Covid-19… Guess by now it is (almost) everywhere. The virus which really has an deep impact on the world. Many countries are in lock-down, people are required to improvise and start working from home. And also avoid social contact and all. Some people have been asking me; ¨Are you still on Iceland?¨, ¨Will you stay there?¨. So with this post I would like to give an update on how I am doing in these very strange times..

So first of all: I´m not going back to the Netherlands and will continue my program as planned.
I think at this point the situation in Iceland is also better than back home. I´m keeping track of the numbers in the Netherlands and on Iceland. In the Netherlands I really saw the exponential growth and still daily there are every day more than 1000 new infections. In Iceland tho, I do not see the exponential growth. They have this really nice website where they show lots of numbers, and looking at it I think we might have hit the peak already. But don´t want to cheer too early, as I think  infections will go up again when the restrictions are gone.

Also they would like me to stay here and travelling home I would’ve to find a job which almost seems impossible now. Plus I would risk myself getting infected by travelling and with this put my family in risk of getting infected as well. Soon I’ll probably be locked in this country, if I’m not already locked in.. It might be tough to know I’m not being able to travel home if something happens there, but luckily for now everything is going well there and there is social media to keep in touch with family and friends.

The first infection Iceland was found February 28th. I heard it during my language class where they walked in to bring the news. Also right away they gave us the phone number to call if you would get symptoms and gave us the standard tips on how not to get infected. Also the next classes we had to wash out hands by entering the building and the tables were cleaned to avoid infection as much as possible. March 13th they announced a gathering ban and all school would be closed for at least 4 weeks, this was actually the Friday I left for my Southeast Coast trip.  From this trip I also have recording materials. So as I´m home a lot and probably won´t have much to do, I might have time to edit it into a video soon!

I have been working from home now since almost 3 weeks I think. The first week was quit tough, I had a working space which I really disliked, especially on ergonomic level. I guess my internship at Health2Work last year made me even more aware of how crappy it was. the first week I improvised with borrowing my roommates desk chair and putting up my laptop a bit on books, but not having an mouse or keyboard that was all I could do. Then towards the end of that week I picked up my desk chair, mouse and keyboard from the office which made working already way more comfortable and last week I ended up picking up the office computer and screen. So my workplace is good for as far as it can go now!

Just with my tasks I have to be flexible as events I would work on are postponed until further notice or cancelled. But so far it had been working out well. These past weeks we challenged our repatriated students from the hosting and sending program to join a video and share some positivity. I´m quite excited about the results, check it out:

On the positive note, this past week I also drove out with Ragnar, who I know from the yes theory meetup on Iceland (mentioned here), to see some Northern lights! It was just amazing and I´m really in love with my pictures. It seems like the northern lights season will be over soon. But I´m so happy we caught this one. And of course, for people who will tell me to keep distances from people. If anyone in our close contacts would have showed any small symptoms I would not have joined. Also in the car we both covered our mouth and nose and outside the car we kept our distances. So we were careful.

Also I did an online meet-up / reunion with people who were in the same chapter as me in the USA. It was so good to see them again and just talk with them. I really miss those faces.

Further with this situation I’m just trying to get some fresh air by walking, running or biking. The weather here still surprised me tho. One day it seems to get warmer (finally spring?) and the next day it is snowing again. The weather now seems nice, so hopefully it will actually get warmer.

Right now it is Easter break for me. Unfortunately due to everything happening I cannot travel this weekend. But hopefully the situation everywhere will be better again soon!

Take care everyone! and Happy Easter!

Í dag er fimmtudagur tólfti mars árið tvö þúsund og tuttugu. Ég heiti Anke og ég er frá Hollandi. Ég tale Hollendsku. Núna er ég á Íslandi. Ég bý í Reykjavík. Ég er að læra Íslensku í Dósaverksmiðjunni.

This is what my language class often starts with. I´m almost halfway of my course and I´m slowly starting to understand some stuff. It is funny when I hear people talking and I understand some words they are talking about. Although my Icelandic knowlegde is very standard. But it is a start! I´ll keep practicing and hopefully I´ll be able to speak and at least understand the language within this year.

These past weeks I have kept myself busy. February 28th and 29th about 19 strangers from all over the world booked tickets to Iceland together. I got to know about this when I saw this post in a facebookgroup of Yes Theory. Yes Theory is a youtube channel that has a huge community. While preparing for Iceland I found this post from Isabel. Since she was 8 years old it was her dream to one day see the Northern Lights in Iceland. She saved her money in a glass jar to fulfull her childhood dream. Then she met Jordan, who also dreamt of seeing the Northern lights, they started talking and a couple of hours later they booked their tickets to Iceland. The post was talking about how they would love to meet new people and they were inviting people they didn´t know to join on their trip. And because of that message, 19 strangers (including me) met up on Iceland. Ragnar, a local on Iceland, had organized many tours around the island for the group. Due to prices and knowing I´m still here for almost a full year, I did not join the tours. But the first night Ragnar did take the ones who were already on Iceland out to hunt some Northern Lights. Unfortunately it was not a big succes, after driving for a while it got very foggy outside. On the 29th I went with the ones who aleady had arrived into the city and up the Hallgrímskirkja.

Outside of my work hours I have spend quite a lot of time with the group while they were in Reykjavík. The group was amazing, we all connected very well while we didn´t know eachother.  We even spotted some Northern Lights at the shore, which was also for me the first time of really seeing them. Hjálmdís, also a local, invited all of us to come to her home and try some local foods (lamb, brúnaðar kartöflur, sósa, malt og appelsin, harðfiskur, kæstur hákarl and brennivín). I´ve had a great time with these people and can´t wait to meet them some day again. I´m pretty sure at least one of them will make a video of the trip. I´ll share it in one of my blogs when they finish it.

Last saturday I went to the Pálínuboð of AFS, which is a potluck. There were volunteers, students and their hostfamilies. Rebekka, a girl from Germany who I´ve met through my language class, also joined. In the morning we made bananabread that we brought in the afternoon. There was a lot of sweet food, and luckily also some salats and rice. I ate so much that afternoon, but it was really nice.

On sunday I slept in, the weather outside was beautiful. So after I got up slowly and did some laundry I went to walk around to the harbor which is really close (read 5 minutes walking) from my house. In the afternoon I went with Mathilde to the Listasafn Reykjavíkur Hafnarhús. This is one of the locations of the art museum. At this specific museum they have the shoplifter: chromo sapiens exposition from Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir. This exposition is like cotton candy with many many colors and it is very fluffy. That is how I would explain it, it was super cute!

 

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A post shared by Anke Prinsen (@ankeprinsen) on Mar 12, 2020 at 10:22am PDT

Due to the great weather Mathilde and I went for a drink and afterwards we continued to her place from where we went watch the sunset with some of Mathilde´s friends. On the way there I took an amazing picture of Hallgrímskirkja. After the sunset we all ate together at Mathilde her place and watched a movie. It was a great day.

 

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A post shared by Anke Prinsen (@ankeprinsen) on Mar 8, 2020 at 3:30pm PDT

This week I managed to complete my registration on Iceland. At the office I had the first meeting with IPOT, the Icelandic Pool Of Trainers. We talked about some events coming up and now the preparations for those can start. I’m really excited for it!

This is a short update on what I’ve been up to. I’m keeping myself busy and for the following week this will still be the case. This weekend I’ll go with some people to the south-east coast of Iceland. It will be the first time for me to really get out of Reykjavík. I’ll try to keep my blog updated on my adventures!

By the way, I almost forgot to mention this. So this morning I was at the office and then my desk and computer and just the whole building started shaking. I have experienced my very first earthquake here! It was a very weird experience. Luckily it wasn’t too bad and as far as I know there is no damage. The earthquake not that long and was with a magnitude of 5.1.