iceland 101

iceland is way up north between greenland (where julia is right now--see her blog at http://travelingjulia.blogspot.com/) and scandinavia and just below the artic circle. 288,000 people live here and over 60% of all those people live in the capital reykjavik (where i'm living).iceland was formed by undersea volcanoes (kind of like hawaii) because the mid-atlantic ridge, where two tectonic plates are spreading apart, runs right through the middle of the country (not like hawaii which is due to a volcanic "hotspot"). the spreading of the tectonic plates means that every year iceland gets a little bit bigger and there is always volcanic activity and tons of hotwater just bubbling out of the ground. pretty much all the electricity here is generated either by hydroelectric dams or geothermal power plants. houses are heated with the hotwater and it also used in the swimming pools and comes out of the tap. there are a number of glacier here including the largest glacier in europe, vatnajokull. the geyser named geysir was the original geyser and is why we call geysers geysers. the weather is supposed to be pretty mild due to the warm ocean currents and it is supposed to rain a lot (and snow).

i'll be here in iceland until mid-december on a valle scholarship through school (http://www.engr.washington.edu/valle/). i start working at a consulting company next week and will be taking a couple of classes at the university of iceland so right now i have some time to explore and settle in. my class in icelandic also starts next week and right now i mispronounce pretty much everything and speak in english (just about everyone speaks fluent english so it's not really a problem but i would like to be able to say names of people and places properly).

these are pictures of "the pond" (tjorn) in the middle of the old part of downtown
and a huge cruise ship in the harbor