What can I say? Tomorrow I was planning to take the GRE, and then I hear that the exam papers haven´t arrived yet so the test will be given next Saturday. What is wrong at ETS? Can´t these people figure out when to send a load of papers away from their office so that they´ll arrive at their destination in time? It´s not as if the test date was decided yesterday. These people want you to sign up for a test many months in advance, then they don´t send the registration papers to Iceland so everyone has to count on their luck and take the test stand-by, then the day before the scheduled test day ETS finally announces that it will be postponed by a week. 'Call me next Friday, though, just to make sure the test papers have indeed arrived', the woman at the test center adviced me just 10 minutes ago. Why on earth did ETS switch from computer-based tests here to these paper-based ones, if this is the kind of mess it brings with it?

Won´t complain too much, though, a week more to prepare is certainly ok with me ;)

Words are very much a part of my life these days, as I prepare for the GRE general test. Phlegmatic, quail, mollify, extirpaticatepuhdisnurfindurf... ?!?!?

The loveliest words, though, that I´ve come across in days I found on the Nature homepage: perovskite, magnesiowüstite, ringwoodite. Nearly all mineral names end with -ite, yet no mineral is called 'trite'... because noone is!

This brings back to me a fond memory of flat-sharing with my friend Erna during university. Both of us were quite occupied with being the curious science student and we´d (especially Erna, though, since she was doing all the chemistry) read the description of contents on absolutely everything bought to the home. This involved nail enamel-glasses, of course, and on my Star Gazer silver nailpolish we read that clintonite was one of the ingredients. I always thought Clinton was kinda cute, so I found it very appropriate that he should bear the name of a mica (glimmer!!) mineral ;)

Recommended reading for those of you comfortable with the German language (there are also pics there, so German knowledge is absolutely NOT indispensable for successful viewing): Alex, and her brand-new daughter Líney Inga. A great blogger at an early age!

Gave a bloody brilliant speech (well, at least I think so!) at the presentation course this morning. My topic: The awfulness of the Icelandic school system as it produces individuals totally devoid of critical thinking and feeling of social responsibility. Og hana nú! The inspiration came from a talk with my 15 year-old sister who´s doing last year of elementary school, as she told me of a boy in her class who was going to write an essay on the elections for the City Council last spring. Their teacher forbade him to write any critique whatsoever in the essay; 'you´ll learn that in high school'.

In the absence of any training of their critical thinking, it´s also kinda sad to hear that in the courses where they are taught about their rights in society, their duties are totally neglected. 'Duties?', my sis asked. 'What´s that?' Well, you know, trivial things such as paying your taxes, voting...

Coming to think of it, the first time I ever experienced a teacher asking his class to write a critical review of anything was in an undergraduate course in anthropology. That´s university, mind you. Until then, we´re not expected, in some cases not even allowed, to think; we´re expected to be nice and quiet and accept everything the omniscient teacher has to tell as the holy truth. I was naive enough to believe these days were long past.

Another thing that amazes me is something I heard on the evening news on the radio tonight: More than 80% of parents in Reykjavík are happy with the education their children receive at school.

Stína and I are preparing a great big chicken party tonight. They have a chicken, I have a chicken, so why not make these chicken meet and be merry?? It will be a wonderful meal, as long as they don´t make me eat the custard for desert.

The two of us spent Friday evening watching the Norwegian masterpiece 'Elling' on video. Ohhh, I love it. One of those movies that warms you up on the inside, while all the remarks are simply so funny you don´t have time enough to laugh between them.

The helicopter ride early on Friday morning was awesome, too. The pilot felt we needed a bit of waking up and showed us some fancy moves, like flying at (what appeared to us) 10cm from the ground, and dipping the helicopter 90 degrees to one side so I was lying on the window! We woke up, needless to say. Being picked up by car at the end of the day felt unusually mundane after this experience.

Am going to take the chicken to Stína´s, where it will be dissected and transformed into a delicious meal, and then back home to finish my three-minute speech I have to give tomorrow at the presentation and public speaking course I´m doing. Better do well on that!!

I got the best job on earth.

Was "called out", almost in an emergency, to help out at the University with geophysical measurements, since someone got sick (this someone is actually Kirsty, a girl I know, and I´m really sad that it is under such unfortunate circumstances that I get to do this job). Disa and I drive out of town every morning, put the devices into the rucksacks and trott off. Walk 500 m (the first day in really rough lava clad with really thick and soft moss), take the packs off and measure. How hard does the earth pull here? As soon as we´ve found out, we take off again. Another 500m. What hard life!! Especially with not a could in the sky; the only occupational hazard is sunburn.

Tomorrow we´re going way off into the lava expanses of Reykjanesskagi. A helicopter will take us there. Feel free to envy us as much as you like. Anyone said geology was the wrong profession??? It may be hard to find work, but when you find it chances are it´s worth the search!!

So, what´s the catch? It´s as temporary as jobs get, just two more days.

Oyoyoy, what an autumn day. My brand new haircut blown to pieces and my butt (of all places!!) wet from walking in the horizontal rain.

It was a short shower, as my dad´s wife said. The jeep trip became, in my case, only 2 days instead of 8. Woke up on the 2nd day in beautiful Landmannalaugar with a mind-blowing headache that solemnly refused to surrender to any painkiller known to man. Driving on the bumpy, winding roads of Sprengisandur didn´t help a lot. Close to the threatened Þjórsárver (hydropower, what else can Icelandic politicians think of anyway??) we stopped to look at the view but I ended up puking behind a stone. Wonderful. Won´t go into the graphic details but this odd and uncomfy behavior was with me for the rest of the day, even the hut we stayed in at Myvatn got a dignified greeting by me. After all of this I wasn´t really looking forward to driving a few hundred more bumpy and winding kilometers in the highlands so I decided to call it a day and hitched back to Reykjavík on Monday. Kverkfjöll and Askja will have to wait for my return a bit longer :(

When this winter settles in, I can´t help thinking of leaving the country. A friend´s in Thailand, just chillin´. Aaahhh...

Am I blonde??

Was going to call my friend Stína. So I picked up the phone at my dad´s Internet Café and dialed a number. Instantly my own cell phone starts to ring. 'Oh, this must be Stína' I thought and took my cell out of my pocket. The screen read 'Dad´s place'. 'How weird, I thought, they're not in'. Answered anyway, holding one phone to each of my innocent little ears: 'Hello?' and thought 'Gee, what an echo!!' Finally realizing it was myself calling myself and talking to myself, in both ears, I started screaming with laughter. Called Stína, in the right number, still howling with laughter, and explained to her what a blonde I was being. She asked me if I was drunk. Should I go and see a doctor about this??!?

Guess this is only a logical consequence of having tried to use my cell phone as a mouse so often. I´ve never tried to use the remote control as a phone, though.

Had a splendid dinner last night at Iðnó, down by the lake. No romance, though... just my bosses being nice. Ok, I´ve been moaning about not having any work and still I don´t really have any. At least none that you put proudly on your grad school application to show how dedicated you´ve been to geology... "selling books over the phone.. the new Icelandic-Icelandic dictionary and Snorri Sturluson complete" Terribly relevant to geology, right?

Anyway, if you want either of those books I can get you it with a HUGE discount ;) If you want both, you´ll get a surprise!

Do I suck? Never mind, since I am leaving town tomorrow and won´t be back for the next week. You see, at the demonstrations at Austurvöllur last Tuesday I met my long-time buddy Kjartan (he´s Bollason and thus the namesake of one of the most dramatic heroes of the Iceland sagas...) (although I had some trouble understanding, as a kid, why anyone would be called Cup (i.e. Bolli - Bolli´s son will have Bollason as a last name, according to our old name traditions)) and he told me about the jeep trip he´s going on with an American pal of his. I must have gone green in the face with envy or something since Kjartan asks if maybe I would like to join them. Hey, wow, of course!! I'll lose some money by not showing up at work for a week... but, what the heck. Let me explain:

In my mind Iceland has in a way turned into some sort of Gulag, and I don´t really feel well here because of this. Life here is to a large degree centered around making money, keeping up with the Jones´s, you have to work hard to be something and a person´s value is too often measured in the amount of money he or she makes. Very twisted, I know. I tend to let this mentality influence me a lot when I´m here and every summer since 1996 I´ve spent working as a psychopath, making money and not thinking about anything else. Not that it has made me rich, but I have lost out on a few things, like going abroad with friends, going camping and hiking, visiting the place my granny was raised in Hornstrandir, by now deserted and turned into a nature reserve... see what I´m getting at? So I thought, why the hell skip this opportunity to go to the highlands for some few krónur?!?! I mean, I spend a lot of money on going to Chile and Bolivia to go hiking there and on jeep tours...

Am looking forward to it.

Finally made it! Attended the demonstrations at Austurvöllur in the early afternoon and was lucky enough to get an aluminum-paper helmet from this girl who had to go to classes and thus couldn´t attend the latter half of the demonstrations. I´ve skipped school for less... Anyway, borrowed a box of skyr (the most Icelandic thing there is, soft cheese/yoghurt thing...) from a friend and sang patriotic songs together with all the rest, while the MP´s hurried from the church into the Parliament building, closing the doors quickly after them. Then we shouted a bit and all the cops looked kinda ridiculous, facing this very peaceful crowd. It was so invigorating!!! Would have liked to see a lot more people though.