BEARS ON THE ROAD

You wouldn't believe how long it took us to get here! We left our hostel after eating breakfast in the morning to go see the waterfalls. We stopped by the bakery to get some more kleina (twisted donuts) and then headed for Detifoss. We drove for a while, and then my parents said we were going to have to go another way, because our rental car couldn’t make it over the large rock piles. So we turned around and drove for a couple more hours, following the same route we had taken on our first day, and looking at the sights we’d seen. This is Selfoss We finally reached Detifoss and decided to go see Selfoss, the smaller waterfall first. We walked a bit, and then, after crossing a small river, we saw it. It was not very small, and it sort of curved in a half-circle of water. It looked a bit like Godafoss, the waterfall we’d seen the first day. There were four waterfalls at the place, but my parents told me that if we were going to make it to Seydisfjordur at all we only had...

We got up early and my dad got a rental car. Then we drove to Husavik to go on a whale watch. When we were almost there, we saw an entire mountain and the entire hillside around it- covered in bluebonnets, so that from a distance, the mountain looked purple. We dropped off our stuff and then headed to the whale museum. It was very nice. They described a lot of baleen and toothed whales, and upstairs they had large whale skeletons. Each skeleton had the story of the whale and a description. In one of the other rooms, there was the story of Keiko, the orca. They had his toys and a biography of his life. One large gallery had windows filled with broken glass! We left and went to a bistro, where I had hot chocolate served in a puffin cup. It was really good hot chocolate. Then we went to the bakery next door and I got one of the Icelandic twisted donuts. It was pretty good. Then we wandered around and went into a church. They had a nice organ and on display they had a really cool w...

The next day, breakfast was nutella on top of pita bread. We went to wait for our bus that would take us to the ferry. We were there on time, but we waited for a long time. A grey bus passed and the driver stared at us before driving away. 20 minutes later, we discovered that was the bus that was supposed to take us there; we called and they told him to come back and get us. There was only one ferry a day to go to Grimsey. The whole bus was going to hate us if we missed it. We made it to the ferry with just minutes to spare and 3 hours later, we got to Grimsey. So, how was the Arctic Circle, you ask? Thanks for asking; it was really cold. We walked for a while and saw so many puffins that in some places they covered the rocks. They were really cute, and they were flying everywhere. They perched all along the cliff sides next to their little burrows. We also saw tons of other birds. We were repeatedly attacked by Arctic terns. They came in droves and swooped down to stab us with t...

When we first got to Reykjavík, it was midnight. It also looked like it was 8:00 in the morning. We took a bus to the bus station so we could get to the other airport. We waited for a long time, and then decided it was time to walk over. On the way, we saw some Icelandic trees. A word of advice- if you’re ever lost in an Icelandic forest, stand up. The smallest trees were at my knees; the taller ones came up to my shoulders. We got to the other airport to find that it was closed. We hoped it would open in 30 minutes, but a while later, the airport still wasn’t open. We decided to go to a gas station with a convenience store and a Subway sandwich place connected. We stayed there for about 30 minutes, eating cinnamon rolls. We went back to the airport, but it still wasn’t open. We then waited 45 minutes before people started rushing in to get to work. One woman drove into a parking space sideways, and we prayed that she wasn’t the pilot. 15 minutes later, they opened the doors and we wa...

 Our mosaic  Today was Friday, so we got to ride in the car. We went to Jerry’s, which is a grocery store. It’s like Kroger, but smaller and with a restaurant that serves awesome breakfast. They have wonderful pancakes and cinnamon French toast. Then I got to sea school, and we almost immediately got into our surf groups. I am on the Pink Tsunamis. (Whoosh, puts hand in water and swirls around) We were having a surf race, so everybody was serious. We were going to win this. Yes, Maddie, I was on the pink team, so do your little ha-ha-Zada’s-on-the-pink-team-tee-hee-hee. Look, I didn’t pick team colors. And the only reason I consented to wear pink face paint and not wear black or red or orange was because I don’t like supporting other teams that we were going to hopefully demolish. We were disappointed when we tied for first place, but then we had the tie breaker. Now we were determined that the Black-Tipped Dolphins would NOT beat us. We were not disappointed this time. Ecstatic...

Today was also awesome, without the riptide and drowning. We went to go canoeing. I thought that we were just going to ride around in the canoe while the counselor paddled. It turned out that we all had to paddle and we were not very good at it. That’s probably because we were all looking around for dolphins and then leaping out of our seats when we saw one. We saw so many dolphins that I lost count.   They were SO cool! We also went seining and we caught so many minnows, we had to let some go. For those of you that don’t know, seining is when two people drag a long net through the water. We were catching critters for the tanks back at Sea School. After a long time, we went back to eat lunch. Then we went out to go surfing. Today I managed to surf for real and NOT fall off. I was so happy. Someone stepped on a living horse conch, and we saw its orange body and eyes. It spit on a lot of people, but not me! Then I alone saw a manatee’s head bulge out. I couldn’t believe that everybo...

Ibis! The general awesomeness of today was so extreme, I can’t describe it. I will try for your benefit. So, I have conquered the four-string twine bracelet-thing. Haha. There was riptide on one of the beaches, so it kind of felt like those news stories that becomes a movie that breaks everyone’s heart and everybody goes to watch. You know, where the waves are pulling people farther and farther apart and people are yelling and waves are crashing and then one person is screaming and yelling, “Give me your hand!” And then at the last second, the other person manages to grab on. Sounds pretty fun, right? Action, adventure, drama, all packed into one short little scene. It’s pretty cool in the movies, when it’s almost all CGI-ed and there’s timing and acting and a director is managing it. However, say it’s you nearly drowning, or you having to fight the current. Suddenly, it’s a little less fun. Oh, it’s still fun. Don’t get me wrong. But it’s less fun when you’re getting salt water i...

Today’s sea school was awesome, and it was raining this morning, so we rode in the car. Let me repeat that, because I was very excited about not riding 6 miles in the rain. We rode in the car. Anyways, we made beanbag fish. I was OK at the target toss, however, I got out first in the toss and catch. Now everybody thinks I’m a southpaw because I throw with my left hand. We played Predator and I stayed in a bucket the entire time and nobody saw me. Then I won the blind thief game, where we put foil on a snorkel mask and put it on someone. Then we put our beanbag fish at the person’s feet and tried to get a fish before they tagged us. We then proceeded to eat lunch and after that, we went surfing. I was better, but then my surf group leader told us to do something interesting as we stood up. I wanted to do a hang ten. I was not exactly sure how to do it, but it looked pretty easy on TV when Ms. Frizzle did it. Apparently I had a temporary brain lapse, as I forgot you need a wave to do...

Another day, but this time, I had to get up earlier to eat my french toast and then bike to sea school. When we got there, I was expecting to make a good first impression, to calmly coast in and everybody else would be like “Whoa” and then I promptly toppled over next to my bike. So much for that. When I first got in, everybody was playing cards and stuff, and I had walked in with this other girl, so we went to play Jenga together. And then we played the Name Game. You know, the one where you write something about yourself and then you try to guess who wrote it? That one. In a room with 30 other kids I didn’t even know the names of. Plus 7 counselors. This was going to be very interesting. When I got the slip of paper, I put down what I always do for convenience. “I have been to all 50 states.” Never fails. Almost nobody was able to guess anybody’s. When it came to mine, everybody was very impressed; I guess it is true that most people don’t see all the states. It never seemed like...

 Crab Friend  After 2 excruciating days in the car, we finally reached our destination- paradise. No, believe me, I am very much still alive while typing this blog post, I simply mean my great aunt and uncle’s house. The front yard was glorious enough, plumeria and bananas growing everywhere, a certified butterfly habitat and wildlife garden, and thousand of shells scattered around the place, scavenged and collected by my cousin’s amiable dachshund, Kahlua. Inside were more shells, a coconut collection, a wonderful kitchen and dining room, and outside, a lanai with dining table, a huge pool and a backyard overlooking a lake with lots of water birds, turtles, and gators. In the morning, after breakfast, we walked on the beach, collecting interesting shells as we went. (By we I mean me and my parents, very sadly my wonderful great aunt & uncle can’t be here right now. It is the only thing that isn’t perfect right now.). We saw jellyfish and whelk cases and cool shiny shells...