Random Observations...

This section will be dedicated to random observations that I've made. This blog is sort of serving as a virtual scrapbook for me as well as a way to keep everyone at home up-to-date, so I figured I better start recording things that I notice now before I forget them!



- I landed in Iceland around 6:30 a.m. I went to grab something to eat - they had this little a la carte area w/ some pre-packaged food, yogurt, etc. Then they had a buffet line. I figured - probably eggs or something like that. Oh no. Not quite. They had lots of non-traditional breakfast food (in my opinion) such as salami. The ODDEST thing I saw, though, was baked beans. Hmm... can't really imagine eating baked beans at 6:30 a.m. but apparently it's common there as I saw a guy loading up his plate....



- Alot of the men over here ride motorcycles. But not the scooter type, and they are definitely not riding them due to their fuel efficiency. They are HUGE. I feel like these bikes over here are the equivalent of pick-up trucks in the Midwest - the bigger, the better. Oh, and even though they huge bikes, they still will take the sidewalk if the street is backed up, so pedestrians, beware!



- Coffee is even more of a part of life here than America. I know Starbucks/Caribou are a staple of many people's lives in the US, but it's nothing like here. Each morning I have gone to this little Boulangeries across from my hotel for my habitual Orange Juice & Pain au Chocolat. The first day, I only ordered those 2 things & there was a whole lot of confusion over the fact that I wasn't ordering a cafe. I couldn't even understand what she was trying to say the first day - I kept pointing at the Orange Juice machine, she kept pointing at the espresso machine. We went back & forth for quite a while until she finally realized - oh, she doesn't want a cafe! Now I know this, so each day, I order my orange juice & pain au chocolat & as soon as she starts to point at the espresso machine, I start saying no so as to avoid that painful exchange again.



- You can get around surprisingly well by knowing 3 key phrases: I would like, I am going, and I am looking. These phrases have been KEY to my getting around. And the people seem to appreciate the fact that I am trying to use their language. So I have not experienced any rudeness. However, by using some French, they assume I speak French, so I usually only understand about 20% of what they say,but I usually get enough of a gist of what they say & can figure out what they are saying.... usually.



- Grass must be sacred here or something. I've been to a few parks and you simply do NOT walk on the grass. It's kind of chained off with signs saying not to enter. Kind of odd... But today I am at Place des Vosges & people are sprawled out all over the place.