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!