Gamli Garšur. This is my so-called home away from home for the moment. Not a bad place, but not a good place, either. It is used as a hotel during the summer months when students are away, but how anyone would be down enough on their luck to end up in this place for a night or two, I cannot tell you.

Name of our building, with a Tuborg Beer sign just above the "D". That sign is just a constant reminder of how much the locals like to drink over here...plus it is in a rather convenient location for us students. :)

Here is at least one more good thing about our location...the bus stop. We have one right outside our front door. If you are going to be in Iceland for any extended period of time over 3 months and don“t have a car, or access to a car, then be sure to get a bus pass. They are invaluable, and I have ridden all over Reykjavik and beyond with mine. Be sure to get the 3 month one, the "red card", as it is a better value than just a single month pass.

This is what my room looked like when I first opened it. Very impressive, “eh? Yeah, well, that“s what I kind of thought, too.

If you know me, you know that this bed is not big enough for me. As an aside, and as testament to that, within the first 2 weeks of me being here the bed that is in this picture broke. All it took was a few of us in my room bullshitting for a while, and later that night me sitting on one end of it, and having the flimsy wooden leg snap.

One good thing about our rooms, is the fact that we have a sink in them. If anyone doubts this, ask Tim.

My shelving.

My closet.

This is my desk after I moved in.

My bed. As you can see, we don“t have blankets, but rather a duvet. The damn thing is too short for me, too.

Some mornings when things are bad enough,
I like to gargle with vodka...hence the empty bottle.

These are some of the grocery bags that I have. Why?

No, not for trash bags....they are far too valuable for that.

It is because we get charged for bags here in Iceland.

This is what my room looks like on laundry day. Gamli Gardur only has one dryer, and it is a hunk of shit. I think it is the only dryer in the world that has clothes come out wetter than when they were put in. It just absolutely does not dry things worth a damn, so I would rather save the 50 kronur (about 70 cents, U.S.) for two weeks, and I will then have enough for a Coke. :-)

The view from my room. Off in the distance, you can see the dome shaped structure of The Pearl.

Closer view of The Pearl.

This is the fridge that I share with Liz and Heather. It is also the fridge that has the kitchen duty list on it.

My fridge identifier...along with a statement about what emotion I give to some of the more famous gays in Reykjavik.

These are the duties of the "Kitchen Bitch" for the week. It is not a fun duty to have, though I have had plenty worse.

The breakdown of who has kitchen duty and when. I was actually kind of surprised that Alpur, our resident manager, had a system worked out already.

This....what to say about this?

We have some pretty piss-poor showers in Gamli, so this was kind of put up
as a funny alternative to the gripes and complaints that were being vocalized.

This is one of the very minor reasons why you don“t want to have kitchen duty. Thankfully, I had a sharpie and a piece of paper in response to this mess....and no, I did not clean it up.

self-explanatory

This is one of the toilets. What is so special about this toilet, you ask?
Well, seeings as how we like to keep things nice and tidy on our floor, we use post-its when we want to get that special bathroom message across.

References are available....see Zach in 106.

This is a view of the entrance to Gamli. One nice thing about being on the bottom floor, in addition to the bar right next door, is that we have a separate entrance.

This is the name of the bar. It translates to "Student Cellar."

The inside of the bar. It is a nice, cozy little spot to go to and get some reading done.

Gamli at night.

Gamli in November with some snow on the ground.

Gamli Garšur as seen from the top of the Hallgrimskirkja church.