The last few months have been rough as an American abroad, and at times it has been hard to strike a balance between staying informed and active about the horrifying political situation at home, and carrying out the research and ambassadorship that is the reason I'm here in Iceland. I've also been dealing with a painful medical issue that has taken some of my attention away from research. Nonetheless, despite these two large distractions, I've had a very fun and productive fall in Sauðárkrókur, and have now settled in Reykjavík where I will stay until April.
I've continued to work hard at improving my Icelandic, exhausting the resources at the Skagafjörður archives, and finishing my 2016 excavation report as well as a few other writing projects. I'll be continuing to work on all of these things over the course of the spring, as well as taking advantage of the research materials at the National Library and National Museum, and taking two courses at the University of Iceland. Both are taught in Icelandic, so I will be getting a lot of language practice over the next few months!
I attended numerous concerts and events over the Christmas season, both in Skagafjörður and Reykjavík, and my family visited for the week between Christmas and New Years, just in time for a week of wind and snowstorms! And I've been continuing to update my Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr, even when I haven't been posting to this blog: links are in the left sidebar.
The days are starting to grow longer again, and Reykjavík, being a few degrees south of Sauðárkrókur, already has about an extra hour of daylight. The darkness hasn't affected me too much, though it is difficult to disentangle darkness-related melancholy from the aforementioned ongoing global political nightmare. I gave a talk at TAG in Southampton, UK, in December, and seeing the sun stream through my window - not even at much of an angle! - was fairly glorious! But in general I am the sort of person who likes the darkness. It makes it easier to see the Northern Lights, for one thing.