What Is the Price You Are Willing to Pay to Build Your Own Home Outside Your Comfort Zone?

Many contemporary people face the challenge building their own comfort zone in a foreign country; whatever the reason of leaving their home, it is very subjective perspective to what makes the place feel like home. Among all the personal considerations there are some who relate to visuals of the place, there are some who relate to scent of the place, there are some who relate to a vibe place awards and there are some who feel home in the places their favorite material thing resides.

It is no secret that many emigrants leave their home countries searching for a better place for life. Fascinated and driven by photos, videos from the Net and/or adventurous stories from friends people move to those “better places”. It does not take long to realize the other side of the picture that is being concealed behind the scenes and many get familiar with the feeling “it is always better in the place where I am not”. 

So I am here to ask: “What is the price you are willing to pay for the better life?”.

No doubt the majority of youth start exploring other countries for easy money: summer jobs, temporary placements with high pay, work and travel opportunities and other. Inevitably they broaden their perspective to life grounds and values and realize there are so many other ways to live than the way they learned at home. Fascinated by the new experiences and cultures, they involve in many different activities that keep the blood pumping and head spinning. They become the ones who tell those exciting stories and introduce unfamiliar to their home-countries. However, in the long run many face that chasing the new becomes a continuous search for searching the old. 

Speaking with emigrants one would mostly hear that “pan-cakes are never as tasty as they are at Grandmothers”, “bread is never as tasty as it is at home” and many other. This I would interpret it as reaching out to something from the past, something painfully familiar.

Needless to say emigrants have to start from the scratch when they first move to the strange country: new home, new routines, new legislation, new environment, new people, and new culture – every of the mentioned takes much effort and energy to get friendly with. With time emigrants settle in and sort of blend in to the mass, however, regardless of the social or legislative protection only few can feel entirely equal part of the system. Exactly when new and exciting things become rather old and routine dilemmas of opportunity costs kick in: is it worth to get such money for a price of not being close to the root-Family? Is it worth replacing old social circles with the new? Is it worth to be in a beautiful sights for a cost of trading your own countryside and? Is it all worth to always be the stranger? Is it worth the time of learning the new in comparison to the same time being used to make it work in your own country? 

Observations tell that many choose to live under basic living standards: high pay – rather short working hours, convenient – uncomfortable accommodation, fun and adventurous – strange and unsecure friendships, fast – long lasting turn of events. However, only few consider the comfort they are sacrificing when staying abroad. One can only wonder on a personal scale how much monetary value does a Family and root-Friends are worth.

What is it that people are actually running away from? And can they ever be happy?

At the end of the day, most of the emigrants want to make up for what they have been missing out on in their own country. However, the weight of building your own home in a strange country might be just as heavy as the burden of staying in the birth-country. 

Sooner or later, roots will call You back!

Here are some pictures of different Viewpoints in Vilnius, Lithuania, 21 03 2013:

Gediminas Castle Viewpoint

Subaciaus Viewpoint

http://aarhusculture.com/2013/03/22/to-be-in-denmark-or-not-to-be/

Second Christmas in March. Happy SKAT day!

SKAT in Danish can mean few things. In every-day situations SKAT for “darling” and SKAT for “taxes” dominate all the other interpretations. Hearing “darling” is always a melody to ones’ ear; however, “taxes” might evoke a hurricane in ones’ blood.

March – the month when Danish government has re-calculated tax-schemes for everyone in the country who has any income. And this is the “pay-back” time for either a tax office or an individual. I guess this is a good joke for everyone, who knows what is going on behind the lines of weird tax-names. My observation proves to see very many confused faces when looking to the yearly tax-sheets and it actually counts for both: danes and foreigners.

Beginning of March appears to be tensed month. Just like Christmas – the reaction to the “newsletter” shall reflect whether one was a good or a bad person that year, this time is going to come despite the fact you are ready or not, people talk about it all the year, everyone is excited and eager to know what are they going to get this year and only few can truly explain how did this actually happen. 

What happens in most cases is that right after everybody has used their chance to “sit on Santas’ lap” – hold the line for hours on the virtual queue on the due day, the exciting moment comes out “unwrapping the gift”. And just like every kid, we think we have behaved and shall be rewarded for our efforts and with a big smile on our faces look intensively to the numbers in the screen. 

Regardless of the content inside we will let our family and/or closest friends know about it and raise discussions on what did we or we did not do to deserve such reward. In sadder cases we will turn to those little elfs, also known as tax-office-workers, to seek for reasoning and we will do our best to prove them that we were supposed to be listed under column “the good kids”. However, how much can an elf do; they are there just to collect, wrap in and deliver everything what was earned within the year. One should not be surprised to hear the following: “This line shows how much we expected you will be giving to us. This line shows what you gave us. And this is the result. For further information, please, contact Santa”. 

The question lies now: where to find him? Who is the right person to contact? Is there somebody who knows all about and exactly how to do it right?

One for sure, it is working somehow: streets are clean, education and medical care is for free, administrative offices are working and etc.

So keep it up. Do follow the salary papers and income sheets. The more you know, the better prediction you will have and the lesser surprise you will receive.

Next stop – feriepenge! ;)

http://aarhusculture.com/2013/03/05/happy-skat-day-second-christmas/

Danish Bus Experience - Roberta's take

Getting on and off the local bus must be a regular experience for a regular citizen, however, being a foreigner in Denmark one might find particular cultural aspects in passengers’ behavior.

Yes, people might prefer taking the single seats for the journey and one might think that this behavior is a sign of “leave me alone/stay away”. On the other hand, have you noticed that this might be followed by the rule “stand on your right, go on your left”? and those people might have just taken a single seat because they’re about to take off soon anyways and standing for a while turns into sitting in a single seat. In addition, I’ve noticed multiple times groups of people getting on the bus and sitting in clutches: taking both sides of the bus and talking to each other as if they were sitting around the table – so how is that for a “silence is the golden rule” and an unsocial behavior? I very rarely experienced the time in silence in a bus. More so, whenever I would find myself lost or in need of some guidance I would just turn to the closest person and if not him/her then the driver would get me on the right track, most of the times it would end up turning into a little discussion about the best possible way for me to reach that place between me, the driver and couple of people who heard my concerns and joined in.

Aarhus is a smiley city – it’s even the cities’ logo! And who said smile is a bad approach to a stranger. It is actually a positive note and kind expression towards a strange fellow passenger. Moreover, it is a positive signal for a possible open conversation about weather. I would rather smile in silence than sit with no face at all.

Danes do enjoy being private but it works as a respect to others, also I think that everyone once or twice has felt like staying with his/hers thoughts in the early morning or after a tiring. Let those people be, there are plenty others who are ready for an easy chat. 

I have more positive experiences to a negative ones when taking a bus: once I jumped on a bus, was all scattered, was running late, just managed to jump in, jacket still unbuttoned, hair still all over, make-up totally ruined because of all the sweat. Was rushing to take a seat to fix myself for the meeting I had to attend. So I took a seat and a women sitting in the single seat turn to me and says: “you look like a very friendly person”. My eyes got big from the amusement and she continued: “I thought this would be nice for you to know, so decided to tell you”. My day could not have gotten a better start!

Yes, maybe letting older people to get seated is not in their culture so much as it is in Eastern part of Europe, but people are friendly on the bus. They will give old lady a hand to get on the bus, drivers will wait another second for you to jump in and will cash your 100kr. bill to the coins, otherwise, give you a ride for free, people will help mothers with children and the tour will most of the time end with a bus driver wishing you to have a nice day! 

What is there more to ask for a ride in a regular bus?!

http://aarhusculture.com/2013/02/28/danish-bus-experience-robertas-take/