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umichenginabroad · 1 month

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Week 6 and 7: Actually Studying while Abroad

Well we have made it to the end of my study abroad in Iceland. Final exams are finished. Projects are turned in and presented. Overall all of the academic things are taken care of and completed. It kind of feels nice to be done with the academics and to have actually completed the studying part of being abroad.

The primary reason why I haven’t talked about this in any of the other posts is that it’s the least interesting part of being in a study abroad program. Why would I talk about sitting in a classroom for hours a day when I could be talking about me exploring the amazing nature and environment that is in Iceland. I honestly feel that while I have had some really interesting conversations with the professors while abroad and it’s been an amazing experience being able to study abroad at a different university, I still think it’s been the least important part of being abroad for me personally (although the credits are nice). Just a warning there’s going to be a lot less pictures here then usual.

Class 1: Environmental Science Study

When the program was advertised to us originally we were told that we would be having 2 classes from 9 am to 4 am with an hour lunch break in between. But, it turns out that if no one shows up for class at 9 am and everyone kind of unanimously (including the professor) agrees that class should start at 10 then class starts at 10. This class was our first class of the day and was from 10 am to 12 pm Monday through Thursday.

The course consisted of a few main topics that were discussed which is what makes it kind of hard to discuss so I’m going to be providing a brief overview of each of the core topics that we discussed. In addition to the varying topics that were discussed, we also had 3 separate professors for this class which each focused on different topics during their week of lecture. So we were able to get a surface level understanding of a few different topics, but not an in-depth understanding of any of them.

The first week was spent on discussing Icelandic history. We started with the formation of the nation and volcanic movement (which becomes important later). Then we progressed through all the different sagas and time periods of Icelandic history. From the early settlement all the way to modern history of Iceland and their independence.

Next was our first bit of technical environmental studying in which the previously mentioned formation of Iceland becomes relevant. We started to discuss geothermal power and the methods by which it is harnessed and utilized. But to do this you need to have a fundamental understanding of thermodynamics so we were also getting a lot of thermodynamics lectures and knowledge during this time. So although the thermodynamics aspects weren’t that interesting, the actual geothermal things were quite interesting. The way that Iceland utilizes every single aspect of the heat that they harness from the ground and transfer it around the country to power a magnitude of different industries is amazing.

Now more than just geothermal energy our next two topics discussed (i’m going to lump these together) are hydro and wind power. These are both very similar and that’s why I’m going to put them together. Basically these both utilize a moving fluid to turn a turbine to generate mechanical energy which gets converted into electrical energy. However what is different is the fluid they use (water vs air). Iceland has a lot of hydro power but not quite as much wind power generation.

The last form of power generation that we focused on was nuclear power and just in general power generation and politics throughout europe. The reason being is that when a nation has excess power they can sell it to other nations for profit. Iceland being a nation that has a lot of power that they don’t need is able to do this. We primarily discussed here though how Nuclear is currently one of the best sources of energy generation, especially considering how clean it is. We then also made fun of German politics in their extreme hatred of nuclear energy and their reliance on natural gas (and how that has backfired on them recently).

The last week however of this course was the worst week out of all of them. We were given full freedom to create a project about whatever we wanted in regards to general climate improvement. My main complaint about this project is that the guidelines were extremely vague. We worked on these projects in teams and there were 3 main groups. The first focused on nuclear power and the conversion of coal into nuclear power. The second group focused on different power generations and ways to improve Michigan. Our group however, was the black sheep. We did trains. We did an entire project detailing and focusing on creating a high-speed rail between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The project consisted of two parts, a presentation and a “short” report. The presentation was a 20 minute presentation followed by a Q and A. I don’t think a single group went under 20 minutes and one group was like 40 minutes so not having enough content was not an issue to say the least. The “short” report was a 10 page report where you more formally report your findings and discuss them. For our group, I think the issue arrived at the fact that we technically didn’t create our plan and instead focused on logistically explaining and expanding on an existing plan by California. In addition, our project used the least of the things that we learned in class relative to the other groups. But, we had 4 full days in class where they could have told us that we should do a different topic instead. We ended up getting some kinda harsh feedback about our project and that at least is my theory as to why it happened.

Overall though, this class was really interesting. Disregarding the final, the rest of the class was actually quite enjoyable and the professors were amazing. Every class we would take a short coffee break in the middle (more on that later) and we would just talk to the professors and stuff. In fact one of the professors used to be at UofM which is just amazing. The content, while difficult to understand given the technicality of the material, when explained in terms of its practical application was really interesting.

Class 2: Introductory Data Structures (EECS 280)

Now the class that you all actually care about. The reason I say that is because if you are wanting to take this study abroad for yourself then there are two possible reasons. You either a) want to visit Iceland and this is a good excuse to or b) you need EECS 280 and this will get you that credit. For me, I fall into both categories so I get double value out of this program.

For this class I’m going to be focusing less on the content, mostly because if you want that you can just look at the EECS 280 syllabus which is publicly available, and instead focus on the way the course is taught. I think that is a much better and more meaningful way to go about it and I’m just wanting to say the content is pretty basic data structures. We focused on things like pointers and utilizing heap memory and abstract data classes.

The course was taught by two different professors who swapped each week. Both professors were extremely knowledgeable in CS and have their own CS based projects that they are developing. But, I will say that I think most people found that one of the professor's teaching styles worked a little better than the other one. Their teaching style is where the professors differentiated themselves the most.

Professor 1 primarily focused on utilizing code lectures. Basically he would walk us through actually what is happening in the code while programming it. That way we would be able to understand what each different aspect of the code is achieving (and its purpose) while learning how to program it in C++.

Professor 2 utilized concept based lectures. Rather than going straight into coding he would first try and explain the things from a pseudocode perspective to help you understand the logic. Then he would go into the coding and provide some very basic starting code and things for you to further develop and work off of.

Both professors then gave lab time for you to work in class on your code and for them to be present to help you with it if you need it. So essentially the way a normal day in class would go is that we would get back from our lunch break at 1 pm and then have about an hour lecture or go straight into lab time and then code until 4 pm or until you finished. The professors were extremely helpful when it would come to any coding questions and especially were helpful with debugging tiny issues. So there was plenty of help available and resources that we could utilize. In addition if you did need additional help, we had access to old video lectures to further aid you.

Moving on is how the class was actually set up and what we were doing for our grade. The course was divided up into 6 lab assignments, 4 assignments, and 2 exams. Each of the exams were worth 20%, the assignments 10%, and the labs 4% (Lab 6 was not counted for a grade for some reason).

The exams were a 3 hour exam with both a paper and digital portion. For the paper portion we were given both multiple choice and short answer questions about code. Then we had to hand write out some code. So far that is pretty standard for an EECS exam. But, we also had a fairly large digital code section where we wrote actual code. We were given a large amount of starter code, had full access to our previous labs, and we were allowed to utilize existing form posts (not allowed to post any new questions) to try and solve the problem at hand. These questions were generally more difficult and specific implementations of things that we had done in class and forced you to rethink how to solve the problem when compared to what we had done in labs or the assignments.

I really liked this method of examination and wished that it was what the EECS department did for their coding exams. It allows for much more difficult questions to be asked without punishing the student for not memorizing syntax or other niche little things. In the real world most programmers don’t know every little thing. In fact, our professors did look things up on websites such as Stack Exchange when they forgot how certain things in C++ worked. The reason being is, that is how the industry works at the moment. You programm what you know, but when you need a specific implementation and you don’t know, then you ask someone who has probably done it faster and better than you have. It is important to understand why their method works, but you don’t need to know every little bit of C++ and its syntax to succeed in programming.

The personal assignments and labs were fairly similar and were basically just coding projects. We were given a series of different things to implement and create the functionality for and then given time to do so. The content isn’t anything too crazy, but it was interesting at some points. For instance, our first lab was probably the one that took the most time and effort, but it was the most fun I had and is not something that EECS 280 normally does. We coded Space Invaders in the terminal. The reason being is that coding something like that teaches you a lot of very important things and helps refresh a lot of basic C++ knowledge that you need for the rest of the course. There are also a lot of different ways to handle creating the game and a series of extensions that you can add onto the game for bonus points. I think that is an amazing way to open the course up. It gets the students interested in the course by allowing them to create something enjoyable and something where they can see their progress and where they have a rough idea of what the end product should look like. I do think it makes for a fantastic project and really made me interested in the rest of the course.

In the end the C++ course was quite fun. It had its moments of difficulty, but overall was not that bad. It was a significantly smoother experience than what I’ve heard people at UofM complain about their EECS 280 experience. I was able to learn most of the same content, in a different framework, in a shorter time span, and still be in a position where the university accepts this as an equivalent. I am slightly worried that I am doing EECS 281 (Data Structures) next semester but I am going to go to a lot of office hours and all of my lab hours so I should be fine.

Class 3: Lunch and COFFEE Break

Okay this isn’t technically a class but I still feel it’s important to talk about. Every day of class (Monday through Thursday) we would have an hour-long lunch break from 12-1pm. For the first few weeks this was pretty chill because if you were hungry or didn’t bring lunch you could just go and get lunch from the university. The Reykjavik University lunch service is pretty small but it did taste good and is reasonably priced. However in the last few weeks because I think normal classes at RU were over, the lunch service stopped. So, you had to bring lunch for those weeks and so I often just resorted to a solid salami sandwich with cucumber slices and a side of grapes. While not the most luxurious lunch it was filling and tasted pretty good.

Now onward to the COFFEE break part of this. In Iceland (and most of Europe) they take coffee and similar beverages very seriously. In Reykjavik University, in every single wing of the building you can find a machine for a variety of different coffee, hot chocolate, and tea. These machines are free of charge to use and are professional grade machines. You just take a cup (or use your own) and select what you want and are good to go. There’s sugar and stuff there for you too if you want it. So all of that resources that you would need are there and all the different hot beverages are available.

Thus, every single class I would start with a cup of hot cocoa. Then half way through class 1 I would go and get another cup of hot cocoa during our coffee break. Then during lunch I would take the time and make myself a nice cup of tea with my lunch. Then I would get a cup of hot cocoa or 2 during programming. If I was staying late at the university (for personal or academic reasons) I would be drinking hot coco constantly. I think my record for a single day might be 8-10 cups of hot cocoa, it might be more but that is my conservative estimate as to how much I drank.

Picture of coco in class

These breaks were honestly essential. They provided a time to just let the data that you receive process and to take yourself out of the monotony of the classroom. I honestly wish this was something that we had at UofM. I would love to be able to just have hot coco with me in class and for long classes to have a coffee break. Sadly that is not the reality that we currently live in. Although, some classes at UofM do take short breaks midway through lecture to help let the data settle in (EECS 203 and CSP Math 116 for example).

Yea but that is all there is to it. I just summarized the entire studying part of studying abroad in one post. Now keep in mind that I had the studying part required very little out of class effort. I was able to do all of the other things that I have talked about previously, and am taking a summer course at Washtenaw Community College all while doing this course. So if you are worried about the time commitment of studying while abroad ruining the abroad experience don’t be. You will have plenty of time and opportunities to explore and enjoy yourself while abroad, studying is just the excuse to get you there.

Class 4: THE FUN PART

Now this is my favorite class. I feel that this fits best in a sort of elementary school recess type of description, or in other words free time. I am currently writing this blog post while I’m on my plane ride back home to Michigan and so there’s a lot of things going through my mind. But, there are still so many things that I haven’t talked about (and one final reflection post after this one) and so I’m going to “quickly” summarize some of these so as to not make this post as long as the last one.

SNORKELING WOO:

We snorkeled.

That’s it.

Ok just kidding there’s more to this than just that. A few of us went snorkeling at Silfra, the gap between the tectonic plates. This is a crack in the earth filled with glacial water which is so clean and clear. When you look at the water you can just see all the way down because there’s no minerals that are making the water foggy.

After the really long drive all the way over to Silfra we then had the fun process of taking off our shoes and getting into first a warm suit and then our dry suit. The dry suit is essential because we are going to be snorkeling and you want to stay dry. The warm suit is important because the water is about 38 degrees Fahrenheit and so it’s really cold water (nearly freezing). The process of getting into a dry suit is a bit of a long one but essentially it’s just like putting on really big and tight pants.

Picture of us just before going into the water

Because of the way that the people and grouping worked out I was paired off with a different group. I actually ended up being paired with a family of 5 as the only one not of their family although they were really nice and made me feel totally welcome. The father was actually really helpful and was constantly making sure that I was okay and that was really reassuring.

Picture of me in the water totally not struggling

Once we got in the water I immediately ran into some issues. I have never snorkeled before and so I was struggling to use the snorkel and so our guide had to go and get me a different one which worked significantly better. One thing to note is the way that these dry suits work. Every part of us other than our face and our hands stay dry. Your face for obvious reasons is that you need it to be open so you can breathe and see, but the hands are a bit more complicated. Essentially the hands are open to let water into them, but the water gets trapped in and so as long as you don’t move your hands around the water will heat up and it’s not bad. However, this means that you have to swim soly with your legs and can’t use your hands unless you want to freeze them. To say the least, that was a struggle. My hands were freezing by the end of the trip.

This is a picture of some of the beautiful geography present at Silfra

As we swam through Silfra we were subject to all the amazing geography and its beauty. This is in the location between two tectonic plates and it often expands (very slowly). But, because the water present is glacial water it is extremely pure and fresh water. Thus you can see all the way down. Therefore even though we were just sitting on top of the water floating we could still see everything all the way down. It is truly indescribable how beautiful it all is, but the best word I could use to describe is vibrant. There are so many different colors and things present and they all have such vibrant colors and look to them.

After the snorkeling we were given hot cocoa and biscuits. I ate like 7 biscuits because I was hungry and needed them and they were good. I have no regrets.

Picture of me in my dry suit and Fenrir laughing at me

Lava, Waterfalls, and Puffins:

As our last API (the program) trip this had to be amazing and oh boy did it far surpass my expectations. This was the trip that we were told about before coming and that they told us was amazing and it was so much better than I could have dreamt about. This was our waterfall and nature trip.

The trip started as always with a 2 hour long bus ride but that was well worth it once we arrived at our location on the southern coast. Our first stop was at a lava museum. This is a massive building where they have exhibits showcasing different types of volcanoes, how they form, and the history of volcanoes in Iceland. They have diagrams showing past eruptions in Iceland and how bad they were as well as how long they lasted. This place was really cool in that it also had lots of sculptures and fixtures that are magma related and it was really cool to get to see them all. We then watched a short video about eruptions and it was cool to get to see the pretty videos of lava flowing (I just wish I could have been the one in those videos that is that close to the lava).

Now that the good boi has returned to Iceland he has come along and is marveling at the lava sculpture.

After that was to the moment that we were all waiting for: the waterfalls. After our short lunch break pit stop (more later) we arrived at the waterfalls, and oh my they were beautiful. There are two main waterfalls and I’m going to talk about them both in detail because they both deserve that much respect.

The first waterfall we arrived at the base of and it was for good reason. Obviously like any waterfall it starts from a high place and goes down, but we were at the bottom. More than that, there is a crevasse that allows you to get up close and personal with the waterfall. So, after some careful maneuvering between rocks and taking liberal use of my waterproof shoes we were able to make it to the foot of the waterfall. Let me just say that the feeling of all the water dripping on you is amazing. Once at the base, there is a large rock that you can climb on to get a better vantage point, which also makes for a really good picture location. I’ll just let the pictures do the talking

Picture of our entire group of students at the waterfall.

JO JO, GOLDEN WIND. MY POWER HAS REACHED NEW HEIGHTS, FEAR ME

A close up of my power

After that magnificent picture and fantastic waterfall we made our way to the other waterfall. This waterfall is similar in that you get right up close to the waterfall. But, with this waterfall you actually go underneath the waterfall for a bit, thus it’s really important to time your run very carefully to not get wet and to not trip. This one was just amazing in that you get to go behind the waterfall and through it. It was also much larger than the other one and you can get much closer to it on the ground in that the foot has a small little sand bay you can get to from atop the ledge behind it. This waterfall was also fantastic but in it’s own way.

The Jojo pose is too powerful, my hair cannot contain its pure strength.

After that fun at the waterfall we ended up making an unexpected stop at the black sand beaches. These are really cool in that they have black sand. That’s about all. Oh and they have waves that can suddenly come very far up on the beach called snatcher waves that are deadly and dangerous. But yeah, pretty standard stuff going on.

Snatcher Wave

After that was the moment that everyone has wanted since we landed in Iceland, PUFFIN TIME. This was also an unexpected stop but a very happy stop. Christopher, OUR AMAZING GUIDE, realized that there was a chance that we could see puffins if we stopped at a specific spot on our way back. After this short drive to our destination we saw them, PUFFINS!!! THEY ARE SO CUTE!!!! I love puffins, they are just little dudes chilling and wanting to live their best lives. They don’t have to worry about taxes or other business they just get to sleep and chill and I love it. They also look so cute and fluffy.

Picture of two puffins just chilling (courtesy of another student(don’t wanna dox them))

Then it was just another drive back to our apartments and sleeping time.

A Lagoon that is Blue:

Now this title might seem complicated but what it refers to is the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is a man-made lagoon that was created originally just as a result of dumping used geothermal waste water back on top of the reservoir as eventually it will go back into the ground and be reusable. Some people realized that they could turn this into a tourist attraction due to the high amount of silica in the water, which is beneficial for your skin. So they turned into a resort called the Blue Lagoon. This was where I decided to go for a day and spent way too much money to get into it, but it was so worth it.

After missing my bus pickup from our apartment, I had to run to take the city bus to the bus hub and then run to my bus. Once I safely made it to the bus I had a 45 minute bus ride to the lagoon where I just relaxed and read some stuff. Once arriving at the lagoon was where the fun started.

I decided to pay an extra $20 (more or less) to get premium access to the lagoon. What this came with was a bathrobe that I could use, 3 mud masks, and 2 free drinks included with my purchase. The bathrobe comes in handy because, just like any pool in Iceland, you have to take a naked shower before getting into the water. After that being as awkward as always. I was into the water.

The water was so murky and gray, all from the minerals in the water. The water was also a really nice 38 degrees celsius (100.4 fahrenheit). I just started off by chilling in the lagoon and then I decided to go do the mud masks. The first mud mask is a volcanic ash mask which was really thick. I rubbed it all over my face and let is sit for 5 minutes before washing it off thoroughly. Then I did the second mask which was an algae mud mask and was really nice. This one you had to let sit on your face for a good 15 minutes. So for this one I started exploring around the lagoon and found out where the drink bar was so I could get my free drink later. After that I washed this mask off as well and then decided to go get my first drink before getting the next mask. I got a blue slushie and it was amazing. Very easily an 8.5/10 and a solid choice that I recommend. Then I did the last mask which for me was a moisturizer, but they do have an anti-aging cream for if you are older. After all that I decided to take a little break from the water (it is hot) and I got my second slush and ate my lunch I brought with me.

Me relaxing with my second slush outside of the lagoon

Once I got back into the water I just spent the next hour exploring and relaxing in it. I found some really nice nooks that I could just lay back in the water and they were pretty quiet. I had a really good time and was just able to recuperate a lot of my mental strength (I went here after having finished finals). It was a good way to celebrate being done and it was also just a nice way to unwind before heading back home and all the complications that would entail. I honestly do recommend coming to the lagoon if you have the ability to (or at least one of the lagoons), it was really nice. I did however have to wash my hair like 3 times afterwards to get all the minerals and gunk out of my hair and put so much conditioner just to get my hair back in a liveable state again but it was so worth it.

Me and Fenrir after leaving the lagoon and getting ready to head back home

There were some more things that happened before I left and went back home, but nothing quite this important and this post is already long enough.

ALEX’S FINAL FOOD CORNER

This will be the finale of Alex’s Food Corner. I am going to include a summary of some of the top hits in my reflection blog post but these were some of my last meals in Iceland and I went all out in terms of going out to eat so these are some good meals.

Sandholt Grilled Cheese and Tea

Ok so I do have to preface with saying I am minorly lactose intolerant and I haven’t really eaten grilled cheese too many times before. But honestly, this was a really good grilled cheese. It was really cheese and the fresh sourdough bread was really good. The cheese was stringy and there was a lot of cheese. I can pretty safely give this a solid 8/10. It does lose some points for there just being a bit too much cheese. The tea I’m going to rate separately because I ended up getting the tea multiple times because it was that good (I went to Sandholt for breakfast a few times). The tea is some English Breakfast but it is really good. I have to give the tea a solid 8.5/10. It is a well balanced blend and you get a good amount of it for the price you pay.

Just Winging It Chicken and Fries

This was some chicken and fries from a restaurant. I got Louisiana butter and Garlic chicken topped with Parmesan cheese. These were honestly really good and were some of the best chicken I’d had in Iceland.The fries were nothing to scoff at either, they were also really good. Honestly a very solid meal and it went really well with ketchup too. I have to give it a 9/10, I ate the entire thing there.

Final Dinner Steak

For our final dinner we were given an API paid for dinner. We went to a fancy restaurant and had a bunch of little plates given to us. These plates were then shared with the person across from you. I’m going to go a bit out of order in the way the plates arrived, just because I want to focus on the stuff I like first. This steak was delicious and the potatoes with it were fantastic. Easily 8.5/10.

Final Dinner Fish

This was a fish ( I think cod) served with our final dinner. I don’t like fish and I tried some and nearly gagged and almost threw it up. However I just don’t like fish. Others said it tasted really good. So I have to give it a 1.5/10 however others liked it so overall probably closer it a 6.5/10 just considering others opinions.

Final Dinner Risotto

I’ve never had Risotto before and honestly this was really good. I actually ate my half and really enjoyed it. Risotto is really good and honestly I can see myself trying to make it again. A very solid 7.5/10.

Final Dinner Braised Salmon

This was salmon that was “cooked” by being left in some stuff that cooks it. But, it is pretty much raw salmon. I was able to make it through more of this, mostly because of the bread. I still didn’t like it and the popular opinion of this one wasn’t as great. So my rating would be a 2/10, but the overall with go up to a 5.5/10.

The Group at our Final Dinner

Sandholt Bacon Sandwich

Ok technically they serve this as a BLT with avocado sauce. But, I don’t really care of avocado or tomatoes so I just got it as a BL sandwich. The fresh bread with the bacon and crispy lettuce go so hard and the tea just helps all the flavors blend really well. I had to give this a 9/10. It was some of the best food I had in Iceland and for breakfast it really did help to get my day started. In fact, this was the meal that I got for breakfast on my last day in Iceland.

Ban Thai Chicken Noodles

Next to our apartment is a REALLY good Thai restaurant called Ban Thai. I would be doing everyone in our group an injustice if I didn’t talk about this restaurant because it was amazing. The servers were kind and the food was fantastic. More than that they also have a massive menu of over 150 different items. This was some butter noodles and chicken (with a spice level of 2) and it was really good. I have to give it an 8.5/10.

Fenrir’s Kid’s meal

This was our lunch stop on the day of the waterfalls. Fenrir decided to get a kids meal, because it was cheaper, and it was really good. The chicken was really crispy and fresh and the fries were also really good. The only complaint he gave was that they forgot the kid’s toy they said was included. Thus for that I have to knock it down to only an 7.5/10.

Sahara Combo Tray

Ok this is kind of cheating. This was my first meal once I landed off the plane back home in DTW. We went to a middle eastern restaurant and got a combo tray. It was really good and after that long flight and not having had any good food for all that time (plus at the airport) this was a nice meal. A very solid 8.5/10. However, I do have to dock it a bit for not being in Iceland so we will say 7/10.

P.S. I know that this post is really late. I ended up getting really sick once I got home and was pretty much bedridden for a week. I will be releasing my post in reflection of Iceland as a whole later, but I hope that this is enough for now. Thank you for being understanding.

Alex Shamoun

Robotics

Engineering in Reykjavik

#umichenginabroad #ipeIceland #Iceland #ipesummer24 #AlexShamoun

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umichenginabroad · 2 months

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Week 5: Fenrir Invades Britain

Sorry that it’s taken me so long to make this post. I've been busy and there’s a lot to get into so let's get straight into it.

I don’t know how or why but Fenrir stole my credit card. He not only stole it but he bought a 6 am flight to London of all places! I think he might be trying to connect with his Nordic roots and is invading Britain. Wanting to save my wallet and save the British people from his merciless wrath, I followed him and hopped on my own flight to London.

The Little monster taunting me, sending me pictures of him spending all my money.

The Flight:

Oh god the flight over to Britain was so bad. I was up at like 2 am because we had to walk 30 minutes to our bus to then take an hour bus transfer to the airport. It was not fun but better safe and at the airport early then sorry and missing our flight. Clearly Fenrir made his way onto the flight and I did too. That little cretin is causing mischief and is taking after his father (Loki). I don’t know why I thought I could help him out. I knew there was no opportunity for me to do anything about him being on the flight so to make sure that I’d have energy to catch him afterward I took a nap on the flight for the long day of chasing him around that I’d have ahead of me.

The Arrival:

Once we arrived in Britain I lost sight of Fenrir and knew that cheeky little bugger would soon send me pictures taunting me so I’d just have to go track him down later. Instead we made the tedious process of taking a train into London proper and then taking the tube over to our airbnb. Honestly it wasn’t too hard to figure out how to use the tube and get around to our airbnb. The main thing that was a little bit confusing at first was honestly figuring out how to use our ticket at the turnstile to get out. But once we made it through the station and arrived at our airbnb we were met with our lodgings for the next few days and what would be our base of operations in operation Stop Fenrir Before He Commits Treason or Something Worse, or for short Operation SFBHCTOSW.

Liverpool Street Station in all its glory. Really pretty station that’s all.

After our initial recovery from the tube and planes we realized that we hadn’t eaten anything and thus before going to search for Fenrir we would need some food. We hopped back on the tube and took a 40 minute tube into West London and the SOHO area. We got some fish and chips (more on those later) and then split up to go and search for him .

Fenrir in Chinatown in London, SOHO. His reign of chaos has already started; he must be stopped.

He had sent his first pic (the one above) since the plane ride. We knew that he would be in the SOHO area and so it was really convenient that we went there anyway for food. He appeared to be in the chinatown area judging by the massive gate in the picture and so we headed that way. We did make a quick pit stop at Tesco express just to get some necessities but that was a quick stop. The bigger issue was where he sent his next picture from. It appeared that Fenrir was getting a little bit more courageous and he was having fun with this chase and teasing us.

Fenrir at the National Gallery enjoying some art. He thinks he’s cultured now does he

HE WENT TO THE NATIONAL GALLERY SERIOUSLY?! I didn’t know he liked art, maybe there’s more to him than at first glance. Maybe he’s gone to Britain for more than just an invasion. Anyways, we went to the National Gallery to try and find the little guy. But, it turns out the place is like a maze. There’s so many different paths and rooms just filled to the brim with medieval artwork and pieces of history. The only saving grace are the arrows pointing to certain artists and their exhibits and the arrow to the gift shop/exit because there’s always a gift shop. We were at the gallery until they closed and then decided to split up to try and find him. Some people went shopping in SOHO, some went walking around, and I just waited in the area until I got the next text. That was when I got the next text.

FENRIR DRINKING BOBA. Like cmooooon please just give me a sip it looks so good.

HE WENT TO GET BOBA ARE YOU SERIOUS?! My bank account is crying as he keeps spending more and more of my money. I went to chase after him but it’s like chasing after someone who is a) faster then you and b) is like 10 steps ahead of you. It’s impossible to catch up to him and it’s hopeless. I just have to wait for him to slip up and spend just a little bit too long in one place after sending a picture.

Fenrir drinks some really fancy tea from a place called TWG tea.

NOW HE’S GETTING TEA!! Like seriously?! He’s doing all the things that I wanted to do and enjoying himself while I’m stuck chasing after him. He’s such a little monster. I hope he knows that when I finally catch him he’s going to go into time out and get punished. Anyways, I went back the way that I just came to go to the tea store. It wasn’t too bad of a walk but by the time I got there he was gone so I just bought me some tea myself because I needed some too.

Fenrir sitting on top of a lego british guard man. He truly is trying to take over, he’s getting the military on his side now!

HA I think he might have messed up! The lego store is right next to the tea shop. I get in line and get in fairly quickly. I started exploring all around the lego store and it’s really cool . They had a massive lego Big Ben which was one of the key showcases of the store. They had the common lego store things like a build your own minifigure station as well as a bunch of legos to buy. The other unique thing about this lego store was the lego shakespeare and lego harry potter. They had a lego voldemort and a bunch of cool harry potter stuff. But anyways, after my gawking at all the cool lego things I still couldn’t find him. It was getting late at this point so I decided to head back for the night after getting some dinner. I don’t know where he went off to but we will find him!

The adapter monster that we had created. I can’t guarantee that this wasn’t a fire hazard but it didn’t explode while we were there so it was probably fine.

Day 2: The Search Continues

With no sign of Fenrir in sight we decided to just head into central London to get some breakfast. Which is where we actually got our first message from Fenrir for the day. He was at a cafe and was getting breakfast on my dollar. Like come on man at least let me eat some of it.

Fenrir eats his breakfast at this cafe. He has a bacon biscuit, tea and, a bottle of water

After chasing Fenrir down to this cafe and getting some breakfast of our own he was nowhere to be found. I don’t know how but he keeps staying one step ahead of us no matter what we do. I don’t know how we can catch up with him in this massive city. I swear, back in Reykjavik I could probably walk the length of the city in an hour. Now in London it takes an hour just to tube from the airbnb to central London. It’s insane how much larger London is. Anyways, not wanting to waste an entire day just searching for Fenrir we decided to head out to Buckingham palace for a very good reason.

Video depicting the changing of the guards of Buckingham palace.

We decided to head to Buckingham palace so that way we could try and warn the guards about the threat that has entered their country, Fenrir. But, with the fact that when we arrived it was the changing of the guards and that yesterday was election day and thus there was a lot of chaos with the change of prime minister we weren’t able to tell them. We were able to at least see the pretty horses and the beautiful gates and palace.

Not really knowing where our next clue would take us we just decided to enjoy being in London for a bit. We headed over to the Borough Market to go and explore and oh boi was it amazing. I personally am a fan of markets like these and they only really are able to pop up in large cities. I don’t think Reykjavik has one like this though and honestly it was amazing. The market was basically a bit of the streets and was filled with a bunch of corridors to different stalls and shops which were selling literally everything you could imagine. If I was in London for longer I would definitely be spending a lot more time and money at the markets.

A stall selling a bunch of fresh sea-food and fish at the market.

Honestly I’m kind of sad that I’m not in London for longer but we have a task at hand. There was one thing that made me sad a little bit and that was just how much cheaper a lot of the things were here when compared to Iceland. I saw full loafs of amazing looking sourdough bread for only like $5 compared to the $10 I’m spending in Reykjavik for my bread. We got some food here for lunch and I bought some more tea for me to take home. There were a lot of things to explore and if I ever came to London I would definitely come back here again.

After the market we felt a little bit lost and didn’t really know where to go and where to find Fenrir. I figured that one of the best places to go would be to go and pray. I wanted to go visit St.Paul’s Cathedral anyways and this was a pretty good reason to. It’s one of the biggest buildings in London and holds the graves of many great war heroes and musicians who served the cathedral.

St.Paul’s Cathedral from the west entrance

After paying my student entrance fee I started walking around and learning all the history through the provided audio guide. Every hour a preacher comes in the middle of the cathedral and asks for a moment of silence for prayer and prays. This is in addition to the regularly scheduled masses and services. While exploring the cathedral that was where I found him. WE FINALLY CAUGHT UP TO HIM! He was just sitting there in the center of the cathedral. I think he was scared and lost, I think he finally realized that what he did was wrong and he was just trying to have fun.

Me catching Fenrir at the center of the Cathedral, you naughty little boi.

As part of his punishment for running away, stealing my card, and dragging me around on a chase of him through London (and worrying me) I forced him to climb all the way up the 500+ stairs to the top of the Cathedral with me. It was honestly exhausting going up all those stairs and I think it was more of a punishment for me because he just got a free ride in my backpack. He is a little naughty boi but he’s cute so he gets a pass. Once we finally made it up all the stairs we took a picture together of the amazing view from the top of the tower.

The picture from the top of the publicly accessible parts of the cathedral tower after my climb with Fenrir finally behaving himself in my backpack.

After our journey to the tippity top of the tower we then went to the basest basement of the cathedral which is the crypt. There are many great heroes here and it’s in part to commemorate the great people of British history. There are even monuments to people that aren’t buried here but are still important in British history such as Winston Churchill.

Fenrir saluting some of the flags. These were flags representing the British allies during the Battle of Waterloo against Napoleon. Pictures are the British, Portuguese, and Russian

As we were leaving the cathedral we passed by the gift shop. There Fenrir found a new friend, one that might be dear to many of us at heart. Fenrir becomes quick friends with the Queen’s favorite bear Paddington. Seeing that they were great friends and that they were just too cute together (and the fact I was hungry) I decided to take them to Nando’s. We got some food (more later) but just look at the cuties being together.

Us 3 at Nando’s chilling getting ready to eat our dinner.

Now here’s where I get both a little more mad and not mad at Fenrir. He, still in possession of my credit card, decided to buy tickets to go and see the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon for those of you who don’t know is a highly satirical comedy musical from the creators of South Park. It’s really funny and I’ve wanted to see it for a while, that’s the only reason that I’m not ready to throw Fenrir in the streets.

Look at him acting all innocent after spending all this money for tickets. Was worth it though so I can’t complain lol.

We made our way to the theatre and paid for a play bill. Something that you don’t normally do in America and on Broadway shows. But, I like collecting play bills so I paid $11 for the play bill and programme. And oh my it was so worth it. I love musicals and plays and this has been one that I’ve wanted to see for years. I’m so happy I finally was able to see it. The set was fantastic and the way that utilized all aspects of the fully customized set was amazing. This is going to get a bit theatrical and nerdy but just stay with me.

I follow the rules and so there’s no picture of the show b/c that’s against the rules and I wanted to enjoy the show in its entirety.

The stage utilized a series of different backdrops for different scenes and such, that much is normal is theatre. The thing that really amazed me and was fantastic was the utilization of a front backdrop that was opaque and applied a tint (sort of like a screen) onto the stage. It was really useful and created a really nice way of showcasing the flashbacks and stories from The Book of Mormon itself. In addition the way that they utilize simple things like a door and an elevated platform for different things just depending on the scene is fantastic. I’ve been in plays where we have to move these things and do them and it’s always amazing seeing it done on a professional level. Shout out to my drama teachers in high school for getting me into all these things and giving me opportunities to nerd out about all these things and expand my knowledge.

Fenrir getting a spot of ice cream during intermission

Now as in most long shows there is an intermission. After using the bathroom and making my way back to my seat I found out something that is a bit different about British theatre compared to American theatre. During intermission it’s common to get ice cream (which they sell) and to then go back to your seat and eat it there. I’ve never seen this in America, but it was quite nice. I just got vanilla ice cream b/c it was the only good looking flavor that was left and it did taste good 8/10.

Getting back into the show we got through the 2nd half of all the chaos that happens within the Book of Mormon musical. It was honestly amazing and I loved it so much and it was so worth going to go see. I did end up having a really nice conversation with one of the employees who was a 2nd year uni student (same as me) who is studying theatre. It’s such a different world and just seeing that people are able to be in that life is amazing to me. Anyways, afterwards we just took the tube back to the apartment and settled in for the night.

The Final Day: Enjoying Britain to its Fullest

After drinking a cup of tea, going to the train, drinking another cup of tea, and getting on a bus I arrived at where I was going to be spending today. Greenwich. Do you know what makes Greenwich so special? Have you ever heard of time zones and the term GMT + or - some amount? Well that stands for Greenwich Mean Time and represents the average time in Greenwich where the prime meridian is located. The prime meridian is 0 degrees longitude (imaginary lines that run from pole to pole). I am a nerd and so was really excited to get to see all the cool things here.

In Greenwich there is a massive park which has a line for walking the prime meridian, the Royal Observatory, the National Maritime Museum, and the Queen’s House amongst many other things. I had a few hours before my scheduled stuff later in the day and so I went to the Maritime Museum with not too much hope for what I would see. But boy was I not disappointed.

Fenrir looking at a massive scale model of a destroyer class ship. It was honestly really big

The journey through the museum started with the first room which had a lot of artifacts from history and models of famous boats and ships. The model ships were just impressive to see more than anything else. They all had really precise details and were really interesting to look at. The artifacts on the wall were also interesting but for a different reason. They had artifacts from different times, all the way back to the 1400’s. These artifacts varied from everything to a saxtent and a compass all the way up to a Russian AK-47.

Gotta represent my 2nd amendment and showcase these. What was kinda sad was the fact that the blunderbuss (a weapon from the 1700’s) was undergoing conservation efforts so it wasn't there.

After looking at all the cool artifacts I started exploring around the building to see what else I could find. They actually had a special limited time exhibit about a space photography contest, and this exhibit was showcasing a lot of the higher scoring entries and the winners. It was amazing seeing all these different pictures of space. They had many different categories for people to enter. Things such as, Nebulas, the sun, auroras, people and space, and then categories for amateurs. I honestly found all this stuff so cool. I’m not generally an art person (as I’ve stated before) but trust me when I say that this was so worth it. It honestly gets you to think about how small we are in comparison to the cosmos and how much more there is out there. It was really beautiful and some of these pictures were just amazing and like you can see why the ones that won were the ones that won (in most cases). If anything the pieces that were the winners or 2nd place had judge’s comments explaining why they were where they were. Also, every photo has a paragraph by the photographer where they explain how the photo was taken and why they made certain creative decision and it’s really cool to see the technical side of things from behind the scenes.

“The Dark Wolf - Fenrir” being looked at by the good boi Fenrir, look he’s so happy at seeing himself :D

After that was onto the pacific front of British maritime history. If you know anything about the British and the Pacific there are two very specific things that happened here that we need to talk about, The East India Company (British Raj) and Opium. Quick history lesson for those of you who don’t know (the exhibit talked about this), in the late 1700’s Britain had control of the entirety of the Indian region and this was all under the control of the East Indies Trading Company. Britain then started trading tea and other goods with the Chinese and tea started becoming extremely popular in Britain and China is where it was grown. However, this trading put Britain in a lot of debt to the Chinese. Thus to pay off this debt, Britain started growing opium in India to then smuggle into China and sell to the Chinese to pay off the debt. The goal was to get the Chinese addicted to opium to pay off the Chinese and it worked. However, the Chinese caught on to this illegal trade and it ended up in two separate wars with Britain over the opium export into China. Britain won decisively and acquired Hong Kong as a trading port because of this. Now the museum had all of this information listed as well as artifacts throughout the time (such as an opium pipe) and that’s all cool. But, the reason that I went through all the effort of explaining the Opium Wars and the history behind them as well as a rough history of British policy is for one singular reason (of which I forgot to picture but it’s fine). In that room, the museum had a wall where you could leave little notes where you would comment on your opinion of the British East India Company and their actions. The entire wall was filled with comments talking about how wrong the company was and how horrible the actions of the British were. I just felt that it is important to note that people don’t like the actions of the British empire at the time, not even the British.

Picture showcasing a part of the exhibit about the Opium Wars and how they acknowledged it’s unjust

Across the hall was the Atlantic side of the British Empire, of which we originate from. USA TIME!!! Honestly compared to the pacific front this side was a lot more disappointing. There was a small exhibit about the slave trade that was pretty standard, it looked like a picture from a textbook. I would say the coolest thing that I did see here was the bit of the exhibit where they talked about the crops and goods that were grown in North America and had facts about them and their purpose. That was just interesting in that it was the only thing that wasn’t just a picture of text on a wall. Also, I like sugar so I’m biased in that aspect. They did have a small little exhibit on the independance war (AMERICAN) but it was extremely small.

Sugar time. We gonna get sweet with this one

Now was on to the main show of the night which was meeting up with some family that I have in Britain. Since Fenrir was found and I had the time in London that I might as well get my worth out of it. We were going to be meeting at the Royal Observatory which is in Greenwich. This observatory is actually what marks the Prime Meridian so that’s really cool. We were going to be seeing two different planetarium shows. A planetarium show is where you sit in a big dome, lean back, and learn a little bit while staring up at the dome which is having stuff projected onto it. The two shows that we were seeing were about the night’s sky (ie stars and stuff) and the planets that were in our solar system.

Picture of us 5 at the planetarium getting ready to watch the show. Fenrir is also there, he likes space now. (the last person is taking the picture)

The shows were really interesting. I did know most of the information within them, just because I like to know random things, but it was still cool to see. I also just got to spend time with family and so that was really nice. It was also raining outside and so it was nice to be inside and relax while relearning some cool stuff about space. Plus, when it comes to space stuff you can’t go wrong. After that we just walked around and explored for a bit. We went and got some food (again more on that later) and just kept exploring and walking around. Despite the rain and everything it was still just amazing. Usually they are the ones that come and visit us in Michigan, so it was really nice to be able to come and see them in the UK for once. I am really grateful that they made the trip all the way over to London to come and see me and it was really nice. Fenrir was able to see his cousins and he was really happy after it. Now that he made his new friend and is back safe with me he has tamed down a lot and he’s been behaving himself.

Us just outside of the Royal Observatory on the courtyard above the park. Pictured from left to right are myself, Fenrir (he’s such a good boi), cousins, and their father.

Honestly it was just a good day so far and I was really happy with the way that things have been progressing. Turns out when you don’t have to run around a massive unfamiliar city looking for a mythical creature worried about what he’s going to do, London can be amazing. Getting to see family was just the cherry on top and it was honestly one of the highlights of my short time in London. I do wish I could have stayed longer to spend more time with them but we must move on, for there is studying to be done.

Now… there is one more thing I did that day… that was the most unique experience for me personally. I went to a British pub. Fenrir and I met up with one of my long time online friends at a pub in London. For reference, I’ve known him since I was about 8 years old and we played on a minecraft server together. So I’ve known him for a while. Now this was something that we had wanted to do and had been talking about for a bit. But, this is my first time meeting any of the people in that group in person. He was the first person out of anyone of that group that I had actually physically met and it was an amazing time.

Picture of myself and my friend

Today (Saturday) was the day of the Euro 24 football match (Soccer in American terms) of England vs Switzerland. This was a quarter-final match so this was pretty important. Everywhere that I went I saw people setting stuff up to watch this match and it’s amazing how much people love the sport here. We originally were going to go to a certain pub but we had to switch pubs because the one we originally wanted to go to was packed from the game. For my first experience in a British pub it did not disappoint. I personally don’t really drink that much, I’ve had small amounts and the flavor doesn’t really interest me. But, my friend offered to buy me a drink and so I got a kiwi and lime cider. It honestly wasn’t that bad. It did take me an hour and a half to drink the pint of cider that I had which to say the least meant I didn’t really drink a lot. Still I got my pub experience of drinking a pint.

Fenrir takes after his nordic roots and starts to drink. He’ll be a true viking in no time.

Back onto the game. I personally don’t really do sports. I play a lot of video games and occasionally will keep up with ESports (things such as League of Legends) but even I was into this match. The reason being because it was such a hectic match. Now, I can’t give you a play-by-play of what happened because I don’t even know, but I can tell you the general gist of what happened and why this was so hectic. For the first three quarters of the match there wasn’t a SINGLE GOAL scored for either team. That meant the entire game pretty much came down to the last quarter. In which, Switzerland was the first team to score. Now the collective sign and boo’s that I heard there were amazing. The fact that everyone had the same collective reaction at the same time in unison was perfect. Now the demoralized pub goer’s stayed like that for about 5 minutes, if even that. When Britain then quickly scored a goal and caught up. Then I heard this:

WARNING: headphone users please be careful

To say the least the pub went ecstatic and I myself got caught up in it too. The cheering, hollering, wooing, all the screaming, everything that was loud was happening. It was one of the most energetic things I have ever seen in my life. If you haven’t seen people in a pub when their home team scores a goal just imagine a jar filled with bouncy balls that you are shaking with the balls going every which way. That’s pretty much what was happening but 10 times louder and with people jumping up and down. It was an insane thing to witness and I’m honestly so happy that I got to witness it. It’s something that was only possible to witness due to the unique time that I went to the UK.

Now if you think that was the peak of the game it got even more insane. There were no more goals scored for the rest of the time, and thus they went into a 30 minute overtime. Now I’m going to kind of speed ahead but AGAIN there were no goals scored during the 30 minute overtime. This is where things get even more insane. The game got into such a state that it went into penalty kicks to determine who would win the game. In the end… ENGLAND WON!!! By 2 penalty kicks… BUT THEY STILL WON!! Despite not being British it was still such a hype moment and I felt so proud. It was really fun to say the least.

Picture of the pub we were in. It’s called “The Yacht”

After the game my friend and I had to part ways as he had work to attend to. But we said our farewells and I went back to the airbnb. I had a nightmare of packing ahead of me as I didn’t bring a carry-on so everything was going into my backpack. It was a nightmare to pack and it was even worse to carry but I did get everything in it.

Paddington explains to Fenrir something known as “night”. We haven’t seen this in over a month and yet it was common here and it got dark at a certain time. It was kind of nice not having the sun at all times, although this is but a foreign concept to us who have been in Iceland for over a month.

The Return:

This is going to be a bit more short, just in that I’ve kept you here for long enough. We took a train to the train station, took another train (a nicer one with cool chairs), to the airport. Then after waiting around in the airport we got on our plane and I slept for 2 hours. We had an 11 am flight and so it was not fun, but at least it wasn’t 6 am. Once arriving back in Iceland we then had 2 hours of buses and bus transfers ahead of us and so that wasn’t fun. But we eventually did make it back, where I immediately passed out on my bed. I did get up because I had to get groceries for the next day, but god my body was ready to just give out at that point. I had made it home to Reykjavik and I had plenty of stories to tell that much was for sure.

Fenrir saying goodbye to Britain on the plane ride back

Honestly I was very skeptical about going to Britain. I am someone who thinks a lot about the money that you spend to do things and worries about my finances quite often. But, I was very happy that I went. It was an experience unlike anything I’ve had before and It was amazing. By the way if you have noticed I haven’t included the amount of money that I’ve spent yet for anything in any of the blog posts and that is for good reason, Iceland is expensive. I don’t want to look at the amount of money I’ve spent, and that is with me cooking to save money. There is one thing to look forward to though if you do care about money and stuff. I am planning to make a spreadsheet to detail the amount of money that I spent while abroad and on different things. All that to say, I normally regret decisions that involve a lot of money, or at least contemplate their worth, but this was not one of them. I loved going to London and experiencing Britain.

Alex Shamoun

Robotics

Engineering in Reykjavik

#umichenginabroad #ipeiceland #ipesummer24 #iceland #AlexShamoun

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umichenginabroad · 2 months

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Alex’s Food Corner: Britain Edition

Now the thing that you have ALL been waiting for, the real reason to read the blog, the pretty food pictures. Now we all know about British “cuisine” but I will say that overall the food was pretty good. I sadly did not get beans on toast nor could we convince anyone in our group to get it and that is my only regret about eating out in Britain. Now let’s get into this.

Fish and Chips:

Mhmm some good ol Fish and Chips. While we do have fish and chips in Iceland I figure I had to try some Britain. Honestly, these were aight. The breading on the fish was amazing. The fish itself could have been better but I’m also just not the biggest fish fan. The chips (fries) needed some salt but their texture was good. Overall it was solid for fish and chips but it could have used some work. 7.5/10 We were also really hungry cause this was our first meal so I was just starving.

Chorizo:

For dinner the place we wanted to go to was packed and so we walked around until we found this portuguese restaurant. Their prices were expensive and so I got me some Chorizo and chips instead. The chorizo itself was actually cooked really well and had a nice kick to it. I thoroughly enjoyed the chorizo, it was a bit expensive though but that’s what I expected. 7/10

Fenrir’s Breakfast Biscuit:

Now I can’t vouch for this but Fenrir is saying that his breakfast was absolutely delicious. He got a breakfast biscuit and hot tea. And while there is a separate tea section this one is going in here, the tea was good 8/10 on the tea. The biscuit was a bacon filled one and it was fresh and delicious. The bacon was cooked really well and the bread of the biscuit was so nice and just complimented the bacon’s flavor and texture really well. 8.5/10

CHOCOLATE CROISSANT:

I have a soft spot for chocolate and sweets ok. The croissant was delicious and so fluffy with all the layers and stuff. The chocolate just added an additional layer of flavor to it and worked so well. I loved this croissant and it was such a good breakfast, easy 9/10.

Chicken Shawarma:

If you didn’t know this, Britain has a fairly large middle eastern population and thus middle eastern food. While in Borough Market I went and got me a chicken shawarma for lunch. This was some good chicken. I would’ve loved a little more pickle or vegetables in here, but overall for the price it was not a bad wrap 7.5/10

Paddington and Fenrir’s Nando’s meal:

When we went to Nando’s we got some food. I wasn’t too hungry so I just got to watch the new best friends eat their meal. They got chicken thighs and chips (fries) to share. Nando’s for those of you who don’t know is a South African restaurant that specializes in Portuguese chicken. It is really popular in the UK and it is a fast food restaurant that makes really good chicken. They have a whole spice chart and you can get your chicken as spicy (or not) as you want. They went for a lemon pepper which was on the more mild side. From what they told me though it was delicious. They ate the entire thing AND the fries with it. The chicken was really moist and the chips were really good too and had just the right amount of seasoning and a great texture to them. This might be one of the highest ratings that I have ever given on here and I think it is well deserved. If you ever go to the UK (I will definitely want to go again) you have to go to Nando’s. The easiest 9.5/10 I could ever give. It is one of the best meals that has been consumed while abroad, it was good chicken.

Observing this Croissant:

While I was at the Royal Observatory waiting for my family to arrive I got a croissant and a tea. Fenrir in the spirit of the place we were at wanted to observe my meal. Honestly the croissant was pretty good. Not the best I’ve had, could have used chocolate, but it was good. I was also hungry so there’s that. For the croissant a 6/10. For the tea, 7/10. It was an alright tea, nothing special to it

Burger:

I’ve given up with funny names at this point. This was the burger that I had with the family after the planetarium. It was honestly pretty aight. I did have to ask for more pickles though but it was good. The chips were honestly the star of the show though if I had to be honest. But I will give credit to the burger where it was due. 7.5/10

First meal back in Iceland

While this was back in Iceland I figured it fit just because of the timing. This was the meal that I got once I got back from all the planes and trains and I was hungry. It was a long day and this was a good meal. It’s a Chicken and Beef Shawarma on rice with some veggies and a pita. When I say I need this meal I mean it. It was so good and it tasted amazing. The meat was cooked really well and the rice just had a really good flavor to it as well. It could also have been the sleep deprivation and hunger but this is a solid 9/10.

Alex’s Tea Time:

Welcome to a subsection of Alex’s food corner, Alex’s tea time. Now I wish I had some more things to put in here but I have already talked about some of the tea that I had. Tea is really big in Britain and so I had a lot of tea and it was good. I care a lot about tea and so getting good tea was really important for me.

Boba Tea:

While not technically tea in a traditional sense I figured this was a fitting spot to talk about it. The boba I got was alright. The milk cap was honestly not good at all. The smoothie part was pretty good and the tapioca was standard. I’m going to have to go with an overall rating of 4/10 though.

Fancy Tea (TWG Tea):

This was the super fancy tea from TWG tea that I got. I got a blend called “Black Chai” and honestly it was amazing. I am normally someone who likes to put milk and sugar in their tea but honestly this didn’t need it. I did put sugar in it because why not, but it was delicious. The blend was beautifully balanced and the way they prepared it was to perfection. It was carefully steeped for just long enough and it was just the right strength. It was honestly so pleasant to drink and it reminded me that there is good tea out there (I’ve grown numb while being in Iceland). I honestly think this is like 9.5/10. I wish I got it with milk that would’ve probably made it the first 10 I have given. There is no rating that I can give other than at least a 9, but I think a 9.5 fits more.

Tea2you Chai:

This chai was prepared a bit more formally and traditionally (at least I think so) in a more Indian style. I got it and they put milk, honey, ginger, and some other stuff in it. Honestly, it was delicious. I loved it. It was more flavorful than the other one but I did have to sip this one a little more slowly but it was good. A very solid 9/10

TRAIN STATION TEA:

Ok this one was just a thing for the normal person. It was a pretty good tea for how much it cost. It was just a solid cup of tea and the guy serving it was really nice and so that’s always bonus points. Honestly most of the people that I’ve talked to in Britain have been lovely and really nice. Anyways for just being a pretty good solid cup of tea this is going to get a pretty good 7.5/10. Honestly cost is the most thing holding a lot of these things back.

Airport Tea:

The final one and for this one I am going to include the biscuit in it’s rating too. This was my tea and bacon biscuit I got at the airport. I was really hungry and tired at this point so there is that slight bias. The biscuit was alright, not as good as the cafe one. I’d give it a solid 6/10 though. The tea on the other hand was again a pretty solid tea so I’ll stay consistent with my rating for those given the price range and say 7.5/10 for the tea. It’s about the same quality and price as the train station tea.

Anyways I hope you enjoy this special edition of Alex’s food corner. Sorry that this post took so long to release, I hope you enjoyed it!.

Alex Shamoun

Robotics

Engineering in Reykjavik

#umichenginabroad #ipeiceland #AlexShamoun #Iceland #Ipesummer24

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umichenginabroad · 3 months

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Week 4: Becoming Electric

This week is going to be a bit of a shorter post, mostly because not much happened but also because a bunch of us are going to London tomorrow!!! I’ll let you know how that goes with plenty of pictures in the post next week. But, without further ado let’s get into this past week.

Me at the saga museum in their dress up area with a sword attacking a stuffed Fenrir wolf (Loki's son).

Power Plant Trip!!!

Ok I may be a nerd but I was really looking forward to this, and honestly it was really fun. Christopher (our program sponsored guide) came and picked us up at 9:30 and we started heading towards many of the power generating areas of Reykjavik. What was quite fun to watch was us almost make many wrong turns as the bus driver misheard Christopher. This occurred as we were taking the scenic route to many of these places (as you do) and that route isn’t inherently the route that a GPS would take you on.

Picture of Reykjavik land as we drove to our first stop. It was a nice day and it was really pretty.

Our first stop was a geothermal plant that provides much of the hot water AND electricity for Reykjavik. For this plant we got a view of it from above the cliffside. What’s really interesting about these geothermal plants is the fact that near each one of the veins there is a little dome where maintenance and experiments can be done on the water while protecting the scientists and others from the elements. I just find that neat.

Picture of the first plant we visited. This one provides power to Reykjavik and is in a valley.

Next up was a surprise stop that wasn’t originally planned. We just so happened to be passing by the lake (one that has a bunch of volcanic ash on the beach). So, we decided to take a quick pit stop and go touch some water.

We also took this group picture of all of us! Look, that's me on the left with the beanie! No Monokuma hat that day :(

Once we had our very short fun touching water we were on our way to a hydropower dam. This was ironically one of the cooler places that we saw that day. The reason is, an interactive museum that has a lot of really interesting physics things and a game. There’s going to be a few pictures for this one so I hope you enjoy hydropower!

The hydropower plant from the outside. Honestly, it would make for a pretty good wallpaper.

Once you head inside of the powerplant you are greeted with a bunch of really cool things. First up on our list though, is free coffee. Not relevant to me, but figured it’d be good to note. Next though, and much more prevalent is the wall of power. This wall activates as you touch it and lights up with the more force you put into it showcasing how we as humans are power.

This video depicts just how it works and it’s really cool.

The hydropower plant also had windows to the inside of the turbine. They also had a spinning wheel that described the history of hydroelectric power in Iceland. There was just a lot to see and do here. However, the next thing and the last thing that I will talk about for the hydroelectric power plant is the most important thing in my opinion. They had a game where the whole purpose was to maximize your percentage of wind utilization by turning a little turbine to face the wind. It was honestly kinda fun to compete against each other and I enjoyed it. If only I took a picture of it though. Instead, have this picture of turbines.

Sometimes you enjoy something so much you forget to take the picture. Welp cool turbine instead, enjoy.

After the amazing hydroelectric power plant we went and had lunch at this pizza place. I’ll talk more about that later in the blog, but just know, it was good pizza.

Next up was probably not the spot to go right after having lunch. We went to a hot spring (technically) where there's bits of mineral water and other gasses escaping from the earth. Now realize, this is not a pleasant hot spring, this is a dangerous hot spring and one that is full of hydrogen sulfide, (or in other words just a lot of sulfur). This has the pleasant thing of smelling like rotten eggs (for me it smells like them in an egg sandwich). Now we have had to deal with this smell because all of the hot water in Iceland has this chemical. We didn’t think it would be that bad. Look at the picture below, it was that bad. The smell was so overwhelming that even though I was congested I could smell it through my mouth when breathing. I had to cover my mouth with my sleeve and get out of there.

Mhmmm delicious rotten egg sulfur juices!!

After that, we went to the powerplant nearby that takes advantage of the geothermal energy that is present here. This powerplant actually is really interesting in that they utilize a new technology known as Carb fix. Carbfix takes carbonated water (think of sparkling water) and puts it back into the ground where it mixes with the chemicals in the ground and solidifies.

More turbines that are hard at work. This time from much closer!

One unique thing about Iceland is that they run hot water pipes throughout the entire country. These pipes only lose at most 4 degrees Fahrenheit from their mile long runs. They achieve this by insulating the pipes very carefully using rocks. This plant had a segment of one of the pipes (showcasing the insulation) and I thought it was cool. I also saw a really cool photo opportunity and so I had to get this picture. You can tell me how it turned out, I think it’s cool at least.

I mean like cmoooonnnnnn. Maybe I’m just overhyping it but I think it’s a cool picture.

That was our last stop on our powerplant trip but honestly it was so much fun. I may be a nerd but I just find these things so cool. I find it just really amazing how Iceland survives off of pretty much entirely renewable energy and it’s really impressive coming from Michigan where that’s nowhere near close to being realized.

Saga Museum:

This is gonna be a little short but figured it’s still nice to separate it with a header. While some other people went horseback riding, another person and I went to the Saga Museum. The Icelandic Saga Museum is a museum dedicated to, you guessed it, the Icelandic Sagas. Which is actually where we get most of our sagas from the vikings from. The sagas are really cool and detail the history of the vikings, the settlement of Iceland, and medieval history and politics.

The Law-speaker of Iceland decided whether or not Iceland should be Catholic.

The way that the vikings interacted is really cool. I’m a history nerd and I love just looking back at history and looking at how people acted back then and how crazy it is and how similar it is to nowadays. Obviously we aren’t murdering each other but politics is still just funny to look at. A lot of things in Viking history just involved killing each other because you killed the other person’s brother or dog. Everyone is John Wick at heart. The museum was really cool though and I had bought some stuff from it (Fenrir pictured at the start). The museum also had a dress up area where you could dress up in traditional norse and viking clothes and stuff. They also had chainmail, helmets, and actual metal swords (although they were dull). All of those things though were heavy as hell, and that makes this picture of me wearing it all that much worse.

The battle of two people who don’t know what they are doing holding swords

Alex’s Food Corner:

Welcome back to the best part of the blog where I talk about my really stupid takes about food. I was asked recently why I never give anything a 10/10 rating for food and the reason being is because food is never perfect and there is always a way to make it better. Anyways, let's get eating. This week is also going to be a little shorter just because there’s a couple of things I forgot to picture and I’ve been cooking stuff.

Tommi’s Burger Joint Burger:

Now this isn’t related to the food but this place was located on Burgerjoint street and so that gives it plus 10 points. The burger itself was honestly alright. It tasted very charred and had a bit of a weird aftertaste to it but honestly was still really good. The fries were also amazing and I ate them all up with no crumbs left whatsoever. Pretty solid start at 8/10.

For proof BURGERJOINT STREET!!!

Valor Chocolate Bar:

While at bonus (the grocery store) I bought a bunch of different snacks and chocolate bars to try out of curiosity. The first one on our list is this chocolate bar. It was honestly pretty good but it wasn’t satisfying to eat each piece of the chocolate bar and that’s my main complaint here. 7/10

PIZZA!!!

Surprisingly the first pizza I’ve had while here. This was the pizza I got on the power plant trip. It was really good. I got pepperoni and chicken pizza. It was a thin crust pizza and had plenty of pepperonis and chicken. It was very greasy and because the crust was so thin and posed a bit of a challenge but that’s my own fault. It was still delicious and I was starving 9/10.

KitKat:

Ok now this may look just like a normal KitKat but hear me out it’s different. Due to different regulations regarding food and stuff European kit kats and other candies are actually different then American ones. Honestly, it took a little bit for me to get used to the taste but I actually really like the taste of the European KitKats and I’m pretty sure they’re healthier. 7.5/10

Black Licorice:

OH GOD NO BURN IT WITH FIRE. 0/10 TASTED LIKE COUGH SYRUP. I WOULD NEVER EAT THIS AGAIN I RATHER EAT SHARK FIN SOUP. Although…. I have heard it’s alright once you get used to it. Maybe 1/10.

Alright that’s all for me I have to go get some amount of sleep before my flight.

Alex Shamoun

Robotics

Engineering in Reykjavik

#umichenginabroad #ipesummer24 #ipeIceland #Iceland #AlexShamoun

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umichenginabroad · 3 months

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Week 3: Becoming Cultured in Reykjavik

Welcome back to Reykjavik and sorry for the delay in posting this. A few things came up and I’ve had a lot of things on my plate that have been keeping me a bit more on the busy side. Anyways, without further ado let's get right into this past week.

Museums:

Now hear me out, normally I am not a museum person but sometimes you have to experience the local culture and see what the place has to offer. Reykjavik has a city card which can grant you up to 72 hours of free museum entries, free bus rides, free pool entry, and discounts to some of the smaller private owned museums. We had a three day weekend and so we decided to spend the weekend going to some of the museums and checking them out. We knew that we wanted to do this for a while and this weekend just worked out really well to do so.

Our first museum was a small art museum by our apartment. This one had some really interesting pieces. I’m not personally the biggest art enthusiast and I’m not the best at understanding art so I can’t really get to retrospective here. I just see pretty pictures and think that picture is pretty or cool looking. Sometimes I can tell the hidden meaning but, if there’s no description to go off of it’s really hard to judge the artist’s meaning.

Mountain Milk by Johannes S. kjarval

After this initial museum we had about a 30 minute walk to the next museum. Honestly, one of the nicest things about Reykjavik is that it is extremely walkable for a city. This next museum was about a very specific Icelandic sculptor and it is inside of his house. Honestly my initial thought was how did this man live in this place and how was it situated when he lived there. But, in terms of the art it is some really cool pieces. I find sculptures to be really fascinating because it takes an insane amount of work to be able to build something in 3 dimensional space. In the same way that if you think about cubing something versus just squaring it means that you have that much more to work with. Shown below is one of the more interesting pieces that I found which was called the blacksmiths and was three identical pieces of different sizes. My interpretation is that it’s meant to represent different experience levels of trades, there's the master, the worker, and the apprentice. Their individual size is representative of their skill level, that’s my interpretation at least.

The Blacksmiths by Asmundur Sveinsson

Sunday we continued our museum journey. Our first stop on the museum tour for Sunday was a very interesting and contemporary museum that had some unique installations. I don’t really know how to describe all of the things that were here other than in vague descriptions. I’m going to include the coolest piece that I saw there but we also did see another piece which showcased the movement of magnetic north throughout time which was a collection of 20+ pieces.

These are all flowing and are all videos and continue throughout all the walls. I just find it cool how they show different parts of Iceland.

Our next museum is one that is going to go without a picture and for good reason. The next stop was one that everyone who I know who's gone to Iceland has extremely suggested and practically demanded that we go here. It is the Icelandic Phallogical museum. Now, if you don’t know what a phallus is then consider yourself lucky and don’t search it up, if you do know what a phallus is then it is exactly what you would think it is. The museum had them from a bunch of species as well as habits and facts about them. It’s so cool. Also, the museum had a cafe which was the most important thing here and I will talk more about that later in the food review section.

Afterwards we decided to go to the photography museum thinking that it sounded interesting. What we saw was more disturbing than the last place. What we saw was the decomposition of a horse in nature and its body. It was both disturbing and mildly interesting. The way that nature and the world built around the horse was really fascinating and it was beautiful in a weird way.

I did take a video of all the pictures of the decomposition but I figured that might be a little much for this.

Next we went to another art museum but this one was leagues ahead of the one we saw on saturday. This one had special features by two artists and each of the artists' pieces took up whole rooms and were amazing experiences. One of the pieces put you in a dark room with flickering lights, an ambiguous smell that’s neither good nor bad, and freaky and creaky sounds. It was such a surreal experience and is something that I’ve never seen done to this extent before. There were many amazing experiences like this at the museum but I can’t do them justice. It is honestly something you have to experience yourself. I highly recommend going to the Reykjavík Art Museum Hafnarhús. For reference I will try and explain this next piece (the one in the picture below). In this piece there are these metal sheets and there is noise that is generated by these metal sheets vibrating at specific frequencies and the noise has certain characteristics caused by the divots and features of the metal sheets. The metal sheets themselves are really interesting art pieces, but the unique combination of the sounds generated makes it so much more interesting .

These gigantic plates in their hall that vibrate at extremely high frequencies but with very low amplitude.

The final museum of our museum tour day was the National Museum of Iceland. As you might expect from something boasting that title it was amazing. This museum focused on the history and development of Iceland. It had artifacts and told a story about the growth and development of Iceland as a culture and nation. As a history nerd and someone who just likes learning about this stuff I loved going here. I honestly felt like I needed more time. We were at the museum for an hour and I was feeling rushed near the end and so I missed out on some of the more modern Icelandic history. The unique thing here was that due to it being Iceland’s 80th anniversary the museum had a special exhibit about the founding of Iceland. It was really interesting learning about it and how it had some of the highest voter turnout in the world of any election.

Icelandic Coat of Arms

THERMAL POOOOOOL!!!!!!!

Sorry it was just really nice

So Iceland is known in part due to their high volume of geothermal activity and hot water. Iceland has thermal heated pools. In these pools there is no chlorine in the water and the water is extremely fresh and really nice. The normal pools are pretty nice like ~70 degrees fahrenheit like a nice warmish temperature. They also have an actual geothermal salt water hot tub that was 104 degrees fahrenheit. The entire experience was just surreal and was amazing. They also have cold tubs which are painful but can have health benefits. Now, I’ve talked about all the amazing benefits of the pools in Iceland, but there is also going to be no picture here. The reason being that in Iceland there are very strict rules about the pools. The price to pay in a sense for the pools being so clean and not having chlorine is that you have to take a naked shower and clean yourself off before you enter the pool. If you fail to wash yourself properly (this is what I’ve heard) you will get sprayed by a cold hose (which I did see the hose) to clean yourself. Obviously there are separating changing rooms and stuff and then you put your bathing suit on and leave your towel in the shower area afterwards. While it was weird at first to get nude for the shower the pools were more than worth it and honestly no one cares and everyone is just focused on their own stuff and just wants to go to the pool.

Alex’s Food Corner

Welcome back to my scuffed food review. I hope you find something tasty here.

Valdis Waffle + Ice cream:

Ok hear me out, this was actually sooo gas. Like no joke it was so good. Even though it did feel wrong and kind of weird to eat ice cream with a fork and knife it was delicious. The fresh belgian waffle just melts and the ice cream is just so nice and sweet and the flavors work so well. I got mine with pistachio and toblerone ice cream. Honestly it just hit the spot just right and made my day. Sorry to all those out there who are allergic to tree nuts and stuff but it was just a good combination (and there’s more ice cream to come). I did pass out for like 2 hours afterwards but that’s my fault for not drinking water. Easy 9/10.

Reykjavik University Fish and Chips:

I felt like trying the school’s lunch. Honestly it was one of the most reasonably priced meals that I’ve had in Iceland and it was pretty good. I’m not the biggest fan of fish, but if you put it in batter and fry it it’s pretty good. Pretty solid 7/10

Pasta with Chicken and red sauce:

Now hear me out, this is so good. This is just some pasta cooked in chicken broth with tomato paste and some spices. It honestly is so good and just hit the mood I was feeling and was so good. I did have to defend myself for cooking this because I boiled chicken which I didn’t know was a controversial topic. Anyways, it was so good and I am probably going to make some more this week. Easy 9/10

Phallus Waffle with bacon:

Ok this is probably pushing what I am allowed to put on here but it was so good. The phallological museum has a cafe in which they sell phallus shaped waffles. It was around lunchtime and I wanted something savory and so I got a bacon waffle with fries. Ignoring the shape of the waffle (which is just a funny touch), the waffle and bacon itself were cooked really well and it honestly tasted delicious 8/10.

Rolled Pistachio and Kit-Kat Ice Cream:

I was really feeling Ice cream this past week ok. On our way back from the museums, some of us decided to go get ice cream and we found this cute little shop on our way. So we stopped in there and I got pistachio and kit-kat rolled ice cream with chocolate shavings and granola. My logic was like trying to go for a nutty granola bar kind of flavor profile and honestly I cooked. This was such a good combination and it was delicious. Again, I am sorry to all my nut allergic friends but this was good. The only thing dragging this down was the weird berries in the granola that I picked out cause they didn’t taste good. A pretty reasonable 8/10.

Hard Rock Cafe Burger:

It was one of the people’s birthday and so to celebrate we went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Reykjavik. It was honestly a really good meal. The burger was cooked really well and it was one of the best burgers that I’ve had so far while in Iceland. In addition, they had real pickles which did help. The fries needed a little salt but they were good after that. Pretty easy 8.5/10

Toblerone Crepe:

I know I am a repeat offender but when I see something that I don’t usually see I have to try it. We went to a crepe shop and they offered toblerone as one of the toppings for the crepes. I got it and let me say, that was gas and I loved it. It was a little expensive but honestly it was well worth it. The crepe just melted in my mouth and it was so good to eat and I would honestly go there again. I have to give this a 9/10.

Kiwi Boba Slush:

Now for those of you who don’t know what Boba is then you are missing out. We had our first programming exam on thursday and so to celebrate I went and got Boba, something that I like to do to celebrate finishing an exam. There’s a boba shop right by our apartment and it’s one of the only ones that I have seen in Reykjavik as a whole. I will say, this was one of THE BEST kiwi slushes or just boba in general that I have ever had. I am not lying when I say that this was unironically so good. It may very well have just been that I was in the mood for it and was not emotionally great at that time so this just tasted extra good but it was SOOO GOOD. I have a friend who is allergic to tree nuts and kiwi, and to you I am sorry, you know who you are and I swear it was just that they tasted good. I just happened to eat a lot of these things this past week and I enjoyed it. Anyways, the boba’s rating is a very solid 9/10.

That’s all for me this past week, and I swear I will release my blog post talking about actually studying while abroad but there’s just been so much cooler stuff to talk about other than just boring studying stuff. There’s just been a lot on my plate with the exam and other stuff but it’ll get out I pinkie promise.

Alex Shamoun

Robotics

Engineering in Reykjavik

#AlexShamoun #Iceland #UmichEnginAbroad #IPESummer24 #IPEIceland

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umichenginabroad · 3 months

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Week 2-1: In and Around Reykjavik

Welcome back to more of my adventures in Iceland. This week has been a lot to say the least. We decided to adventure outside of Reykjavik and it was the Icelandic national day. There’s a lot to talk about, so without further ado let’s get right into it.

Becoming Icelandic

I know I haven’t really talked too much about Icelandic culture or cuisine in earnest yet (I swear I’ll get around to it), but I became Icelandic this past week! On Thursday after class we went to a 60 minute comedy show called How to Become Icelandic in 60 Minutes in which we learned how to truly become Icelandic. Some key takeaways from how to be Icelandic are as follows.

Think BIG, Iceland is a massive and important nation and is atop many charts (per capita) and thus we must think big.

Always think that we are correct, it’s important that we argue over everything as we are superior and we think bigger.

Wash yourself, especially before going into the pools, or else they will come and help you wash yourself for you.

Most importantly of all, you must walk like an Icelandic person. Which inherently just means slouched over and sad. This comes from the extremely harsh and unpredictable weather of Iceland forcing your head down to put you into this position.

Becoming Icelandic in what was actually 66 minutes

After our Icelandic show we had a 4 day weekend from Friday to Monday. With such an opportunity there were many great things for us to achieve. So what did I do on Friday? I cooked, slept in, and shopped. Of course I did more than that. I also explored more of Reykjavik. I went to a bakery and got a fresh cinnamon roll (more later) from this place called Braud & co. We also found out that laundry is insanely expensive here with our building’s laundry being $7 a wash and $7 a dry so it’s insane.

CINNAMON ROLL WOOO!!!

The Golden Circle

Honestly Friday was a bit of a lounge day, but to balance that out was the absolute crazy fiasco that was Saturday. Saturday we decided to go on a tour of the Golden Circle which is an 8 hour tour outside of Reykjavik that lets us see all the famous tourist locations and get our fair share of sightseeing in. We all took so many pictures that I feel we could recreate an entire 3d model of these places just out of the pictures we took.

Me inside of Kerið, a massive volcanic crater.

The first stop on our journey was Kerið, a gigantic volcanic crater. The water is this really pretty copper( like teal) blue from all the copper that’s inside of it. There’s also these red rocks in and around the crater that are caused by the metal inside of the rocks (from the volcanic eruption) having rusted, giving it a red color. The view from both the top of the crater and inside of the crater was insane, and while we didn’t get to spend much time here it was amazing nonetheless. I loved just sitting at the bottom of the crater and looking over the horizon wondering how it was that I managed to end up here of all places.

The view of the crater from the top of the crater.

After the crater we went to Gullfoss which is “the golden waterfall”. In fact, this is the namesake by which the golden circle derives its name from. I can say it did not disappoint. This was a beautiful waterfall. Rather than just being a single falling point where you are quite far away from the edge and are forced to just look on from afar, we were up close to the waterfall. We could feel the water and mist from even the small falls on us and it was truly beautiful. It honestly just helps put in perspective some of the amazing things in the world that happen in places different from our home.

Me standing in front of one of the low falls, the rapids before the big fall.

The actual golden waterfall.

Next up on our itinerary was Geysir the geyser. This is an area of high geothermal activity with an active geyser that we were able to see. While it might not sound impressive, seeing hot water get blasted out of the ground dozens of feet into the air is really cool. It’s like a high pressure water gun formed by nature and the fact that it is not only active but really consistent (every 6-8 minutes) is really nice. We stayed and were able to see a few eruptions.

Geysir erupting (this was one of the smaller eruptions).

Our last stop on the golden circle was Þingvellir National Park. A little history lesson before we continue, this was the location of the Icelandic parliament until 1800. It was also where you could challenge someone to a duel legally. Also, during a parliament meeting violence was illegal (which was followed). Thus this was a location of peace, beauty, and violence. Now cutting back into modern age and it definitely lives up to its legacy of peace and beauty (although the violence is lacking). It’s a massive valley carved between two massive hills (volcanos?) and it was beautiful. I feel like it deserves a whole day just to itself. I would love to come back to Þingvellir and just spend an entire day exploring all the different parts of the park and seeing all the history along the way.

Me on one of the cliff faces of Þingvellir posing dramatically.

SUNDAY:

Like come on, there always has to be a nothing day. I’m also doing a linear algebra course at Washtenaw community college and so I had to get work done for that course today.

... OR SO YOU THOUGHT, SUNDAY WAS AMAZING. I did actually get work done. But, I also went to my first ever concert, in Iceland nonetheless. It was a Jacob Collier concert and it was fantastic. He is a British artist who utilizes the audience in his performances, playing them like a choir. As a music nerd I find it so neat and I love it. It was also funnily enough his mother’s birthday so we got to sing happy birthday to his mother who is a professional violinist who performed with him. This was a truly fantastic concert and honestly I am so happy that it was a really good coincidence that I happened to be in Iceland during the concert.

Happy Birthday Susan Collier!!

The gang who went to the concert! (it was only 5 of us).

Icelandic National Day:

Monday was Icelandic National Day, in another sense their 4th of July. Although, according to them they were also independent and this was just the day that they decided to become a nation. This was the 80th birthday of Iceland as a nation and so we spent the day going around Downtown Reykjavik and enjoying all of the festivities. The first stop on our list was the 8000 cupcakes. Do I know where this tradition started? No! But will I gladly eat some free cupcakes? YES PLEASE!

THE 8000 CUPCAKES (or at least a small part of them)

After our delicious cupcake tasting we went to the park to enjoy more Icelandic festivities. We quickly found out that these were generally made for kids to keep them entertained while the adults talked and celebrated. There were dozens of bouncy castles and things for little kids to do, but the event was advertised to those of all ages. We found that there was a little zip line thing and so we ended up getting in line for it and a few of us decided to ride it. It was more fun than you’d think, but disappointing given I wanted so much more. Still was fun in the end.

Me on the child zip line going zoooooom.

After our zip line adventures our group kind of split off for a little bit to explore. I ended up going and listening to the band's performance (small band). As a music nerd I enjoy these things and so I followed the noise to them. Honestly, it was a really impressive performance and I enjoyed it a lot. I also went and talked to one of the musicians afterwards and he got a bit confused about what my instrument that I play was because of the European name for a bassoon. But overall they were really cool people. I thoroughly enjoyed the festival and it’s a very different way to celebrate something like becoming a nation.

Me talking to the some of the band musicians after their performance.

Alex’s Food Corner:

Back at it again with more food this time. There is a lot of food to talk about so let’s get right into it.

Special Eggs:

There in reality isn’t much special about them. They are just scrambled eggs, potatoes, and onions. But they are so good and they are something that my grandma makes for me and they are delicious. I made them Friday morning and honestly they came out so good with my fresh bread 9/10.

Kufta v2 electric boogaloo:

Now you might be wondering why this is on here again. While this might be closely related to something from last week there is one key difference this time that honestly brings them up an entire point. I FOUND PICKLES. You don’t understand my pain. There are only sweet pickles in Iceland. The closest I found to normal pickles are salt brine pickles, which don’t use vinegar. The pickles single handedly raised us to a 7.5/10 and I was so happy.

Iceland Birthday Cupcakes:

I’m personally not the biggest fan of cupcakes but these were good. The frosting wasn’t overwhelming and disgusting and actually tasted good. I had 2 cupcakes. They were so good. 8/10

Lentil Soup:

I was really craving some soup. There’s a Turkish place near our apartment and so I went and got some lentil soup. It wasn’t bad but it was also disappointing. It was very watery compared to what I’m used to and the bread was cold and sad. Overall though, the flavor was good. 5/10

RAMEN:

Ok, I know I’m in a foreign country and so I should be eating the cuisine from the place that I’m in but I was REALLY in a soup mood these past few days. I went to the first ramen place in Iceland called Ramen Momo. It was really quaint and had this nice homely feeling to it. It was in the heart of Downtown Reykjavik and it was really good ramen. The broth was nice and hearty and all the vegetables were well cooked. My only complaint is that the noodles were just kind of bland and were the worst part of the ramen. Overall though, 8/10.

Salami Sandwich:

I ran out of food and needed to pack a quick lunch for class. It was good, I grilled the salami so it was nice and crispy. 5/10

Yellow Rice with Ground Beef:

I like my rice ok. I made more rice but this time I also made the thing that goes with them. The rice didn’t come out quite as yellow ( i didn’t put enough seasoning) but it was still good. I ate the rice with middle eastern Kema, or ground beef. It is ground beef, onions, and parsley. It’s really good and mixes really well with rice. I ate some for lunch today. For my first time making Kema it came out really good. 8.5/10

Now that’s all the cool food I made and ate this week. I hope you enjoyed my totally not biased takes. Now, if you did make it this far I do have to include a small update or addendum so to speak as to last week. I bought spam while I was at Costco, which I used to make the Spammich. Turns out I can’t read numbers (nor could the other person who bought spam) and we ended up paying $7 for a can of spam and we each bought a 6 pack of spam. I will use all this spam and claim that it is economical but hey, it’s good spam.

See you all for another post in a few days about the studying part of being abroad,

Alex Shamoun

Robotics

IPE: Engineering in Reykjavik

#UmichEnginAbroad #IPEIceland #AlexShamoun #IPESummer24 #Iceland

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umichenginabroad · 3 months

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Week 1-1: The Lost Levels

þetta reddast, my most favorite 2 words these past few days. An Icelandic phrase roughly meaning “It’s going to be fine and work out”. You might wonder what could I have possibly gotten myself into over these past few days, and oh boy was it a lot of fun. From venturing through weird corners of Reykjavik to getting lost on the buses I went through it all. This is Alex Shamoun and let's get right into it!

þetta reddast, our first adventure was into the city proper into downtown Reykjavik. This was a really cool adventure and was honestly really fun. We went up into Hallgrimskirkja (the big church) and went all the way into the bell tower. This might not seem like much, but the reason why this was such a big moment was because this is where the hat I was wearing got recognized! A traveler from Canada recognized the hat I was wearing as Monokuma and he was a really nice guy and ended up taking this picture for me.

Picture of me in the bell tower of Hallgrimskirkja

After the church we went down the main shopping street. The first place that we made a stop at was Café Babalú. We went here with Christopher (our guide) and it was well worth it. This cafe is not like a normal café. While yes they do sell coffee and pastries and the normal things it has 2 major distinctions (one much larger) that help set it apart from every other café in Iceland. See Icelandic people take their coffee very seriously, and so for this café to be so renowned it must be special, and after 10 minutes of waiting in a line for the bathroom I realized what was so special. THE BATHROOM WAS STAR WARS THEMED!! The massive smile on my face was immense and it was such a cool experience. They had the Star Wars soundtrack playing the entire time that you are in the bathroom and it is filled with Star Wars decorations and such. Also they have a cute orange cat. Honestly that bathroom may be the peak of this trip, I have yet to find out.

The bathroom in all it's glory

That all was Saturday, there was some more stuff like we went to the Icelandic history museum and we ended up going to the Flea market but for the sake of keeping with the theming let us continue. On Sunday we got to finally go to Reykjavik University, the school that we are studying at for the next 6 weeks. It is absolutely amazing. The school is solar system themed, there is a center of the school called the Sun and each of the wings are named after different planets.

Map showing the current state of Reykjavik University

One of the best things about the university is the free hot chocolate, coffee, and tea that we can drink whenever. It honestly is the thing that is going to keep me there and make me long for the days in Reykjavik drinking hot chocolate in class. We were all enjoying some drinks after receiving orientation when we decided to go outside onto the balcony. All of a sudden, we realized that the door was locked from the inside and we couldn’t get back inside. þetta reddast, It’ll be fine! Thankfully, it was a nice day outside and so it wasn’t actually that unpleasant. Nice by Iceland standards is sunny and 50 degrees. But in fact þetta reddast was correct, it was fine. We got to enjoy the nice view a little longer and then Christopher called security to come and unlock the door for us.

The view from the balcony

After the University fiasco a group of us decided to go to the Icelandic Costco to get some much needed essentials to survive these next 6 weeks. The Costco is someplace that you have to bus to, and so we were able to test our newly acquired bus cards and see just how smart we all were. In fact, we were not. We ended up turning an hour long bus ride into an almost 2 hour adventure in trying to get to Costco. We first went to our first bus stop and then we realized that the bus we needed to get on was running late. Rather than doing the smart thing and just waiting for that bus to get there, we decided to board another bus and head to the bus station. This was our first mistake as this actually took us further from Costco.

After that we rerouted and then waited 10 minutes for another bus which would actually get us to our next bus transfer and get us closer to Costco. We then spent that entire drive figuring out which stop to get off and transfer at. þetta reddast, it's going to be fine. We ended up getting off of that bus at another bus station and started walking to the transfer stop. That was when we saw the bus that we actually needed to get on to get to Costco pull up and we thought that it was going to be racing to that bus stop. So, we all started sprinting towards the bus stop to not miss the bus. Then we turned around, and realized that the bus had stopped at the bus station for a driver change. We all just sat at the next stop for like 4 minutes realizing how stupid we all were. In the end, we were able to get on that bus and make it to Costco. Once at Costco, the hard part was carrying everything back, we had kind of figured out the routing the hard way by this point. But yea, þetta reddast, everything is going to be fine. Truly though, everything did work out in the end and everything was fine.

WE MADE IT TO COSTCO!!!

Moving onto Monday!!!! Nothing interesting really happened Monday. Anyways, I’ll talk more about lectures and normal things in another post, but that’s not for this one.

Today (Tuesday)! While at the University we received a text from Christopher about volcanic fog that was polluting the air and he warned us not to walk home, so as to not breath in the air. We ended up having to stay at the university until 5:45 pm due to our crash course in Icelandic culture. We realized quickly however, that the only route for us to get home would either be walking or to wait until 6:30 for the next bus back home. þetta reddast, it’s going to be fine! We decided to walk back home, in the volcanic fog, and then go get Reykjavik Chips. On our way back we passed through some shady routes and even went over a freeway on a bridge. But, the moment that embodied þetta reddast the most was when we were walking on a half built turf field (underneath was just rock and junk), where on our right was a kid’s soccer match being played and on our left was a field of construction.

The construction to our left

The Soccer game parallel to us

Now if you think that is where the fun from today ends then you would be incorrect. We managed to make it back into town and we were heading on the right way when suddenly someone told us that we should turn and take a different route. They were in the front and so we all just followed them. þetta reddast we said, thinking that it will all just work out eventually. 4 minutes until the place stayed at 4 minutes later for a lot longer than 4 minutes. We eventually ended up just doing a full donut and ended up on the original road we were going to take. We did thankfully make it to Reykjavik Chip, it in fact was fine. But, the process of getting there was definitely something else.

Alex’s Food Corner

I like to cook and eat food so I’m going to talk about different food I cook/eat every week and rate them based on things like price and stuff so I hope you enjoy my really scuffed takes.

Kufta: Middle eastern burger

This was something that I made with ingredients from Bonus (the grocery store). It is pretty much just a burger with some middle eastern spices and cooked in a pan. It came out really good considering that I have actually never made them by myself before. Although, the fact that I accidentally bought sweet instead of sour pickles was a disappointment. Overall 6/10, good for the price but pickles and a little more refinement of the spices could have made it better.

Costco Hotdog:

Ok, I know what you might be thinking, but hear me out, this was fire. Iceland has a really interesting thing in that they put fried onions on their hot dogs and honestly it’s so good. This hot dog honestly was worth the 2 hour long bus ride by itself 9/10. There is nothing really more to say, it was genuinely one of the best things that I have eaten in Iceland so far.

SPAMMICH:

For those of you who don't know what this is, it is a spam sandwich. It is the breakfast for those of many of us who need some quick and easy food. Spam is so good and honestly it weirdly cheaper (and probably healthier) here then America. This it a solid 6/10 though just in that sourdough bread is kinda mid, but honestly was still really good.

Yellow Rice with Costco Chicken:

I made some Yellow rice with basmati rice and turmeric. While it took way longer than it needed to because I was still getting used to the induction stove it actually came out really good. I did make a pound of rice and so I have way more rice then I needed to make and so I’ve just been eating it but with the Costco rotisserie chicken it is really good 7/10. I’m biased towards my rice but I do think the fact that I’ve been eating the same thing for a few days now ( I made A LOT of rice) might take it down a point.

Fish and Chips:

This was the fish and chips that I ended up getting from Reykjavik Chips. I decided to try 2 sauces with it, ketchup and then chives. The chips (fries) were absolutely amazing, maybe a little salty but fantastic overall. I personally am not the biggest fan of fish, but honestly the fish was alright. That mostly comes from the fact it’s battered and fried but like it was still good. It literally was falling apart and at points was a bit lacking in terms of crunch and flavor, but it was really fresh and was good. My only complaint is how little sauce they give you. I would have loved more ketchup, but they charge 300 Kroner ($2) per cup of sauce. Overall, 7/10 is how I would rate this. I’m not going to consider the sauces too much, but the food itself (about $18) was not bad for the price and was a nice and fulfilling dinner.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my adventures in Iceland and my food takes. As always, it's 1 am as I finish writing this and I have class at 9 am tomorrow. I will see you for the next post. Good night, and remember