HELLO, I' M HALLUR REYNISSON

YOUR NEW AFS EXCHANGE STUDENT FROM ICELAND

Hello. My Icelandic name is HALLUR REYNISSON and my Chinese name is
徐啟安 (TSUI KAI ON, Tsui is the name of my Chinese host family). Icelandic is my first language and most foreigners find it very difficult. I was born on July 2 1991, so I am 16 years old.

My hobbies are keeping the friends that I already have and making new friends. I am also learning to play the musical instrument, the drums. I also enjoy finding new things and having new experiences. My favourite school subject is Biology.

I come from ICELAND which is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean between Europe and America and fairly close to the larger North Atlantic island of Greenland. (If you want to find out a little bit more about my home country, some good websites are: www.visiticeland.com and www.lonelyplanet.com .)

There are only about 310,000 of us Icelanders but we believe that we are open and friendly people. Iceland has been inhabited by humans since about 874 AD when a leader called Ingolfur Amarson came from Norway to first settle our land. We Icelanders are really the direct descendants of VIKINGS. The first religion in Iceland was the Viking religion. There are many gods in this religion and many wonderful stories, or myths, which come from it. Our Icelandic culture is rich and varied. We have a strong literary heritage especially from the period between the 12th to 14th centuries.

In modern Iceland, there are no railways but there is an extensive road network. A ring road circles the whole coast. Sea and air transport are also used to connect the larger cities and towns. I live in AKUREYRI which is in the northern part of Iceland. It has a population of only 16,000 but it is an important service town and has a university and an important hospital. Akureyri is a fjord surrounded by mountains. It is very beautiful. (Have you learnt this word fjord in Geography?)

HALLUR REYNISSON ICELANDIC EXCHANGE STUDENT

My family in Iceland consists of my Mom and my 17 year old sister who live in Akureyri with me and my father and 6 year old sister who live in Gardabaer. I have good friends in both these places. Even when there is no school, I meet my friends every day.

My school in Iceland has very little homework. If we get homework, it can usually be all finished in 30 to 60 minutes. Also we do not wear a school uniform. It was all rather free. So you can see it is rather different to Hong Kong. Where I live it is not necessary to lock the door when we go out. Parents are happy to let teenagers of my age stay out quite late.

I chose to be an AFS Exchange student because I wanted to try new things, experience a new lifestyle, try to learn some of your difficult language and make new friends. I hope I can come to understand the customs of Hong Kong society better while I am here. I also want to learn about your history and to visit many of your beautiful and interesting places. I think I am a friendly guy, so please don’t be shy. Please introduce yourself and we can practice some English and Cantonese together. I will be very happy to answer any questions that you have about Iceland.

PS: You may be interested to know that on WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 17 some of my 4C Classmates will be interviewing me on a live, TV BROADCAST to the whole school between 8:20 and 8:35 am.

(To see the full-scale photo, please click on the photo)