Day 103-finding a vala

   April 16-Today was the first "typical" Monday in about a month for most of us.  The kids all went to school and I did the laundry.  For Sally, however, it was a very different Monday.  For the first time since we arrived in Iceland, school was in session, yet she did not have to go teach.  What to do with the new-found freedom?  Get ready for the economic development course that she will be teaching in May, of course, like she has been doing most days since the Easter break.

   We were looking forward to gönguklúbbur today.  We had not gone on the weekly hikes for nearly a month, since we had family visiting for one of the Mondays and Easter break occurred during another two.  I took the girls for the group hike, while Sally took Spencer for a shorter hike down to Hreðavatn.  Gaui told me that no one had shown up for the hike on the Monday before Easter break, so he was happy to see us and a couple other people show up for this one.
   He led us to the north up the valley of the Brekkuá river.  Despite the fact that this river runs right into the Bifröst campus, I had not realized that it even existed.  The reason for my ignorance is the peculiar nature of the local geology.  Bifröst is built on top of the Grábrókhraun, or Grábrók mountain lava flow.  Since the lava flow is not particularly old, there are still many spaces between the lava rocks, and the Brekkuá simply dives into the lava field to the north of campus and passes underneath us as it runs to the Norðurá river.  Gaui told me that when the Brekkuá is running particularly high, it sometimes break through the surface of the lava field around the campus.  That would be an interesting sight to see.
   We crossed some pasture on the hike and came across the skeleton of a sheep.  We looked at some of the bones and then the guys started on up the valley.  Meanwhile, my girls and Magga (Gaui's wife) lingered at the skeleton a bit longer and Alex had an inspiration.  She has become very interested in the Icelandic fortune-telling tradition involving a bone from the sheep's rear knee called the vala.  The tradition entails putting the vala some place on your head, reciting a poem, and then dropping the bone on the ground.  Depending upon the orientation of the bone on the ground, the answer can be, yes, no, or maybe.  It is essentially an ancient, low-tech version of the Magic 8 ball.

   In any event, Alex had seen vala for sale for outlandish prices in tourist shops and had always fought off the urge to buy one.  Now, she saw an excellent opportunity to get one for free, so she started rooting around in the skeleton for the rear leg.  The skeleton had been picked pretty clean, and one of the rear legs had been drug elsewhere in the process, but one had been left behind and Alex found a vala!  She was very excited and ran up to the rest of us to show us her prize.  She cleaned it when she got home and claims that this will be one of the most special mementos from her time in Iceland.
   I discussed Icelandic weather with Gaui on the hike and found out some interesting tidbits. Today was the fifth day in a row that was mostly clear and sunny, and I was curious if this was normal.  Gaui told me that May is the driest month in Iceland and the weeks around May can be dry as well.  A high pressure system over Greenland and a low pressure system over Scotland are teaming up drive cold Arctic air southwest across Iceland.  Since cold air holds less moisture and is closer in temperature to the ground in Iceland, the air does not rise, form clouds, and drop precipitation.  The clear skies have caused the daily temperature swings to become more similar to those that we are used to in Colorado.  However, the temperature swings are not as dramatic, because it is only fluctuating in the 30s and 40s (Fahrenheit).  Gaui told me that the weather usually warms noticeably in May and June.  I was curious how warm "warm" is and he told me that the usual high temperatures in the summer are in the 50s.  I asked if it ever gets near 70 and he said that it rarely does so, but when that happens everyone is outside enjoying the heat.  Welcome to the subarctic!