ESN Newsletter August 2013
On behalf of the ESN RVK board.......WELCOME to Iceland. You may be overwhelmed with your new surroundings and what this tiny little island in the North has to offer. Have no fear, we at ESN Reykjavík will be here for you throughout the year with weekly parties, adventures all over the country as well as providing you with a rich cultural experience. Every Thursday ESN Reykjavik provides you with a party at Mánabar where you can use your ESN card to receive strong discounts on selected drinks until midnight on Wednesday's. There will be pub quizzes and theme parties every now and then to add variety to your mid-‐week partying. We love our science trips and they can prove to be beneQicial to you. Internationally friendly companies explain who they are and what they do, while providing you with drinks and food. These prove to be useful if you plan to extend your stay beyond your Erasmus period. ESN Reykjavik will be providing you with breathtaking, heart stopping trips around the country at an affordable price for experiences that will last with you for a lifetime. Some things to look forward to are: Fimmvörðuháls & Þórsmörk (The Valley of Thor) where you can take a 23km hike between glaciers and volcanoes providing a gorgeous view in every direction. There will be caving, Búri Cave provides the opportunity to explore the lava tube caves. Considered to be one of the "hidden" gems of Iceland. For the extreme there will be lorem ipsum dolor met set river nunc rafting. A heart stopping adventure through the rough rivers of Iceland. quam parum
2009
Verið velkomin til land elds og íss!!
-‐Shishir Patel, President of ESN Reykjavík
The ESN Reykjavík Board
President Shishir
Vice President Pétur
Secretary Paula
Communications Manager Karyn
IT Kristinn
Adventure Planner Erla
Marketing Manager Karólína
Event Planner Sandra
Project Coordinator Sigríður
Treasurer Björn
National Representative Ólafur Páll
Party Animal Reykja Viktor
Intercultural day The Intercultural day was held in Reykjavík for the 5th time on May 11th. Although Reykjavík’s population is not large there is a growing community of immigrants coming from all over the world. The Intercultural day celebrates these different cultures and traditions. ESN Reykjavík joined the parade this year, which started from Hallgrímskirkja. People had on their countries colors or traditional costumes, and went all the way down to Ráðhús Reykjavíkur. On the way we gave out paper cards to people saying; “You are Beautiful” and “ ESN loves you”. We also gave free hugs to well over 1000 people. Even the mayor of Reykjavík, Jón Gnarr got a free hug! Afterwards we went to Nauthólsvík and had some Burgers & Beers.
Mýrarbolti -‐ Swamp Soccer The European championship in Swamp Soccer took place in the beautiful surroundings of ÍsaQjörður in the West Fjords, on the Qirst weekend of August. We at ESN Reykjavik participated for the Qirst time ever in this very unusual tournament. As expected from an ESN crowd, we had a very diverse team. A total of 11 students coming from Iceland, Portugal, Germany, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Brazil and Italy played together. Half of the team was composed of girls and by the rules of the tournament we all played together in the men's division. Playing in the deep mud is a very tiring sport. To have enough players in our team we joined another group of 10 local guys, making a full team of 20 players. All in all we played three games. We had aimed at scoring at least one goal which we managed to achieve in our second game! We were for some time winning 1-‐0 and celebrating our magniQicent goal when our opponents had evened the game 1-‐1. Unfortunately, we had to embrace our losses in all three games. Having Qinished our last game on Field 1, where supposedly The Devil himself lives, we got into a mud Qight with our opponent team. We may have lost the game but we deQinitely won the mud Qight! On the Sunday and Qinal night the team went to see Retro Stefson play live in downtown ÍsaQjörður. We danced all night under a clear and bright August sky. On Monday morning we packed our tents and drove back to Reykjavik after our three day adventure. It was truly a great weekend.
-‐Ólafur Páll
Your basic guide to Icelandic Pronunciation guide (as based on American English): Aa – bra Áá – cow Bb – book Dd – deer *Ðð – the Ee – let Éé – yes
Ff – forget *Gg – grass Hh – house Ii – inside Íí – me Jj – yolk Kk – kilo
Ll – lemon Mm – mom Nn – never Oo – more Óó – Qlow Pp – park *Rr – roll
Basics Góðan daginn – Good day/afternoon Góða kvöldið – Good evening Góða nótt – Good night Halló/hæ – Hello/hi Bless/bæ – Goodbye/bye Sjáumst! – See you! Ég heiti... – My name is... Ég er frá... – I am from... Ég er ... ára – I am... years old Gaman að kynnast þér – Nice to meet you Takk fyrir/takk – Thank you/thanks Hvað kostar...? – How much is...? Hættu – Stop Hjálp – Help Já/jú – Yes Nei – No Kannski – Maybe
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Einn Tveir Þrír Fjórir Fimm Sex Sjö Átta Níu Núll
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Numbers Tíu Ellefu Tólf Þrettán Fjórtán Fimmtán Sextán Sautján Átján Nítján
*Ss – sick Tt – tank Uu -‐ good Úú – moo Vv -‐ very Xx -‐ sex Yy -‐ inside
G is pronounced very softly in the middle of words. R is rolled just like in Spanish. S is only on the tip of the tongue. Ð is never used at the start of a sentence.
Ýý -‐ me Þþ -‐ thunder Ææ -‐ my Öö -‐ uh
Months Janúar – January Febrúar – February Mars – March Apríl – April Maí – May Júní – June Júlí – July Ágúst – August September – September Október – October Nóvember – November Desember – December
Seasons
Directions
Sumar – Summer Vetur – Winter Vor – Spring Haust -‐ Autumn
Norður – North Suður – South Vestur – West Austur -‐ East
Example use: Ég fer heim í desember I go home in December
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 1000
Tuttugu Þrjátíu Fjöritíu Fimmtíu Sextíu Sjötíu Áttatíu Níutíu Hundrað sl./hundruð pl. Þúsund
The Icelandic number system can be a bit tricky because it uses the adjective numeral system meaning the number (e.g. Tveir) is an adjective describing noun (e.g. Þúsund) making it tvö þúsund when combined. This is because the adjective must be conjugated to fit the gender of the noun.
Days of the week Mánudagur – Monday Þriðjudagur – Tuesday Miðvikudagur – Wednesday Fimmtudagur – Thursday Föstudagur – Friday Laugardagur – Saturday Sunnudagur – Sunday Pro-‐tip: The days of the week and the months are NOT capitalised in Icelandic. When you want to combine numbers, your go-‐to word is og meaning and for example: 21 – Tuttugu og einn 55 – Fimmtíu og Qimm 103 – Hundrað og þrír 2013 – Tvöþúsund og þrettán Example uses: Ég er tuttugu og þriggja (23) ára – I am 23 years old Ég eyddi Qimmtán þúsund (1500) kr. í gær – I spent 1500 kr. last night
Miscellaneous Useful Phrases Súper snilld – Super awesome Djamm í kvöld? – Party tonight? Ég er full (f.) / fullur (m.) – I am drunk Ég er þunn (f.) / þunnur (m.) – I am hungover Hæ sæta (f.) / sæti (m.) – Hey cutie Ertu á lausu? – Are you single? Hvað er númerið þitt? – What is your number? Ég elska Reykja Viktor – I love Reykja Viktor Ég er grænmetisæta – I am a vegetarian Hvað kostar bjór? – How much is a beer? Má ég máta þetta? – Can I try this on? Get ég fengið poka? – Can I get a bag? Talar þú ensku? – Do you speak English? Ég tala smá íslensku – I speak a little Icelandic Jæja... – Well... This one is very common with Icelanders, often used drawn out during an awkward silence. Auðvitað – Of course Gangi þér (sl.) / ykkur (pl.) vel – Good luck
Countries Ísland – Iceland Danmörk – Denmark Svíþjóð – Sweden Noregur – Norway Finnland – Finland Bretland – United Kingdom Frakkland – France Þýskaland – Germany Austurríki – Austria Ítalía – Italy Spánn – Spain Grikkland – Greece Indland – India Thaíland – Thailand
Í gær -‐ Yesterday Í dag -‐ Today Á morgunn -‐ Tomorrow Hér -‐ Here Þar -‐ There Hægri – Right Vinstri -‐ Left Hvar er... – Where is... Hvað ertu gamall (m.) / gömul (f.) ? – How old are you? Hvað heitir þú? – What is your name? Hver ert þú? – Who are you? Hvaðan ert þú? – Where are you from Pro-‐tip: Icelandic people often slur their words when speaking and writing. Therefore the aforementioned ert þú often becomes ertu, so don‘t be surprised if you hear/see “hvar ertu?”. Often commanding words only use the slurred combination, such as: Farðu! (Go away) Komdu! (Come here)
Rússland -‐ Russia Pólland – Poland Eistland -‐ Estonia Lettland -‐ Latvia Litháen -‐ Lithuania Rúmenía -‐ Romania N. Ameríka – N. America Kanada -‐ Canada Ástralía -‐ Australia Nýja Sjáland – New Zealand Japan -‐ Japan S. Kórea – S. Korea
Example use: Ég er frá Svíþjóð – I am from Sweden Did we miss your country? Comment on the newsletter and we will tell you what your country is!
Question words Hvar? – Where? Hvenær? – When? Hver? – Who? Hvað? – What? Hvernig? – How? Af hverju? – Why? Af því að... – Because... Example use: Hvað er klukkan? What time is it? Pronouns Ég – I Þú – You sl. Hann – He Hún – She Það -‐ It
Við – We Þið –You pl. Okkur -‐ Us Ykkur – You
Gangi ykkur vel Never be ashamed to try out a new language. Icelandic is not widely spoken and therefore we are very pleased to hear you even try to speak it. The main thing is to not be shy and try to use a few words if you can. Even if you make a small grammatical mistake, that is Qine, the main thing is to try and be understood! It‘s a tricky language so do not get discouraged, we are sure you will do great! We hope this has helped to get you started on some basics, and think about it... Isn‘t it súper snilld to be able to say Ég tala smá íslensku?Auðvitað! Gangi ykkur vel!
Orientation days and Opening Party
Upcoming Events September 7 -‐ The Amazing City Race The Amazing Race will lead you through various tasks and games through our crazy downtown Reykjavik, in teams of 4-‐5 people, introducing you to Icelandic culture and fun places. The teams are asked to complete all sorts of exciting challenges, and the winning team will receive a surprise reward judged by the photos you bring back! In the evening the Amazing Race concludes with an afterparty, stay tuned!
September 14 -‐ River Rafting September 21 -‐ Þórsmörk “The Valley of Thor” Þórsmörk is a stunning glacial valley surrounded by rugged, majestic mountains and decorated with a small birch woodland. Named after the mighty pagan god Þór (Thor), getting beyond the wall is not always easy. Many wildling camps must be passed as you make your way North, and lately sightings of wolves have been increasing steadily. Despite the challenge in getting there, the magic of the place is worth the effort. The valley is full of geological wonders and stunning vistas that make this valley truly unique.