7 Years
Becoming Norsk 7 years ago I left the U.S. to live out my life in Norway. I had my newlywed husband by my side, a couple of suitcases and my cat with me. I traded a life of convenience for self-sufficiency. Fast food, processed foods and restaurants for learning to cook homemade meals from scratch. My car dependency for walking much more (and sometimes walking for just the fun of it). I traded bottled water for fresh tap water. Consumerism for minimalism, and a culture of broad class divisions for flat hierarchy. Everything I had known until that point, I left and tried to figure out in my new country. Within that first year, I finished college, married, moved, began language classes, became pregnant and then held a newborn scared out of my mind thinking, "what the hell do I do with this?" It was a lot of change at once and I would not recommend anyone to voluntarily tackle so much at once. I never planned on things happening that way, they just kind of fell into pla...