News and Events
Snorri West visitors in Eastern Canada
Fridný Ósk Hermundardóttir and Unnur Ýr Kristmundsdóttir are Icelandic students who traveled in early July from Iceland to Canada to participate in the Snorri West Ontario and Quebec Program 2007. Like other Snorri exchange programs the Snorri West aims at strengthening ties between Canada and Iceland, based on the traditional interactions between Iceland and the Icelandic Canadian clubs and societies in Canada. In the course of this six week summer-program Friðný Ósk and Unnur Ýr got to know the cities of Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. In the Fálkinn newsletter of the Icelandic Canadian Club of Toronto they wrote:
“These six weeks were absolutely wonderful! We experienced lots of interesting and fun things, went to all the most interesting tourist attractions, got to know the work of local Icelandic clubs in Canada and met lots of wonderful people. Our trip would not have been the same without the great people we met. We definitely broadened our horizons and learned lots of new things. We would like to say thanks for everything to all the wonderful people who welcomed us and helped us make this journey come to a reality, made us feel at home and made our trip as good as it turned out to be.”
At a meeting with the Friends of Iceland in Ottawa, held at the Ambassador’s residence on July 26th, Friðný Ósk and Unnur Ýr gave an introduction to the Snorri Program in general and explained the Íslendingabók genealogy records on the web, containing information about more that 95% of all Icelanders who have lived since the first census was carried out in 1703. They also told about the scientific research conducted by deCODE genetics in Iceland, a global leader in applying human genetics to develop drugs and diagnostics for common diseases.