glosoli

Today I did dishes with a boy from Denmark and we talked about our favorite artists...  I went on and on about how much I love sigur ros and jonsi and then I asked him if he understood any icelandic words.  I find Iceland to be such a fascinating nation and the language is truly one of the most beautiful i've heard. It's always funny to be reminded of how plain and boring the english language is when you talk to speakers of other languages. I mentioned a few of my favorite sigur ros songs - glosoli, saeglopur, and hoppipola - and when he explained what the words meant I was overwhelmed by fascination and wonder over how one word could express so many things.  He said that glosoli essentially means "glowing soul" - that saeglopur means sea-faring person - and that hoppipola is a combination of two words and could be translated into hopping/splashing in puddles. How wonderful! (Whether or not they are accurate translations makes very little difference to me)

Being here I meet at least three new people a day and they are all from different places with different cultures and languages. There is always something new to learn and always another exciting, unknown thing to experience. Life won't be boring in this place... At least not for a while.