follow your feet: Chewing Bubblegum and Kicking Ass

I was walking down the main street of Reykjavik the other day nodding my head to ‘What does the fox say?’ when I saw this giraffe on the sidewalk. I thought:

‘What does the giraffe say?’

To which it responded:

‘I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass.’

The giraffe understands.

It knows what it's talking about.

It is funny, meeting new people. If you have ever met a huge number of people in a short space of time – you’ll understand. The conversations get very repetitive very fast.

‘What’s your name?’

‘Where are you from?’

‘What are you studying?’

‘Are you here for one semester or two?’

‘Where are you staying?’

‘Why did you chose to come to Iceland?’

And then the conversation lulls and both people smile awkwardly, nod their heads and wander off. If however, by dire chance and fateful cock up, there is nowhere to go at the completion of this ritual, the go to topic becomes your university timetable. These conversations go something like this:

‘Which days do you have off?’

‘Wednesday and Friday.’

‘Oh, how unfortunate. What days do you have off?’

‘Monday’s and Fridays.’

Yes, we stand around comparing the length of our weekends. I think that it is fair to say that, in general, exchange students in Iceland:

‘Have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass.’

And go hiking.