Day 37: Project Presentations and Last Night at Holt

We’ve been working on our projects for a little over a week now, and today we presented them to the class at the University Centre at the Westfjords. Each person was supposed to talk for about 15-20 minutes so we were giving presentations from 10 am – 3 pm. I spoke a lot longer than I thought I would and spoke for almost 20 minutes about the whaling in Iceland. Everyone’s projects were thoroughly researched though, and as Caitlin said we had all become “mini-experts” in only a week.

After our presentations our posters were hung up outside in the hallway and residents from the town came for pastries and to view our work. Only about 6 people came though since the town is so small.


Here's a bizzare painting that is hanging up in the university centre. Apparently the artist painted HIMself into the picture as the woman on the left.


It was almost 5 pm by the time we left, so we just went home and starting preparing dinner afterwards. Caitlin had decided to cook us a feast for our hard work (and since it was our last night at Holt). We didn’t eat until after 9 pm but it was worth it. We had back of lamb, peas, red cabbage, sweet potatoes, caramelized potatoes, quinoa and falafel. Everything was amazing, and after dinner we had skyr cake! I have already raved about skyr over and over again, and I will have to make a skyr cake when I get home. At whole foods they import skyr from Iceland.

When we finished dinner we took a while to clean to kitchen and then played a short game of baseball since it was such a success on the Fourth of July. By now it was about midnight, but we decided that there was one thing we must do before we leave…jump in the fjord! So, we all walked down the road a little ways to a boardwalk. One by one we all jumped off the boardwalk into the water. We were pretty much in the Arctic Circle, so understandably, the water was freezing cold. It must have been 50 degrees F or less. My whole body went numb within a minute and upon getting out, my feet were burning and my skin tingled when I began drying off with a towel.


Shielding our heads from the territorial seabirds. Since there are not many trees in the Westfjords, all of the nests are on the ground in the grass or bushes.


Jumping in!


Trying to stay warm.


So cold!


Getting back to Holt we jumped into the shower, huddled together and turned the water on as hot as it could go. After returning our body temperature to normal we all got ready for bed and I stayed up rather late playing cards with some friends.

The Westfjords are so beautiful, and staying at Holt was a lot of fun. Tomorrow we head out towards Reykjavik and will stay at a hostel in a small town along the way. Goda Nott!