Seeing is Believing

Hi world :-)
My name is Fjóla and I am a 22 year old student in Iceland.
Let me tell you a little about my life here in Iceland.
The truth is that I haven’t really got any money, but still I live a really good life. I have great family and friends in my life.

I get paid every month, pay my bills and try to use what’s left wisely for the rest of the month.

I used all my savings to pay for my education. I rent an apartment with two other girls. But I spend most of time at my boyfriend’s house.

We both have cars and own them completely, we go to the movies if we want to and occasionally we go out to dinner.

I often meet up with my friends in cafés and restaurants. I eat whenever I want to, I’m never hungry. The only reason I get cold is if I go outside, which is pretty normal at this time of year, because its winter and we have snow. Everything is looking a lot like Christmas :-) And basically this is my life nowadays, and also what it was before.
My plans for Christmas are to go visit my family in Denmark. The only problem there is that my money won’t really do any good there. So, I decided to not take any with me.
I’m not saying that everything here is completely fine and dandy. I’m just saying that for most of us life is just the same. Things have always been more expensive in Iceland than elsewhere and of course they are getting more expensive now, but we are used to that and know how to manage around that fact.

Some people really are having a hard time. People who have loans in foreign currencies are having a hard time paying them down. That of course affects everything in their lives but Icelanders are very helpful people and we try to do anything we can to support each other in every way possible.

Many companies have had to lay off a lot of their employees, so many people have no jobs and almost nobody is hiring.

Icelandic students abroad are having a tough time, their money turns in to very little amounts and for some period of time all transfers from Icelandic banks to other countries were down, so they couldn’t get any money at all.

A lot of students that are graduating from places like Stockholm and Denmark are in doubt if they should come back to Iceland, they are wondering if they can get jobs here. But then again a lot of them are optimistic and want to come home and see if they can help and improve the situation. I think those are the typical Icelanders, always willing to try and dare to dive into the deep end.

I can honestly tell you that I am happy. But of course there are things that make me angry sometimes, especially the things being said about is in the world press. And I notice that with my fellow compatriots, the anger and their hurt. Our politicians have failed us and are doing a crappy job, or perhaps no job at all, and have been doing for quite some time. We have been led to this shipwreck but still we get no answers from them and really don’t know shit about what is going to be done. We look like idiots, Icelandic people shopping in other countries are being denied service and the worst of all we have been said to be terrorists!!! That statement made me cry. I know my people, we are loving, caring and peaceful people and we have never approved of the awful things some nations are doing to each others.
We are such a small nation and nobody has really noticed us before, but now we seem to the world as really bad people. In my opinion, since we are so few, we have no army and have never associated with terrorist, putting us on that list is nothing but a human rights violation!

But somehow life here seems to go by as normal. People go shopping for clothes, go out to dinner, go clubbing and live a normal life.

To end this I have a wish to the world.
Remember that we are normal people and we wish the best for everybody. Wish us well and send us happy thoughts, we will get through this, we are tough little fuckers, it will just go better with your support.

As the title says, seeing is believing, so here are some pictures I took today that can show you a glimpse of our life here.:-)