Day one of classes

Today was the first day of classes for my MA program. As an indicator of the workload I have to deal with, I shall post my schedule for Mondays:

11:40-13:10 Old Icelandic/Old Norse
15:00-16:30 Viking Age Archaeology (supernumerary to my MA, but important for my PhD, starts next week)

That's it. No foolin'. The rest of my week is similar; no more than 3 hours of class per day.

Of course, the reading list for my Old Norse Literary Corpus class on Tuesdays was ~100 pages, including supplements, so there's that. Still, I burned through those fairly quickly, so that's good.

The class itself was good; being in an academic setting again helped me to remember things things that I forgot that I knew (like, you know, vowel-stems - an important thing for learning word declensions!) and kicked my brain back into gear.

After class, Ryder, David and I hung out for a bit - went to a couple of book stores, went to a music shop (Ryder is a master of harmonic string instruments, or at least better than I am at them) and talked about maybe setting up an MIS jam-band; there was both a Hapi drum and a small hand-harp/lyre, and I was intrigued by each. The Hapi produces this super mellow, resonating hum while the lyre is, well, a lyre. However, the Hapi cost a little less than two months rent, so finances dictate that I'm going to be looking at the lyre.

Also, there was talk of making ravioli. I decided that I'd make home made ravioli for folk, which rapidly spiralled into a trip to a local delicatessen. This particular place sold Taleggio, but at 7800kr per kilo, it's a touch expensive. Of course, it's not like things are inexpensive here (1900kr for 500g of bacon! BACON!) but even still. We'll have to see who's all interested and who can chip in. If there's enough, then I figure we can go all out and make an awesome meal. If there are enough folk interested, this should be relatively inexpensive and quite fun!

Finally, I've determined that I need to purchase one of the famous Icelandic Wool Sweaters, which are around half a month's rent when new or about a quarter-month's rent if I get them from Kolaportið, the local flea market. Either way, a pricey prospect.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot to mention that I a) went to see the new Conan movie last night, which was closer to the Robert E. Howard stories than the Milius/Schwarzenegger version, but not as re-watchable and b) have had one of the finest hot dogs ever at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur. These people take street meat to a new level. Simple, cheap (a hot dog and pop is 470kr, or around $4.25 CAD) and damned tasty. If and when you come to visit, I highly recommend it.

Oh, and more folk are being added to the Dramatis Personae:

Ásids - An Icelandic-American; PhD candidate, very intelligent. Moreso than I, at least. Which seems to be a theme with my fellow MIS students
Myriam - A Russo-American PhD candidate and former MIS student; she's going to be my new flatmate in October, as Hana is moving out. A fan of things Fantastical and grimdark.
Bahb - An American-American from Kentucky and current MIS student. Much like everyone else in the program, barring your humble narrator, an extremely intelligent dude. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner and classical scholar.