This past week, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Iceland with my classmates and professor of my Climate Change and Glaciers course! During both Session 2 and 3, each class takes a week-long trip to another country relating to their course content – I had friends go and study renewable energy in Germany while others went and studied medical biotechnology in Scotland! These Study Tours are a great way to apply what we learn in the classroom to the real world.
Our Icelandic adventure began last Sunday as we flew to Reykjavik and immediately hopped on a boat to go whale watching – one of the highlights of the trip. While it was a little rainy, we saw so many animals – harbor porpoises, minke whales, puffins, and even a humpback whale! My friends and I had so much fun trying to spot the whales and getting to dress up in the super flattering neon yellow whale watching attire.
Later on in the week, all 25 of us piled onto a bus and went on a three-day road trip down the southern coast of Iceland towards the Vatnajökull glacier. We stopped at gorgeous waterfalls and lava fields along the way, but some of my favorite memories were on the bus with my classmates – fighting over the last of the cookies and trying to solve impossible riddles.
Of course, being in Iceland, we had to stop at a couple of glaciers. One day, we even went into a glacier. Being able to see the glaciers up close and listen to Icelanders talk about the very real signs of climate change they have witnessed in past decades was an amazing experience and it allowed my classmates and I to truly contextualize everything we had learned in the classroom so far.
Visiting Iceland was a once in a lifetime experience and it made me even more excited to come back to Copenhagen and continue to learn about glaciers and climate change throughout this last week of class!
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