Day 17 (Wed): Jóanes Nielsen

Weather: fog, rain and sunshine

Walked: 4km

Today (28th June) I think I saw the author Jóanes Nielsen driving a blue van in Tórshavn. I'm pretty sure it was him. And this proves that Tórshavn is a very small town!

We had a long day (23rd June) with literature. In the morning we had our regular literature lessons and the whole day was dedicated to the author Jóanes Nielsen (see link), whose novel, Glansbílætasamlarnir ("The Scrap Collectors" or sth like that: what an unsuitable and clumsy translation in English!) we had read and were supposed to analyze. I don't know how good a job we did, but we did our best.

In the afternoon we had the author himself come for a visit. We had questions. He answered. I think I asked two questions. He didn't understand my Swedish:) I don't think we managed to be very deep with our questions... I would love to bedazzle an artist or someone whose known to be an intellectual. But so far I haven't succeeded:)

I found myself fascinated by his eyes and constant thoughtful frowning. I wanted to go over and wipe the frown away, make him not frown. I thought he was interesting.

Jóanes Nielsen signed my book, coolness!

I now have two signed books from Nordkurs: the Jóanes Nielsen book and Hallgrímur Helgason's "101 Reykjavík" from Iceland (2003, see link).

Curious facts:

- The Faroese Glansbílætasamlarnir has a typo on the cover! It's written Glansibílætasamlarnir with an extra -i- after Glans- ...

- The "New Norwegian" translation has a beautiful cover paper: the scrap pictures on the front cover are black and they reoccur on the inside of the paper cover, kind of hidden. Lovely symbolism! Lovely graphics!

Glans(i)bílætasamlarnir (Faroese, blue cover),

Glansbilledsamlerne (Danish, black cover),

Glansbildesamlarane (Norwegian/"New Norwegian",

white cover, picture of the inside of the paper cover)

Day 16 (Tue): Literature and a latte at Café Natur

Weather: very, very thick fog!

Walked: 6 km

Phew, this Tuesday (22nd June) was veeeery loooong. We had our regular language lesson in the morning, but a little more literature than usual. On top of the regular lessons we had our Norse ballads and dance lesson (kvæði), that had been cancelled the previous week..

Afterwards I thought that I needed some fresh air, so I took my camera and my books and went out for a walk. During the last week I was starting to feel very tired: my active lifestyle here and my way of wanting to do as much as possible without resting, was beginning to take its toll..

So a silent walk with me, my thoughts and my camera seemed to be what I needed. Ended up having a tasty latte at Café Natur and reading material for the literature course.

A beautiful latte.

And brown sugar on a stick.

Delish!

Day 15 (Mon): Vestmanna bird cliffs

Weather: foggy

Walked: 3,5 km

Our third and last summer course week started with the regular language lesson in the morning on Monday the 21st June. We had a tad longer lunch break and I had time to go home to Mrs. Fanny and prepare lunch. After the lunch break we had a few guest lectures at the Fróðskaparsetur: one about the Faroese Language Board and one about the Faroese dictionaries the University is responsible for. The guest lectures were quite interesting, but I was still a bit tired from the hike on Nólsoy, so my concentration wasn't fully up to 100%..

After the lessons we went on another excursion: our course leader had planned a trip to Vestmanna. Vestmanna is located on the same island as Tórshavn, that is, on Streymoy. In Vestmanna we went on a boat ride to the bird cliffs and it was fantastic! In the morning I would have liked the weather to be sunny and warm as it had been on Sunday, but on the other hand: the tour to Vestmanna became much more interesting with a little fog and beautiful clouds.

The bird cliffs were very high and if I remember correctly, in some place the cliffs were 600m high. 600 meters on a "round" hill feels very different from 600 meters of a cliff that plunges vertically in to the rough seas beneath. And some fearless men need to climb these cliffs: sometimes they need to rescue a lamb in trouble or sometimes they go gathering for bird eggs... Wicked! :S

You really can't tell just by looking at the photos, but it was actually quote cold in the brisk sea breeze. When you look at the photos or when you just looked at the cliffs IRL in this thick fog, it reminded of pictures that you see of cliffs in South East Asia: I think it looks a little bit like rain forest.

The boat took us inside caves and it was awesome!:) I'm hoping that my photos turned out nice:)

Our boat went through this little cave!

Day 14 (Sun): Hike on the island Nólsoy

Weather: sunny

Walked (hiking): 16 km

After the nice wedding party and "outing" at Café Natur on Saturday, Sunday the 20th June arrived SUNNY AND BEAUTIFUL. I could not believe my eyes:)

I met with three happy Norwegian girls in the harbor just after 12 o'clock and we took the ferryboat to Nólsoy. At the tourist information we asked about the hike and how long it would take, because the guide books all told a different version.. We were told that we could easily make the hike to the light house in five hours.

So, first things first: we had lovely waffels at the tourist information!:)

Waffels with ice cream in Nólsoy, delish!

Happy and excited we headed up the fjell (I wouldn't call the mountains here "mountains"..). Just above the village Nólsoy is the roughest part with a steep climb up the fjell but after that the rest of the hike was on a plain grass heath. It was pretty wet on the heath, so I was glad I had decided to wear my hiking boots. We met with an Australian old lady(!) who had hiked to the light house in 2+2 hours(!); a Tschech couple and later two Swedish men.

We saw sheep, grass, the fjell, the pretty light house, the village from above (it was an awesome view from the top!) The light house was cute and our picnic food was delicious! A great outdoorsy trip in a nice weather and good company. I would recommend this to all who have at least five-six hours of spare time in Tórshavn. But bear in mind that it's good if you're physically fit (or at least more or less in a "normal" condition) to do this hike, the first part just above the village is the roughest.

On the way up. Village Nólsoy in the background.

Soon after this picture the hard part was behind us.

Sheep and Norwegian girls :)

Light house in the other end of Nólsoy.

The picture was taken by some Swedish

men we met at the light house.

It was no surprise, that when I got home, I took a shower and was all wound up the rest of the evening. And VERY tired the following day..

Day 13 (sat): Princess Victoria's wedding

Weather: sunny

Walked: 5 km

On Saturday 19th of June our Swedish Anna-Stina wanted to throw a party in honor of the Swedish crown princess Victoria's wedding. This was highly appreciated and we had gone grocery shopping the day before. And yes, I cried at the wedding: I thought that the ceremony was absolutely beautiful! We prepared dinner so after the ceremony we had dinner and sang Nordic songs with our Swedish Fredrik at the piano. A great evening! Here are some pictures.

Blue and yellow: the color of Sweden.

"Sing, ye, Swedish people!"

Anne-G. preparing the wedding buffét.

Day 12 (Fri): A troubadour's birthday

Hanus G. Johansen's humble cake.

Weather: sunny and warm

Walked: 8km

On Friday the 18th June we had lectures about literature and also in the afternoon a guest lecture about children's literature. FYI (curious fact): all Faroese children over 10 years of age received a copy of Robinson Kruso (Robinson Crusoe) in the year 1914. Those who didn't get one, were bitter 'til the end:)

After school we went to the Nordic House (Norðurlandahúsið í Føroyum) to celebrate a local troubadour's, Hanus G. Johansen's 60th birthday party. The party had public access and the house was more or less full. The concert was nice, Hanus'es voice could be described as something between Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. Some of us bought his cd:s and got them signed by the birthday-boy.

Hanus G. Johansen.

The adventure of this event was the following:

Hanus'es beatiful, raven like, goth-daughter announced that there would be a surprise in the other concert hall. I got up and went there. The eager amateur photographer that I am, I decided to sit in the front row (easy access in and out) to get some good shots of the surprise to come. Well, as it happened, Hanus sat next to me! I was a bit uncomfortable because I hadn't thought about that the first row could be seen as VIP places.. And I couldn't really leave either, because that would seem rude. When people came over to congratulate Hanus, they looked at me surely thinking: "Who is this person!?" So I decided to congratulate him and so we shook hands:) He seemed like a nice and happy man!

The birthday surprise was a super-duper hard core thrash metal performance by a band called Synarchy. The concert was actually awesome and Hanus enjoyed it too! This would normally not be my cup of tea, but these young Faroese guys played very well: the vocal range of the singer was awesome (not that I could make out what they were saying) and they were energetic and had a good charisma on stage. I was told that 60% of the people in the concert left, because they couldn't take the "noise":) :)

Haha, well, it all went well in the end.

Synarchy in action.

After Hanus'es party (with the concert, the surprise concert, a huuuuge cake and coffee), we went to get some groceries for Saturday. And then we sat in the harbor, enjoying the last rays of the warm sun, drinking some Koskenkorva (a Finn is not a Finn without Kossu;). Afterwards we went to Café Natur and I stayed out until around 01 o'clock.

Day 11 (Thu): Trip to Vágar

Weather: a little rain, sunshine in the afternoon

Walked: 7 km

On Thursday 17th June we took an whole day excursion to the island Vágar. We visited Sandavágur, Miðvágur, took a boat trip from Sørvágur out to the cliffs of Tindholmur, had lunch in Bø and ended the excursion in Gásadalur.

Sandavágur

Sandavágur was settled already in the viking era about 1000 years ago. In Sandavágur we visited the town church and saw the famous runestone of Thorkæl Onundarsøn. The (in)famous, bewitching Barbara (pseud. for Beinta Broberg) had also lived her last days in Sandavágur and had been buried in holy ground under the church.

Inscription: Thorkild Onundarson,

man from the east, from Rogaland,

built (on) this place first.

At a home museum. Home of the priests.

Miðvágur

In Miðvágur we visited the oldest still standing house. It was built on a slope and was made of stone, a grass roof and a mould floor. Lady Barbara had also spent time and lived some of her unmarried years in this house. The house had still had an old lady live there in the 1950's.

House of Barbara.

Sørvágur

From Sørvágur we got on a small boat that took us out to sea. The seas were a bit rough so we only went a little towards Mykines, as far as Tindholmur. From the sea we could see Gásadalur, too!

Tindholmur, a big rock with a hole.

Village of Bø [bœ:h]

In the lovely and tiny village of Bø we were served lunch in an old pack house. We had been out for quite a while and we were starving! The food was awesome, I have never had such good fish soup in my life! It wasn't really very traditional, though, the soup was seasoned with curry and peaches - but it was absolutely delish!

At lunch there was the opportunity to try some dried lamb and whale meat. I didn't even consider trying the lamb (FYI: I like cooked lamb meat), because it smelled strange. The whale meat was served on a tooth pick with small piece of cooked potato and a thin-thin slice of whale lard. So I gathered courage to try the whale meat but... It had an awful taste! I must be honest and say that I almost threw up! It took a lot of effort to keep from gagging, uhh.. The Norwegians and the Icelanders liked the whale meat, though, so I guess this is all about what you're used to eat and consider to be a delicacy... Sorry, Faroe Islands, this wasn't a best seller for ms. Uitto.

The delicious fish soup and the

not-so-delish whale meat on a stick.

Gásadalur

After lunch we continued the trip to Gásadalur, the isolated village that had gotten its tunnel in the year 2003. It was a God forsaken place. The valley surrounded the few tiny houses that were all trembling together in the brisk wind; the small tunnel entry is but a small opening in the gigantic fjellside; there was a water fall from which the water fell of the cliffs straight into the sea. Gásadalur was a beautiful place! The last stop of the excursion had a special feeling to it, because we had all seen the documentary "1700 meters from the future" (1700 meter fra fremtiden : en film om den færøske bygd Gásadalur)

The gorgeous valley of Gásadalur.

Day 10 (Wed): Faroese art

Besides the normal lessons (on Wednesday 16th June) we also had Inger Smærup Sørensen from Listasavn Føroya (Faroe Islands Art Museum) tell us a little bit of Faroese art (see link!). We had a short introduction of the past, history and present in Faroese art.

As for the film industry, even other art forms are very new on the Faroe Islands. Even within the traditional arts here there are strong tendencies to stay within one art form, meaning mainly painting and art on canvas. Painting is in other words the most popular art form here, and some (but few) artists are specialized in sculptures. The art scene is not that big and new blood would probably be welcomed with open arms.

We learnt that the Faroese have developed an art form that they call landscape expressionism and it was nice to look at... for a while! But when it started repeating itself I found it a bit boring (not that I could produce anything like that, but you know what I mean. Maybe I just don't get contemporary art?)

What I have thought about a lot while having the opportunity to stay here, is that there seems to be no interest for photo art or photography over here! There was a gorgeous, large photo piece at the Art Museum and I would have loved to see more of that (I can't remember the name of the artist though, unfortunately)! This land is very special: it has beautiful and dramatic landscapes, the nature is spectacular, the light is wonderful and shifts many times during the day (in the evenings I have to close my curtains and stop myself from going outside and just staring at the beautiful sky..).

This gorgeous nature could also be used for something else than just landscapes. One would think that creativity would bloom and bubble in a land like this!

Day 9 (Tue): Documentary of Gásadalur and horse back riding!

Weather: foggy rain

Walked: about 7km

On Tuesday 15th June we had our language lecture in the morning, but our Norse ballads lecture in the afternoon was cancelled because the teacher was ill. Instead, we watched a documentary movie about the isolated valley of Gásadalur. The documentary was old("ish"), from 1990 and it told the story of 16 valley people living in an isolated valley on the island of Vágar. The documentary was titled 1700 metrar frá framtiðini = 1700 Metres To The Future, that refer to the length of the tunnel that finally came in the year 2003.

We really enjoyed this documentary , because some of the things the people said or did seemed so out-dated and funny to us. F.e. the most important man, the helicopter-coordinator-man, had a cell phone. The cell phone was the size of a brick stone and had an antenna that was maybe 50-60cm long:) Also, one of the men had climbed up the mountain and carried a stove for his kitchen (a real superman!) The valley people had but only one young child: a boy, 9 years old, that lived with his grad parents. He had a teacher come and teach him in periods, during which the teacher stayed and lived in Gásadalur... I really liked this documentary, it was both informative and very pleasant!

After school we had arranged for a 2 hour horse back riding tour. It was outside of town. The riding instructors had prepared 10 small Icelandic horses for us to climb on: and it was so much fun!!! Loved it, loved it, loved it! I'm considering going again, when the course is over and I have some free time.. We'll see..

Fog and mist on the paths above Tórshavn.

The sensation was ancient!

Day 8 (Mon): Faroese movies

Weather: cloudy, mostly clear, no rain

Walked: 6 km

The most interesting bits of this day was delivered by Jan Berg Jørgensen, a young and friendly movie- and media dude (see link to Wikipedia;). We were given an introduction to the Faroese movie industry and movie culture. It couldn't be called anything but an "introduction" because the movie "industry" is very small and still taking small baby steps into the big wide world.

In the lecture we were presented with the idea of the Nordic region as something which is politically motivated and hence socio-politically "constructed". This construction has it's roots in the history that the Nordic countries have together - and Denmark's still existing colonialism over the Faroe Islands (from now on FI for short!). In my opinion, geographically speaking, The FI could very well be a part of Great Britain, Iceland or "The United States of Greenland" (or be independent).. But at the moment, the fact is that the FI are a part of Denmark, and via Denmark (together with its geographical location), the Nordic region and Scandinavia.

We also discussed whether or not the Nordic countries have something uniting them, something beyond the history that we share, and I believe we all can agree on that we share some similarities in how we perceive ourselves: we see ourselves as something peripheral, the Faroese probably even more than the other Nordic countries (pure geography, I'd say). So there are similarities in the identity of a Nordic homo sapiens, and to some degree these similarities can be seen as a product of nature in this part of the globe. We draw upon these similarities, they help us when we try to interpret and understand pop culture from another (Nordic) country.

The Nordic countries have always (when not in war with each other;) lent a helping hand to their neighbors and therefore the co-operation of Nordic countries is something that the rest of world sees as a very positive thing.

When it comes to co-operation within the movie industry, and here discussing mainly the FI and Nordic countries, we must see the facts and admit that some ties are more natural than others. Here I'm pointing at the fact that what we call "Nordic co-operation" means different things, depending on the country that you live in. For Finns it means (often) joint projects with Swedes, for the Faroese it means getting funding and help from Denmark.

The Nordic co-operation is a positive thing. BUT within the movie industry it also hinders the FI from developing an independent and a national "filmographic" identity. BUT on the other hand, this country is (still) too small to produce good quality movies on its own. So some compromises have to be made.

According to Jørgensen, the Nordic co-operation is willing to lend a helping hand when a movie project is aiming to produce a movie with uplifting and prestigious qualities. Therefore art(istic) movies are not a priority when granting funding.

Also, according to Jørgensen, the FI are mentally too locked in reproducing the few good things that have come from this country (as in, "we have made it once, we have proved this to be good, this is a best seller") and/so thinking outside the box is hard (and difficult to finance).

To complete the guest lecture we saw the movie Bye Bye Bluebird (1999), a road movie by Katrin Ottarsdóttir. The film tried to combine this small country with the big world through some pop-culture references, such as Thelma&Louise and David Lynch's movies. Some questions arose during the movie but they were never answered. It wasn't marvelous, it wasn't a masterpiece, but I liked it!:)

Nokia. Connecting people.

Even on the tiny island of Nólsoy!

Day 7 (Sunday): church and boat trip to Nólsoy

Weather: cloudy but no rain

Walked: 8,5 km, mainly on Nólsoy

... and on the seventh day she did not rest.

Last Sunday was a very nice day. A few in the group had agreed on meeting at the Tórshavn Dome church at 11 o'clock. We went and listened to the Sunday mass and to my surprise I actually understood quite a lot of the ceremony! I understood the priest's metaphorical language:)

Tórshavn Dome Church

Dome Church inside

To my surprise the Tórshavn community actually had a women priest: I had understood from our previous lectures on politics and religion, that women priests working in the church would be one of the controversial issues on the Faroe Islands - the issue being that some of the traditional and conventional male priests refuse to work with women priests (there are some examples in Finland, too, so some parallels can be drawn). Apparently Tórshavn wants to be modern and set a good example for the rest of the Faroe Islands. Go Tórshavn!

At the church we saw that one of the servants was a researcher from the University and he had given a lecture about Faroese names. After the sermon he gave us a private tour of the church: he told us about the history and the artefacts in the church. We also got a chance to climb up in the small bell tower! Tórshavn is a small town and it's all about who you know ;)

Inside the bell tower!

After church I had refreshing coffee in the harbor, after which I was ready to go with a bunch of other Finns (and one Swedish girl) to the nearest island called Nólsoy, just 20 minutes outside Tórshavn. We took an easy Sunday hike on the beautiful green hills and had coffee at Kaffistovan. The coffee was good and we had fun when the local men (a bit tipsy) eagerly tried to have a conversation with us. We saw the church, Nólsoy Páll's memorial site and collected sea shells at the shore.

View on the "flat side" of Nólsoy

Cute little "angora" hen from Nólsoy

Fish outside drying.

Day 6 (Sat): hike to ancient Kirkjubøur

Weather: sunny and cloudy, nice

Walked: 8km in the fjells

On Saturday we went on a hike to the most important historical site on the Faroe Islands. We started from the University and walked a couple of kilometers to get to the path to Kirkjubøur. The hike started off easy, some of the uphill parts were a bit heavy, but altogether not that much of an effort. After the uphill the most of the path was on a plain. The most difficult (and scary) part was going downhill. There were some very slippery slopes there, I tell ya!

Down there, Tórshavn

The island of Hestur, view from the fjell.

Headed down the slopes,

towards Kirkjubøur.

When we arrived at Kirkjubøur we first had our sandwiches for lunch and then got a guided tour of the premises. The lady that owns the place has inherited this piece of land and property from her forefathers. In the old days there were two kinds of farmers: the kings farmers, that owned the land and their premises (such as Kirkjubøur), and then there were the regular farmers, who rented the land from the state.

The lady of Kirkjubøur knows her blood line to the 16th century and many important political personae have been born in Kirkjubøur. She didn't say it out loud, but I'm guessing that in some sense, she must have some royal blood in her veins.

King Sverre, a former inhabitant at Kirkjubøur.

Kirkjubøur has the oldest, still in use and inhabited wooden house of the Faroe Islands, today the house is approximately 1000 years old. I have now sat by the fire place and walked on the wooden floors that kings and bishops have treaded! The lady of the house gathers her family to celebrate - and when Christmastime comes, comes the whole family in a pack of fifty people.

Kirkjubøur also has the oldest church (St. Olav's church from the 12th century) in the Faroe Islands, although the inside of the church has been recently renovated. There is also a charming ruin of the Magnus Cathedral (13th century, UNESCO World Heritage site). After the hike and tour, we took the bus home.

St. Olav's church

In the evening we went bar hopping in Tórshavn. We checked out a bar called Cleopatra (a mid priced heavy rock bar) and the famous Café Natur (allegedly the centre of Tórshavn's night life), where they had a loud troubadour. I was getting tired and was a bit disappointed that the local people started to wander in as soon as I was ready to say good night! And this was around 02 o'clock! Oh well, a fabulous day when all comes around! (I'm not complaining:)

Queen of the Nile, Cleopatra

Day 5: friggjadagur (Friday) politics & movie night!

On the day of Frey (an ancient pagan god of fertility), also known as Friday, we had our regular lectures: language in the morning and literature in the afternoon. An extra bonus was thrown at us at the end of the day, when we were all very tired and hoping to get home. We had man called Heini Í Skorini speak about religion and politics on the Faroe Islands. I expected a dull and boring lecture, as, for me, the title gave such associations. Surprisingly, the lecture was really interesting!

This country is part of Scandinavia, a part of the Nordic heritage (both in language and genetics), but the attitudes and the belief systems are so traditional, christian and conventional, that parallels between the Faroe Islands and southern States in the U.S. can easily be drawn.

Info gathered from my notes (please correct me if I'm wrong;) :

- there are 160 churches in total on the Faroe Islands

- 83% are a part of the national (lutheran) church (Fólkakirkjan)

- 16% are a part of some other religious movement (Jehova's, Adventists, Baha'i, Catholic)

- muslim and other "foreign" religions are very, very rare

In politics the traditional and conventional (= very strong) Christian religion plays a significant role. The Faroese parliament is a place for old men, where heterosexuality is a norm. Hence, homosexuality is taboo here. According to Heini, when (re-)forming the Faroese constitutional law and discussing the word forms in the Human Rights Declaration (second paragraph about discrimination) 2005 and 2007, the words for "discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation" were omitted. The debate was fierce, and as I understood it, the Faroese constitutional law still lacks the specific formulations that declare discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation as illegal.

Other strongly debated subjects here are alcohol politics, abortion and pornography. These sensitive matters demolish the so-called "two dimensional party system". The parties are divided according to a) whether or not they support the idea of independence from Denmark and b) whether they are left or right wing parties.

Heini offered geographical isolation and the harsh nature (forcing the islanders to focus on survival (nowadays a more historical remain), as possible explanations to why the islanders are so rigid in their beliefs.

This lecture really woke us up to see the differences and the similarities in the Faroe Islands and our home countries and we were eager to discuss and ask questions of Heini. An interesting lecture, I'd say!

After school we did all sorts of things that the traditional Faroese society would frown upon:

- we went to the local ALKO = the monopolized store for alcohol

- we were modern and ate pizza (no lamb meat or fish included)

- we saw a decadent Danish movie called "Barbara". I recommend the film to anyone who's into Jane Austen movies, although, "Barbara" is not so romantic, but the costumes and nature were nice:) End of school week one!

Day 4: lectures and city bus tour

Engineers, take notes: bronze murials are not to be placed

outside in humid weather conditions,

especially not on white walls.

They leak.

This advice was given to you by

a humanities student (no charge!;)

Weather: cloudy, windy and cold (but no rain)

Walked: 2 km

Today's lecture's were:

1. Faroese language (numbers and weekdays)

2. Faroese literature and post-colonialism.

After school we planned to go to the Museum of Natural History, but fortunately I checked the museum's homepage beforehand and it was already closed. So instead we went on a free bus tour on the Tórshavn city bus, route number one. We waited quite long in the cold breeze and chatted up some guy at the bus stop. He was clearly amused that we wanted to go and were so excited about going on a bus ride across Tórshavn:) Aww. The boy at the bus stop was kinda cute:)

We ended up taking a full circle with bus route number one. We got on bus route two, but when we got to the center the tired looking bus driver walked up to us. He asked skeptically if we were really going to Argir, a township nearby, nowadays a part of Tórshavn. We looked confused, and he explained that he was going there, but that at this hour the tour would take a break in Argir which would mean 20 minutes of walking and/or freezing up in the hills. So, thanks to the nice bus driver, we thought it to be better to get off in the city centre and walk home.

At home I ate some more Wasa knäckebröd and Fanny had made some delicious rhubarb pudding. Yumyum!

Day 3: old norse ballads

A world map (in Faroese) hanging in the corridor at the University.

Weather: sunny and beautiful!

Walked km: 5

On Wednesday we had our first real language lesson. We tuned our ears to hear and understand Faroese. We went through some basic sentences ("Hi how are you, what's your name" etc.) and got some home work.

It seems to me that Faroese is a very vowel based language. It has very distinctive diphthongs (combinations of vowels, for those who are not linguists;). The teacher said that Finns should have no problems learning the vowels, because Finnish also has these vowel combinations (diphthongs).

Also, most definitely is the Faroese language not pronounced as it is written! There are a lot of rules about pronunciation. In pronunciation they have fricatives and other sorts of aspired consonants: hopefully I'll learn the rules for those in three weeks... In some instances knowledge of Icelandic helps me, but in some cases it only makes me more confused.. Here is a link, if you are interested in reading more about the language.

In the afternoon we had a lesson about Faroese traditional ballads: singing and dancing also known as kvæði . I think that it must have something to do with my upbringing and my fathers side of the family, but I find traditional music and (Scandinavian) folk/world music very appealing. There is something in the music, the rhythm, the melody played in minor keys.

Eivind, our guest lecturer, was a hearty old man. He looked like a captain of the old days with his white beard:) We sat and listened to the cd when the electricity shut down. We were glad to have Eivind sing the lead and we tried our best to fill out the chorus of Regin smidur. Check out the version made by the Faroese heavy metal band Tyr. Will try to capture our dancing on video the next time.

After the lessons I went and bought the 1.000DKK (140€) grammar books:/ And bought some more food. I blame it on the fresh weather and being outside walking: I'm constantly hungry as a Norse Wolf!:)

Day 2: Tuesday 8th June

Weather: rain in the morning, cleared out by noon, sunshine in the evening

Walked: 6.5 km

Had a lovely day with lectures in both Faroese literature (in the morning) and Faroese names (in the afternoon). Luckily the university lecture halls are close to home, which makes it easy to go home home for lunch.

After the lectures I had a quick nap but awoke to the sun peeling through the window panels: the sun was shining beautifully and this was an opportunity not to be missed! Took our my camera and headed downtown via the Old Fort.

Lighthouse at the old fort

In the harbor I sat outside for a couple of hours reading my Faroese novel (for the course, a pocketbook in Danish). Had a cup of not-so-good-regular- coffee. When I looked up, the clouds seemed to avoid the harbor and somehow stayed close to the hills surrounding Tórshavn. Also, I have never seen clouds moving so fast! Like in a movie, just before storm breaks. I can easily imagine how fast a storm can move in...

Café Kaffihusið in the harbor

View from the café towards the harbor

After coffee we had a group meeting at Hvonn , the restaurant we ate the day before. Had a glass of red wine. The restaurant was packed! I don't couldn't tell if it was because of the lovely weather or what.

Thought I was tired, but when I got home I decided to go out for some more photography. It was still very light at 23 o'clock, but the sun had set behind the hills, so it really didn't make any cool shadows. Came home and quickly jumped into bed.

The View to Nólsoy, near our house. About 23 o'clock.

Intro Day at Fróðskaparsetur Føroya

Day 1 of studies

Weather: a little misty rain, cloudy

Walked km: 8

In the morning I and my fellow students and also the girls staying next door all went together to the Fróðskaparsetur Føroya, which stands for the Faroe University. We had a brief introduction presenting ourselves, got some practical information. Fróðskaparsetur Føroya is one of the world's smallest universities and it is possible to take a bachelor's or a master's degree. In some subjects (mainly Faroese related) it's also possible to get a PhD degree. A warm welcome!

Afterwards we went for a guided tour in the town of Tórshavn, also known as Havn (= Thor's harbor).

We learnt about the old houses: some of the houses had been there for a long time and the cutest houses had the traditional grass roofs:) Since it doesn't really get cold here (my first thought was snow and how snow fall would affect the grass and soil on the roofs, assuming it would make them pretty heavy). It's practical to protect the houses with a well isolating (and sound proof) grass roof. Under the grass there's a layer of birch bark.

Birch bark and on top of it a grass roof:)

We learnt that the distance between the tiny houses would be determined by how much space one would need in between the houses to swing a hammer:)

Small and narrow streets of the old town

We learnt that there had been two great fires in Tórshavn: one that was caused because soldiers tried to dry wet gun powder over fire:) and one started by a pyromaniac (in the 70´s?).

After the guided tour we had lunch at the restaurant Hvonn (pasta with salmon sauce) in the harbor and when lunchin' was over we had our first lecture about the basics in the Faroese language (an intro). Very interesting and was pleased to notice that I understood the things that Hjalmar was talking about.

The weather was good enough to make my first proper grocery shopping tour to the shopping center called SMS, about a 10-15 minute walk from home. Bought fruit and tried to avoid all sorts of goodies in the store. The grocery store was very big and the fish department was huge! But the urban girl that I am, I could not stand the strong smell of fresh fish, so I took a quick look and rushed through.

Otherwise the SMS Shopping Centre was a bit of a disappointment: as a part of the Danish Empire, the Danes have invaded the Faroe Islands with their clothes shops. I'm not criticizing the shopping centre, but rather pointing out that because the Danes also have invaded Finland, there's not really any excitement in going shopping in Danish shops aka at SMS (and you get the same clothes cheaper at home..)

SMS Shopping Centre upper hallway

We also tried to be smart and get our grammar books at the library, but they were all unavailable! The grammar books, necessary to the course, cost 1.000DKR which sums up to about 140€! Niceee! No student discounts here…

Tórshavn, Sunday 6th June

A statue near the harbour

Although I was very tired I woke up a few times during the night. I have a lively imagination and this time I was certain that there was a "smiley face" (from the light in the street ) in the ceiling above me:) And as you know, my eye sight isn't the best possible, so no, my night vision isn't any better. In the morning I thought of it as a good sign for this trip.

I had my alarm clock ringing in the morning, wanting to stay in "Finland time", because my studies and life here would surely benefit from that, but I was too tired to get up that early. Since it was Sunday I had thought about going to church, as that is something the Faroese do on Sundays (tradition and heritage are very highly valued here, from what I can understand). But naah, I was to tired and it was raining. Although rain can't be anything to hinder me from doing stuff here, because it'll probably rain a little every day… :/

Well, I got up, had breakfast (Wasa knäckebröd, yoghurt, an apple) and Fanny wasn't at home. I assumed she'd gone to church (and I was right). To get something done I reorganized my room furniture and now the room functions better. After my redecorating session Fanny came home and I headed out on the town.

My room reorganized: bed to the wall and a side table

There was still a little rain in the air, kind of misty and foggy rain. I went on an adventure towards the "wrong" side of town, not towards the city center. I saw sheep, dogs, runners, boats, ships, a pond, gees and cute fluffy ducklings. There weren't that many people around at all, seems like Sunday is a holy day here. Everything else was closed, but some coffee shops were open, so I stopped at a very nice coffee shop called "Hafnia lounge" and had my most expensive latte so far (4,45€). And it was an automat latte, not the kind the barista actually makes of coffee, hot water and milk… Oh well, Hafnia lounge seemed like a very cool place, I loved the interior design!!! Fabulous. I will go there again, I'm sure.

Hafnia lounge, interior

Hafnia lounge, my expensive latte

Hafnia lounge, ceiling with cool lamps and mirrors

At the Hafnia lounge I used the internet to make my status updates on Facebook and answer some e-mails. Also went through my photos, fun stuff! Although too time consuming. The rest of the day I have spent at home. Reading (trying in Faroese), fixing my photos, listening to music. I also met Fanny's son, daughter in law and their three month old baby Rønja. Made a simple dinner: a mexican chili sin carne (rice and beans).

During the day my two course mates arrived at Fanny's place. The other girl is Swedish (Sofia) and the other one happened to be my Finnish friend Katri, that I've gotten to know from the Pohjola-Norden Youth League!:) What a small world. Tomorrow's our first day at school!