The Transcript

Karthika : Welcome Sonia, thank you so much for joining me all the way from Iceland. I cannot tell you how excited I am to be chatting with you today.

Sonia: Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, it’s really cool to do this.

Karthika: Absolutely. So you currently live in Iceland. You live with your husband as you like to say, a Viking and a little baby girl. Right? But can you tell me a little bit about sort of your life’s journey that has got you to Iceland?

Sonia: Sure. So I have been in Iceland for about two and a half years now and the main reason for moving here is my husband, the Viking. So I met Ingimar the traditional way in a bar back in Scotland. He was over on a trip with his mates and I was actually not living in Scotland at the time, so it was quite strange encounter. I saw these kind of rugged looking vikings and asked them where they were from because they didn’t look Scottish. They said Iceland and I responded with “why? nobody lives there!” I mean that was it, got the ball rolling and somehow he managed to convince me to move here.

Karthika: That is such an interesting story and I can almost picture this bar. Now you are from Scotland. So can you tell us a little bit about Scotland and where you grew up and your family?

Sonia: Yes, It’s not that different from Iceland really. Iceland’s a bit more kind of extreme and the landscapes, but I grew up just on the outskirts of Edinburgh, which is the capital city and it’s full of amazing architecture. So I’ve kind of very lucky where we were. We grew up, we have the Pentland hills and their background and gardens so you can kind of roll out up the mountains and enjoy the beautiful landscape, but also go into the city center and see all the amazing historical architecture, which clearly inspires me in my work. I come from a very traditonal Scottish family. We have a clan name, Nicholson, and also has a tartan and you know, all these ideas of Scotland and tartans and Haggis and Cèilidh. And all of that, you know, they’re very, very true in the very strong sense a part of my heritage and my family life.

Karthika: Wow. You just like took me back to when I was growing up, watching movies and reading some of the books. It’s like the whole clan thing and the Tartan and everything. Wow. So that’s really how you grew up.

Sonia: Yes. Absolutely.

Karthika: So what are some of your sort of core memories of Scotland? You talked about the hills and you talked about the architecture, but is there something else that sort of really made you who you are.

Sonia: I think it does sound funny, but when you’re growing up in Scotland, you always do like country dancing at school. Um, and I went on to do highland dancing as well, which is where you do a started dancing and you dance in your kilts and things like that. So it seems like something, you know, out of a movie or whatever, but it was just my weekly hobby. But I did a highland dancing and I danced at people’s weddings and things like that. So, you know, we have all these unique parts of our heritage that are just normal kind of activities for us. We’re very proud to be Scottish and I suppose when you travel abroad to become even more proud of where you come from. And when you have conversations about coming from Scotland, do you talk about things like Cèilidh and whiskey of course, and fish and chips and deep fried Mars bars and all that sort of thing

Karthika: And the accent I love it and I could listen to you forever.

Sonia: I feel like my accent gets a little bit diluted wherever you travel. But that’s good to hear.

Karthika: No, that is true. But I feel like yours is, I mean from what I’ve heard and from the movies I have seen I feel like yours is pretty strong.So what made you decide to leave such a beautiful place?

Sonia: Yeah, it’s quite a hard question actually. Travel was always very important. As a family, we took a family holiday every single year. We’re very lucky when we were growing up and we got to do that and we got to do school trips and all that kind of thing. I also traveled with go guiding, um, but I guess the travel bug really hit me when I took a gap year. So I studied architecture, which is a very long degree at seven years. So I took a gap year at year five between my degree and my master’s and I went off to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, then did a road trip in Australia. So I got to see some stunning architecture, some buildings to. And then returning back to finish my masters, I actually got a scholarship to finish my master’s in Japan, which then increased the travel bug, and then had me coming back to the UK. Then the recession hit and I ended up heading off on a completely different challenge and actually ended up in India. So I’ve kind of, I think I’m meant to always be traveling every now and then.

Karthika: Oh my gosh, it definitely sounds like it. Now you said a few things and I want to sort of backtrack a little. So, you said you had a gap year in architecture and what made you decide to go to that corner of the world? From Scotland, you made yourself go to Malaysia and Singapore. Why did you do that? Why did you go there and not somewhere else in Europe or the states?

Sonia: Yeah, that’s definitely a hard question. I think I wanted to just really push the boundaries and I’d studied some very classical architecture, which is probably more in the European context, but I was very much into iconic, modern skyscraper buildings. I love cities like New York, but I really wanted to go and see the buildings, like the Petronas Towers and the iconic buildings like that and actually after reading them, go into them and get to walk across that bridge and really kind of explore them and get to draw them right in front of them as well.

Karthika: Yeah. And so I have a little side story here because, I don’t talk about this much, but my dad actually worked in Malaysia for 20 plus years and I lived and worked there as well for a little bit. The Petronas Towers are an amazing sightI think I was there right around the time that they were building it and know the inauguration. They let you go up and walk on the bridge. It was just so magnificent. And for a country like Malaysia, to have something like this was, you know, true testimony to moving forward and, you know, kind of being a part of technology and innovation and things like that. So it’s a totally side note. When you said walk the bridge, I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve done that’.

Sonia: Well! I flew into Singapore and, the idea was to approach KL by road so I would see them in the distance. It was quite an extreme planning. But basically a lot of my travels were surrounding buildings and architecture. And that was the main purpose for me was see all of these buildings I’d studied and admired the architects behind them.

Karthika: No, it’s amazing that you did that And what I’m hearing is that you have from young age, known what you wanted to do and everything that you have sort of done or sort of has happened with you, has sort of solidified you more on that path. Architecture and then traveling the world because that travel bug, like you said, was something that you had as a family and then kind of going all over the world. I mean Singapore, Malaysia and then Japan and then India.

Sonia: No, I feel very, very lucky. But I think, but you do have to take the opportunities when they come along and a lot of the different, like each country that I visited kind of reflects a chapter in my life and architecture is always kind of a key player. All of that. So Japan was university time, it was about new technology and the energy and learning and pushing myself and making connections and all of that kind of thing. And then India was, it was part of the transition from architecture to academia because of the recession, there wasn’t really any necessarily any openings in architecture and so I was thinking outside the box and a door open, so I went and I had an amazing time and it was inspiring and you know, in India to a vibrant place, but it was full of challenges too. But the people there are so welcoming and so friendly and they genuinely want to know who you are and where you’ve come from and what your family’s like and often they want to know all of that across an amazing meal.

Sonia: Yeah so there are fantastic things that came out of India as well. And I think all of this made me challenge me but helped me grow as an individual. India is definitely a place where they feel like most, most people are entrepreneurs. So that definitely affected me and made me kind of try to think about how I could set up some sort of business or kind of mini empire of my own from just using the internet. And India definitely taught me a lot of lessons on that as well. And then Iceland is kind of the direct opposite and is a much calmer place and you know, hugely different in, in the context of the landscape and they might have people living here and yet the weather, all sorts of things. So it’s the place, it’s kind of the chapter of my life where I’m settling down and marrying and starting a family and things like that. Quite reflective of chapters of my life, which is quite good.

Karthika: I love it. I love the way you said it and it’s such a beautiful way to look at all your experiences in life, like chapters and you know, kind of in hindsight, you can relate to everything that’s happened specific to that chapter, right? You have gone from architecture to academia to now owning your own business and it’s all sort of flown with your experiences and all these different places. So let’s kind of move into your business. So what do you do now? How have you taken, architectural academia lessons learned from India, Japan, Singapore? How is all of that culminated to what you do now?

Sonia: I’m a whole lot of things. So basically everything is run through my website which is. And that, comes from the idea of designing a building. So I offer lots of different things. So there’s one is the design service where there’s architecture and commissions, planning permissions, all that kind of thing. So the architecture side of it. The next part is for students, which I always wanted a place for students to connect and to almost kind of, feel like they can speak to me about any of their projects in a very kind of casual way. So it’s not like a scary lecturer or professor or something, but there’s just someone that they can tweet or DM, DM on Instagram or email or whatever. I have an E-Course on there, but there’s also tutorials. So if someone wants to just have a 30 minute tutorial over project or something that they’re doing for their dissertation, then that’s a service that’s available to them and we can just face time. So it’s really casual and hopefully will be, you know, much more approachable for them as well. Then there’s also the online shop where I sell all of my work and a lot of that is, you know, drawings from my travels from the buildings that I see in everyday life and those that inspire me. And then there’s also the videos on YouTube where I try to share a bit of life in Iceland. So there’s a whole variety there.

Karthika: Yes. You have your hands full and being a mom of a four month old. Right. I have said this before and I want to say it again. I feel like everything that you have done has been, to me it’s sort of fits like a glove. Your experiences to how you’ve now made it a part of your life, your business. I’m sure it wasn’t as smooth sailing as you make it sound to be. Were there any challenges that you faced as you were sort of trying to navigate these waters of, you know, different cultures, different countries, even your own sort of growth from architecture, academia to entrepreneurship? And can you talk a little bit about maybe some challenges that you face?

Sonia: I think that travel is something that really opened your mind and this is something that almost kind of forces you to be a little bit more relaxed and just appreciate what’s going on around you. And of course culture shock is a huge thing. And so, I think, you know, you have almost like a love hate relationship with wherever you’re living at the time. And that can be your home country as well of course. But yes, you, I think India is probably the one that taught me the most, that you just have to, you can’t fight it. You just have to go with it. And the more you fight kind of cultural issues or just culture shock in general, then the more challenging it can become an actually, if you just relax into it and just let it take over you, then you really do get rewarded. And it’s fascinating the people that you meet and the opportunities that come along and the diversity of the things that you can learn from meeting genuine people. And throwing yourself into the, the actual culture, throwing yourself into the deep end.

Karthika: Yeah. Kind of adopt that, that part of the culture, then you will be rewarded in some way.

Sonia: It’s hard, but yeah, it’s worth doing. No, absolutely. You’re in that situation. There’s nothing you can do about it. So rather than kicking, screaming, you know, kind of make yourself miserable or sick or just kind of go with the flow and life is different and interesting no matter where you are, it’s just perspective, right

Karthika: Absolutely. So let’s come to Iceland. It is this dream destination for so many people. I mean, you touched upon this earlier, the dramatic landscapes, the weather, but how was it really like for a local such as yourself to be living in a place like Iceland? What are the people like? What’s the culture like?

Sonia: It is a very relaxed place. So a lot of the people here are quite kind of chilled out and they might say that they’re stressed, but after living in the UK and India and Japan and they’re definitely not stressed. It’s very much relaxed, calm kind of attitudes. They almost have this saying “þetta reddast” it means kind of everything will work out in the end. And that’s really as the attitude of the people here. Of course you’ve got the rugged wild, harsh landscape and you’ve got the threat of volcanoes and real things like that happening. But it’s quite funny because I live in the capital city and although, you know, we have volcanoes around, and not that far from us, I don’t actually know what the evacuation policy with them.

Sonia: So yeah, I guess I’ve adopted this mentality of ‘þetta reddast’, you do. You do live with things like, I don’t know, I suppose I take it for granted that we have the northern lights and I’m almost driving around in the evening and there they are and I don’t even look up anymore. But we see them from our balcony window. I’ve watched them doing the dishes and so I’m incredibly lucky that I have that because so many people travel here to see them and don’t actually get clear night to even see a performance of the dancing. And so that is a natural wonder that is part of my everyday life. Um, but yes, we do have the, what should we say, harsh winter in the summer. So in the winter I mean right now it’s getting dark and in the peak of winter you’ve got about four hours of daylight in the summer. It’s pretty much 20 to 22 hours of daylight. So quite extreme. It was, it was quite nice that we had Mia in the summertime and learning to breastfeed and get up throughout the night when there was still a beautiful sunrise sunset happening. It wasn’t too bad. But in the winter I think it’s going to be quite a different story.

Sonia: Yeah. But it sounds like the attitude and if your attitude is that it will be all right. Everything will work out in the end. When you were talking about the northern lights in your kitchen washing dishes, I was like, oh my God, isn’t it crazy that I have yet to see them and I’ve been trying so hard, like, you know, I would love to come to Iceland sometime, but even here like kind of getting into Minnesota and, you know, the Upper parts of the US. I really want to see it, but I haven’t been so fortunate.

Sonia: It is so hard to explain what it looks like, but it is an incredible sight to see.

Karthika: Oh Wow. I’m sure. And just, I think just the whole, the way you described it right there, the ruggedness, the landscapes, the volcano – nature almost at its best and everybody just sort of maybe that whatever will happen will be okay. Sort of is a testament to where you are, right? I mean, you’re surrounded by all this beauty. Let’s take in everything and not be stressed out and not worry about mundane things that perhaps really don’t matter.

Sonia: Just worry about the wind.

Karthika: So when you moved to Iceland, did you face any sort of challenges or, or did your sort of path all over the world, kind of prepared you for anything that kind of like through your way?

Sonia: Yeah, it definitely prepared me for it. This is not so challenging transition. So Iceland and Scotland are too dissimilar from each other and they’re similar climate, similar kind of similar nature. But this is definitely an easier place to transition into the Japan or India was and because I’m at a different point in my life, so I moved here, I moved here for love and, and so yeah, I think that that helps. I didn’t move here for a challenge of the adventure or studying or whatever it was for a different purpose. So I think that’s kind of helped as well.

Karthika: Now I wasn’t to ask this question because, you know, we read about this quite a bit with um, Iceland and the, you know, the burst of tourism and, and you know, just the popularity. So do you have any advice from a local perspective perhaps of people who are traveling to Iceland on, you know, how to make the most of the are dead trip but still being kind of cognizant of where they are?

Sonia: Yeah. Iceland is what I mean. It’s obviously a very, very beautiful place and most of what people are coming here to see is the nature. And so it, we have had a huge increase in tourism here. And it is, it’s kind of is obviously that has its pros and cons. And the one thing that I do worry about is because it’s such a natural landscape that people are coming to see and it’s, you know, thousands of people walking over all these natural paths that you just, you do worry about what that’s gonna look like in the future. And so you know, you Iceland hopefully is looking at a way of respecting that and encouraging tourists to respect that. The tourism board here has a polished kind of pledge that they asked us to take, which is called the Icelandic pledge, which is about responsible tourism and looking after the landscape here.

Sonia: So not stepping on the moss on the level because as soon as you touch it, it will die and you know, you’ve got an erupting geysers that are very real thing and there’s not, you know, you don’t want to necessarily disturbed the landscape by putting up warning signs everywhere and red tape around it and things like that. But real things do happen here and you do hear stories. But yeah, I mean there’s also the history of tourism here is that you, the geezers there were a number of years, um, and I think, I don’t know, it was probably 50 plus years back. What they used to do put fairy liquid into the geyser to make it bubble more and erupt higher to perform more for the tourists and I think to perform more often as well. And in the end that actually killed the geyser. So it doesn’t erupt anymore. So I hope that, you know, Iceland actually is a bit more educated on tourism and the effect or the long term effect that can have on the natural habitat here. Hopefully all these things, all these amazing hot pools. And geezers and waterfalls and the glacier lagoon and ice caves and all these amazing things that people come to see will hopefully be here for generations to come.

Karthika: That’s kind of a scary thing when they kind of did that to attract more tourism. But now it’s like sort of gone beyond something that they expected. And so they kind of backtracking and, and we see this happen pretty much everywhere. I know with India and the Taj Mahal, the sheer number of people visiting and pollution it started to kind of lose the whiteness of the marble. And so there was a huge restoration project to, you know, with like scaffolding and all of that stuff because it is so world renowned and you want to keep it. Yeah.

Sonia: Yes it is difficult to get back. And if it’s a natural landscape, once it’s damaged, then that’s really it.

Karthika: So lets come back to your life. So how did your family sort of react to all these changes in your life and you know, now you’ve gone back to Scotland as well. And how has that changed? Did you find Scotland also changed quite a bit since you’ve been away?

Karthika: I think they’re used to me traveling, so been doing this for a decade, between all of the different places, but I come and go back and forth to Edinburgh and visit people. And obviously my family loves visiting me as well and they especially loved to come over to India and a lot of my friend did that too. And with the Internet, the world is so much smaller and facetime is just a normal thing that Mia has seen her grandparents on facetime and it’s a lovely thing that you can just pick up the phone and you can actually have a video call and it doesn’t feel so different from, you know, being too far away from people these days.

Karthika: No, that’s great. Yeah, totally. I mean, I remember when I first moved to the states, I mean there was no smartphones. Email was just coming up. So it was like actually the physical act of picking up the phone and punching in the number and speaking to people. And being a poor student, there wasn’t something that I could do every day. So it was like a once a week I called back home. And now I can’t imagine. I am connecting and chatting with people face timeing on a regular basis. So you’re right, the Internet has made the world such a small place. I mean look at as we’re chatting, I in Chicago and you in Iceland. So how do you find yourself sort of integrating these two cultures in your day to day? Is it like food or art or any other way that you find yourself integrating or, or is it more natural and you don’t even think about it?

Karthika: Um, I don’t think it’s food. Icelandic food is different. Everything has licorice. Licorice is the one key element that brings us together here. Actually we probably more curry in Scotland or Iceland. Yeah. I think food has been a key element that came over from my time in India. But yeah, the relaxed pace of life is probably something that I’ve tried to adopt. I am a bit of a workaholic though, so that’s been maybe the biggest challenge for Iceland. This kind of hibernating in winter time and being much more relaxed and calmer and enjoying pools and northern lights and kind of just taking a bit more downtime is what winter is about. And summer is much more about the energy and we don’t really have sunshine, but we have sunlight. And so you’ve got a lot more hours to do work, so I tend to kind of use those two opposite and kind of try to relax in the wintertime and sort of hibernate eloped. And then in the summer time I go all out. That’s when I’m producing new collections of artwork or whatever project I’m working on.

Karthika: Isn’t it amazing? I mean at the end of the day to realize that so much of our body is so tuned with and our surroundings, right? I mean, you know in India there’s no winter, it’s just hot and hotter. So, you know, you’re kind of on the whole year, right? You are constantly doing something whether it’s projects or work or you know, life and home, there’s always something going on versus a place like Iceland or even like in Chicago when it starts to get cold, I feel myself sort of visibly slowing down.

Sonia: I know. It’s really interesting. Yep. I think that brings us to a fascinating concept because you really do feel like the earth is coming alive again and you get the energy from that as well.

Sonia: Absolutely. I mean, just the fact that, you know, you get up at 5:00 in the and it’s already so bright outside you’re ready to tackle your day versus in winter when it’s like dark for us here at like 3:30, you’re like, okay, I’m just going to have a slow evening, you know, put on some music or just chill out. Not like freak out. I wish we, I wish we could all sort of experienced that moving with the flow of nature and seasons and the earth, you know, because there’s a lot of lessons to be learned there.

Karthika: So what is next for you? I know you’ve had lots of things happen in the past few years and most recently your daughter, so congratulations on that. What are your plans for the future? I mean, what lies ahead for you?

Sonia: Well I think the Icelandic mentality is kind of wearing on me because I don’t really have like a long term plan, but yes, the short term is that I’m working on a range of Iceland inspired prints at the moment and so I’m looking to get them in shops and hopefully get a range of postcards as well and yeah, moving into different products, so concentrating on the online shop and getting some physical products in shops here as well, which is kind of a first for me. So that’s pretty exciting.

Karthika: That is, that does sound exciting. And a lot of your artwork like the pen work. It is just like a black and white, right?

Sonia: Yes it is architectural type of drawing. So, um, yeah, pen and ink, I don’t often put too much color in my work, but in the new range there is some color coming into there. So I’m kind of stepping outside my comfort zone there.

Karthika: Then you go, I think that’s exciting. Thank you so much. So now this has been such an incredible treat. I mean you took me along your journey. I was there right there in Scotland, you know, probably surrounded by men in kilts and you took me along to India and I walked the Petronas bridge with you. That was an amazing experience and thank you for that. And Iceland, I mean, Gosh, I really want to go. And I’m like, oh, I can stay with Sonia. So thank you so much. This was such a wonderful conversation and I wish you the very best on everything.

Sonia: Thank you and thanks for having me.