I’ve struggled with keeping a blog for years. I’d make a post once every year or two, but I never had anything to say that I thought anybody else in the world would be interested to read. The banalities of my day-to-day life are already shared with people who care to read them on twitter and facebook, and I didn’t want to clutter up the public blogosphere with them.
Yesterday, that all changed. A simple comment on reddit pointed out that, finally, I’m doing something interesting enough with my life that someone might want to read it. More importantly, my experiences can be used to help others who want to do the same thing see real-world examples of how the whole process works!
As one might guess by either reading the link in the previous paragraph or the blog title, that topic is I’m moving to Sweden!
If you’re American, you may be questioning why. Why would a single, thirty-something working class woman with a decent job, great health benefits, great apartment and amazing friends here in America give up that privilege to be a foreigner in another country, especially considering the sheer amount of xenophobia we hear in regards to many European nations.
While I certainly do not want to put my head in the sand and say that xenophobia does not exist, I can, with absolute certainty, say that it is not nearly as bad as the people trying to talk me OUT of moving to Sweden are led to believe. My mother has been there for many years, and year after year it’s still the Americans that are constantly giving her shit about moving there. I have yet to hear of a single incident of her being mistreated because she’s American and knows little Swedish. In actuality, instead of harassing her for being American, Swedes tend to embrace her presence as a chance to practice their English. Furthermore, the number of Americans being derogatory towards people who believe in the Swedish way of life far, far FAR outstrips any hatred we are likely to encounter in Sweden.
In my travels, I have only encountered ONE negative incident in Europe, and that was because I asked a German woman to speak in English — she had every RIGHT to be upset! I was in HER country! (Also, the negativity was simply an ugly face for a second, saying “Nein!” in a condescending voice, then speaking to me in German as if I were a child, which worked because that’s about the level of German I can speak and understand. This is not unlike what I imagine Mexican immigrants who barely speak English encounter every day in the United States.)
This brings me to my next point. I am not leaving immediately, as many Americans certainly wish I would, but I am in the process of learning Swedish first. Not only will being bilingual help me in the job market, but it’ll also help me socially. I refuse to be the American who believes everyone else should speak my language because I’m too lazy to learn it — there’s enough of those people littering the streets of Europe as it is.
To be completely honest, I’ve never really considered myself an American, anyway. As my mother (who will likely drop by this blog at some point) can attest, I’ve always flown the German flag instead. I’m half German, it’s my heritage, it’s where I come from. I’m half German. It’s my heritage; it’s where I come from. This is just the country my mother happened to be in when she gave birth to me, but it has never felt like my home. Certainly, Sweden is not Germany, but I’m OK with that. Germany and Sweden are close enough to each other that I can live in Sweden and still explore my German heritage. The ferry isn’t a terribly far drive, and the view out the windows is absolutely beautiful. More importantly, though, Sweden is not the United States.
