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This blog is about a Boston family’s one-year adventure living on an arctic island in Norway. The name of the island is Rødøy, which means “Red Island” in Norwegian. You can see it on Google Map here. Rødøy is just above the Arctic Circle, which means there’re days in the winter when the sun never peeps above the horizon, and there’re days in the summer when the sun never sets — “midnight sun” as it were.

Winston grew up in China before immigrating to the US when he was 14, but he frets about the fact that Kristin has been to more places in China than he has. Before the island adventure he was an . Now, he is learning how to salt and smoke fish.

Kristin grew up in the Northern part of Norway, although she had never lived on a remote island before. She was a high school teacher in Oslo when she met Winston and somehow ended up in Boston with 2 kids. She’s teaching grades 1-4 at the school on the island.

Our Family in Southern France Just Before Heading North

20 Comments Post a comment
  1. ashodara #

    Lucky you, the artic is visually heavenly and so are your photographs. Best wishes and blessings to you and your family.

    September 27, 2011
    Reply
  2. I hope you’ll enjoy Norway. Lots of great photos in your blog. Snakker du norsk? Do you speak Norwegian?

    September 27, 2011
    Reply
    • Jeg er på Norskkurs!

      September 28, 2011
      Reply
  3. Fiona.q #

    keep warm, “lao xiang”, lol.

    September 27, 2011
    Reply
  4. Xie Xie!

    September 28, 2011
    Reply
  5. Beautiful family and great pic!! (Did I take this 😉

    October 1, 2011
    Reply
    • Yes you did Paige! Great job. I should’ve thunk you.

      October 1, 2011
      Reply
  6. I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award! 🙂

    October 3, 2011
    Reply
    • Thanks! I had to Google it to find out what it is. Stay tuned for my response …

      October 3, 2011
      Reply
  7. Hi, your pictures are amazing! I instantly liked your blog. That’s why I decided to nominate it for the VBA award. =)

    October 12, 2011
    Reply
    • Thanks so much!

      October 12, 2011
      Reply
  8. AiTomBounDin #

    Winston! One of your talents is photography – I’ve just passed by your October pictures.
    Sure you’ll write a book one day 🙂
    Best wishes!

    October 17, 2011
    Reply
  9. Stuart #

    Winston send me your email address I have an article for you.

    January 25, 2012
    Reply
  10. I’ve nomintated you for The Very Inspiring Blogger Award. http://miriamtroxler.com/2012/12/11/the-very-inspiring-blogger-award/

    December 11, 2012
    Reply
  11. I heard your story on NPR this morning. Good for you! Welcome back. What a fantastic blog. Thanks for sharing.

    May 20, 2013
    Reply
  12. I heard your story on NPR today and thought I check out your blog. I hope to one day set off on a family adventure just like you but as you said there are a lot of obstacles.

    May 21, 2013
    Reply
  13. Joanna #

    I stumbled across your blog whilst looking for cod recipes and absolutely loved the photographs – thanks for sharing, they’re very inspiring.

    September 9, 2013
    Reply
  14. Winston, you’re the perfect ambassador for the islanders 🙂

    July 9, 2014
    Reply
  15. to Mr. Chen and your family,
    I read your story on Ted blog and it moved me so much that I want to come here to say hi to your family! I wish your family all the best and keep on inspiring us!
    An

    July 15, 2014
    Reply
  16. #

    Thanks for sharing this with us, FYI, you are hot today on pocket 🙂

    July 18, 2014
    Reply

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