She Simply Wanders

Category: Expat-Living Abroad-Norway

  • Parallel Lives and the Warping of Time.

    Parallel Lives and the Warping of Time.

    I had not planned on coming back. My life was focused in one direction, the United States, and beginning a life in Colorado, closer to family and with my fiancé, transported to the United States from Ukraine via an 18-month stop in Norway. But you know what they say about plans….. Okay, if you don’t,…

  • Fresh Start. An Intro…

    I suppose it has been evident from my silence that I have been struggling with the direction of my blog. My life went from regularly exploring new countries, which allowed me access to unlimited and exciting content to share, to toggling between the United States and Norway. The newness faded, and with that, the inspiration.…

  • Don’t think, just jump.

    The first time that I recited this mantra I was standing on the side of the skiff in Antarctica about to plunge into the 32°F (0°C) water with ice chunks floating all around and snow falling onto my bare shoulders. Since I have been in Norway, I recite this every time I leave the warm…

  • North! South! East! West!

    The train taking me back to Bergen is just pulling away from the station in Oslo city center. My parents are on the ferry leaving for Cophengan in 25 minutes. I think it is safe to say we are all exhausted after two weeks of traveling around Norway using about every mode of transportation possible.…

  • Norway in a Nutshell

    It was disorienting, to say the least, like jumping from one reality into another. My routines were completely upended with the arrival of guests. It required that I switch from searching, investing, and learning to being a tour guide and host in an instant and I cannot claim that it was the smoothest transition.  I…

  • Two Guests, One Hike

    I often think that the answer to everything lies in a good hike. Something about the mixture of breathing hard and sweating, added with a touch of misery and muscles screaming, combined with the need to grasp onto the earth and those things attached to it, while bouncing from here to there, has a way…

  • Untitled.

    For the first time since I started this blog, I am sitting down to write the day before my Tuesday deadline. I don’t have a great reason for this other than that I am tired. I don’t mean the type of fatigue that inspires one to take a nap. I mean the type of fatigue…

  • Just Laugh!

    I had an image this week that perfectly describes what it feels like to apply for tourism jobs in Norway, being that it is one of the hardest countries in the world for an American to obtain a work visa and, well, I have no work experience in the industry! In this image I was…

  • Halfway. In the Grey.

    I try to not dwell on time. There is really no point. The past has already happened, and the future is completely uncertain. Now really is all that matters. Still, I cannot help but reflect upon the fact that I am halfway through my 90-day tourist visa stay in Norway. In many ways, that feels…

  • Blowing it off.

    We started the week by blowing off study and job search and instead spending the entire day enjoying a 15km hike from Bergen to the top of Fløyen, into the backcountry for a long horseshoe-shaped hike eventually leading to the top of Ulriken, and then back down to Bergen. The final section was a very…