He lives in Norway for a year and a half
Cleans small Norwegian kindergartens.
You are currently cleaning, but apparently they want you to come work as a teacher's assistant in kindergarten? Do you feel it's a social promotion? Are you happy
I'm actually scared ...
…because?
Because I have never worked with children. I don't know what I'm signing up for. And I speak only English, and in kindergarten children will probably want to communicate with me in their native language ... But you know, children are good teachers.
Why do we, Polish women, often well-educated and with extensive professional experience, decide to clean?
Easier to get a job like this, it's obvious. Few of us speak Norwegian as soon as we arrive. A lot of the girls don't speak English either. And this is a job that does not require hours of conversation or even listening to instructions. The deal is simple; someone always at the beginning, even if only in a pathological way, will tell you how to manage the place you are to clean. Then only the duo remains; cloth / mop and you. But in fact, in Poland, I would never do that ... But you have to start somewhere.
What about your self-esteem - it grows because you are able to cope with emigration in such an exemplary manner, or on the contrary - you lose it?
This is a very difficult issue for me. Like many of us women, I came to Norway to visit my beloved. In the profit and loss balance, I knew what would take up more space. We are emotional, we always focus on love, but I turned a really good job in a German office into cleaning. It pisses me off because that's not what I wanted for myself. I think about it a lot, and often feel sorry for it. But ultimately, to this day, I have never regretted my decision.
Do you have any professional goal in Norway, where are you going?
You know what, I don't know. But I know what I absolutely don't want to do ... I don't want to clean up. I do not like this. I only like to clean my apartment and only when I feel like it, haha!
How old are you, Paulina?
25.
You're young! You have so much good and probably also difficult experience behind you. There are new challenges ahead of you; work in a kindergarten as an assistant! And you can always treat kindergarten as a springboard for office work.
Yes, I know. It is also not that I have to return to this office at any cost. The point is that instead of climbing I fell into some total low of my own ambition.
You miss something specific from Poland; I don't know, maybe food or some kind of activity?
First of all, I miss some Polish culinary specialties, but most of all the weather, I miss the weather very much! Due to this demanding Norwegian climate, it was very difficult for me at the beginning, I couldn't stop worrying about it. On top of that, there is exhausting physical work and it is hard to reflect on thinking about the hot summer in Poland.
See our article on earnings in Norway.
For a weakened mood, Norwegians recommend playing sports, walking and any physical activity in the bosom of nature, whatever the weather is. Helps you?
I guess I still haven't found myself in the rainy Bergen. The weather absolutely discourages me from leaving the house. I'm cold and I prefer a warm place under a blanket haha!
Norwegian Polonia. So you don't go for walks at all?
No no! I am from Jelenia Góra, we have mountain tours in our blood! Of course we walk, but we make walking dependent on the weather.
But you know, the Norwegians say that there is no bad weather, only bad clothes ...
Here it is! Maybe that's the reason why I resist walking so much… I have nothing in my rain closet yet.
So it is worth thinking about properly preparing for emigration in Bergen also in terms of clothes?
Yes! This is my crowning tip for future expats and all tourists! Rain pants and a jacket for the rainy season that extends from year to year (laughs!) And wool socks with thermal clothing for a cold winter. See you in Bergen!
