I think Norwegians do not put the question that way. It is I, recalling the Russian classics, who wrote such a heading. Only yesterday I wrote about the beginning of my life in Norway and about the growing stepdaughters. And…. already they are grown up! Seven years have passed!
The other day I received them in my little apartment. We all sat together on the veranda at the table, and I, at last, began to understand Norwegian, and they were talkative and “relaxed,” possibly for the first time.
The elder girl received a higher education in England and now lives and works in Scotland, rents an apartment. The younger has also already finished her studies in Norway. She got a profession, works, rents a house. Wow! Cool!” — you will think, you who read these lines in the “native CIS.” Well yes…
But, as the hero of a Soviet film used to say, “stability is lacking.” And they began to reason in which country it is better to live and work. The elder said that in Scotland you have to live 10 years to get citizenship. She has a weighty reason to continue living in Scotland because of a beloved person. In Norway there is no work at all in her speciality. She studied at a very expensive English university as a computer designer and now depends completely on clients.
Now this money loan that she received from a Norwegian bank for studies in England she has to pay back monthly over 15 years.
The younger also started going through countries and recalling what life advantages there are where. “Well, Finland, for example,” she said. “They teach well in schools there.” I politely kept silent, thinking “you have already finished school” and I “together with you,” convulsively recalling her stormy teenage life.
Then the younger added that there is Finnish there too! You have to learn it! And in general, if the country is not English-speaking, you will have to learn the language everywhere. And that is hard… So we continue to live in Norway.
and a continuation follows….