The time has come and I’m leaving for Iceland tonight. To say I’m looking forward to this trip would be an understatement. I’ll be in the country for 2 months and I’m beyond excited. For the first six weeks of the trip, along with 15 others, I will be participating in the Snorri Program which is an opportunity for young people living in Canada and America of Icelandic origin to visit, discover and experience the country.
The program itself is split into three different chunks. The first two weeks are based in Reykjavik where we live together, study Icelandic language, culture and history at the University of Iceland and explore the city and surrounding areas. The reality TV junkie in me can’t help but think of the opening credits for MTV’s The Real World… “This is the true story… of seven strangers… picked to live in a house…work together and have their lives taped… to find out what happens… when people stop being polite… and start getting real…The Real World.” … I’m pretty certain the only reason why this comes to mind is the whole strangers picked to live together bit… Ok, reality TV tangent done.
The following three weeks we all go our separate ways to live with relatives and work. I just found out that I get the opportunity to live and work in two different places! Lucky duck I am! The first week I will be living with Magnús, his wife Kolfinna and son Jóhannes at Norðtunga farm which is close to Borgarnes. I’ve been told that Magnús’ grandmother and my gr. grandfather Guðmundur were siblings. Pretty cool. I was speaking with my grandfather last night and he said that he was pretty good friends with Skúla (Magnús’ dad) when they were kids. Neat. I’ve been told that I will be working on the farm, I don’t know what I’ll be doing exactly but I will likely be working with sheep. The next two weeks I’ll be living with my grandfather’s sister Arndís (Adda) in Kópavogur. I’m not too sure what I will be doing there yet but they have been in contact with the municipality and its looking like I might be gardening or working with children. Looking forward to finding out. Anyways it should be a great time and I’m really looking forward to meeting family!
The 6th and final week of the program is a bit of an adventure (even though the whole trip is an adventure). All the Snorri’s get together and go on a tour of the country. I don’t know too much about what/where we will be going but horses, glaciers, geysers and waterfalls, hiking and boating, bathing in hot springs are all on the list – and we end the tour at the Blue Lagoon!
After that I say goodbye to the people in the program, have a couple days to myself and then my grandparents arrive, then a couple days later my dad will show up. It will be nice to visit my grandparents and have my grandfather there to show me where he grew up.
Oh boy oh boy I’m so excited! I had a hard time sleeping last night… actually I fell asleep pretty easily but woke up at 3:40 and tried my hardest to fall back asleep, not so successful. But I’m pretty much all ready to go, just going to grab a shower before we head to the airport!
Iceland here I come! Happy Dance!
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