11 days..Sandra Vilborg Jónsdóttir

I wanted to thank everyone for the birthday wises earlier this month!! I had a great birthday, not the first and probably not the last one I spend away from home. My day was good, got a cake when i got home from work, went out to a club and got another chocolate surprise cake there!! my roommates know me and my love for chocolate! I will be going to a birthday party tonight!! I am excited, my first indian family party! It will be held at a hotel and there are more than 100 guest invited to this 1 year old birthday party! The theme is pink so I had an excuse to buy a pink dress for the night! I will take some photos for sure!! there are only 11 days until I go to Denmark and only 18 days until I come home for a short visit! I am so excited to see everyone!!

Time passes by!!Sandra Vilborg Jónsdóttir

It is incredible how time passes by! Can´t believe that I have been here for more than a month now, days pass by quickly and before I know it I will be back home. I will be traveling because of work in august; I will begin by attending Copenhagen Fashion week and some meetings in Copenhagen then ICELAND! I will be in Copenhagen from the 10th to the 17th of august, and then come to Iceland on the 17th and I think I will be leaving on the evening on the 20st of august! It is a wired feeling stopping by so shortly, having to stay at a hotel and not being able to spend a lot of time with the people that I am dying to see!
I have been planning on writing a blog for a while now but the heat here just drains all the extra energy from me though I have the computer in front of my all day at work. I am always trying to remember to take pictures but that doesn't seem to be working - I will have to take copies of my flat mates' pictures. Talking about flat mates, there is room for 9 girls in this apartment which is great, but we had an unpleasant incident with our now EX Indian roommate. Most of us had been talking about money disappearing, clothes or jewelry but no one wanted to accuse anybody so we just hoped that we were being hysterical! But one day one of us was packing for a trip she was going on and went through all her things to look for a something and she couldn´t find it and suspected our roommate so she ended up opening her closet and found her stuff along with stuff from us, foreign money and more. Some of us maybe over reacted and call the cops so we had to deal with a 6 cops with guns and I can´t say that I felt comfortable having them here. There was really no proof of her stealing something because she wasn´t her when we discovered our things and there were no sign of the missing money so the cops left and we got her kicked out of the apartment. So at least we feel save with our things now but a new problem came up, now one of us always has to stay home when we go out on weekends because the landlord closes the gate at 11 and no Indian girl to take that role!
But other than that everything has been great, I am having a lot of fun, enjoying life and treating myself with a chocolate cake every week now!! It is bad but at least I am starting to dare having some fruits here though I leave out the vegetables...
I am about to go out now.. my day off and I have to start looking around for clothes for Copenhagen, I will have to buy a whole new wardrobe of "professional" clothes, the Indian dresses will at least not do!!

life in delhiSandra Vilborg Jónsdóttir

I want to congratulate all of my friends that graduated this weekend and the last I am sad that I couldn't be there to celebrate with all of u! The heat is making me lazy... I have been thinking about writing something every night but no. I am about to melt now - I just came out of my evening shower but still I am feeling like I need another shower already!
A week ago we decided to go out to a club to meet up with Swedish friends of one of my flat mates, which was fun but it was also a good reminder of the dangers around. We ended by taking an auto back home around 2am; there were 6 of us in one small auto rickshaw, when we where about 5 min from home a couple of guys on a motorcycled somehow where able to stop the auto and tried to pull us out, thankfully a nice Indian guy in a car pulled up and got the auto rickshaw to drive away and he followed us to the gate at home so we would be save. Now we were scared and we didn´t want to walk from the gate to our house which is about 10 min walk so I called our landlord and woke him up and he came and walked with us back! This was a good reminder not go out just girls in this big city! Which we won´t do again. We went out with other aiesecers this weekend and got back home safely...now there where only dogs' chasing us which we are afraid of but that is a part of the daily action here in Delhi.
I have now started to work in front of a computer...as excited I was to start working at the office I miss all of my friends in the production room, though we weren´t able to communicate that much they made my day! I felt like my eyes would pop out yesterday after spending the day in front of the computer. I hope I will get used to it quickly.
I am now working on my database of the Icelandic textile market, is there any distributors or agents that you are aware of in Iceland that I could contact? Or trade-shows that Icelandic stores go to or buy from! I don´t have any knowledge of it except what I find through google!
Tomorrow I have a day off!! The plan was to go to a fabric market with the two designers at work to buy some fabrics for dresses for me and Chokey, but we decided to postpone it because we haven´t decided what dress to "copy"! We bought the Indian vogue, Elle and Harpers Bazaar but so far I haven´t found the one... Any ideas??

Work in delhi..Sandra Vilborg Jónsdóttir

It is now a week since I returned from Dharmasala and I am feeling more at home than before. I have now gotten to know 9 great girls that have been living with me, unfortunately one of them has already moved to another town she will be working in and another one will be moving in the next couple of days. We went to Qutb Minar which is a beautiful ruins and a high tower, we have gone to a couple of markets, we saw a camel walking out on the street and we started working!

We will be working at a company called Vintage Shades, which specializes in cashmere shawls, cashmere blends with silk and wool. They are really fancy, the last couple of days we have been getting to know the product, by touching it by folding it and packing it in, there is a big shipment going out to Tokyo and New York tomorrow so the production room has been chaotic. My job will be in the marketing and sales department and I am supposed to sell the products to up-scale stores at home. So far the only stores that have come to my mind are Kisan, Sævar Karl, KronKron and maybe Debenhams if I would go for a department store. They are used to using agents, but I am not sure who to contact for that, if u have any suggestions or contact information for me please send it to me - my email is sandraj07@ru.is

DharmasalaSandra Vilborg Jónsdóttir

Last Tuesday me and Chokey (The girl that I will be working with over the next few months) left for a two day trip to Dharmasala.



 Dharmasala is in northern India, it is the town of Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibet government. We started our trip by visiting the Tibetan neighborhood here in Delhi, unfortunately we weren´t able to experience the daily live there because it was the 49th day of grief of the earthquake victims in Tibet so everything was closed, so we will have to stop by there again when we have a day off from work. Our 12 hour bus ride started well, we weren´t ready to fall asleep at 7pm, but we should have because we weren´t able to sleep in the last bumpy four hours! I had been sleeping for an hour or so when the bus started going uphill on a bumpy road when I woke up when my head bumped into the window....atchhhh!! I got this good-looking bump on my forehead now and it hurts! Shortly after that we got a flat tire so the 12 hours ride turned into a 13 hour one with almost no sleep!





When we arrived in Dharmasala, Chokey´s family friend picked us up and took us to this upscale hotel, we were expecting to stay at a cheap hotel for the night but it didn´t look like that would happen, we didn´t want to be rude and ask how much we were going to pay for the night because they had already booked a room for us...but thankfully it wasn´t that expensive! She had the rest of the day planned for us, she got a taxi driver to drive us around; we visited all of the Buddhist/Tibetan monasteries, museums, Tibetan art institute and the home of Dalai Lama. We got a blessing from the Karmapa Lama which is the second-highest position in Tibetan Buddhism, had typical Tibetan homemade dinner and a breakfast, walked the streets of Dharmasala and did some shopping.




I got a taste of it how it is to be famous, Indian tourists stopped me and asked for photographs with me which I said yes to which I shouldn´t have done because then more people added to my group of fans! Next time I will ask them to pose on a picture for me! The ride back home was even worse - we got the last seats in the bus so we jumping up and down the whole way! When we returned home we realized that everyone had gotten sick while we where away so I am now hoping that I will be lucky enough not to experience the pain and hospital visits they have had to go through over the last couple of days!


I will start work tomorrow...on a Sunday!! I just realized that the only day I will have off from work is on Monday because that is when the market is closed and our office is located on the second floor of the Heritage house at South extension market! Today we will do some sightseeing and shopping - I will fill u in on the details on my job after this weekend!
If u want to give me a call over the next 2 days when it is free for those who have a home phone from Siminn - my number is +919654947735!!

Day 4Sandra Vilborg Jónsdóttir

I am doing much better and actually starting to know my way around...I promised to upload some photos of the accommodations here! My space shuttle toilet and more! So here they are!!

My bed to the left


the space shuttle!


last night i found another bathroom behind a door in on of the rooms...that one is worse!

The view from our entrence


The temple we went to



and the indian gate!

Two more trainees joined our house Karoline from Poland and Chokey from Switzerland. Chockey will be working with me so I was really excited to meet her. When she was arriving last night that we got news that we won´t have to go to work until next Saturday because our boss is somewhere on business.... and it sounds like we will be traveling to europe with him, so that is exciting! And we have an extra week off and now we are thinking about how to spend it! One plan is to go to visit Dalai Lama in Dharmsala - that would be exciting but that would be a 12 hours bus ride so we will look into that tonight! Does anyone have any suggestions about what to do?

Today we met up with Jennifer Sung, our contact in Aiesec, she took us to an upscale market and we had our first Indian meal!! I am still feeling okey so I am hoping that it won´t affect me! It is another hot day in Delhi, it is now about 39°celcius!

DelhiSandra Vilborg Jónsdóttir

It was a wired feeling to walk out of the airport in Delhi! Everything was dusty, grey and the air was so hot!! I was asked to wait by a coke stand for a taxi to pick me up, these few minutes that I stood there felt like few hours! People stared at me, like I was the first white person they have seen! I am not sure if I will get used to people staring at me all the time! The traffic from the airport was chaotic, fast and I could hear them horn every few seconds, cars, bikes, auto rickshaws and people walking everywhere and no one following the lines on the road! I was so stressed! I was just hoping that I would make it to the apartment without getting into an accident or bumping into cars or people! Believe me there where often only few millimeters between it! The cap driver was not sure where the apartment was so we ended up driving in circles asking about ten auto rickshaws drivers for directions but finally he found it! I was glad to see my roommates, for now we are four that share the apartment but there is room for nine girls. This is a girl's only apartment which is okay but because of that we are not allowed to go out after 11 at night - which sucks if we want to go out and meet other interns after dinner! But I am working on getting this time limit changed, hopefully I will get them to change it if not I will think about moving to another intern house that also has boys because then it isn't a problem.
Before I came my Indian Aiesec friend said this apartment was in the posh site of town so it was pretty nice! I can´t say I agree! I got homesick the first day just because of the accommodations but now on my second day I am getting used to it and more open to see how this affects me and maybe changes me. The bathroom is the worse - we have this wired toilet that is shaped like a space shuttle with wings on the site! I guess it is for those who want to stand on it! The shower is only cold - which is good though, it is good to be able to cool down a clean up! But it only last for a couple of minutes because it is 40 degrees Celsius or more outside! So I have to get used to this horrid head!
I arrived in the morning of the 27th after a long travel! I hadn´t slept for more than few hours over the last three days but I didn´t want to spend the day alone at the apartment so I went out with Chandra from Canada and an Indian roommate of mine. We took a auto rickshaw to a very religious place, the Bangla Sahib in the city centre of New Delhi. It is a big temple for one of their religions. Before entering we had to take our shoes off, clean our feet, hands and we had to cover our hair. When entering it we had to bend down, kiss the steps and pray! I am not a really religious person so this was a first for me! Inside we prayed to the Guru from every direction and gave them some money. When we got out of the temple on the other site there was a huge pond with so called holy water! It was really peaceful, there where people around it both taking a bath in it and just washing them self. My Indian roommate was really passionate about the water and here religion and she wanted us to participate in it and drink the water, I couldn´t, though it could possible cure whatever could be wrong with me I am not going to drink light brown water, that people are bathing in, fishes are swimming in and that I can´t see more then few centimeters into it! If anything - that would make my sick! But I washed myself with it and we will see if it has any effects on my skin! After we left the temple we went to few markets, they are so cheap! I will have to get rid of everything I brought and bring home a bag full of new cloths and other Indian like objects! After dinner at Pizza Hut we meet up with two guys from Aiesec and went to see the Indian Gate, which is a national monument of World War II. It was good to have the guys around because people kept staring but not as intensely when they were around!
The things that doctor I saw said before coming here has really stuck with me! I am now scared of dogs! There are a lot of lose dogs around, barking all the time and she told me most if not all have rabies and if they would bite me I would get really sick...so now every time I see a dog or any animal I get nervous! Eva I know you will be happy if this leads to me hating cats!

ég er svo löt við þettaSandra Vilborg Jónsdóttir

Lífið gengur sinn vanagang hérna í Burgos, Stór hluti af hopnum skrapp til Madrid um helgina , en við Sunna vorum eftir ásamt fleirum, klæddum okkur upp fyrir Eurovision og vorum svo handviss að við ættum sigur í höndum okkar - keypt var freyðivín til að skála í - en sú flaska liggur enn óhreyfð inní ískáp :(

Annars er lífið ekki búið að vera neitt sérstaklega viðburðaríkt, engin sól að skína á okkur en við höldum áfram að eyða peningunum og erum núna að hugsa hvað við gerum af okkur næstu helgi - sem er seinasta helgin hérna í burgos!!

Á Mánudaginn fórum við í langa og skemmtilega vísindaferð, kíktum í pasqual jógurt og mjólkurverksmiðjuna og enduðum svo á vínakri - goð tilbreyting og skemmtilegt að kynnast hlutum hér í kring.

Á morgun verður svo ratleikur og við Sunna ætlum báðar að vinna hann....einsgott að við lendum í sama liðinu :S

Það fer að styttast í prófið - það verður á fimmtudaginn eftir viku - svo maður þarf að fara að læra fyrir það.....nenni ekki að skrifa meira ég er svo svakalega löt fyrir þetta

....Sandra Vilborg Jónsdóttir

Lífið í BurgosSandra Vilborg Jónsdóttir

Þá er búið að taka fyrstu djammin í Burgos, áttum gott djamm í gær þar sem við hittum sæta sæta sæta sænska stráka! Núna verð ég bara að fara að heimsækja hana Jóhönnu Erlu til Svíþjóðar!!

Fórum í skoðunarferð um burgos í gær á vegum skólans - það var mjög gaman að skoða alla þessa aðalsaga og fá smá upplýsingar um alla þessa staði sem við erum búin að vera að labba um og skoða á hverjum degi.

Fyrstu myndirnar eru að rúlla inn á netinu - eg er ekki enn búin að henda inn mínum en Sunna setti sínar inn áðan - getið kíkt á þær hér:

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=130506000&albumID=1765582


Ég ætla að halda áfram að kúra mér uppí rúmi - búin að læra heima og veðrið er ekkert girnilegt :P