Svetlana Bolgar Hjellet was 27 years old when she left Moldova for temporary life as a nanny with a family in Lillehammer. She chose Norway because of the exchange program that provided possibilities to study and gain further education.
It was a well-educated woman who came to Norway in 2004. Svetlana had already traveled from home as a 15 year-old to study accounting in Chisinau, Moldova’s capitol.
She was born and raised in Comrat, a town in southern Moldova about the size of Lillehammer. She worked in accounting there for some years before she traveled to the capitol for a five -year period studying public administration at the university there.
In Lillehammer she learned Norwegian through self-study and a course at the adult learning center. She thought it was fun to learn a new language and not so difficult though she discovered that many Norwegian words are long!
She also took a year of study in marketing at the college in Lillehammer. However, she experienced what many immigrants do, that it can be hard to get the first job. “ I feel it was difficult to get a chance to demonstrate that I could do something,” says Svetlana.
Therefore she was very pleased when she got a job substituting for someone, and later a steady job at the Gausdal Landhandleri, a large hardware department store in Lillehammer. There she works with invoices.
Svetlana has also found love in Norway! She is married to a Norwegian man and has a son. She loves to be in Norway and has sought Norwegian citizenship. She’s often in contact with her family in Moldova and hopes that one day they can visit her in Norway.