18 responses so far ↓

• 1 quickcutters // Jul 29, 2008 at 7:51 am

  I would be in big trouble trying to speak to any one there.
  At my age i think it would be harder to learn also. nice post.

• 2 Diane // Jul 29, 2008 at 8:00 am

  You always have the best information! Some day, should I ever get to traveling, all this will come in very handy :)

• 3 Gift Baskets // Jul 30, 2008 at 6:16 am

  I would think these would be normal issues as an expat about anywhere. All too scary for me, that is for sure!

  Lisa

• 4 Jerry Graffam // Jul 30, 2008 at 7:40 am

  Hi Kristie:

  It’s very cool that you’re on Fire Storm. I met you through link exchange last year when I had 33 Is The New 23. I’m very glad everythign is still working out so wel for you. I did like teh winter scene better for a background, but oh well. Take care! ~Jerry

• 5 damian // Jul 30, 2008 at 11:00 pm

  Un saludo,mucho tiempo sin saber de ti,un fuerte abrazo desde españa

• 6 moni // Oct 16, 2008 at 5:53 am

  Hi my husband is from Norway Bergen but we live in Florida, USA now we have 2 beautiful girls ages 12 and 14 and with all the changes and no guarantees about life insurance and job security and our children’s future, my husband wants us to move to Bergen to live which I am willing to do it. Now considering that I speak german, english and spanish, and I am very broad. Our kids are more american than both of us , not too confuse them we taught them a neutral language. How it will affect them a life change as their peers, i am confused, do you think they will miss their friends from school??my husband says in a long run, our kids having dual nationality as american and norwegian will benefit better over there although I know the weather is rainy and cold most of the time.Please, reply.

• 7 Kristie // Oct 16, 2008 at 5:06 pm

  @moni: The girls at that age is what makes a move like that so tricky. I would (if you can) take them on a vacation there and ask them what they think. I think it would be most important to involve them in the decision making process so they dont feel like helpless victims being yanked out of their lives unwillingly. I dont personally know how much they will benefit from a dual nationality… I dont think that alone is a very good reason to make a move like that.
  My advice is to ask your kids what they think. I think parents underestimate the intelligence and understanding teenagers have…. and in making a move like that, I would want them to agree - or else you might be up against very hostile teenagers who feel like victims to their parents decisions. I would ask them!
  I hope this helps, maybe someone else reading this might also have some advice!

• 8 moni // Oct 17, 2008 at 3:39 am

  I understand that it is not easy because our children have their own mind but realistically, there is a huge unemployment, also there is no health care available if you get fired or laid off and jobs are scarce and we cannot live on medicare and social security only. There is a recession right now , and we are getting old and scared if something happens to my husband i will be working until i drop dead. Our kids will get almost 300 dollars being norwegians . It is a tremendous experience and we can always come back to USA at least once a year.

  Please, reply.

• 9 Tom // Oct 19, 2008 at 8:27 am

  Moni, what the hell is wrong with you? Where is the tragedy of living in US that you have to run for your life? Your arguments are irrational at best. You wanna move, move but without creating fony arguments. And your kids gonna hate you for it. Norway is for eating berries, walking fiords, and taking advantage of socialist mentality of peasants and fishermen that hit a jackpot in form of oil. Use your head woman, since your husband is losing it.

• 10 Eric // Oct 21, 2008 at 5:43 pm

  Hello,

  My wife is Norwegian and I am American. I have lived in the States my whole life except when I was in the Military.
  Basically in a nutshell, I have a bachelors degree, I hated my job so much in the States that the stress was killing me and I couldnt find anything else. That led me to worry for the past 5 years about job security and our lives so we decided to foreclose on our house, cash in our 401K plans to live on and ship all our stuff to Norway. Now we are renting a 2 bedroom house on a farm in the middle of nowhere. My wife cant find a job and neither can I due to the language issue. We have been here since May and have been miserable ever since as we have to live off the Govt here which gives you money, but too little too late most of the time. We wanted to move to a larger city, but without jobs it is just too expensive. There is absolutely nothing here to do in this town and no jobs unless you speak Norwegian. I have walked to places and asked and jobs are few.
  This is effecting our children and our marriage life. If we were to move back to the States, we would have to sell everything we shipped here and send back the important stuff such as pics of the kids, wedding dress etc. We have nowhere to live if we go back to the States except with my parents who basically turned their house into a cat rescue center. It is truly aweful to be in this situation. My wife is seeing if she can get her old job back in the States and I can work at Walmart or something until I get something better. I actually spoke with someone from Eures who is an American that has lived here for 20 years. She cant find anything for me job wise and I went to a temp agency here today and they basically said we will keep your resume and let you know.
  We consider the States to be our home and want to go back, but dont know if we should continue to try it here or go back while we still can and at least live where we want to be even though we have to start all over again with our lives. We think if we go back we need to as soon as possible so companies will not think we lost our skill-sets for working again.
  Basically we are stuck and dont know what to do.
  Advice??

• 11 Kristie // Oct 24, 2008 at 4:05 pm

  @Eric: Hi Eric. I am so sorry to hear about your situation. I know a few people in similar situations and I dont really know what to tell you. I will leave your comment here and hope someone will have some advice for you! I wish you the best of luck.

• 12 Kristie // Oct 24, 2008 at 4:28 pm

  @moni: I understand, and those are very realistic fears. It is hard for me to say too, because I do not have children. One thing is for sure though…that it is good to have options. :) It doesn’t mean you have to do it or not, you are more fortunate than many people in the US to know that you have options :) I wish I had more good advice for you than I do…believe me. I am sure whatever decision you make, you will make it work! Good luck!

• 13 Moni // Oct 25, 2008 at 5:45 pm

  Tom,
  This is for you, I don’t know how old are you but i already been in Norway, we have family from our husband’s side, my husband went in May to see his father for a terminal illness and worked there for 2 months, at the same time he is Norwegian 100%. We reside in Florida because we decided to, but the economy right now there is no guarantees unless you study a career and join the govermment if you want your retirement secure.This is for Eric, Does your wife has contact in Norway?? why did you move to a middle of a farm??? you seclude yourself, now my husband is from the second biggest city of Norway which is Bergen, try to relocate near Oslo or contact that your wife has, can she get a job right away, try kelly services, monster.com,etc. also you have to do at least 1000 hours of norwegian language for free but you have to move out of the farm, you won’t find a job like that, now i am not against United States, there is no job security right now, only doctors, nurses, in the medical field but i am trying to finish my bachelors on arts and get certification for a teacher in esol endorsement in german and spanish, minor biology, with that i will continue back to the state of florida retirement system.
  Eric, this is for you if you have a trip to Oslo or call first to the american base in Oslo, they can probably hook you up to work there as a veterenan or continue with the US govermment, don’t give up, your wife needs to network, does she have education??? now i forgot to tell you guys I am peruvian born, i hold 2 passports american and peruvian, so i lived overseas, now married to a norwegian i can get my citizenship in norway in 2 years but living there, because i married him 16 years ago.
  The only thing i like about norway is that it is difficult for them to lay you off and you have access to a good retirement system, my husband’s family is in Bergen, his mother is widowed now and she is getting at least 3000 dollars per month from the husband, which is a pension, now he never worked for the govermment in Norway, they are norwegian viking 100%.
  Tom, this is for you, i don’t know if you ever lived in Norway or have two nationalities but one thing it seems that either you are patriotic or you are not broad at all or Norway treat you bad, because yes the weather is horrible coming from Florida, but in Florida there is no jobs, and if i move to Norway and decide to work for 7 years i will be entitle to be on vacation for 5 weeks which works for me, i already pay my dues, I worked 10 years for the florida retirement system and 13 more years for private industry in the states, what kind of experience you have, i don’t know. Good Luck for your endeavors.

• 14 moni // Oct 25, 2008 at 5:47 pm

  Kristie,
  Thanks for your opinion, and continue with your endeavors.

• 15 Eric // Oct 25, 2008 at 10:57 pm

  Thanks for the comments Moni.

  Our goal is to move off this farm and to a bigger city such as Oslo or Trondheim. It is really too expensive to just pick up and move before we get a job. My wife has been applying for jobs on NAV, but I think her secondary education is keeping her from getting anything. I will tell her to try more Temp agencies as she is the key to us getting off this farm and into civilization. If we can do that, I might actually like it here. Once in a bigger city there will be more job opportunities for me - dont care what I do, just want to work. Hopefully the Govt will move us to the city where she gets a job and will help us until we can start making house payments on our own. Where I come from it is a no no to take money from anyone but yourself so this really sucks. We have 300,kr to our name for the rest of this month. That is not good.

• 16 moni // Oct 30, 2008 at 11:17 pm

  hi,
  Eric but the way it sounds is that you don’t have no connection from your wife’s side at all??? Doesn’t she know people in Norway??? another thing i forgot to tell you, Norwegians know each other since they were growing up and they tend to help each other and even do connections. What i didn’t get it is that the govermment will move you, what do you mean, Norwegian govermment??? either your wife or you have to work??? on my understanding you have to learn norwegian so far, another thing even if you hate it, if you are greedy and you think that Norway will change for you, it is not going to happen. You need to learn their language and learn their way of living which is completely different than here, life is more relax but you have to learn the language to be accepted in their culture.
  Just a tip, i know in USA anyone gets use to it because it is capitalism, and as long as you are useful you find a job>>> do you understand>> jobs that many american wouldn’t do it, but in Norway because it is not so big, they pick and you have to be competent, and maybe know several languages but it doesn’t mean that you won’t have chances in life. Don’t give up, be positive…. The best of luck to you and your family.

• 17 Eric // Oct 31, 2008 at 5:58 pm

  I dont expect anyone to change for me. I thought we were coming to a place that actually had jobs and not a farm in the middle of nowhere.
  This was not planned as we were just going to stay with my wife’s sister for a short time and move to the city we wanted to move to. We ended up staying here since it was so cheap which I was against as it is settling and that means difficult to get out.
  I will learn Norsk eventually, but I thought I could at least get a crappy job doing of course what Norwegians dont want to do and overtime learn Norwegian.
  Its not like I am a child and can pick up Norwegian overnight and I really dont want to. Nobody wants to be forced to do anything, but I do start classes in Nov.
  I would much rather move to somewhere like Spain if I have to learn a new language. Girls are much much better looking there and it is a great place to be. Also I have taught myself Spanish. Wait I am married, nevermind.

  My wife has very few connection here as she is from small towns and is actually more American than I am figuratively speaking. She realizes that this place is somewhere to visit but not to live.
  I think the people are greedy, biased, racist - pretty much like we are in the States.
  Dont get me wrong, I get alot of attention being American here and everyone is really nice to me, but I am in a bad situation because of where we located ourselves, the lack of Norwegian language which I dont think would change a thing.
  I do think things would be better if we moved to a City here or back to the States.
  I am way too overqualified and over-educated to do crap jobs here.
  What I meant by the moving is if we get a job the Govt is responsible to move us to the other city as we dont have enough to move.
  So until we can get out of this small town and into a city where there are more jobs available and not farms everywhere we are stuck sucking money from the Govt. I would think they would be a little more intelligent and say, hey, we need to help these people get jobs instead of giving us tax payers money every month to watch t.v.
  Dont get me wrong, I have done everything I can in this town to get a job, but like I said, its too small and there are no jobs available at this time.
  It is very easy from someone on your side who is married to someone who has a job and is Norwegian to say what you are saying. It is very different for the Norwegian person to have limited education and the career field they picked in school they cant do anymore because of their back.
  Love the snow though!

• 18 MS // Nov 16, 2008 at 10:18 am

  Learn the language, people! They offer many classes all over the country. You are going to have to learn it anyway, if you are allowed to stay there with a visa.

Leave a Comment