Hvalreki

Some reflection on “culture”

When I first heard Guðrún, my landlady and flatmate, talking about her giving anti-discrimination and anti-racism trainings in whole Iceland I caught myself thinking: „Iceland? Do you even need this?” Well, after a brief while I figured myself how naïve that was. Why should Icelanders not have discriminative or racist attitudes and ideas? I guess …

(Beached or butchered) Whales and (science or drinking) trips

Some of you might be wondering why I named this blog “hvalreki” und what this even means. Hvalreki is – how fitting – Icelandic and means “beached whale”. Nowadays this word is used as a metaphor for “having unexpected luck”. Back in the old days, when Iceland was in a constant miserable situation and especially …