Its pretty easy to make friends here in the Salvation Army hostel, and in Reykjavik as a whole. Some people live permanently in the hostel as a way of dealing with the recession, but most are young summer visitors. An Israeli buddy and I have made it around the town trying all of the weirdest foods (fear factor had a whole Iceland eating special). I room with a genetic engineer who is relocating to Norway. I cant figure out why he isn't staying in a real hotel because he dresses really fancy and eats well, but who cares, he's nice and he always brings back drinks and snacks for our roommates.
Ossur is a very interesting company that is located right next to the brewery headquarters of Iceland. I was told that they have inspiration lunches at the brewery weekly. 80% of the workers there are Icelandic. This might be why prosthetics are so expensive because we are employing people in one of the most expensive places to do all of the work and import all the carbon and then export out the products. They put 35 million dollars into research last year and spent a fifth of that in legal battles protecting their research rights which has been piggy backed by Freedom feet and others. Icelandic people get free prosthetic care and are supplied with as many products as they want to "test". They do pay a lot in taxes though, but they still come out ahead. Ossur really favors the Icelandic people. Ossur seems to be the only company in Iceland not phased by the economic downturn. I guess people like me have to pay the high price of a prosthesis regardless of what the global economy is sitting at.
This is my last night in Reykjavik, and I recommend to all to visit. Very cool, isolated little city with a lot to do and a lot of really nice and good looking people. Ill write again when I don't have a band blaring 90s rock songs in the cafe/bar where the internet is. Adios!