Journaling from Iceland

When I arrived in Iceland I had every intention of starting a blog of my own. That didn't happen. I blame it on the issue of time. Compared to normal college, in which your time is dominated by class, readings, papers, studying, and clubs, CELL actually offers a lot more stress-free free time; but also so many ways to spend it. We do have some reading and writing assignments, but mainly I find myself choosing to spend my time with the others in my program and sometimes the home people and international interns and volunteers; often I'll choose knitting, stargazing, writing (lengthy) personal emails to friends and family back home, or even just walking around in this beautiful country over sitting down and writing a blog. So, I haven't written one. But I have been keeping a journal, because I've kept a journal since I was 16, and what would be the point in stopping now? I'm not sure if I could write one blog post that accurately represents the breadth of experiences I've had in my short 2 1/2 weeks here in Iceland so far, so instead I'll just share snippets of actual journal entries I've written over that time.

September 4th, 2013

"I am in Iceland. I am in Iceland.

I AM IN ICELAND.

It still seems kind of ridiculous to me. If it hadn't been for the ordeal of the plane rides (which aside from being a hassle in the airports made me feel sick) and the people speaking Icelandic and the volcanic soil and the geothermal vents and the temperature change… Aw, who am I kidding. This is like a whole other world. A terrifying, brilliantly exciting world.

…

I want to write about all the things I've seen and done, like the stars out the plant's window fading in a sunrise of billowing clouds over the Atlantic ocean, the double rainbow over the airport, the dramatic scenery and the tree populated village and all the people I've met… but I need sleep."

September 6th, 2013

"My favorite, though, was our hike down to the river, surrounded by the dramatic landscape, including soaring mountains and a far-off ice field. We walked through a "forest" of recently planted trees. Before we got to the river, we all went off the path to sit by ourselves and simply be in a place. I laid down, cushioned by all the tall, natural grass, and watched one solitary cloud drift by as the wind whistled through the blades of grass. I was perfectly content. After 15 minutes we kept hiking, and just before we got to the river we found a patch of blueberries growing wild and sat down to munch They were about half the size of the blueberries I picked with Sara [this summer], but so sweet and delicious. After practically eating our weight in Icelandic blueberries (not really) we climbed one last little hill to the river. Some people went wading, but I just found I squishy, mossy rock on the hillside and say, taking in the scenery. When we began to head back, we all pitched in to pick enough blueberries to make muffins. When we got back we realized we don't have a muffin pan. So we're still trying to figure out what to do with those blueberries."

September 8th, 2013

"Since there are no trees you can see for miles, the massive mountains and ravines and seaming geothermal vents and rivers. And everywhere, sheep dotting the mossy hillsides. We stopped at a hot pool, where some of the girls went skinny dipping. I didn't… After that we ate lunch and headed back, and drove to the town of Selfoss. First we went into a thrift store, where they had live music and baked goods [because it was their opening day]."

September 11th, 2013

"Wow. I didn't even realize what the date was until I wrote it. It's always such a big deal in the US, but here in Iceland it's just another cold, rainy day. (I say that having just come from the hot spring. A French couple have just moved into our room at the hut and see displeased by how much stuff we have sprawled everywhere-- sleeping bags, wet gear, clothing hanging from the rafters to dry. And it's totally not my fault that they walked in on me changing.)…

We walked across the flat, rocky bottom of a canyon veined with streams until we got to one ridge that was practically a vertical incline, which Palli began to climb. That's when Rosa took me back, along with Nora, who hurt her knee yesterday and was limping… We ended up going to the hot spring and staying there a while. It was such a weird experience, walking out there and back through the frigid wind in just a bathing suit, and then sitting in water that was hot on the bottom and top and could in the middle. But it was really cool."

September 12th, 2013

"When I woke up this morning there was snow. Summer isn't even officially over in the US, and we built snowmen and made snow angels and threw/ate snowballs and trudged through a blizzard. I found myself singing 'Winter Wonderland' to myself. There's just something about snow, even when I have to hike through it stinging my face, that raises my spirits… Hiking in the snow through the jumble of a lava field is something I'm not likely to soon forget."

September 13th, 2013

"So it turns out more did happen after I wrote yesterday-- mostly, a spaghetti dinner and ghost stories (with more chocolate covered raisins and peanuts and head-lamp lighting) from Palli and Rosa. Even though I knew they were just telling the stories for entertainment (like how they told us about the French tourists who they had convinced about the existence of faeries), it was still honestly pretty spooky. I had to snuggle in my sleeping back nice and tight to be able to sleep at all…

The hike out today was wonderful… aside from two freak snow storms near the end, the weather was (finally) positively gorgeous, sunny and with little wind. We had lunch on a hill overlooking a lava field with snowy mountains in he background, and I was just full to the brim with an overwhelming feeling of contentedness and joy. We hiked up to see a lake in a crater, which was stunningly gorgeous and breathtaking, and finally headed down to meet our turquoise bus…

Then we got stuck in one of the worst traffic jams I've ever been in as for 2 hours they herded a massive hoard of sheep right down the middle of the road."

September 14th, 2013

"The main event of today was the sheep round-up. All the farmers in the area herd their sheep up together and then sort them into corals to take home for the winter. It's a huge social event it seems, so we were able to go and hang out and help out, which was supremely fun. We got to play with sheep and horses and see the infinite variety of Icelandic sweaters and watch the drinking and singing and kids wrangling sheep."

September 15th, 2013

"…and there was a slug in my salad at dinner."

September 17th, 2013

"Today I saw the Northern Lights for the first time in my life. They were beautiful… Later, when they got brighter and danced, I jumped up and down, full of joy and excitement, and Kaiya gave me a huge hug."

September 18th, 2013

"The first person we met with in the morning was Andri Snaer, the writer, in his coal-power-plant-turned-creative-space office. We sat in a room with all sorts of control panels and switchboards on fancy leather couches while he talked to us about his writing career-- from poetry to children's books to sci-fi novels to activism to finally a new fantasy manuscript he told us about. At one point a cat wandered in and we all pet it until he kicked it out for stealing his show. At the end he had books to sell and sign, but they ran out before I could get one. I was really upset… until I found out he had invited us to his house to get more books! Which was so cool. We did that on our way out of the city… and he came out of his house barefoot and signed books for us on his doorstep, and then brought out a precious whippet puppy that we all pet. It was wonderful."

September 19th, 2013

"We had our first lesson in Icelandic, which is a terrifyingly difficult language. Of course, the European interns totally showed us up with their language learning abilities, because they're already speaking in their second language. Which I find pretty incredible."

-Jessica