20051205.0706

20051205.0706

Slow few days. But busy still. Thursday night we were to Giorgio’s house for dinner. He’s Italian and his wife is a Scot who just had a child 8 months ago. He teaches in the social sciences as a social philosopher. She is on leave as a law professor. Camilla was along and she teaches in psych. She is a native Icelander who is married to a Mexican teaching in Canada. Crazy world. American politics came up, and some in the crowd seemed to confuse being anti American politically, with being anti American citizenry. As long as we were willing to agree that our big truck driving, wal mart shopping, overweight countrymen were a bunch of rednecks, we could get along.

Funny thing is, as soon as the more vocal in the crowd disappeared for a few minutes, others stepped in fairly quickly to mediate the message. It was a little challenging even to say that the current conglomeration of political interests in both parties is unusavory.

Friday the American students came over and we took them to Bautin for dinner. Turned out to be a great place for dinner. They had a little playroom for the kids. We took a long time to eat and enjoy the meal. It’s funny that a fairly nice restaurant like that would havea kids playroom. It captures one of the important differences we’ve come across. These people are way more prochildren and profamily than we are. Kids are welcome just about anywhere. They are given loads of independence. You don’t ever see the walmart smackdown in public.

This is funny to compare to home, since the US is supposed to be so religious and so pro family, or at least the conservatives would like to portray that. Back home, easy divorce, easy abortion, easy welfare for single moms, and a minimal stigma for unattached parenting would make the social conservatives apoplectic. They would also argue that such policies would only make for loose sloppy families. While the Icelanders here do have more fluid families, the whole culture is pro child. Having a kid is not the tragedy for a young person here that it is back home. In many ways this is a really cool thing, especially bringing kids over. They have been no problem at all, because this place is so accommodating for families.

Saturday, Thor and Bryn had us down for brunch, during which he told us about the newswpaper, email, gym instructor, new school business, supreme court scandal. I didn’t really follow the whole thing. But it was funny.

Sat night, they came over to our house and brought dinner. Salt cod Spanish style. When they were kids, salt cod would just be watered and boiled. Passable. But then someone noted that the Spanish ate it in a variety of spicy Mediterranean dishes (this is a huge export product). They imported the style, and this is a great meal.

Sunday, nothing. Literally. Sat home and watched it snow. Refreshing though because of how busy it has been lately.