Day 104-Joslyn's 10th birthday

   April 17-Today was a red letter day for us in two ways.  First, and foremost, today was Joslyn's tenth birthday and most of today's activities revolved around that.  Second, today marks the halfway point of our adventure.  We have been abroad for 103 days before today, and we will be abroad 103 days after today.  One the one hand, it is hard to believe that we have already gotten to this point, because the time has simply flown by.  On the other hand, it feels like our departure is right around the corner, so it is nice to know that we still have quite a bit of time left to see Iceland and hopefully some of Europe as well.

   Nothing of note happened in the morning.  Early in the afternoon, we drove over to Varmaland to visit Joslyn's class.  Parents do not normally bring birthday treats to school here, but we thought that it would be nice to show the kids the way it is often done in the States.  We had never heard of anyone making Rice Krispy treats over here, so Sally and Joslyn made some for her class the night before.  They were a huge hit with the kids and with Joslyn's teacher, Gróa.  She and number of the kids asked for the recipe, so Sally agreed to send it with Joslyn the next day.
   Our girls play marbles competitively back in the States, and Joslyn wanted to show her classmates the game. We brought in a couple dozen marbles and showed everyone the way in which marbles are properly held and shot.  We marked out two marble rings on the classroom floor and let the kids shoot in turn at the marbles. We kept track of the number of marbles kids got out.  For the most part, the kids really enjoyed the diversion and we left the marbles with Gróa so the class could play with them again in the future.

Gróa resets the marbles in one of the rings.



View up the Hvitá river valley to Eiriksjökull 

    By this time, the school day was over, so we collected Joslyn and Alex and headed for home.  Since the day was crystal clear we took a short detour to a viewpoint so we could get a good look at Eiriksjökull, which is a glacier that is partially owned by the father of one of Joslyn's friends.  Back at Bifröst, we picked up Spencer and hurried back to the apartment so Joslyn could open her presents. 

   Today was spring cleaning day at Bifröst, so Joslyn did not have long to enjoy her birthday gifts before we joined a stream of students, staff, and faculty heading over to the central square to get trash bags and latex gloves.  We were assigned the area around our apartment building, so we headed in the direction.  The kids often play in the lava rocks and trees along the route and noted that there was lots of trash there, so we stopped to take a look.  They certainly knew what they were talking about and it did not take us very long to fill up the trash bags.  When we returned them, we got into line for the hot dogs that the University was grilling up for all of the workers.  We only shared a few of them between us, though, because we were planning on having even more hot dogs later in the evening.
   While talking to Emma and Pálmar down at Vík a couple weeks before, the conversation turned to hot dogs.  We had read in multiple places before coming over here that the Icelandic hot dog is special.  We had been skeptical, but we have since been won over.  They are really quite fantastic.  Sally happened to mention chili dogs to Pálmar, who became very interested in that food combination.  We had been looking for a time to have them over to try chili dogs ever since and tonight was the first time we could find, so we had them and their son Þorsteinn over to eat chili dogs and Rice Krispy treats for Joslyn's birthday.  Emma and Pálmar were quite impressed by the chili dogs and Þorsteinn enjoyed his Rice Krispy treat.  Everyone seemed to have a fun evening and the kids got along great, so it was a good way to mark our halfway point and to celebrate Joslyn's birthday.

View to the south from our apartment as the Sun sets at 9 pm.