20051118.2217

20051118.2217

Today was a big day. We had a meeting of all the teams that lasted the whole morning. It almost had a conference flavor with each team presenting their research plans and everyone else asking questions and offering suggestions. The groups all did a good job, and it looks that the research will go well. The different groups should interlace quite well.

We went to the swimming pool again with the children. Sundlaug Akureyrar. It is wonderful and surreal to sit in a hot pool or swim around with ice and snow ringing the deck. The local kids all go swimming during school hours, so if you stay long enough you will see a couple rounds of children come and go. Kids are the same here with all of them running and jumping and horseplaying in the pool.

In the evening we went to the local handball game. The KA (Kow-Ah) club was playing another team from the south. It is a little like soccer meets basketball. The players cannot hold the ball for more than three steps and so dribble and pass like basketball. The object is to throw it into a goal, guarded by a goalie. Where basketball has the three second lane, this game has a semicircular offsides surrounding the goalbox which no offense or defense may cross into. So the game takes place on a line that looks a little like a football scrimmage line, arcing about 15 feet in front of the defending goal. It is more than a little weird chanting in a different language for your team. And suffice it to say that 98% of the insults, fouls, crowd chants, and other assorted noise went without understanding. When the team won, many of the kids ran out onto the court with the team. The team surrounded them and linked hands and danced in a circle around the children. A little like a mayflower dance or “Ring Around the Rosy”

The 10 year olds all sat together, boys and girls cautiously flirting, but mostly just hollering insults at the refs and the opposing team. It was held in a building that was a lot like a pole barn or Quonset hut. It could have been a hockey rink. But, true to the Nordic flavor around here, the structural beams were laminated wood, rather than something else. The crowd all sat just a few feet off the out-of-bounds line, so that walkers into the bleachers easily spilled onto the playing field. The ball went into the stands a few times and just got tossed back. In scale, it is similar to a varsity volleyball game at UE, in the little gym. The crowd size was similar, and the closeness to the game was similar.

What a hoot.

Icelandic TV is on right now, and it is about 1100. The chances are about even that you might find something in English (Enska) on one of the channels, but not necessarily American (although not necessarily not). After 1000 or so however, it is entirely possible to find something entirely inappropriate for children. They have nudity, sex, bad language, everything that would drive American prudes nuts. Much is in pretty bad taste and really isn’t appropriate for the kids. This wouldn’t matter except that the children are still jet lagged and don’t really go to bed until about midnight. So you do have to watch what’s on TV when the children are up.