Day 20-Settlers of Catan

   January 24-We woke this morning to almost complete darkness because of a temporary power outage at the university that even caused the streetlights to go dark.  Luckily, I happened to wake up at 7 am, so we were able to get the kids up and around for the school bus on time!  After a short, intense snow storm, we adults went shopping in Borgarnes, where we had our first Icelandic banking experience.  The head of Hraunborg (Spencer's school) had given us a hand-written bill for January's tuition the previous week and we had spent the intervening time figuring out the process of paying it.  We couldn't simply give her cash, because it had to go into the school's bank account.  However, since we do not yet have our kennitala, we cannot have bank accounts.  So, we finally figured out that we could go to the bank and pay them cash and then they would deposit the funds in the school's account.  The bank teller stamped the bill "paid" and gave us a receipt.  I am still not sure if I need to present that stamped bill to the schoolmistress.  By the way, the monthly cost of full-time kindergarten at Spencer's school is $400, which seems entirely reasonable based on our experiences with preschool and kindergarten in Gunnison. 

   We got the best view of Bifröst yet while returning home, meaning that we could see Mt. Baula behind the school.  The mountain looms over the school and the rest of the surrounding, but it  is only 3060 feet high.  Speaking of elevation, the highest point in Iceland is 6,952 feet above sea level, so it tends to amaze locals when we tell them that our house sits at 7,900 feet.

   When Alex got home from school, she brought over two of her friends to play Settlers of Catan.  I am sure that it shocks some of you that it has taken twenty days before I finally mention this game.  However, I must admit that one of the first apps we installed on our iPad in preparation for this trip was the Settlers of Catan app.  Furthermore, we found Settlers of Catan in Icelandic (Landnemarnir á Catan) on our very first shopping trip to Borgarnes and could not resist purchasing it.  Since we have played it so much and know the rules so well, we figured that we could play with the natives, who could read the rules themselves.  As it has turned out, of course, they could have done it just as well reading the rules in English.  Þorgerður (on the left) had played Settlers some ten times previously, so she and Alex taught Brynja the rules.  Everyone seems to have had fun time; Brynja and Þorgerður got to practice their spoken English and Alex got to read some of the game material in Icelandic (and win a close game as well.)