The One Hike to Rule Them All

Day 6

We got up at... Heck if I know. I was one of the people who didn't check the time, although some people did so I was rudely reminded every now and then of the time. OH WELL! Some people were actually woken up by the musings of the sultry Adam and his guitar. Well, I was told that it was Adam, but it could've been another scoundrel with a guee-tar. Breakfast was had, again, at "heck if I know."

The main attraction of the day was a mega long hike. 13-15 km in length is what I was told? Here are some pictures:

PC: Me

The right side reminded me of Half Dome. PC: Me

Lol. PC: Me

The whole view from my napping point. PC: Me

On my left from my napping point. PC: Me

On the right from my napping point. PC: Me

My napping point (and my shoes). PC: Me

On the home stretch. PC: Me

From the top of the hill. PC: Justin McKay

Slid down this bad boy. PC: Justin McKay

The line of heroes. PC: Justin McKay

The gang. PC: Rachel Gibson

The whole day was blissful, especially the nap at the top. Absolutely sublime. :)

Dinner consisted of hamburgers and EXTREMELY mediocre s'mores. I'm a man that can eat 11 s'mores on a good day, and I couldn't even handle 1 of those sad excuses for desserts. For whatever reason, Adam couldn't find graham crackers when he got the supplies, which just ruined everything. Oh, and we used Milka instead of Hershey's... and the marshmallows were oddly sweet. IT WAS HORRID. And I told him. And now he knows.

Oh, and I played a whole game of King's Cup for the first time. Quality experience. <3

That was a short entry, but it was one of the best days for sure. :)

Quality Picture of the Day

Everything was perfect... to the point where my face was unable to contort itself into an amusing fashion... on camera. :)

Poof, Woosh, Zap, Oink, Snap, Neigh, and More!

Day 5

Breakfast at 8 AM. Not bad. That first day of 6:45 AM really made the other breakfast times seem manageable. Good thinking, Adam.

The first stop today was at Geysir. No, not a Geysir, just Geysir. It is from this Geysir where all other geysers got their distinction as geysers (though spelled incorrectly, it seems). There were a bunch of little hot pools around the area, but there was just one big poofy geyser. Aside from the bits of exploring I did with Matt Roveto (Physics homie and Rex Kwon Do graduate), the video below sums up my fun with the geyser. Oh, and as a note: I refer to the geyser as a "slut" at the beginning of the video, even though I am well aware that it exhibits none of the required features of a slut. Apologies to anyone who might take offense to this blunder.

Here's the link, since Blogger is a piece of garbage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW_pqFd-oz0&feature=youtu.be

Then we went off to Gullfoss, a super huge and pretty waterfall! I believe there are ongoing debates as to whether or not the falls should be used for hydroelectric energy, and after seeing Gullfoss for ourselves, the entire bus agreed the falls should be preserved. Vedis, one of our guides, was very proud of the unanimity in the group. :) Here are just a few pictures:

PC: Justin McKay

PC: ME!

PC: ME!

PC: Justin McKay

After those beautiful sites, we made a stop at a different kind of beauty: the local Bonus supermarket. For whatever reason, the supermarket's mascot is a pig, but this ain't no ordinary pig. No, siree. It's drunk. Cracked out. Injected with some sort of delirium-inducing hormone that causes it to look deranged. Just look for yourself:

I break down laughing when I see the bag with this pig on it in my room. <3 PC: Internet, yo.

It is here that I made a very poor decision: I purchased a swiss roll. Now, if I was at my local Asian bakery in California, I might have received what I expected, which is a light, fluffy sponge cakey dealy. I instead received a brick disguised as a cake. It didn't give when I picked it up in the middle. Normal cake would break in half if I tried to pick it up like that... It will take me a few days to finish. The group came up with a name for this sad excuse for a dessert item: the ShiTwinkie. If that doesn't make sense, I'd prefer not to elaborate in order to keep the blog as PG as possible. Here I am attempting to consume this monstrosity on the bus:

Did I really pay 800 ISK (a little under $8) for this... thing? PC: Paige McIlroy

For lunch, we went to a little place that served us a really creamy, mushroomy soup that was made with locally grown ingredients. It was tasty, but not very filling. OH WELL~! As the super poser sticker on the back of my binder has said since middle school: Don't Let No One Get You Down (double negatives for days).

Once filled with soupy goodness, we went on to a huge hydroelectric plant where we 1) got to go through a little visitor's center and play a hydroelectric management game, as well as learn fun stuff about renewable energy; and 2) tour the facilities. The game involved controlling which of the dams in the series were opened to select how much power would be created at each power plant. Either the game was buggy, or we were all severely incompetent engineers because we could never beat the high score when we were tackling the game with 20 or so people at a time... Walking through the facilities was, to me, much more exciting for the huge plant than for the smaller plant that we saw the other day. I think the size of the operation is what caught my attention, and the "DO NOT TOUCH" warning that we were given made everything seem more important. Pictures were allowed so here are some that I took:

The view from outside! We asked about the symbols and the guide didn't know what they were...

I believe this was spinning the turbine below us. This was a "DO NOT TOUCH" thing.

There goes at least 50 cubic meters of water per second under our feet (I could be wrong, but that's what my memory banks say).

Since we were "done" for the day, we mosied on to the bus to head to a waypoint to meet with the super jeeps that would be taking us down the off-road path to the campgrounds. While driving, we lost a tire on the bus. This event was miraculously recorded by Dani Moskowitz and is presented here with his gracious permission:

Once we got the tire back on with only three of the six bolts (I think that's what the doohickies are called) since the other three were lost or fractured, we made it to the waypoint and transferred to the super jeeps. We lost another tire on the trailer that our super jeep was pulling, so another jeep came back to bring another trailer for us to pull. Here's the gang after we reloaded the new trailer:

Team Magma and [insert other super jeep's team name here] UNITE! PC: Amalia Martinez

And with that, no more disasters occurred. The strange thing is that these mishaps didn't feel disastrous at all. They were just part of the fun. In the video, you see that everyone was excited about the lost tire on the bus. Same thing for the trailer tire. That's one of the great aspects of this group: nothing gets us down. It gave us an opportunity to stretch our legs, look at some ductile fracture, and pet some horses! Here's Saucey Rossy (Ross Weber) taking full advantage of these opportunities:

When we got to the campgrounds, we were told to remove our watches and forget about keeping time for the next two days. We played a little game to decide who would get to sleep in the tents, as opposed to the cabins, since we didn't have enough for everyone. You know you've got a good group of kids when you're playing a game that rewards you with a spot outside in a tent. <3 We played lots of Frisbee and Never Have I Ever as the appropriately aged individuals had their alcoholic beverages, and a good night was had by all, especially when our guides whipped out their instruments and played the night away. Nobody knows when we went to sleep since we weren't allowed to keep time, but it didn't matter. Iceland is so great <3

Quality Picture of the Day (I think Saucey wins, but since I have to post one of myself...):

Trying to figure out how the GoPro works. PC: AJ Loudermilk... since it's his GoPro?

Þhingvellir (That's Not a P)

Weird highlighting abounds! Why? Because Blogger <3

Day 4

After doing battle with the Elves, Hidden People, and Outlaws the night before at KEX (I was a Troll, of course), we were given a well-deserved morning to sleep in: breakfast at 9:30 AM, which is better than 6:45 AM so woot woot! I actually got up on time to have a hearty breakfast this morning. Win for me!

All of today was spent at Þingvellir ("Þ" makes the "th" sound in English, like in "theory") National Park. Is that a bad thing? Heck to the no, mis amigos! Google Translate told me that "Þingvellir" means "Congress Fields." Þingvellir is where Iceland's parliament used to gather yearly to make decisions for the country so the name is fitting. After hiking a bit through the lands and finding that tourists had a weird fixation for throwing their hard earned money into the park's rivers, we were split intwo two (ha!) groups to continue on with the day. One group would go tectonic plate snorkeling first and then caving second. Can you guess what the other group did? If not, just keep reading and find out since I was in the "other" group. Yashari Safari doesn't punish those with a lack of deductive reasoning! <3

As all the n00bs went snorkeling, my group went caving in Gjábakkahellir, also known as the "Little Girl" cave. The name comes from a story about a girl who got lost in the cave, reappeared several kilometers outside of the cave, and had her sandals full of dinero! Unfortunately, I did not leave the cave any richer than I already was, but I did avoid being sucked into limbo and spit out several kilometers away from the group by some ethereal being. Optimism, guys. Although this cave was very cool to go through, since it had been formed by a lava flow, it was dwarfed a bit by the caving excursion that the bros experienced on night 2. Something about the small group, independence, and sheer exhaustion made it untrumpable. Oh well!

One of the fun facts that we learned while taking a break in the cave was that Iceland was actually the ideal location to film all the Lord of the Rings films (all hail Tolkien). Our guide was telling us that Peter Jackson's children were babysat by an Icelandic woman, who told them old Icelandic tales which involved the elves, trolls, and other Icelandic beings from their fairy tales. As Jackson heard these stories, he adopted them in his painting of Middle Earth's landscapes, creatures, and languages. So the obvious choice for filming would be Iceland! There was just one itsy bitsy problem: Jackson wanted to have a variety of horses in the films as war mounts, beasts of labor, etc. Unfortunately, Icelandic law prohibits importing any breed of horse in order to guarantee the purity of Icelandic horses. So that's why the films took place mainly in New Zealand. JUST LOOK AT THEM! THEY'RE SO CUTE AND STOCKY! 

Never call them ponies. They're horses. PC: Justin McKay

To wrap up the expedition, we took a picture we thought was clever:

Here's the picture my group managed in the cave. PC: Paige McIlroy

Here's the other group's picture... #onlyonthegreenprogram. Yes, they are superior. PC: AJ Loudermilk

After that, we moved on to snorkeling! Now snorkeling is fun in its own right, but when you're snorkeling between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates, it gets a bit more intense. Add on the fact that you're swimming in just above freezing water and the feels start to pour in. Actually, if you got a functioning dry suit and put it on correctly, the feels from the freezing water would have been nullified. This is one of the steps to get the suit on (facial expression required):

So if THIS isn't the Quality Picture of the Day... PC: Rachel Gibson

Unfortunately, my arms got completely soaked, but the rest of my body was so warm and cozy that I didn't mind. Actually, I think I would've been happier if my body had gotten completely soaked because then I would've been a trooper like Dani Moskowitz and jumped into the water in my underwear (after the group trip). The experience was absolutely wild and I wish I could've taken pictures to share. Also, the head instructor thinks I'll be famous one day so he asked for my autograph. Hooch is crazy!

We gathered up both groups, got on the bus, and headed back to Hotel Hlid for dindin and capstone project work time. At this point, my group knows what we're doing, but I think I'll leave out all the details until the end. Also, tonight is the last night at Hotel Hlid! We'll be moving on to grander things tomorrow!

Quality Picture of the Day:

Justin just can't keep himself away. PC: Rachel Gibson

A Full Day of Learning... WITH A TWIST!

Don't be stupid: read the first post so that you get the context of the blog! Last warning, amigos (and general readers)!

Day 3

Another bright and early morning! But I, again, woke up too late to enjoy breakfast, so I scarfed down some Cheerios and ate a cake slice in the bus. It was strawberry. It was mediocre. It barely filled me. It. It. It.

Actually, we got up too early (there's such a thing!) because we got to the geothermal power plant before it had even opened... I was angry that I didn't get to eat more Cheerios. :( Eventually, they opened, and we had a little lecture on geothermal energy and the plant itself. Then we had a splendid little tour of the facilities, where we got to be intellectual and ask all sorts of fancy questions. One of the strange things that we learned was that the equipment wasn't all Icelandic. Much of it was created in Japan and installed by Japanese employees who now come every number of years to check the equipment. We praise Icelanders for their renewable energy usage, but I'd imagine any settlers of this land would've done the same. This just goes to show that a lot of a civilization's success is based off the land from which it must grow and has little to do with a race's innate gift or intelligence (Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, baby! Speaking of which, I need to go read Collapse... and watch The Sandlot). Here's me attempting to be intellectual:

I swear I asked something smart. It might've been about maintenance of the facilities (down time, staffing, effect on the grid, etc.)? PC: Paige McIlroy

After taking a group picture, we bounced. PC: Paige McIlroy

After the geothermal power plant, we moved on to a small hydroelectric plant. It is currently offline due to a pipe failure and there are ongoing debates on whether or not its worth the money to get the facility up and running. It's very small and old and the output wasn't very large, but it was definitely worth touring to see the equipment up close and personal. All of this equipment was in one large room!

Whoa. PC: Justin McKay

Such turbine. Much power. Wow. PC: Justin McKay

Philippe checking out those belts! PC: Justin McKay

After the little hydroelectric facility, we went straight for Reykjavik University to work on our capstone projects, eat lunch, and then have a lecture on hydroelectric energy! Once edumucated, we toured the University, which took place primarily underground the facilities (it was like a crazy labyrinth)!

Now this is where a lot of people began to panic. We were told that we'd be going to a public pool, which can be found in any Icelandic city (you need to learn how to swim if you live on an island). Actually, we were warned that we were going to a public pool. Why warned? Because we'd be required to strip down, butt nekkid, and shower, butt nekkid, with everyone else before being allowed into the pool. This is apparently a European thing in general, but Icelanders don't want sweaty people hopping into their pools since they (the pools) are not overly chlorinated. To combat sweat, everyone is required to shower before hopping in. How will they catch you? By watching you. There was a guy in a little office in the shower area who could see everyone in their full glory. Bizarre, but necessary (arguable...). After dealing with the situation like an adult and learning to really enjoy locking onto people's faces and nothing else, I went out to the pools (in my basketball shorts since I had no trunks to bring for the trip). For whatever reason, I chose not to ride down the super awesome water slides and instead indulged in the hot tubs, including a salt water hot tub! Fun fun!

After getting out, drying off, and getting dressed, we ventured off to a hostel/restaurant/bar called KEX. Here's where part of the title of my blog comes from: after a delightful main (and only) course of fishies and mash potaties with some sprinkled whatevers, we got into our randomized groups from the first day and did BATTLE... with Icelandic/GREEN trivia. However, this wasn't just any ol' trivia game. No no. According to Mumi, one of our guides, it was trivia... "with a twist!" Yes, he has an Icelandic accent which made the phrase stick out some ("tweest" instead of "twist"), but I believe it was the sheer number of times that he used the phrase "with a twist," to remind us that the activity isn't just your standard trivia game, which made it stick in my mind. Apparently, it stuck in the minds of everyone else too!

Oh, right, the twist: we'd do battle against the other teams in non-question form (limbo, arm wrestling, twerk off, etc.) after every seven or so questions and the "reward" for winning these battles could be handed off to another team or kept for your own team. The twist was that you'd never "want" the reward. The first winners received shots... of fish oil. The second group got a goat head to eat? After that, I stopped paying attention and started going around chatting with everyone because I was enjoying the unique Icelandic brews as a responsible, dignified 21 year old. :) Actually, I know that fermented shark was passed around at some point, which was probably one of the rewards, because I tasted it. The only taste that it reminds me of is when I'm very sick and my mouth tastes like bacteria... plus a smokey taste... To each their own!

During the last competition, an employee from KEX stormed in and told us, "the party is over" since we overstayed our welcome (we were supposed to leave at 12 AM and it was 12:15 AM (gasp)). So we hopped on the bus, made it to Hotel Hlid, and continued the fun there! Everyone went to sleep at varying times, but no one went to sleep disappointed with the evening. :)

Quality Picture of the Day (too bad this isn't Quality VIDEO of the Day...):

YAY FOR FRIENDS! Apparently, I'm a bit heavy. PC: Mary Johns

The Many Wonders of Iceland (Might Have to Reuse This Title Over and Over and...)

If you don't know how this works yet, go away. You could still keep reading, but you'd think I'm in Iceland and be confused when you saw me walking over to Ike's for a good ol' sammich (that doesn't make sense to non-Bay Area readers... OH WELL!)... Let's begin!

Day 2

A bright and early morning for our first official day of activities. Something heinous like breakfast at 6:45 AM. Whatever the time was, it was early, and I got to breakfast five minutes before we were getting onto the bus. I made the very unwise choice of pancakes, which, in ze States, might not have been the worst idea in the world: light, fluffy, and easy to scarf 'em down. In Iceland, however, the similarity to peanut butter was remarkable. Actually, the viscosity of the glob that was forming in my mouth resembled the love child of peanut butter and fresh mud. Needless to say, it was a chore to swallow. So I only ate two of the five I picked up, making the environmentalist inside me die, since they probably didn't compost what I ignorantly wasted.

So our first lecture of the program was fascinating because it gave us a crash course in Iceland's history and how renewable energy fit in with it all. Just a couple of tidbits: some of Iceland's most powerful volcanoes lie under glaciers and most of the renewable energy produced is sold off to aluminum smelting factories in the country. Our second lecture was on economics, which was a tad bit basic, although the few touches into the energy sector economics were mildly interesting.

After some good ol' edumacation, we were fed! Yay for food! But this was no ordinary food. No siree, boy, ma'am, hombre, compadre, tu madre. The restaurant's gimmick was that it uses direct geothermal heating to make all of its food. So instead of converting the geothermal power to electricity to power, for example, a stove, they use the steam or water that flows straight from ze Earth for their heating purposes. It's pretty neat. It was also pretty darn tasty, depending on which soup you picked (Dani and Ross were not too pleased with their selections).

Once rejuvenated with the energy of the Earth (yes, we are technologically advanced hippies), we journeyed up some dwarf mountains (not the mountains where dwarves reside like the Mines of MORIA, but a little mountain) and found ourselves at a crossroads between a plain old cold river and a super toasty river. Having been warned that we'd stumble across such a marvelous site, we all quickly changed into our swimming attire. Some figured they should use towels to change and others came dressed for the occasion. Me? I did neither. I ran far off into the distance and stripped down nekkid to change into my swim stuff. A good experience. I'd say it's a humbling experience. Only I would say that. Hence "I'd say..."

The natural hot tub was absolutely blissful. It took me awhile to finally dip myself all the way in, but when I did, oooooooooooooo lordy. I believe one could say I was "walking on sunshine," though I don't see how jagged rocks and a few ankle twists really resemble "sunshine" at all... But that was all trumped by how perfect the temperature and scenery were. It's really hard to capture with words (because I'm not J.R.R. Tolkien) or pictures (because I'm not [insert famous photographer]) just how beautiful it was to look around at the rivers coming down into the little nook of the golden hills that we were in. Here are some good ones:

Eric looks like a wittle baby taking the best bath EVER. <3 PC: Paige McIlroy

Errbuddy having a merry ol' time. PC: Justin McKay

After drying off in the beautiful weather (I just stood out to dry without really using my towel), we hiked back down to the bus, went to Hotel Hlid, ate some grub, and worked a bit more on our capstone projects, essentially trying to narrow down what ideas we had already produced.

At some point in the evening, I believe Alex Beaudoin (commonly referred to as "male Alex" to distinguish him from, you guessed it, "female Alex" on the trip) and Justin heard about a "nearby" cave and wanted to check it out. People caught wind of this journey and bandwagoned, me included. Of course, we were heading out at around 9 pm or so, which didn't really matter because the sun never actually sets to complete darkness. The estimated time of arrival to the cave was given as an hour. Here's a chunk of the team, ready to rumble:

Male Alex and I had a similar idea (Alex in the orange jacket, me with the black jacket in the middle). PC: Sam Buckstein

After about an hour, the map was checked, and with a little assistance of the GPS we found that we had only trekked about one third of the way there. Below you'll find me, obviously NOT thinking the past hour had been the easiest thing in the world, but could still probably wrestle Hercules if asked to (2swole). At this point, everyone, except for Male Alex, Justin, Jordan, Eric, and I, turned back. Mumi, in the black jacket below, lead the homeward bound charge and Vedis, in the purple, lead the five of us to the cave.

Jacked. PC: Sam Buckstein

The trek there wasn't too bad. The terrain was real rough and there were multiple checks on the map and GPS because we were trailblazing, but it was ultimately SUPER worth it. On the way, we stumbled upon some really thick moss that was definitely meant to be slept on... so we did (all of the following photos are from Justin McKay):

Classy.

Classier.

Soon after those well needed naps, we stumbled upon the cave, and we're lucky that we didn't stumble INTO it. We could've very easily fallen into some of the holes that act as ceiling lights in the cave. After a bit of wondering, we found the cave entrance! And check out what we found as Male Alex continued to say, "Hey, let's just go a little bit farther!"

The ice cones in the background (would they be considered stalagmites... OF ICE?!) were hollowed out in the center. Super cool. Oh, and you can also see my spelunking light of choice: my solar-powered desk lamp.

Grabbed a chunk of ice that was already broken and stuck my desk lamp under it.

Regardless of how miserable the trip back was (props to Eric and Jordan for carrying back a huge piece of Styrofoam that they found), what with the new crack on my phone and the starvation and the mud on my jackets because I dragged them around out of shear disgust with how hot I was, the cave was one of the highlights of the trip. Not only that, it was one of the few times when we were in a very tiny group, which is hard to come by when you're on a program with 40+ other students. I'd definitely recommend a little bit of P90X in preparation for this if anyone's considering the trek from Hotel Hlid. :) Or a car... Great day. <3

Until tomorrow!

Quality Picture of the Day:

In place of a picture of naked me, here's a lady friend pushing me (teal shorts in the middle) further into the river when I hadn't quite acclimated to the heat. It was painful, and SUPER GOOD! PC: Paige McIlroy

Relax: You're in Iceland!

So I'm finally home-- I mean, wait. Scratch that. I meant to say, "I just arrived in Iceland..." *nudge nudge*

I'm playing a trick on all of you, remember? I'm home, but I'm pretending to be in Iceland because it turned out to be easier to write proper posts this way?

...

Read the first post if this isn't making any sense.

Day 1


I'll be brief with my journey to Iceland, since it isn't very relevant to Iceland, Land of Ice: I actually slept like a baby on my flights, which is uncommon. Packing my room and luggage all night long must've left me beat so I crashed on the planes! That sentence phrasing could be better...

To my surprise, maybe because I rarely travel abroad, all the signs around the beautiful Keflavik International Airport were in Icelandic and English; some were even exclusively in English! This probably means a few things: 1) the country is international and worldly; 2) Icelanders know that tourists will be pouring in aplenty; and/or 3) THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IS TAKING OVER OOOO NOOOO! I tried to learn a bit of Icelandic before coming on the trip because I didn't want to be seen as an American who stomps around with his cowboy hat and flip flops and assumes everyone speaks English. Unfortunately, the book I borrowed from CMU's library didn't come with the CD... Trying to pronounce words like Eyjafyallajokull without actually hearing them first became a tad bit too laborious. I got down what most of the letters sound like so I am able to read signs... and have no idea what they mean. At least I tried!

After a group of us (Matt, Lizzie, Ross, Rose) gathered together at the baggage claim since we were all on the same flight, we headed off into the unknown (outside of baggage claim). There we found a huge mob of GREEN kiddies, along with Adam, the head honcho from GREEN; Connor, his right hand man; and Gudmundur, A.K.A. Mumi, and Vedis from South Iceland Adventures. My plane had arrived four hours before the official "beginning" of the program, but others had arrived earlier, and more were slowly trickling in. We mingled, we jingled, and had a merry time getting to know each other, a daunting task when there were over 45 students and leaders to know.

Once we were ready, we headed out to the bus and were introduced to two Icelandic delicacies: Prince Polo and Skyr. Prince Polo is your typical chocolatey wafer, easily outclassed by the likes of a Kit Kat. And I'm not insulting Icelandic cuisine because, despite what many Icelanders think, the candy is actually made in Poland! Skyr, on the other hand, is absolutely diviiiiiiiiiine, darling. The combination of fruity goodness and the Greek yogurt-like texture creates a symphony of sensations in the mouth that just doesn't stop. I fell in love with Skyr instantly. Prince Polo? It's alright, I guess.

My anti-drug.

Not actually Icelandic.
It's a scam, a scheme, a ploy.
 Meeeeeeehhhhh, see?

We took the long way to Hotel Hlid, our residence for the next several days, in order to view some pretty sites, like the one below. If I recall correctly, this is the "rift" where the Eurasian and the North American plates meet! It was filled with a whole lot of sand, except this wasn't no Californi' sand. No, sir. It was BLACK sand! All the volcanic rock that gets grinded up into sand starts as dark, volcanic rock, so of course it'll remain black. It even had a different consistency compared to the sand I'm used to, but it was probably because of the ever changing weather, meaning the sand would stay eternally moist from the random rainfall.

Such rift. Much sand. Many gasp. PC: Paige McIlroy

After that, we got a taste (not literally) of the sulfurous, bubbling pools that are scattered throughout the country due to the high geothermal activity. From what I understand, a lot of the hot water that we will use to shower in Iceland comes directly from the Earth, sulfur and all. It's great getting your lavender-chamomile shampoo mixed with the pungent aroma of rotten eggs! What was crazy is that a lot of the little pools were actually boiling, which is probably why we were advised to stay on the bridge and not take a dip. Bathing in the pools is to come later, supposedly.

The stench. Dear GOD! THE STENCH! PC: Paige McIlroy

Of course, Iceland isn't entirely covered in ice, but the vegetation is pretty whacky. Most of what we saw on the bus ride was mossy fields, or rocky fields. Trees popped in as we drove away from Keflavik, but most of the natural birch trees were cut down long ago and have only recently received the proper protection necessary to keep them going in the wild. This means most of the trees we saw were either newly planted and/or not natural to Iceland. So sad. :( What's not sad are all the sheep and goats everywhere! It looked like a lot of them were running in groups of three, and that's because the wittle sheepsies, which are born in pairs, stick with the momma sheepsies until they're ready to break free.

We finally arrived at at Hotel Hlid for lunch and a nap break. Instead of napping, I showered. TMI? No. There's plenty more information that I am withholding, so calm yo'self. After ze nap time, we went outside and played games to get better acquainted with everyone in the group. One of the games, called Pterodactyl, involved lots of screaming and trying to make people laugh. Chaos ensued. It was a SUPER GOOD time. :)

When we got back inside, the Capstone Projects were introduced to us. Essentially, the project requires us to split into groups and come up with environmentally-focused projects, tending toward renewable energy implementations. We will give a 15 minute presentation at the end of the program, being sure to touch on the topics outlined in this here "skeleton" (not the word I'd use, but I figured I'd remain consistent with Supreme Leader Adam (all hail)):

After lots of group hopping, I found a sausage fest of engineers who were looking to make something engineer-ee. We don't quite know what we'll make, but we know it'll be great.

The night was rounded off with a geothermally-heated hot tub dip. We were told that this would be a relaxing day so that we could acclimate and re-energize, but we definitely didn't just sit around. I guess "relaxation" on the GREEN Program is a bit different than what a couch potato might consider relaxing. I'm not calling myself a couch potato... I'm just... I--

Here's the Quality Picture of the Day! ENJOY!

I've got on furry leggings under my shorts. I ain't even cold, bro. PC: Amalia Martinez