Day 127-the international language

Lava drip formations in Rauðbrók.

   May 10-Alison's luck finally started to wane today, as clouds rolled in overnight and stuck around all day.  Since she had seen most of the things at the top of her list, we told her of some of things she could see near Bifröst today and she agreed that some of them sounded like fun.  So, after the girls headed for school and Sally went to teach, Alison and I hiked the cinder cones north of campus.  We dropped Spencer off at Hraunborg, which was on the way, and then hiked around Grábrók's crater.  We continued on to Rauðbrók, where Alison got to see some of the small lava tubes and cool lava formations.  By this time, it was raining hard enough to get us wet, so we headed back to the apartment. 
   Sally was just finishing her lecture when we got home, so we all ate dinner at the Kaffi Bifröst.  Afterwards, Sally went to the seminar given by Gabrielle, the visiting Romanian Professor, about the difficulties of cross-cultural communications.  The part of the talk that made the biggest impression on Sally was the discussion about English.  Gabrielle made the point that after World War II, many people learned English so they could converse with Americans and Brits in this foreign tongue.  Since then, though, English has become an international language, because it is now used regularly by non-native speakers as the common language in which anyone can converse.  This assertion was demonstrated convincingly by fact that she was a Romanian who was giving a lecture in English to a predominantly Icelandic audience.  (Of course, Sally and I both claim that the only truly international language is mathematics, but Sally was nice enough not to raise that point at the talk.)
   Similarly, although perhaps more ironically, her seminar's subject matter was also demonstrated by the lack of attendance.  A grand total of four students, two staff members, and Sally showed up for the talk.  That's it.  Was this due to "the difficulties of cross-cultural communications?"  This certainly could have been the case, since the seminar's e-mail announcement was all in Icelandic, so likely none of the international students understood that the talk would be in English.  It is also possible that there simply were no faculty and students around campus on a summer afternoon.  Before the seminar began, some of the students ran around trying to round up more of an audience and could find none of their brethren hanging out in the café, so this explanation may be correct as well.  In any event, the experience just made Sally understand the culture of Bifröst that much better and made her all the more happy that she has had the opportunity to get to know the University at a different level than these faculty members who visit it for only a few days.

   Meanwhile, I took Alison to see the sights to the east and south of Bifröst.  We stopped by Deildartunguhver, which is the largest thermal spring in the world.  I have been there a number of times by now, and it seemed that the output was greater than the other times we have visited.  Another difference was that the owners of the neighboring greenhouse, which is heated by the thermal spring, had left bags of tomatoes out for sale at a roadside stand.  We saw the same thing further down the road by some other greenhouses.  It certainly does not compare to the amount of fresh produce we used to be able to buy while out driving around Fresno, but it nice to know that it is at least available in small quantities.

   We drove further up the valley, visiting the waterfalls of Hraunfossar and Barnafoss.  We stopped at Húsafell to see if the thermal pools were open there, but they are still on their winter schedule, which means that they are only open on the weekends.  So, we headed to the wool shop at Hvanneyri.  Alison is starting to get into knitting, so she purchased some cheap Icelandic wool to take home.  One of the things that Alison has wanted to do more in Iceland is soak in the hot pots, so we headed down the valley from there and met Sally and the kids at the swimming pool at Borgarnes.  We all soaked and swam some laps, and the kids and I played on the slides as well.  Afterwards, we had supper at Hyrnan and then returned home.  The kids got ready for bed, while Alison packed her bags to head back to Reykjavík the next day.