Iceland, Part II: Far in the eternal yonder sea, your island wakes.

At times, Iceland doesn’t seem like a real island as much as it does a fabrication from man’s fantasy. Just the name itself evokes wild and vivid images of swirling snow and glistening landscapes—a truly fitting abode for its equally mythical settlers, the Norsemen. A trip there won’t exactly dispel these notions either, for Iceland is a destination that lives up to its mystique. It’s an island sitting at the crossroads of dimensions, between the fiery licks of Múspell and the misty realm of Niflheim, an island in close proximity to both heaven and hell. In Iceland, you may very well find yourself caught in the midst of a midnight snowstorm on your way to a soak in a natural hot springs cavern…as we did! And you’ll be left the next morning wondering if it had really happened at all.

My interest in the lonely little island was first perked sometime around 2006, when I began toying with the idea of spending a year abroad in high school. There was something very romantic about leaving behind the messiness of domesticated Fremont, California, for a small village of 2,000 surrounded by a vast expanse of untouched wilderness. I had a clear vision of skipping stones on the Icelandic black pebble beaches, but ultimately, I could not commit myself fully to go there, for fear of it being too small. Fremont, my “town,” had a population of 200,000, and so I ultimately chose to go to Norway, with Iceland as my second country of choice. (On a side note, picking countries to live in as an exchange student is one of the most exciting things ever!) But ever since then, there was no doubt that I would one day visit it. While in Norway, my friend Doug even inspired me with the idea of cycling around the island with nothing but our rucksacks and our bikes; it’s something I’m still looking forward to doing.

I didn’t dare dream, however, that I would get the opportunity to go there so soon. So imagine my surprise when one of the Academic Travel destinations offered by my college for the fall semester was to Iceland.

I’ll never forget that feeling of being there the first day, staying on the outskirts of Grindavík at the Northern Light Inn. The view outside from our bedroom window looked as foreign as Mars: pumice-like lava formations as far as the horizon stretched, dotted here and there with patches of moss. Nearby, pillars of steam rolled steadily upwards from the geothermal power plant, an odd metallic piece of engineering that jutted out from the brown barrens. And on our walk back in the evening from the Blue Lagoon, all was still, and dark, and i ro, except for the heavens, which shone with spotlights of orange in the distance, not from reflection of the sun, but rather from the glow emitted by the nearby towns in Reykjanes…

A Leap Year Reunion

I think it was on Tuesday when I made the decision to go to Munich for the weekend. It was one of the more spontaneous decisions I had made as of late. The reason for my trip was to visit my friend Jono, a fellow exchange student I had met during my first experience abroad in Norway, way back in 2008. Jono is from New Zealand–North Auckland to be exact. (Apparently the ‘North’ in North Auckland is quite important for clarification purposes.) It’s also been four years since we’ve last had a real conversation.

And damn, how things have changed and happened! Our weekend rendezvous made me realize also that we’ve all grown so much since our year in Norway. Even though it’s only been four years, it’s the difference between high school and adulthood. In addition to sharing our stupidly brilliant exchange stories, grown-up subjects like work also sneaked its way into our conversations. While I’ve been decaying at school, Jono’s been working as a deckhand around New Zealand, Australia, and New Caledonia. (Seriously? I dreamed about honeymooning there…) And in a couple of days, he’ll be on his way to Antibes, France, in search of more nautical work.

It seems that our lives’ paths could not have diverged more, but one thing that we’ve managed to keep in common was that neither of us settled back down to our former lives: I haven’t been in the US since winter 2009 and he’s managed to maintain a pretty mobile life. This of course, makes for some very entertaining stories. (The recipe for that would be: take 1 foreign location, add girls/boys, stir in some alcohol, shake well! )

We spent the entire Saturday chatting to the backdrop of Munich, going from café to restaurant to café to café–Munich has some great eats! I was particularly fond of this one stand by the train station called Sushi Wraps. Oh! And I also had my first German beer! (On a side note: This morning before my flight back to Milan I also had breakfast with my host for the weekend, Chris, at a wonderful little location called Eisbach. Their eponymous breakfast dish is to die for.)

So thanks, Jono, for this fantastic weekend! Vi sees neste gang i Lugano!

My First Published Article!

I have some exciting news! Recently, my article was published on BizCEOs.com. I did a little segment on travel and tourism marketing, and I’m very happy to report that it got picked up.

I was inspired to write an article about travel marketing for my Integrated Marketing Communications course after visiting some of my AFS friends’ hometowns after our exchange year in Norway. During these trips, I realized,
1. What different worlds and lives we come from (and yet we all came together and got along for a year), and
2. They lived in beautiful places!

It was truly an incredible experience to see their original lives–who they hang out with, where they go, what they do for fun. I can call myself privileged to have seen so much with a local (and more importantly–a friend) by my side. I saw these cities in ways normal tourists could never see.

I guess perhaps my favorite thing about these visits was getting to see their “home life.” For some reason it makes me really excited, like when I realized that Jessica used gas burners in her house which she had to ignite with a match…or learning all the different names of Italian crackers and biscuits from Francesco’s mother. (I’ve forgotten all of them, unfortunately…) Or getting to meet Xenia’s dog (which I am convinced is a toddler trapped in a dog’s body). Or even something as simple as going to get morning bread with Balázs in Hungary. Isn’t it strange how these little insignificant moments are often the ones you remember the most?

So I guess I’m starting to realize the sense behind the saying, “once an exchange student, always an exchange student.” Odd to think that my decision to study abroad a one year would still be relevant to my life two years later. None of this wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been an exchange student. I wonder what kind of an article I would’ve written then…

Slow Stream…

…of news coming from me, lately, I know. It happens every year…I see it as a biorhythm, and right now I’m in the trough.

Nothing bombastic has really happened lately, but life has been treating me nevertheless wonderfully. I go to class, I go to the gym, and on the weekends I go up to Thurgau. Splitting my time between Italian- and German-speaking Switzerland, I consider myself more than lucky.

Most recently, I’ve been killing weekend-hours on René’s Playstation 3 playing Final Fantasy XIII. Now that’s something that I never thought I would do. A little background information: I was an FF freak in elementary school. I spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours hacking away at monsters and grinding my characters’ levels. I did all the side quests and got all the final weapons. I had to play the perfect game. Now, when FFX was released on the PS2, I was more or less resigned with the fact that I would never get to play the new installments. It was sad, but okay; it had its corner in my childhood.

So you can pretty much imagine what happened when I got my hands on XIII. Homework? Dinner? Sleep? “Ja, ja. In ten minutes…” I even think my sex drive went down. And the only solution–I must finish this game as soon as possible and retake my life in my hands!

Okay, less nerd talk: Next weekend is Easter and I’m going to speak some French! I’ll be visiting my friend Marie and spending the weekend in Lyon. We met during our exchange year in Norway (the first time), and have kept in contact ever since. Last year, I saw her twice–once in Colmar in December and once in Paris in February. We froze our asses off both times, and to this day France to me is just a very very very cold place. Maybe it’ll be warmer this time around…I hope so. In any case, I’m looking forward to seeing her again and learning more about France.

Now it’s time for bed: hope to post some pictures up very soon!

Hælga Er Borte

Wow, this weekend passed by so quickly…has it really been three days? I guess it has.

I spent a good part of Saturday with my friend Gayoung in Farmandstredet, the nicest mall in perhaps all of Norway. I don’t think I got a chance to see here the last time I was here, in May, so it has been a while! She’s one of the only people form Horten Videregående that I’m still in touch with, and it was nice to get updated on her life. She tells me that next year, she will most likely be moving to Oslo, although she also really wants to study in Trondheim’s NTNU. We shopped a bit, and then went back to Horten for a kebab. One thing’s for sure: Norway definitely has better kebabs than Switzerland.

After dinner, I came home and tried some of Pappa’s home-brewed beer. Despite being only 4.9%, I have ridiculously low booze tolerance, so I felt its effects pretty good. Mamma suggested I should train. I’m not so against that idea. After all, I plan on going to next year’s Oktoberfest.

Mamma also made some excellent food for the guests we were having over. I missed the entrée and the main course, but I got my share of dessert: baked pear halves with mint chocolate and vanilla ice cream. It’s so good to be back home.

Sunday, I continued my weekend of kos. Marie woke me up asking if I wanted to join her in delivering “breakfast” to Pappa in bed for Norwegian Farsdag. Of course I said yes and we served him coffee and chocolate and the four of us huddled in one big bed for a while. I was pretty sure I fell asleep, because afterwards I went down to my room again and slept until breakfast: scrambled eggs with leek and lox on rundstykker.

Afterwards we took a promenade down to Horten’s harbor. It was close to zero degrees Celsius and we walked for an hour; to be honest, I don’t think I would have ever done that alone. (But I did hike half of Liechtenstein in February alone…so I wouldn’t say never.) The rest of the day went in flashes: I skyped with René, I ate dinner (pork filet with red wine and coffee sauce, mashed potatoes and broccoli), I watched two episodes of Bones, and I watched Søndagsfilmen with Marie. And now it’s 2 AM again as I type this!

I have to sleep a bit, because I plan on leaving for Oslo early. I have to go to BI for a briefing on exams, and then I have to pack for two weeks in Thurgau with my sweetheart! Only good things are ahead!