IF I HAVE WEAKNESSES, DON'T LET THEM FIND ME NOW.. @travelingtreehero - Tumblr Blog

A year ago I was filled with all kinds of excitement and nervousness for my term abroad in China. I didn't know what expect. Now that I'm back,and I miss absolutely everything and everyone.

Remember when I said the wind was so strong it would hold us up. Here's me, falling into the wind. And then me standing in the center of an old Althing campsite

We got sweaters and took photos in the fjord

Misty day in Copenhagen

Sunset at the Harbor in Reykjavik

Gulfloss

#more thingvellir

Thingvellir

Reykjavik

Group Lunch at the Infamous Hot Dog Cart in Reykjavik. Infamous because Bill Clinton had a heart attack like the day after eating here, also it was featured on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations.

Vikings and Sagas and Hot Dogs

As a kid, I grew up on Nordic mythology. Were talking, 6 year olds who knew Loki turned into a horse and had kids. I think I was the only 9 year old in Texas who knew who Snorri Sturleson was. What I'm saying is, when DIS offered a course that had a week long study tour to Iceland, there was no way I wasn't signing up for it. The professor, Janis, I had for another course. Shes extremely enthusiastic and kind of reminds you of a fairy godmother type figure in fairy tales.

Until you break it to her that the geothermal pipe she's hugging isnt connected to an underground water source like she thought, but is instead a fake put up by the government.

Poor Janis. Anyways, at the end of April we set off from Copenhagen for Reykjavik and all its wonders. We arrived at 11 at night, 1 am Copenhagen time, and then went on a Northern Lights tour until 3 am Iceland time. I barely remember the lights. But they were there, they were green, and I was freezing with a camera that doesn't work in low lighting. So you'll have to trust me on this. We also saw a ghost. After sleeping in the next day we started the real stuff. Which was driving out to Thingvellir, where the Althing was held in the Viking Age. I gave a speech behind the Law Rock on Icelandic Law and its portrayals in the Sagas. Mainly Njal's Saga, and I fought with the tour guide because he's about as big a fan of Njal's saga as I am, and he gave me a hard time. Later that day, we saw the Gulfloss, these huge icy waterfalls, and we also saw a Geysir that, unfortunately I forgot the name of. The wind was absolutely horrible the entire day. Horrible. There's a photo of me tripping and the wind held me up. We played games of 'trust fall with the wind'. Have you ever had boiling hot water from a geyser blow twenty feet over by the wind and into your face? Well, I havn't but a classmate of mine has. I'm not going to do a day by day breakdown of the trip, because that gets boring pretty quickly. But the trip all in all was amazing. We rode horses over lava fields, saw the sites of Egil's Saga, had a viking feast and made a lot of Game of Thrones jokes while drinking mead. Reykjavik is an amazing town, and incredibly picturesque. We had hotdogs at the infamous hot dog cart, and attended a lecture by scholar Terry Gunnel at the University.After, I had the honor of sitting next to him at a dinner and discussing everything from theater to folklore to linguistics. The dinner went on for two hours and not once was there a lull in the conversation. By far a highlight of the trip for me. All in All, Iceland was everything I thought it would be. It was beautiful, and empty, and just a wonderful place. The Blue Lagoon at the end wasn't half bad either.

Tumblr apparently took away that great photoset option so, sorry in advance for the single photo posts or really big long ones. Not sure why tumblr did that

Blue Lagoon, Iceland

S'been a while

Apologies everyone. The thing about being here in Denmark is, nothing really exceptional happens. During my time in China I was always busy, or doing something, so I thought a lot about blogging. Here, I was just classes and not much of a social life. So I forgot about this travel blog. I think, the more I've been here, the more I've definitely realized I had a better time in China. Switching to a European Humanities was good in the sense it let me 'get it out of my system'. I love Norse Mythology, and Icelandic Sagas etc, but living here is totally different than China, and I miss China. I like a scholarly approach to literature and classic but I'm not a scholar. I need to be out, doing things, interacting with people who don't live their life behind a desk. In the mean time, I have done some things though. I went to Berlin, and Potsdam, and then spent a week in Iceland. So, I do have photos to post and some things to say, no worries there. I have one week left here in Copenhagen. The Semester just kind of, happened. Finals are done, and its a strange numb feeling. No farewell dinners like Beijing, no last minute sight seeing plans, nothing really. The most I have is a 17 hour layover in Reykjavik.

lesrobesrouges-deactivated20191

Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you- it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you… Hopefully, you leave something good behind.

Anthony Bourdain (via sorakeem)

The Fabulous Mr.Ma

Mr.Ma was the best bus driver, this video doesn't do him justice. He drove that enormous bus through a dried up orchard when we got lost on a mountain side. He drove that giant bus up and down a mountain, and through narrow narrow village streets. Sometimes in the pouring rain, sometimes with donkeys in front and behind us. Still, this is the only video I have of him driving and I think its in Taiyuan, Shanxi. The music was of course, his choice and he frequently sang along. Mr.Ma also had fantastic taste in noodle shops.

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IF I HAVE WEAKNESSES, DON'T LET THEM FIND ME NOW..