We made it!

I am currently sitting in my room in the Brekkukot Guesthouse in Solheimar. There is so much to say. My group is wonderful: there are ten of us students (3 men, 7 women), and two professors: Hank and Karin. We all get along really well, but it's hard to see exactly what we are all like when we're not running on <1 hour of sleep.

I sat next to a nice German girl on the flight, enjoyed a movie, and got a little anxious about flying over the ocean (though I suppose that's safer, eh?). I was able to watch on a screen approximately where we were over the earth. We flew over Newfoundland and Labrador and off the southern coast of Greenland. I tried and failed at sleeping, but enjoyed watching the sun shine on the clouds as morning swept the earth.

Our flight got in early (around 6am Iceland time) and we spent a few minutes exchanging currency and investigating the Ikea-esque Icelandic restrooms. A woman from Solheimar named Katrín was there to meet us. We loaded our gear into a sea-foam green van and started driving to the Solheimar, our new home for the fall.

The landscape is very interesting here. There are very few trees in parts and from what I could see, the land is mostly black (volcanic rock) or yellow-green (moss). It is quite mountainous here (for a Wisconsin girl) and I loved sleepily watching the land roll by. We smiled at the names of their stores and restaurants (we can't pronounce any of them.. except for TGI Friday's and KFC). We also passed an old ski resort that was built near a mountain, but there was never enough snow to ski! My classmate Jordan almost died laughing at that.

Once we got to Solheimar, we ran down a hill to join the morning meeting and singing of the morning song (though today someone had a birthday so we heard that instead). We had a lovely breakfast of toast, yogurt, granola, tea, hard boiled eggs, milk, and very strong amazing coffee. We chose our rooms (I have a double room but am the only one in it) and moved all our stuff in.

I will catch up in a little bit! Off to lunch... though we are still full from breakfast. Pictures soon! So glad to finally be here!