Hej

[gen]

hej all
I'm a 35 yr old South African, married to a Swede, with a 3 yr old son. I've been in Sweden for 5 months now, and apart from the sadness of being away from my family, can honestly say that I am really starting to enjoy it here! I like the idea of a "positively Sweden" site - most of the people I have met who find themslves here bitch and whine and plan how to get 'home' as soon as possible. I'm in it for the long haul and hope to meet others on this forum who are too.
gen

[Carolyn]

What part of Sweden are you living in, Gen? And I do believe you're our first South African member, lovely!

[Sabeine]

Hi Gen!

You are our first S. African on this forum!
We have many Americans, Canadians, a few from Australia and England and a lady from Malaysia.

I am also in this for the long haul. I have been here for almost 4 years now. We range from several months to over 14 years here in Sweden.

Glad to have you on this forum.

[Debbie]

Hej Gen

Nice to meet you.

I think most of the people who frequent THIS forum are here for the "long haul" also. I have been here 3.5 years now and this is home.

I live in Skåne...the best part of Sweden.

I am a teacher and teach in an international school. My husband and I are over the child-having age in our lives, so no kids, but I am pushing for a dog.

It's nice to meet someone new!

[Natooke]

Hi gen
It's so glad you decided to join the long haul group.

I've been living in Småland for the past 13 years & I call it home... even though I do have my moments of missing my family too. My husband & I are raising to kids (10 & 7) ... & a cat. So if you need any kid advice some of us own have a few of them DO NOT Hesitate to ask anything OK ! it may take a few days, but these great lady's here will guide you & give you great advice. see you around.

[Cake Guru]

Welcome to Sweden, Gen!!! I too, live in Skåne (Malmö).

[Aussie]

Hi Gen,

Nice to see you here. I'm one of the stray Aussies that keeps trying to entice you out to one of our monthly fikas. As you know I live in Nynäshamn, just south of Stockholm.

It's great to hear that you and your family are settling in well. I think the lack of involvement in the daily life of family and friends in our homeland is a very common regret for people over here. That is something I hear all of the time.

But as you will find, life pretty much goes on and you learn to get on in your new environment. I found that one great way of doing that is to find an interest and join a club for that interest. Whether it is sporting, recreation, craft, or whatever, it is a way to meet people in a less artificial setting than a gathering set-up purely for expats.

One trap in getting very involved solely with the ex-pat community is that quite often it is a huge whinge session, which is not all that helpful. Yes, it’s nice to know there are others facing similar issues and great to know you have a safe place to vent your frustration. But many of those "serial whiners" just never move on from that.

Of course, initially there will be a period of time when you will feel like complaining about everything. You do get through that stage fairly quickly, then move on. I think you need to avoid people who are still complaining about everything more than a year after they have moved here. They will not be supportive nor helpful, but will instead drain you.

This is a nice easy website. It does not have the huge traffic of other websites, but then most of us are pretty busy with our lives and don't spend untold hours a day in front of computers posting to every expat site on the planet.

Having said that, though, it is friendly and most of us here are happy to share an experience or answer a query. And I've personally met several here now and they are a nice bunch of people.

Welcome!

[Helena115]

Welcome

[Sabeine]

Wow, you weren't kidding about the prices they are very reasonable.
The items showed are really nice looking too. I will have to order some for Xmas gifts later. I don't wear jewelery myself for some odd reason that I never have figured out, but I have family and friends that would love the items on this site.

Thanks for the link Carolyn.

[Sabeine]

How did this end up in this thread? Pam can you move this to the other "New Member" link. It should go along with the thread that Helena started.

[Natooke]

Sabeine said:

How did this end up in this thread? Pam can you move this to the other "New Member" link. It should go along with the thread that Helena started.

How was the GREEN BEER last night Sabeine ? ;D

[Sabeine]

Well it wasn't so much green as it was some other color.

The beer we ordered was darker than expected so the color didn't show as well. We had two beers and then went home. I had school today and the others worked so we hadn't planned for a big evening.

The green beer thing is popular in the States on St. Patricks Day particularly on the East Coast in places like Boston. I don't know how it came about but it ended up that the trend caught on so that now one can get green beer on St. Patrick's Day pretty much anywhere in the US. It looks nasty but it tastes the same. We just picked a beer that was too dark from the beginning.

[gen]

Thanks all, for the welcome and encouragement. Marie, we'll get it right to meet sometime soon, I'm sure of it!
gen