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.

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.