Day 58-Beer Day (observed)

   March 2-Today we attended the final Icelandic language and culture class.  Ian discussed the geography of Iceland a little bit and then gave the final exam.  Sally and I decided to take it to see if we had learned anything.  In fact, to try to get into the undergrad mindset we even
"crammed" for the exam by looking through a list of simple, everyday words and phrases that Ian had handed out to the class.  We had already picked up many of the words by virtue of living here and reading (and occasionally speaking) Icelandic.  However, there were a few phrases that I had wanted to learn, so I am glad he made the list.  I am happy to report that I aced the exam and Sally only missed a couple minor things that had to do with grammar.  We actually do seem to pick up a little more of the language each day, although the glacial pace of progress is often very frustrating.
   We had Pállmar, Emma, and Þorsteinn, their 4-year old son, over to properly observe Beer Day this evening.  We had to wait a day, because Icelanders tend to drink little to no alcohol during the week.  (Many of the younger ones apparently make up for this (and more) on the weekends.)  We first got to know Pállmar and Emma at the Varmaland þorrablót, where we noticed that they had brought more interesting beers than the other attendees.  They live here on campus, because Pállmar, who has a Masters degree in economics, occasionally teaches courses at Bifröst, and does economics research for a company that is associated with Bifröst.  Emma has a Masters degree in cultural studies and is pursuing a second Masters degree in philosophy from the University of Iceland. 
   They brought with them two beers from the La Trappe brewery: a Dubbel and a Bockbier.  That determined that the style of the night would be Belgian beers: yum!  As luck would have it, we had two La Trappe beers as well, a Quadruppel and a wood-aged Quadrupple, so we put them and a Duchesse de Bourgogne in the fridge to chill.   It was a nice flight of beers and it kept us going until after 10 pm.  Emma mostly drinks wine, so she was pleasantly surprised by the wine-like qualities of the Belgians.  Pállmar had never tried a Guinness stout, so we opened up a can of that last.  It had the widget it in, so we were able to discuss nitro beers at the end of the evening.  Since we usually drink with people who are more knowledgeable about beers than us, it was a little different being the ones explaining the differences between the brews.  We used our guests as an excuse to pull out the raclette again, which delighted the kids.  Spencer had enough toys to keep Þorsteinn entertained, while the girls kept to themselves or occasionally played with the boys.  Overall, everyone had a very nice evening. 

Spencer goes to sleep for the last time as a five year old.