Indescribable Iceland

My expectations have been shattered. Upon arrival, the landscape was so baffling and barren, I was astounded. I feel as if I´ve been transported to another planet. Here in Egilsstðir, hrossagaukur literally means horse cukooæ it´s a bird that sound like a neighing horse. Surrounding this valley where Vallanes is located, we see tsunami wave high walls of mountains joined by snow capped pyramidal mountains that stretch as far as the eye can see. At midnight, the sun looks as if it has paused mid-sunset, but it actually just dances aloug the horizon to the other side to begin it´s rise high into the sky. The forest that Eymundur, our farmer host, has planted is the first forest planted since the Vikings hulled down all the trees when they came and it is now thick and dense with brush, grasses, and mosses. The weather changes in an instant from icy cold to warm and breezy with the passing of the clouds overhead.

I had been completely mislead about this place because it is so much more stunning and stark than anything I imagined.

I am in love with this place.

Our daily duty is to dig our fingers into soil and laugh when we find big clumps of the horse shit. We joke about shit alot. ;)
We are planting baby vegetables, preparing them to thrive and mature into hearty, organic, and nutritient-rich sustainence in the greenhouses. We treat them with much care, as we bury their roots into the earth.

What I am treasuring most about this experience is the close community we WWOOFers have; we talk about culture, world issues, our different worldviews and societal norms each day as we plant. We serve each other by cooking and cleaning. We laugh hysterically together at dinner. Svavar, our fellow Icelandic WWOOFer tells us about Iceland´s history, plant species, and culture and we are fascinated by his tales and interesting tid bits. We are all learning so much about our world from each other. Among us are 5 Americans, 2 Germans, an Italian man, a basque woman, a french girl, two Norwegians, a South Korean girl, a british lady, and 2 Icelanders. I am so enriched by learning about each one of these friends´ lives, their backgrounds, their different perspectives on life and enjoying their wonderful, unique personalities.

These last three days here have felt like a year. I already don´t want to have to say goodbye to these people and this land. This feels like home and the place where I´m meant to be.
I praise God for giving me this opportunity and for being able to live life alongside these beautiful people.

Right now, people are buzzing in conversations of different languages and music is humming in the background. Our bellies are full of couscous, spanish olive bread, tzatziki sauce, and chickpea salad. The vegetarian diet is treating me well.

I am planning on renting a car with Joanna to drive to a fishing village on the ocean only 30 minutes away this weekend. I also hope to walk to the base of a nearby mountain and start scaling it once of these days. This property is so enormous, it must be thousands of acres large. There is so much space to explore and it is so safe as there are no insects, no animals or even people. ;)

I will let you all know what´s going on sometime soon. We are glad Eymundur has brought us an air card for the communal laptop so we can check in with our loved ones occasionally.

Much love and well wishes for you all.

AnaMichele

Preparations

This trip has been a long time coming. I have been anxiously anticipating it and planning it for the entire semester and now it's finally here. I am so thankful for all the time that has passed between purchasing my ticket and now. God has taught me so much and blessed me richly with friendships and experiences over the last few months. Now, every test has been completed, every paper submitted and I am ready to embark upon this great adventure.

Here's the plan for my month long trip in Iceland in case you don't already know; I will be volunteering on an organic farm in east Iceland for 3 weeks and after that, I will begin my 11 day backpacking adventure on the ring road back to the capital, Reykjavik.

I am so excited for this trip! I will be updating you all here on this blog as much as I can (I'm not sure what to expect as far as internet access so no promises to post super regularly). Checkout my VSCO grid to see some phone photos of what I see (I'll try to do a photo dump from time to time so you can catch up on where I've been!); http://ana-mation.vsco.co/grid/1

Before I begin telling you about my journeys in future blog posts, I wanted to start by telling you how incredible it is that I've gotten here and what God's been doing to make this dream possible.

I feel SO supported by family and friends to be going on this trip. I will tell you that I was pretty apprehensive after the initial excitement of booking our flight wore off.
This is the first trip I've taken without family or my church family, it will be the longest time I've ever been away from home, and it's the first trip that is neither a missions trip nor family vacation.
It was meant to be my first independent adventure trip, but I now know I could never have done this on my own.
With counsel from my parents and friends' parents, conversations with mentors assuring me of my decision to go on this trip, loaned equipment and gifts from family and friends, and my parents' and sister's involvement in planning and preparing me for it, I am now ready to go on this epic trip.
It really does take a village.
In the last few days, I've run short on funds for this trip that was originally supposed to be uber cheap, but generous gifts from friends and family have come in out of the blue and covered the expenses of some outdoor gear and clothing I needed. My grandparents bought me hiking boots and lots of granola bars a few months ago, my aunt gave me a packable down vest, my grandma gifted me with a packable down jacket, a friend loaned me a brand new backpacking packpack, my parents got me some essential rain gear, and my friends' mom let me use her REI member card to get a huge discount on my purchases.
All the random to do's that have slipped my mind have somehow all gotten done and taken care of RIGHT in the nick of time.

I am overwhelmed by everyone's generosity and care for me leading up this trip. Even my bank tellers and professors are psyched for me to do this. It's an awesome and reassuring feeling to know I am so supported and have so many dear ones covering this trip in prayer and hoping the best for me.

To everyone who has wished me well, prayed for me, and helped me, THANK YOU.
I could not go on this dream adventure without your help.

I'll post sometime soon to let you know how the adventure is going.

Much love and many blessings
AM