April 30-Today was vetrarfrí, or winter holiday, at Varmaland, so the girls had no school. We are a little confused by the name, since the first day of summer by the old Norse calendar was two weeks ago and spring is here astronomically and climatologically. The principal himself noted wryly in an e-mail sent out to parents that it probably should be called summer holiday.
Sally, however, did not have a winter holiday, and, if fact, held her first set of lectures for her development economics course. Tomorrow is a national holiday, so Bifröst will be closed.
The consquence for Sally will not surprise anyone in higher education, because today was analogous to the Monday and Tuesday before the three-day Thanksgiving break: of the 24 students signed up for her class, only 13 showed up.
When she got to her classroom this morning, the desks and chairs were still arranged for the presentations from last week. Sandra walked by about this time, looked at Sally in surprise, and told her that she should have cancelled class for the day anyhow! Then, she called Gaui and Eyþor and had them come up to rearrange the furniture for a lecture. Overall, Sally was very happy with the way class went today. The students were talkative and showed a great amount of interest in the subject. She hopes that this dynamic does not change when the other eleven students show up.
Meanwhile, the kids and I slept in. When we finally got up, the kids relaxed a while and then worked on some schoolwork to keep them current with the material their classmates are learning back in Gunnison. I did the laundry and worked with my folks to try to figure out times that will work for them to meet us in Germany to see distant cousins of ours. It is looking like it might actually work out.
The kids finally got cabin fever in the afternoon and went outside to play. Rain soon developed and Joslyn and Spencer trooped back in, while Alex went over to spend some time at Brynja's. The wet weather continued into the late afternoon, so the gönguklúbbur unfortunately did not go for their weekly hike.
Emma and Pálmar were kid-free, because they had sent Þorsteinn off with Emma's mother, so Emma and Pálmar could go to Akureyri on the staff/faculty get-away. Since Þorsteinn was not due back until Tuesday and we had Alex to watch our kids, we invited Emma and Pálmar to Hraunsnef for out for an adults' night out. While our kids stayed at the apartment, where they ate hot dogs, worked on birthday gifts for friends, and watched YouTube videos, we had a very nice meal and had a great time talking with Emma and Pálmar, like usual.
They had mentioned once that they like playing games, so we suggested that, and they readily agreed. This was indeed a sacrifice for them, though, because Pálmar is in the process of introducing Emma to the wonders and joy of Star Wars and tonight they were to watch "A New Hope." We were honored that they were willing to put off watching this classic to spend more time withu us. We enjoyed a rousing game of Settlers of Catan with them at their house and helped them clear some space in their beer closet. I tried to properly christen the game by spilling beer on it but was thwarted by clear thinking and fast reflexes.
Unfortunately, Alex had watched some movie previews over the weekend for movies that are somewhat scary, and these memories were troubling her this evening. Consequently, she called us up and asked when we would come home. We said that we would soon and Sally won the game almost immediately. We sat around talking and Alex called again, so we said we were on our way. We felt like we were kids and our parent was calling us to tell us we were out past our curfew! So, we went home so Alex's mind could be at ease.
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