Q:
Hi there I stumbled across your blog a little while ago. It's great to read about you guys enjoying your life together in Sweden. My girlfriend is Swedish and we're currently living in Sydney but are thinking about potentially moving over to Goteborg in a year or so. I was wondering how Chris has found the move to Sweden? Especially how it has been working over there, as I here it's pretty tough getting a job over there! Looking forward to hearing from you
A:
Hi Matthew! So nice to hear from people in the same situation with long-distance relationships. It's a special situation, sometimes difficult when you have one family on the other side of the world but fantastic to have two countries to call home! Chris really enjoys living here in Sweden and we lived here now for almost 5 years. First in Stockholm which was so much easier for jobs and now in south of Sweden where he found it harder to get a job. Took a bit of time but now he got one that he's really happy with. He went to school for a bit because it was so hard to get a job.The job-situation in south of Sweden is very tuff right now with a lot of big companies cutting down on their staff. But in the bigger city's like Gothenburg and Stockholm it's easier. But otherwise he found a lot of new friends here, playing soccer and getting in to our Swedish traditions! He's learning Swedish much quicker here in south of Sweden because people is not so comfortable with speaking english here. In Stockholm it was english all the time. Not good if you want to learn. He got an Aussie friend in Gothenburg, living there with his Swedish girlfriend, so it's good for him to have him close by sometimes when he need some Aussie talk :)
At the start it was a bit difficult for him with the cold swedish winter, but now he looks forward to the snow and saying that he likes it when it's a bit colder. It's funny because when we're in Australia for visits in the summer he can't handle those days with 40-45 degrees heat anymore :) So he changed to a Swede a bit :) But off course he misses a lot about Australia and our family and friends there is very very tuff to be so far away from. He got a big family with lot's of family-gatherings so we miss out on so much down there. It's the downside to the hole story for all of us with long-distance relationships, nothing new there :)
Gothenburg is a lovely city! So I wish you and your girlfriend good luck in whatever you decide to do! If you have any other questions I'll be happy to answer them to. Take care!
To the left - Chris's dad, Chris and his Aussie friend in Gothenburg.
Before our engagement in Australia. Some of my family and some of Chris's family together. Not happening so often!
My brother, me and Chris and Chris's sister at our wedding last summer here in Sweden.
The bridal-party. A mix of Swedes and Aussies :)
Just got married! Our beautiful church!
Had to take some photos in the Swedish forest off course
Newlyweds!
Thank you very much for the answer! Always interesting and good to know that couples similar to us have made the move over to Sweden and are doing really well! If you don't mind me asking what sort of work is Chris doing? Also is it very common for many companies to operate in English? I've been over to Sweden twice now in the winter and I have to say I really enjoy the snow and all the Swedish traditions. I've also just recently taken up some Swedish language classes over here so am hopeful I can get my Swedish to a decent level before the day we do make the move over there! :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting to read ur reply to Matthew! I am in a similar situation to you. My fiance is a Australian and the plan is that he will move to Gothenburg in a year or two. When u start looking, there seem to be swaussie couples everywhere. :-)
ReplyDeleteYes it's really good to talk to other people in the same situation. I'm reading a lot of blogs with Swedes and Aussie couple. Do you guys have a blog?
ReplyDeleteChris is working in building/construction so it was difficult in the start because you need different certificates here in Sweden comparing to the one's he already had from Australia. What kind of work do you do?
About the english operations in companies I can only answer for companies in building and in economy where I work. Were Chris works now everything is in Swedish. But almost every person in Sweden can talk English so there's always someone to help out with really difficult words. He learns all the building words again now in Swedish and he learn our language so fast now. He tells me he only speak Swedish at work. In Stockholm he worked in Globen Arenas and it was owned by americans so there it was a different story. And a lot of people working there was from England and America. In economy it's also very different comparing what kind of company you work for. But the big companies got a lot of English documents and so on and also the programs in English. But a small amount of swedish is always really good to know so it's great that you learning some already now! :)
Where in Australia do you guys live?
Anonymous - Thank you! Yes there is a lot of Swaussies when you start looking around. It's great to be able to follow other people in the same situation. If you ever start a blog please let me know so I can add another swaussie blog to my reading list :) Take care!
ReplyDeleteWe don't have a blog, but we might have to get around to making one eventually! I work sort of business consulting type work, so talking and writing are very important skills so hence why I'm trying to learn as much Swedish as I can at the moment. I have heard that most of the big companies conduct alot of their work in English but of course if you really want to fit in you should be speaking the local language! But its always good to hear of success stories like Chris and yourself which show that it's all worth it!
ReplyDeleteWe live in Sydney, so my girlfriend has been here with me now for almost two years. Hopefully we'll get back to Sweden for a holiday sometime soon as well!