Confessions of a Prior Veggie Eater

Halla Folkens (learned a new saying today *insert high five*)! So today's post will probably be one of the more odd ones for me to write. Only because I don't think I have ever really written about this kind of thing before, but hey there's a first time for everything!

So as you may or may not already know, I was a vegetarian for about the past two years and off and on for short periods before that. Sure, I will admit that I did enjoy a few In and Out cheeseburgers between that two years, but hey that's a very strong temptation. Now, of course, I'm most definitely not a vegetarian. 

Reason for my decision to go, veggies up, being to be able to enjoy awesome Norwegian food! Also, I didn't think it would be right to go into someone else home and demand a certain kind of eating when your purposely in this kind of situation to experience the culture and it would as well as it make unessesary work for my Norwegian family. 

Well anyways, to come to the point of all of this, I am pretty happy that I made this decision a few months back because my Norwegian family is as well hunting family. Now before the vegetarians I know that may be reading this begin to cringe, you must admit, it is a much better alternative then mass butchering corporations. In the past I have had one or two experiences with my father hunting in the states, but because of my age and lack of experience I really didn't take too much part in it as my family here does. 

Here my host Dad goes out hunting with a group of guys and sometimes members of the family go along as well. This last time they said they brought home eight moose. Then everyone gets together and divides it equally. My host mom and sister then take part in grinding up and packaging our share. Its actually a pretty cool thing. My family is pretty comfortable with all of it, seasoned pros! I have to say that personally I think that it is pretty awesome. True Vikings my friends, haha. :) 

So yes, that is this prior vegetarians experience so far with hunting! Whether or not I will decide to go back to being a vegetarian when I go back to USA is still a matter of question, but I have more than enough time to figure that one out and now I am more than happy to continue on in my meat eating ways. ;) 

To anyone planning on going on exchange in the future, I would definitely advise to not limit yourself when experiencing an new culture and to always keep an open mind. I think that is one of the things I have been the most happy with and have found so important on my exchange. In all the times that I have just made myself completely open to changes and new ways of doing things, I have never once been disappointed and have been happy that I can at least say I tried it. To really experience a culture you have to allow yourself to go out of your comfort zone and do it all. I never want to look back at my life and say, "Yeah, I could of, should of, but didn't." I always want to be able to say "Yeah, I did."