Reykjavík inner landscapes

LEARNING TO EXPRESS NEEDS AND FEELINGS

What kind of needs do I have? 
One of the most important ones is: To be in harmonious relationship built on mutual understanding and respectful.

So coming back to Marshall Rosenberg no-violent communication, I just finished to listen to his 3h workshop. He is really amazing and amusing person, so sincere and straight forward.

Here are some important points from Marshall's workshop:


'Talk about what is alive in us, just what we are feeling and needing.' 
'When you say the need behind the 'No', then it's more likely that the person understands you and your needs will be met'.

'After we really know how to clearly identify our feelings, needs, requests than we can start to put it into the language that can connect us with the people we are speaking with'.

Expression of gratitude (Marshall Rosenberg):
Observation, feeling and need.

1. 'We bring to the other person attention concretely what they have done that has made life more wonderful for us. Bring our consciousness and attention to the power that each of us has to make life wonderful. We have words that have a power to contribute to make life more wonderful. We are powerhouses. An appreciation'.
2. 'Say how we feeling at the moment to the person doing that, for example: hopeful and relieved'.
3. 'Ask how this things you say help other person. What his/her need was fulfilled by our words.'

Other important thing is how we receive gratitude:
'That's our light not the darkness that's scaring us the most'. Don't say: 'It's nothing.' Just express sincere gratitude and love.

All that requires a practise and empathy. It's such a powerful and natural language that we forgot through 'jackal' socialisation and education system.

And talking about my needs: just few minutes ago I had a visit of wonderful purring creature, furry young cat, tricolour with long hair. I met her in the garden and she came up to my room. I really miss my cats, it's such a pleasure to have a cute living creature next to me.. And this is one of my needs, to be in constant contact with animals, their sincerity and serenity.. I am grateful that she reminded me about it today :)

Photo story: 1st of May in Iceland, unions' parade

COLOURFUL PARADE

May 1 in Iceland is an important holiday.
Shops are closed, and a parade is usually held in down town Reykjavík. So it was this year. Immense parade of multiple unions went through the main streets of down town in Reykjavík. And unions play an important role in Iceland. They give the workers quite many benefits so many people like to show where they belong to. And it is even obligatory to choose one union when you start to work in Iceland. I am the member of Reykjavíkuborg, union of the City Hall employees. Also I am in VR as I work as a waitress from time to time.

It was a sunny day and I met with some Polish friends at 13 pm to watch the parade. The city was so full that it was even hard to find a free table to have a coffee. In one of the group, anarchic-sindicalist, I spotted my colleague from work, a yoga teacher, very cheerful person and helpful friend. Now he is my flatmate in the wooden community house and I really appreciate it.

SCANDINAVIAN MODEL

My unions give me a lot of benefits: I have free access card for all the city swimming pools and a card for  city museums as well. I also may have 80-90% of co-financing of language courses and other courses that can be useful at my work, e.g. music, art.. That sounds really great!! And I was quite surprise that so many people took part in a parade, it seemed that almost whole Iceland was there! With kids, dogs, bikes, flags.. colourful and cheerful people showing they affiliation to the union. That's interesting experience I must admit!

There were also some people protesting against accession to European Union and some other against financial elite. I manage to took some photos with my mobile, didn't have my camera with me this time, so they are quite rough. Promise to hunt for some new nice photos soon! :)

Hot swimming pools, sunbathing and full relax :)

GEOTHERMAL HOT POTS  

Going to the hot Icelandic swimming pools outdoors with hot pots is like an addiction. When the sun is strong it gives you a feeling of being somewhere at the Mediterranean Sea, doesn't matter if the air or the water has 38-42°C. The pleasure and fun is so big!

Last days, almost 1 month since the end of April, it was so sunny every day, beautiful Icelandic summertime! Even it's 10°C outside, the air is so dry because of the geothermal water, tectonic rifts and Golf-stream, so it is really warm here!

I am feeling like a dolphin, water is my natural habitat.. just like in my childhood: I didn't want t go out of the river, now I enjoy the hot water of outdoor swimming pools and don't want to go out of the pool. I go there once or even twice a day. It's such a great fun! And it's great place to sunbath, my skin is very brown now, it looks like I was back from some Mediterranean country.. :))) I've never expected to be so tanned in Iceland!
I also love to observe the people when I am there, Icelanders and the foreigners, kids and old, just to learn more about the Icelandic lifestyle.



SWIMMING POOLS EVER DAY

I met my Italian maestro at one of the outdoor pools. Hmm.. in fact he met me in a hot pot. It was very sunny Sunday in late April, and was quite crowded there. While he was passing from one hot pot area to another just spotted me and intuitively decided to sit next to me in the hot water.. And after few minutes of silence he started a nice conversation that lasted for hours.. He wanted to see me after the pool and I felt in the same way, we were having such a nice and cheerful chat.. Feeling to be friends from the very beginning.

We continued to walk to down town from Vesturbaer pool together, I was with my bike and he gave me an apple, very good organic one..  We went for a delicious dinner together to my favourite Kex Hostel passing by his place situated in Moroccan style house at Tjörnin lake. And even later, we had a walk by the sea to watch the sunset after 22.. It was such a cheerful and harmonious encounter,  so nice and natural, we had so many interests in common: the same sensitivity.. seeing the world in astonishingly similar way. When we were at the pool he even proposed me that I could stay at his place for the next 3 weeks until he's in Iceland.. I hesitated and rejected this offer politely, even I wanted to move out so quickly it wouldn't be good to live together not knowing each other that much.. Still I had this stereotype in my head that all the Italians are too much crazy about women in general.. so I didn't think about involving myself more in this story on that first day.

And yes, he texted me the next morning and we started to meet regularly, after two days I was almost living at his place, big old-style apartment just by the Tjörnin lake. Beautiful sunlight was reflected over the lake. He just came back to Iceland for the series of concerts, straight from Rome, although he's from the north of Italy..

Yesterday, we just say goodbye at the same pool where we met for the first time. Just short meeting in a hot pot one hour before the sunset. The light was so nice and intense. He was very tired after the long days of rehearsals, this time Mahler symphony, so we didn't have a dinner together. Yes, it was the last goodbye. Maestro will be back in the middle of August, 2,5 month is quite a long time and life goes on.. That's why I was feeling a little bit sad about it..

SELF-DEVELOPMENT

I am meditating regularly when I go to the pool, practising thankfulness and sending more positive thoughts to this beautiful world around me.
And I feel free again. Now I would like to learn how to keep this feeling, how to keep my freedom to myself and not commit myself too intensively when I just start to be in a relationship.. I'd like to maintain the balance and harmony. I just started to read a new post in one of my favourite blogs for self-development, and this is exactly what I need to learn: accept myself completely and do not try to change myself in order to be loved and accepted by others, do not struggle to find true love.. That's new challenge and new life.


And one more important thing: non-violent communication with myself and other people. I'm listening to Marshall Rosenberg lectures and reminding myself about being in contact with my own needs. 

'We are conscious that the root of feelings are needs. Behind every feeling there is a need. Certain feelings tell us that there's obstruction in our thinking.  (...) Anger, depression, guilt and shame. Those feelings are very valuable, they tell us that at this moment I am not directly connected to my needs.'
'Let's connect our heart with needs because needs give us the most power with people (not over people). To bring people attention to our needs that not being met. It increases people's joy of giving to us.'
'All needs are universal. Every human being in the world has the same needs.'

So, as Marshall Rosenberg says: let's be courageous to try many new things in life: 'You never know what you want until you get it'.

Working in Iceland: the beginning of my story :)

Until now I haven't told you much about my work experiences in Iceland.
I waited 2 long winter months to get my first job opportunity in the wonderful land of fire and ice. So let's come back to the Icelandic wintertime for a while.


'WELCOME TO HELL!'

In the first decade of March I was proposed to work in the hotel with breakfasts. As I already had the experience of being waitress at very popular restaurant in Barcelona in my students times, I thought it would be quite easy job, only with breakfasts. I tried it out only for one day.. and immediately realised what was it all about!!! When I came to the hotel kitchen on Tuesday early morning the big guy who was washing the dishes (and appeared to be a funny Polish guy later on) greeted me with this sentence: 'Welcome to hell!'. And he was damn right!
Not enough staff to deal with more then 300 people coming to the breakfast every morning. It was very hot in the kitchen and the work had no end.. running, cutting, cleaning.. on and on and on.. for 8 hours non stop, only 1 break for the meal. At least the staff were nice: Slovakian girl working at the same hotel for 5 years, the big Polish guy, Spanish guy and Romanian woman. And me as an additional help at the beginning.

The work supposed to be from 6 to 14, also on weekends, so it would be extremely tough for me as I like to sleep long in the mornings and mostly travel in Iceland during the weekends. And my legs hurt so badly after long running hours with the fully loaded tray.. Even the hotel was only 15 minutes walk from my flat. In that moment, I thought that I would not have a choice, but fortunately during the same week, just before I started the scheduled job at this big and popular hotel I got another proposal!! And I went for it!

 





MY FIRST JOB IN ICELAND

I got a job as a housekeeper at the residency of very friendly and distinguished couple, the French ambassador and his wife. Service, ironing, cleaning..  and French style, silver cutlery and dishes, huge old house. I really liked this big old-fashioned house, around 400 m2 big I guess.  It was only 4 hours in the morning and all weekends free. I was so happy to accept this job and refuse the hotel one! I even photographed that house in January, much before I got that job, it looked somehow attractive..
And in the same week when I started to work there for a trial month I got another perfect proposal!!! I was feeling so happy! I couldn't believe my luck!!!
I started the housekeeping on Wednesday and already on Friday I got the interview to work with school kids during after school classes in one of the most prestigious and multicultural schools in Reykjavik! Just 3 minutes distance from the place where I lived! One of my close Polish friends was leaving this fantastic work and recommended me. So I started the new job just after the weekend, since Monday, March 17 :)))

And so the story goes. For one month I was having both works going on bike from one place to another, as I had less then 1 hour to get back home at Grettisgata, change my clothes and had something for lunch. The job at the residency ended just few days before Easter as the trial period came to the end. I felt quite sad but relieved, because it was really tough and I was always in a hurry with more and more tasks..
Fortunately, I got also some extra hours as a waitress at the French-Icelandic 'Le bistro' at Laugavegur, the main street, and also some French banquets. I've been working there from time to time, mainly in the mornings.

FREE TIME IN FRISTUNDA

I am very fond of my work with kids, it so creative! It's a big pleasure and fun! I am learning Icelandic with them, sometimes speaking English or even Polish with some of the kids. It's kind of leisure centre offering a lot of nice activities for them with very friendly and loving staff. I really enjoy the positive atmosphere there, we are almost like family. My colleagues are mostly Icelandic although one of my closer soul mates is Lithuanian girl, artistic photographer. Other crazy girl from the States is a film maker. We are a pack of interesting people though :))
Thanks to this work I am developing my artistic skills and getting more involved in the Icelandic society. Just look at the examples of my funny work, elephant and turtle, the work is just about having fun and doing nice things! :)

And as I am working for Reykjavik City Hall, I have free access to all the city swimming pools, museums and some other nice social benefits. Yep, here we have Scandinavian social welfare system ;)

The school year is finishing soon, around June 6th. So there are about 3 more weeks of work still to go. And this week I should know more about my summer work in one of the restaurants, the neighbour one with big logo of heart, Moroccan interior design and nice chill out music.

And the good news is that I already know  I will be continuing my work at school with kids since the beginning of the new school year which is around 20th of August!!! I am very happy about it :)))







 MY FILM CAREER ;)

And yes, there's still one more interesting work experience to write about.. I worked at the film set in the end of April, they were shooting commercial for one of the biggest companies in the world and I was doing extra on the set. Only for one day. They took us, colourful people from all the continents, to Keflavik airport to play passengers there.. And we were having a lot of fun on the set, eating nice food and having chats! I hope to see the results of this work soon, for sure I will share them with you, my readers :)



This is the photo done just after the closing of the film set, that's one of nice Icelandic guys I met there.
More news coming soon.. :)

Photo story: my wooden house by the sea :)

My wooden house by the sea is situated just in the very heart of Reykjavik, down town, just 5 minutes walk from Harpa. I live at the attic and from my window can see the green leaves of the trees and shimmering blue water of the ocean, the Faxaflói Bay, in the left angle of the window pane. And we are all from the left wing of course ;)

It's harmonious and artistic atmosphere inside, and outside we have a yard/garden with a high grass and some yellow spring flowers and beautiful old trees. Indeed, very green.



Our house is placed in the middle of the hill, the sea is glittering down the slope and some Reykjavik 'sky scrapers' occupy some part of the landscape.



It's such a quite and peaceful place! Although 5 minutes walk up the hill there is intense night life going on. Laugevegur street with many colourful bars, shops and cosy coffee houses. But my neighbourhood is so quite, no party people shouting during the night.

 


My friends that already had visited me felt that is like cottage house somewhere in the mountains, like a wooden shelter for mountaineers. And I completely agree with it! :))  

Here is an excellent song illustrating how I feel: Björk: It's oh so quiet.. shh :))

Reykjadalur hot river, classical music and Italian maestro..

HIKING IN REYKJADALUR, VALLEY OF THE HOT RIVER

Italian maestro.. He took me for one of the best adventures that I ever had in Iceland. I love this spontaneous way of doing things!
We planned to go to the swimming pool in the afternoon on May 1, but when we sat in the car he proposed that maybe we should go to Reykjadalur hot river instead! I'm spontaneous person too, so you can imagine that I didn't hesitate and immediately said 'yes, let's go there!' to such a nice proposal. I love travelling in Iceland and I had been to the hot river before, only once in July 2013, with my Icelandic friend that was my first host in Reykjavik...

Travelling to Reykjadalur.. Although it was such a sunny day in Reykjavik, as we were heading more to the south the sky become partially grey, covered with some dark clouds hiding the sun. We where listened to Hebrew music and my favourite Idan Raichel Project. I love ethnic and world music, it fills me with such good vibrations.

Still it was quite warm, the wind was not cold at least. Because it was so spontaneous, we were having  with us only typical city clothes, no hiking shoes, no waterproof coats..

Italian maestro was driving well and firmly, also climbing so fast.. I really liked his way of being, cheerful and sincere, open and caring, admiring beauty of the world. We have quite similar way of seeing the world.
So we started hiking up to the Reykjadalur, the walk took us about an hour until we reached the wonderful hot river and entered the mysterious area of the hot steam, very thick white fog.

The hot river is quite popular touristic place nowadays, so we weren’t alone, there were also few people around on that evening. Some wandering groups of 4-5 persons and two tents further up the slope.
We jumped out off the clothes immediately (and it was cold, indeed!) and immersed our shivering, naked bodies, in the hot water. It was even too hot partially so we chose the place where the hot stream was merging with the colder one. It was such a big fun and pleasure, we spent in the river at least 2 hours playing with the water, cheerful as kids! It was such a wonderful moment!

Yes, finally I tried out that what I always wanted to do: I swam completely naked in the nature! It was such a fun, some other people were much further up in the water, with they costumes on, although it is very common in Iceland to swim in the natural springs just naked. I was feeling so well and as we where two, one next to each other, I wasn't ashamed at all. And we looked as a perfect couple, I knew it was a very special time for me. I was enjoying so much this freedom and the unique moment of real harmony and happiness!



After 2 hours of having fun in the water we decided that we have enough and maybe it's time to go back. It was about 8 pm when we came off the water and run for about 20 metres through the shallow river to grab our clothes and belongings. Completely naked of course! :) And I was having fun thinking about the whole situation.


Then we started to go down the mountains, back to the valley. My hair was completely wet so I made a turban of the sportive towel and looked like a genuine Bedouin woman, while he was having  a colourful scarf around his head as a protection from the wind and evening cold. Going down and holding our hands, among amazingly beautiful nature, colourful mountains.. Such a pleasant walk!

We had also long weekend in Iceland at the beginning of May. I was working next day, in the afternoon at school, so we didn't have to hurry and were back to our town quite late. Still it was quite bright, Icelandic nights are over.. endless day is approaching the magic island :)

And today, more then 2 weeks have passed since our journey to Reykjadalur, he is so busy with preparing his next concerts and obviously prefers not to involve himself in a new relationship as he is leaving Iceland so soon.. So I heard from him only music and silence during last days.

This is very personal entry.. maybe I won't post this chapter at all..
Although I know that I am not writing only for myself, and it makes me more restricted in revealing some of my feelings. Still I need to keep some memories for myself and keep in mind some of the events.. let me think a moment where to start it..

In fact, I already wrote something about Italian maestro before. I call him this way, because he started reading 'Maestro e Margerita' by Bulhakov in the time that we met and he's a real maestro di concerto al violino, playing first violin in the most prestigious orchestra in Iceland.. and in Rome as well. So sweet, cute, clever, sensitive, sensible, caring, delicate, spontaneous.. very handsome guy, beautiful soul, clever man, real artist, my soul mate, travelled a lot, loves nature, is close to my spirituality, knows how to appreciate the present moment.. And he's great taste and cooks delicious meals! Swimming a lot every day, taking care of his body by regular exercising and also by eating healthy organic food.. So lovely, delicate and nice.. Also has his ups and downs and need to be alone quite often.
He's really an extraordinary person. I hope we will be in touch when he's back to Iceland after summer.

 All this story only confirms, what I learnt in the first moment when I arrived to this beautiful island: Iceland is a magic place where you can meet a lot of wonderful, loving and sensitive people, travellers from all around the world!!!

And the great thing is that thanks to Italian maestro I started to listen to classical music again, somehow preparing myself for piano classes and maybe will join the choir one day.. It's been always my dream and Iceland is full of music and musical people. That's amazing thing here!  :)



concert no 1


Ashkenzy: Rahmaninoff, Moussorgski, Brahms.. 

concert no 2


Energetic concert: Jorge Luis Prats, Cuban virtuoso pianist, playing Tchaikovsky 
plus Prokofiev symphony

J.S. Bach, St. Matthew Passion, Langoltskirkju Choir and Orchestra with special guests, Reykjavik. Excellent performance!

J.S. Bach, St. Matthew Passion, Langoltskirkju Choir and Orchestra, May 17 in Reykjavik