Home for the Holidays

Greetings all,

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend! Although most of mine was spent in a plane or an airport, I still reached home without any mishaps and was able to see some of my family while they were in town for the holiday.

All planes and connections went smoothly, though it was quite the relay race to get me from Solheimar to Keflavik airport, Boston airport to hotel and back, then Milwaukee airport to home. I sat by some great people on my flights: one Icelandic couple who were very impressed with my rudimentary Icelandic language skills and a JetBlue pilot from the Milwaukee area (I learned more than I should probably legally know about flying a plane). My favorite part was when we flew over Greenland on Friday evening. Because we took off at 5pm and were flying east, we were chasing the sunset across the globe the whole time. This gave the whole sky an orange and pink glow. As we flew over Greenland, I looked out the window and could see in incredible detail the glaciers, mountains, rivers, and even tiny villages of this barren land. Greenland really looked like the edge of the world, the most remote place on earth. Even in all it desolation, it was still incredibly beautiful and pristine.

Greenland from above

Adjusting to life in Wisconsin again has been fun but a little overwhelming. I drove for the first time in three months yesterday, but I picked it up just like a bike. What strikes me most is only hearing English, reading all signs and instructions in English, and the mass amount of cars, people, and buildings here.

It's hard not to feel sometimes that this whole experience in Iceland was just a crazy dream that I had an now I'm just back home like I was this summer. But I know that this experience has changed and impacted me deeply, likely in ways I will never understand. I've become an informed citizen, a passionate driver for change, and a stronger person. I've made friends that will last a lifetime and seen more beautiful landscapes than I ever thought existed. It wasn't always easy, but I am so glad I had the chance to embark on this adventure and to share it with you all.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2012! That's all, folks.

So Long, Farewell

It's hard to believe, but in just over 12 hours, we'll be leaving Solheimar. In about a day, I'll be leaving the country. Tomorrow night I'll spend my first night in the United States since Labor Day weekend. By Saturday morning, I'll be back home. Wow.

This past week has already brought lots of reflection, hugs, tears, and goodbyes. And we haven't even gone anywhere yet! This past Saturday we went for a final group hike in the area to a nearby river and classic abandoned tractor. We had to get in one last goofy group photo.

We've completed all our final projects, course evaluations, and my room is all packed up. Yesterday (Wednesday) we hosted Thanksgiving dinner for the whole community. I'm not sure how many people came, but a good estimate would be around 90 or 100. We spent the entire day prepping veggies, caramelizing onions, getting messy, and having a lot of fun. Our menu included: vegetable soup, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, walnut-apple stuffing, sweet potatoes, turkey, falafel, peas, gravy, pumpkin pie, and apple crisp. I helped out with the stuffing and both of the potato dishes (so much butter). At 6pm, everyone started piling in.

Table setting pre-dinner

We served the soup, told the Thanksgiving story (in Icelandic!), served dinner, and then my friends Lily, Christina, Tracy, and I performed "Walking in Air" from "The Snowman" book/movie (on piano, guitar, and violin, respectfully). As a group, along with two of the European interns here, we performed a contra dance called "Lady Luck". Everyone was clapping along with our dancing and really enjoyed it. Somewhere out there's a video that was taken of the dance; I'll see if I can't track it down. After the dance, we enjoyed dessert and finally sat down to rest as the community members trickled out of the cafeteria and thanked us for dinner (plenty of hugs all around). 

Jordan with his apple crisps. so good! Solvi, the chef, is watching like a hawk

I have mixed feelings about leaving this beautiful community, landscape, country, and all these wonderful people. It's been the experience of a lifetime and I am so glad I came. At the same time, I'm incredibly excited to come home and see some of my family this weekend. I'll post again when I'm home so you all know I made it.

Happy Thanksgiving from a snowy Iceland! See you in the USA!

Where the River Meets the Ocean

We're getting down to the final countdown here... I leave Iceland a week from today! We ventured out on our last field trip of the semester on Wednesday (Nov 16) and soaked up every last bit of Icelandic moss, air, and water that we could.

Our day began by driving to the coastal town of Eyrarbakki, just a 40 min. drive or so from Solheimar. It's a very small town, only around 600 people now and is home to Iceland's largest prison (it holds about 120 people and looks like a palace). The town used to be a major port on the southern coast, exporting wool, fish, and meat to Denmark and then going onto the rest of Europe from there. Our first stop was Husið, one of the first timber houses built in Iceland. It was built in 1765 by Danish merchants so they could stay in Iceland over the summer and keep conducting business throughout the year.

Husið

Inside Husið (meaning "The House", pronounced Hoos-ith) was a beautiful museum with furniture, instruments, dishes, games, and photographs that belonged to various families who have lived there. It was lots of fun to explore the house and discover hidden rooms and trapdoors. Next door to Husið was a maritime museum where we learned more about the livelihood and work of the townspeople throughout the centuries.

Ship inside the maritime museum

After the museums, we had a free hour to walk along the beach. It was great to finally be able to see the open ocean and hear waves crashing against the rocks... waves that possibly haven't seen land since leaving the shores of Antarctica. I also found an abandoned coffee shop, bunches of kelp, and lots of other treasures.

 The coffeeshop, alone on the beach

 Fish trap with kelp. Unsuccessful fishing venture?

Loving the designs on the beach!

The church in Eyrarbakki

After the beach walk, we had lunch at a nice restuarant in town. Seafood soup, plenty of fresh bread, and coffee! Mmm! We hopped back in the bus and I immediately fell asleep. Zzz...

I awoke to another beautiful sight: the geothermal springs and waterfalls in a nearby town called Hveragerði. We hopped out of the bus into the rain and starting hiking up into the hills. We passed spouts of geothermal steam, walked in mud up to our ankles, and forded many a river (with piggyback rides from Dusty so we wouldn't get wet! Thanks!). After an hour, we reached our destination of the hot river. Precariously changing into swimsuits behind rocks, we swam happily in the warm water for over an hour. It was such a treat to be swimming outside, in a river, in the middle of November. Only in Iceland!

We quickly hiked back to beat the sunset and gave a nice American hiker a ride back to town. Another great trip in this beautiful country... hard to believe I've already been here 11 weeks and have only one more left! This weekend will wrap up our final school work, projects, and we'll get ready for the Thanksgiving dinner we're hosting on Wednesday night! Wish me luck as I play violin, contra dance, and make stuffing for 100 people! Pictures from that event will be coming soon...

Northern Lights

I finally got a hold of one of  my classmate's pictures of the Northern Lights we see here every few weeks. My camera can't pick them up, but my friend Tracey's camera is much better. This photo credit goes to her.

This picture was taken around 6 weeks ago and is only a sample of some of the amazing light shows we've seen the sky put on in the past few months.

This picture was taken from right outside my bedroom window. Beautiful!

Town and Country

Time to catch you up on the last week! It's been a busy one!

Last Wednesday (Nov 2) we headed out for a tour around the municipality that Solheimar is a part of (its names is Grímsnes og Grafningshreppur to be exact!). Our guide was a man who works as sort of a Public Works manager for the town. His name is Horður and is the epitome of an Icelander. We stopped by several different farms to check out their various ways of using the geothermal heat available on their land. What we really enjoyed was playing with all the sheep, horses, Border Collies, and cows on all the farms. By the end of the day, we were covered in stinky awesomeness. Horður invited us to his farmhouse for dinner. Over the traditional crocks of lamb stew, we enjoyed a lively conversation with him and some time spent looking over his ancient World Atlas to show him where we are from.

The nicest sheep ever! He jumped up for us to pet him!

I'm trying to remember what else happened this week... the days are going so fast now they seem to blend together. Oh! On Saturday I played the violin in a concert with the choir and enjoyed hearing the home people play instruments and sing in their fall recital.

Yesterday (Nov 9) we went to Reykjavik and had a full day of sightseeing. Our first stop was the Alafoss wool outlet where I purchased a sweater and lots of wool for knitting (new favorite hobby!). We took a guided tour through the home of author Haldor Laxness (an Icelandic author whose book "Independent People" we all read this summer) and went to the National Art Gallery. We also met with an author/documentary film maker whose film "Dreamland" we saw about a week ago. He was a very powerful speaker and environmental activist who, just from his talk, got me fired up to make change!

The rest of the day was spent wandering the main shopping streets and enjoying the city and waterfront at night in the rain. We ate dinner at a great restaurant called Happ and the most famous geologist in Iceland (can't remember his name, but he was interviewed by news stations all over the world in 2010 when Eyafjallajokull erupted last May) joined us for dinner and gave a little lecture during dessert. Very fun!

 At the "Sun Voyageur" statue on the waterfront at dusk

 Beautiful pools and bridges in front of Harpa

 Harpa, Reykjavik's new opera and concert hall. The outside is entirely colored glass. Incredible!

Modern menu at Happ! And a bit of my new sweater...

Something that's been hard to get used to here is the lack of sunlight. At this point in the season, we are losing about 6 minutes of sunlight per day. This morning, the sun rose at 9:40am and set this afternoon at 4:40pm. It's so hard to get out of bed when the sun shows no sign of rising anytime soon. I wake up every morning and wonder why I am awake in what feels like the middle of the night. I'm looking forward to being back in Wisconsin and at least having a bit more light.

Like I said earlier, the days are absolutely flying by. We have final projects and tests coming up in all of our classes in the next week, so that'll keep me busy this weekend. Also, right before we leave we are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for the community, with the expectation that about 100 people will show up! I'm in charge of all the stuffing, so that should be fun to figure out. We'll be playing some live music, possibly doing some contra dance, and telling the Thanksgiving story. It should be a great end to an incredible semester here.

Only 14 days left in Iceland! I'm trying to make the most of it and soak up all that I can... though I fear that I'll get home and think that this was all a dream. Stay tuned...

We Smell Like Goats

Time to update you on yet another Icelandic adventure! This past weekend (October 28-30) the group was off to Reykjavik and West Iceland.

We spent Friday in the city, first heading to the Environmental Ministry to hear about Iceland's environmental quality and wildlife management policies. They were dressing up in the office that day for Halloween, so listening to speakers dressed as pirates and soccer players was only a little distracting.

We then headed to the University of Iceland to hear a presentation on their Environment and Natural Resources master's program. On the way up to the room our meeting was in, one of my classmates, John, got lost from the group and was stuck in the cafeteria area of the student center. After about 10 min, we realized he was gone and someone went to go look for him. We found him in no time, but won't let him forget that one for a while. We also went to the Icelandic National Museum on campus and got a guided tour. We saw lots of cool artifacts, skeletons (or skelets as they call them), and even got to try on some costumes!

John and I in our costumes... reppin' Northland!

After the museum, we had a few hours to explore the city. We stopped at a coffee shop, had some croissants, and met a cute Icelandic bulldog. By the time we got back on the bus (around 6pm), the sun had already set and dusk was beautiful at the church. 

We drove north on the cost to a town called "Borganes" and stayed at a youth hostel there overnight. Saturday morning was spent at a museum covering the settlement of Iceland and "Egil's Saga", a book that we're reading in our history class. We had an amazing meal there for lunch- salad, pasta, soup, and curry bread. Unreal.

Leaving Borgarnes, we drove further north to a goat farm run by a woman named Johanna. She was great. After the obligatory coffee and cakes in the afternoon, we headed out to the barn. She is the only person still milking goats in Iceland and owns about 200 of the 350 goats left in the country. We spent several hours playing with the goats, helping out with a few chores, and milking about 25 of the goats. They were so friendly and lovable! Dogs, kittens, and chickens were also at the farm which did great things for my animal-loving soul.

 Me petting the sheepdog "Bossy"

 Jon and Christina with a barn kitty

 Johanna loving on her goats

Hank....and more goats!

The trip was finished up on Sunday with a brief tour at a large geothermal power plant outside of Reykjavik. Other recent highlights include a Halloween party and a breathtaking Northern Lights display last night. The interns and volunteers here set up a beautiful Halloween party in the coffee shop here for the whole community. It was fun to see everyone in creative costumes (Comet, Northern Lights, Volcano, Glacier, etc.) and we had fun playing Scrabble, eating, and dancing. Amidst all the merry-making, we stepped outside a few times to take a look at Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. One of my classmates was able to capture them on her camera so I'll see if I can't post those pictures later. The only words to describe them last night were: amazing, wow, GREEN, hot pink, blue, dancing, and humongous. They literally covered the majority of the sky. We are so lucky to see them here often. 

This week involves lots of homework and projects, along with a little tour of some surrounding farms tomorrow. I'm going to be involved in another concert this weekend, but to what extent, I'm not sure yet. One of my biggest lessons from Iceland: Go with the flow. They're all about that here.

Thanks for reading! It's hard to believe I have only three and a half weeks left here! Was there ever a time when I wasn't in Iceland?

The Group

It's come to my attention that I haven't introduced the other members of my CELL group very well yet! These are the people who I spent nearly every hour with, the ones who make this experience what it is, and the ones who always make me smile.

Here is a group picture of us at the Turf House we were working at last weekend, along with the couple who owns the farm, Honnis and Christine.

Top row, left to right: John, Elise, Tracy, Dusty, Jordan, Christina, Lily, Honnis
Bottom row, left to right: Karin, Sarah, Tracey, Laura, Hank, Christine

John is from Northland too, and is a Sustainable Community Development major as well!
Tracy is from Cornell and is studying Environmental Engineering.
Dusty is from Prescott College in Colorado and is an Adventure Education/Environmental Studies major.
Jordan goes to Miami University in Ohio and studies Architecture.
Christina goes to University of Redlands and is studying International Relations and Environmental Policy.
Lily is from Skidmore and is an Environmental Studies major.
Honnis is Icelandic, enough said.
Karin is from Maine. She's amazing.
Sarah goes to Paul Smith's in Upstate NY and is an Environmental Studies major.
Tracey goes to Rhode Island School of Design and is a Graphic Design major.
Laura is a bit of a self-proclaimed vagabond, but she most recently was at Hendrix College in Arkansas. She studies botany, agriculture, and knitting! :)
Hank is also from Maine. He has a sweet Boston accent.
Christine is Icelandic and reminds me a lot of my Aunt Patty, if any of you know her.

I don't know what I'll do without these people in my face and in my lives everyday. It's going to be strange...