My adventure of moving to Iceland and the unknown

posted by Cool Adventure Girls!
Sunday, August 23, 2009 at 4:19pm EDT

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I am not sure what adventure actually tastes like, but I guess in this case it would be something between sulfur and fish, well, putrefied shark to be exact. I would even argue that the shark is mainly for appearances, to appease their Viking ancestors for presently being a peaceful, weaponless country. Consequently it was neither the Vikings nor the lack of army, which drove me to Iceland. In the end, it was the unknown.

I came to Iceland with no expectations, no direction, no friends, and no purpose. Upon realizing that it was in fact faster to fly from New York to Iceland than to California, I promptly booked my vacation without a second’s hesitation. From that point forward I allowed myself to not be in control, and let the moment be my guide. Riding through the lava fields and over glaciers all alone made me realize that this moment need not be shared with someone else, because such an intense feeling cannot be shared. In a word, I felt stillness. Stillness in nature, stillness in myself.

When I returned to New York, I knew what I had to do. I mean, you learn more about yourself when you don’t know what you’re doing, right? So I summoned the courage to resign from my secure job in the high fashion world of New York to move back to Iceland; the second time just as prepared as the first: no plan, no friends, no idea.

In cue with the running theme of my life for perfect timing, I came back a week before the world heard of Iceland. Iceland went bankrupt. Here I was, on this great new adventure and somehow Iceland was not prepared for that. So after months of searching and riding the benefits of my equally depreciating dollar for all that is was worth, I returned home, penniless and fruitless. That is, if the point of it was to produce fruit.

Iceland awakened something inside of me. Something I wasn’t ready to let go of yet. During the spring I gave up my hopes of returning to Iceland in the near future and began to think about just that for myself: the future. One thing I have learned from this whole adventure, life is not about finding yourself, it’s about accepting yourself. I had finally accepted those things about myself which I had suppressed for so long. Upon this discovery I applied to the University of Iceland.

As I write you from my apartment in downtown Reykjavik, I can still smell the sulfur in the water and the fish in the air, but most of all, I can still smell the unknown, and I am so happy for that.

Submitted by CAG, Amy Yeager, Reykjavik, Iceland

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There are 3 comments on this post. Join the discussion!

tobba says:

Hi there,

You clearly made a brave and inspiring decision to move to iceland. I love the idea of upping and leaving to such a beautiful place. Well done.

I am in the UK and do not know much icelandic, are there job prospects there?

Please could you tell me some info on what it is like as an expat.

thanks Orla

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 8:01pm EST

amyyeags says:

I appreciate that you consider me inspiring and brave, because sometimes when you are in the process it can feel more like self-doubt and confusion. Right now I am in the "just keep plugging away" mode, especially with this degree that I am studying. As far as getting a job here, I would honestly say that there is a chance that you could get lucky and find something, but, and this is a big but, there are a lot of foreigners that come and likewise cannot speak Icelandic, and are coming with the same backstory and only end up competing over service jobs. Unless you are highly specialized, I would say come for vacation, but not for a career move. With a small country comes a small job market. Despite this brutal honesty, I truly love Iceland, not only for its natural beauty, but for the warmth of the people. They are a hard bunch to crack, with so many tourists and people coming and going, that small town mentality can keep them from branching out to meet strangers. Once they do, however, they are the most honest, nationalistic, and genuine people I have ever met. So I think I shall end with that.
thanks, amy

Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 6:07pm EST

charlyboo says:

Hi!! Your writing is so beautiful and inspiring! My name is Charly, I am a 28 years old married girl from Venezuela, South America.
My husband and I are very interested in moving to Iceland in a year or so. We do own a little business here in our country but we are planing to sell everything and move there. I have send many emails to Icelanders who have posted their email address mostly in tourism web pages, asking question about the legal paper work etc... But so far, no one person has given us a positive answer, actually all of their answers seem so discouraging. However, we are set on the idea. We own a car shop here, my husband has been working in the field since he was 15 years old, so he is pretty good at it, mostly tire brake, suspensions and engine work. I, on the other hand, teach English for a living, and have a little boutique in my town.
I know it may sound crazy but we do not want to move solely for financial reasons, most of all, we want to move because we want to live, get old and raise our future kids in a safe and peaceful environment, and Iceland looks like THE PLACE for us. We are fascinated by the country, its culture, its weather, its natural surroundings... We are planning to go there for Christmas on vacation.
I know the crisis has hit the country hard, for what I have been told, but we know that the situation there in terms of finance is at least a hundred times better than the situation here. We love our country but the political situation is very scary and the crime rate is so high and out of control that one isn't really living, we are struggling to survive day by day.
We would love to open a small business there, we have some money saved in US dollars we intend to use for that purpose. Please! Can you tell me how hard can it be? How one can go about moving there legally? How hard is the process of opening a business there? Is there an agency we can contact regarding this matter?
All the help and advice you can throw our way will be much appreciated. Hope to hear from you soon!

Friday, June 11, 2010 at 12:58pm EDT

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My adventure of moving to Iceland and the unknown

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