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JR's Journal Reykjavík, Iceland
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| We landed at Keflavík under drizzling, overcast skies and a
stiff, cool breeze. We waltzed through customs and got our bags.
As we walked out, I met Haraldar Sigurdsson, who was gathering some of
his participants for the GSA professional trip. Mary Emma Wagner,
from my Patagonia trip, was on our flight to Iceland. There may have been
others but I did not see any other obvious geologists..
Haraldar pointed out our bus driver. I introduced myself to Siggi. With few words, he pointed the way to the bus and we loaded everything on to it. The students stopped to admire some bizarre metallica art outside of the building. The half hour drive into Reykjavík was dreary, as that part of Iceland always seems to be. We quickly set up camp at the Lagurdalur campground. Once that was done, Siggi took us to the bank. I changed $4300 into kronur. We then let most of the group off downtown to explore the city. Lauren, Elise, and I went with Siggi to get the kitchen/dinning tents and then to the Bonus supermarket where we bought four cartloads of food to supplement the food we had purchased at Sam's Club in Asheville a few days before. We returned to the campground and found a couple of the others there. With Siggi as our leader, we put up one of the “Rent-A-Tent Circus Tents”. It provided a roomy and welcome relief from the constant drizzle. When most of the group returned, we set up the second tent, teaching them the technique. It took about 15 minutes to set up. Each tent is a 5 m square. Most of us went over to the municipal pool next door for a swim, spa, sauna, and shower. It felt great. For 200 K it can’t be beat. When I got back to camp, I crawled into my tent and fell asleep to the patter of the rain. I slept for an hour and a half. It was warm enough that I didn't cover myself when I lay down but I awoke as it cooled later in the afternoon. People were starting to cook dinner as the final returnees from downtown made it back to camp. They had found a pub or two downtown. Dinner was a Mexican affair with bean and cheese tortillas with rice. It was very good and almost everything was consumed. Afterward we had a group meeting where I outlined the trip. Then, Lauren led a get to know each other game of two truths and a lie. It was a good time. When it was over, everyone went to bed, very tired. It was midnight but still quite light out. No one needed a flashlight even though the skies were overcast.
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Division of Environmental Studies, Mathematics, and Natural Sciences |