moving to iceland..

[moondog]

does anyone live there on here?

ive always wanted to so i think Im going to just do it next year. what steps should i take, and should i learn icelandic? I have an economics degree..will it be worth anything.

thank so much

marc

[cuddlysheep]

the hell you goin to do there?

[Louche]

Hey,

I'm not icelandic, but since nobody else is responding...

I don't think you'll have to learn icelandic as most people up there are very fluent in english. If an economics degree wil be worth anything? I feel that one is a bit hard to answer...but considering that you have some REALLY large icelandic companies and banks, economics might be one of the best fields of education if you are looking for a job on Iceland. Going back a couple of decades, I believe the icelandic economy was mainly based around fishing. Today the greatest export is money, or to be presise; loans and investments. Icelandic companies own quite a few of the major retail chains in the UK, and this fall I've noticed that they have placed bids for some of the major american department stores.

[poly800rock]

you can't work without an ID card right? isn't it really tough for a non-citizen to obtain that?

[mojinho]

yeah anyone considering moving to another country needs to do their homework about work rules and procedures. iceland doesn't strike me as the type of place where you could easily work under the table, either. and any work involving banks and economics probably wouldn't be under the table, anyway. see if you can contact anyone else who's moved there to see how they did it.

[isdenn]

by "live in iceland", do you mean live/work there for a period of time then leave, or immigrate? both are supposed to be hard, but immigrating is supposed to be crazy hard.

for work/residence permit stuff, check out:

http://www.utl.is/english/residence-permits/outside-the-eea/work-permit/

[///mzeasy]

I was recently reading Huxley's Brave New World...

The protagonist's boss nearly relocated him to Iceland as punishment for unorthodoxy. Just throwing that out there.

[dnarnya]

the whole, 'moving to iceland' thing sounds scary. its actually called ICELAND. they are a member of the Schengen agreement, so you might be dealing with EU immigration type stuff.

[ironXcrayon]

I have heard it is the top place to live.

[tec761]

U.N. ranked it top place to live this year. Iceland is green, greenland is ice. the girls are amazing the food is really bad unless you like bland, often dried fish (japanese might?),

[down4nyhc]

here are a few job listings. i think some of those jobs are short term.

http://iwork.iagora.com/jobs/Iceland/listing/?full_q=iceland

[deltakid]

Girls in iceland are pretty naughty as well according to this sex study made by this condom company.

[poly800rock]

i think a lot of people who romanticize these scandinavian countries and end up changing their minds when they realize Bjork isn't just hanging out at the pub everynight and even though these women are gorgeous, you're a hobbit compared to these nordic chiseled gods. And if they get past those points, and somehow find a way to work there, they'll kill themselves when they realize the government takes more than half of what you work for.

[moondog]

well considering i hate bjork and im of scandanvian descent im sure i will fair rather well.

im looking to move there to work in enviromentaly concious nation of the economic north.

im not looking to set up roots, but more so test the water.

[poly800rock]

well considering i hate bjork and im of scandanvian descent im sure i will fair rather well.

im looking to move there to work in enviromentaly concious nation of the economic north.

im not looking to set up roots, but more so test the water.

I think you best bet to get a job is to find an american company that has ties in iceland. Or try and see if your descent is good enough for an ID card.

another thing to consider is even though icelandic english is basically american english, does that limit your business saavy? When i was in norway, just because everyone spoke fluent/american english, they didn't speak it as their first language. They had no problem doing so when we asked questions, etc, but they preferred to speak their native tongue.

[moondog]

im learning icelandic as we speak

[corporategrunt]

i think a lot of people who romanticize these scandinavian countries and end up changing their minds when they realize Bjork isn't just hanging out at the pub everynight

Bjork was hanging out at Whole Foods on Houston the other day, I saw a little girl wearing some wierd ass outfit playing with one of them battery operated bunnies that run on ground, annoying the shit out of other customers...I wondered what kind of mum would allow such behavior, then i realized that the girl's mother was Bjork making wierd sound as she was checking out marinated chicken breasts....I've been wanting to at least visit Iceland as a tourist, has the op visited iceland on a vacation at least?

[totally epic]

im learning icelandic as we speak

Good luck.

qMz3gjl9x-M

[superBobo]

I dont think learning icelandic is impossible, but surely difficult. I studied a bit of rune old -norse, which had similar sounds (THorn for instance) thats supposed to be similar to present day icelandic, and its really not that difficult to pronounce I think. Its really interesting how archaic icelandic is compared to the other norse languages, really preserved in time..

I really want to visit someday aswell.

[datasupa]

I dont think learning icelandic is impossible, but surely difficult. I studied a bit of rune old -norse, which had similar sounds (THorn for instance) thats supposed to be similar to present day icelandic, and its really not that difficult to pronounce I think.

a semi-autistic savant named daniel tammett once learned icelandic in one week. of course, he could also recite pi up to 22,500 decimals.

[hawkeye]

a semi-autistic savant named daniel tammett once learned icelandic in one week. of course, he could also recite pi up to 22,500 decimals.

I saw that show.

I agree with Poly that your best bet would be to find a company that has ties there and that would send you to live there, it would probably save you a lot of hassle. You say you are of Scandinavian decent? How far back? My buddy was thinking about doing the legwork to get dual citizenship in Ireland so he could travel in Europe easier, this might help.