-Feb 12th. A young fellow at work, one of those English football lovers, has a few shirts of Manchester United: very proud of them. He explained in some detail their significance, some of them dating back to times when that football club had different color schemes, etc. Although football is utterly foreign to me, it`s fascinating to hear someone explain his passionate love for the game. I mentioned him earlier, of how he joined a group of Icelanders for a match in Manchester. We talked about England in general, of how run-down and tattered at the edges it is compared to Iceland. `Down right filthy is how I’d explain it!` was his response. Here in Iceland we receive a lot of broadcasts from England which involves local news. You get a clear impression of its grubbiness even from quick shots on the news. While glad to have been abroad for just 3 days, my co-worker found England depressing and cold; looked forward to coming home to Iceland.

-At work quite a lot of mail comes to Iceland by similar `I` countries: Ireland (above all else), Indonesia, Israel and even Iraq and Iran. What surprised me about the last country is the large amount of LL Bean and Victoria Secret catalogues it gets. Seriously. Though someone else processes them, that person has to put in a bag which I then process on the computer.