Lögberg-Heimskringla - 14.07.2006, Qupperneq 4

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It’s funny, the things you think you’ll never get used to.
For me, living in Iceland, it
was two main concepts: being
on an island and lack of sun-
light.
Coming from Winnipeg,
smack in the middle of North
America, I was used to wide
open space and the assump-
tion that if you wanted to go
somewhere, you could jump in
a car and leave. So it seemed
kind of strange that in Reyk-
javík, if you wanted to drive
away somewhere, the main
highway would just take you
in a big circle around the is-
land and back to where you
started. It wasn’t even that I
wanted to leave; it was just un-
settling that I couldn’t without
taking a plane or getting on a
ship (another foreign concept
for someone with the prairies
ingrained in him).
The fact that in Iceland
winters are dark and summers
are bright seemed more of a
pressing issue. I had heard a
lot about Seasonal Affective
Disorder due to lack of sun-
light, and of the possibility of
depression when the days grew
short. I think it was in the first
day or so that I was in Iceland
that a German friend and I sat
down to figure out just how
many minutes of sunlight we
were losing every day.
Given that it was Septem-
ber, things seemed pretty much
the same as what I was used to
at a lower latitude (no big sur-
prise, given the autumnal equi-
nox). And there were plenty
of other distractions for me,
such as registering for classes,
learning Icelandic and meeting
relatives.
It was around my birthday
in late October that I started
feeling disoriented, and for a
few days I couldn’t pinpoint
why. I’d pretty much forgotten
about losing daylight except in
a theoretical manner — one of
those facts you “know” with-
out thinking much about.
After turning my thoughts
back to the light, I realized
what seemed odd was the angle
of the sunlight during the after-
noon. It seemed like what I was
used to in January, even though
I knew it was still autumn.
That’s when I realized things
were going to get really dark.
But as I mentioned before,
it’s funny what you think will
be difficult. The darkness kept
increasing day by day, and
aside from trying lýsi (cod liv-
er oil) to get some vitamin D,
it didn’t bother me that much.
Actually, it was the lýsi that
was the problem — I could
barely swallow it.
By the time I had to write
exams in December, I was
used to pitch-black mornings
and the sun coming up for a
few hours around noon. It was
actually kind of fun.
Much worse was my first
summer under the midnight
sun.
Well, “worse” is perhaps
too strong. But as the days
kept stretching and the sun-
sets seemed to last for hours, I
found the light was like an itch
I couldn’t scratch — there was
no darkness at night, there was
no “stop” time to sleep. The
sky was beautiful, but every
night it was like just taking a
nap.
I won’t deny the novelty
of coming out of a bar on the
weekend with hundreds of other
people staggering around me in
what was, if not broad daylight,
then broad twilight — that’s
something I won’t soon forget.
There was no anonymity for
the exhausted, drunk or rowdy,
and thanks to the sunlight ev-
eryone looked as though they
had stayed out much later than
they actually had.
I didn’t realize how much
I missed the night sky until I
came back to Canada later in
the summer and was confront-
ed by the stars above Halifax.
Even though I was curious to
explore the city, which I had
never visited before, there were
times I just stood staring at the
sky, amazed that I hadn’t seen
anything like it for months.
As for being “trapped” on
an island, there’s a funny coda
to that too. After months of
hearing the waves crashing,
seagulls crying and wind whis-
pering, when I came back to
Winnipeg I still couldn’t fall
asleep, no matter how dark it
was or how many stars were
shining. Oddly enough, what
I couldn’t sleep without was ...
the sound of the sea.
David Jón Fuller
Managing Editor
Dear Editor:
While I welcome any Ice-
landic material in Lögberg-
Heimskringla which provides
an interesting way of increas-
ing my limited knowledge of
the language, I find the “Word
Find” somewhat tedious.
Finding hidden words in a
puzzle is okay for those hav-
ing nothing better to do, but I
think I would get more benefit
from simply pairing words
from two lists (Icelandic and
English), without wasting
time on the puzzle first.
I am a keen crossword
puzzle fan (including cryp-
tics), but yours hardly quali-
fies as a crossword, and con-
tributes little to my knowledge
of things Icelandic.
I am sorry to have to be
so critical; the alternative is
to suffer in silence. “Íslenska
fyrir byrjendur” is good. But
there should be considerably
more Icelandic in the paper.
Edward Eggertson
(my friends call me Ed)
Burlington, ON
Dear Ed:
Thanks for your comments
regarding Icelandic content
and the puzzles in the newspa-
per. Yours is actually only the
second or third letter about
the latter, so it’s good for me
to know whether people ac-
tually do the WordFind and
crossword.
Regarding the WordFind,
this is meant to be something
to learn vocabulary, and
whenever possible I try to
have a theme going so there
is a context to the Icelan-
dic words. Of course, people
could just skip the Icelandic
words and find the English
words. Or, conversely, just
look at the answers and pair
up the Icelandic to the Eng-
lish. So it’s a fair comment,
but I have a hard time gauging
how difficult an Icelandic con-
tent puzzle should be. If it’s all
Icelandic, that is too much for
the majority of our readers; if
it’s not enough then it’s boring
for anyone who can use the
Icelandic language already.
Perhaps there is some way to
improve this by just having
Icelandic clues for hidden Ice-
landic words — difficult, yes,
but then a real puzzle.
As for the crossword, it’s
true some of the ones we have
had have not had Icelandic
cultural content, but I am
working to improve this. One
of the main themes I had in-
tended for the crossword was
that it would contain clues and
answers drawn from of previ-
ous issues of L-H, thereby
drawing from Icelandic cul-
ture and communities across
North America.
It’s also true that there
aren’t a large number of words
crossing in the puzzle, and this
is due to the program we use.
If I add too many words to the
puzzle it starts to jettison the
long ones to fit all the short
ones in — and this often re-
sults in Icelandic words or
names being bumped. I will
look into using a different pro-
gram to see whether we can
do better.
Putting the puzzles in was
an effort to increase the use
of the Icelandic language in
the newspaper. We do have
access to news stories in Ice-
landic, which I translate and
run in English. I am hesitant
to run them in both languages,
because having worked at L-
H when we used to do this, I
remember it as a page-design
nightmare. It is very difficult
to make the text and transla-
tion work equally on a page,
and it really eats up space.
I’d be very interested to
know how other readers feel
about the Icelandic language
content of the newspaper.
Thanks again for your
comments — they really help
us as we work to improve the
newspaper.
— Ed.
* * *
Dear Editor:
The 2007 INL of NA Cal-
endar, ready for distribution,
is the result of many hours of
volunteer time by the Com-
mittee members of the Leif Ei-
riksson Icelandic Club of Cal-
gary. I would like to recognize
the valuable contribution Ron
Goodman has made over the
past two years. His computer
skills are unmatched by any of
us. His patience in producing
print-ready material not only
saved us money; it allowed
the committee to view drafts
at home and to scrutinize each
draft at meetings. The process
was excellent.
I am certain that all INL
of NA members will join me
in thanking Ron Goodman for
his willing contribution.
Carol G. Blyth
Calgary, AB
* * *
The unbearable lightness of being... in Iceland
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4 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 14 July 2006