Iceland: A land of remarkable beauty and that lingering egg smell
Once more I have continued my tradition of traveling over Spring Break. This year's great adventure was as the title indicates was Iceland. Now most everyone I told about my trip to Iceland asked me the questions. One: Why Iceland? Two: What is there to do in Iceland? and finally: Isn't it going to be cold there? Why would you go some place cold for Spring Break?. So let me get those questions of the way before I start telling you what a wonderful week I had in Iceland. First, Iceland was selected as the detestation for this study tour because Iceland still has a rich Folklore community and recently Iceland as begun to incorporate their folklore into their booming tourism industry. Secondly, Iceland is not a barren wasteland. There are museums, art, shopping, amazing food, and the natural beauty of the country abundant. Lastly, Yes it WAS cold in Iceland. Reykjavik is the northern most country capital. That being said it was not unbearably cold. The entire week we were the temperature was anywhere from the mid-40s to the lower 50s. I also ran into a problem with people not knowing which of the Lands I was going to. I was simultaneously going to Iceland, Greenland and Ireland. Let's clear up that misconception right now: I went to Iceland.
I heard about the class long before the description when on the website. The faculty for this class, Kevin Grace and Robin Selzer, were the same faculty from the trip to Scotland I took my Freshman year. While we were in Scotland Kevin let it slip that he would be teaching a class in folklore in the Spring of 2016. I had such a wonderful time with Kevin and Robin in Scotland and thought that learning about folklore would be understanding. When selecting honors seminars I typically choose seminars in the Arts or Humanities to break up the science monotony of my major as well as take me out of my comfort zone to think in a different way. Learning about folklore was interesting as I thought it would be. Prior to taking this class I thought that folklore only described fairy tales, sagas, and other stories that began with "Once Upon a time". Now I realize that folklore can describe anything that is unique to a particular group of people (this is the folk part of folklore). Folklore describe the food, songs, oral tradition, stories or anything that is representative of that culture. After taking this class I now look at the groups I am a part of differently. These groups may they be my coworkers, my friends or my family are also folk groups. Each group has a different set of traditions and folklore that I knew existed but I never recognized it as the folklore that it was. Now that I recognize this as folklore I protect the folklore much more and I am more enthusiastic about spreading the folklore.
For our final project my classmates and I decided to make a video slideshow of pictures we had taken in Iceland. Each student picked a topic related to Iceland such as Icelandic horses, cats or tourism then choose a picture that they think best represented the topic. I put the video together using the software Animoto and the music in the background is "Black Water" by Of Monsters and Men which is an Icelandic band.
I heard about the class long before the description when on the website. The faculty for this class, Kevin Grace and Robin Selzer, were the same faculty from the trip to Scotland I took my Freshman year. While we were in Scotland Kevin let it slip that he would be teaching a class in folklore in the Spring of 2016. I had such a wonderful time with Kevin and Robin in Scotland and thought that learning about folklore would be understanding. When selecting honors seminars I typically choose seminars in the Arts or Humanities to break up the science monotony of my major as well as take me out of my comfort zone to think in a different way. Learning about folklore was interesting as I thought it would be. Prior to taking this class I thought that folklore only described fairy tales, sagas, and other stories that began with "Once Upon a time". Now I realize that folklore can describe anything that is unique to a particular group of people (this is the folk part of folklore). Folklore describe the food, songs, oral tradition, stories or anything that is representative of that culture. After taking this class I now look at the groups I am a part of differently. These groups may they be my coworkers, my friends or my family are also folk groups. Each group has a different set of traditions and folklore that I knew existed but I never recognized it as the folklore that it was. Now that I recognize this as folklore I protect the folklore much more and I am more enthusiastic about spreading the folklore.
For our final project my classmates and I decided to make a video slideshow of pictures we had taken in Iceland. Each student picked a topic related to Iceland such as Icelandic horses, cats or tourism then choose a picture that they think best represented the topic. I put the video together using the software Animoto and the music in the background is "Black Water" by Of Monsters and Men which is an Icelandic band.