Well... Here I am...
...In Iceland!
I wanted to come here for a long time (this is no secret), and as the result of a highly unsubtle campaign of strategic hint dropping, here I find myself. It's not under ideal circumstances, though. I'm here for work and so I'll be spending most of my time working 12 hour days, doing fiddly embedded computer programming and ridding about in boats waiting for robots to do their thing. I'm also here with my boss (or someone far higher up the chain of command than myself, at least), and though he's a really nice guy there's always going to be a significant disconnect. He's not my first choice(s)* to share this experience with. I'd rather be here with my friends. My friends are awesome, you see.
A particular subset of my awesome friends, appropriately: the Icelandic ones, have furnished me with a list of things I might like to see, do and eat while I'm here. It's not a challenge on the scale of "cook every single recipe in a recipe book", but it's a fun list all the same and one I plan on making an impression on. I've found a guide to Icelandic punctuation online and am even working up to actually asking for some of the foodstuffs on the list, rather than simply writing them down, pointing at them and smiling hopefully. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully it won't be a repeat of the Turkish "thank you" debacle**.
So far I like it here. It's pleasantly calm and quiet (except for the boy racers who just went screaming past the office). We went for Italian food last night (not my choice), but I'm hoping for something a little more geographically appropriate tonight. Perhaps I'll try puffin, it's always good to try new things. More news as I get it.
It might amuse some of you to know that I've typed this while my boss was out of the room, launching into a long explanation of... something.
More news as I get it.
* Why is there no legitimate plural for "first choice"? That's a linguistic deficiency, right there...
** It's about 20 syllables long and never elicited anything more than a blank stare from anyone we said it to.