This Christmas Elena and I can celebrate three years of happy marriage. These years have been the best in my life. We are very compatible, and she loves Norway more and more (and me :-)). During these years she has achieved many of her goals. The first was to get a Norwegian drivers license. She had one from Russia, but truly, she couldn't drive. In Norway she needed to take the practical test. So we started training. We found a parking place that was empty in the weekends. I brought with me some cardboard boxes, and she training parking forward and backwards. I'm not sure I recommend everybody to be your wife's teacher like that as I in despair and panic sometimes had to raise my voice: "Stop the car, stop it, STOP IT!!!!":-). Well, she also had some lessons with a professional driver. In one of the lessons he asked her to turn the car on very little narrow road. Well, hidden in the grass was a big stone that came under the car and destroyed the catalytic converter. However, she did the test very well and got her license. Now she has her own car and drive every day to work. I feel very comfortable when she is driving even on icy Norwegian roads.
Her next goal was to get a job. Almost before she got the license to work she got a job in an exporting company that uses English as their working language. She spoke only English by then. She accepted a rather unqualified job, but worked hard and got several promotions. Now she has a leading job in the same company and has got a good salary. That means that our economy is much better now than when I was living alone.
The third goal was to learn the Norwegian language. In the beginning we communicated in English, but now she speaks Norwegian very good. All immigrants in Norway get an offer to study Norwegian free of cost. She has been studying for three years now, and will still continue. I think it's important not to only learn the language, but she should have some knowledge of our history and literature. However, strange that it may be, when we make love, we still communicate in English ;-).
I've no experience with American women, but indeed there are differences between my Elena and Norwegian ladies. In Norway the fight for equal opportunities between men and women, has caused that many ladies want to be like men. They don't like the old pattern of sex roles. That means that not everybody will like it if you open the door for them. In restaurants it usual that man and woman pay for oneself. So the first time we went shopping, I opened my door and started to walk, then I noticed that Elena was still sitting in the car waiting for me to open the door for her.
Russian women like to be feminine and they want to be treated like a woman. I hurt my foot in basket training some time ago. However, when we went shopping she gave me that heavy bag and expected me to open the door for her. She likes to work in the garden and I see she is strong and can work very hard. Sometimes I tease her and name her my strong Russian woman. In contrast to JohnK's Marina (or maybe it was Oscar's), she doesn't like. So she expect me to be a gentleman, and she wants to be a good wife, friend and mistress for me. I'm a very happy man.
There's a lot more to tell. I know, however, that you Russian men don't like long stories, so I end it now. However, feel free to ask. I wish everybody who is searching for a Russian wife all the best.
Haroshij
