This post contains writing from Smithsonian students!

Today we greeted the sun a little earlier than normal. We enjoyed breakfast and headed off to the local graduate University Centre of the Westfjords. The town was much less crowded without the thousands of tourists and few ginormous cruise ships. The project manager, Hjördís Þráinsdóttir, walked us through the university and introduced our group to the University Director, Dr. Peter Weiss. He was a cheerful guy and gave us a presentation about many different things related to the West Fjords region of Iceland. Next, graduate students from SeaTech (France) on an internship presented their personal projects and research. Their passion for their respective research was apparent, as well as the drive to continue with their findings. They are developing advancements in efficient boat trajectories, examining ocean patterns through Copernicus (a satellite based Earth monitoring system), storing shared data through Jupyter notebooks, and discovering patterns in ocean characteristics to positively impact Iceland’s environment.

After our lengthy lectures, we had a lunch picnic while debriefing the topics the students covered. Our picnic spot was surrounded by local paintings of familiar characters and fun cartoons. We strolled down to the Westfjords Heritage Museum and learned more about the historical life and culture preserved in the Westfjords. The museum had three floors full of enticing artifacts that gave us insight into the normal life of an Icelander. Another cat spotting – Kisa, the grey and white kitty, soaked up all the love during our museum adventure.

We enjoyed our free-roam time by adding finishing touches to our projects and exploring around the town. We split up into smaller groups to mosey around as we pleased. More grocery store stops took place as we stock up for our final days of the trip. A few of us played at a local park and made new friends on the zipline. The park had a viking-like version of a rope swing and metal slide that was definitely the peak of our day.

We all slowly returned to our guesthouse to complete our personal projects. The first half of our group presented before our lovely dinner at the Tjöruhúsið, an endless fish buffet, where we were served with a fish soup (langostine, halibut, salmon, and cod), salads and veggies, grains, beets, mashed potatoes, and many incredible dishes of cod steak, char, plaice, cod cheek, and pollock. Once we returned with our bellies full, the remaining presenters spoke. We finished off the day with an early night, preparing for our hefty hike tomorrow. All the projects included a wide range of research and range of topics. 

Here is a brief overview of the project themes: 

Samantha – Icelandic Food

Eden – Climate Change Effect on Puffins

Sunny – Iceland Birds and Wings

Bella – Icelandic influence of Fitness trends

Zofia – Street ARt in Reykjavik

Annekke – History of Licorice

Nora – Geography of Iceland shaping the economy

Sienna – Christianization of Iceland

Kai – Folklore of Iceland

Henry – Marine Heatwaves surrounding Iceland and North Atlantic Ocean

James – Politics in Iceland

– Sienna H. & Zofia S.