Expat Advice: Relationships in Stavanger, Norway

What is the name of the city or town that you are reporting on?

Stavanger

What is your current status? Are you single, dating, in a long-term relationship, married or divorced?

Single, never married, mid 30s

What is it like in your country of residence for someone with your relationship status (married/divorced/dating)? If you're single, how do you meet other people? Do English-speaking people tend to gravitate to certain parts of your city?

As a single female career-driven expat it is very difficult to establish a meaningful or casual relationship. The locals are not inclusive. You will never be part of their social circle. That leaves the expat community, which is dominated by the American wives club. There is no support for single female expats. As a foreign career women, you are also seen as a threat and an oddity in the workplace. Children are big here and if you don't have any by the time you are in your mid 30s then there must be something badly wrong with you! In short, it is very difficult to make any social connections.

What would be the best advice you could give someone with your relationship status that lives in your country of residence? Any other thoughts?

Be prepared to fend for yourself and be treated as a second class citizen as a single female expat without children in this country. You need to be a very very self-sufficient female to survive.