Settled In

Góður dagur. Good day.
I flew from Wilmington, North Carolina to Boston, Massachusetts on Wednesday, September 2nd. My friend Caleb picked me up from the airport and let me crash on a couch in his new apartment right near downtown. We took some intense walking tours of the city and I bought a few items that I forgot to pack in my rush. I like Boston from what I saw in 28 hours. I met the rest of my CELL group members in the International Wing of the Logan Airport on September 3rd. We introduced ourselves and waited for our group leaders, Katherine and Karin, to arrive. We checked our baggage, went through security, ate airport food, and all crossed our fingers hoping that hurricane Earl would not effect our travel plans. Happily, we all boarded the 747 Icelandair jet around 9:00 pm and lifted off promptly.

I barely slept on the flight - too excited. After five hours, I watched the sun rise over the left wing of the plane and saw the jagged green edge of Iceland below. We landed in Keflavik at 6:30 am, claimed our bags, walked through customs and met our Icelandic guide, Katrin Magnusdottir. We hopped on an aqua bus and got a 1.5 hour tour of the southwestern Iceland countryside. We went through Reykjavik (the capital city & most populated area), Selfoss (the closest big city to Solheimar), and Borg (Solheimar's neighboring town where the children attend school). We finally arrived at the sign reading "Solheimar: A Place in the Sun", and drove down the red volcanic rock road.

The CELL group is staying in a large guesthouse named "Brekkukot". We were immediately greeted with a breakfast spread at our giant 15 person table and then got a quick walking tour of the Eco-Village. We were all exhausted so we returned home and tried to combat jet lag. There are three double rooms, one of which I am sharing with my meditation buddy Jason, and the rest are single rooms. There are two bathrooms, a large kitchen, a common room with couches and chairs, a sun room and a balcony. The views are breathtaking, and my breath is indeed taken from me each time I exit a building. It is soon replenished by crisp, clean, cool air. The weather has been comfortable and an enjoyable change from the humid Wilmington summer. It is unpredictable and sporadic though, with high winds, frequent rain spritzes and quick moving clouds. I already recognize positive connections with everyone I am sharing this experience with and we are all still feeling blissful and thankful for this opportunity. It will be an interesting and wild experience, full of figuring out how successfully feed 15 people every night, how to integrate into a self-sustainable 100 person community, breaking the language barrier and learning Icelandic, along with many other unpredictable things. Dinner is ready now though, so I'll update you with many more specifics and some photographs as soon as I can.