Day 32: Learning about the Icelandic Sagas

Today we spent our day at home. I slept in this morning and then did a little work on my project before lunch time. After lunch Peter, an employee of the University Centre in the Westfjords came to Holt (the place we're staying) to give us a lecture about Gislasaga, one of Iceland's saga.

Basically the story follows most medieval trends such as adultery, revenge, family honor, etc. etc. What's interesting is that the Icelandic language has not changed much at all over time so reading the sagas is popular among Icelanders. There are some English translations of several of the sagas which I might look into reading.

We then had a little while until dinner so I went for a walk along the beach in the fjord with Nina and Shannon. The water was rather calm and it was beautiful outside. Since it's warm in Iceland now all of the seabirds' eggs are hatching so we saw some ducklings and other baby birds.

Arriving back at Holt, we had fish (cod I believe) for dinner which was delicious. After dinner everyone ended up just hanging out in their rooms, and while I was studying I heard a lot of noise from the second-floor kitchen. Thordur and some students were eating pieces of hakarl (rotten shark) and taking shots of brennivin (An Icelandic liquor also called "black death"). I decided to partake and ate a piece of hakarl. It actually didn't taste that bad, but smelled horrible. Eating it isn't as bad as trying to get the rotten shark smell off your hands.


Eating hakarl


Hakarl (the thing to the left is a cookie. The shark meat was cut into pieces like a little scallop)


Brennivin


Later that evening we made a bonfire near a little "forest" not far from our place, roasted marshmallows and played castle. We found a nest of seabird eggs at the foot of a tree that had probably been abandoned.





Tomorrow we're going on a mountain hike. Goda Nott!

Day 31: Project day at the Westfjords

Today was pretty straightforward. We arrived at the university at 9 am and worked on our projects until 4:30 pm. I retreated to the study room downstairs and researched online reading a bunch of whaling articles. Since I'm actually interested in my topic now, the day went rather quickly. I still have a lot of research to do before I start writing my paper though.

After lunch I took a short break and went "downtown" with a couple of the other students to check out a couple of stores and go the bakery. The local bakery in town had really cheap homemade pastries. I ordered a rye pretzel which was amazing. I bought a marzipan dessert for a friend and it was delicious as well. I've noticed that besides licorice, marzipan is popular in Iceland too.

My group was in charge of cooking again so we went to Bonus after class and bought food for spaghetti and salad. At home we didn't serve dinner until almost 8 pm because trying to get water to boil for pasta to feed 16 people (on an ancient stove) takes a while.

For the rest of the evening I just lounged around, played cards and thought about doing more research. Oh! And I managed to watch Big Brother due to a live feed I found online. Thank goodness!

I'll try to post more pictures the next few days but in the Westfjords we'll mainly just be working on our research projects.

Bless bless!

Day 30: Work day (more or less)

Even though we didn't have a lecture in the morning we arrived at the university at 9 am so that we could work on our projects before the lectures after lunch. I've been struggling with my research and had doubts about my interest in the subject matter. Furthermore, one of lecturers yesterday pretty much did the exact study I proposed and had written a 200 pg thesis on it. So, I decided to not limit myself to an engineering related topic and just choose a subject that I'd really enjoy researching.

So...I decided to evaluate whaling in Iceland and answer the question 'can whaling be a sustainable practice?' We've learned so much about sustainability and renewable energy in Iceland but have neglected to talk about so many issues affecting Iceland and its environment. I took interest in the topic when I ate whale steak at my host family's house in Akureyri and wanted to learn more about the practice in Iceland and the controversy surrounding it. I've already done plenty of research and plan on interviewing an ecologist who argues that whaling can be sustainable.

For class today we had two lecturers, one lady lectured about the chemistry of renewable energy another lady who is an anthropologist spoke to us about the history of renewable energy in Iceland and how technology, nationalism and socio-economics have driven renewable energy in Iceland. The second lecture was a very interesting and probably one of my favorites since we've been here.

Here's a picture of the harbor in Isafjordur which is right next to the university we're studying at.


We left the univeristy around 4 pm and headed home. I had a rather lazy evening and watched Spain defeat Germany in the World Cup and played cards. Now I'm going to go to bed early and do some more research. Tomorrow is another project day. We might go into "town" tomorrow to explore.

It's supposed to be cold and rainy in Iceland tomorrow. Only two weeks left in Iceland! :(

Day 29: Second day of classes at Westfjords

Today was another early morning. We woke up and ate breakfast leaving the house at 9 am. It only takes about 15 minutes to get to the university center and our first lecture begins around 10 am. Before lunch a man named Kristjan Haraldsson spoke to us about supplying electricity to the Westfjords area. He is the head of the Westfjords Power company which works seven hydropower stations. The neat thing was that right after his lecture we got to walk a couple of blocks from the university and see the generators and the diesel reserves which provide power in case of an power outage due to storms or avalanches.


The diesel reserve generators


Kristjan explaining the intricacies of the plant


A series of pipes and knobs which I thought looked cool


We then had our lunch break and reconvened around 1 pm for our second lecture. Bjarni M. Jonsson, who had just completed a thesis on tidal power spoke to us about the feasibility of implementing tidal power in the Westfjords area. It's a relatively new method of power generation in Iceland since for the past several decades a surplus of power has been supplied solely from geothermal and hydropower.

After class we stopped by a trash incinerator on the way home to see how the facility burns trash to provide heating for the surrounding area. Basically when the trash burns, the hot air is recovered and sent through a boiler. We got to see the giant crane placing the trash into the shredder and then into the incinerator. We then went up to the control room and walked through the machinery room.


The outside of the building


The crane putting trash in the shredder


Looking into the machinery room


The control room


Looking out into the yard where waste that cannot be burned is sorted


I took a nap when we got home because I was rather tired and woke up for dinner. After dinner we watched the Netherlands beat Uruguay in the World Cup match and played ultimate frisbee. My team won 7-5. Then we decided to break out Castle since we haven't played it since the first week in Iceland.

It had been a long day and despite the 24 hour sunlight I forced myself to get some rest. Until tomorrow!

Day 28: Class at the University Centre in the Westfjords

Early in the morning on July 4th, Thordur had to drive our bus to Reykjavik to return it (for some reason) and then took a flight back to Westfjords to meet up with us in the evening. So...we had to rent a bus from town and this beauty showed up at our place this morning. The name on the side of the bus is actually our bus driver's name. The bus is ancient and super funky, but in a good way.





We left the house around 9 am and drove for about twenty minutes to the University Centre in the Westfjords. We had two lectures, one before lunch and one after. The first lecture was a basic overview of the Westfjords area, and we learned about its history, landscape, and policies. Then we had lunch, and some people took advantage of the badminton court outside and played a few games. I'm definitely going to play tomorrow. After lunch we had another lecture about legislation and the importance of planning when dealing with a small and fragile area such as the Westfjords. We were given a map of Iceland and focused on a specific fjord which was marked with certain usages such as fishing and aquaculture, tourism and infrastructure. We then had to figure out a way to balance these usages and come up with policies so that the fjord would not be compromised by any one usage.



Departing from the university at about 3 pm, we headed over to Holl, a local farm which utilized hydropower to provide its electricity.







We met with the owner and he walked us up a path which lead to a stream which feeds water through a turbine that produces the electricity to power his farm. Next he's hoping to upgrade his turbine to increase his output and to the use hydropower to create ammonia to use as fertilizer.








The turbine



Heading back towards his house he showed us his cattle. He uses them for dairy products as well as meat production. He has an automatic milker that uses a laser to find the cow's teet. It's all robotic and takes care of milking every cow. The barn was quite big and the cows can walk around or line up to eat hay.


The robotic milker and a nosy cow






By now we were all getting hungry so we got on the bus and headed back to our house. The group in charge of dinner tonight cooked breakfast for dinner so we had bacon, eggs and pancakes, which was delicious.

After dinner we had to finish our proposals for our projects which were due at midnight. I decided to analyze tidal power in Iceland (since it's an energy source that I know little about) and determine where its output can be maximized and what method of harnessing tidal power would be the most lucrative. In addition, environmental and socio-economic concerns must be taken into account. It's going to be a difficult project (and we only have a week to do it) but I'm hoping that if I do some good research that I can end up with a good project.

Well, tomorrow we're at the University Centre again so I should probably get some rest. Goda Nott!

Day 27: Happy 4th of July!

Everyone slept in today since we had the day off for The Fourth of July. I woke up around 11 am and had cereal and Skyr for breakfast (I'm averaging about three Skyrs a day, they're soooo good! I think you can buy them at Whole Foods. I'll definitely be looking into then when I get home.

After breakfast I went for a run with four other students and we ran about four miles down the road. We didn't see one car. (In fact, to get to the part of the fjord we're staying in you have to drive through a several kilometer long tunnel that was blasted through the side of a mountain. Most of it is only one lane, so people traveling towards the fjord have to pull into the periodic turn-ins on the right to let the other car pass. It's rather inconvenient and if you're driving to the fjord it can take a while since you usually meet at least a few cars.)

Anyways, we ran about four miles up the road and stopped at a boat shed along the water. We skipped some rocks and found a dead raven (that was huge) and then headed back. It was sprinkling part of the way, and there's one area we ran through that apparently is some birds' nesting grounds. There were swarms of them swooping overhead screeching very loudly. They're known to be quite aggressive and strike the top of your head. Luckily, since there were five of us they didn't attack any of us.

I took a shower when we returned to our house and then I headed to the grocery store. We are split into groups for cooking and cleaning, and my group of four just happened to have the honor of cooking Fourth of July dinner. We decided to go all American and cook burgers, hot dogs and french fries. So, Caitlin drove us to the local Bonus (on the other side of the tunnel) and we spent about an hour trying to find everything. We were cooking for twenty people and had a budget of 15,000 krona (about $120). It took us a while to find everything (especially the veggie burgers since we have some vegetarians and vegans on the trip) but we eventually purchased everything with a few hundred krona to spare.

It took us forever to drive back through the tunnel but when we got home my group got to work cooking dinner. Nina and I cooked the french fries in the ovens and prepared all of the fix-ins for the burgers and hot dogs while the other two in our group grilled the meat. Everyone enjoyed our meal and for dessert we tried a recipe that one of the host families in Akureyri used. Basically, you cut a banana down the middle (with the peel still on) and insert a few chunks of chocolate. Then, you wrap the banana in aluminum foil and grill it until the banana is mushy and the chocolate melts. You can put whipped cream or ice cream on the banana once it's cooked.

Once the kitchen was cleaned we decided to be super patriotic and play baseball. All that we could find was a tiny bat, a tennis ball, and buckets for bases. We actually played nine innings and braved the cold and the temporary drizzle. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and my team won 7-5.


Nina up at bat


Our beautiful baseball field


My view from first base


The rest of the evening we just hung out in the living room and I began a game of hearts with a few other people while we listened to a symphony from Austria playing on the TV. There was a chandelier with candles that we lit to make things even more classy.

Tomorrow we wake up early to leave at 9 am for the University Centre at the Westfjords for a few lectures and then we're going to see a micro-hydropower project at a local farm.

Happy Independence Day!

Day 26: Traveling to Westfjords

It’s a good thing I packed last night, because we were supposed to meet at the university at 9 am to leave, and I woke up at 8:40 am. I quickly brushed my teeth, and then Nina came by to get me. I told everyone goodbye and thanked them for letting me stay, and then got in Nina’s family’s car and we headed to the university. We were a few minutes late, but several other people still hadn’t arrived. At around 9:30 am we were all set, so we loaded the bus and began our long (9 hour drive) to the Westfjords area.

I slept most of the morning, and around 12:30 pm we stopped at a rest area for lunch. There were some little stone people that had been painted and clothed which were quite amusing. After eating our sandwiches we got back in the bus and continued on.





To be honest I slept most of the day, and nothing really eventful happened on the drive to Westfjords. When I was awake the scenery was beautiful. It rained most of the day too, and at one point there was so much fog, that you couldn’t see more than five feet ahead of the bus. We arrived at the Westfjords safely though around 6:30 pm and took our luggage into our hostel. It’s really nice, and has a living room area, a kitchen and dining room, a game room, as well as several rooms with one, two or three beds. We’re surrounded by mountains, and not far from our hostel you can see the fjord.








Tomorrow is a free day, and The Fourth of July, so we’ll probably enjoy hanging out here (and I need to write my project proposal). I should probably go to bed soon, and try to get back into a regular sleeping pattern. Goda Nott!