Let me first preface this post. I've been meaning to get this finished for the last few days, but Holly and I have been going through Iceland at a pretty solid pace and each time we roll into camp sites, it's time for bed.

Part 1 - The Defense

Where to start, I suppose the beginning seems reasonable. We (Holly mostly as I've been busy with school) have been planning this trip since last year. The planning has happened with varying degrees of vigor, but for the last few months it has been operating in full swing. I have, in parallel, been working hard to try and finish my Masters of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering before we leave. Though the deadline has been stressful at times, it's been good to have a reason to finish it... otherwise I'm sure I would've drawn that out for many more months. Anyways, Thursday July 11th, I defended my thesis to a panel of 4 committee members. My family all came to watch me getting grilled. And grilled I got. It was harder than I expected it to be, but I'm glad it was. I suppose I'm somewhat of a masochist when it comes to things that require an extra gear. In sports I've always been more of a fitness than talent kind of player. I got through the defense unscathed, albeit mentally drained and returned home to promptly prepare for emceeing a good friends wedding with my best friend.

Part 2 - The Wedding

After having a video call with my co-emcee, I proceeded to reformat our emcee timeline document to make it more readable and concise. I have this nack for getting hung up on small details. In this case, I stayed up late getting that finished. Next morning, up early to catch some #FerriesWithFriends. Arrived at the venue Friday afternoon and setup ourselves in our Rustic Cabin. I heard that we had one outlet and obviously decided to bring the espresso machine. For those who don't know, I'm a huge fan of coffee. Had an absolutely terrific time at our friends wedding. Those who came the day earlier partook in a nice greek dinner. It was so amazing getting to visit with all of the family and friends of people that you care so much about. I also found that as an emcee, I was far more comfortable introducing myself to anyone. I really wish I was good at that normally, perhaps I can take transfer these skills forward. The wedding the next day was incredible. The weather was amazing and the location was stunning. We celebrated late into the night, capped off by a little late night swimming. I was hoping that the emceeing duties would leave me in a better place in the morning. However, I think it led to a little ill-advised game of catch-up.

Part 3 - The Trip

Back home and we had family come into town to visit us before we left. It was really great to see everyone, though I was a little pre-occupied getting the revisions done for my thesis and trying to get everything submitted before I left. I submitted my final revisions and literally an hour before we set out from our house to the ferry I got an email saying that all of my degree requirements had been met. Wow.

🙃

I should note at this point, that I had this great idea of pre-lagging myself (in terms of jet lag) so that we could make the most of our time in Iceland when we landed. So I went to bed and got up at 2 am and worked on a few last features for this travel blog (the Map!). So by the time we got on our flight, it was 7 pm and I was starting to get pretty tired, and excited about having a great sleep on the plane... Unfortunately, I ended up watching a movie (Martian) and didn't end up falling asleep. I did pass out for an hour or so at some point but woke up in a mix of sweaty forehead and air conditioning. Needless to say, my pre-lag exercise did not work this time and led to a very perculiar first day in Iceland... but I'll leave that for the next post.