auslandsjahr-island
auslandsjahr-island
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Day 7: First day of work

Published: 01.08.2023

This morning my alarm clock went off at half past nine, because at nine we went to feed the calves. The four of them were so cute and ran straight towards us when they saw that we had their milk.

Then at about ten, we started cleaning the huts. Three out of four huts needed to be done. For the first one, which was particularly dirty, the woman from Germany showed me how to do it. Then we did the second and third hut in parallel and she checked at the end to make sure I didn't forget anything. It's okay and actually quite fast, but making the beds was really annoying because they use bedding here where the bottom of the duvet is only half sewn up and you have to squeeze the rest of the duvet through the half hole. The sheets are also always too small for the beds.

Then around half past twelve we had pizza with fries for lunch (they eat really strange combinations here).

After lunch, I put on my riding gear and got to ride here for the first time. Abba (I honestly don't know if it's spelled like that, but it's definitely pronounced that way) is a really sweet and calm mare and was good to ride. After twenty minutes she was already completely sweaty, as she hasn't been ridden much in recent years and is not used to it anymore.

Abba's hooves needed to be trimmed, so we brought her to the stable after the ride. There, Ingveldur's husband (I can't really remember his name) showed us (me and the German woman) how to do it on one hoof and then left us alone with the remaining three. The two minutes it took him, we couldn't do it in half an hour together. Especially since Abba was getting more impatient and eventually didn't want to cooperate anymore. Her boyfriend then joined us and the three of us actually managed to do it.

The couple wanted to go shopping and asked me if I wanted to come along. I did. I honestly don't know if I will ever dare to drive alone here. The car is so rickety and old that you think it could fall apart at any moment. And then drive for about fifteen minutes on gravel roads... You don't know if it's the stones, the loose seat, or the loose door that's rattling.

Then at seven we had lasagna with potatoes and butter for dinner (I told you, strange combinations) and afterwards we had some dried fish that we bought, with butter. I had actually said that I don't like fish, but in the end I had to try it anyway. It was really disgusting. At first it felt like chewing on a piece of paper, but as soon as you get the smell in your nose, it just tastes really nasty like fish. It's really hard to get rid of the taste.

After dinner, we went to the calves again.

I don't know how regularly I will write here in the next few days/weeks/months. I will write every now and then when special things happen, but not when the same thing as the previous days just happens. Maybe I'll do weekly summaries or something. I still have to think about it.

Bye for now

Julia

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