On Sat, Dec 08, 2007 at 07:00:54AM -0500, Karen Thomas wrote: > I'm kinda curious though...in a country that has 23 hours of darkness in the > winter, what are they busy doing year-round? That was a rhetorical > question. I don't expect an answer of course. (The word, "busy", just made > me think about their world's highest per capita consumption of alcohol, for > some reason...)
according to my american friend who's worked there, they try to keep their animals alive (if farmers), they knit lopipeysa, they homeschool their kids (they have one of the world's highest literacy rates), and they tell sagas and gossip (more closely related than one might imagine, when the scene of the saga is a hill that you can see from your house). and they go to parties and family gatherings and eat things that i might have a hard time trying myself but they apparently enjoy :) you know, human stuff. (i'm sure there are anthropological studies here; this is mere anecdotery, but if you are really curious you really can find out.) > BTW, somewhere I read that Icelanders have a very high per capita access to > computers and to the internet - maybe one of the highest in the world. > Interesting that they conveniently don't have time to answer basic questions > about horsemanship... i think they (a) prefer to speak icelandic, and (b) don't care much about answering basic questions for random strangers. i had a heck of a time contacting gudmar about horses for sale; i thought he was very terse and uncommunicative. then of course i went there, and he's this continuously-amused fellow who picks out the right horse for me, takes me on a trail ride and doesn't make fun of my fears even while guiding me through them, and teaches me a very educational riding lesson. of course, meanwhile i think he was mostly gossiping with the mutual friend who'd brought me there, and expecting stjarni to do the real sales work. --vicka
