It's raining in Rejyavik.

It is Santa Lucia today- one of my favorite Swedish holidays but I was not there for the train of youngsters clad in white, bearing candles and singing songs. There were no Lucia buns, pepparkakor and coffee either. (Although rumor has it, a video has been made for me:) )

Yes, I am finally on my way home today. Back to Minneapolis for nearly a whole month. I have not been home in nearly two and half years and am eagerly looking forward to spending the first Christmas in five years with both my sisters and parents, meeting friends I haven't seen in ages (many since high school or early college) and just taking it easy for once.

We awoke this morning to see the weather report read that it was colder in Stockholm than Umea. An early, sleepy and somewhat confused breakfast of oatmeal/musli, cinnamon buns, and coffee and I whisked away to the airport, flying SAS with Rahul Caroline and Katarina. Plenty of company right up until the flight took off and then sound sleeping more or less one both of my flights.



I saw Iceland by "daylight" for the first time as we came in just after three in the afternoon. It is hard to imagine the beautiful country in the photographs is the same, strangely desolate landscape below, so dark every time I have been there, and the airport feeling like an unfinished exercise in some sort of Scandinavian style of brutalist architecture.

The was a choir of flight attendants singing christmas songs in Icelandic in the terminal. It is such an amazing language. Sometimes it sounds a bit Finnish,but mostly it seems to be entirely of its own. A completely ancient culture left from the ages before. Occasionally, I catch a word or two and I can liken it to Swedish, but more often than not, I am completely at a loss.

There is a wonderful poster campaign which explains the origins of many Icelandic names from ancient nordic words. They read something like this: "My name is very old. Its origins are in the ancient nordic word Edda." If they are still there, I will try to remember to get a photo when I come back.

I am en route to the great land mass of North America, and if it hadn't been for the episode of Myth Busters on television I was half listening to last night, I might be a bit more worried by the sound of the wind whistling through the plane window beside my head. Thank goodness for junk TV?

More soon from the twin cities :)