GO Blog

Day 2 – Time with the President
Today I started the day in true Anna style - I woke up to two alarms and then promptly fell asleep again only to wake up 10 minutes before I was supposed to meet my friends to go to church. I did make it to church in time though - just had to run there up the hills in the chilly wind. It is a beautiful church with a tall clock tower that sits on the top of the hill above Reykjavik. It is quite a majestic site, complete with a viking statue fiercely standing out front. It was a beautiful Lutheran service (that is the official "state" church) complete with pipe organ and choir in traditional costume and it was confirmation Sunday. Tai and I went up to the top of the tower (via elevator - gotta love Iceland efficiency) and it was an amazing view despite how chilly it was with the wind whipping through us. We then went in search of a bargain lunch, but this is a hard feat in Iceland with even the hot dog shop being closed on a Sunday.

After our Pronto Pizza we headed back to the hotel for a quick reprieve before our big outing to the official residence of the President of Iceland. After a 20 minute ride from the University main buildings, we found ourselves being welcomed into the official residence of the President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson. There were no guards, no metal detectors, and we kept our handbags that no one had searched through. Amazing! After waiting for just a bit, we were individually welcomed (by handshake!) by President Grimsson himself. Crazy!! It was so quick and so casual I was caught a bit off guard, but still lovely. He then spoke to us about Climate Change, the potential consequences as well as potential solutions including, of course, geothermal energy. He is a very well spoken, well read and educated and wonderfully hopeful man and it was a treat to be able to hear him speak. After the speech, he stood for group pictures with all of the students, even individually if we wished. Very kind! After complimentary wine and hors d'oeuvre, we were allowed to wander around the residence (WITHOUT ANY SUPERVISION!!) to most parts of the home including the basement which has some archaeological finds from the very site of his house and the upstairs which is a lovely sunny blue loft style space filled with gifts from heads of state from around the world, including a peace pipe carved out of an antler from former governor Arnie Carlson.

We loaded up back on the bus and returned to the university for a lecture on soil erosion. Fascinating topic. I had often thought about the climate change causing water loss, loss of environment, increasing spread of disease etc but I hadn't thought about how climate change will affect the soil nor how important the soil itself is to sustaining life. More pizza for dinner with a lively discussion about how to enact change, whether it is possible in the US to change mentalities, the need for hope in believing change can happen (yes, that was my input :^) and then the importance and efficacy of global governance was debated. All in all, a fabulous day.

Day 3: The Golden Circle
Greetings from Iceland and one very tired tourist. We started our day at 8AM with a 30 minutes bus ride to the geothermal power plant (Nesjavellir) that provides Reykjavik with its electricity and its hot water. It was very interesting to learn how they separate the water from the steam and then dry out the steam further to protect the turbines as the steam passes through to create energy in the generators. The borehole at this facility goes down 3000m and brings up water that is 300 degrees Centigrade. Oh man I am super tired right now and I have SO many cool facts about the plant but I will have to leave those for another day.

The next stop was Thingvellir which is 1. close to the country's largest freshwater lake, 2. the site of the edge of the North American plate and 3. The site where Iceland's first parliament convened. It is quite a dramatic place, you can actually see where the tectonic plates have shifted apart - probably at least 20 feet and there is a huge divide and then the ground is significantly lower on the other side.

From there we drove on to the Golden Falls (or Gullfoss) - WOW WOW!!! This place was amazing - the falls were similar in size to Niagra Falls (at least as well as my memory serves me, but they were falling from ice covered shores so it was amazingly beautiful. Then there was the WIND! I have NEVER in my life felt such a strong wind! It was SO MUCH FUN!!! You could lean hard into the wind and not fall over, you could turn your back to the wind and jump up and you flew!

Then we were on to the Geysir (the origin of the word geyser for water spouts) I think I have pretty fabulous photo of myself and the geysir - it was pretty amazing to see. It is located in an area where there are many hotpots bubbling away with scalding hot water. We then settled in for a 2+ hour drive to the Blue Lagoon. The drive there took us across a couple different ecosystems and a couple small towns. Some of the landscape reminded me of South Africa with the low growing bushes and shrubs but other spots made me think that this must be what the moon looks like with all the lava fields spotted with patches of ice. It really was a gorgeous drive. I kept pinching myself saying, really, do I really get to be here too?

Finally we arrived at the Blue Lagoon - the infamous mineral hot pool - and I have to say late March/early April is the time to be here, there are no lines, no waiting, no crowds, it is great. There is quite a system to getting your key, your locker, yourself cleansed properly prior to going into the lagoon and then protocols for what to do while in the lagoon itself. But we managed to stumble through, and it was just as incredible as all the reports. The water is an incredible shade of blue, the water is so wonderfully warm and soft and the lava floor mixed with the silicon mud was really quite cool. And, we all took part in the mud masks while we were in the lagoon - too bad we didn't bring a waterproof camera - or maybe better that we didn't. Pretty hilarious!

A quick dinner and we loaded up to be brought back home. Whew- it was a FANTASTIC DAY!!! and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be here. Thanks to all of you - which pretty much everyone reading this - who made this possible for me in his or her own way!

Day 4: Global health lectures
I am trying to be diligent about posting every day but today is going to be the weak link as far as my posts are concerned. I woke up late, went to class on time, heard amazing talks that ranged from food safety to women's health in Nepal to weapon's of mass destruction. It was a very interesting and incredibly educational day - I took 26 pages of notes today, all of which I will attempt to summarize here but not tonight. I had a bit of a hotel debacle and had to change my plans last minute and then went out with my friends here for dinner and conversation. I met a couple of Icelandics who had studied at the University of Minnesota coincidentally and had a great chat with them learning much about Iceland, politics, gender equality, housing and credit loans and the state of their currency. (I know - what a kill-joy I can be in a bar!! :^) But it was a lively discussion and I learned quite a bit. Including the fact that the currency has depreciated 30% in the past three months so actually we are getting a bargain here! WHO KNEW!! Well that is all for my little post for now. I will add a link to my fabulous new hotel and then I am calling it a night.

Day 5: Global Health lectures 2
SO it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to publish anything intelligent as we only have an hour between lectures and social activities. I just returned home from our party at the University house and the Paris cafe where two very nice nurses were telling me all about how they dig sharks into the sand, let them rot for a couple of days and then eat them... makes them strong apparently :^) In any case, the lectures were amazing again but I am too tired to give any details, just know that I am so grateful to be here, to be able to hear these amazing speakers and to be immersed in yet another culture.

Day 6: Lecture Day 3 and NICU visit!
I have had another amazing day here in Iceland. As I have said to my new (and fabulous!) friends here, I must really like them as I don't usually spend this much time with anyone. We have all had so much of our time programmed, which is great because then we see and do so much, but it is also tiring, at least for me, to not have some alone time. SO! Day 1 of the informatics course and despite my very complete background in informatics, I still learned so much today. I now have a much better understanding of my mom complains about SNOMED because when I think about trying to program SNOMED into an existing EMR, it just sounds like a nightmare. But I also can see that it would be very very beneficial for data collection across different enterprise systems, and so great to start to have an opportunity to collect detailed data that isn't just billing based. I also tried to be a champion for the EHR vendor a couple of times as it is easy for the end user to want – want - want when the programming requirements are completely unknown. It was great to have some time to break out into groups with the master's students from Iceland today as well.

After class the three nursing students, Tai, Jamie and I were taken by Margaret, a very kind nurse-midwife who works as an NICU nurse right now, to Vokudeild at Landspitali, the only NICU in Iceland. It was a very nice, clean, bright facility. When we arrived we were greeted by Ragnheiour Siguroardottir, the nurse manager. She gave us an information packet, a video to take home as well a sheet with their latest statistics which she had just finished compiling so that we could have the most current data - how very kind! We were all dressed in yellow coats, scrubbed in and then were taken to where the sickest babies are kept. We saw a tiny preemie, a new babe having umbilical lines placed and another babe who had just switched from the oscillator to a regular vent. They have the same exact monitoring equipment as our NICU, the isolettes are also very similar, just a different model I believe, and the NO machine also looked quite similar. They nest their babes just like we do, they have the same snugglies and they cover their isolettes but a little more completely than we do. On the other hand, they intubate their infants through the nose - which I didn't even know was done but definitely has some advantages. They also do not have Neonatal Nurse Practitioners so the umbilical lines were being placed by not one but two doctors with a nurse standing by. Tai pointed out that the staff in the NICU were wearing sandals with socks (not as a fashion faux pas but as a safety hazard...). It was so good to chat with Margaret and Ragnheiour about the differences in their NICU as well as the similarities. My favorite things I saw were the funnel that they used for dispensing a wiff of oxygen to the babes, the warm water beds they use to help transition the babes from an isolette to the cribs and last but not least the kick scooters that the nurses use to get to the cafeteria that is almost a half a mile from the unit. We went back to the Paris Cafe for dinner tonight for a round of hamburgers and wine and beer. The nurses (+1 honorary nurse) spent hours sitting in the cafe talking about all things relevant from Graceland to Roald Dahl and everything in between. It was great to kick back and relax. Ok, it is almost 2AM and I should really get some sleep. Hope everyone is well where-ever on the globe they may be.

Day 7: Last day of Lecture & deCode visit
Our last day of lectures were yet another treasure trove of information. We had a long break for lunch and then went over to deCode, a place where they have a live database of DNA to investigate the SNPs responsible for multi-gene diseases. We had an amazing lecture and then a tour of the facility. After our deCode visit, we went to a lovely reception at the National Museum of Iceland We were able to get a quick tour of the museum, saw a tiny figurine that is thought to either be Thor or Christ, which I think is a great summary of their Christian and Pagan roots. The museum gives a wonderful walk from the beginning of the settlements in Iceland through to modern day, discussing both lifestyle and religion of the people. It is a beautifully designed museum as well. The reception was lovely, it was good to get a chance to say a final thank you to all the people who had worked so hard to make the Global Health Forum possible and it was nice to get one last chance to chat with our fellow Icelandic students. But I had one more chance coming that I didn't know about...

Following the reception, my plan was to eat and sleep but on our way back to town with Terra, Jaimie and I and Terra found ourselves in a bookstore buying all kinds of Icelandic music and getting to know the staff there who had heard of both Vampire Weekend AND Beirut - fabulous bands, check them out if you haven't already! Then we had a quick meal and a long chat and all of a sudden it was 9PM and we had plans to meet at 10PM to go out... ah well, who needs sleep? So the group (including two of our new Icelandic friends!!) met in the lobby of our fab-o hotel and went out for fun night of chatting and checking out "the scene" in Reykjavik on the weekend. It was a fun night, had good chats, heard good music, great people watching UNTIL.... we decided to try some of the local favorite schnapps, Brennivin, as per our Icelandic friends’ recommendation. Yep, it is as strong as they say... and we were homeward bound not long after but before we left, we did get a couple very impressed looks from the Icelanders who heard we had survived our shot of Brennivin. Jamie and I stopped for one last meal at Pronto Pizza before turning in at 2:30 in the morning - say HEY! Reykjavik!

Day 8: Heading Home
The nursing crew was scheduled to meet at 10 for a trip to the flea-market but I wasn't packed – shocker - and one nurse didn't show so we delayed our start and then spent our few remaining hours shopping at the main strip in town and checking out the flea-market which is a very different side to Reykjavik and definitely worth the stop. The main shopping street is very fancy in Reykjavik and full of fancy people so it was good to see that there are common folk in Reykjavik too!

One last bus ride to the airport, final check-in, tax refunds, last ditch effort at shopping for the family and sad goodbyes and I was tucked in for 6.5 hours for my ride home. They played this sappy movie "P.S. I love you" which opened the floodgates for my wanting to be back home with my husband and my lovely little life in Minnesota.
It really was a fantastic trip though. I am a geek at heart and I LOVED learning about all the different topics and I thought the variety was perfect, albeit not linear. As I have said to my new and my old friends, this trip is going to be to one of those "great weeks of my life". Upon hearing this, a professor questioned me, saying "but you did this without your husband". I replied, "I am a pretty independent soul" and really, I am grateful for that, grateful for this opportunity and for all the fun memories.

Thanks so much to everyone I got to know on this trip, and thanks to everyone else who made it possible, how lucky we were to be in that little piece of the world in that little piece of time.

Anna Carlson