"I always knew I wanted to study abroad in college. I never had a particular country in mind, I just always pictured it being a main part of my college experience. Travel has taught me to be open, adventurous, flexible, welcoming, accepting, and curious. I prefer to travel ‘all-in’ exploring, and getting a taste of the locals’ life, as opposed to being a tourist in an all-inclusive resort. The exposure of traveling has given me confidence to travel on my own, as well. I have been given a taste of travel, and have now been working on crossing destinations off my own bucket list.
I was a freshman when I first saw the MAPS Iceland program. Iceland has been on my travel bucket list since I saw it on The Amazing Race at age 12. The class itself, a Perspectives course in Energy Sustainability, perfectly aligns with my minor in Sustainability Studies and fulfills my (P) requirement. I saw this as a win-win-win, and attended every informational session even though I wasn’t eligible until the end of my sophomore year. By then, I was all signed up for the trip, had paid my deposit, and was ready to go. However, COVID was still in effect and all MAPS sessions for the summer were canceled. So, this had been a long-awaited trip for me!
Because this is something I knew I wanted, the expenses were worth it. With Iceland being one of the most expensive countries to travel to, I recognized that the amount I had to pay on top of my tuition was actually the cheapest I’d get…for all of the excursions and activities we’d do abroad. I started saving up early, and applied for, and received, a study abroad scholarship to help me get there.
Being in Iceland felt like being on another planet. We traveled around the entire country in a 12-passenger van, staying in a different hostel each night. I loved this fast-paced, always-on-the-move travel, because we got to see the diversity of the country in its entirety. We saw beautiful waterfalls, mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers, towns, cities, cottages, horses, puffins, and sheep. I loved exploring new areas and seeing how they compared to the last location. Similarly, the hostels differed – some allowed us to meet and share spaces with other travelers, while others were more individualized, like the cabins we rented in the countryside. In more rural areas, we cooked our dinner in the hostel, and in the towns we would go out to eat. The strangest thing I ate was Iceland’s fermented shark. Coming from a Greenland shark that can live to be 400 years old, the shark meat is actually very toxic when fresh. When fermented, it has lots of omega 3 and protein, and is a delicacy in Iceland…not exported anywhere else in the World."