When your mom visits Nuuk, Greenland. Day 1.

Hello fans!
My mother visited me a couple of week backs. Her stay lasted 1 week and we only stayed in the Nuuk area. Many people visiting Greenland like to skip the Nuuk experience because they don´t feel they get a taste of "Real Greenland". These individuals are however mistaken. Nuuk is the capital of Greenland with interesting culture that blends old Greenland and new Greenland - and when it comes to it, this is real Greenland.

When conducting my interviews for my thesis on Nature-based tourism in Nuup Kangerlua (Nuuk Fjord), I often came across people who considered Nuuk borring. When discussing tourism, they would often ask me "well, what would you do in Nuuk if you had family or friends visiting you??", expecting me to also draw a blank. I always kept the optimistic "Oh I´m sure you can find something lovely to do" argument, which was usually met with A ROLLING OF THE EYES. With the upcoming blog posts (not the whole story at once... I have to keep you coming back...) I will show, prove and tell you how to create a lovely and incredible experience for your family/friends who visit Nuuk.

Now remember, my Icelando/American mother, who is also a grandmother, came to visit her daughter and grandson in Greenland. This is not a crazy drunken IBIZA story, nor is it some crazy crocodile dundee experience. The upcoming posts will build on Jóhanna´s Nuuk Experience (put together by her favorite daughter) and almost be a step-by-step guide telling you how you can be like us. Doesn´t get much better than that. So sit back, grab something to drink, and enjoy (put some Scooter on and grab the Vodka bottle if this starts getting desperate).

Day 1.
Greet mother/grandmother with a cute and crafted sign. Note, you spend the previous evening building up excitement during your craft time when the child is in bed so you can finally get the colored pencils to yourself. Then you kill some time in showing her every poster, picture, piece of gum on the floor you find interesting in the airport until she looks like she´s ready to breathe in the fresh Greenlandic air.

   

This same day after you drop off your bags in your apartment, you take your mother and dragon on a little stroll downtown to the Colonial Harbor. This is a great time and place to take cute pictures of the finally reunited grandmother and grandson, in a beautiful (and very Nuuk-ish) environment. Grab some early dinner and snuggle up around 21:00 because, A-HA!, sIceland is a whole 2 hours ahead of Greenland time. 

 

1 day down 6 to go. 

Until next time.

Hildur

Who-what-where-when-why.

So the story goes…
Hi. My name is Hildur. I am an Icelando-American from Iceland. And America.

   

Hence the name of this blog, HildurIceland. Although some of my friends will argue that my name is Hildu from Riceland, this is not the case (aha, lame joke from good friends). This name may be a little misleading since I am no longer in Iceland. Although an Icelander, I am in Greenland. How many of you just said the Might Ducks line “Iceland is green, Greenland is ice.”? So Greenland… This is the place my little family is calling home. And we love it.

That covers some of the who. Now to cover some of the what, where, when and why. So yes, my name is Hildur and my son and I are living in Nuuk, Greenland. We moved to Greenland because since September I have been researching and writing my masters thesis in Coastal and Marine Management from the University Centre of the Westfjords in Ísafjörður, Iceland. My thesis topic is coastal nature-based tourism in Nuup Kangerlua (the Nuuk fjord system).

Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, is located in the fjord system Nuup Kangerlua. Actually, it is located on the tip of the southern-jaw of the fjord. Nuuk is Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) for “cape” (in English). The population is a little less than 16,000 people, and although it is the largest city in Greenland, it is one of the smallest capitals in the world by population. Nuuk is in Sermersooq municipality. We moved to Nuuk in September from Ísafjörður, Iceland to pursue my dream of moving to Greenland and living among Greenlanders, and honestly- to live and experience the Inuit culture. We plan to stay here until we leave. ☺

Nuuk. September 2012.

Ok, now that was who – what – where – and when, now the why? I moved and dreamt of moving to Greenland for quite some time now because I caught the Arctic bug. The Arctic bug is a phenomenon you catch and experience when studying and visiting the Arctic. To wind it up: once you get the bug, you cannot get rid of it. You just fall in love with the Arctic. The people, nature, the pros and the cons. Although a trip to Spain and South Africa are lovely, you always end up dreaming of the Arctic. It’s like the title of the movie : I dream of Africa – except instead of Africa, it´s the Arctic. The Arctic bug can take you many places and Alaska and Canada were also among my places of interest, however Greenland won me over.

Icebergs landing at the Colonial Harbor in Nuuk.

There are many reasons for this but I have think the main reason is because it is so similar to Iceland in many ways – and at the same time SO different – fulfilling my need of contrast but at the same time keeping it at a comfortable level. My hometown in Iceland (at least what I call my hometown) is Suðureyri. Suðureyri has a population of approximately 300 people and is a fishing village, and it has given me a lot of understanding of development, rural areas and the hardships that the people and the economy have to go through in such areas. Most importantly, Suðureyri has taught me the love and happiness that comes from living in such an area, and opened my eyes to the opportunities that come with hardships. This understanding that I have learned from Suðureyri plays its part in taking me to Greenland. (I hold Suðureyri dearly to my heart, and I will stop talking about it because it deserves its own post.)

Súgandafjörður - (Súganda-fjord), Iceland.

In my studies in Polar Law, from the University of Akureyri, I caught the Arctic bug and have been affected since. Thankfully. Now I look forward to letting you all experience my experience here in Greenland and follow me on this adventure. 

Walking towards the city center. Traffic lights in this small city.

And so the story goes…

Much love,
Hildur Sólveig

Will the blogging start...?

Well hello world. I am back. I am alive. And I am one happy and lucky girl in Greenland. My "back to blogging- huge update on me and my life" blog will have to come later due to the fact that I am in the finishing stages of writing my thesis but I just had to post a picture. Why? Because I left Iceland and moved to Greenland. I bought a huge coat and super gloves and hats. This was my view from the bus station this morning: I think the weather here in Nuuk has been much milder than the weather in Iceland so I´m going to say it... ahhh, life is good in the sun :) Hilds

Smábondinn í Lumby Cottage

Ég þekki þennan ekki neitt en mjög skemmtilegt blogg hjá honum! Er að lifa drauminn... http://dadihrafnkelsson.blog.is/blog/dadihrafnkelsson/

Svo er pælingin að fara að skrifa hérna oftar... enda orðið FREKAR langt síðan ég gerði það síðast. Miklar pælingar eru í gangi hjá mér þessa dagana og gaman væri að deila þeim með lesendum. EN þær verða á ensku. Held ég. Nema ég sé í íslensku mode, en það gerist ekki of oft ;)

HILDS

My first raisin buy!!!

This is my first raisin buy! Very excited... very exciting. Its a 66 degrees North fleece overall and a fleece balacalva. The entire drive home I couldn´t stop smiling, just thinking that in a few weeks, 16 to be exact (well, I guess I cannot be exact) I will be dressing my little raisin, a little person, maybe a mini me, into little clothes! Awwww... so yea, now that I am done with school (except for a test on Tuesday) I can spend my days google-ing baby stores, information and this and that.



Me super excited...




Here are some preggo pictures...
3. february 2009- 12 weeks 5 days




11. mars 2009- 17 weeks 6 days





25. mars 2009- 19 weeks 6 days



having some fun during my self-made photoshoot





1. April 2009- 20 weeks 6 days (my model poses...)

DUI on lawnmower

Watch this... it is just toooooooo funny!!!

http://biggeekdaddy.com/humorpages/Misc/lawnmowerDUItaserarrest.html

Berlin tomorrow!!!

HSE

So... a little update.
Its frakin freezing here in Akureyri. LITERALLY. And the worst part is that I think I am the worlds worst window scraper when it comes to my frozen car windows. For some reason, even though I push and scrape and blow and scrape, the damn frost will not get off my window. This morning/late morning (because this little lady didn´t have class this morning) I almost gave up and sat in the car to wait for my car to just defrost... but then I realized I was already late for a meeting.

My New Years resolution on not being late (haha pun intended) is going so-so. Well, the thing is, I am not late... my watch is. I swear, it runs slow! At least I think it does and I think I was able to prove so today. I´ll have to check it out and get it confirmed!

I am going to Berlin on the 20th of feb!!! WHOOT WHOOT! I cannot wait! The good times sure are a killing me! ;)

LOVE
HsE

Trixy and Ástrós bff :)

My little Trixy just loves this little girl to pieces.

TO PIECES!!!

And I am so thankful!




LOVE
Hildur Sólveig

My heat stricken dog...

I know that I should be studying right now, but my dog is in heat and she is driving me insane. She´s only quite when she is cuddling in my bed or somewhere where I do not want her to be because she is on her period. So, we meet each other half way.

We negotiate.

I get crafty.

The pictures will say all there is to say! haha!






Thank you Victoria´s Secret undies!
Now presenting: Victoria´s Secret doggie style clothe diapers!

Love and peace to all,
Hildur Sólveig

I saw mommy kissing Santa Clause

"I saw mommy kissing....



Santa Clause wearing very "in depth" woolen underwear"!!!!!


Múahahaha!

Hildur Sólveig

All I want for Christmas

All I want for Christmas



... is my two-person underwear.

HsE

Sorry guys...

My computer crashed.
I don´t want to blog.
I´ll be so upset if all my pictures are lost and destroyed.
I´m finishing my good governance, accountability and transparency course on Friday.
I have a 10 day break after Friday.
What to do what to do.

-HsE-

pointless information... yes!

Quick post - quick post!
There´s a whole lot of snow here in Akureyri! It´s kinda fun but it seriously just keeps on snowing and snowing and snowing. Typical though, as I write this it is not snowing. However, the there is a lot of snow and I´m very grateful that a certain someone changed my tires for me!
My parents want me to come home for a bit in December! I won´t say no to that! Hafrún and co. said they could puppy-sit my little love-ball. Hopefully I can leave the 7th but there may be some conflict with school. I have to get that sorted.... yesterday I think my dad said. Welp.
I have started to light candles every evening. Its just so peaceful having them flicker in my windowsill.
I have also started to contemplate whether I should move to the States in May. Maybe try to find a job, maybe try to find some internship, maybe just hang out in Key West (yea right... the farthest I would get is Jamestown Beach). Contemplating, contemplating, contemplating.
I cut my nail yesterday! Ekkkk... I´m lucky I didn´t cut off the tip of my left pointer-finger. Knives are dangerous. I didn´t have a band-aid so I wrapped toilet paper and used scotch tape. Worked like a charm!

Welp.... this is called pointless information... hope you enjoy it!

CIAO!
-HsE-

surprises, cakes and 2 girls...

I have decided that I need a maid. Yes, a woman or man who would come to my little apartment and clean it... maybe once a week. That would be nice. VERRRRY nice. So yes, I have been cleaning my apartment today. I felt so dirty after having been in Sara´s spanking clean apartment yesterday that I just felt that I couldn´t be a lesser woman and have a messy apartment. So I´ve been cleaning. Not studying, but cleaning. The priority list is... psh what priority list.

So, as I bust my ass, Trixy sits in the couch, on top of all the cushions like a little princess sleeping. I think I should have named her Garfield. That´s another story...

So, a little weekend tell-all. Sara and I went to a birthday party on Friday. Jaime, a Spaniard working here and lives in Útsteinn (student housing) was having a birthday party and Sara and I were invited. The interesting part was that we didn´t even know who Jaime was, how old he was or what in the world he was doing in Iceland. But, we were invited, and like two courteous girls, we accepted the invitation. When one is invited to a birthday party, one should bring a present. We are poor and didn´t know Jaime and therefore didn´t have a clue what he would like for his birthday. So what do the two geniuses do...? We built a cake. A chocolate Betty C cake and decorated it with gummies! NAMMI NAMMI. It was beautiful. So, having spent like 4 hours on the cake, we decided to get ready for the surprise birthday party. It was suppose to start at 22:00 sharp. I think we arrived at 11:30 sharp. Blame it on the titans.

We had a blast and below are some pictures to confirm that.


Me and my cutie...



We built a cake... a beauty... we didn´t know how old he was but we knew he was twenty something so we put 2?



We were veeeeerrrrryyyyyy proud...




And of course very cool while walking to Útsteinn...




And oh so excited for the BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!




-HsE-

Perez Hilton talks about Icelands financial situation...

taken from www.perezhilton.com

Fighting Over Finance
Filed under: Anglophilia > Politik





As we mentioned on Wednesday, things were looking pretty bad for Iceland when the U.K. threatened to sue the country over lost deposits held by 300,000 Brits in Icelandic banks.

Well, today, British treasury officials started to fly out to Reykjavik for emergency discussions now that U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has declared diplomatic war on Iceland.

It seems that the collapse of three Icelandic banks is even greater than the $1 billion known to be at risk.

So, as of yesterday, Brown has launched an attack against Iceland for their 'illegal' refusal to pay back the billions it owes to British investors after their banks failed.

Brown used "anti-terrorism powers to freeze Icelandic assets as fears grew that vast sums of British cash could be lost."

Many private companies, charities, town halls, and more have lost about $27 billion in Iceland.

Many are fearing that Iceland is now pretty much a bankrupt state and owes their investors over $47 billion.

Brown said, "We are freezing the assets of Icelandic companies in the UK where we can. We will take further action against Icelandic authorities wherever necessary to recover the money. I don't apologise for it. This is a very unusual situation, where a country has effectively defaulted."

As for Iceland, its prime minister, Geir Haarde said he was disappointed with the lack of assistance he's received from Western countries.

Uhmm, hello! No one wants to be friends with a country that takes your money and won't return it. No one except for crazy Russia, which has even offered Iceland a $5 billion loan.

With times as bad as they are, we need to be careful where we put our money.

Iceland where art thou?

Hello Mr. Gordon Brown!!!

Taken from the site: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/cartoon/

-HsE-

Sara´s Christmas present

I go to class on Tuesdays and Fridays. If it wasn´t for Trixy I would be in bed until ~12:00 every day. Instead she wakes me up at 9:00 if not 8:00. I don´t even use an alarmclock anymore. Sara has trouble waking up in the mornings and I call her when I wake up. I told her to get a dog. She said no. Someone else told her to get a kid. She said NO. Maybe she needs Arnis "worlds loudest alarm clock". I think I always woke up before the alarm rang after hearing the ring on that thing. Good Christmas present, eh? Sara, you´re in for some good mornings....



The ever so considerate...
-HsE-

October bust

Things sure are happening...

1) I have no money
2) The banks have no money
3) I spent my money on a bike and new bed and I better start biking everywhere now and all idle time should be spent in bed
4) Friends and lovers come and go
5) Nature is fantastic and moves me
6) Capitalism what??
7) I have a cold
8) and a headache... for days

Things sure are happening...

-HsE-

pictures

So... a couple pictures...

This one describes Trixy a lot...


This is what happens when it is windy.


-HsE-

blog... don´t study...

Howdie howdie!
So... the ever so consistent blogger is at it again. So, the Polar Law study is going well, we have completed two courses, international environmental law being one of them. I was really looking forward to that course and it did not let me down. Very pleased with the teacher, very pleased with the material and very pleased with my classmates! What more can I ask for??

At the moment I am in Suðureyri and I will be here for several days. I will go back to Akureyri sometime in the beginning of October. It is always grand to see my grandparents, Bjarni, family and the beautiful fjörd. Everytime I take a walk I appreciate the nature more and more. I love this place.

So... some interesting links that I would like people to look at:

1) This, is a little movie clip about what happens to our... well... stuff after and before we buy it. What would happen if we would think twice before we buy e.g. food and other goods? Instead of buying chicken wrapped up in plastic and styrofoam, we would just take our tupperware to the grocery store and have them put the chicken in that. Why not? Same with vegetables that we buy... skip the little bag that we put them in and put them in some clothe bag. Now I´m not saying that I do these things... hopefully sometime in the near future I will do this... but what if we were encouraged to do this either by the government, some organization or group. Maybe this is done elsewhere but not in Iceland and I think we should stop our spending and materialistic ways and start doing the things that really make us happy.

2) Trixy pictures and some other pictures... taken straight from my Facebook album: here and here

Well... I´m only going to give you all those two links. Hopefully I´ll blog consistently so that you all will actually have fun when you drop by!

-STOP TRASHING AND RECYCLE-

HsE