Supersize me!

After years of living in North America, I guess it was only to be expected that I started seeing everything as "bigger is better". I mean, we live in big houses, drive big cars, eat big meals (and, consequently, buy clothing in bigger sizes...). In many ways, Costco and Sam's Club are emblematic of North American culture. Bulk is better value, right? Living large is the way to go...

Not so in Norway! Norwegians seem to have embraced the idea of less being more...everything is smaller here! From apples to zippers, it is all as if miniaturized. 4l of milk? Try 1.5l. Potato chips? Snack size only...Guys might appreciate the fact that even clothing appears to cover less and be tighter...

Cars are also smaller here. We picked up our leased Golf yesterday, and it is tiny. Cute but still tiny. You might think that'd make parallel parking easier - but you'd be wrong. The parking spots are smaller, too. So small, in fact, that when Mike and I went to pick up our new GPS today, we felt the need to doublepark our Golf! Can you imagine having to doublepark a Golf? If so, you get the picture...

Now, the thought that this might be the solution to the obesity problem in North America had crossed my mind. Just make foodstuff smaller, right? But that was before I had a peek at our grocery cart this afternoon. That's when I realized how quickly our family had adjusted to the difference in size, and compensated by buying MORE of everything... So 4 chocolate bars where one used to do. Apparently bigger is still better for us!