reflections

I've been home for about a month now, and I've decided that it is again time to sit down with my thoughts from my adventures in Iceland and figure out what direction they are pointing me in--if it the same as before, or if it has again shifted.  

I am slowly (I repeat: slowly) refining my big plans for the rest of my life: what I want to be doing, where I want to be doing it, etc.  

Overall this year was a very formative year in my life. Between academics, athletics, good friendships, not so good friendships, family, grocery shopping, and traveling, I like to pretend I learned a lot.

I have concluded that I am indeed still following the right path for the time being.  I may have to do some weed-whacking along the way, but the general direction is more than acceptable at present.  I mostly base this assessment on the people I have encountered with the same passions as I have.  I have decided that if my peers for the rest of my life are similar to those wonderful souls I met in Spain and Iceland, then I will always be in good company.  When it really gets down to the wire I think it matters what you have surrounded yourself with, and I intend to keep surrounding myself with good, happy, motivated, driven, intelligent human beings that want nothing more than to leave the world a better place than we found it. 

One of the best concepts I have embraced this year is "Ask yourself if what you are doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow." Clearly a difficult question to answer if you don't know where you want to be tomorrow, but I think even if you have the general direction you can live each today very presently but with an eye to how it will shape your future.  

I have been afforded every advantage in life: a supportive family, a happy home, a good education, and the ability to lead a healthy life style.  I was lucky to be born in a free country where I could do and be and grow despite my gender.  I was allowed to dream, to imagine, and to create.  I hope I never stop doing these things.  

"Learn as if you'll live forever--live as if you'll die today." -Ghandi 

home again

Never, where ever else you may travel, connect through Toronto. Fly into it? Sure. Fly out of it? Why not. Connect through it? Hard pass. (Avoid Charlotte too if you can...)

The trip home was quite as brutal as on the way there (that's hard to match), but it most definitely had its high points (arriving in Atlanta and not having to go through customs again) and its low points (having to go through customs THREE TIMES in Toronto. While carrying my bag that was big enough for a person to fit into. While trying to figure out how the devil I was supposed to get from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 even though there was no Terminal 2 that seemed like the logical segway to travel through. Two and a half hours somehow was barely enough to get all that done.)

We spent the last day in the city of Reykjavik shopping around and seeing the sights.  It was gift buying time for everyone, and I think we all found good mementos of our trip for friends and family.  A group of us found a thrift store and bough discounted traditional Icelandic sweaters (still expensive, but less so).

Then came time for goodbyes.  There were tears all around, but we managed to get everyone who was flying out on the bus to Keflavik, and the ones who were hanging around for a few extra days to their hostels in the city.

The second round of goodbyes at the airport didn't go any smoother as we all parted and went our separate ways back to our respective cities.  Once Free As A Bird pulled away one final time, we headed through to our gates and that was that.  Some of us had close enough departure times to hang out for an extra few minutes, but by then it felt like we were simply prolonging the inevitable.

I had some buddies on my plane to Toronto so there was a third round of goodbye-ing amidst the struggle to find baggage and make sure that we were heading in the right direction.

Now I think it must be bed time.  It was a whirlwind of a trip and I can't wait to do it again.  #GenerationStudyAbroad

the capstone

The presentations are over! And now it's time to head back to sweet Hotel Hilð for our last night in Iceland.  

It's bittersweet.  Bitter that the trip is so short and that we have to all say goodbye tomorrow, but sweet that in such a short period of time we were all able to forge such special friendships.

I will never forget these few days in this unique little country with this amazing group.  I learned so much from everyone.  Tonight we will stay up together far too late one last time.  We will play silly games and dance in the lobby and maybe go out to the hot tub when the sun rises at 2:30am.  We will already say "remember that time when"even though that time was only two days ago.  We will make plans to see each other again, to bring the GREEN team back together.  But most importantly we will all feel grateful for this opportunity to meet like-minded peers and mentors--an opportunity from which we can derive hope and inspiration for our futures as we move forward into the future.  We will learn not to see where the future can take us, but rather to see where we can take the future.  This, I believe, is the true capstone of the trip. 

A little piece of all our hearts will be in Iceland forever. <3

last day of neature adventures

Today we did some more pretty neat things. 

We started off with a class on biofuels that accompanied a visit to the Þorvaldseyri farm and Eyjafjallajökull eruption visitor. 

Biofuel for the humans:

Biofuel for the bus:

Weird. But so cool. 

We learned all about the eruption in 2010 and a whole host of other fun facts about life in the valley of an active volcano.  

After stretching our brains it was again time to stretch our legs. We hiked up the Skógá river to see Skógáfoss--one last waterfall-- and a nice picnic lunch.  The entertainment for the afternoon was Glíma--Icelandic wrestling.  I haven't quite figured out the best strategy for winning, but the added element of being rather close to the edge of a 80m drop really made it exciting and suspenseful.   

We were all exhausted, but we mustered up the energy for an amazing glacier hike up the tongue of Sólheimajökull. 

I convinced almost everyone to participate in the "Glacial Facial" treatment.  Of course it wasn't anything like the spa day you can pay thousands for, but we had our fun. 

Tonight has been spent fighting with the internet again and trying to get the actual presentations put together for tomorrow. 

I can't believe I'm already having to think about packing for home! It's been too short. 

 

day 7

So many waterfalls and hikes and names I can't say and neat places.  That's why we call it Neature! 
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm3JodBR-vs)

Today we hiked to a hidden waterfall in Stakkholtsgja canyon. It wasn't quite as big as Gulfoss, but it was just as permanent in my memory.  I didn't get any good pictures really because of the angle, but tucked away where lots of people would never think to look was one of the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen. Maybe because it was like a secret that we all share now. 

Next we journeyed to see a valley that has been created over time as the the tongue of Gígjökull (glacier) has receded due to climate changes.  It was sad to see how much impact we are having on such remote locations. 

Then onto a Neðri-Dalur, a quaint residential hydro power plant that supplies a small community and farm with electricity and sells some back to the grid.  We had a delicious Icelandic hotdog (all meat no filler) picnic and short nap time before getting back on the road to one last waterfall for the day.  

Seljalandsfoss was the waterfall you could walk behind.  The rock face was pitted and housed many seagull like birds. The wildlife was a rare bonus that added to the beauty of this particular stop.  Some of our group decided to clean all the money out of the river and gather it together to donate to a good cause in Iceland.  

Conner loved being dangled upside down so he didn't have to get his feet wet...

I think we collected something like 90 USD, and left the river looking a little more natural and less shiny.  Maybe those coins will help make someone's wishes come true. 

We finally headed for our new hostel in the Fljótslið area.  Smáratún was picturesque and perfect. We spent a happy meal there and I showed the poor souls that had never seen Neature Walks with Lenny Pepperbottom all that they had been missing.  Then it was time to put all of the capstone presentation material we had been working on sporadically throughout our adventuring together. The interwebs were not having it. But we muddled through and made some progress. 

day 6

The big hike! Lead by our amazing guides we saw some of the most unforgettable sights. We left shortly after breakfast with lunches packed and headed for the mountains.  This hike (Tindfjallahringur though þórsmörk) was no joke.  We stopped for lunch at the top of the world with a splendid view of 3 stunning glaciers: Tindfjallajökull, Eyjafjallajökull, and Myrdalsjökull (I can actually say one of those!!).  I've never seen anything like it. 

What a view. 

We arrived back at the campsite for dinner again ravenously hungry.  We made s'mores. We stayed up late (it's hard to go to bed when the sun is still out to play). We played Never Have I Ever (always dangerous). And we all finally slept again. 

day 5

I'm completely fine with no class on the weekends. 

Today we did some really touristy stuff and some incredibly non-touristy stuff.  We started off with visits to the "Golden Circle." Though I have been one to scoff at "doing the touristy thing" I think everyone was stunned by these natural beauties.  

Along the Golden Circle we visited THE Geysir.  The Geysir that gave all the other geysers their name: Geysir.  It was comical watching each other pose for minutes on end in front of it hoping for that perfect pic when it decided to shoot over 100m into the air.  (The upward gush of hot water occurred approximately every 5 minutes, but some times it was finicky and would come ealier--hence the posing for prolonged periods of time.)  

The next stop on our tourist route was to Gulfoss "The Golden Waterfall." (If you've ever been to Niagara Falls picture that and then multiply by maybe 5. It's impressive.) Multiple rainbows shimmered around in the mist rising off of the falls, and the shear volume of water pounding down over the 32m drop had a sobering effect on everyone. 

Lunch was rich.  Cream of mushroom soup and home made bread.  If you added butter you were asking for an instant heart attack instead of one a few years down the road.  No complaints though because it was devastatingly tasty. 

Now since we started off the weekend just a little early and since there just happened to be one in the area (surprise!!) we rounded out the day with another visit to a hydro plant.  It was huge. 270MW and some interesting elvish looking writing on the broad face of the building. 

We played a fabulous interactive game that showed (kinda) how a dispatcher's job works when looking at the demand on the grid.  It involved ramping energy output from various dams up and down depending on the reading of energy demand given on the computer screen.  It was much more difficult than any of us thought it would be, and frustration mounted quickly in our exhausted group.  

Finally it was time to call it the real weekend and head for the super "jeeps" so that we could safely make it out to the campsite.  On our way there we were lucky enough to race one of our own wheels down the highway (#onlyontheGREENprogram). 

BUT! That meant I got to realize my trip long dream of wanting to pet an Icelandic pony :) yay! 

After a much longer travel time than anticipated we arrived by super jeep to the campsite (Húsadalur) and settled in for the night after ravenously consuming the dinner we didn't get to eat for an extra few hours.  

This is 11:00 pm ^

We stayed up too late playing frisbee and the Icelandic equivalent of Front of the Boat, Back of the Boat and then finally collapsed into our sleeping bags in various tents and cabins for the less adventurous.