Scandinavians

[Dine 1]

Det har jeg ikke hørt om, men så gikk jeg ikke veien om K-1, heller - jeg vet at etter man har fått K-1 visumet, entret USA og giftet seg, må man søke om Adjustment of Status, som koster mer penger, men betale for selve visumet vet jeg ikke...? Prv å spørre på Engelsk inne på K-1 forumet?

Takk for svar! Skal gjera det :-)

[Little_My 464]

Oh, life in the Scandinavian forum! Wonderful I'm Finnish, my husband is a USC. We met in Kenya four years ago, and here we are. Now trying to work our way around this logistical nightmare we are currently in with an upcoming Finnish wedding ceremony and an AOS interview.. but we'll work it out somehow!

[Dine 1]

What do Scandinavians think of their new country? Is it a big adjustment?

[LlamaInvasion 76]

It's been an easy adjustment for me. My main complaints are all food-related. I'd kill for some kneippbrød. All the bread here is terrible, synthetic and plastic-y. I'm sure you can find great bread in major cities with actual bakeries and specialty stores, but I live in bupkis, nowheresville at the moment. XD The cheese is also pretty awful, but Wal-Mart has Jarlsberg thankfully. There's no kaviar to be found anywhere. And despite living in PA, home of Hershey, I miss Freia. I can order some Scandinavian food online, but it's generally terribly expensive.

I don't like the health care system. Not one bit. But I'm also biased on the subject, being preggo atm.

I LOVE the stability of the daylight hours. I love our car, but it's made me lazy. It's hard to bike anywhere out here. Then there's the little oddities, like how most roads out here in the PA countryside are lacking sidewalks, and the lack of street lights (that one really bugs me).

[Mr and Mrs Bird 0]

I am from Denmark and have lived in USA 4 1/2 year.

In the beginning I missed all the food you are talking about but eventually I have found it all in a store called World Market.

I live in California.

They have alot of swedish food, candy and other things which I compare alot to what I am use to eat in Denmark.

I really hope you are able to find that store. :-)

Best luck from

Anette

[cartaverde 12]

Llama, is there an IKEA near you? If there is, look for IKEA Foods. They have all the knackebrods and caviars and other Nordic goodies and it's nowhere as expensive as the small import stores.

(Or find out where the closest one is, and do a trip there every few months and stock up some goodies, or make someone living close to one send you something).

It's been about 10 countries since I lived in Scandinavia. So there isn't anything I'd really miss from there - the weather is much better in Texas, and the fact that there is sun in winter, and it's possible to sleep in summer (I can't sleep when it's 24 7 daylight, and I can't stay awake when it's dark 24 7, and the fake light therapy does nothing for me). I like when not everyone is the same in their preferences and habits (but people come from all over the world), and the fact that many people have polite manners. Doctors treat you like a customer, however I don't like doctors in general, and I'm not a fan of the privatized health care system. I love discovering new countries by their foods - and in US that is surprisingly easy. Our favorite places to eat here are not American but something else, e.g. Korean (a family owned BBQ), Vietnamese, Shechuan (two awesome Shechuan places here), Italian (non-chain)...

I used to miss berry liquors, but I learned to make my own. Either by using fresh berries, plain sugar syrup and everclear, or IKEA's jams and everclear. E.g. cloudberry liquor is delicious, but you can't find that, or even cloudberries anywhere. But IKEA has cloudberry jam, so I can always make a fresh batch when needed.

[Dine 1]

I don't live in the US yet, but I've stayed there over a longer period of time already..

I will definitely miss:

Norwegian summer nights(even though it rains all summer )

BREAD

Being able to bike and walk everywhere

Fresh berries in summer

Mountain walks

Water!

Speaking Norwegian :-)

As you can see, Im not quite ready to leave Europe/Scandinavia yet, good thing I still have a few months to go :-))

[Mr and Mrs Bird 0]

well after living in California 4 1/2 year I dont miss anything in my homecountry. Maybe I am a little spoiled living in a great state.

[Little_My 464]

Ditto with Llama - so far, foods. Especially bread. But, I am lucky - I live in NYC, and can find good bread that is almost like home from many little bodegas and other specialty stores. I also recently discovered a Finnish bakery working out of Jersey, run by two Finnish brothers who make rye bread and have been selling it in these weekend markets around NYC - and now it is in some stores, including one right around the corner from us! I was soooo excited to find out about that. Some Whole Foods carry it now too apparently, so other Scandinavians missing true rye bread can maybe find it from the whole foods shelves. It's called simply "Finnish Ruis Bread" ("ruis" means "rye" in Finnish).

I do miss the Finnish summer. I am actually here (in Finland) right now, and I just love the midnight sun and the shades of blue that come out in the early morning hours during the summer. I miss the lakes and the nature, and the sauna of course. I definitely miss the health care and social welfare system of Scandinavia.. and I miss this certain level of structure and order we have, which is not always present in the U.S., especially in NYC. And, of course, above anything else I miss my family and friends back home - for me, it has always been the people who make a place into a home, not a specific country or a city on their own.

But, that being said, I love NYC. I have always been a big city girl I feel, and I just love the city and the diversity in it. I love Brooklyn, which is where we live - and now that I am back home in Finland, I miss Prospect Park, the Brownstones, some foods there and my friends in NYC.

I was living a bit of a travelers life even before I met my husband and moved to the U.S., so I am used to always missing someone or something no matter where I am myself - and sometimes it does get hard, especially when I am missing something big like a friend's wedding or someone close to me having their first baby, for example, but at the same time I wouldn't have it any other way.

[BirdyGirl85 23]

I am the U.S. citizen and I miss some things from Finland. I miss Fazer chocolate. (Mostly Geisha and Maya) And I miss Vaasan Ruispalat rye bread. I think my husband misses his friends and family the most. He said he doesn't really miss the country itself, but the people he was close to. But he told me he is happy living here with me. His sister and brother and planning to fly to the U.S. in September to visit us, which is nice. My husband would like to go to Finland next year during the summer. I might be able to go with him, that depends on a few different things though, like how much time I have already taken off from work that year, but we'll see.

[Dave and Helena 0]

Geisha...... So yummy! Between IKEA, Whole Foods, World Market and ordering online I've been fine when it comes to food. What I REALLY miss is Salubrin. We have tons of mosquitos and they love to get their fix of Swedish blood.

A question for ya'll. My niece in Sweden is getting married in a month and we're going to the wedding. She and her fiancee are in their mid 20s and are buying their first house together. I would like to get them something for a wedding gift they cannot find in Sweden. Any suggestions?

[LlamaInvasion 76]

I've been here in PA for over 5 years now (well, technically 4, but the year before I visited three times under VWP for the full 90 days, so there was a lot of time spent here, heh). I still miss Norwegian food.

I'm sure it's easier food-wise, if you're in a large city. I'm at least 2 hours away from anything bigger than a Wal-Mart, 3 hours from the nearest Ikea. XD Thankfully we're only stuck in that horrid, little PA corner until next year.

certaverde, it's funny you should mention about eating food from other cultures. XD My town does not even have a chinese place, and the only pizza place within a 30-min drive is a Domino's. I've always said one of the things I miss about bigger cities (or even small and compact cities like Oslo), that absolutely does not exist in the town we currently live in, is that I can find any type of food from any country.

I absolutely agree with you about the sunset/sunrise stability. I never had any issues sleeping during the summer, but I'd get the WORST seasonally enabled depression during the winter. Those sunlight imitators never did anything for me either.

Lille_My, I'd LOVE to live in New York! I visited a few times, and love the ####### out of that city. I'm a big city girl at heart myself (which is also why there are certain things I really hate about where I live atm), but that's a little bit too crowded for my husband. XD

We'll be moving closer to a major city like Pittsburgh or Philly ASAP though (depending on where we can get work). I'm really looking forward to that, since a lot of my homesickness is more easily dealt with in a bigger city.

[cartaverde 12]

Dave and Helena, did you find any nice gift for your friends yet? I suck in finding gifts unless I know what kind of person I'm looking them for, and often even then.

But if still looking for something, have a look at uncommongoods.com - they have a lot of unique gifts that I think would match most people's taste, and be something that wouldn't be that easy to find in Sweden (where they have such an awesome selection of clean design, from IKEA to Granit and Ordning & Reda etc).

Llama, one thing that can work in "spicing" the food scene when the area you live in doesn't offer much diversity, is to find some international recipes or cook books and then experiment. If you need e.g. Asian spices, worst case you can get those online.

We tried some time ago fish larb in a nice Hmong restaurant when visiting MN, and surprise surprise there are no Hmong places around here (onlt 300-400 Hmong ever moved to Texas I learned since). We googled for some recipes and made a few tries. That dish turned out to be very easy to make, and it's now something we plan to make for any potluck or picnic type of things where everyone should bring a dish to share.

Or another very easy dish to do is Korean style BBQed mackerel. Cut a few slices to the spine on the fish, and add some marinade (soy sauce, brown sugar, sea salt, red pepper flakes, some sake or rice wine vinegar - warm the ingredients and mix to melt) to cover the fish and BBQ it.

And if there are no ideas what would be yummy... why not use this thread (or start a different cooking thread here) for inspiration? E.g. what kind of foods or styles do you like, and how easy to cook/how spicy etc should the recipes be.

Anyway. How's the summer been for y'all? Here in Texas it's hot (I think 55+ days straight over 100 F) and it never rains. It'd suck to be a farmer when there's no water... but I can't really complain. Warm is way nicer than cold.

[LlamaInvasion 76]

cartaverde, I regularly make a sort of poor man's version of bulgogi at home (some improvised ingredients, and I can't find the bean curd/sauce thing they give us at rastaurants anywhere). The mackerel sounds good, but we can't get fish around here either, unless you count fish sticks. Wal-Mart's fish section is a single shelf in the deep freezer, with some fish sticks and questionable shrimp.

When we go down to Pittsburgh though, I sometimes get some sushi grade fish and make maki, but generally if I'm going to go through that much effort to make food (long drive, ordering ingredients online, etc), I'll just pay to order some Scandinavian. XD

My summer's been pretty okay, but I've spent most of it in Norway. It's not as hot here as it's been in PA over the summer (or so my in-laws tell me), which has been very nice.

[Dave and Helena 0]

Dave and Helena, did you find any nice gift for your friends yet? I suck in finding gifts unless I know what kind of person I'm looking them for, and often even then.

But if still looking for something, have a look at uncommongoods.com - they have a lot of unique gifts that I think would match most people's taste, and be something that wouldn't be that easy to find in Sweden (where they have such an awesome selection of clean design, from IKEA to Granit and Ordning & Reda etc).

Thanks cartaverde. Unfortunately we missed my niece's wedding since we weren't able to get on the plane to Sweden but I'll definitely check out that website as we have another niece getting married shortly.