I went shopping on our last day in Reykjavik. While everyone else wisely stocked up on chocolate, I bought myself two Icelandic wool sweaters and two CDs by Icelandic artists I'd never heard of before. Now our collaborators must suffer my fashion choices, because I wear one or the other sweater every single day -- the lab gets cold, especially when the optics people are out doing their special instrument tows and leave the main lab doors open.

Even worse, I got a knitted cap with ear flaps you can tie down to match my gray sweater, and I keep wearing the set because it's windy outside. The CDs were cheap by comparison. They'll be presents for my music-loving friends when I get home, but in the meantime they help me (a) code and (b) sleep. The title of this post comes from the lyrics of a song by Emiliana Torrini, a female vocalist w/ acoustic instruments, kinda like Norah Jones with an Icelandic accent -- but more sweet, like the character of Kaylee in Firefly.

There really hasn't been much downtime that isn't spent sleeping (90%), catching up on a little reading (6%), standing on deck looking at the water (3%) or working out (1%). At meals, inbetween scarfing courses, we tell stories or talk about our instruments and the progression of the bloom, mostly.