Summer in Iceland has well and truly started by now and the What’s On staff are busy little bees. For this busy season, we’ve got a new addition to the What’s on family, our two interns, Ian and Eve. They’ll be spending the season travelling around Iceland, seeing, doing and experiencing everything this magnificent country has to offer. Lucky for them, right? Well, lucky for you too, since they’ll be using the opportunity to share it all with you guys as well. Add WhatsonRVK on Snapchat to see what they’re up to, and follow our Instagram as well. To get to know these guys a little bit better, we asked them to tell us a little bit about their expectations for this experience:
Eve’s Expectations for Iceland
‘Eve, wanna hear a fun fact? Did you know that Iceland is actually green, and Greenland actually icy?!’ Yes. So I’ve heard. A gazillion times to be precise (or maybe not so precise). This convo starter actually helped me greatly with forming a more accurate image of Iceland. It’s not snowy all year round and ice-skating to work doesn’t actually happen. Icelandic nature can be surprisingly green and after seeing a fair amount of images and videos, I was more than ready to hop on board of a plane and fly off to experience it all myself.
So, what do I expect of my time in Iceland? What do I expect to see, experience and feel? The upcoming two months are going to be quite the wild ride, meeting people from all over the world, visiting mind blowing places and absorbing scenery you can hardly imagine actually exists. I expect goose bumps, mini-culture shocks and a crazy amount of fun. Slight ‘is this real?’s, tiny ‘no way’s and major ‘lucky me’s.
In short, I expect the upcoming two months to not only expand my geographical knowledge, it will also help me become a more knowledgeable version of myself. Say, an Eve 2.0. And upgraded Eve. Eve+. EVEn-better (okay, I’ll stop now).
Oh, and I will probably feel slightly Icelandic when returning back home. It’s up to me to figure out what that means, being slightly Icelandic. I’ll let you know when I’ve figured it all out, but so far it seems to include nothing but good things!
Ian’s Expectations for Iceland
As long as I can remember the island of Iceland has been calling for me to come aboard its shores, but upon finally arriving here it dawned on me, what exactly was it saying? What was I hoping to find here that I couldn’t find elsewhere? Maybe it’s due to the fact that Iceland is so separated from the main world that I find myself hoping for something new. Let’s say an adventure I could never foresee.
It’s kind of funny how sometimes we end up so consumed with our day-to-day lives that we can completely forget to smell the roses, ignoring all the beauty at our fingertips for a mess of worries we invite over instead. Well, I can tell you that I am someone who has lost the ability to even see the roses at times, feeling the weight of man-made ideas over the natural world. I am here in Iceland to remind myself to wake up and remember that I’m playing by nature’s rules, not my own.
One thing that has always stuck with me is the old Taoist art I have seen in my past, always depicting vast landscapes with huge mountains and large open fields. Animals will be frolicking about the land as an extension of the earth, and somewhere among it all stands a man. He is just a small part of the big picture, no attention is demanded from his presence and no importance is placed on him. This is to represent the belief that man and nature are one, we do not take the centre stage nor do we crumble away from the show. We are part of the world, and it is part of us.
Despite what I may believe or hold dear, I find the connection I once had with the world has gone, popping in for moments here and there, but never staying long. Perhaps this is what I am expecting to find hidden beneath the lava fields, just behind a waterfall, or even atop a glacier. Hopefully, I will find it in the eyes of a puffin or a whale that just won’t stop breaching the surface. In the end, however, it is not what I see, but what sees me, and when the time comes for me to knock on Mother Nature’s door, I hope her presence will be felt, reminding me who calls the shots in this game called life, and who is just a pawn hoping to make it to the other side.
