I totally forgot to mention this 
My Genghis Santa rocked last Christmas.
My flatmate is a Dutch IT-guy. He came here a year ago without a job (and had just graduated as well) and had a qualified one in two weeks. So yeah, there’s always a demand for skilled people.
You get 2 days vacation for every month you work, collected from June to May. So I got 24 vacation days since I worked at the same place the entire period.
And after 40 you get extra days and after 50 you get more days and so on… not to sure on how many, since I’m very far from reaching those ages.
Oh, god, now I want to live there… I just had a vision of a place where ignorance is fought and people are sensible. This must be like when refugees crawl across a desert and see water everywhere. Please let this not be illusory. Let it be real.
It sounds nice. It sounds like you all have a nice life. Are there hate groups and prejudice–does Jon hate Magnus and talk trash about him and collect a following that organizes into gangs and run amok? Are there any minorities (ie 3rd world) immigrants? Can I become Icelandic? I don’t eat much.
The Santas sound a lot like trolls–nice that you’ve switched them to good. Do potatoes grow there?
Point.
Does Iceland use the euro?
And now I want to go there. Do you restrict immigration to under-45s? If so, that would be a …problem.
(I’m Canadian; the snow would be refresing. And I notice Iceland doesn’t get very cold. Though it probably has high humidity, so you probably get the kind of nasty around-freezing kind of weather that we get in November and March.)
No, you fool - everyone knows that. It’s perfectly simple:
10 puffin feet = 1 kilo of whale blubber.
10 kilos of whale blubber = 1 dried seal skin.
Oh OK then, the currency is the króna.
It has its problems - as every place has. Mostly in the way of petty squabbles and “good ol’ boys”-clubs. But in general, it’s a nice place to live.
Immigration is a pretty new thing in Iceland and the population is very homogenous and used to be very isolated. But as long as you look and behave in a normal way, you’ll fit right in 
Rasism and sexism and all other -isms, exist. And as always it’s based on ignorance and prejudice. But it’s much more in the form of bad-taste jokes than the KKK - I don’t think anyone would stand up for that.
And of course, the isolation leads to a distrust of new ideas and new people, so it’s kinda hard to break into a group if you’re from out-of-town. It can be compared to a peach; everybody’s friendly and happy to get to know you as an aquaintance (spell?), but you can’t really break through to the center.
Most of my extended family grows their own potatoes, carrots and rhubarb, so yup.
As for becoming Icelandic. That would pretty much require you to marry one and then live here for at least 5 years. Immigration laws are pretty lax though, if you can support yourself.
Answered by Colophon - Whale flubber is kinda hard to carry so we tend to use plastic
1 Iceland krona (ISK*) = 0.011142 U.S. dollars, according to Google.
*Now’s the time for you Eve-players to go :smack:
Yes - that nasty stuff. It’s the whole winter like that 
And restrict to under 45? Never heard of a place that does that? You just bring your expertise.
Bother. We’re getting more and more like that as the climate warms in Southern Ontario. Those midwinter weeks at -20C are becoming rare.
I was looking at Australia for a time and I believe they restricted immigration to under-45s unless you were rich or a world expert in something.
Sounds like small-town Ontario.
I was in Iceland last summer - spent a week there for my mate’s wedding. (He’s the Icelander, stole a Swedish girl, the bastard.)
Now, most of that week was obviously spent partying, so my memories are slightly fuzzy, but there are a couple of things I wanted to ask:
Does it bother you that it never gets dark during summer? It confused the hell out of me, at least.
Do you ever get used to the smell of rotten eggs? I had to compromise when showering - hot water first, then lather up and rinse in cold, or I’d smell of eggs all day.
Lastly, you said there were no really dangerous animals… You forgot to mention the terns. Our group took two casualties when staying out by Snaefellsnes. Beware those flying pests, I say!
ETA: I definitely want to go back, but I need to save up a lot more money next time. Loved my stay though!
So it’s basically just like home for you
You get used to it pretty quickly. And I find that I need much less sleep in summer, probably due to the sun.
Same as above, you get used to it. But did you think everyone smelled like rotten eggs, or was it just you (asked as a curious question - not meant snarkyly)
Well - those are obviously a pest, if you get to close to their youngunes. I’d rate them below seagulls and geese at any rate (more of them in the city)
And please do come back - and bring more money
Sounds like Iceland has fairly enlightened attitudes towards gays, but how does the average person on the street feel about the issue?
When a same-sex couple has a kid, how do they choose the last name?
I can’t honestly say. The first two days were problematic, but I don’t know if it was just me I was smelling. After that I fortunately caught a cold, so I couldn’t smell much of anything. Oh, and no snark detected or suspected.
P.S. Love the hallonbåtar, or however you spell it. The hot sandwiches, with the good stuffs in them. I need to go back if only for those.
In the event of catastrophic volcanic activity, does Iceland have contingency plans for the sheltering or evacuation of most of the population? Would it make sense to invest in a number of large-capacity ferry ships – akin to lifeboats on a cruise ship?
The average person on the streets doesn’t care. Well, they may think it’s a bit strange but nobody would call you out on it or cream obscenities at you.
Live your life the way you want to and let me do the same.
Now - as racism and sexism, homophobia is there, but limited to crude jokes and snarky remarks.
And I actually don’t know how they choose the last name. I’ll have to get back to you on that.
Fortunately caught a cold
I really can’t say - as I don’t smell it any longer. I do tend to explain the smell to most foreigners when they get here.
å = á in Icelandic (hence bátar). Yup, Icelandic Subs are the bestest ever!
If there is such a plan, it’s kept well hidden from the general population.
And how are you going to fit 300’000 people on ships?
If the worst comes to worst and shit hits the fan with a worse-than-Krakatoa-type eruption, I guess I’m toast.
I’m not that worried though
And now I’m heading away from the computer for a while - be back later tonight.
yes, but everybody else did stop sending ships to them, at least in the official records.
It makes sense I suppose. I subscribe to the notion that all languages are equally complex in their grammar, because we all need to be able to express the same concepts of time, space, intent, and so on. In addition to that there is often a redundancy aspect. But the complexity is distributed differently in different languages. Still it’s remarkable. I once took an upper division course in linguistics, where we used Icelandic as the subject language, and it was mind-boggling. But it was very interesting too, to see how it related to English and German. For instance, IIRC your word for “second” (as in “first, second, third…”), depending on the gender, case, and number, is similar to English “other”, or German “andere”. I don’t think of those words as meaning “second”, but in a way they do. The “other” thing is usually the second thing you consider though we don’t call it that.
Adult immigrants here usually don’t become quite fluent in English. They learn the words all right, and the inflections, because we don’t have that many of them, but they slip up in other situations, like when to use “the” and when to leave it out. But still they do very well, considering that many of them have native languages that are vastly different.
Ok - the way things were, according to WormTheRed,ymmv and so on:
The “extinction” of the Viking settlements in Greenland coincided with the “small ice-age” of the 13th century (or was it 14th), which led to the Glaciers growing and reduced fertility of the lands, all over the Nordic countries (I’m counting Greenland here too). So my pretty basic guess would be that people had plenty to worry about at home and didn’t have too many resources to put into trips to Greenland.
The Greenlanders (Vikings) are also supposed to having carried on their Nordic lifestyles throughout the settlement and supposedly weren’t willing to adopt to the new circumstances the colder climate brought about. So without “foreign” support, they just couldn’t sustain themselves anymore.
And thus, no more Vikings in Greenland
It is an old language, so we’ve kept the old way. This while most other languages have become a hodgepodge of different languages. English is probably one of the best examples.
True - my mom still doesn’t speak fluent Swedish, after almost 30 years there. She still has an Icelandic accent (though her grammar is perfect).
After a long google session I have still not found how they determine the last name… I did however stumble upon this interesting piece from a speach by the PM:
*Ekkert bendir heldur til þess að börnum reiði verr af þótt þau alist upp hjá tveimur pöbbum eða tveimur mömmum. Það sem mestu skiptir er að barni sé sýnd ástúð og umhyggja og um það erum við öll jafnfær.
Geir H. Haarde forsætisráðherra. Hátíðarræða 27. júní 2006*
Which translates as:
Nothing points towards the fact that children are worse off if they are raised by two fathers or two mothers. What matters the most is that a child is shown love and care and that, we are all capable of giving.
PM of Iceland, Publich Speech 27. June 2006