Hays Family in Iceland: Day 107-meeting the Ambassador

This was the first time we had ever been able to see
Snæfelljökull from Borgarnes. It was an amazing sight!

April 20-The kids missed the bus today. Since they were not going to school, though, that was OK. Instead, the whole family enjoyed a daytrip in Reykjavík today, because all of the Fulbright grantees (and their families) had been invited to to a reception at the U.S. Embassy. The day was sunny and the views were the best we have ever had on a drive between Bifröst and Reykjavík.

We are standing in front of the Ambassador's residence.

We drove down to Pam and Marilyn's apartment and parked there, because it was free to park in their driveway (and we are cheap) and because they live only a couple blocks from the Embassy. We arrived at the Embassy at the appointed time (11 am) and were led through a side door into the Ambassador's residence. A few Fulbright students also, the Icelandic Fulbright staff, and some of the Embassy staff also attended the event. We had a nice time talking to everyone. The U.S. Ambassador to Iceland, Luis Arreaga, has a Ph.D. in development economics, but he and Sally did not talk much about economics. Mostly, they talked about Iceland and children. The Ambassador's children are all grown, except one son, who will soon graduate from the International Baccalaureate program in Reykjavík. Since he is a career diplomat (not a political appointee), Dr. Arreaga has seen a number of capital cities and he feels that Reykjavík is the safest of them. He even allowed his youngest son to take his granddaughter around the city when she visited over Christmas.

   Our kids, the only ones at the reception, behaved remarkably well at the Embassy. They talked to other attendees and ate the food, so they managed to keep themselves entertained. After a while, they discovered that the door out of the back of the reception room opened onto a small courtyard. They soon gravitated outside to look at the thermal water fountain and the flowers. They also found
"evidence of a dog," as they put it. When the adults migrated outside as well, the girls talked Spencer into asking the Ambassador if he owned a dog and pretty soon he went downstairs and let it out into the courtyard to play with the kids.  We are not sure which they will remember longer from their time at the Embassy: the dog or the Ambassador.
   The life of a diplomat sounds exciting, but not very stable. Ambassadors and Embassy staff are only allowed to remain stationed at in a given country for two or three years, before they must move to another Embassy. The feeling is that this gives people enough time to make the contacts that are necessary to be effective, but they do not stay so long that they lose perspective and start advocating for the foreign country, which the staff referred to as 'clientitis.'  It would be very interesting to see so many countries, but it seems like it might be rather frustrating to just figure out a place and then be forced to move on. One of the staff members mentioned that she had been previously stationed in Afghanistan and Thailand before, so this assignment was much more relaxing. Unfortunately, she only has six months remaining before she must leave.

   Sally and Jaimes, one of the other grantees, wanted to discuss the overlap between their research interests and a coffee that they had arranged morphed into a full-blown dinner with other grantees and the rest of the Hays family as well. Afterwards, we wandered around downtown, mostly shopping, which was high on the kids' to-do list. We also got to see an Icelandic tradition that was new to us. Primary schools consist of first through tenth grades. Kids often go on to college for four years afterwards, which prepares them either to enter a vocation or to go to the University to get a bachelors degree. Final exams for these colleges begin next week, so the seniors take advantage of this Friday to celebrate in style. They don costumes that they often have made for themselves, start drinking by noon, and celebrate into the night. We saw some pretty elaborate costumes as we walked around downtown. It is worth pointing out that these are the people who Bifröst University is trying to recruit........
   After we had had our fill of shopping and people-watching, we returned to Pam and Marilyn's to visit with them a little more and pick up our car. We drove over to the second-hand store and did a little more shopping and then decided to go swimming at Laugardalslaug swimming pool. It had been under construction the last time we were there, but most of the construction was now completed and they were spending this week unveiling the new attractions. It was still quite crowded, but the kids enjoyed the new slides and lily pads, so overall we had a good time.
   The kids really wanted to eat at the Hamborgarafabrikkan (Hamburger Factory) restaurant, so we headed over, although it was nearly 8:30 by this time and that place is usually pretty busy on a weekend night. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we only needed to wait ten minutes to get in, so we did so and enjoyed some sublime hamburgers. A sign in the restaurant tallies the number of Icelanders and is updated regularly. We don't know how accurate it is, but it is probably not too difficult to maintain an accurate count, since all births, deaths, immigrants, and emigrants are recorded. In any event, it was interesting to note that the number of Icelanders had been a little over 320,000 the last time we ate there, but that number had dropped slightly below 320,000 this time.
   We ate our fill, did some final shopping at the 24-hour Hagkaup, and finally got out of Reykjavík around 10 pm. We got home and put the kids to bed. The adults stayed up a little while longer to put stuff away and then Sally went to bed. One thing we have learned while living here is that the aurora borealis can flare up and provide some pretty spectacular displays even when there are not predicted to do so, so we always check the night sky before going to bed when it is clear out. The evening skies have been clear for nearly the past week, but we had only seen a faint green glow one night. Tonight, however, was different. Shan looked out the back door before going to bed and saw a light green line. After only a short wait, it suddenly flared up into a curtain of green and red light on the western horizon. He got Sally and we drove out to a dark spot a short distance away to enjoy the light show and take some pictures of it.