MaiaThis year started out pretty damn bad with a bad flu and then someone I thought was a very good friend going nuclear for basically no good reason and using trauma I'd told them about in confidence to hurt me as much as they possibly could. I'd already arranged for moving to France by that time and for that and other reasons it felt good to be able to just leave all of Norway behind. There's a few good people there but for me it's a ton of very bad memories 1/
Moving countries is really expensive. Luckily my father (who was also a terrible person, but that's another story) had recently died and left me some money. Me and my actual friend who I was moving in with found an apartment, and she moved in while I was taking care of the last few things in Norway and then I finally moved to France 3 months later. We didn't have internet for the first 8 months, so that was a thing, and lots of paperwork to take care of 2/
There were a lot of complications along the way, including the norwegian bank DNB who was convinced I'd get a french tax identity the exact same day I moved countries (it's impossible for me to get that until january 2026) and were also convinced that they never made mistakes despite me giving official proof to the contrary from norwegian authorities. After 2 months of getting harassed by them (their customer service was downright abusive) they had to admit they were wrong. 3/
I also had a lot of trouble even finding out who to send my paperwork to in France to get things in order for health insurance etc. I basically fell between two chairs so to speak, so I couldn't send them to the obvious place, and nobody seemed to know where. After 6 months of that someone finally gave me a link to a website that seems to have been the correct place. The online form glitched when I submitted it and couldn't be fixed but things seem to be progressing. 4/
In October we finally got internet. That was a relief. I never thought it'd happen.
Also I almost cut my finger off in an accident. Having no health insurance here yet and Norway seemingly having cancelled my Norwegian one on the day I moved out (they assured me before I moved that wouldn't happen), that got expensive, but I think I can get it covered. More paperwork.
My finger is fine, by the way. It's still numb but most of the feeling is back and it moves fine. 5/
Despite all of this, moving to France was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I'm much happier here. Also, all of the paperwork is progressing and I think that'll work out too. It just takes time. My finger is healing.
I'm actually learning french somehow. I made some small games again this year, and I'd like to get back into art and music (it's been a while). I think I can, now.
The future is looking bright.