Finally, the real blogging has begun...

That was Colby's title for this post. Okay, it's time for Annie's perspective on our first week here. Let me start out by saying, flying IcelandAir is quite the experience. Everyone has their personal touch screen t.v. where you can select a variety of t.v. shows, movies, documentaries to watch. I watched Heima which was a documentary of Sigur Ros and his free summer tour around Iceland in 2006. It nearly brought me to tears...the videography was so moving and it made me stand in awe of God and His creativity in making this wild country. (Andres had an extra cd; I am now a raving fan....if only I could figure out what they are saying. Hopefully they are not singing about killing their mothers or doping). Needless to say, I was disappointed when the plane landed because I didn't get to see the other documentaries that looked equally as riveting.

Going through the airports and getting here was so easy....almost too easy. Colby pushed two carts of luggage, and I pushed the new double stroller with my finger with five carry-ons in tow. I kept waiting for something to go wrong--the plane to re-route to Scotland, the man in front of me to whip out a gun, the kids to finally catch the flu bug and vomit everywhere. Instead, the girls were great and the flight was turbulence-free. Going through customs was so strange. We just rounded the corner to find two men who were relaxing, leaning against the wall with their arms crossed. They didn't even move when we walked up to them. I felt uncomfortable, like I was interrupting their conversation or something. They looked at our eight suitcases with furrowed brows, asked why we had so much stuff, and nodded for us to go ahead. Then, through the double doors to Siggi, Andres, and Lilja who were a welcoming sight.

We unpacked for awhile, napped, and had dinner at 2:30 in the morning. Mornings have definitely been rough for me. Colby has literally had to start lifting me up out of bed into a vertical position and nursing me some Earl Gray to help me wake up...by 10:00 a.m. (cut me some slack...that's 5:00 a.m. East Coast time!). I am finishing a COUN class online, which has been interesting since we didn't have internet for the first few days here. By Sunday night I had to interact on the discussion board, so we all bundled up and walked across the street to an internet cafe. Bad news: it was closed; good news: they didn't turn their internet off. There we were at 11:45 p.m. sitting outside the cafe on the icy sidewalk, me--trying to type quickly with numb, freezing fingers-- and Colby--stuffing the kids with pretzels and My Little Pony gummies--all the while trying to hurry me along. In the end, it all worked out and I was able to post by midnight.

I'll close with a few pictures of the apartment (a.k.a. the art gallery).