Johan ANDer looks back

There are some myths about Iceland.Many people, and I was among those before I came here, think that Icelanders are nature loving and relaxed. That is not true. Okey, now I mostly met people from Reykjavik, and as any people from a capital city these might be a little more focused on their carer compare to people from the countryside. On the other hand, since two third of all Icelanders live in Reykjavik and the Reykjavik surroundings it might not be completely wrong to look at these people living in Reykjavik when measuring the Icelander.Also something to say about the studies here. Compare to Sweden I have never had to study this hard to feel that I am accepted in the classroom. I don’t know all law schools in Europe but I could take a guess that the Icelandic ones would do pretty good when it comes to quality and demand of the students. I talked to one student who said that only 25 % of all law students pass their first exam. The rest has to take the semester again. She also told me that its not strange to take the exam three times before you actually qualify for the second semester. If you don’t pass? Maybe you should try something easier.

Me and my studymate – Nina.Then, while they are studying they keep on being effective in other areas. Almost every one is working. Many become parents already in their early 20s. How they find time to work, raise a kid and read at this level… well the last thing to do would be to call them lazy.I think you now will understand me when I give the advice to lawyer from the rest of the world. If you ever will compete against an Icelander, be sharp and do not underestimate them.Still, even though the high level, I do not want to scare someone of thinking about studying here. All studies are definitely not as hard as the law-studies and you probably don’t have to take care of children and work while you here. But actually, maybe you would like to work. An unqualified job often pays about 100 Swedish kronor per hour. The Icelandic economy is growing fast, and it is definitely not fishing that is the biggest income anymore.One very good thing with studying here was the quality of the education. One of the teachers has not only represented Iceland in front of the EFTA court, he is also internationally known as “one of very few Scandinavian lawyers with more than 20 years of relevant experience from Brussels and Luxembourg”. I can give you a part of his cv as an example:

• Member of a Board of Appeal, Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, Alicante, 2002-2005
• Director of the Department of Legal & Executive Affairs, EFTA Surveillance Authority, Brussels, 1999-2002
• First, Principal Legal Advisor in, then Head of the Brussels Antenna of the European Ombudsman, Mr. Jacob Söderman, who was based in Strasbourg, 1997-1999
• Administrator in the Legal Service of the European Parliament, Brussels, 1996-1997
• Principal Legal Advisor in Strasbourg for the European Ombudsman, 1996-1996
• Administrator in the Legal Service of the European Parliament, Luxembourg and assistant to the Director General of the Service, Mr Gregorio Garzón Clariana, 1994-1995
• Legal clerk to Advocate General Claus Gulmann at the European Court of Justice, Luxembourg, 1991-1994
• Administrator in the Department of Research and Documentation, European Court of Justice, Luxembourg, 1987-1991
• Assistant Attorney in the law firm Advokaterne Bredgade 3, Copenhagen. Subsequently admitted to the Bar, 1985-1987

The best things of studying here though is to do all the stuff you can’t do home. I have already showed you some of the trips we did when my Susanne and Frédéric’s Doris were here. I can give you some more pictures.Vestmanneyjar offered some nice cliffs.

It was also both fun and a bit romantic when us two cowboys took our ladies for a ride. Though it was not really scary since, as you can see, the horses here in Iceland have very short legs.

The Uppsala group Fidde, Christopher and Hanna came for a short visit. They brought some extremely bad weather. Just look at this hails which has fallen down in the Ice lagoon.

And in same trip, here are the famous Svartifoss. (Press on the picture). And below there is some pictures from when my buddy Helgi took me, Fredy, Janina and Julia to the waterfall Glymur with its beautiful surroundings.

Glymur as well as at Essja gave us a little bit of climbing. Notice that it is 3 month time difference (Glymur August, Essja November).

Essja was our nearest mountain, and it gave a bit of a different experience in the end of November (above), compared to August (under).

By the way, this is the surroundings at Helgi’s family’s summerhouse (above). Cant complain about the view, can you.Sometimes you did not even have to leave the city to get a cool experience. One evening at seven, this was the Northen light view from our door.And of course, there is loads of fun stuff you can do in Reykjavik. For example; four of us took a boys night out and went to a Skid Row concert. Another thing I really appreciated was to eat fondue. A Swiss speciality, though Fredy said that its really not suppose to look like this. To the right you can see the weekly sorting of socks. And here we have one of our regular dinners. The food in Iceland is pretty bad. Because of that we were lucky to find many good souses. Finnsson – that’s the hero who knows how to improve boring meat.

We ended our trip as we started it. With some crazy bathing. This time though we fought from 6 in the morning to 22.30 in the evening. Our goal was to visit all 14 public baths in Reykjavik and its closest suburbs area and to only use bus and walking as communication. It became 42 heitur potturs in one and the same day. Impressive, if I may say so.

Merry Christmas from us in Reykjavik! Our very own Christmas card.Danke fur die Bilden Susanne und Jan….und danke fur die Fußen Frédéric 🙂