Halló, halló, which one should it be? Hillbilly, didn´t I maybe get it right?? Sånn skikkelig harry...

Home in good old Iceland, and to nobody´s surprise it´s been raining fire for the last few days, actually since I arrived. Hmmm, last Sunday the rain was actually horizontal, we had storm warnings and all those things that meant no school and great fun when I was a kid. However, neither storm nor a Sunday could save us from the school bench this time; we participants in this volcanology summer school sat all day listening to lectures. It was actually a quite dramatic setting for talk on very scary volcanoes and the disasters they cause: A howling storm beating the house that lies at the foot of this very dangerous volcano Öræfajökull (now try reading that out loud), which is also Iceland´s highest mountain. The highest peak is called Hvannadalshnjúkur, by the French shortened to Ananas Yogurt.

Actually the summer school is not over but I´m back in Reykjavik. Hitched a ride with a truck driver, so got a glimpse of a profession I´ll never have. And a glimpse into subcultures I don´t meet every day. The dormant anthropologist popped up inside me. It was good fun, we discussed the weather (of COURSE we did, as usually when driving along the south coast we got ten different weathers...) and the traffic, outdoor festivals and fox hunting and even the difference between two- and four-stroke engines. Not that it´s my main hobby, but...

Am actually finding myself being more conversable (???) on engines than I am on the arts. Something has happened here. I who studied classics at high school, wanted to be an actress and even took some singing lessons. Gee. Svalbard is a prime suspect here.

Anyway, what am I doing in town? Polar Star is coming to Reykjavík tomorrow and on it three of my workmates from Svalbard. Just had to go and say hi. Will hitch a ride back east tomorrow evening, to hear the two lectures scheduled for Thursday.