Day 11-Sunday, May 22nd

Sunday we left our third hostel beneath the u-shaped valley at 9:15 AM. The weather was beautiful and sunny. The sky had the most baby blue I have seen on this trip. Our first and only geologic stop was at Borgarfjordur, where three craters are. We got there at 3:04 PM. I was exhausted from the bus ride and I also had to pee badly, but what's new? The craters are a part of the Ljosufjoll volcanic system. The lava is alkali, olivine, and basalt. They are younger than 3,600 years old. The weather there was chilly from the wind. It was cool to see the meandering streams again and the grooves in the mountain. I am learning a lot of new geology terms and am slowly recognizing the sights we have mentioned. We left the craters at 5:00 pm and I still had to pee but I was holding it well. When we got to our fourth hostel, I was so excited because we are staying in an Eco-village. I was super pumped and giggling as usual. After our yummy cauliflower soup dinner, Emily Anderson and I talked for a while in our room. Yes, there are around 10 rooms in this beautiful modern house and there are two people to each room. Each room has its own bathroom and shower. Very high style! It is amazing. After a while, we went outside and took pictures of people in our group playing soccer in front of our hostel. I stayed behind after everyone went inside and gazed at the pink and orange sunset. One of my favorite things to do is to watch the sunset change colors. I was crying from the gorgeousness and from reflecting on this past semester and from all the valuable friends and lessons I have learned. ALSO the moon was the most beautiful moon I have ever seen. It was a harvest moon! It looked like it was on fire. It was huge and bright. That sight also brought me to tears. Last night was my favorite night so far because it was the first night I have felt the most at home in a hostel. I love this trip and the people and the things I am learning. More blogging to come!

Day 6

Tuesday, May 17th Day 6

This is a mini blog to tell about my scary, fun, exciting adventure up a tall mountain behind our hostel in Grunderfjour. Yesterday was the craziest day yet for me. When we started our trek to the mountain I would have never guessed what the outcomes would be. I pushed myself further than I was expecting to. I was afraid of going straight up the mossy, rocky slope but tried to tell myself it would be okay. We had to cross over icy snow going up as well and that was very scary. I did not look down. I proved to myself, once again, that I am stronger and braver than I think I am. Also that I need to have more faith in myself. I'm so thankful for everyone that I hiked up to the top with (half of our group went up), especially Sarina, Elly, Brightin, Harmony, and Jessie.They stayed behind and helped me after my slide down on the ice with Elly, which was totally awesome except that my hands were so numb and stinging that I could not feel or move them. I didn't wear gloves when I slid down so my bare hands were in the ice the whole time. My hands have never felt that much pain. I started to see blood coming up from my skin getting torn off by the ice. It hit me once I got off the icy slope (we were still going down the mountain) and I started crying and couldn't think straight. Thankfully Elly was my little mommy and helped me put my gloves on. Also Sarina and I had an awesome convo hiking back to the hostel. Overall, the hike was well worth it!! Here are some pics from that day.

My wounds are slowly healing. :)

Day 5 Monday, May 17th

Today, we all ate breakfast at 9. We left at 10:30 and drove to the town Bourgarnes and parked in a parking lot with a grocery store/convenience store/post office(;)) We were planning on staying there for an hour or so but ended up staying for about 2 1/2 hours because our bus broke down. I bought a bag of trail mix and a banana smoothie in a bottle. Then, most of us went to the gas station convenience store and looked around. We tried to push the bus but sadly it did not move haha.

We decided to eat lunch in the convenience store but i decided to get a vegan sandwich in the grocery store and I called my Mom (Hi Mom!). Our new bus finally came and we drove to the hottest thermal springs in the world (whoa)! A lot more sulphur smells aka egg smell. I was feeling very tired because I'm slowly catching up on my sleep. After that, we drove to this church where one of the first thermal pools is.

There was beautiful greenery everywhere. We hopped back on the bus and and drove to the ice cave information center where we got on their once NATO used bus to drive up to the cave. The bus was huge and obviously military looking. The views up to the cave were indescribable. There was snow everywhere. Packs and packs of snow. There were mountains with packed snow. The sun was shining bright, making the snow glisten like crazy. I had no words. We finally got up to the entrance of the ice camp. It was hard to tell where the snow/ice ended and where the sky started at the horizon. The clouds overlapped/blended in with the snow. We went in the cave and stayed in there for about 2 hours. Our guide was the bomb-an older guy who is an avid climate change believer told us that we (the young people) will be the ones that save the planet, which was pretty awesome. Langjokull, the name of the glacier means long glacial. Into the Glacier project took 6 years in preparation with help from Iceland's top engineers, geologists, glaciologists, artists, and architects. The glacier ice in the cave is about 30-35 years old. The whole cave tunnel is 500 meters long and the largest of its kind in the world. When we left the amazing ice cave/glacier, we got back in our bus and drove to a waterfall nearby and spent at least and an hour there exploring and awing at it. We left there and drive back to our hostel and awed at the beautiful sunset. It was the best and most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. I was amazing and it brought me to tears. We got back at midnight and hadn't eaten dinner yet. We were going to make chili but we decided instead to make sandwiches and head to bed. It was a long and tiring day but one of my favorites so far.

Our guide is in the orange.

Some LED lights in the ice-melting is minimal because the lights eventfully turn off. They don't stay on all the time.

Outside the ice cave

Me at the entrance:

Day 3 May 14th, Iceland

Day 3: Saturday, May 14th 

I got up around 8 today and we left the hostel around 9.  Our first stop today was highway 42. We looked at rocks with lots of layering.The color of the rocks were light brown/dark brown/grey. Their textures were smooth and fine grained. After we studied the rocks, we took pictures of the beautiful scenery. The ocean was gorgeous and shimmered in the sun. I also got the lucky opportunity to pee on a patch of grass behind this big rock that was close to the edge of the rock cliff. That was a funny moment. I've learned to laugh at myself because I do many weird things. Our second stop was Krysuvik-Seltun which belongs to four volcanic systems that lie along the eruptive fault. Then we quickly drove by the Green's Lake. The third stop was a cute small town called Grindavik where we ate at this gas station. I had fish and chips which were good but I wasn't feeling more fries because we have eaten a lot of burgers and fries/bread but I ate them anyway. 

Our fourth stop was the lighthouse where we rock hopped down close to the shore. I learned about pillow basalts that are in between and on parts of the rocks. They form under water through rapid cooling that creates glassy structures. Water pressure causes it to form. The huge rocks were beautiful, especially the ones in the ocean. The ocean was a pretty blue and shinned from the sun. There were sea stacks far out in the ocean where land used to be. The lighthouse was white and had a little of red at the top. We then went to the famous touristy geothermal spa/pool. It was clear blue and foggy. The water was hot and put me in a zen state.

 Our dinner tonight was the best because it was healthy! :) I had a burrito bowl with quinoa and beans and other yummy veggies. On our walk back to our hostel, we walked in this park that was beautiful. It was so green and there were pretty flowers and trees. I kept thinking how I wish I could run on it but there is little time and I didn't bring my tennis shoes. Now, after I write this, I'm going to do some quick exercises and take a hot shower and go to bed. It is currently 11:15. I have learned a lot today about geology and saw the most beautiful mountains and scenery I have ever seen. I'm so grateful to be on this trip and to learn about the land of fire and ice. 

Growing Cities CLP

This clp was definitely one of my favorites. I love seeing organic farmers who love doing what they do and love giving back to the community and to the environment.

The "Growing Cities" documentary is a film about urban farming in America and how it changes the way we eat. I think that this film made me feel that everyone deserves to eat healthy, mostly low-income families, have the right to have access to healthy food. This film also showed that getting kids involved in the garden teaches them life skills that they maybe would not learn because of family and neighborhood reasons. Gardens and nature in general, I think, brings people together and makes them realize that they are the same. They all truly want good in this world and want to help people in need. Everyone deserves access to healthy food. Everyone needs another option besides McDonalds.

This film made me want to start an organic garden in a poverty area in the U.S. and grow fresh veggies and other various organic healthy foods so they will have the choice of having organic food. This is a serious issue and I truly believe that we can start more and more urban gardens and we can feed the whole country on organic farming.

Working on the farm, or really just cleaning the produce for CSA.

I went to help at the farm today and I cleaned a BUNCH of produce-kale and collards and chard. It was fun and very destressing and Amanda brought me and Allie chocolate chip cookies. They were awesome.

This is me attemping to take a selfie...

TR Farmers Market adventure :)

Me and my friend Mitchell went to the TR farmers market tonght and I got amazing yummy cinnamon swirl bread and Mitchell got a bbq sandwhich(yuck). We listened to the bluegrass band for a while-it was fun! But cold out! Fall is here :)

This broken winged butterfly made my night.