cafes and clubs are quickly moving and changing their names. About the cafes I can say that there is no cozier place to sit inside then Babalu and there is no better cake then the cheese cake in Babalu. As a proof of it you can see that people from all over the world keep sending postcards to Babalu ones they have been there. In general: Laugavegur, the main walking street in Reykjavik, is full of surprises, but you never will find a shop you want. After you spend mouths wandering where all the Icelanders get their clothes and other things you will discover the flee market at the harbour, and since then you will have at least one thing to do every weekend. And take time to find out, what's the strange places and exhibitions on the Hverfisgata are all about. Once you know it, your mind will never be the same again.
     After all, you ask yourself, what to do in Iceland, as an exchange student. Basically studying, of course. I won't write much about this most important part of the life as an (exchange) student, because it is very different depending on what you study. You can have it hard or easy, exciting or boring, with essays, presentations, exams or without them. Just male sure you choose the right courses. And after a while you will understand what it means, to sit in Haskólatorg and drink Kokomjólk after you got you Kennitala and have an access to Ugla.

Grigory from Germany, 2010.