The Fisherman's Holiday and other assorted events

This weekend there hasn't been all that much science to do - just cleaning things and preparing for the new arrivals - but there has been some exciting stuff going on.  For starters, we have three new people here to focus more on the aquatic side of the midges.  I'll probably be switching back and forth between the aquatic and terrestrial group.  I requested to be anywhere involving microbes!
On Friday night we went for a walk along the pseudocraters by the research station and saw some neat birds.  There were tons of swans in that bay, but sadly they were too far away and there was not enough light for me to get a decent picture of them.

Phalaropes

Arctic tern

Snipe on top of our house

 Saturday is a very special day in Iceland, as Saturday is half price candy day!  This is something they avoid telling the tourists. We might have made a special trip in town solely for half price candy.  On the way we ran into the annual marathon, which goes all the way around Myvatn.

My candy haul

This is what police cars look like in Iceland.

The Fisherman's Holiday (or Sailor's, or Seaman's) is actually Sunday, but Saturday night is when all the fisherman go out and celebrate not having to work the next day.  We drove up to Husavik on the coast to join the celebrations.  I didn't bring my camera to the party we attended for its own safety so sadly I don't have any pictures. I think we were the only non-Icelanders there.  The party was held in a hotel and had a fantastic cover band that played a lot of great songs in English, including Journey, Queen, Lady Gaga, and Adele.  In between sets there may have been a successful chant started by some party-crashing Americans to play the winning Eurovision song, which was followed by some party-crashing Americans singing and dancing their hearts out to "Euphoria."  We spent the night at a friend in Husavik and drove back this morning.  At lunch I discovered an Icelandic delicacy waiting for me:

This is sheep dung smoked lamb called hangikjoet.  It has a very intense smoky flavor at first but the farther I got into my sandwich, the more it grew on me.  Tonight we plan to take advantage of one of the last days of nice weather and grill a leg of lamb.  I also saw some sheep heads in the freezer... uh oh.