Wednesday, November 08, 2006

"So how long are you staying?"

Being an Alien means having an answer to this question because it is always asked by people around you. Especially by other Swedes. And when they learn we actually own our house here in California they seem to think that this "alien" thing must be for ever and ever. The eternity. Because buying a house with a 30 year mortgage is a life time commitment. "Isn't it? No?"

Because that seems more like the way you do it in Sweden, you buy your house and then you stay. Need more space - you add an extension. Rebuilding and renovating is an lifetime ongoing project. Whereas here you buy your house. Need more space - get a bigger house. Not much big of a deal to move. Maybe I'm wrong - but that's the way it seems here compared to Sweden.

And the real answer to the time frame of our stay, "who knows!", doesn't really satisfy. "What do you mean, you don't know, do you like it or not?". Well, we really, really like things the way they are right now, but then, who knows in five, ten or fifteen years.

Californians are more interested how we like it here and how we ended up in this part of the world, house or no house.

And maybe we'll have to move to Sweden again sooner than we thought - after all, that seems to be the place to be at least if you want to get to pre-taste the new Diet Coke...

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