Swanson School of Engineering

Today was the first official day of site seeing in Iceland. I was stunned at the speed of the wind gusts when we first exited the airport. In fact, I was shocked when I looked out of the airplane’s window and saw that it was snowing while we were landing. The first activity was a walking tour around Reykjavik where we learned about Hallgrimskirkja, which is a church at the heart of the city. It is the largest church in Iceland and when the architects were designing it, they integrated parts of Iceland’s geography into the design. The back portion of the roofing is symbolic of Iceland’s glaciers while the front portion represents the basalt rocks / pillars. I gain a deeper understanding of Icelandic culture while walking the capital. Later that day we visited On Power, a geothermal power plant, to learn about energy production using the Earth’s heat. Interestingly, 70% of all power produced in Iceland is used for aluminum manufacturing, while only 10-15% of the power is consumed by people. We had other experiences today, but I wanted to highlight the few, I cannot wait to see what tomorrow holds.