A Frame on Life

Tag: moving

  • Moving back to Aotearoa New Zealand

    Moving back to Aotearoa New Zealand

    I’m flying back to Aotearoa tomorrow after moving to Sweden to study followed by a 2.5-year unplanned detour to Norway. I want to leave some reflections here about this particular transition. But I’m struggling to find the words. How can I express the ways that the pandemic’s presence and being dislocated from home and having…

  • Scandinavian Shift

    Scandinavian Shift

    April 2020 was a strange moment to move north of the Arctic circle. Almost all of my international friends who could were finding their way home, wherever that meant for them. I was no exception—at least if I classify a home location as “wherever my parents are”, which I am privileged to be able to…

  • After the rain – my first month in Sweden

    After the rain – my first month in Sweden

    A few days before class on my way home, I step off the train to discover a deluge. I have over a kilometre to walk, I’m wearing shorts and a light windbreakder, and the water gods are having a ball. The cold, unrelenting pelts are all I can hear and feel and I try not…

  • Välkommen!

    Välkommen!

    Nothing says välkommen quite like housemates who haven’t met you yet but all come out to pick you up at the airport anyway. You get back at 9pm, They show you around your room and the next day make you Swedish pancakes and smoothy for brunch. I’ll spare you the accommodation search saga for now…

  • For starters: a Decision

    I’ve been avoiding calling these two  moments–the one at halls and the other in Ana’s kitchen-dining room–beginnings outright, because they marked a beginning in a very round-about way.