Rotten Shark! (Hakarl)

Last night, one of the political parties of the student council, Roskva, put on a party at one of the bars where they provided some of the most disgusting traditional Icelandic foods. When we got there, quite a bit of the food had already been swallowed, but there was plenty left for us to experiment with! On a tray lay two lamb heads, little tins of Hakarl (the rotten shark meat), little white cubes of sheep testicles, little brown speckled cubes of sheep liver, and some unidentified yellow paste. Minutes after we began surveying the scene, an Icelander came over to the table and began to viciously pry one of the eyes out of the lambs head with a toothpick. Once he had it skewered, he handed it to Dom, telling him that it was one of the prime parts of the head and that it tasted like jelly. After a few moments of hesitation, Dom popped it into his mouth and began to chew. It wasn't terribly pleasant to watch, but it was certainly better than eating it myself!! After a little while, other people in my group started to get brave and eat tiny portions of the delicacies. Watching their faces and hearing their descriptions made me want to go hide in the bathroom, but I knew that I would regret it if I didn't at least give the foods a bit of a go. Libby stabbed a little chunk of the rotten shark and handed it to me. I held it for awhile and made the mistake of smelling it. Why I thought that smelling rotten shark would make it more appetizing, I do not know.... I was struggling to take the final step and put it my mouth, so Libby counted down from five and I managed to pop it in! I was SUPER tempted just to swallow it, but decided against it. I felt like since I already had the stuff in my mouth, I might as well experience it. I gave it a couple of tentitive chews and was not too distressed. On my third chew and a little bit of a swallow, however, my opinion rapidly changed. I couldn't BELIEVE the taste! I couldn't imagine anything more foul... It basically tasted like really, really old, strong flavored fish that had been soaked in horse pee. Blechnum! It gives me shivers just to think about it!! Because my mouth had already been adulterated with unfortunate flavors, I decided to quickly grab a chunk of the sheep testicle before losing courage. It wasn't quite as bad as the shark, but certainly nothing I would ever want to place in my mouth again. The texture was very, very strange-- sort of a creamy, crumbly deal. The piece was too big to swallow quickly, so I really got the opportunity to experience it to its full extent. Luckily, I had brought along two pieces of strong gum, so I was able to eliminate the flavors fairly quickly. A little bit later, I was sort of cornered by these two close talking Icelandic boys who were passionately talking about Icelandic and American politics. Although the conversation was interesting, I was a tad bit distracted by their awful smelling breath and the little bits of spittle that kept landing on me. Needless to say, they had both had plenty of rotten shark and Brenavin (the traditional drink one is supposed to have with the shark-- apparently it tastes like cumin)...

On an entirely different note, I am beginning to think that Icelanders don't sweat. All of the good running places have been covered with ice and a slick layer of water for much of the last week, so I've had to resort to exercising in the gym. Because ellipiticizing or riding on the stationary bike for an extended period of time is incredibly boring, I have plenty of time to look around at the other people in the gym. I can't tell if I am just going harder than most people, but somehow, it always seems like I am drenched in sweat while everyone else remains completely dry! I don't get it! I have made up all sorts of theories as to why that might be the case, but none of them seem particularly plausible. It makes me feel super awkward though, because there I am, red faced and pouring sweat in my workout clothes while everyone else looks completely composed in their stylish (of course) workout clothes. Actually, their clothes are another point of interest for me. Not many people seem to wear shorts to the gym. Instead they wear these bloomer looking things, sort of billowy material to the middle of their calves and then a tight elastic band. Other people wear normal looking pants, but then have long socks pulled up over the pants. I'm not sure I understand the functionality of such an outfit. Ah well. I thought that maybe I could at least fit in in a workout type situation, but apparently not. Such is life!

It looks somewhat less slippery and windy today (the last couple of days we have seen consistant 68 km/hr winds-- sometimes I could just stand there and glide across the ice with the support of the wind) so I think I may attempt to run to where I think there might be an indoor track. We shall see!!