Entry 9: June 25, 2009
Gudmundur Eiriksson is a very international person. Gudmundur engaged in law of the sea business, and also he had been an ambassador in many countries, including Canada, Panama, Costa Rica, and so on. Gudmundur is also a professor in University for Peace which has course focus on specific issues connected with peace. Reason why he engaged in law of the sea affairs was that he was born in Iceland where people’s lives were based on the sea. He introduced some important events related to Iceland about law of the sea business. Gudmundur talked about why this issue was so important. He also talked about ways to solve problems about sea issues. People need to negotiate and they have some basic rules to follow. Gudmundur also talked about which position Iceland is at. After his speeches, he answered questions. Gudmundur gave his opinion about European Union issue, and also his daughter, which almost presents opinions from two generations in Iceland.

Entry 8: June 24, 2009
Mjöll Snæsdóttir is a Icelandic female archaeologist. She came to give us a tour and presentation on Wednesday. Mjoll gave us a tour around ruins outside church, though Kristiin had done it before. Mjoll led us to walk in the ruins and explained more details. Mjoll talked about bathroom which was supposed to be used in the 18th century. She introduced that bathroom was only part of a house being heated which matched what we learned before that people in that time came to live in bathroom due to cold climate. In addition, she answered us that they did not use fire to get heat. Of course, Mjoll did not only talk about part, but also all rooms they rebuilt. After lunch, she showed us pictures of everything they found and told what those were. Mjoll showed pictures of coffin, bones, and some special things used at that time. I remember that it was stuff called matrix which was used for seal envelops again. It reminded me of some Chinese historic stories about wars. People would seal letters with candle drop. Therefore, when people opened it, he or she would know if anyone had opened it before. Mjoll also mentioned animal bones they found in ruins. These bones also proved what we talked in class that pigs were no longer food for Icelanders because pigs could not live in such a cold environment. 

Entry 7: June 17, 2009
We had a chance to stay some hours with an Icelandic family this week. It was a good opportunity to know more about Icelanders and their lives. The family we visited has a big farm with many cows, sheep and horses. We mainly stayed with the female host and her daughter. We helped milk cows, feed a young cow and feed horses. We spent a lot of our time milking cows. They have some high-tech machine to help get milk. Host mother told us how to tell good milk and bad milk. After milking cows, we went to a store to get ice creams. Then, they took us to Faxa which was a pretty waterfall. Host mother made many wool products to sell in farmer’s market. She was so nice to let us pick one as gift. During the time, we talked a little bit, but very happy.

Entry 6:  June 16, 2009
This week will be busy. Icelanders will celebrate their Independence Day, and we may have a good time at their ceremony. It’s more exciting that we will have our independent trip this weekend. The only stuff that makes me worry are summaries, posts, reflections, papers and written assignments. Hope all goes well.

Entry 5: June 10, 2009

We have a big plan today. Hraunfossar is one of our destinations. It is a pretty waterfall. It has light blue color, with dark colored rocks, it formed one both black and blue river. We drove a long way to get there, passing lakes, rocks, glaciers. It is unbelievable that during our almost four hours’ drive, it is hard to find people living on the way. However, with really pretty scenery all the way.

Entry 4:  June 9, 2009

We take a slow walk towards hot spring today. On the way, one person told me that Dr.N walked into lake by the hot spring; I felt surprised. When we arrived, I found that there were changes. Because it did not rain these days, the lake is not as deep as before. We could find a dry way to walk to the lake and even walk in the lake. It was warm at the beginning and the other end walking in the lake, but as cold as walking in the ice water during the process of center part. Anyway, it’s funny.

Journal 3: June 6, 2009 

Time flies. We have already been here for one week. Today, we went to the capital city of Iceland—Reykjavik (smoky bay). First, we went to a famous landmark—Perlan restaurant. Actually, Perlan only offered dinner from 18:30 every day, but you can still have food at café on the fourth floor there. Also, Saga Museum is located there on the 1st floor. On the fourth floor of this building, you can have a 360 degree view of Reykjavik, and there are good gift stores. To north, you can see some glaciers. 20 meters from this building, there is a simulation Geysir. It provided a chance for people who have no time to see a real Geysir. Then, we continued our trip to the center of Reykjavik to see museums and their city lives.

Photo information: Photo 1 was taken at the place where you could have a 360 degree view of Reykjavik, and the white smoke in the same photo is simulation Geysir. The other photo is a real Geysir named Strokkur.

Entry 1: May 30, 2009   
Our flight arrived at Keflavík International airport about 6:30 in the morning. We entered Iceland and picked up our luggage smoothly. After that, we waited for our van in the airport. We all went to exchange dollars for krona. The currency rate in airport is one dollar for 117 krona. I went to a convenience store to buy a cup of yogurt and one shrimp sandwich for my breakfast.
After a short break at the airport, we started our trip in Iceland. Along the road towards Skalholt, there are series of volcanoes, sheep and horses, small hot spring with smoke hidden in grassland, and lavas and rocks.

At half of our way there, we paused for visiting Kerið, which is a volcanic crater lake. I like the color of it. We walked around it, and this was my first walk here. Fortunately, this was the only walk I did not get wet so far. Then, we were back to our way to Skalholt, and had our lunch, then a longer walk to hot spring, which I will talk about next time.

Photo information: The photo with green water is Kerið and the photo with buildings is Skalholt.