Judith is Australian and married a Danish man. They live in Denmark after years of being together around the world. How do they handle being a global couple?
Where are you from and what brought you to Denmark? I am from Australia. Many years ago I travelled to East Africa to visit a friend. She introduced me to a Danish man that was working there, and that was that. We have been together ever since. We are coming up for the weirdly Danish wedding anniversary of 12.5 years (who knows why the Danes put such importance on the number 12.5). We have 3 children, 1 born in South Africa and two born in Australia. Seemingly due to the changing economical climate, our recent long stint in Dubai came to a sudden end and we saw an opportunity to come and spend some time in Denmark. Is Denmark your first experience of living abroad? No. I had lived a couple of different countries before I met my Dane. He has also spent much time living and working outside of Denmark. Together we have lived all over Africa, then Singapore and we have just spent nearly ten years in Dubai.
What was the biggest challenge for you as a couple moving to Denmark? Trying to get a job! We didn’t move to Denmark for work, we moved to give our 3 children more of a home base, but you need to pay the bills! Trying to break into the job market here when you have lots of overseas experience can be very difficult as you are not the “norm”. We may yet have to leave again because of this issue. This is especially the case for my Danish husband, who has struggled to get a foot in the door.
What was the biggest challenge for you cultural wise moving here? Culture wise there have been no big surprises as we have been together for many years and visited Denmark many times. That said, in the last couple of years there have been a few books written about Denmark from a foreigners point of view. After I read “the year of living