Greetings from Iceland!

Hello lovers,

T-minus manymorehours til I am back in the US of A.  And my bed, I hope.

I'm writing to you from the airport in Iceland!  I "woke up" (didn't really sleep however, flying always stresses me out) at 430am to take a taxi for my eight o'clock flight out of Paris ... layover in Iceland!  It's 24 hours of travel, but as my mom reminded me yesterday, "You're a traveller!  You're used to it!  It'll be fine!" 

If only.  Yes, I am used to travelling, but I still have not mastered this fine art.  When I took my first solo trans-atlantic flight, 6 years ago, my mom advised me to put on my "don't talk to me face."  She then lamented that she was unsure I even was capable of making this face.  Let me assure you, I am.  When I travel, I generally slip into a mode of "I hate everything".  This means a perpetual frown and only speaking French, as I want to distance myself from other loud Americans.  Yes, I know it's snotty.  It means that I often travel in silence, which suits me just fine.  This year I've also tried to work on being om and zen (or accepting circumstances as they are, and what I can and can't control), so that means that my time waiting for the flight attendants to arrive at the check-in desk at 530 am was a mix of me thinking "I HATE EVERYTHING" and "Be calm, Samantha."  (Yes, I beat the airline employees to check-in).

Anyways, so I am still not good at travelling.  Case in point: I forgot to put my perfume/liquids in their own bag.  You'd think that after minimum 6 flights a year (Boston/DC/Boston/DC/Boston/DC) I would have learned this by now.  Second case in point: once I got to Iceland I accidentally left the airport and had to re-enter through security. 

Anyway, here are some observations I've made in the past few hours I've spent in Iceland's airport:

• It is very clean
• Very minimal vegetarian options in the two restaurants (everything has fish)
• There seem to be less travellers than people who work here
• Elves are a thing.

Yes, that last bullet point says elves are a thing.  I am not being overly tired and delusional.  I picked up a newspaper (in English) and the article that caught my eye discusses a member of parliament who recently moved a 50 ton boulder to his backyard - "a more ideal environment Arni says, for the family of elves who inhabit it.  Yes, a set of grandparents, a couple of parents, and three children, who stand no more than 80 centimetres tall..."  The article is from the Reykjavik Grapevine, which bills itself as "Your essential guide to life, travel, and entertainment in Iceland."  Research after reading the article has informed me that elves have been believed to interfere with construction projects and that the Elf School in Iceland, or Álfaskólinn, has a human headmaster.

With that, my friends, I leave you.

See you soon,
xoxo
Samantha