Iceland was not my first experience out of the country, nor my first experience in Europe. I’ve traveled to England, France, Germany, Puerto Rico, and the British Virgin Islands, and in each country I found myself recognizing that I was in a foreign country. In Iceland, however, I felt as though I was back home in the mountains of North Carolina, as strange as that may sound. Throughout the entire semester leading up the immersion trip, I was prepared to see Iceland as this modern pillar of economic stability, environmental crusader, and leader in equality. I was anticipating a frozen land, containing people who were leagues ahead of me. What I found was a cold and frigid land but home to some very warm and inviting people, and past the dramatic
…show more content…
But I was confident in the similarities I drew. First off, the hydroelectric power plant we visited reminded me of the Fontana Dam, a place close to my home that I visited several times before. When we were driving back from Vik we got stuck behind a tractor, which back home is one of the most annoying things ever. In Reykjavik, we saw a rather unpopular Ruby Tuesday and all I could think of was the Ruby Tuesday by my grandmother’s house that has only remained open thanks to crotchety tourists who don’t want to put effort into finding a local restaurant. In the film we watched in class I saw the two brothers ripped apart by alcoholism and the struggles that a small town based on farming felt, and it reminded me of home. The most jarring thing, however, was when I entered an Icelandic grocery store and heard Jimi Hendrix and Creedence Clearwater Revival playing over the speakers. For me, that doesn’t get any more like home. Before visiting I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into to, I guess I was expecting an isolated country cut off from the rest of the world. What I got was a globalized country, a country so globalized that I saw my own home reflected. Now tourism might have been a driving factor for this globalization but it still was shocking how non-disjointed Iceland and America were to each
But I was confident in the similarities I drew. First off, the hydroelectric power plant we visited reminded me of the Fontana Dam, a place close to my home that I visited several times before. When we were driving back from Vik we got stuck behind a tractor, which back home is one of the most annoying things ever. In Reykjavik, we saw a rather unpopular Ruby Tuesday and all I could think of was the Ruby Tuesday by my grandmother’s house that has only remained open thanks to crotchety tourists who don’t want to put effort into finding a local restaurant. In the film we watched in class I saw the two brothers ripped apart by alcoholism and the struggles that a small town based on farming felt, and it reminded me of home. The most jarring thing, however, was when I entered an Icelandic grocery store and heard Jimi Hendrix and Creedence Clearwater Revival playing over the speakers. For me, that doesn’t get any more like home. Before visiting I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into to, I guess I was expecting an isolated country cut off from the rest of the world. What I got was a globalized country, a country so globalized that I saw my own home reflected. Now tourism might have been a driving factor for this globalization but it still was shocking how non-disjointed Iceland and America were to each