The great escape

While walking out of our building the other day I noticed this sight outside our building. It appears asthough the children across the hall have been trying to make a break for it. I am only glad they used a doll to test the rescue rope before they tried to climb done themselves. As you can see, the doll did not make it.

Home made escape roap hanging down from the third floor window

The first victim of this escape method. Just glad it was a doll.

pictures by aidan

These are some pictures, taken by Aidan, a very recent Canadian guest of ours. Seems he takes some good pictures, or at least I think so.

from the shooting thing to the base

The view out my window, late in the evening

Rósa

Rósa in her natural habitat, lava fields 

Eating with the big boys

Leópold refuses to believe that he is actually a baby. Here you see him eating with his big brothers, and the boy from upstairs who is nearly a brother.
And if you used to live on the base you will recognize all my furniture from the old day rooms, so I would like to thank the U.S. army for furnishing my living room :)

Leó, enjoying those noodles.

So he has to stand to be able to see well enough over the table.

Lucky for us, Rósa is very good about getting any food that does not make it into the baby's mouth.

Waiting for the bus

While it is annoying that the bus is nearly always late, at least the view from the bus stop is beautiful.

cultural studies

In North America people never take off there shoes. That is why they have carpet in the house, because it hides the dirt and mud better then other flooring, so then don't have to wash the floor.

Seriously, that is what Kasper learned in school today.

Don't worry, I did correct him. Everyone I have meet in Canada, and people from the states, take off there shoes at the door. And they still clean the floors.

This is probably another one of the stupid reasons that people do not want to move out to the old base, they think it is dirty in the apartments, because no one ever took off there shoes.

Open to all

While chatting and catching and gossiping at the store today I heard the best rumour ever, and I seriously hope its true.

Some people are saying, since the base is basically empty, that they opening it up to everyone.

They say that to start they are letting people, who have finished there school, stay.
Great, really, because although Davíð is in school now, we were already thinking about ways to be able to stay, but it looks like everything will be fine.

Rumour also has it that they will not be taking the appliances back for a while longer, again good news.

This is all gossip, hearsay, but I hope its true. 

Sisters

Some of the apartments on the base are very very big. Large for North American standards and near mansions in Icelandic standards.

This makes us look greedy for having a 4 bedroom apartment to ourselves, even if there is 5 of us.

This particular apartment style often has two small families living in it.

For example, the people across the hall from me. There are two sisters. One of whom in still married, the other is single. One has two boys that share a bedroom and the other has one boy in his own room. There, 4 bedrooms used up but two families.

They say this arrangement works well for them, but there is a problem with too many couches in the living room. Everything else is good.

This makes me miss my own sister more.

Even if we fought like cats and dogs, I would like to think we would be good roommates.

My three boys could share a room, her two could have there own. One room for me and Davíð, one for her. Perfect.

Everybody pays.

In a pervious post I complained about the 15800 I would be paying for supposed damages (paint) in my last apartment.
I was really angery, really I have better things to spend the money on.
Then one of my old neighbors said her friend just moved and had to pay 40000, and the guy at the store had to pay 50000, so I can stop complaining now.

Mold mold

As I mentioned in a few posts now, I have switched apartments because of an mold problem.
I only saw the mold growing on the ceiling in Kasper's room but during the move out report they found mold in both bathrooms and the living room ceiling.
Makes me glad we decided to deal with the hassle of moving rather then the hassles of living in construction while they tried to get ride of all the mold.
And if they kept finding more we probably would have had to move anyways.
Done now and settling well. 

Inspection.

When ever you move rental properties the move out inspection has to be done.

To me this is one of the most stress full thing about moving.

No matter how much you clean and repair, they find something wrong. After all, there is a lot of money to be made.

I have never, in Iceland or Canada, heard of someone getting the entire deposit back.

This move was no different.

While the guys were checking for dust behind the dryer and spots on counters, I was nearly having a heart attack.

I spent so much time on the place, I even painted spots that had come up so it actually looked better then when I moved in, and that was my undoing.

In the entrance hallway, with the light shining on the wall, you could tell I had just painted.

I mean painted less then 12 hours ago.

They asked if I had been painting. I said I had. They asked where I bought the paint, I told then (the same place they buy the paint) and then they told me off for painting.

I, the tenant, am not allowed to paint. Even if there are marks on the walls.

STUPID STUPID

So they are making me pay 15800 KR, a deal they tell me. They could have charged more?

I am a little angry, mostly because it is there fault I had to move apartments, I didnt put the mold there, but I am glad it is done.

Part of me thinks I should fight it but the other part reminds me I have 3 boys to take care of and that is more important.

But I will remember this lesson for next time.

Just a few mushroms.

First I should apologize for not blogging in weeks. We are still alive and well, just getting through a small crisis.

You see a few weeks ago we noticed mold growing on the ceiling in Kasper's room. Since Kasper is allergic to mold we moved him into our room while we waited for the offices to open after Christmas holidays.

When they opened the problem was looked at and while we were assured this was not the deadly black mold, they would need to do work on the place and could not guarantee it would not come back. I guess there is a problem with the insulation.

Anyways, we switched apartments and moved about 100 meters over to a building that has never had mold.

Also the same building as my friend Lizzy.

Also an even bigger apartment. 150 meters! Thats three times the size of our place in Reykjavík.

So I have been in moving chaos and have a lot to catch up on, but its coming :)

Crispy fresh, frozen and a little flashy

Crispy fresh air is nice in the shower, Personally I like to have burning hot water with the window wide open. 43 degree water burning my skin and below zero air in my lungs. A good contrast.
This window also makes a good shelf. A place to keep the shampoo. The only problem being during the winter, like now, some things are freezing. The toothpaste and shampoo are currently defrosting at the bottom of the shower. It seemed a little too cold for them...
This window is also a little awkward because besides some little super rusty blinds, you are basically putting on a show for anyone who cares to look into the window while you are in there. OK, it is only a problem for women, but still, it is not like curtains can go in the shower... Lucky, I think no one looks up to the third floor.

This is not my shower, but it is the same. I was just to lazy to dig out the camera for this.

the pop bottle question

I have never been very good at taking in my bottles.

In Edmonton we used to leave them on the side of the road for the bottle collectors. They came around daily so I never had to worry about them.

In Reykjavík a sweet little old Chinese woman collected bottles. She was in my neighborhood on Mondays and we got very good at catching each other. So I saved all my bottles until Monday then gave them away.

In Þórshöfn the depot was within walking distance so the kids would take them in for a little candy money.

Here in Ásbrú, none of these options are available to me and I don't know what to do.

I do not drive and I am not interested in dragging huge black garbage bags on the bus, with a few kids, for an hour, to get a few thousand kr., not even enough to buy a pizza.

I guess no one is poor enough around here to be bothered to collect them.

So much for the kreppa.

I would feel like a bad person throwing them in the garbage. Killing the environment and wasting money....

This is a serious pickle and until I find an answer my storage room will only get fuller and fuller, perhaps even start to overflow.

Maybe if you are taking in your bottles and want to stop by, you can have mine.

Around the base

One great thing about the base is the mix between Iceland and North America.

I really like how the street names are translated :)

Okt. 31

On the base they did Halloween, and I was so happy my boys got to see it the way it is in Canada.
Usually Iceland does not do Halloween, so I was always telling the boys how it was in Canada.
They loved it.

Rex and Cody

Don't show anyone

On our way to the bus stop the other day, the weather was rather poor.
It was windy, no surprise in Iceland, but when I saw this stroller, rolling around like a tumble weed, I had to take a picture.
But Kasper doesn't want anyone to see it, because then it will be harder to conince people to move here. 

It's just too good

The swimming pool here on the old base is empty, and has been empty for years, since the Americans left.

Previously I had assumed that it was only a matter of time until it opened up, because it looks like a great pool.

Water slides! Diving boards! And, all indoors, a perk in winter, and even the windy summers. (Most pools are at least partly outside in Iceland)

But when Davíð talked to the people at the gym about it, they said it would not be opened, at least not in the foreseeable future because:

It is to deep by Icelandic and European standards.

To open the pool they would have to fill the bottom in with concrete and that is a lot of work. I guess it is not as easy as it sounds and requires a lot of engineering.

This made me think about my swimming experiences in Iceland and although I have really enjoyed the pools with such warm water, they are a little shallow. I mean I have not been in a swimming pool here, in Iceland, where I could not swim down to touch the bottom.

When I was kid I liked the diving boards, they keep the swimming interesting, fun and daring!

Now that I know what a great deep pool this is, and that it will not be used anytime soon, if ever, it makes me even more upset.

I want an awesome pool, next to my house, that I can swim in in the winter with out catching a cold, dive and go on water slides......

The Keilir Scam

This is a very long post...

To start from the beginning:

Once upon a time the was a NATO base built in Iceland. It was huge, compared to the rest of the population, housing up to 7000 people.

This housing had all the furniture and appliances a person could need.

There was also a grocery store, swimming pool, several gyms, restaurant, garages, vehicles, movie theater, really you name it. This place had everything.

Then the Americans left. It was true that a lot of jobs were lost, it took a lot of people to service this town, but they left a town behind.

They left everything! In fact, many apartments had even been recently been redone and had new appliances (like the one I am in :)) .

Everything was left to Iceland.

Now, thanks to the Icelandic way, filled with corruption (everything is about who you know ) friends of people in charge were basically given what could be sold and made a lot of money.

What could not be sold was stuffed into other buildings.

Furniture, gym equipment and appliances are still being sold, by people privately. And we all know how they came about all this stuff.

In a wasteful way, things that could not be sold here have been thrown away by the container full. Televisions, air purifying units and personal items left behind. Some apartments are still being emptied and I have seen bins full of clothing, Christmas lights and chairs. Everything.

What was left was some empty apartments. At least they are trying to make sure that is all that is left.

So these empty houses are rented out by Keilir as student housing for all the schools. Including the Universities in Reykjavik, you can catch a bus to school and back everyday. Keilir is also a school, similar to NAIT.

So Keilir in in charge of renting out these apartments.

Keilir is also a private school.

So this is what does not add up:

Although the housing is dirt cheap, compared to what you would pay in the city, it is still expensive enough that student qualify for full rent subsidy from the government to help pay the rent. In my case, this is 36000 a month. Really, a lot of tax money going to this private, for profit school, very month.

Please remember that these houses were free, there is no mortgage to pay on them. They have everything they need.

Then there is the hidden fees. 8000 a month for utilities and Internet. Fair enough, except if you actually want to use the Internet you have to pay another 1500 a month. There is also a 25000 a month house fee, to pay for someone to clean the hallways in the building.

We worked it out to 30000 a month that is paid for someone to vacuum the hallway every couple weeks. Probably takes 5 min each building and they do a crappy job. Looks like a contract given out to someones brother, who then pays some foreigner 120000 a month while collecting several hundred thousand. I am tempted to refuse to pay. I will clean my own part of the hallway, and Ill do a better job.

So this company, posing as a school, is making a fortune off students and the country by collecting rent and rent subsidy off students.

This is a depression, caused by the super rich, and I am surprised Icelanders will sit by and watch another rich group, rob the country more.

A better idea! At least I think so and if I were in charge this is what I would do:

I understand that if housing is completely free it would be destroyed, people generally do not appreciate what is given to them. So a small amount has to be charged.

I do not think rent subsidy should be collected, so the rent could be the amount that would be paid if you did not get reimbursed with subsidy. Example: My rent is 81000, but I get 36000 back every month. So the rent for this place should be 45000.

This rent money would include all utilities, because everyone knows it is all run by hot water and I can see the steam coming from the ground from here. Very low cost.

The rent money collected would go towards services for the people living here.

As it is we do get free busing to Reykjavík, but more then 4 buses a day would be nice. Maybe every hour. As it is the buses are always full and it does take a lot of traffic off the road.

The playschool and afterschool care would be free.

The swimming pool would be opened.

The rest would probably be eaten up by maintenance of the base-town.

The furniture and appliances would be put back in apartments.

With such great services, more people would move here. As it is only 1500 people live here, when it could be 7000.

More people paying rent means better services.

Maybe we could even open the movie theater.

This was left to Iceland and should be used as a benefit to all of Iceland.

One way this could be done is by making it a supportive place to live, help family's get an education.

This should not just be another opportunity for some super rich to take money no one even has anymore, to become more super rich.

American Style

Icelandic playgrounds tend to consist of a slide and some rocks, making the playground on the base addicting to kinds.
This is one of three playgrounds at the school. The boys like it so much they go on weekends too, never can play too much!
I dont know how I will ever move away from here!

Not just an airport, or abandoned army base

There is a common assumption that because I do not live in the capital, then I must live in the middle of no where.

What could there be to do?

Isn't it noisy from all those planes?

OK, I admit the planes can cause some noise. There has been some fighter jet exercises the last few days that are a bit loud - but they boys love it!

Davíð even admitted a childhood fascination with planes has made the late night take offs soothing to fall asleep too, so I guess this noise is not all bad!

Places of interest include, but are not limited to: Viking World, Blue Lagoon and Water World.

Now you see, there is so much to do here, there is no excuse not to visit :)