Nesjavellir is the largest geothermal power plant in Iceland.

Inside the Nesjavellir geothermal power plant many of us were amazed at how clean the plant was and the minimal manpower needed to operate the plant.

University of Iceland and U of M student social

Tai Gilbert

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

I was impressed to see that Newsweek just published an article on alternative energy in Iceland entitled “Iceland has power to burn.” The article covered many of the same things that we saw firsthand on our tour. It is clear that the Icelanders place a great value on public health, and are also interested and well-informed about what goes on elsewhere in the world. This is remarkable for such a small and isolated country that could so easily look inward and not be concerned about other parts of the world. Although the United States is a large and expansive country with a heterogeneous and competitive population, which is very different from Iceland, there is much that we can learn from the Icelanders. One of the Icelandic professors in the globalization class said that education is the key to good public health. I think that both education and community are essential for improving global health - because without individual knowledge and the ability to see the connectedness between people, it is very difficult to better the health of populations. But with education and great sensitivity the possibility of moving forward is much enhanced.

Jenny Ostergren

Why Iceland? What can the small country of Iceland possibly have to offer the larger global community?

Island cultures, it seems to me, can serve as excellent models for learning about resource management in the face of scarcity. Icelanders have been forced by their environment to live within the resources available (of course, over time, they have been able, through the advances in global trade and the internet, to increase their material needs beyond what the natural environment of Iceland can provide, but, also, it is precisely because of Iceland’s unique environment and the Icelanders ingenuity to utilize resources without damaging them, that allows them to trade their inexpensive electricity with the rest of the world).

The Icelandic environment has helped make Icelanders resourceful, neighborly, and conscious of the necessity to replenish the environment they live in. This was best demonstrated by the fact that the geothermal plant, after using the heat and electrical energy from the steam they extract, they return at least 70% of the water back to the aquifer they receive the steam from. This creates very little pollution, if any, and insures that the reservoir does not get depleted over time and can regenerate.

In America we would probably just let the water run off into the sea after we used it, acting as if it was an unlimited source, instead of a vast lake that took millions of years to collect. The guide at the geothermal energy plant also pointed out that at one time America had the largest source of geothermal energy in the world but abandoned the program in favor of oil and coal. Iceland shows us that we have a great source of clean, renewable energy in our backyard, we only need the will to change over to it.

This doesn’t mean that Iceland isn’t immune from resource depletion or from the effects of the Global Economy. They depleted their forests through grazing, heating, and building structures (like America did during its expansion and what Brazil and Central Africa are experiencing now) so wood is at a premium as it has to be shipped in. Also Icelandic banks were caught up in the sub-prime loan market that caused the recent economic problems in the United States and the Krona’s value fell as I was visiting.

What I came away from my whole experience in Iceland was, first, a renewed respect and awareness of how beautiful our world around us is and how we need to strive to become better stewards of this precious environment that gives us life while we take so much from it and even degrade it in our ignorance and greed. I also came away with the insight that those of us from the large, continental countries should look to our island neighbors for insight into how to live in better harmony with our environment. Coming from America it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking there is no end to the earth’s resources and we only need to improve out technology to access even more materials. But if we pan back and view the earth from the vastness of space, one gets an even larger since of isolation as one might get looking from the shores of Iceland across the vast, cold, Atlantic. Earth is our precious island that is a system based on renewal and recycling of resources and for us to ignore this circle of life and will certainly be our downfall. We cannot take more than the earth can replenish. That is why I was so impressed by the Geothermal Plant returning 70% of the water back to the reservoir. That is definitely a way to live that is sustainable.

Greg Burgess
MPH Environmental Health, Infectious Disease Control
University of Minnesota

Another idea that emerged from the lectures is the concept of a global community. It became quite clear throughout the lectures that although I may identify as a member of my individual family, state, and country community, I am a member of the global human community and therefore I must realize that everyone’s health and actions effect and are affected by the actions of others within our global community. This global community approach to public health is important because we all must work together to ensure safety, peace, and healthy lives for current and future generations. Furthermore, I am amazed at how academics and scholarly exchange reflect the truly global context of community. We all have a lot to learn from each other and this venue encouraged exchange and collaboration to occur at a personal level within a global context.

Last, but certainly not least, I had the wonderful opportunity to stay with the family of Maria Soffia, an Icelandic ophthalmologist who is currently practicing in Reykjavik. This connection was made many years ago when Maria Soffia studied at the University of Michigan with my uncle. When Maria Soffia heard that I would be studying in Iceland, she instantly offered me her spare bedroom and a warm invitation to the busy home and lives of her family. In addition to this offer being financially and logistically helpful, it was really nice to be able to process, analyze, and discuss the topics that we covered during the Institute.

Another major bonus of the friendship with Maria Soffia is that her sister, Helga, is a midwife and associate professor at the University of Iceland. I have had the opportunity to spend a few days with her. Helga and I have spend many hours discussing the maternal and child healthcare system of Iceland, reviewing articles and thesis projects of her midwifery students, and touring clinics and hospitals. Amazingly, we have man of the same research interests and I have really enjoyed spending time with Helga.

Overall, my experience at the Global Public Health Institute has been amazing! The faculty and presenters were fabulous; they challenged us to think more critically about the necessity for interdisciplinary approaches to health promotion and the multiple factors that cause poor health outcomes. I thoroughly enjoyed attending the lectures and exchanging ideas with my new Icelandic colleagues and friends, and feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to live, work, eat, and play with my new Icelandic friends. This experience has stressed the importance and possibilities that arise from global academic exchanges and I know that this time spent together in scholarly exchange will better equip me for service within global health.

Terra Carey

How do I describe my past week in Iceland? This is difficult when so much emotion and feelings are attached. I feel so fortunate to be able to study and attend the Global Health Institute in Reykjavik. Thank you to the University of Minnesota for offering me this excellent educational opportunity and travel stipend. It is my dream come true to study at the University of Iceland.

This is my fourth trip to Iceland. I created the opportunity to work in Iceland in 2001. I wrote letters to several hospitals and was fortunate to get one reply and job offer. It was just meant to be. The timing was perfect. This was my window of opportunity, as the Icelanders were graduating their first occupational therapy class that spring. So, seven years ago, I traveled from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to northern Iceland to accept a position as an occupational therapist at Kristnes, a country hospital near Akureyri. After meeting some of my dear relatives in Reykjavik, and having my first Icelandic meal of fish and potatoes, I boarded the bus to Akureyri in the darkness and began my job on January 15, my birthday. I will never forget this special birthday gift. I worked in Iceland for nine months and absolutely had the time of my life. I fell in love with the people and the country. Fortunately I was able to meet most of my relatives thanks to my father’s siblings visiting years earlier, as well as the excellent genealogical records. I even met some relatives one day while working at Kristnes, and the next thing I knew I was invited to their farm to shear sheep. I have many other stories of my wonderful experiences and adventures.

So, my first trip to Iceland was to work and explore my roots. My second trip to Iceland was to visit my family and friends. My third trip to Iceland was with my husband for our honeymoon. And now my fourth trip to Iceland is to attend the Global Health Institute at the University of Iceland. I am very happy to be living my dreams. As the president of Iceland, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson says, Icelanders think they can do anything. Well, I believe this is a very positive and healthy attitude for everyone.

I have learned very much attending the Global Health Institute this past week. I have found the presentations very informative and interesting. The Institute has provided me with an excellent opportunity to meet others interested and working in the area of public health.

Global climate change is a real problem. We all have our part to play in changing the global environment.
I believe that we have much to learn from the Icelanders. .They have many things to be proud of such as sustainable resources, renewable energy, gender equality, an excellent health care system, history of the first parliament, and genealogy records. Now they are leaders in using genetic testing to formulate preventive strategies for common diseases. My ancestors left Iceland for Canada because of poverty. Iceland is now a wealthy nation. Through its history, this small nation has valued literacy and education, and this has served them well. I agree with some of the presenters that the solution to global health problems is education in order to change behavior. Knowledge is the key element in international development and the key to empowerment. What an excellent educational opportunity this has been.

Cindy Anderson

Funny how much you can have in common.

Jamie Sweet

It is so wonderful to have the opportunity to learn about Iceland´s history and the background that has influenced their actions today. We have so much we can learn from them.

-- Kari Williams

My second day I joined some of my fellow Public Health students at a Room with a View apartments. Man was it a view! We overlooked the main stopping street: Laugavegur as wells as snow covered mountains and lake/ocean. I think this really just might be the most expensive country in the world: $17 a drink at a bar and about $2 a liter for gas! Our second night a few of us went on the Northern Lights tour. It started off to be slightly disappointing but by the end it was one of the coolest things I have seen. Finally bands of flares just started to appear and at one time it was as if the sun was rising again and then ribbons formed and rainbows of lights were flashing around. Faint colors of green and slight red were apparent although it most appeared as white light.

On our third day we met some of the Iceland students and the rest of the Uof M students. We went on a trip to the president’s house. It was a short drive away and a great view of the city and mountains and surrounded by water (nice place)! A little different from visiting the U.S. president- there was no security and we just walked in and then he gave an hour long lecture about global health and global warming type issues. He is a really nice and convincing speaker. Then he answered questioned and gave us some wine and fancy appetizers and let us walk around the house. I even got my picture with him. Few key points from his lecture that I found interesting:

-we all must claim responsibility, everyone! For global warming issues.
-we have a very short time to react.
-he claims that Iceland is not unique and what they did can be applied all over the world (geothermal energy and such).
-when Iceland made geothermal energy they were a poor developing country and they still did it.
-he seems to have more faith in the U.S. then we do about our contributions to global health and he seems to have high expectations for whoever our new president is.
-discussed a lot of the security and health issues of global warming.
-seemed surprisingly optimistic about what we can still do given the short time we have to react.

Our fourth day was our “field trip” day and wow, what an exhausting day it was. We met at the university and then took a bus to several locations.

Geothermal Plant
This is the most modern power plant in the world (I think). I know its really new and almost 100% efficient. They harness all the electricity and hot water for Iceland and make more to sell to business. Aluminum companies are starting to come to Iceland because it is cheaper for them to bring it here with the cheap electricity-even from Australia. Our tour guide described how it worked from digging the deep borehole (3000-7000meters) deep and extracting the extremely hot water (300-500 degrees Celsius). To separating the water from steam and then the minerals and leftover water are put back into the earth. There is little known about long term effects of geothermal harnessing power however or whether or not there will be any consequences to the environment. Right now it seems like a pretty renewable source though! I have some pictures on the large turbines and pipes. The leftover water from one of the geothermal plants (at blue lagoon) is actually the blue water we bathed in. It is full of minerals and the water gets replenished every 40 hours. One thing I couldn’t get over was that they added the sulfur smell back to the water before people it gets to the people-it is their “Trademark”.

Þingvellir National Park
This was the beginning of the windy cold day! Our tour guide was actually a graduate from the University of Minnesota and very nice. They get over ½ million visitors year every year with only 3 full time staff members. This was the most important historic site for Iceland. I believe it is where their parliament started around 900 AD. They would gather here for two weeks every summer. It is also the rift between the Eurasia and North American plate and it is splitting (1/2-2.5 cm a year). We walked along this icy rift and got some cool pictures.

Gulfoss Waterfall
Holy cow I have never ever ever been in wind like this!!! Seriously it was practically blowing people over-I was running and not going anywhere, my headband from my pointy-tail came out! This was definitely the biggest waterfall I have ever seen and is the biggest in Iceland. I think it was my favorite sight in Iceland so far-but it was such harsh conditions that I could not even hold my camera still or open my eyes long enough to get any good pictures. The water from the waterfall was freezing and turning into hail and blowing in our face as we were trying to look at it. They also only had a rope for a rail and I heard up until 2 years ago they had nothing-so that was a little scary.

Geysers
Wasn’t too far away from the waterfall (10min) so it was still really windy. Again there were no safety features making people stand away-this is not how it would be done in the US. The old Geyser now only erupts after earthquakes but was the biggest active in the world at the time, but there is another one that was erupting ever 2 min while we were there. About every 10 min. there is a large eruption comparable to the size of Old Faithful. Of course it kept teasing us with little ones and then when we weren’t looking and out of synch it would erupt! Two students were on a bridge about 5 feet away with their backs turned and didn’t expect it and they got blasted! After we made sure they didn’t have burns all over their body we laughed pretty hard.

Blue Lagoon
We didn’t get too much time here but it was still relaxing. During our LONG bus ride here it was interesting to see the Iceland landscape. I felt like it would be what I imagine Hawaii to be like, only with snow. There really are no trees, lots of evidence of soil and land degradation and lots of lava rocks (I read something like 80% of Icelanders believe that there are trolls that live in the rocks). A few times I didn’t think we were going to make it and end up over the lava cliff into the ocean-thankfully I wasn’t driving. The lagoon felt like it was in the middle of no-where. The water was warm and steaming, natural steam rooms and saunas and waterfalls and they had silica mud masks that you put on for five minutes and washed off. It was refreshing but freezing when you got out.

The next 4 days were crammed with many lectures from experts in the field of Global Health and informatics.

A couple great quotes from some of the lecture we heard about Global Health:

“Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care” -Linda Olson Keller

“What is the cause of death of a starving person, who is in civil conflict, placed in a refugee camp and dies of measles?” Alyson

I hope you enjoyed reading some of my experiences in Iceland but to really get a feel of this very unique country I recommend checking it out yourself!

-Robyn Kellum

Other differences? None of the windows have screens (lucky for them…….no mosquitoes), the clinicians wear open-toed shoes, and when the staff need to get to the other side of the campus, they hop on a foot-scooter. There were two parked in the NICU by the coat rack. AMAZING!

Jamie Sweet

Driving in from the airport I was reminded of my time spent on the Big Island of Hawaii. The temperatures were not the same, but the rugged lava beds that flowed out to the ocean were similar in their sparse vegetation, jagged, crumbling rock, and the feel that one is experiencing the world as it was millions of years ago, before the advent of animal life. I feel like I am in a dream, floating through some mysterious other world…

Greg Burgess
MPH Environmental Health, Infectious Disease Control
University of Minnesota

The tour ended with the “blue Lagoon”-my skin felt fantastic, but watch-out for your hair! All of us who got our locks wet, looked like the monster at the end of a pencil. Even women with normally coiffed locks looked a bit “rough” around the edges today.