The Land of Fire and Ice: April

The last full month of my stay in Iceland has begun. This past week has been a mixture of recovering from the whirlwind of a weekend and trying desperately hard to focus on school to finish yet more final papers and projects. Tuesday night a few of us from Gest-Inn were able to attend a semi-final round of the Battle of the Bands here in Iceland, or Músíktilraunir as it is in Icelandic. We had high hopes, as just a few years ago in 2010, Of Monsters and Men was the winning band, thus helping in their claim to fame. We sat down around 7:00 and saw eleven different bands perform. The selection consisted of much more metal and rock than I would have guessed (not my favorite), though we did see some very talented musicians. It was fun to experience a very Icelandic event, along with being able to witness the inside of the great Harpa music hall. The idea of spring has been a tad more predominant this week, as the weather has begun to warm up and snow has not been sighted for over two weeks now. I've enjoyed many walks in the above freezing weather, seeing glimpses of life around the city once again. Friday night Laura, Sierra and I decided to go to the Student Cellar for dinner. Laura and I had been craving burgers for quite some time, realizing that may be due to the fact that I had not eaten one since the first day I arrived in Iceland. It tasted just as delicious as I remembered :) After dinner, they took me to my first Wes Anderson film, The Grand Budapest Hotel. I enjoyed it very much! During the day on Saturday I worked on my last assignment for Iceland Nature and Culture, thank goodness. The night, however, was spent celebrating one of our Dutch housemates 22nd birthday! We ate pizza and cake as a house, and then went out on the town with a great number of other exchange students. This morning I have cleaned, and eaten the best brownie I have had in a long time. I look forward to this upcoming week, as it is my last week of school!