Grindavik

Once again, writing to you past midnight but it still feels like 7pm because the sun is still setting! Attempting to wind down as I have to be up at 7am for breakfast and prepping for our first education session for the participants!

Today was a wonderful day!! The participants arrived and I finally got to meet them all in person :) I had only known 1 prior to arriving here besides Ellie. But we all quickly moved from strangers to friends, international travel really has that effect!

Ellie and I woke up at 8am and reviewed all our content and logistics for the week before meeting up with everyone. I am thrilled to be co-teaching 2 of the workshops! One of the relationship between planners and photographers and another on multi-cultural weddings. We see completely eye to eye on all things weddings so comparing notes and merging our ideas was quite enjoyable! We then packed up from our hotel close to the airport and headed to our home for the week, the Silica hotel! It is connected to the Blue Lagoon, one of the 25 Wonders of the world… just insane!! It was absolutely breathtaking and our rooms are unreal, overlooking the lava fields. The hotel even has a private portion of the Blue Lagoon for guests to enjoy! When we arrived, I helped to coordinate checkin (assigning room numbers, overseeing paperwork signing, placing gifts for the attendees in each room, reviewing our itinerary with the hotel manager, etc.). I am absolutely loving my role as it feels like the perfect mix of seminar logistics (that feel oh so familiar from my days of coordinating the Baha’i inspired educational seminars and camps), wedding planning, and teaching - 3 of my passions! PLUS being in a luxury setting in a new country?! What a dream. I would definitely love to serve in this same role for future seminars of Ellie’s and others!

After check-in was complete, we headed to the main area of the Blue Lagoon to kick the workshop off with a bang! It was a really fun way to get to bond with one another. There was an engaging “story teller” who educated us on the beautiful history of the Blue Lagoon, Iceland facts and even a hysterical story about their strong belief in elves! I honestly wish I could have taken notes the entire time so I don’t forget but here are a few highlights to the best of my memory:
- Over 800 years ago, this area used to be all trees and a community. Due to volcanos and magma pits, it was destroyed and is now a massive lava field.
- The community referred to the area as the evil lava. I can’t remember the details of the middle part but the water is geothermal and they were puzzled to why it wasn’t breaking the lava rocks down but just staying afloat. They discovered that the silica (a mineral) is the water was creating a sealant that blocked the water from draining and created the Blue Lagoon. The color comes from a mixture of the algae and silica and how it reflects light!
- As they started to use the water for bathing (as is a huge part of Icelandic culture) a man with psoriasis discovered the water was healing it! When he told his doctor they came to take samples and indeed discovered that the mixture of minerals treated psoriasis and other skin diseases. The doctor purchased it in 1992 and in 2012 it was named one of the 25 World Wonders!
- My very favorite fact is that still today any Icelandic person with psoriasis can use the facilities free of charge 😭
- When I see you in person if you want to learn more, I can share what I learned about how it stays clean (drains every 40 hours and algae eats the bacteria!), the full elves story and how they use geothermal energy (the country generates 99% of its electricity from renewable sources 🤯)!

We ended our time at the Blue Lagoon with face masks and some refreshing drinks! I had a delicious green smoothie with mango :) We headed back to the hotel to get ready to head downtown for dinner (where I got to learn how to operate a Super 8 camera!!) and then back to our hotel for the Meet and Greet (I enjoyed a yummy sparkling tea 🥂) as our final participants arrived! After that was done, Ellie and I went to the classroom space and reviewed all the logistics with the staff. It’s insane that even at 10pm everyone is still in full swing due to the sunlight! The final photo is what it looks like outside now. We came back and reviewed our sessions one last time and had a really good conversation reflecting on our own opportunities for growth, personally and in business. Now I am ended the night with my new roomie Jen watching the volcano live feed 🤣Read more