Icelandic family makes a home in Silicon Valley

An Icelandic family living in Fremont, California, has made a life in Silicon Valley, where Gunnar Þorsteinsson works for Tesla, mbl.is reports.

On a warm October evening, the family welcomed a reporter to their apartment building’s rooftop for grilled pizza. The rooftop has a swimming pool, benches, tables and a barbecue. While Lovísa Falsdóttir cooked, the couple’s children, Flóki, eight, Marel, six, and Svala, three, played nearby.

Gunnar, who has a doctorate in battery engineering from Columbia University in New York, joined Tesla after graduating. He describes the job as his dream role. The family lived in New York for several years before moving to California, where they have now been for nearly two years.

Gunnar first completed an undergraduate degree in geophysics in Iceland and planned to begin graduate studies at Columbia in autumn 2020. The couple had started preparing to move when they learned Lovísa was pregnant. As the Covid pandemic worsened, their plans changed: New York was badly affected, and Lovísa and nearly all flight attendants were laid off. Gunnar began his battery engineering PhD in January 2021. Their younger son was then five weeks old, and their older son was two. Svala was born in Manhattan in summer 2023.

Lovísa is a stay-at-home influencer and podcast host who shares family life as an Icelandic mother in the United States, particularly on TikTok. She said she does not currently have a work permit and the couple are applying for a green card. She has waited nearly six years and would like to work, at least part-time. She has more than 20,000 TikTok followers.

With her sister Elfa, Lovísa hosts Falsfréttir, a podcast whose name plays on their family name, Falsdætur. The sisters average about 5,000 listens per episode, she said. The show is mostly light-hearted and focuses on their relationship: Elfa is four years younger and has no children, while Lovísa is the older sister with three. Lovísa said the podcast began as an excuse to talk more and reconnect after her children had taken up much of her attention. The sisters have also discussed more serious and difficult subjects.