This is the second part of a multi-part series on Day 1 of the 2026 Iceland Intensive Learning Trip. To read the first part, click here. To read the third part, click here.
Iceland, we experienced, was ever-dynamic, with its rugged coastline and canceled flights.
By Ali S. and Liam R.
After breakfast with Björn, we headed out on a bus to the Reykjanes Peninsula, in southwestern Iceland. Ahead of our travels, we were able to reach out to Björn to ask him about the Reykjanes Peninsula in preparation for our trip. He was kind enough to write an entire blog post for us, explaining how unpredictable Iceland can be, with incredible wind storms, plate shifts, volcanic eruptions, and sinkholes. Walking along the peninsula we were able to see exactly what he meant: the various acts of nature Björn had described had created the sunken oceanfront and collapsing beach head before us. Iceland, we experienced, was ever-dynamic, with its rugged coastline and canceled flights.
We were fortunate enough to be able to climb through a small tunnel made out of cooled lava, formed over thousands of years. As the tunnel opened up, we were exposed to a wide panoramic shot of the ocean. Along the way we knocked down cairns, artificial rock structures which displaced cooled lava, often pieced together by tourists. While some cairns are protected Icelandic cultural relics, others are simply heaps of rocks placed together by tourists, disrupting the earth around them. We were more than happy to knock down the tourists’ cairns — the human-made piles seemed almost offensive in the face of Mother Nature’s towering rock formations.
After returning from the peninsula, we stopped by a memorial to Icelanders lost to the sea. The memorial was locked off for tourists, but because it was established by Björn’s great-great grandfather, we were able to go inside. Björn taught us about the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue (ICE-SAR), a massive volunteer organization responsible for saving civilians across the island. We learned that Iceland doesn’t have a standing military, and that this volunteer organization of ordinary carpenters, teachers, physicians, and the like put down their work to step in instead, heeding the call of their country to rescue sailors at sea or tourists stuck in the snow. As a Quaker school rooted in the principles of peace, community, and stewardship, this different take on public service made us think deeply about the different ways that value of service is honored across the world, whether that be the active service of our military at home, or the service of ICE-SAR in Iceland, abroad.
Finally, our constant exposure to nature helped us reflect on the Quaker SPICE of community. While it’s difficult to connect with nature — to establish human connection with the inanimate — as a group we were able to better connect with each other by bonding over our shared awe for the beauty surrounding us. Depicting the grandeur of nature’s wonders is difficult in words, but translating our emotions may be even harder.