What would you do for your country?

This is the question that was written on the July 4^th space on our work calendar since June 1^st. Living in as Nordic country at the time when this date appears makes this quite a valid question. The weather forecast for the weekend called for rain and 8^o C. Not exactly the best celebration weather. (we had big plans for an outdoor party complete with slip n slide, barbecue and maybeeven warm kiddie pool foot bath) Despite the less than ideal conditions we showed our pride for the US and had a great weekend. Saturday began a bit rocky, Bre and I were to head to Husavík in order to get to the Vinbuð (the state run liquor store, the only place where one can buy real beer, liquor and wine) to get supplies for Sunday the 4th. The two of us offered to go whale watching there with Mireia since she was leaving on Tuesday, and this was her one request since she had arrived. Most of the group was hesitant to go unless there were blue whales in the bay since whale watching is fairly expensive (~$80 USD). Mirea was excited to go, so I called an acquaintance of ours who works for the whale tour company. He said to just meet him on the pier when we got to Husavík, and we could hop on the tour with him. Suddenly the prospect of a free whale watching trip caused a two person trip to turn to a 6 person trip. The whole thing caused a bit of consternation among the group because there was some bread in the oven, and we couldn’t leave when we wanted to and we had to do grocery shopping and people had work to do and people were worried that they wouldn’t get to the Vinbuð before it closed, and people had a dinner planned in the evening and people had to make a pie still and on and on.

Anyway, we 6 got to the pier and as I suspected Christian was hesitant to let 6 people on the boat for free, so we headed up to the ticket office and talked to the agent, who happened to be an American and since I seemed to be in charge of this trip I talked our way to into the biologist’s discount of 40% off. The weather was quite windy, and we piled on the boat, a ~35 antique wooden fishing vessel. We cruised around the harbor for about an hour of our 3 hour trip searching and searching for whales, but the harbor was so choppy that we didn’t see a thing except for a bunch of puffins cruising around.

After about 30 minutes in the bow, our group decided to head up to the perch above the wheelhouse. We were sure glad we did. We stayed nice and dry up there after we headed out of the bay and the waves got even bigger. We had a great time up top, laughing smiling andwatching the people below us just sit and stare at the waves. We didn’t really feel bad for them because we gave everyone a chance to head up, but no one did. After another hour motoring over the waves out to sea Bre spotted a marine mammal! We chased 3 groups of white-beaked dolphins around the mouth of the bay for about 45 minutes. They weren’t whales, but it was really cool to see them come up by the boat and flash in the waves. Overall it turned out to be a great day, and we were all pretty proud of the boat—despite the roiling seas, no one got sick! How quickly our anxiety of the morning had passed.

We got home just in time to be seated for a farewell dinner for our friend Jasmin, who was the field station intern for most of the summer. Árni had prepared a feast of lamb and traditional Icelandic condiments: cold peas, picked red cabbage, along with some potatoes and various salads. As dinner was being served I was preparing a pie crust from scratch for a strawberry-rhubarb pie. The problem of not speaking Icelandic was quite apparent at this point… instead of buying shortening for baking, I bought lard for frying things… I had to use some tub butter for the crust… needless to say, it was not the best crust I had ever made, but the filling was fantastic (thanks to David for harvesting and preparing the rhubarb from around our house).

The morning of the 4^th we went to the field station and got a bit of work done, then went home to prepare the house for our celebration. We all changed into our finest American apparel (World’s Greatest Grandpa shirt, American flag fanny pack, desert storm t-shirt, power boat shirt, and even our Catalan wore a NASCAR shirt). The weather turned out to be just about right, there were a few holes in the clouds and the rain subsided. Our American archeologist friends stopped by for the afternoon and we grilled our imitation burgers made of some tubed meat made consisting of pureed pork, mutton, and horse (yes, horse). The burgers were pretty nasty. Less than ideal for sure. Anyway, the party devolved into full scale dance party, and even Shakira was played at least 3 times. And no, in case you’re wondering, my hips don’t lie.

One of the few photos from the 4th I feel comfortable posting on the internet...

The 4^th was a success overall and it was nice to have a day off. Although, I am convinced that when we have a day off we work harder and get more work done on the successive days than we would if we had just worked each day. In line with that sentiment, we worked three 12-hour days in a row, more because the weather forecast was for gale conditions for the next three days. And right on cue, the wind picked up and howled for those three days. The beginning of the storm though came with a beautiful sunset and some great cloud formations.

Here’s a little bit about what I’ve been up to concerning employment after my stint in Iceland. I've applied for a few jobs, and I've been lucky enough to have a couple interviews, and I'm still waiting on a couple more, so despite my apprehension at the end of the school year about being unemployed, I do seem to have some prospects and I’ll keep applying for things as I see advertisements. So keep your fingers crossed! (sorry Mom and Dad, I don’t really want to have to move back in with you for longer than a month or two!)