This is how we met - according to Hans

So I was 15, bored and looking for some trouble. I logged in to Itslearning during my break at school to check out the chat-section on the website. I discovered that there were a lot of Norwegian students on the chat. Carelessly I started to write a simple «Hey how are you» to ten random people. I fooled around for a bit, trying to ignore the fact that there are many weirdos out there on the WoldWideWebb. Anyway, one of those weirdos was called Nina. She was quite alright to talk to and when she told me she had blond hair and blue eyes I added her to MSN (yes, that still excisted back then).

And there it started. After some days of short, innocent, very polite and grammatically correct English conversations we began to know each other better. Through the internet that is. After some months we chatted on daily basis. We talked about everything and mostly about nothing. In the mean while I started to get a mild obsession with Norway. I was fascinated to share so many stories with someone I had never met. It was all quite mysterious, like a fantasy that we both seem to embrace.

During the years we both grew up in our seperate home countries and our innocent teenage talk changed into more serious adolescent talk. Nina was very closed about her private life. She never really showed photos of herself or told me where she lived exactly. Me on the other hand told her things I would never tell anyone else. I felt myself more and more uncomfortable with the inbalance in our talks. By then, I was so curious to find out who this girl actually was that I already had planned to study in Norway for some years, and perhaps even live there.

I started university and moved out of the house I grew up in. Being escaped from the watchful eye of my parents I could chat with Nina without limits and we did so for hours and hours. Technology had by then gotten so far that we could even use a webcam. Neither of us dared to use our voice though...

My own life developped further as I got to know more and more people. I had a relation, I went on large journeys and so on. Still I noticed how big a part Nina had become in my life. I started to learn Norwegian and made several attempts to meet her in Norway but she always refused. I never really understood why and it made me confused about what she actually wanted with me. Our conversations weren’t always that nice anymore and we often argued with each other.

At last I could not stand the mystery any longer and together with a friend I drive all the way up to the place she lived. It was freezing winter at the time and traveldistances in Norway are LONG. But after a crash and 16 hours of non-stop driving I got there. I only had a couple of hours to meet Nina and by then I was so tired of the whole journey that the whole meeting passed by without me having much concious. It felt like meeting any other person and my brain couldn’t grab the fact that I had been talking to this girl for half my life.

I returned home with many questions but I noticed I was kind of falling in love with Nina. Still, it took another year for her to visit me in the Netherlands. And in between that time we were both very unsure what we actually wanted with each other. But when she spent a week at my place we decided to make our relationship official. However, we still lived apart and met perhaps four times a year. Despite having chatted for so long we still did not really know each other very well, or at all, in real life. We both have very different backgrounds and have two completely opposite characters. I found myself doubting a lot whether or not this relationship would ever work. Nina, noticing this doubt, also got unsure about what I wanted and we spend a lot of dramatic nights on skype to figure out what we would do.

Eventually, I moved to Norway to continue my studies there. Exactly like I planned ten years ago. We now both lived in the same city, and actually we moved in together from the start. That has been almost two years ago now. I finally feel that I have gotten to know the «real» Nina and somehow managed to connect her with the «chat» Nina. The fantasy faded, and life like it was replaced it. To be honoust it is much better that way because we both know what we are dealing with. Sure, we still have our many differences and argues. But we somehow manage to get through that each and every time. I don’t know what the future holds for us, but as long as we keep doing that, things might actually work out :).

-Hans-