The first thing I felt was the cold. Crisp, clean, snow already on the ground — and instantly, it felt like home.

It was November 6, 2019, and I was only in Oslo for the weekend. This was a tryout — a chance for Vålerenga to see if I'd fit the team, and a chance for me to decide if I wanted to make a move to Norway from Hungary. I gave myself the whole weekend to make that call. But I didn't need it. When I stepped off that plane, some part of me had already decided.

Still, I played it out properly. A few practice sessions with the team, half in my own gear and half in borrowed kit, skating on an old rink that wasn't exactly in great shape. I stayed with two of the girls from the team for the weekend. It wasn’t glamorous, but it felt right. By the end of the weekend, I knew — I was moving to Norway.

In January 2020, I landed for good and moved into an apartment in Oslo with three roommates, none of whom had anything to do with hockey. I had no idea who I was living with, how to get around the city, or where anything was, but I embraced all of the uncertainty and began to figure life out in a new country.

Then Sarah joined the team. We clicked instantly, and suddenly wherever you found one of us, you found both of us. In the gym, at the rink, hiking around Holmenkollen, or at Burger King for chicken burgers.

We went to watch Manglerud games every so often, because Sarah knew one of the players. On weekends, we went out with the rest of our team — bar hopping, staying out too late, being twenty-something and abroad and completely unbothered. I remember one night at Heidi's, another chaperoning a teammate's date in secret, and at dancing at a bar I can’t remember the name of.

Then, all at once, it ended.

We were closing in on championships when COVID shut the world down. The championship finals were cancelled. We'd just gotten home from a night out when we found out — we had to book flights and leave the country within twenty-four hours, before the borders closed for good.

Packing up an entire life in a single day is not easy under any circumstances. Doing it with a hockey bag the size of a small couch makes it worse. Sarah and I decided to fly to the US together where I stayed at her place for a couple of days before continuing on back home to Canada. It was fast, stressful, and completely disorienting.

But even as I left, I already knew I was coming back in the fall. COVID or not, borders or not — I was determined to get back to Norway. And I did.