I've Been a Bad Bad... Blogger

So I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I have been writing the last couple blog posts a couple of days after the actual events transpired...my bad. You see my original goal was to write a post every evening or at least every other evening. However like most things in life, things haven't gone according to plan. I have been very busy these last four days that I have lived in Iceland, thus I'm thinking I will just have to save writing posts for when I have a spare moment, whenever that may be.So far I have done a number of exciting things. In chronological order here it goes. So far I have: gotten a tour of the entire Solheimar community. We live in one of the Brekkokuts (guest houses), however we attend classes in the Sesseljuhus (Sessilia's house. Sessilia is actually the founder of Solheimar). The Sessuljuhus can best be described as the community center, often times schools will tour this building because the Sesseljuhus is considered the first sustainably built building in Iceland. It's a beautiful building, fit with wooden floors and paneling, powered entirely by a combination of geothermal, solar, and wind energy sources. Starting during week 4 we will be participating in workshops located in a building just down the street from our guest house. After getting the tour of the workshops, I can undoubetly say, that at the moment, I am most excited about participating in hopefully all of the workshops. To explain a little more, the workshops are basically rooms where arts and crafts are being done. There are 6 different workshops including: the woodworking, weaving, music, art, herb/soap/candle, and ceramic workshop. Basically the residents with special needs at Solheimar attend various workshops on a weekly basis. They create wonderful works of art, and then sell them at the Solheimar gift shop. This, I believe, is how Solheimar makes a portion of its anual revenue. I am really excited to work in the woodworking and weaving workshops in the future.
Being the nerd that I am, I have to say that beginnging classes has been so much fun. I had my first Iceland history, language, and culture classes on Wednesday, and boy oh boy was I in for a surprise. Though being a Germanic language, the Icelandic language has been no walk in the park for me. Before coming to Iceland I thought learning the basics in Icelandic would not be that bad, since I have some history with the German. Well so much that assumption. Icelanders I've noticed love their TH sounds. They seem to fit it in the middle or ends of pretty much every word, and though for the most part their alphabet is the same as the English alphabet, they have this one letter that looks kind of like a D with a horizontal line through it, thats pronounced as -ETH. Anyway this odd little letter is driving me and my tongue crazy. Whenever I attempt to speak Icelandic I feel like I have contracted a lisp.
Lastly, as a group we went on a walk to the nearby river. After following the windy, sometimes steep dirt trail we finally came upon a pretty big river. It was sooo beautiful! I felt like I was in an episode of Planet Earth. Standing there at the banks of this river, to my right was a black mountainrange covered by a thin layer of bright green moss, and to my left was a flat, open plain of various grasses and bushes. Two things from that moment stick out vibrantly in my mind: How incredibly quiet it was and also how fresh and crisp the air tasted. I have never experienced such a moment. For a good twenty minutes my mind was completely void of any thought. I have a theory for this, because this not thinking one thought or another is something that never happens to me. I think that because complete quiet and fresh air is so different for me, my brain just went into a sort of automatic shock. It was a great feeling and I plan on having it more often.

Arriving at Solheimar

As one can assume my flight went smoothly. I arrived at the Keflavik Airport at 6:30 AM, picked up my two suitcases, and was pleasantly surprised to see that a little teal bus had been waiting for us. We drove about an hour and a half, driving past the outskirts of Reykjavik and Selfoss, before arriving at Solheimar. The Icelandic landscape is beautiful! And Solheimar is an amazing little community. The moment I stepped off that little teal bus, I knew that the next three months in Iceland were going to be life changing. My mother's wishes - Natalie promise me you wont fall in love with an Icelandic fisherman!

Icelandic Myths Dispelled...Thank God

So my flight from LAX to Boston went relatively smooth. Once I arrived in Boston I waited at the gate for the CELL group to arrive. While I was waiting, I met a girl who lives in Iceland. Her name was Astrid and she had just finished studying abroad in California for the summer. What a coincidence, right? Anyway she dispelled some popular myths about Iceland for me. Based on a Vanity Fair article that I had read before traveling, I had two major concerns about Iceland. I needed to know if it was true that a majority of Icelanders believe that elves exist and if it was true that Icelanders were so inbred that only 7 last names existed in the entire country ( The Vanity Fair article claimed both of these ridiculous statements as facts). Luckily Astrid was kind enough to answer both. She informed me that Icelanders love their mythical sagas because they are part of the country's rich history, not because they actually believe in them. As far as incest goes, there are many more than 7 last names in the country. Moral of the story, never take anything seriously that you read in Vanity Fair.
Overall, I felt a little embarrassed, but for the most part I felt relieved that I was not traveling to a country full of superstitious lunatics. Astrid was also kind enough to give me her phone number and told me that she would be glad to show me around Reykjavik. Hopefully I can meet up with her sometime, though I am pretty sure the CELL program would not want me to wander away on my own.

You're in Iceland? What?

So a little background for those of you who have no clue what I am actually doing in Iceland. This fall semester instead of beginning my junior year attending classes at Cornell University, I have instead opted to study abroad in Iceland for one semester. I initially chose to participate in the CELL (Center for Ecological Living and Learning) study abroad program for two main reasons : A. The entire program is geared toward environmental science majors, and I am essentially an environmental science major, though technically on paper my major reads as SNES (Science of Natural and Environmental Systems), and B. I would get to travel to Iceland! Not only is Iceland a highly industrialized, and prosperous (before the financial crisis) country, it is also a leader in renewable energy sources and technologies because it is literally a hotbed for geothermal activity. Iceland is also known for its pristine natural beauty, its rich viking history, and of course Bjork. How could I resist the opportunity, right? So anyway the CELL program is takes place at Solheimar, which is about an hours drive from Rekyjavik, the capital of Iceland. Solheimar is an eco-village that caters to people with special needs. Here I will be taking 5 classes including: Sustainability: Secrets of Sumplicity, Sustainability through Community, Global Warming, Crossroads Thinking, and Iceland Culture, History, and Language. I will also be going on weekly field trips, and participating in various arts and crafts workshops. Lastly throughout my 3 month stay, I am told that the emphasis will be on community and community building, so I am sure that during the week I will also be interacting with the residence of Solheimar as well.