Cultural differences...

Just a little picture of the beach, with Jen, Kelsey, Christen and Taylor.

Thought I could write a little about how it is to be married to an American, and being in an international relationship. I just read an article about my parents, and the challenges they had to face getting married to someone from a different culture. As you all probably know, my dad is British and my mom is Norwegian. Though the countries are close in distance, there are several differences between how the people live their lives. I don’t think it’s been a challenge for them, but I do think they’ve encountered things which people married to someone from their own counrty don’t have to go through.

Apparently my mom wanted us kids to marry someone from Norway. Sorry mamma. No can do. Despite his country of origin, Christen is the man for me. The biggest issues I guess we’ve faced so far, has to be with regards to food. Americans eat out every single day. And because their meals are so large, often people only eat once a day. This has been a struggle for me, as I am used to three meals a day, in which two of them include bread. I know I should be cooking a nice dinner every day for my husband, but he prefers to go out, and often it is the cheaper alternative. Life is set up here to eat out. If I want bread with any form of nutrition or food in it, I have to make my own. And the problem is that they don’t sell several of the ingredients I’d like to put in it. That is also a big issue over here. The foods I’m used to cooking, or used to eating, they can’t be found here. There’s no such thing as macarell, or even cod, which makes my life so much more difficult, as I have no idea how to prepear tilapia, which also always comes in breadcrumbs. Yurk.

A nice difference between Norway and America, is the way people treat you. Everyone is so friendly here. If you sit at a gas station with a map on your lap, trying to figure out where to go, someone will approach your car, ask you where you’re going, and then tell you the best way to get there. If you’re out biking, everyone will smile and wave, even say Hi, how are you? It is such a difference from Norway, where people look down when they pass each other. At our church, everyone is friendly. I mean, everyone. If you have a headache, and miss church one day, everyone asks about you, where you are and how you’re doing. And they make a point of asking if you’re feeling any better the next Sunday. They really do treat you like family here, and though most of the people in our church are over 40, we’ve made so many good friends.

Chruch is a big difference in cultural aspects. I don’t know if it’s just my church, but discussing with Christen, we’ve realized that people who go to church here are a lot more on fire for God. It is so amazing how everyone brings their Bibles, and everyone loves to go to church. Usually it’s a struggle to get up for church in the morning. But here, it seems like the most natural thing to do. As well, regular church goers here have issues and problems. I feel that in Norway, it’s the people who are “perfect” who go to church. They have a nice family, a nice house, and a generally good life. Here, the ones who go to church are the ones who have struggles, they’ve realized church is what they need. In Norway, people with struggles shy away from church, because they feel like they need to be perfect to come to Christ, beacue everyone in church is “perfect“. Absolutely not true. We need to get better at telling everyone about God, especially those with struggles.

A good thing about Christen and my marriage, is that we’re so young, and not set in our ways. If we had gotten married much later, we might clash on more ideas, whereas now, we learn and make decisions together, not based on one of our opinions. Marriage is wonderful, and being in an international marriage is great, because you don’t think that your country is the best, and everything revolving your country is great. I am learning so much about how there is no country that is best, because they all have their troubles and issues. I have learned that wherever you are, you need to try your best to be happy, and to get along with whoever you’re living next to. Openness is the key. If we weren’t open to each others cultures, we would never have made it this far. But by all means. Get married to who you know is right, don’t look at the culture or country they’re from. That’s just a tiny detail if you’re willing to live with their culture, and willing to give up a little of yours at times.

Think that’s all I had to say today. If anyone has a monologue for me that I should do at an audition, then by all means, please do send it to me! Thank you! Love you all! Kisses, mrs. marianne