The weirdest weekend. Very nice, though.

My friend Úrsúla called me sometime during last week and told me about this huge party that would take place in Landmannalaugar the following weekend. The farmers were going to round up the sheep and a lot of other people were planning to show up and party with them. Hmm, sounds interesting, I thought. Sheep round-up party. Wow. How Icelandic can one weekend get?!?! So, I decided to join (the small anthropologist inside, you know).

Just getting there proved to be some challenge. Got a ride with a friend of a friend of a friend... but another friend, Hugh, and his girlfriend didn´t get any ride with anybody´s friend, because other friends´ friends decided to do something else than to give rides to other friends of mine. So, in the end the only person I knew at the party was dear Úrsúla.

So much for the party, an abominable headache turned me into a social invalid who sought refuge in the sleeping bag. By the next day it had more or less disappeared and I could enjoy a walk up a nearby mountain on my own... nature gets so much closer in on you when you´re out alone.

The return trip to Reykjavík was good. We took all the bumpy jeep tracks available, dipped into a mud pool butt-naked (and made the day for some horseriding sheep(ish)-round up guys - they went into the highlands looking for sheep and found three naked women!!!), all the time listening to some fabulously boring music borrowed from a Selfoss cop. What more can you ask for in this life?!?!

Milk and cakes are being offered at the Internet café. See you later, guys!

Got this wonderful compliment from one of the professors who taught me at university yesterday. We met in a very touristy greenhouse in Hveragerði, he had been outing his wife and mother-in-law while I was showing Iceland to some tourists (including well-behaved Ed, Stína´s brother). We start discussing my plans for graduate studies, I tell him that I´m optimistic enough to apply to *peep* (a very prestigious university, I´m too superstitious to tell you which one). "Now that´s a very good idea," he says, "for someone who´s already reached your age..." His wife couldn´t help overhearing this mortal comment and snaps at him: "What, are you next going to suggest to her she soon start applying for a room at a nursing home as well?!!?" Then mommy-in-law grins broadly, looks at me and says: "You´re welcome to move in with me anytime, my dear."

This has made me wonder whether I´ll have to buy that wrinkle-cream anyway...

Demonstrations at Austurvöllur at noon. Be there or be square! We can still try to save the highlands from the damn ... politicians!

Now, what are people after? Someone found my page by searching for "peeing in the ocean" on google.yahoo. I never wrote about that!!

Found these delicious brownies in my dad´s kitchen. He and his wife run the perfect Internet cafe, and it´s free of charge!

Took the TOEFL last Saturday morning. Had a hard time preventing myself from giggling at the instructions given to us by a tape recorder: "In the field marked 'Your name', write your name. In the field marked 'Date of birth', write your date of birth." The best, though, was "If your name, address or sex has changed since the time of registration...". I wonder how many of the TOEFL test takers actually undergo sex-changing operations in this narrow timeframe?!?! It sure would have made for a much better essay topic than the imbecile "do you prefer doing work by hand or with machines?"-topic given to us. "I prefer cutting my lawn with my nails because it gets me into contact with Mother Nature...".

Another wonderful thing about this exam is that one had to drive all the way to the NATO base, close to Keflavík Intl. Airport, to take it. The test center in Reykjavík has been closed down and thus the only place where one can take the ETS exams in Iceland now is the base. A.T.Mahan High School, to be more precise. This meant me, and some ten other unfortunate individuals, having to get up at 6 a.m. and drive in fog and rain and wind for 45 minutes. Convinced that my alarm clock would choose to die on exactly this crucial morning I slept only in 45 minutes intervals that night, waking up mortally startled and jumping out of my bed to take a look at the clock: "Phew, it´s only 2:30! Phew, it´s only 3:15! Phew, it´s only 4:10! and so on. Needless to say, I was like a zombie the whole day.

Now the exciting/tedious/depressing task of finding work awaits. Yippie!!

Yesterday was the perfect day. Met with my long-term friend Fanney at a cafe downtown for a brunch, then went to a girlie session at my friend Sif´s place. There were five of us giggling girls, a lot of good food, gossiping and, believe it or not, crocheting!! Inspired by this housewifely experience I baked some bread yesterday evening and it turned out absolutely delicious. Invited my sis over for a taste, she´s 15 and has the most enormous entertainment potential of all living creatures. She simply had me in stitches!

My oh my. You haven´t gotten the second half of my last cruise yet. By now you even have to go into Past hurricanes to see the former half, so I better post this one NOW:

Tuesday 20th of August 2002

We woke up to breakfast while rounding the Negripynten at the SW-tip of Edgeøya. Fog was close by (again!!) and for a while it didn’t look too good with our planned landing at Halvmåneøya, or Half Moon Island. Fortunately the fog lifted a bit just after we had dropped anchor off the N-coast of the island, and a zodiac with two guides was sent ashore to scout for polar bears. None were observed in the area so we decided to make a landing after all, in quiet drizzling rain. Halvmåneøya is one of the most famous hunting areas on Svalbard and famous hunters like Henry Rudi, the “Polar Bear King” from Tromsø, spent many winters here hunting bears. We saw the huts used by the overwintering trappers and around the huts a lot of stuff left behind from the hunting years, f.ex. remains of a self-shot for polar bears, hundreds of bones, oil barrels, empty bullets etc. Inside the cabin we found a guest book and a very inventive game of chess. The fast-going group took a walk along the beach and saw a pair of red-throated divers on one of the many small lakes. All of us also walked to a high pole standing on a small hill behind the huts and our guides explained to us how these poles were erected by the trappers by the polar bear self-shots, to make the bear curious so that it would come to the trap.

Our afternoon landing was scheduled to be at Andreétangen, on the SW-tip of Edgeøya. By this time the wind had picked up causing rough sea and with the fog and rain we decided that conditions were not good at all for landing with zodiacs. The landing was called off and Ian Gjertz instead gave us a lecture with a slides show about the cultural heritage of Svalbard.

We set course for Hornsund, on the west coast of Spitsbergen Island, and plan to be there tomorrow morning. In the evening Stefano Poli showed some of his slides from the Svalbard winter and told us about traveling in that season. The waves were getting bigger as we steamed in open waters, let’s hope the night will nevertheless be a good one!

Wednesday 21st of August 2002

Today we spent in the southernmost of the big fjords on West-Spitsbergen, Hornsund. Early in the morning we rounded Sørkapp, or South Cape, and during breakfast sailed north towards Hornsund. As we turned into the fjord a very thick fog closed in on us and probably we were all feeling a bit pessimistic for a while... until the fog evaporated just like that so we could admire the beautiful scenery in sunshine.

Hornsund is full of glaciers calving into the fjord and Herdís gave us a short introduction to them in the observation lounge, so we would be better equipped to admire them from deck.We spent the whole morning in the innermost part of Hornsund, where five different glaciers calve into the sea, and were lucky enough to see also the famous mountains of Hornsund, Hornsundtind (1431 m a.s.l.) and Bautaen (the Obelisk). These mountains were formed by glacier erosion and it is strange to imagine that the glaciers we saw this morning have been so industrious at eroding the land underneath that when they finally melt and disappear sea will flow over land and make the southernmost part of Spitsbergen an island of its own!

After lunch we made a zodiac landing on Treskelodden (Threshold Point). We divided into groups making short and long walks. It was quite windy but after lazy days on the ship many of us enjoyed stretching our legs walking along the beach and on the moraine ridge. We saw some fossils of sea animals (sponges and bryozoans) who lived in warm, clear oceans some 250 million years ago, shells from our own times and also two reindeer grazing. They weren’t much disturbed by us so we got a very good opportunity to watch them and take pictures. Up on the moraines we also found some sticks and a peculiar wooden box, which could have been anything from a bird trap (maybe we’ve heard too much about trappers!!) to some scientific instrument from the Poles who have a research station at the mouth of the fjord. The long walks ended by a small hut owned by the Poles, looking into it we found out that they must be very small people indeed and like Grant’s whisky a lot!

In the evening we went for a zodiac cruise in a small bay called Burgerbukta, still in Hornsund. The glaciers in the bay have been calving a lot in the “warm” summer weather and the water was full of icebergs and smaller bits of ice. We cruised around for about an hour, seeing a lot of nice ice in different colors, sizes and shapes. Some of the bigger bergs were a beautiful blue color, made more intense by the cloudy weather. In spite of the floating ice we could make our way to the glacier front; it was very impressive to see these tall walls of blue ice towering above us. A few seals were also swimming in the water and when we turned off the engine one of them got a bit interested and swam quite close to the boat. By that time we had to turn back to the ship, so the seal will have to wait for the next zodiac cruise to take a better look at us!

The zodiac crews of Tore’s and Herdís’s boats took some of this old glacier ice with them to the Polar Star and Eddy in the bar offered everyone whisky on the glacier-ice rocks, to celebrate a wonderful day in the Arctic!

Thursday 22nd of August 2002

Having anchored up in Grønfjorden (Green Fjord) at 6 AM we woke up to a rainy day with low cloud cover. At 9 o’clock we had a guided tour in Barentsburg, the only Russian settlement on Svalbard. Two Russian English-speaking guides met us on the pier, Tamara guided those who opted for a bus tour while Anna took the other ones for a walk through town, which began with a climb up the seemingly endless stairs leading from the pier into town.

The two guides told us about life in Barentsburg and took us to see f.ex. the small “farm” on the outskirts of town, the chapel, the “Pomor” museum and the hotel, where there is a post office and also a bar (of course!!) where one can enjoy Russian champagne and vodka. Being in Barentsburg is almost like being in Russia itself and maybe some of us got a small culture shock during the visit. However, it is quite fascinating that Russia and Norway are able to co-exist so close together on the same island!

After our visit in Barentsburg we steamed towards Longyearbyen, for a quick stop because of a passenger who needed medical attention. From there we sailed towards Skansebukta, a beautiful small bay on the north side of Isfjorden. During the early afternoon we had a lecture by Ian Gjertz on walrus in the observation lounge and we also had to do “last-day activities” like settling accounts and packing. How nice then, to have a landing after all the ‘office work’. This was the last zodiac landing on this cruise, and we very much enjoyed the freedom of walking around on the beach of Skansebukta; this was the first and only time on the cruise that our “bossy” guides allowed us to go further away from them than 15m!. The area is beautiful; green with moss and lichen and now, at the end of season, many flowers in autumn colours. A perfect place for a last landing!

Coming back on board the Polar Star we prepared for the Captain’s cocktail in the Lounge. Our Captain gave a farewell speech and Trine, our Expedition Leader, gave us a short summary of the trip and distributed certificates for having crossed 80°N. The chef had the BBQ dinner ready by the time all the talking was finished and all the toasts had been drunk, and for the rest of the evening we enjoyed eating the last meal on board. In the late evening we lifted anchor and steamed towards Longyearbyen so the passengers would reach the early morning flight. The last cruise of this summer was over.

We want to thank you all for your company this week and wish you a safe journey home!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

There you go!

Now remember why I haven´t applied for grad school yet: An impenetrable jungle of programs, research projects, instructions, begging... Simply producing an application is a major investment in time and money. Why don´t we get a degree for that??

Shit weather in Reykjavík today doesn´t help out. Yesterday was wonderful though, but that was yesterday.

Miss UNIS now. Nybyen that is, this remote part of remote Longyearbyen where all the UNIS students are packed into barracks formerly occupied by miners. Or, to be more precise, I miss the students. Here´s an example why:

Ove on the bathroom floor on a Saturday morning, head bent over open toilet bowl. Loud sounds. Ole, his best mate, stands in the door and grins: "On a scale from 1 to 10, how bad do you feel?" A muffled sound from the toilet: "Twenty-seven!"

Those were the days.

Not to forget: Am making contact with the trappers community!!

Felt the same need as Stína to try and look my absolute best for Hannes and Deepa´s wedding party, so I bought some wash-out color for my hair. Red. Real red, as the label said. Hmmm... Look like, let me think, a color sampler now: Flaming red, brown red, tired red, orange, and oh, the hideous concrete-pavement color chosen for my hair by a mean combination of genes still manages to squeeze itself into daylight from under all this. Hair sucks.

First night in new apartment. Was greeted there yesterday by this huge wasp that looked like a bonsai passenger jet. Killed it, of course, and found to my great surprise that a wasp cut in two will still try to fly. Interesting.

Am running to Stína´s, she´s home alone and we´re going for a girlie session with pop-corn and Friends. Have the option of going to Nellie´s and have a beer with the students from the volcano school but think I will drop it, last night saw me downing some gin and beer and red wine and singing the legendary "Icelandic Cowboy" for all present. Have to give the audience a break. Anyway, my clothes are all dirty and long to see the interior of Stina´s washing machine. Does not mean, however, that I´ll be running around naked at Stína´s.

I learned a lot about the human condition at the summer school. For instance, I met this professor from the University of Cambridge whose hair is more curly than mine ever was, wears Ecuadorian wool hats three numbers too large and grows figs. When he grows up, he wants to become an astronaut or a truck driver. More on this exotic species called geo-scientists later.

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.