There is so much to blog about I can't blog fast enough.
Well the main news is that I graduated on June 29th, Friday. It was a marvelous day, and a wonderful ceremony, very formal and festive. It was a day I never wanted to end, but that was after we got back to the hotel. Before I went up to Uni, I was so nervous I had upset stomach and nausea but after a few breathing sessions I finally calmed down and managed to finish getting ready. I met Claire up at the University where we collected our graduation wardrobe and tickets for family. Then we headed for a wee get together at the Celtic Department for drinks and to chat with some friends and teachers. At the ceremony itself, Claire and I got front row seats of the ceremony. I was in nerd heaven. My teacher of four years, Thomas Clancy and head of the Celtic department held a speech celebrating the life of gaelic poet Ruaraidh MacThómais who was receiving Honorary Doctorate from the University. Then the graduation walk began, 340 students receiving their degrees all one by one for more than an hour, wonderful. At the end of the ceremony Dr. Dauvit Broun got a reward for excellence in teaching and he so deserved it, he is such a nice man and a great teacher. He is the head of the M.Litt program I am joining next year, and he was even nice enough to enquire about me and if I would be able to study Old Norse next year. Such a sweet man. I also had a photography session after the ceremony with mom and dad as well, and then a few photos by my brother. Before we left for the hotel, we stopped by the gift shop where we bought a frame for my degree and a bottle of whiskey, that instead of saying The Famous Grouse, it says The Famous Graduate.
Then we headed for the hotel where mom served up a delicious cake before we went upstairs for a wonderful meal. We also got a glass of champagne to toast with and a bottle of fine red merlot from Chile. Five courses and I was beyond bursting. It was truly a great day.
It wasn’t until the day after that everything seemed to go down hill but that wasn’t until much later in the day and we had managed to do most of the things we had intended so there was nothing else for us to worry about. But the trouble at the Glasgow airport did put a dent in our last night in Glasgow. Because there was nowhere possible to get any kind of information from our airliner or media back home of what passangers of Icelandair were supposed to do or contact in case of something like this. Nothing at all. But no matter, we decided to just take things slowly, follow the news and not do anything rash. We finished packing and went to sleep. We all woke up at seven in the morning and the airport was still closed. It wasn’t until eight in the morning that they told us that the airport was finally open, but no matter where we turned we got no news from home if our flight was on or not. We did managed finally to see that the flight from Keflavik had left and so we decided to hurry to the airport in case they would be flying out as well. When we got to the airport, caoz was everywhere and all we were told to do was get in the queue, but they didn’t tell us how long it was or what the purpose was of us queuing at all. We had to walk a kilometre before we found a gap in the queue for us to stand in. Right next to us was a wee shop where I managed to buy some coke for the group because we had no idea of how long we were going to be there. Still we tried to reach Icelandair, Leifsstöð or anyone that might have some answers to us. I managed to find a wheelchair with the help of a very helpful police officer for my mom which made the wait a bit more bearable for her but it was still very difficult for all of us. Finally, by pure chance we got a phoncall from an acquaintance of my brother who told us that the Icelandair flight was scheduled to depart very soon. So I had to try to find someone to tell us what we were to do, finally found a guy who told me that we had to get there asap! We managed at the very, very, very last moment to get to the desk to check in for our flight almost having a heart attack on the way, then we had to go almost half the way back again to get to the International flight terminal. We had to walk across an inside bridge where the windows had been covered up, but it didn’t mask the intense smell of petrol- and rubber burning. We were basically walking right by where the car had crashed into the airport, not a nice thing at all. We made it to the gate where we were placed in a bus that drove us the last few meters to the airplane. At the gate we were even reproached for being so late, I was really taken aback by that. That was some cheek of saying that after everything we went through to get there and we even got there on time, but there was no assistance, no help, no guidance from anyone were we were supposed to go. Later we even got the news that the office back in Iceland couldn’t even reach their staff at Glasgow airport and certainly the staff at the airport had no clue what was going on outside. I was furious. But we made it to the airplane and home and I have never been as glad to come home as I was on Sunday July 1st.
But it is no lie to say that this was a historic trip. The first terrorist attack in Scotland! And the funny thing was, you wouldn’t have known about it if you hadn’t turned on the television, because it just didn’t phase anyone. Everything was business as usual, no hysteria, no panic, no it’s-the-end-of-the-world speech you know by heart from the Americans. Everyone was just as cool as ever.
But the main thing was that no one died and only one person got injured (and we can argue how much or not he deserved it) but we can be grateful that nothing horribly bad happened.
This did nothing to mar the memory of my graduation either, it was a beautiful day, which will live that much longer in my memory because of the events that followed.
Well the main news is that I graduated on June 29th, Friday. It was a marvelous day, and a wonderful ceremony, very formal and festive. It was a day I never wanted to end, but that was after we got back to the hotel. Before I went up to Uni, I was so nervous I had upset stomach and nausea but after a few breathing sessions I finally calmed down and managed to finish getting ready. I met Claire up at the University where we collected our graduation wardrobe and tickets for family. Then we headed for a wee get together at the Celtic Department for drinks and to chat with some friends and teachers. At the ceremony itself, Claire and I got front row seats of the ceremony. I was in nerd heaven. My teacher of four years, Thomas Clancy and head of the Celtic department held a speech celebrating the life of gaelic poet Ruaraidh MacThómais who was receiving Honorary Doctorate from the University. Then the graduation walk began, 340 students receiving their degrees all one by one for more than an hour, wonderful. At the end of the ceremony Dr. Dauvit Broun got a reward for excellence in teaching and he so deserved it, he is such a nice man and a great teacher. He is the head of the M.Litt program I am joining next year, and he was even nice enough to enquire about me and if I would be able to study Old Norse next year. Such a sweet man. I also had a photography session after the ceremony with mom and dad as well, and then a few photos by my brother. Before we left for the hotel, we stopped by the gift shop where we bought a frame for my degree and a bottle of whiskey, that instead of saying The Famous Grouse, it says The Famous Graduate.
Then we headed for the hotel where mom served up a delicious cake before we went upstairs for a wonderful meal. We also got a glass of champagne to toast with and a bottle of fine red merlot from Chile. Five courses and I was beyond bursting. It was truly a great day.
It wasn’t until the day after that everything seemed to go down hill but that wasn’t until much later in the day and we had managed to do most of the things we had intended so there was nothing else for us to worry about. But the trouble at the Glasgow airport did put a dent in our last night in Glasgow. Because there was nowhere possible to get any kind of information from our airliner or media back home of what passangers of Icelandair were supposed to do or contact in case of something like this. Nothing at all. But no matter, we decided to just take things slowly, follow the news and not do anything rash. We finished packing and went to sleep. We all woke up at seven in the morning and the airport was still closed. It wasn’t until eight in the morning that they told us that the airport was finally open, but no matter where we turned we got no news from home if our flight was on or not. We did managed finally to see that the flight from Keflavik had left and so we decided to hurry to the airport in case they would be flying out as well. When we got to the airport, caoz was everywhere and all we were told to do was get in the queue, but they didn’t tell us how long it was or what the purpose was of us queuing at all. We had to walk a kilometre before we found a gap in the queue for us to stand in. Right next to us was a wee shop where I managed to buy some coke for the group because we had no idea of how long we were going to be there. Still we tried to reach Icelandair, Leifsstöð or anyone that might have some answers to us. I managed to find a wheelchair with the help of a very helpful police officer for my mom which made the wait a bit more bearable for her but it was still very difficult for all of us. Finally, by pure chance we got a phoncall from an acquaintance of my brother who told us that the Icelandair flight was scheduled to depart very soon. So I had to try to find someone to tell us what we were to do, finally found a guy who told me that we had to get there asap! We managed at the very, very, very last moment to get to the desk to check in for our flight almost having a heart attack on the way, then we had to go almost half the way back again to get to the International flight terminal. We had to walk across an inside bridge where the windows had been covered up, but it didn’t mask the intense smell of petrol- and rubber burning. We were basically walking right by where the car had crashed into the airport, not a nice thing at all. We made it to the gate where we were placed in a bus that drove us the last few meters to the airplane. At the gate we were even reproached for being so late, I was really taken aback by that. That was some cheek of saying that after everything we went through to get there and we even got there on time, but there was no assistance, no help, no guidance from anyone were we were supposed to go. Later we even got the news that the office back in Iceland couldn’t even reach their staff at Glasgow airport and certainly the staff at the airport had no clue what was going on outside. I was furious. But we made it to the airplane and home and I have never been as glad to come home as I was on Sunday July 1st.
But it is no lie to say that this was a historic trip. The first terrorist attack in Scotland! And the funny thing was, you wouldn’t have known about it if you hadn’t turned on the television, because it just didn’t phase anyone. Everything was business as usual, no hysteria, no panic, no it’s-the-end-of-the-world speech you know by heart from the Americans. Everyone was just as cool as ever.
But the main thing was that no one died and only one person got injured (and we can argue how much or not he deserved it) but we can be grateful that nothing horribly bad happened.
This did nothing to mar the memory of my graduation either, it was a beautiful day, which will live that much longer in my memory because of the events that followed.
2 comments:
Til lukku með útskriftina!!! Svo flott hjá þér og gaman hvað dagurinn var skemmtilegur. Verst bara með þetta kaos á flugvellinum. Skrítið að það var ekki hægt að gefa neinar upplýsingar, svo slæmt að láta fólk vera í óvissu með flugið sitt. En gott að þetta bjargaðist allt á endanum.
Sjáumst eftir nokkra daga, hlakka svo mikið til. Bestu kveðjur frá Sverige, Margrét.
Hlakka líka geggjað til að sjá þig. Það hefur sárlega vantaði þig á klakann í ár.
Sjáumst eftir nokkra daga
kveðja
Elín
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