10 Weird Things I Now Find Normal After Living in Iceland for 10 Years

2026 marks 10 years since I moved to Iceland, which is honestly a little hard for me to believe.

I can still remember stepping off the plane, starting work, and feeling like my brain was being bombarded with things that seemed foreign or strange. Even hearing Icelandic names like Ása, Björn, and Arnbjörn took some getting used to.

https://youtu.be/AKL2qYEzEkU

Fast-forward a decade and so many of those things don’t even register as unusual anymore. They’re just…life.

Living in another country for this long has also made me realize how much our definition of “normal” is shaped by where we grow up. Things that initially made me think, People actually do this?! are now things I barely notice, and in some cases, things I do myself.

Here are 10 things that have become normal to me after living in Iceland for 10 years.

1. Letting Babies Nap Outside

This might be the biggest transformation of them all because I went from thinking this was absolutely bizarre to doing it with my own baby.

I learned about babies napping outside when I first visited Iceland in the winter of 2013. At the time, I couldn’t understand how people could possibly be comfortable leaving a baby outside to sleep.

Then I had a baby.

Halli’s mom showed us how to bundle her up properly so she could be warm while getting fresh air outside, and it completely changed the game for us. At one point, she could sleep for around three hours outside when an indoor nap might only last about 20 minutes.

It’s also something you regularly see in Iceland. You can walk through residential neighborhoods or even pass cafés in downtown Reykjavík and see a stroller outside with a sleeping baby while a parent or caregiver is nearby and checking on them.

Years ago, that sight would have immediately caught my attention.

Now? Completely normal.

2. Thinking 60°F (15°C) Is Warm

New York Jewells would like a word with current Jewells.

I moved to Iceland in June 2016, and I remember seeing Icelanders walking around in shorts, T-shirts, and sandals when it was about 60°F/15°C.

Meanwhile, I had on long pants, sneakers, a sweater AND a jacket. I genuinely thought, What is wrong with these people? This isn’t warm!

Then something happened. I acclimated!

After experiencing Icelandic winters and then feeling the temperature climb again, 60°F started feeling legitimately warm. If it’s around 60°F, sunny and, this is important, there’s no wind?

That’s practically tropical now.

3. Accepting That Icelandic Summer Is Not Guaranteed

Growing up in New York, summer meant something. You knew it was going to get warm. Probably hot. Possibly way too hot!

Iceland technically has four seasons, but I’ve joked that we really have two: winter and summer. Halli says it’s more like winter and fall.

The bigger adjustment was realizing that just because the calendar says “summer” doesn’t mean Iceland’s weather has agreed to participate.

You can have rainy, windy and chilly stretches where there’s plenty of daylight but hardly any actual sunshine. There have been summers when I felt cold for what seemed like the entire season.

It’s also no surprise that plenty of Icelanders escape somewhere warmer when Iceland isn’t delivering the summer weather they want.

Tenerife, anyone?

Icelandic summer exists. Whether it decides to show up is another question.

4. Living With 24-Hour Daylight

The nearly endless daylight of Icelandic summer is something I absolutely love now. When I first moved here?

Not so much.

My brain could not understand why I was supposed to be sleeping when it looked like the middle of the day outside. I tried sleeping with eye masks, but I didn’t find them particularly comfortable, and I constantly felt energized to stay awake and do things.

Eventually, though, my body adjusted. After a few years, I could sleep through Icelandic summers without thinking much about the daylight outside. Now I LOVE this part of living here.

Being able to go outside incredibly late at night and still have a bright sky is one of those Icelandic experiences that still feels special, even though it has become normal.

5. Living With the Very Short Days in Winter

Of course, Iceland likes extremes. If summer gives us almost endless daylight, winter gives us the opposite.

Around the shortest day of the year, we get only about four hours of daylight. And while the days technically start getting longer again after the winter solstice, those changes happen slowly enough that the darkness can feel like it lasts forever.

My first Icelandic winter was rough! I remember feeling like I was basically holding on until winter ended so I could finally experience that release of summer again.

And then came May 2017. Winter seemed to be over. I had made it!

And then…it snowed.

In May!

I was MAD.

I felt personally betrayed by Icelandic weather. After surviving winter, snow in May felt like the weather was playing games with me.

Now, I understand that unexpected weather is simply part of living here. Snow showers can happen incredibly late in the season, and Icelandic weather has a mind of its own.

Over the years, I’ve also figured out what helps me through the dark months: getting outside, exercising, keeping myself occupied and usually having a big project to work on.

The first couple of winters required some serious adjustment. After that, I found a rhythm that works for me

6. Having Limited Produce Options

This is one thing I still REALLY notice when I leave Iceland.

The variety of fruits and vegetables available here can be limited compared with what I was accustomed to in the United States.

Sometimes you have a couple varieties of apples. Around Christmas, clementines and mandarins are everywhere. Other things appear periodically, but Iceland is an island that imports a significant amount of its produce, so we’re simply not going to have the same selection you’d find in a massive American supermarket.

And yes, you sometimes need to inspect that produce pretty carefully.

Then I go back to the U.S. and walk into a Whole Foods or Sprouts and practically lose my mind.

Peaches, plums, nectarines, different varieties of apples!

KALE!

The kale situation in Iceland particularly gets me because I’ve seen it grown here as decoration and I’m thinking, Can you please just put it in the grocery store so I can eat it?!

Still, I’ve stopped viewing the limited selection as inherently negative. It’s simply part of living on an island.

And when I travel, I appreciate the variety elsewhere that much more

7. The Icelandic Stare

Ohhhh, the Icelandic stare!

Coming from New York, staring at strangers is generally not something you do. Then I moved to Iceland and suddenly people were LOOKING at me.

Not glancing, staring!

I’ve been told part of this comes from the small-town nature of Icelandic society. People might look at someone because they’re trying to figure out whether they recognize them or know their family. That took some serious getting used to.

There was one experience when I lived in Árbær where a woman drove past me while practically turning her head to continue staring at me. I remember wondering whether something was happening around me before realizing, Nope. She’s looking at me.

As a Black woman walking through a suburban Icelandic neighborhood, I couldn’t know whether she was simply curious, trying to recognize me, surprised to see someone who looked like me, or something else entirely.

Eventually, I developed a coping mechanism: Staring contests.

If you’re going to stare at me, I’m staring back. 😂

These days, though, I’ve mostly stopped noticing. I’ve got my New York blinders back on. Unless someone actually says something to me, I’m getting my groceries and going about my day.

Something that once made me incredibly uncomfortable has somehow become background noise.

8. Having Children Without Being Married

This was an interesting cultural shift for me because it wasn’t necessarily something I consciously decided to change my mind about.

I just absorbed a different idea of what family can look like. It’s very normal in Iceland for couples to build a life together, have children and not get married until much later, or potentially not marry at all.

When I first moved here, I was married and didn’t have children. After getting divorced, I certainly wasn’t thinking, I’m going to get into another relationship and have a baby before getting married.

But by the time that became part of my own life, it didn’t feel particularly strange anymore. There’s even an interesting linguistic element to this. Icelanders in long-term relationships might refer to their partner as konan mín (“my woman”) or maðurinn minn (“my man”) rather than using the equivalent of boyfriend or girlfriend.

People sometimes refer to unmarried partners as husband and wife in English, too, which still occasionally makes me want to clarify, We’re not married yet!

It’s another example of how living somewhere else can quietly change the assumptions you didn’t even realize you had.

9. Not Tipping

Coming from the United States, this was a BIG adjustment.

Tipping is ingrained into so many everyday interactions in the U.S. that when I first started visiting Iceland, I kept thinking: Wait…aren’t we supposed to leave something extra?

Nope.

Tipping isn’t an obligation in Iceland or expected. If you have a wonderful guide or receive excellent service and want to give someone something extra, that’s your choice. But workers aren’t standing there expecting customers to supplement their income with a tip.

I’ve gotten so accustomed to not tipping that the culture shock has now reversed itself. When I go back to the United States, I have to remind myself to tip.

I once completely forgot that I was supposed to tip the attendants at a parking garage in Manhattan because that thought doesn’t exist in my everyday life anymore.

So this is one where I’ve gone full circle. What once felt strange in Iceland now feels normal, and what used to feel normal in America requires a conscious reminder.

10. Seeing the Northern Lights

This might be my favorite one.

The Northern Lights are normal to me now!

I still think they’re magical. If there’s an incredible aurora display happening, I absolutely want to see it. But if I look outside and there’s just a faint little green glow?

Eh, I’m probably staying in bed.

Ten-years-ago me would NEVER.

When I first moved here, I would get up at all hours for the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights. I wanted those huge, dramatic displays I’d seen in photographs. And those displays really do happen.

I’ve seen the aurora incredibly strong right from our backyard. Shortly before I gave birth, there was one display that was so intense that I jumped out of bed and ran outside to photograph it without even properly getting dressed first.

My mom was basically like, Girl, what are you doing?!

Listen. Priorities. 😂

Even after a decade, seeing really strong Northern Lights dancing across the sky in different colors can still blow me away.

But simply knowing that the aurora is part of winter? That’s normal life now.

What 10 Years of Living in Iceland Has Taught Me

When I look at these 10 things together, what’s fascinating isn’t necessarily the individual habits. It’s how much our idea of normal can change.

These were things that ranged from confusing to uncomfortable to downright bizarre to me when I first encountered them. Ten years later, many are so deeply integrated into my everyday life that I barely think about them anymore.

Maybe that’s one of the most interesting parts of living abroad long-term. You don’t simply learn about another culture. Little by little, parts of that culture become part of you.

Which brings me back to the question I used for this episode:

Am I Icelandic now? 😂🇮🇸 Not quite.

But after 10 years, Iceland has definitely rubbed off on me.

Random Icelandic Fact of the Episode

Most Icelanders don’t have traditional family surnames in the way many other countries do.

Instead, Iceland commonly uses a patronymic or matronymic naming system based on a parent’s first name.

For example, if a man named Jón has a son named Einar, his son could be Einar Jónsson, essentially, Einar, Jón’s son. A daughter could be Anna Jónsdóttir, which is Anna, Jón’s daughter.

It’s also one reason first names play such an important role in Icelandic society. People generally address each other by their first names, including in situations where titles or surnames might be expected in other cultures.

It feels particularly appropriate for this episode because even Icelandic names were among the things that sounded unfamiliar to me when I first arrived. Now names like Ása and Björn don’t make me think twice.

Icelandic Word of the Episode: Venjast

The Icelandic word of this episode is venjast, which means “to get used to” or “to become accustomed to.”

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