Sarah Todd explains how to pick out fruits and vegetables.

Brokers and bedbugs are not unique to cities, but they are native to them, and inescapable. They are invasive parts of the eco-system, specifically the most vulnerable, personal part of it: your home. Neither can be ignored; neither, after you meet one, forgotten.

The price comparison standard for my generation: A pint of cheap beer PDX: ~$3-4 OSLO: $12-14

 

Beginning hourly wages at a coffee shop

PDX: ~$9 OSLO: $22

 

In September 2011, I moved to Oslo, Norway (my mother’s homeland, the country of my birth, and one of the most expensive cities in the world) from Portland, Ore. (where I’ve spent my entire adult life until now, and a young, broke person’s wonder dreamland, minus the jobs). I moved here as an unemployed English teacher, seeking economic asylum of sorts from a state with 11% unemployment. I have a job here (great). It’s also incredibly expensive (not so great). Here are some observations from my time in the Land of Arctic Wealth:

• Spending and earning in the two cities are very different, surprise. The dollar has been weak this year (the exchange rate when I arrived was 5.5 Norwegian kroner (NOK) to $1 USD, so that’s the figure I’ve used for comparison). 

My first real apartment in the city, which I shared with my then-boyfriend, now-husband Mr. Ben, was a 350-square-foot studio in Brooklyn Heights. That would hold just half an adult elephant.