So, the biggest news: I got to see seals! :D Gizzly took me, Ana, Elise, and Svenya kayaking yesterday morning, and we kayaked right up to a group of about 20 seals. I was smart and planned ahead (i.e., before I even left Iceland…) and purchased a waterproof one-use camera, so I got to take pictures, and everyone else had digital cameras that they didn’t wanna ruin, so they could only kayak around and look at them. Most of them were pretty camera-shy – every time I would lift up my camera to snap a picture, they would dive underwater, like they knew what I was about to do! But at the end as we were rowing back to shore, one came up on my side (only approx. 10 meters away!), and it was quite the little attention whore. I snapped one picture and then turned to row away, thinking I was lucky for being able to get that one and all of a sudden I hear a bit of a splash and looked around me back toward where it was and it was sitting there breathing heavily out of its nostrils and splashing around. So I lifted my camera to take another picture, but I paused because I didn’t want to waste any film, and I assumed it would just flip down underwater because now it was staring RIGHT at me (plus, the whole time I’d been out kayaking, I was scared to death that they’d be suspicious of us humans and purposely gang up on us and try and flip our kayaks, so I didn’t want to anger it with my excessive picture-taking, of course!). And it just kept staring at me, as if to say “Uhhhh, c’mon, take a great picture already, I don’t have all day here!” So I did take a picture. An awesome picture. Haha. Oh, by the way, I’ve learned that “awesome” in German is “gael,” and we have coined a term here at the workcamp – “supergael!!” Haha! We also say “Chin-chin!” every time we toast or “cheers” one another, but that is Japanese, and means something totally different…Haha!
Oh, and I didn’t end up going horseback riding yesterday. Haha. I don’t know what was up, but I was SOOOO freaking tired. I came back from kayaking and napped for a few hours, then I had lunch (leftovers of the famed potatoes and meatloaf from the last blog hehe) – and then I napped again! The girls who went kayaking with me made fun of my snoring sound…so I guess I officially snore then…sigh. Anyways, then the girls and I (and Koya) went to this really awkward “natural” hot pot that was completely full of algae (health benefits, maybe? Lol), and we jumped into the freezing fjord and then STRAIGHT back into the hot pot! Haha. It was very awkward, but very fun.
So, update on the work! We have made some good progress on the painting of the barn…we may actually get that done before we leave! And we will probably finish the stone path by the end of tomorrow! I am so excited, because that means I get two days of work other than this stone path that I have done for, like, a week or so straight now! If you were here doing it, you would know how exciting that news is, haha. Anyhow, I think I will go play some cards (maybe Solitaire ::frowny face::), and I will report to all you lovely blog buddies later. Love You!
Ryan!
Oh, P.S. -- I'm not sure if I've listed anywhere in these blogs all the people who were at the workcamp, so I will do that now:
- Elise, who is French and lives in Belgium
- Winnie (given name is Xiao-Lu), Taiwan
- Raphael, Austria
- Anna, Germany
- Svenja, Germany
- Me, USA :)
- Mauro, Italy ("Environmental Messenger"/Camp Leader B)
- Lukas, Slovakia (Camp Leader A)
- Matt, Turkish in ethnicity but was raised mostly in Canada and currently lives in London
- Koya, Japan
- Hosts -- Gisli (owner) and Stella (his mom/cook)
Also, don't worry, I will write more another day about my final times in Iceland and the journey back. :)
Hey Ryan, it's so nice to read your blog entries about our work camp. Also helpful to refresh my memory. :)
ReplyDeleteBtw, my name is pronounced as "Xiao-yu"