This and That

ECONOMY
As many of you have written to tell us you are hearing more and more about Iceland in the news due to the economic crisis here. The banks as you know have been mostly bought by the government and an attempt to stabilize the krona with help from Russia failed. It seems like the exchange rate is all over the board depending on where you look. Glitner, the first bank to be bought by the government and the one we use, is laying off 500 people - which for this small country is a lot. As i have written once or twice there is some talk among people. Mostly they are extremely angry at the 20 or so men who are responsible for this crisis and whom it seems have mostly disappeared some say to the Cayman Islands... So far things haven't seems to change here, meaning the prices haven't gone through the roof and stores are not closing. As a matter of fact I was just remarking to Jacob that there is still some work being done and some stores opening. People are talking abut it, they are VERY angry about the situation but they are hardy and very self reflective - so different than Americans in this way. I have read several times now that they feel they drifted too far from their roots of fishing and a simpler life, that they became too used to an extravagant lifestyle and that the people are partially at fault as well. I think this is fascinating and refreshing outlook. A friend of mine has decided not to go to Denmark with her husband while he has one more semester of schooling as a result of this, and that is the first I have head of people changing their plans.

FISHING
Zelia was having a bit of a hard time falling asleep last night and so Jacob wrapped her up and went for a walk while I had some "alone" time. She was asleep in about 5 minutes and he was able to get her into the bed successfully. While he was out and walking along the docks he noticed some decent sized fish and returned with his rod. No joke, I think not ten minutes had passed when he came back home, which I thought was rather odd. He looked at me and said, "sometimes you just know what you're doing," and he carried in 2 cod and either a pollack or haddock! Not bad, right??? A new source of food. We love this kind of thing.
Also, Jacob is going today to check out a company called wish (www.wish.is) they make what he thinks is a VERY nice fly reel. After sending an email to the owner he is heading, NEXT DOOR (how cool is that???) to meet with him and see if there is anything he can do over there.

YESTERDAY AND TODAY
We got to go as a family to swim yesterday which was very nice and this time Zelia succeeded in going under the water and being "sent" to me. It was great! At first she was pretty grumpy in the water and I think she was still hungry - its hard to time the sleeping and eating so that conditions are optimal for swimming:) the three of us walked back with Sunna and Gudny and got some information on different buildings in the town and what used to be there, learned a little about the volunteer firemen, etc.

Today we are heading to the moms' group where someone from Red Cross is coming to do first aid and maybe CPR, it was unclear to me. It is my turn to bring some food so I made hummus last night and am bringing it with pita. Also, I was mentioning La Leche League to Gudny. There is a meeting in Reykjavik but not here so it would be really great to begin it.

Am feeling like I am getting a cold again which is a pain. I hardly got over the last one, ugh.