Moving on to week 2 or BIG SMALL WET DRY

The second week of our workcamp had us travelling north to the capital of Iceland, Akureyri. We stopped along the way to look at a geothermal power plant and the sulfur mud pots nearby. We also stopped for a short walk through a lava field near Lake Myvatn. Our best stop, though, was a massive waterfall where we sat right on the edge with no railing and ate lunch listening to the thundering water crash below us.

Our work this week was in the nursery next to the small forest above town. We stayed in a tiny cabin affectionately nicknamed "the box" by the girls where we had a tiny kitchen with a hot plate and mini fridge. We also had one big room with all seven of our sleeping bags and a separate common room for staying up late or eating indoors if it was raining. When our host first opened the box everyone was a little put off. There were dead flies everywhere and the toilet room was outside for public to use if they were hiking the trails. There was no shower facilities. After a minor coup we all came together and tidied the place up to make it habitable. It ended up being a favorite spot for all of us.

Work at the nursery was split into two groups. I was in the weed pulling group the first week. Our work day started at 8am and we worked until 10:15am when everybody stops for mandatory coffee break for 15 minutes. Then back to work until 12:30pm when everybody meets back at the break room again for 30 minute lunch. The work day was over at 4pm. Coffee breaks are mandatory in Iceland. Everybody comes together, takes off their shoes and has a snack and coffee. It's sociable and a nice reprieve from the manual labor.

The last 4 days I worked at a table sorting tree seedlings. The goal with the first batch was to pull the little trees out and re-sort them into new trays based on big or small size thus creating new trays. The last couple days we sorted different trees based on whether they were wet or dry. This task was so monotonous we all joked about everything being wet, dry, big, small. The fabulous thing about this was it created a very healthy environment to make it interesting. We had great conversations over the wet/dry tables. It also necessitated some form of entertainment to keep it interesting. We sang songs trying to think of the worst tunes we knew, made up lyrics and dared each other to do silly things like running to the top of the storage shed and doing 3 greek poses. These were some of the times when cultures and perspectives were most interesting.