The Ice Queen!

Hi everybody....

2009-01-12T15:04:00.001Z

we are back...so we moved!

It's all coming together...

2008-05-07T10:42:00.002Z

Three exams down, two to go.

Lost luggage has been returned to owner *pheu*.

Computer is still broken, but I am thinking about buying a new one. Maybe an Apple, Gwyneth Paltrow named her child that... and if it is good enough for Gwyneth it's good enough for me! Generous donations will certainly speed the process along ;)

I miss blogging, I miss you guys and things will be set in motion once this darn exam period is behind us.

Also, Kermit is cute!

A quick update...

2008-03-31T07:34:00.003Z

Life is wonderful. I have had my first practical experience at a hospital and it was wonderful, albeit very messy at times.

Spring is in the air, my heart and at the soles of my feet.

I had the pleasure of meeting Terry and her other half and would like to seize the opportunity and send out my regards and thanks for a wonderful time.

The only thing bugging me right now is my non-compliant brother who has no time to fix and even more non-compliant computer.

Rest assured I will be back!

Guys,

2008-03-15T06:45:00.002Z

due to reasons beyond my technologically challenged mind, I have problems accessing any blogspot-sites these days. My brother had the clever idea of switching servers and with it: switched my access. He has promised to fix this problem in the near future and he better...if he expects to have one :)
I miss you lot.

This too shall pass. If I end in jail...please do send letters!

Thursday Brain Teaser

2008-02-29T00:09:00.002Z

Pre-natal screening, genetically engineered foods, the ability to identify human remains and the testing of physical evidence ... all these extraordinary techniques owe their evolution to the groundbraking discovery depicted above, exactly 55 years ago today. Name the two Cambridge scientists, discovering the structure of the recipe for you and me.

HINT in the comment section, don't be shy!

It's gotta be Icelandic!

2008-02-15T14:09:00.005Z

You know what, I used to think that for those who really want to quit smoking, a trip to Iceland would come in handy. Try lighting your smoke in these winds with your fingers freezing and you'll know what I am talking about. Since last year smoking inside pubs and restaurants has been forbidden here in Iceland and silly me figured a lot of people would just quit. Silly me!

A snow house for smokers in the north western part of Iceland.

The smoking ban seems to have the greatest impact on owners of pubs and restaurants. Clients, especially during winter just stay home -which I think is not that bad a thing- over the weekends and smoke there. It's tough braving Icelandic weather with a smokey habit.

One owner decided to use all the snow outside his front door, shove it together and make a snowhouse outside his establishment. It took one day to build. Inside there are chairs and candles and two chimneys. Now our dare-devils can light up and not be blown away by wind, or moved to the emergency room with second-degree burns.

You gotta give the guy (Erik Newman) credit for such warm imagination in such a cold reality.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2008-02-12T11:35:00.000Z

Dear Mom!

Congratulations! You turned 60 and therefore you are now officially old. But there is solace to be found in the knowledge that you don't look a day older than 59. And what's with the hat, are you French or somethin'?

I still love you though!

Here's to the next 60, I hope you had fun. You were absolutely lovely.

p.s I am sorry we sang "Happy Birthday" to you. In our defense, we inherited our singing voice from you ;)

Watch out for the shovel...

2008-02-07T08:28:00.000Z

I get it. I live in Iceland. It's supposed to snow...but for the love of God, have some limits! This morning I went outside to find several heaps of snow in every parking lot. It was a lucky guess that let me to uncover my car on the first go. Lucky me.

Now it is windy too, which causes the freshly fallen powder snow to dance on the waves of the wind, aiming...usually straight for my face. I didn't shower this morning, so I take the icy morning hygene with a smile. Teeth clenched, trousers wet up to my thighs. My gloves are wet through.

I plumet myself into the car, turn on the motor and back out ...only to get completely stuck in the middle of the road. I can feel a temper rising within me. Out I get again to find a shovel and off I go. Look at me go! Shovelling all that snow, throwing it willfully behind me, the wind turning it around straight into my backside.

By that time I had given up going anywhere and just wanted to get my car back into the parking lot, go inside and have a cup of tea. Neighbour lady comes out. Huge fur wrapped around her and I notice the extreme red lipstick. She tries to tell me that I have to take the snow off the roof, otherwise when I am driving it will fall straight onto my front shield...I am trying to tell her that I am not gonna drive anywhere, but just wanna pull my car back into the lot, get inside and crawl up somewhere in the fetal position. Her lipstick is still worrying me though.

Mom comes out, helps to push my car...nothing. Inside I go and wake dad from his slumber, feeling slightly bad for pulling him away from the soft embrace of his thick sheet into the unwrenching heartiness that winter can be. Out we go, wet Monika, sleepy Dad and a snow covered Mom. We get my car back into the lot, but...

where's the shovel? I can't find it...so much snow has fallen in the meantime that it is completely covered somewhere. I just hope neighbor lady doesn't step on it and accidently brakes the lipstick in her purse.

I have high hopes to discover the shovel in mid spring.

So here I am, 8 in the morning...no way of getting to school; writing a post. Eventually the ice on my eyelashes will melt, my pants will stop standing by themselves in the corner and the hot pinches throughout my body are bound to stop tickling. For breakfast I will eat my own words about the obsession of Icelanders with big SUVs. Right now I am thinking a tank for myself...maybe with a huge atenna that no amount of snow can cover...or I'll just wait for the snowplough!

Rabbitses!

2008-02-01T16:56:00.001Z

Rabbit, rabbit ... you guys!

Happy Birthday, Lego!

2008-01-30T18:05:00.000Z

Wow...50 years. Brick 'em up!

I am sorry, but I find this hilarious...there is no excuse!

If you wanna know a very short history about Lego, come join us over at The Snark!, where I manage to even blend Iceland into the whole scenario.

I am a Fan!

2008-01-25T14:17:00.000Z

When I was in America over Christmas, Andy made me watch a show and this guy appeared. Jeff Dunham. He made me laugh instantly. I never thought a puppet boy could do that. He has a bunch of dolls; my favorite being Achmed the Dead Terrorist. Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd say.

I know this video is long (about 10 minutes) but if you are in a need for laughter and you haven't seen this, pull up a chair and sit back:

72 Virgins...you always have to read the small print, don't you?!

Thursday Brain Teaser

2008-01-24T12:19:00.001Z

"He was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. After losing his leg at age 18 to osteogenic sarcoma, the young athlete decided to run from coast to coast in order to raise money for cancer research. Beginning by dipping his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean at St. John's, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980, he aimed to dip it again in the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver, British Columbia. His pace was daunting, running an average of 42 km a day — the distance of a typical marathon. Celebrating this amazing humanitarian, there is a cancer-awareness marathon every September around the world."

You know what to do...HINT at this week's guest in the comment section. And if you have an extra minute, come over to the SNARK, where we poke fun at eccentricity.

Weekend Trivia

2008-01-19T02:51:00.000Z

Serving a prison term in 1946, he discovered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. After being released, he became a well-known spokesperson for Islam, and also became a militant leader during the civil rights movement. He believed African Americans should fight for equality using any means available and necessary. He did soften his approach after a trip to Mecca, but was assassinated in 1965.

Ok, you know the drill...off with you to the comment section and HINT! at this week's guest.

And since it happened it Iceland, it just wouldn't be right if I did not say something. Check-mate, Bobby. 64 years old, the numbers of the squares on a chess board.

Off we go snarking....

2008-01-16T11:55:00.000Z

On Wednesdays Penguins go snarking. Today we will discuss books we haven't even read. Leave it to me, to do a post without actually knowing anything. So if you want to chuckle and get by without too much work, come join us over here! If you do like to put in the work, comment here first and then come on over anyway :)

Update on the nursing education: I can now measure you blood pressure, pulse, breathing and body temperature, non-digitally, more or less realiably. My parents are very proud.

Thursday Brain Teaser

2008-01-11T01:12:00.000Z

"As punishment for firing his father’s gun on one New Year’s Eve in New Orleans, he was sent to a boys’ home. There he learned to play the cornet and earned the nickname “Satchmo,” for his big mouth. He made many recordings as a vocalist and as a trumpeter, going on to be the international ambassador for jazz in Ghana. When he was 62, one of his recording knocked the Beatles out of the number one spot on the charts".

Who could it be? Fire away in the comment section...in the form of HINTS!
This is an easy one you guys, to make up for last week's pickle :)

Guest Posting

2008-01-09T12:58:00.000Z

The rumors about my death have been exaggerated. This can be proven by the fact that I am guest posting over at the SNARK! and the fact that I passed my finals and am moving on to the next round.*little mini wave in celebration of me*
We will, however talk about some people that did kick the bucket, but went with style. If you wanna know why the above epitaph is funny, come join us over there!

Beware the Nerd!

2008-01-07T14:35:00.000Z

It's official...I've gone off the trolley.

I have my reasons though. One is that the second term at university is starting on Thursday, yet the grades from the previous term have not arrived. I basically don't know if I have made it through to the next round. The other reason is none of your business and hard to unfold without psychiatric help.

In order to calm my nerves, a friend of mine gave me this:

yes... a jigsaw puzzle. Thousand pieces. You laugh! That's alright.

Here is the twisty part: the box of this puzzle doesn't show what you actually are puzzling...you only get a perspective and you have to puzzle what the people on the cover see. I thought it was weird until I realized that there was a reason for that. Puzzles are usually stacked and sold in the toy section where children run around. Children shouldn't see just anything...you see where I am going with this? I was fortunate enough to land a "Full Monty" themed puzzle on my first go, which I excitedly assembled with amused giggles for the last three days. My first clue should have been the line on the back of the cover: "The full puzzle reveals all!" Oh the fun.

I am not gonna post the final picture for reasons...well, my mom!

But I just thought, for those of us with a curious disposition, that a few trivia facts about the origin of puzzles would be well received:

"Although the origin of the word puzzle is unknown, it is known that the first jigsaw puzzles were made in the 1760s by European cartographer John Spilbury.
In 1762, Spilbury hit upon the idea of gluing maps onto thin mahogany and cedar panels and cutting them up with a fine marquetry saw.

Puzzle popularity increased in England during the following decades, and there is evidence that puzzles arrived in the New World sometime before 1800. Around the same time, the process of color lithography was developed which allowed better quality pictures to be produced more efficiently.

The 1890s saw the development of die cutting methods, which eliminated the need to cut puzzle pieces by hand. This process allowed puzzles to be mass produced and made them much cheaper.

By the late 1920s and the onset of the Great Depression, there was resurgence in popularity of puzzles. In 1933, sales peaked at an astounding 10 million per week. With lack of steady employment, people turned to puzzles and other forms of home entertainment instead of outside entertainment like restaurants and nightclubs."

and even today, there are a few nut-cases that indulge and once you get started it is hard to stop. Don't try this at home...'cause you will run out of spaces to walk, sleep or even bathe...

Now excuse me, a second puzzle seems to be calling my name.

Trivia

2008-01-02T23:39:00.001Z

That's right, we are back in business. A new year has started and I wanna be orgnazied for a major portion of January. So, without further ado, allow me to present to you our weekly trivia:

"A colorful figure in 20th-century Canadian radio journalism. For over 40 years he produced a daily radio series called "Let's Be Personal;" he gained a reputation for "telling it like it is" and became a familiar figure to millions of listeners. He is especially remembered for a broadcast he made praising the United States on June 5, 1973. The text of that broadcast has been widely circulated on the Internet, particularly after the air attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in September of 2001 and again in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina."

Any idea; the moise of a bell ringing in your ear? Head over to the comment section and HINT! at this week's guest. Simply throwing his name at me, won't be well received!

Happy guessing everybody and try to leave google out of it for as long as restraint has a grip on you :)

If you have an extra moment, give THE SNARK a visit where we look at resolutions in fur!

It's a brand new year...

2008-01-01T14:06:00.001Z

and yet, it is silly ole me grinning back at myself from the mirror between us. Same wrinkles, same independent hair and same elfish ears. The fact that I am grinning makes me feel like I got the joke. Maybe the mirror needs a scrub though.
This morning I found a wonderful quote in my inbox:

"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential."

~ Ellen Goodman

With that in mind, I went through my favorite pictures of last year and found one that I think reflects just that sentiment...in blurry pixels, of course.

Sometimes it is good to remember how small you are, which should never keep you from climbing.

A Happy Christmas

2007-12-25T17:37:00.001Z

I wish everyone that happens to pass by here a wonderful Holiday season. I made my first gingerbread house this year and am having serious designs on studying architecture as my next degree. Feel free to enlarge the picture, and you will see a penguin teaching a class of potential penguins all about snow and how to avoid candy cane avalanches.

Be nice to one another!

Study Break...

2007-12-17T13:26:00.000Z

This blog is taking a vacation for about two weeks. It's owner has managed to live through the exam period and is now gonna go wild across the ocean. NY here I come. As of 18.10 this evening America is one EastGerman-Icelandic penguin richer. I probably shouldn't mention my identity confusion at customs :)

I might check in every now and again and see if the stress hasn't killed you yet!
Have a greta week everybody!

True story...

2007-12-14T00:31:00.001Z

On Sunday, Erla Osk Arnardottir, an Icelandic woman traveled to JFK with a couple of friends for a day of shopping. Upon landing and going through customs and passport checks, Homeland Security noticed something strange and took her to the side. She had been in the States before(1995) and apparently spent 3 weeks too long. She prolonged her vacation and neglected to prolong her Travel-Visa at the same time. She has been back in the States for a visit in between, but last Sunday they stopped her. Rules and regulations demanded that she'd return to Iceland immediately. At the time, back in 1995, she had no idea of the regulations and did not realize the implications her oversight might bring. She understood however that there were rules and had no objection flying back to Iceland right away.

However, this incidence was followed by 14 hours of strenuous interviewing that was composed of questions nothing to do with the original offence. She was not allowed to call anybody and after sending a quick IM to family and friends on the toilet, the guards took her phone. The right to call the Icelandic embassy was taken without explanation. Despite everything she quickly realized that it would be in her best interest to show maximum co-operation.

After 10 hours of sitting at the airport, two armed guards came and told her to stand against the wall and spread her legs, a chain was placed around her waste and her hands shackled to it. Her feet were tied together and like a murder, rapist or terrorist she was lead through the airport, put into a car and transported without a destination to a prison where she finally received some porridge and bread to eat. The people that surrounded her were rude and hardly spoke to her. Again she requested a phone call, which was allowed this time ...then she realized the phone only took collect calls and it was impossible to call outside of the USA. 9 hours she spent in a dirty cell with a steal bed and a toilet, totally in shock. She felt lost, forlorn without anybody that cares about her knowing where she was. When it was announced to her that she had to return to the airport and fly home immediate relief, until the cold shackles embraced her again.

Followed by armed guards and in shackles she was let through the airport for everyone to see, through the lounge filled with Icelanders when she was finally handed to Icelandair flight personal. She left a place she is in no hurry ever to return to.

In HER BLOG, she describes this incident as the most humiliating, de-humanizing act she has lived through and I can do nothing but send her my most sincere apologies, on whose behalf I just don't know.

I love to travel and am not quite ready to quit this habit. In fact I am leaving for JFK in 4 days and all I am doing right now is trying to convince myself that this is an occurence out of the ordinary. This can't be daily routine.
I remember the first time I landed at JFK back in March and the whole procedure scared me...but I found comfort reading the commitments plastered all over the wall in teh foreign-arrival halls "We will treat you with respect and dignity". I think a different feeling will overcome me when I land there on Monday.
This year I have already been to the States twice. I love the country and I love its people... but I am getting scared.

When penguins do exams...

2007-12-11T16:05:00.000Z

I just finished my anatomy exam and have two exams to go; psychology and philosophy. Between studying for the tests I managed ot scribble a little piece of compound sentences for Cindra's Quill-Driving Competition and this here Penguin sure would love it if some of you could make it over there and read some really funny stuff. We were given 18 words to construe a poem, essay, anecdote or mumble-jumble with and the outcome was pretty darn any good. Since the submitted entries are anonymous there is no pressure on you to vote with a person in mind. So if you have a minute, venture over there...with a hot cuppa somethin' and relax.

We thank you!

Talent, pure talent...

2007-12-06T20:44:00.000Z

some actors truly are great. This must be one of my all-time favorite...although his recent involvement with an Icelandic company made him even more prominent in my list:

I just love that Icelandic advert.

But this man holds more surprises than a fabulous British accent:

"Eric Cantona, ein anderer grosser philosoph" LOL...this one was made during the
World Championship in soccer and he surprised me last year with this ability I didn't know he had. Although his throat looks really hurt in that clip, I've gotta admit: German is not for the weak-larynxal amongst us!

"My hovercraft is full of eels." Language sure is open for interpretation!
Bouncy, bouncy!

It's not that I am high, I am just sleep-deprived!

5 pm

2007-12-05T00:54:00.000Z

and half an hour later, a bit further away: