Sunday, June 26, 2011

What Kind of Day Shall I Choose Today?

Today I can complain about my health,
Or I can celebrate being alive.

Today I can moan that it is raining,
Or be joyful at all that grows from the rain.

Today I can regret all I don't have,
Or rejoice in everything I do.

Today I can mourn everything I have lost,
Or eagerly anticipate what's to come.
Today I can complain that I have to work,
Or celebrate having a job to go to.

Today I can resent the mess the kids make,
Or give thanks that I have a family.

Today I can whine about the housework,
Or celebrate having a home.

Today I can cry over those who don't care for me,
Or be happy loving and being loved by those who do.

I CHOOSE to have a good day! 


http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=224299694255555&set=a.140267409325451.20968.140260422659483&type=1&theater

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Singing and dancing Zumba at a wedding with friends...

To sum up the last month..... singing, zumba, wedding, friends...

I´m back into my singing. When i heard that Complete Vocal Studio was having a 3 day Seminar, i jumped at the chance. It was amazing, i had so much fun learning, singing and meeting new people. I learned more in these 3 days than all the other however long courses i took. The teachers were also so much fun, among them was Hera (who competed for us in Eurovision). Entertaining and informative, the way it should be. Made me feel more confident for L.A....can you believe it, L.A. in only 3 months.

Babysat my nieces while they were sick only to find them swimming in a pile of cheerios (cereal). Such a kodak moment and funny seeing their smiling expressions so i could only say "you´re so lucky i´m not your mother"...loved helping out and getting a little time with my sister as well.

I´ve gotten to know the greatest group of people, Þórdís, her boyfriend and her friends, or "the swing club". I´ve been hanging out with them a lot, just chilling and laughing at their home, baking, watching tv, sunbathing at our workplace, out to dinner or going to Auður´s for barbeque and beer in the hot tub. That´s what i call paradise.The most fun evening was Anton´s birthday party. I wasn´t going to go but since they were so kind to invite me to their group i didnt want to miss the chance and thank god i didnt. I was just going to drop by....well...came home at 5 am. We had fun at Anton´s and Helgi´s place playing darts, singing (my way of getting everyone out...totally worked) posed for pictures, went to bars Barbara and Oliver and danced the night away. Well..then unfortunately they couldnt find the keys to the car so we walked a long way to my car to pick them up and then drove them home. Despite that this night was LEGEN...wait for it...DARY! LEGENDARY!


Met my friends Guðrún, Dagný, Þórunn, Lára, Ingunn, Eva, Birgitta, sisters Svava and Sara as well as Kolla and wife Sandra,daughter Tinna and their beautiful baby Rökkvi. He had grown so much since i saw him last. So adorable. Me and Þórunn went on another pub crawl and this time met some guys from Michigan and the only thing i could think of was Marshall (from HIMYM) and Prince. Not much else I knew from that place, but the guys were fun to talk to. When you´re a workaholic like me you need extra time for friends...to make up for lost time.




Talking of friends, my best friend Alexandra, her boyfriend Paul and Anna, came to Iceland for Dora´s wedding. Yes, the redhaired Dora who was with me in Vienna was getting married and we were all there to celebrate. I got Alexandra for a whole evening of girl talk, Anna for lunch and the both of them for dinner, then on Saturday, Doras wedding day, i invited the girls to the spa and then we met at the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding. I mostly enjoyed spending time with Alexandra and Anna and had a hard time leaving. I hate saying goodbye, although the good thing is that everytime i meet them it´s like no time has passed, that´s the thing with good friends. And how amazing is it to have friends all over the world. Awesome.

Working like crazy but cutting back on the zumba, from 8 classes to 3, so i can actually have a social life and enjoy the summer .I´m loving it, especially since i have awesome friends to share it with, now i´m just waiting until the end of July when Frikki comes...that will be the best. Until then

From Oslo to Vienna

Time flies by when you´re having fun... May went in a flash.

Since i left Vienna in such a hurry i had to go now and finish things properly and decided to do it around the time of my old school´s graduation. They were having a huge ball in celebration of their 30th anniversary so i couldnt miss the chance, since i knew more of my friends would be in Vienna around that time. Since I was going to Vienna anyway, my mother suggested we´d go to Norway to get our Zumba Toning Certificates and i jumped at it... 10 days of zumba, friends and fun :)

3 days in Oslo, Norway, enjoying a sunny weather and going for long walks and sightseeing with my mother, ending the weekend with a Zumba Toning Instructor certificate after a full day of Zumba Instructor Seminar. Needless to say we had a blast and rest, our beds in our hotel were soooo comfy. Exactly what we needed. Great weekend.

On Monday we shopped, bought some beautiful clothes at Vero Moda and then took a flight to Copenhagen, Denmark where we sat outside in the sun until i took a flight to Vienna and my mom took a train to meet my dad in Sweden. Then I was off to Vienna and this is how my Vienna week was:


Monday: My friend Anca was kind enough to pick me up at the airport and let me stay at her place. I hadn´t seen her in almost a year but it felt so natural, that´s the thing with good friends, once you meet and it feels effortless, where you can pick up where you left it...that´s true friendship. We had a blast catching up and talking through the night.

Tuesday: I met Lumi (my ex), and he gave me the keys to the apartment. Ironically my name was finally on the door bell (seems i only had to leave for them to put it on). It felt a bit weird to meet my ext but we were both happy we left the relationship in good terms. Then i was off to my best friend Alexandra´s parents apartment. Since she was in Munich she allowed me to stay at her place in Vienna.  I went there and spend most of the time with her brother Julian (who you might know, since he created the song "Blind") and we had a blast listening to music and getting lost in youtube videos. Then i was off to the city centre to meet my former work colleague Tina. We had dinner at Museumsquarter and then had a beer in Votivpark (known as Sigmund Freud Park) and talked through the night. She allowed me to stay at her place since she went with me the next morning to return the keys to the apartment.


Wednesday: I returned the apartment, signed out of the country as well as finished my subscriptions with the phone, internet and all that follows an apartment. Then i went sightseeing. I love Vienna as a tourist...it´s sooo beautiful and i was so lucky with the weather, sunny and warm. I met Teodora later for dinner and then my friends at Charlie Ps. I was honored by how many took the time to see me and i even received a huge surprise visit by my best friend. It was the best present ever.



Thursday: I actually got to sleep in....very nice. In the evening i met Patricia and Andreea and man i laughed so hard.... i love them, they´re so funny, they crack me up every time.I had my "Dory" moment (remember Dory from the movie Finding Nemo, yeah, thats me, my memory), when i told them about a brother of my friend who wanted to live in Siberia and Andreea started cracking up. I was like "whats so funny".... she kept on laughing and said: "Anna, i told you this yesterday, this is my brother".... i couldnt believe it.  We spent the whole evening laughing. It was wonderful.


Friday: Zumbatomic Seminar in Bratislava, I had barely slept because i was afraid to oversleep and i hadnt really figured out how to get there. I woke up 4 something in the morning, took a taxi to the train station and took the train to Nova Ves, a tiny town outside Bratislava, Slovakia. No taxis, so i went to the hotel next to the train station and asked them to call me a taxi. 20 min later and no taxi so I decided to jump into a bus that had the name of the street that the seminar was on. Risky, especially since i didnt have the ticket or spoke the language. But i got there safely and waited until it started. The Instructor arrived, presentation and material in English but then she spoke "zkzyekpm" ...ok it wasn´t like that but it sounded like that in my tired language limited mind. A whole day of another language, i didnt understand a thing, and was so tired i even fell asleep on my bag for a while. I danced, participated that way but otherwise was a horrible bored student. This day was soooo long, felt longer than the whole week in Vienna. As soon as it was over i hurried on a train back, bought subway and went back to alexandra´s apartment and fell asleep





Saturday: The Graduation ball, so i went at 10 oclock for fitting and hung out with Ligia and Patricia, loved every minute of it, went home and took a little nap and was back at 16:00 for makeup and hair...took hours but was sooo worth it. It looked amazing. The fashion show was a lot of fun and hanging out with my friends was the best part of it. Ok also enjoyed chatting up a cute guy there, felt proud of myself getting the guts to chat up a guy i thought was attractive. Was a lot of fun. Loved the scenario. The ball was held in this beautiful castle and the show, amazing, it was a true viennese ball. Enjoyed the evening so much.


Sunday: my last day in Vienna so i relaxed, slept in and met the girls, Andreea, Patricia and Manuela had dinner at a real Heurigen (austrian pub, winery) in Vienna. I loved every second of it, especially the Austrian men in traditional Austrian clothes singing traditional Austrian songs. A great way to end my Vienna trips.

This trip was far from a relaxing vacation but i got a lot of work done, met my friends, received two Zumba instructor certificates (one making me the first Icelandic Zumbatomic Instructor) and got to be a model for a day. I had dreaded the trip a bit, dealing with Vienna and how i left things but i left so grateful for all the friends i´ve gotten to know and how much i´ve learned in my Vienna years. I love Vienna as a tourist but living there....not for me.