Bay

To stave off any claustrophobia the last few posts might elicit, here's the big blue sea, with the Smoke City skyline in the distance.

I went on my first whale watching excursion last week, just as the weather was finally deciding to favor us with some spring sunshine. It was a group charter affair coordinated by Tækniskólinn as a fine sendoff for employees at the end of the school year. There were at least a hundred of us partaking in the bright sunshine and excellent catered surf and turf dinner on an Elding boat co-skippered by a guy named Vilhjálmur whom I just happen to know.

Oddly, the Elding diary claims that the 17:00 tour on the day we went out "has been cancelled due to strong winds out in the bay." We left at 17:15, and yes it was definitely windy! I wonder, though, if the fact that amongst our group were the very men who run the School of Navigation (located at our sister campus on Háteigsveig just next door to this lovely church many of you will recognize) had anything to do with us setting off onto the High Seas of Faxaflói regardless of any bothersome southerly gusts. These teachers of the oceanic arts most probably taught the captain, and definitely Vilhjálmur, who studied skipstjórn and graduated in 2011.

The tower of the Stýrimannaskólinn building was long used as the main guide for ships coming to port in Reykjavík, but as Haukur Gunnarsson, below, pointed out to me, this still-empty pre-crash  steel and glass wonder now blocks the view (see the skyline photo for proof.)

Some of us, including Haukur who teaches among other things Aviation English, chose to ride the waves adventure-style: standing on a bench on the top deck, holding onto a pole for balance. There's no doubt that we had way more fun up there getting all sea-salty than some of our poor slightly greenish-looking cohorts who chose to suffer it out below deck. And we even spied a few pods of dolphin to boot!

Moral of the story? Take a boat ride when you're here. Pack your foul weather gear and find a bit of railing to lean into. Let the ocean sprays wake you and make you feel like an old-style viking for a little bit. As you sail west, out of the bay, pretend you are on your way to mythical Greenland, just out of sight over the horizon, and possibly lands beyond. And keep your eyes open for creatures of the sea, who may put on a show that you can imagine is only just for you.

Have you tried Dynamic Viewing yet? Five new views in all. Use the blue tab at the top of the view page to check them all out : )

Sunrise

I am lucky enough to teach at Tækniskólinn, the Technical College of Reykjavík, which rests stolidly upon the rise of Skólavörðurholt, just beside Hallgrímskirkja. Lucky to have a permanent position, lucky to work next to, for and with amazingly talented people from many technical and industrial fields, such as engineers, pilots, ships captains, carpenters, electricians, beauticians, designers, programmers, plumbers, masons and goldsmiths. Lucky to have students who let me rant my idealized, world-of-the future rants (in between mini-lectures on verbs and such.) And lucky to have a 360°view of the lovely city surrounding us.

This morning, during our first teachers meeting of the semester, I found myself absorbed by the gorgeous sunrise glowing brighter and brighter over the ridge of mountains to the east. This photo was taken with my new little compact camera pressed just up against the window with my daughter's school, Austurbæjarskóli, in the immediate foreground and the white twin church spires of Háteigskirkja just visible in the distance. As the day progressed the weather got worse, and by now, eveningtime, we are settling in for an intense 13th Night of Christmas storm.