Hey, everyone! Justin here, trying to figure out the European keyboard. Everytime I think I´m typing a good, familiar English letter, I come out with something like ð or þ or ö.
     It´s my second day in Reykjavik, and the language has been a struggle as well. I speak Icelandic much worse than I´d thought I did, and I understand even less from others. Yet, every time I meet someone I insist on talking first in the native language. But the Icelanders always get mad after a few feebly-composed sentences, and we end up speaking English.
     The town´s very pretty. The city surrounds an inlet, and on the other side of the inlet are long mountains with slides of snow on them. The mountains are very neat to see in the distance.
     I went out for live music last night, and a cute blond girl was sitting near an empty chair. I practiced the Icelandic line I´d use to approach her for five or ten minutes, but I still destroyed the phrase when I attempted it. She let me sit by her anyways. Her thin face became wide at the cheekbones. Her name was Soley, and her smile shone like a bright light. She´d been to other countries before, and when I asked her what she did when she was someplace and couldn´t speak the language she made a dancing motion like the 'swim' popular in the ´70s - to indicate she partied. Out of respect for her country, when I requested her phone number I used Icelandic. 'Héldur þu sem ég á hafa síma þína?´ The greatest accompishment was that she was simply able to make sense of what I´d said. Luckily, I got her number, but she has a boyfriend.
     Rotta! (that´s Icelandic for Rats!)

your pal, Justin