This past week has been a whirlwind of Icelandic beer and new experiences!

On Wednesday we had our orientation meeting, where we found out useful things like the fact that 2 out of my 4 lectures a week clash, and that all of the university buildings are ridiculously hard to pronounce, but are connected by underground passages so we should be able to avoid the bad weather as much as possible. We also met with our ‘mentors’, and mine is actually a girl who studied at Durham last year, so she knows exactly how I feel! She gave us a tour and some important information we might not have known otherwise; it is considered very rude to blow your nose in public in Iceland, and far more polite to sniff continuously.

I went swimming with a group of girls – also a bizarre experience, for a Brit anyway! Firstly, swimming…