From Foreign to Familiar

The journey of a budding polyglot

Tag: Iceland (Page 1 of 2)

All Things Iceland's podcast interview with Arnór Guðmundsson about the education System in Iceland

The Icelandic Education System: Interview with Arnór Guðmundsson – Ep. 54

January 26, 2020 / / 2 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:57 — 52.0MB) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

To get a better understanding of the Icelandic education system, I sat down with Arnór Guðmundsson for this episode of the All Things Iceland podcast. In his role as the Director of the Directorate of Education, his agency focuses on testing and producing textbooks for schools in Iceland. We discussed many things. Some of them include the different levels of education in Iceland, how the Icelandic education system compares with other countries, and some challenges the Directorate is facing.

Continue reading
Adjusting to life in Iceland - My experience - All Things Iceland podcast

Moving & Adjusting to Living in Iceland – My Personal Experience – Ep. 34

January 9, 2019 / / 6 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:25 — 27.3MB) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

This week is a bit different than my normal episodes because I am going to share why I moved to Iceland. I get this question a lot, mainly because I was born and raised in NYC. People find it very difficult to understand why I would move to such a small country that averages relatively chilly temperatures and has a population of about 350,000 people. After sharing Ingólfur Arnarson’s story, the man who founded Reykjavík, I felt compelled to share my own. So, let’s just jump right into it.

Continue reading
16 Christmas Activities to Do in Iceland

16 Christmas Activities to Do While Visiting Iceland – Ep. 31

December 19, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:42 — 21.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

Christmas in Iceland is a lovely time. Everyone is merry and there are lots of fun events happening. I purposefully decided not to include activities that not specific to Christmas on this list. You won’t hear me say, hunt for Northern Lights, go on a Glacier Walk, ride an Icelandic horse and so on  during this episode. While those activities are awesome, they can be experienced when it is not Christmas in Iceland.  Because the Christmas season in Iceland lasts for about a month, you will have lots of time to tick off some of the activities on  this list.

Continue reading
Icelandic food culture cover image - All Things Iceland podcast

Icelandic Food Culture: From the Middle Ages to Modern Cuisine – Ep. 28

November 28, 2018 / / 4 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:01 — 22.3MB) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

Icelandic food culture is deeply rooted in Scandinavian cuisine. As I mentioned in the “Brief History of the Icelandic language” episode, Iceland was settled mostly by farmers from Norway along with Vikings and some Celtic people who were made slaves after being captured by those Vikings . These Scandinavian people brought with them their cooking traditions and farming lifestyle. However, there is not much evidence of Celtic influence in Icelandic cooking.

Continue reading

jón gnarr interview headshot - All Things Iceland podcast

Jón Gnarr on Politics, Polar Bears & Being Mayor of Reykjavík, Iceland

October 3, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:36 — 37.8MB) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

I had the pleasure of interviewing  Jón Gnarr, Iceland’s most famous and funniest Mayor. Jón became Mayor of Reykjavík not long after Iceland’s economic crash in 2008. His victory was just as shocking to him as it was to many others in the country and around the world.

Continue reading

Interview about Icelandic beer history and culture with Ólafur the brewmaster at Ægisgarður brewery

Icelandic Beer History & Culture with Óli the Brewmaster – Ep19

September 26, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:28 — 43.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

My love of delicious beer and curiosity about Iceland blended together perfectly when I sat down to chat with Óli, the brewmaster at Ægisgarður brewery. While there are bigger and well known breweries in Iceland, I was drawn to Ægisgarður for a few reasons. The first is that I got married in that brewery in 2017 and I had the pleasure of attending a beer tasting earlier in the spring of this year. Óli conducted the beer tasting and dropped some major knowledge about Iceland’s complicated history with beer and other types of alcohol. After that, I just knew that I needed to chat with him about his role as brewmaster, the complicated history that I mentioned, and how the beer culture has evolved in Iceland.

Continue reading

Harpa conference and music hall in downtown Reykjavík. Where the polyglot conference will be held in 2017
Harpa

The 2017 Polyglot Conference will be in Reykjavík, Iceland!!

October 8, 2017 / / 0 Comments

The 2017 Polyglot Conference will be held at the Harpa concert hall and conference center in Reykjavík this year!  When I first learned about the Polyglot Conference in 2015, I was stoked. This blog had already been up and running for about a year and I was looking forward to attending an event that brought together budding and fully blossomed polyglots. The cherry on top was that the conference was to be held in my hometown – New York City!  Sadly, I never made it to the event in 2015, but it will be different this year.

Continue reading

« Older posts

© 2024 From Foreign to Familiar

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑