The conference was a typical conference with a day full of presenters from all over the North Atlantic, touting their product or mission with the usual PowerPoint. Lunch was followed with the best part of the conference…the chance to drive several fuel cell and hydrogen power vehicles. If you know me well, you know my love for cars. As a gadget queen there is no better place to find so many useful (And useless at times) features condensed into one space.

There were four brands that were available some were direct fuel cells like the Ford Focus or the Mercedes A-Class while others were a hybrid fuel cell/battery like the Toyota Prius. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to drive the Ford Focus, which is apparently the better car with a price take of $800,000. But I did get to drive the A-Class…does if feel like a car worth over $1 Million? Absolutely Not. But given all the R&D that that went into it and the expensive components that are under the hood, I applaud both companies for making the costly investment into the next generation car. In order to reduce our Green House Gases emissions, namely carbon dioxide, we have to tackle the transportation sector which is one of the largest contributors to GHG by changing from our typical fossil fuel alternatives such as gasoline and diesel and fuel cells are a good start.

The conference ended and the school took us out to one of the best Restaurants in Reykjavík, Perlan. The building was converted from three water towers to a museum with the restaurant on the top floor with a huge class dome roof that rotates to see then cityscape. Great dinner, great views, great company.

http://www.coupons.is/perlan/dining.html

The next morning we went to see the first commercial fuel cell boat cast off in Reykjavik harbor. Let me say that the propulsion system is still powered by diesel. The only thing the fuel cell is responsible for is the auxiliary electricity, i.e. the lights.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/23/2144774.htm

The RES students were invited on for the first trip around the harbor. We boarded the boat and started taking pictures of the scene. I leaded up against the railing only to find out that it wasn’t a railing, but a gate that wasn’t secured shut. Luckily my nimble cat like reflexes were able to keep me from cascading on to the ship deck below. My good friend Sebastian is enacting the almost disaster.

At the conference the day before, the presenters involved with the first hydrogen fuel cell on a commercial vessel were talking about the construction progress; taking place over a 3 week time frame and their hope that it will be ready for today. Well when I see the fuel cell, I started to wonder if it just wasn’t an empty metal box…but they lived up to the hype when they shut the engine off and the lights continued to work. It’s a small step, but Iceland will use this as research project to establish the feasibility of an entire fleet of hydrogen power ships.

We disembarked the boat to drive more fuel cell and renewable energy cars. And I finally got to try out the famous Segway…for a few seconds. There two Segway representative there, each with a test model. However, I went to the sales man wasn’t very open to letting the customers try it out and instead of letting people try it, he just rode around the parking lot…apparently he doesn’t know marketing all that much.

After that event, we went to the University of Iceland to head Scott Stanley, the Chief Engineer of Fuel Cell Vehicle Technology Development. He gave us a talk on the recent fuel cell car they brought to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to race. Subsequently, the Ford 999, as they called it became the first fuel cell car to race there and also became part of the 200 mph club.

I got up before my alarm and went for a walk along the Fjord to see the shipwreck.  It was a great way to start my day.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in Akureyri. Actually since last Monday, we have had sunny skies and nice cool spring days. After a whole day of studying (and that is the truth) I got to a point where I not only needed a break, but I wanted out of Iceland. I was just fed up with the constant exams, sleepless nights, and I missed my family and friends. So after talking with my mother about her weekend and her improving golf game (she shot a 44 last week) I decided that the best way to vent was to go outside and hit the crap out of some golf balls. Since I came here, I have been heckled by the fact that I brought golf clubs to a country called ICEland where the ground is always covered with snow. So this yesterday evening before the sun went down, I went to go work on my swing, get some fresh air, and take a break from studying. A few classmates had gone for a walk along the fjord and took some pictures of my playing on their way back. I will say this, although I am rusty and need to work on my swing… you can’t beat the backdrop!!!

As for the rest of my life here, it is quite busy.  And since I don’t want to put you to sleep I’ll just say that school is keeping me so busy that I don’t have time to do anything exciting.  There is a movie night here and a birthday party there, but for the most part the weekends are spent either in the classroom for lectures or studying for our weekly Monday course exams.

I have no idea what is going on with the upcoming presidential elections.  I am completely uninformed in regards to recent US events.  In addition to being completely cut off from the US, my spoken English is degrading along with my writing.  Honestly, I am starting to talk in broken English because I am around people who speak that way.  It is a horrible habit to pick up and I’m not sure how to correct it.  Any ideas?  Anyone have any good books they can recommend so I can read once again see a properly written sentence?

The program is set up with classes taking place over one or two weeks. For each class we’ve had to complete a project. These projects include everything from writing research papers to creating PowerPoints, to analyzing software, all of which are presented every Friday , typically in a PowerPoint format.

I thought I give you a little flavor of the projects I’ve done thus far and why I haven’t had time to blog. In addition to the projects, we have exams every Monday which entail information form reading, lectures, and PowerPoints.

  

Wednesday:  Day of Rest

Thursday: We attempted to go on a trip up north by after 30 minutes in the car we had to turn around because you couldn’t see 2 meters in front of the car and the wind was fierce.  We retreated back to the dorm and planned to spend the afternoon at the skating rink.  It was nice to get out on the skates and play some hockey.   

Friday: We lounged around in the morning and then went to the sports hall in the afternoon.  As a group, we’ve rented out the sports hall every Friday evening for 2 hours.    It is nice to get everyone together to play some volleyball, soccer, basketball, and floor hockey.  In the evening, the school organized a dinner at one of the restaurants downtown.  Since a local men’s store was purging its inventory because it was relocating, most of the guys bought several new sport coats, ties, and shirts and wanted to wear them out on the town.  So we all got dressed up for dinner.   

Saturday:  Day of Rest followed by the Easter Vigil Mass.    Sunday:  In the morning, we had a traditional Polish Easter breakfast.  Then we were joined by the Chairman of RES, David Stefansoon, the Slovkian professor, Dusan Holobek, and Sigrun, RES student’s problem solver, on a trip up the east side of the Fjord.   Our first stop was a historical site, to see how the Icelanders used to live 70 years ago.  I can’t believe that these were the conditions that Icelanders lived in only 70 years ago…no running water, no electricity, and dirt floors.  And this house was actually the home of a wealthy settler.  It was crazy.   Then we continued on to a mountain north of Akureyri, just at the mouth of the Fjord.  The sites were amazing and we took snow cat to the very top.     How did we get down from this 25 minutes snowcat ride?  With sleds!!!  It was so much fun and I have a lot of bumps and bruises to remember the trip.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures goes down on sleds, but I’ll try to get some from a couple other people this week.  We got home from the trip around dinner time and RES has organized a cookout for us at the dorm.  It was a great dinner and great company as we were joined by the Managing director of RES and another of RES board members, who was incidentally our grill master for the evening.  Dinner was followed by a poker game with a buy in of 200 kr ($3).  Mike you’d be proud since I won the first round and 600 kr.  I then played poorly and quickly lost the 2^nd and 3^rd round.  I was a lot of fun and in the end I broke even so I can’t complain.    That was the day, but I’d like to elaborate on the snowcat ride.  This is a message for Warren Miller and all other ski movie producers (since I know this blog is on their daily read list).  You are missing out on Iceland…it is an untouched paradise for heli skiing.  As I was riding up, I was formulating a nice narrative but pictures speak louder than words.                 

Monday:  Day of Rest with a game of Ultimate Frisbee in the evening. 

On Saturday I went with one of the RES drivers, Sebastian, for a quick road trip north  toward the ocean for a couple of nice pictures of the Fjord and water.  I was soaking up the sun!      

First of all, before I go one about the weekend, Saturday was officially “International Women’s Day”, so congratulations to all the women out there!   Although I never heard of this holiday, it is very popular in Poland, Slovenia, and other parts of Europe.  Unbeknownst to the girls, the boys had gone out and got us flowers which they handed out to all of us congratulating us on “our” day.  It was really cute.  Then the one of the girls asked, “ I know there is father’s day, but when is guys day?”…the response was priceless…. “Every other day besides today is guy’s day”…typical.   

After a long week, there was trip planned to see several sites in the northeast area of Iceland. And so the journey begins  , two vans, two drivers    , 18 people   , lots of cameras, some great music from the RES Bounce CD compilations, and THE SUN!!!!   

First we went to Godafoss, Water fall of the Gods, where statues of pagan gods where thrown into the waterfall when Christianity was adopted as an Iceland faith.  I don’t know what was a better site, the sun or the waterfalls?!        They were both great and it was perfect day for touring the country…or so we thought.  The weather here changes faster than New England.  We later drove through complete white out conditions.      

We passed through a small town (which entailed a café and gas station) that was having a motor cross race, so we stopped to check it out.  They were done racing for the day, but said there was another huge snowmobile race a bit further north that we might want to check out.   

Next stop, Dimmuborgir, the most recent volcanic eruptions was about 200 years ago.  So these rock formations are the newest part of Iceland.       

Next was a geothermal spot just north of a Geothermal power plant.  The water coming out of the ground was nothing I’ve ever seen before.  It looked like oil and smelled like rotten eggs, great combination. 

http://www.youtube.com/v/po0zS6WQtNk

We tried to go to Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe, but the road was closed because of the snow. Instead we stumbled upon the motor cross race that we were told about earlier in the day and decided to stay a bit.   We “ran” into some problems with the silver van, namely snow and after several valiant attempts at pushing the car out, we resorted to the local Icelander and the big ass 4×4 vehicles.      http://www.youtube.com/v/jL47-ASntDg

After a long day of sight seeing and a great road trip, we returned home to the RES dorm.