So excited I am sick

I swear I always do this. I am so excited about going home that I have actually made myself sick. I feel like I want to throw up. But there might also be another reason. The sun has been shining today without break and straight through my window. I have been tidying in my room since 3 o'clock today (still haven't finished) but I am done packing ... except the things that go in at the last minute. And since I have been dusting, throwing things away (2 and a half big black rubbish bags actually) and vaccuming/hoovering (whatever) I probably haven't been drinking enough in the head and the dust and all the crazyness around me. On top of that there is no wind outside so I don't get any breeze to keep the air circulating and right now I am feeling faint.
We are also waiting for our food to arrive, hope that it comes soon so I can start trying to get my body back to balance soon.

FREEDOM

appropriate hehehe. I finished my exams yesterday and I am so relieved right now, although it still hasn't sunk in yet, that I don't have to start studying for my next exam now. Árdís and I went out celebrating the end of the year and end of exams and we had a very very nice time out. Árdís was even so nice to treat me to dinner, thanks a bunch, Árdís oooo and I almost forgot, she gave me a wonderful exam-finished gift yesterday when I came home. Baking parchment and a toilet roll, everything necessary for a busy student (grins) and also "Scottish wit and wisdom" book for a chance to make me more scottish. Must say I can hardly understand half of what it says in there (and it still comes with explanations ahahhaha). She also gave me Good Food Magazine, the 101 collection of recipies (I think she is hoping I will feed her next year). It was great. But last night we went out to TGI Fridays, what is more appropriate than that and had a wonderful dinnar, I am still stuffed. Then we headed over for the cinema where we went to see She's the Man, which is actually a brilliant remake of the 80s film One of the Boys (sort of) and it was so much fun. And it wasn't just girls at the film but guys as well, and it was so noticeable when just the girls laughed or the guys or when we all laughed together, it was a great film. Good for both sexes.
I am now heading into the city center to do my final last minute shopping before heading home to tidy my very untidy room and clean everything and pack my suitcaseS to go HOME.
My friends in Glasgow, have a very very enjoyable summer (even though some of you have to slave over your dissertation essays) and I hope to see you next year and have a great time.
My friends and my family in Iceland, I look foward to seeing and hearing from you tomorrow and in the next few days. The girl is coming home!

ps. can YOU crack the code?

Drowning in consonants

I have Old Irish coming OUT of my ears now, not just into them. I am now swimming in Old Irish poetry, trying to make any of it stick in my head. I am on my sixth now out of eight, doing all right, but still it is doing me head in. I will be soooooo happpppppy tomorrow afternoon, when I will finally crawl from my last exam. I just hope I won't mix the poems together. Although I must say these are all very nice poems, and not too hard to remember (well the last three are the longest and so quite a bit to muddle through there, although he won't be giving us the whole of them, just bits). I sure hope he will be nice to us and not be very nasty in his questions. I think I dread the palaeography exercise (Old Irish manuscript reading) the most, as it is quite difficult to understand the scribes writings. Sometimes it is almost like reading a handwriting of a modern doctor but with crazy abreviations. And sometimes they can't even decide what the abbreviations stand for.
But after the exam, me and Árdís are going out to celebrate and possibly also go see a movie. Then on Saturday, the real, last minute shopping is going to take place along with laundry duty and tidying up the place, before I leave for the summer. Oh, dear, I am going to be swamped on Saturday. But I am soooo looking forward to going home, I don't care if I will be tidying my room until 5am in the morning on Sunday, because I AM GOING HOME.

ps. just to make you suffer like I am

Cride é,

daire cnó,

ócán é,

pócan dó.

------

He is a heart,

oak-grove of nuts,

he is a young man,

a little kiss to him.

Time flies

Time surely flies fast. In a week I will be home and happy having finished and survived my exams. It is amazing how the time flies. Usually, three weeks seem like forever, not so when you are studying for exams. Because when you are studying for exams, the week doesn't have seven days, it only contains the days between exams. Tomorrow is my fifth exam and on Friday is my last. I dread the exam tomorrow as it is in a very difficult subject, where most of the people taking it have Gaelic where I do not, thankfully I have a background now of Old Irish to assist me in figuring out the differences between the languages and to see how the Scottish Gaelic language has developed over the course of 1100 years. Yes, the period of the course is quite extensive and I have to know very many details of fricative, labial, sonorant and velar sounds along with phonemes, homophones and consant clusters (ng, nc, nd). I also have to be able to tell why there is s- in sé and why they changed from ch > dh and gh in words and how eclipses and lenition changed and diverged with the languages. I even have to be able to talk about the problems of understanding where the -annan in plural endings of Scottish Gaelic words comes from and what certain guys (like O Rahilly, Greene, Ó Buachalla and O Maolalaigh) have to say about it. Dear me, is there any wonder my head is ready to explode.

Lygilegur dagur

Þetta er bara búinn að vera ótrúlegur dagur. Fjórða prófið mitt var í dag, Early Gaelic Literature in Translation, og núna á ég bara tvö eftir. Síðasta prófið mitt er eftir viku og það eru svo bara níu dagar þangað til ég flýg heim. Sá tími getur ekki komið nógu hratt. Ég var í prófi í dag klukkan hálf tíu (hálf níu að íslenskum tíma) og ég sver, heilinn á mér fer ekki í gang svona snemma á morgnana til að taka próf, hann bara þver neitar að gera neitt af viti. En þetta var ágætt próf, ekki eins nastí og prófið á þriðjudag var í Belief and Culture in medieval Ireland and Scotland. Sver Joanne hefði getað drepið kennarann okkar eftir það próf, ég var hrædd við hana. En nei í dag, þá settumst við inn í prófsalinn aðeins í seinna lagi og við áttum að fá nokkrar mínútur auka af því að okkur hafði verið hleypt inn svo seint. Þegar ég var nýbúin að ganga frá öllum upplýsingum á próförkina og nýbyrjuð að lesa prófspurningarnar, var komin að þeirri þriðju á blaðinu þá fór brunabjallan í gang. Er ekki að djóka svo að við þurftu að yfirgefa salinn. Sem betur fer tók ég jakann minn með því að annars hefði ég króknað úr kulda. Þetta var náttúrulega bara fyndið því að um leið og við vorum komnar út þá byrjuðu allir að tala: quick tell me about this and that af því að við vorum náttúrulega búnar að sjá spurningarnar og gátum því ráðfært okkur við næsta mann. Enda eftir prófið þá kom í ljós að við höfðum allar tekið 7 spurninguna sem fjallaði um konur og "sovereignty goddesses" bara snilld. Við þurftum að bíða úti í kuldanum í um tuttugu mínútur áður en slökkt var á kerfinu og okkur hleypt inn aftur. Þannig að í staðinn fyrir að prófið lyki hálf tólf, þá kláruðum við tíu mínútur í tólf. Alveg svakalega undarlegur tími. Hef tekið próf hérna í þrjú ár og þetta hefur aldrei komið fyrir áður. En aftur á móti eftir próf og þegar við vorum að fá okkur hádegismat þá fóru sögurnar af stað. Ein hafði heyrt um eina sem hafði fengið nóg og nýlega eftir að prófið hafði byrjað hljóp hún út öskrandi "there isn't enought time" brilliant það maður. Það hefur liðið yfir nokkra og einn kastaði meira að segja upp þegar hann var í prófinu. Nú þeir sem ekki vita, þá eru þessir prófasalir frekar þröngt setnir. Maður þarf að renna sér þægilega léttilega í sætin og borðið á næsta aðila er upp við bakið á stólnum þínum. Í salnum sem við vorum í til dæmis rúmast 200 borð. Þegar þessi sem kastaði upp lét gusuna ganga, vildi það ekki svo betur til en að það lenti á næsta manni eins og hvaða önnur sæmilega gusa úr Exorcism. Ekki hefði ég viljað vera sú sem sat fyrir framan uppkastarann!!! Það er bara fyndið að heyra af þessum sögum eftir prófin en ég hefði nú ekkert á móti því að sjá einvhern sem er stressaðri en ég þótt að það sé ljótt að segja það. Það hefði bara einhvern veginn vegað skemmtilega upp á móti þessum degi.
Núna er ekkert annað fyrir mig að gera en að drífa mig áfram að læra fyrir næsta próf sem er á máundaginn. Sem betur fer er það eftir hádegi en mig hlakkar ekki til að fara í þetta próf. Ja, hlakkar til og ekki, þetta er í Historical development of the Gaelic language (hljómar síður en svo spennandi I know) en aftur á móti þá er þetta næst síðasta prófið þannig að ég get alltaf haft eitthvað til að hlakka til. Þá verður enn styttra þangað til prófin eru búin og enn styttra þangað til ég kemst upp í flugvél heim til mín.

Easter Sunday Dinner

Good Friday Dinner

Easter away from home

They say that it doesn't matter where you are the holidays still creep up on you. They do, but in my case I didn't notice them. Possibly because I have been studying for my exams and also that I have been able to go into shops everyday of the week and weekend no matter if it is Good Friday or Easter Sunday (weird). I am also more used to being aware of the holiness of the season when I have been home, its a lot more festive than here in Glasgow. But it still didn't get in the way of me having great food to eat (that I even cooked myself), althoug there wasn't much to it, just push the trays into the oven, grins). But staying away this holiday weekend from my family and friends gave me this thought, how do people celebrate their holidays away from home, I have always thought that the holidays come to you, that you make the best of it, but I see now I am wrong. It is you family and friends that make the holidays special, and it is with them that you feel the day is special and then you can fully appreciate what the season means.
Oh boy, didn't intend to get so mushy. I got an easter egg with a proverb that was mis-worded, kind of funny but not. Sá sem alltaf er önnum kafinn að gera góðverk hefur ekki tíma til að vera góður sjálfur (transl: The one who is always busy doing good deeds doesn't have time to be good himself) but in all actuality how is that possible so I think it should read The one who is always busy doing good deeds doens't have time to be good TO himself. Makes much more sense like this.

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter wherever you are!

I am just custie [kustí]

I can hardly believe it. I just finished my most difficult exam of all this year, Old Irish and I am calm. I was calm before the exam and during it, worked my way through and remembered to breath periodically and then we left. Strange, I would have imagined that I would either drown in despair in the next pub or shout to the world that I had survived Old Irish. No, nothing like that, I am still calm. I haven't shouted anything, come to think of it. I think I might still be in shock. It wasn't as horrible as we were expecting ... I mean it was do-able, but could have been much nicer. Three sections, and I went straight to section B, because I knew that if there was anything in the exam that I should be able to handle it would be in Section B - do a translation on a bit of Mac Dathó's Pig (great story by the way) and then there was this unseen translation. I know, just the term makes cold chills run down your spine and your hair curl, but the funny thing was I could figure out from where one of the passages was from, it was from The waisting sickness of Cú Chulainn and I knew that story very well, just not the part that was being asked about. I sort of got the gist of it but not more than that, but I am hoping that it will help bring my mark up anyway. And I left section A to the last minute, because it contained WORDS and I didn't want to do that. 10 words and you had to explain as much about them as you could, well ... let's just say I almost could. But I could do enough so that it satisfied me so right now I am just custie (which I found out today means = excellent).

It's my dad's birthday today, so I am going to ring home tonight when I think they will have arrived home. They were going out at exactly the time I cam home today, they were invited to a Confirmation (Ferming) of a cousin of mine. They get to go (or have to go) to five of these things this year, all of them are in April and I don't get to go to one. But hey, if it means that I get home that much earlier, who cares. I'll just have a mega party when I arrive home.

Well I am away now to be more or extra lazy, I am not going to do much studying tonight ... no really, I am not, just taking a little bit of time to organize things becuase I am going to have to go out tomorrow. Two revision classes and then I am going to the cinema for a little bit of pick-me-up and then I am going home to cook a marvelous dinner I bought at Marks and Spencers, yes I am going to have nice dinners on Easter, I even got a pork-crackling for Easter Sunday!

Tired, cold and drying

It has begun! I had my first exam today: Celtic Place-names of Scotland. It was a two hour exam, and we only had to answer two essay questions. That means panic, how are we supposed to write an hour long essay on anything regarding Celtic Place-names. So in the end I wrote for more like one hour and 35 minutes which seemed reasonable and then I just sat there and stared out into space. I answered these questions: 1) What are the problems and pitfalls of distribution maps of generic elements as tools for the scholar of place-names. And 2) What sort of evidence do place-names provide for the structure and function of the church in early medieval Scotland? I somehow managed to bullshit myself through these questions and when we emerged from the exam hall we headed straight for the pub to have a glas, a pint, a bottle ... whatever would do it for us. When we were leaving to go home it started to rain cats and dogs and probably a few hippos as well, it was pouring. I managed to get into Iceland (hehehe) before I drowned where I bought the necessities for survival (Coke Cola) and took a taxi home. When I got home, I was cold and wet and tired. Now I am actually starting to dry up a bit but I am still cold and now I am getting hungry. But I have to push on and learn for my Old Irish exam on Thursday, dreading that one. At 16:31 on Thursday you will probably hear me shouting from the rooftops from either elation or despair, and then you will not hear from me for a few hours as I will either be heading off to the cinema to award myself my hard work, or I will be drowning my sorrows over some more bottles. Wish me luck.

The Lady is finally a real Lady. I bought myself this hat today!

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