Thoughts about the challenging parts....

Cia sent me this link the other day; Buttermilkbisquits. It is written by a Finnish girl living in Holland with her half-Dutch half-asiatic boyfriend and she is talking about what is most difficult or most challenging in a multicultural relationship. She came to the conclusion that the most challenging was the fact that they did not share memories from the same culture. She found it difficult to share with her boyfriend memories from her childhood, like how a smoke sauna smells and how it feels when the snow gets stuck under your skies in winter.

For me, personally, this has never been difficult. Stefan has already tried to ski and I hope that one day I can share with him the experience of a lovely old smoke sauna. The same way I enjoy listening, experiencing and learning about his culture. The more important is that we value the same things in life.

Here two pictures of the different environments we grew up in;

Liljendal lake


Alicante and the Mediterranean

For us the most challenging part, I think we both agree, is the language. Since the start we have communicated in english which is none of our mother tongue. Sometimes that is difficult, especially when talking about feelings sometimes you prefer to use the language that you know best to express yourself better. On the other hand I think we are doing pretty well, a lot of material thing are called by us "thingy" and we still always understand each other. ( at least most of the time ;-) ) Also othertimes whenI cannot think of the right word Stefan is finnishing my sentences. Same with me for him I think.

The learning of swedish for Stefan and for me spanish is still in the process, but hopefully one day we will be able to communicate somehow with these languages. At the moment speaking Swedish or Spanish with each other is not going so well...mostly because we forget we should practise and when we try it is so frustrating since the communication is suddenly so sloooow. It can be a pain for someone who likes to talk as much as Stefan and for someone who is as unpatient as me;-)

But as John Mayer puts it "Say what you need to say"