E8: Naked In Snowy Iceland!
Hello, world. This is your captain speaking, and welcome to the next episode of the Hire Yourself podcast. So we are cruising at a very cool altitude, for this episode. I am actually beaming in from Northern Iceland, and it is still very much winter up here. I'm literally watching the snowfall right now.
Ryan:It says it is 2 degrees Celsius, but I can see snow. It says there'll be rain falling soon enough, but it's definitely, snow at the moment, which means that possibly where I am right here is a bit more chilly and it is a bit of a microclimate. You can just cross over the mountain and have a completely different experience with the weather. So yes, welcome. It's been a while.
Ryan:Last summer actually was when I did my last podcast and that podcast, if you remember, was talking about where would I go to next. I was recording in North Cyprus at the time. And if you'd like to have a catch up, just, check out the previous episode where I was in North Cyprus and visiting my brother who hadn't hadn't seen for 7 years. And, yeah, told you a little bit about that situation and and what an interesting place that it is on the north of Cyprus, versus the south. So check that episode out if you haven't listened to it.
Ryan:But today, yeah, I am in Iceland and let's talk a bit about how that's happened. So I have to catch you up very quickly on the last, yeah, year and so, like, half a year or so. Basically, I was talking about where would I go to next from Cyprus because I had lost my apartment in Ibiza. It's actually become very, very difficult to rent and to afford a bithen accommodation. So a lot of us have actually moved or left even if it's temporarily and so I went back to the island because of course I have my belongings there and that was a bit of a tricky situation because I had to get my stuff, figure out what I was doing with it and still find somewhere to live while I was there temporarily and it turned into this very interesting multi month adventure where I was there from September 2023 all the way till the beginning of February 2024.
Ryan:And so what I was looking at was where would I go next from Cyprus? Would it be Europe? Would it be Asia? Or would it be North America? Those were the places that were on the map, so to speak.
Ryan:And here I am in Iceland. So how did I get here? That is the question. So today, I'm just going to catch you up a little bit on what I'm up to. I've gotten to Iceland, because a few people are sort of wondering and going, what are you doing there?
Ryan:Four places. Do you do know it's cold right? I'm like, yep I do. However, I am super super happy, that I came here. I'm loving it and I will explain more.
Ryan:So let's rewind to the beginning, shall we? What is the purpose of this podcast? I've called it higher yourself because I am someone who has always been of the mindset that my current reality is not where I need to settle. And I can always improve my situation and I can be as ambitious as feels right to me and go for my dreams. So what is the goal?
Ryan:What is the height I am trying to achieve? I think it's very important to be clear on that, so people understand what this journey is about and why I'm inviting you along. So I am Zimbabwean born and raised. That is another conversation for another topic, because a lot of times I have to explain why I speak English so well quote unquote, but English is my first language and in Zimbabwe it is the official language. So just to start there, because often I know some people may be asking, oh Zimbabwe, he sounds like he's British or whatever it may be.
Ryan:But if you listen close enough, you will hear my Zimbabweanisms, which aren't as easy to detect as perhaps a South African cause people tend to be able to tell when someone's from South Africa. They've got a stronger accent. I'm just obviously just hooning it here but there's an Afrikaans, influence when it comes to South Africa and Zimbabwe is a very British influence along with the African influences. We've got our African languages. We've got the African's influence from South Africa.
Ryan:We've got a whole mix, but a very British colonial background. So that's where I'm from. A wonderful country, incredible people. I'm a big advocate for talking about where I'm from because a lot of people, aren't really aware or know much about Zimbabwe. So if you have never been, check out Zimbabwe, go and visit because South Africa is just next door, and it's not far to get to from there.
Ryan:Anyway, so that's where I'm starting. It's important to to, understand. That's where I begin. That's where I was made. That's where I was raised.
Ryan:And where I'm going is I am building a global international career as a musician. That is my number one. I love music. I've always loved music. I've been a musician my whole adult life and it's one interesting and mind blowing and super fulfilling, journey that I've been on.
Ryan:And I'm still in recovery from Brexit, from the pandemic, so financially things haven't been great. Never mind things like where do I live? What am I doing? So what I'm doing now is I'm getting back on the horse, so to speak. And last summer, as you know, I was singing on a cruise ship in Norway, which was super cool, amazing, great to be back on stage.
Ryan:And now it's time to get to the next level of that. So that's where I'm trying to get to and what does that look like? It looks like traveling the world, playing music, singing my original music and songs of which I do have a lot on the streaming platform, so check them out if you haven't. Ryan Correa is the name you want to look for and ryancorrier.com is the website. So building that basically is what I'm doing, and I'm doing that alongside being a life coach.
Ryan:So that's why this podcast is called hire yourself because I would like to also help people, achieve their own personal higher goals that they have. And I'm going to show you how I'm doing that with my own story. So that's basically, yeah, a little bit of a background as to what this is all about. So where am I now? I'm in Northern Iceland.
Ryan:Why? Because what became very apparent for me after Cyprus was that I need some time to be still and to just put together the various pieces of my business and businesses so that I can start creating more income and therefore feed the music and my career as a life coach. So that is the key right now. That's what it's all about. So I knew I needed to go somewhere, which is why I was thinking of Asia because it's cheap to live there.
Ryan:Though there are visa issues because if I was to fly to whichever country, I would only be able to be there for a month and have to extend depending on the country. Some of them would be 3 months. So I would still need to do a bit of moving around, which isn't ideal, but it's better than being stuck somewhere where I'm just trying to keep the lights on and I'm not getting anything done for myself. So I ended up looking at Australia because it was the perfect time to be in Australia. When it's summer over there and it's winter in Europe, That didn't go as planned, because it's a lot more expensive to fly that far away.
Ryan:So what happened was that I have a friend who lives in Iceland, and they are currently traveling. And so I was offered to come and live in their apartment while they're away. And I I felt into that. I was like, oh, Iceland. Not sure I'm gonna go to where it's colder.
Ryan:I'm trying to go to where it's hotter, AKA Australia or Asia. Right? So I, I felt into that, and it was it was a yes in the end. I was like, you know what? It's going to be easier to get to Iceland flights wise, a lot cheaper, and that's what I can afford right now.
Ryan:So I got on a plane and I went through London actually and I really need to talk about my decision around Iceland and why it is that I'm really happy here, especially. Right? So I'm a sun baby. Right? I come from Southern Africa, and temperature is a very big, big part of what I look for when I'm, looking at where I want to live or be.
Ryan:Right? Climate, all that kind of thing. So I used to be based in Denmark before I moved to Ibiza in 2018. And at that point, I used to be there usually around summertime, springtime and would avoid winter at all costs if I could, until I worked my first winter in Copenhagen and that's where I was pleasantly surprised because I was coming from Dublin at the time. I was in Ireland checking out Ireland.
Ryan:So all of this was me trying to find a home because I was like, where am I gonna live where I can just create music, build a bit of a a base, you know, and so on. So Dublin didn't go so well. It was so cold, and I was freezing, and I didn't really take to the atmosphere either. Maybe it was just the area I was living in, but it just was very confronting and quite outwardly racial. That was very interesting.
Ryan:I was being heckled by little Irish boys, on their bicycles, you know, walking to the shops. And the one particular time I thought, what is going on? There were teenagers, like, maybe 16 year old boys, 16, 17, who were literally heckling me as I was walking past their house, and that house was, like, 2 doors from where I was living. So these people were neighbors, basically, of who was hosting me. And I'm like, what is up with this?
Ryan:And and my friend was so angry, and she knew the the young lad, of course. But I was like, jeez. There is some craziness going on here. And it makes sense if you all remember not long ago, there was this clip that went around of this young dark skinned lady who was doing gymnastics and won a medal in Ireland, and she I remember that was something that didn't exactly rub me the right way either about I about Ireland in that sense. But I love Irish people though.
Ryan:That's why I was there because Irish people are amazing, but even as many of my Irish friends will say, Ireland itself isn't exactly a bright and breezy place to live. So I decided to go to Copenhagen for the winter and get some work, and I did that expecting to struggle and I didn't because they know how to do winter. So that's my point here is that I discovered this years ago that winter in Scandinavia or the Nordics is actually quite comfy, and they have different words for it. In Denmark, in is it Norway? And so my point here is I'm very comfortable in Iceland.
Ryan:Like, indoor heating, well insulated, that I can sleep naked. And I'm literally right now in the living room completely naked. Because I woke up and I'm like, I'm going to do some journaling. And so I feel very comfortable here in an apartment that I have all on my own for a little while, so I can put my stuff together and figure out my next move. Whereas, the week I spent in London on my way here, I went to London and I celebrated my birthday in London, which was amazing.
Ryan:I had a nice dinner with some friends in Waterloo. And then I did, a workshop as well, a mental wellness workshop called Cultivate Calm in North London, but I was freezing. It was cold indoors as well because in in the UK, you can't just have heating on 24/7. You can't afford that. Whereas here, it is on 24/7.
Ryan:Just like in Denmark, you would switch it on in October and then leave it on until the spring. And you could obviously turn off and change the temperature as you need it, but there isn't this feeling of like, oh my gosh. I need to just have it on for an hour and then switch it off because then my bank will be broken, with the bills. So it is expensive in, the Nordics. However, it's all built into the system.
Ryan:Like, you know, people deserve to be warm. So it's affordable in that way. So here I am feeling more comfortable than I was in London, first of all. And before that I was in Ibiza, where I was also freezing because I was having to sleep with not just clothes on, but like a jumper and with a big duvet. And then often a blanket on top of that so that I could not freeze.
Ryan:So and this is an Ibiza. So for me, I knew saying yes to this offer wasn't going to be an issue from a temperature point of view. And it's just yeah. It's beautiful. I'm sitting here looking at the the hills outside in the mountains.
Ryan:They're all covered in white and there's a thick layer of snow on the ground because we've been getting snow daily. And here I am inside, nice and cozy. So I just wanted to share that because a lot of friends know I'm here. We're like, dude. Dude.
Ryan:Why do you know how cold it is up there? You don't like cold. And I'm like, correct, but I am very, very cozy. Thank you very much. Being outside is fine because I'm not outside much.
Ryan:And the shops are walking distance, so I get, you know, into my jacket, and then I take the walk down to the store, do some groceries, and then I come back and I'm wearing gloves. So that little walk is fine. I've done I've been adventurous. My friend was an amazing hostess when I landed. She was just, very eager to show me around her town, and we went to the Forest Lagoon, which is the a hot bath sort of place that they've built.
Ryan:It's very new and modern, and the water was very hot. I was a bit like, I don't know if I'm gonna do that. It's like snow out there, people, and you want me to get, you know, naked, and put on my swimming shorts and then come into the water that is outside. I'm not sure about that. But I I enjoyed it.
Ryan:I was in there for 2 and a half hours, I think it was, and just overlooking, yeah, the fjord and seeing the mountains in the distance where the ski slopes are. And there's a bar attached to the bath so you don't have to even come out of the water. You can go straight to the bar and order drinks. There was a sauna, and there was a cold pool that I certainly did not at all even consider going into because that's not happening. So I've done things like that.
Ryan:My first night here, I was, lucky enough to see the northern lights, which at this point is, yeah, a bit of a gift as my friend even said. Like, you are lucky that literally the first night you get here, you see them, like, she hadn't seen them for a while. So, yes, I'm having a bit of an adventure. They took me, her and her sister, to some falls, waterfalls nearby. I think they're called the goddess falls or Falls of the Goddesses.
Ryan:And it was, like, 11 PM at night. It was full moon, and it was fuck off cold. That was literally what I called it. It was cold. But I was being adventurous and we were there to see the falls and it was Yeah.
Ryan:It was pretty cool to say the least. Excuse the pun. And it's it's one of those where just taking my gloves off so I can take some pictures, Only a couple of minutes, if that much, is all I can handle, because then my hands get so painful. It it's pain. It's not cold.
Ryan:It's so, like, ouch. My hands are so frozen and I can't feel anything else that I have to put my gloves back on and I've gotta, like, do what I can frantically to, you know, get them heated up again. So it is cold, don't get me wrong. However, I'm quite happy indoors and seeing everything from inside. So I have been adventurous as well.
Ryan:So I've gotten to see a bit of the local, scenery and met some local people. I've been to some cacao ceremonies, which is like a plant medicine, like a cacao plant that comes from various parts of the world like South America, and gong baths, sound healing sessions, ecstatic dance. So it's been nice to connect to with the conscious community, locally. Some nice people that I've met and some local musicians that I've met. I've been to a local bar, venue where I watched a rock band playing with 3 women, all on stage.
Ryan:I can't remember what they were called, the killer queen bees or something like that, the killer bees. And, so, yeah, that's what's going on in Iceland. So I'm here to build the next tier of this exciting journey, and I already have ideas of where I'm going to next, and we will get to that in a future episode. But I just wanted to stop by and just let you know where I've been, what's been happening, and why I'm naked in Iceland. So thank you for tuning in.
Ryan:I will leave it at that for now. Happy 2024. I wish you a fantastic beginning to the spring, which obviously isn't quite here in Iceland yet, but I believe that in the next month, while I still plan to be here, I will probably see spring also arrive. So let's see how that goes. And in the meantime, thank you for following the podcast.
Ryan:If you haven't already, do subscribe so that you can keep in touch with the following episodes, which should now be quite quick in succession because I'm trying something fairly new, which is I am now recording this podcast on my phone. So let's see how that sounds, And I'm not going to spend a lot of time trying to edit out all the um's and the a's because what I've also done is I've realized that I need to sort of turn down the perfectionism in order to actually have a bit more results and momentum. So I'm going to just get things going, get the news out, get the podcasts going, and at some point, I'll be able to take the time to just, yep, upgrade the quality, but I think it'll be fine. It should the phones are good these days, so I think this will work out. Alright.
Ryan:And then, eventually, I will then go to video podcasting, which would be awesome, because then we can hopefully see each other. I'll have guests on the podcast. I did record various bits and pieces since Cyprus, which I may still upload because I haven't had time to edit them, which is why I'm doing this instead. I'm like, okay. Sit down, record it like a voice note, and then just put it up, and then get the party started.
Ryan:So that's me. It's been a pleasure to spend some time with you. I hope you are well wherever you are in the world. Feel free to obviously reply or message me if you are listening, so that I know you're out there. And let's have some fun in 2024, and stay tuned for more music, because as I said, that is the goal and more life coaching.
Ryan:The relationship coaching aspect of things is going super well. I've launched some interesting projects, which I will talk more about as we go. But just so you know, if you're really interested in the relationship coaching, aspects that has its own podcast, and that is on the podcast page of ryankoriya.com and terminal 3 is where it's at. So check that out, and in the meantime, stay well and chat soon. Ciao for now.
