Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Living in Sweden Observation #11
Evening (9:30pm) walk alone with the dog in the woods is not scary. No predators lurking. I did meet two deer though :)
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Mardi Gras -The Swedish Way
Fettisdagen, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras or whatever you may call it in your part of the world, have different ways to be celebrated. Here in Sweden it means only one thing. Eating of the traditional "Semla". This sweet wheat bun filled with almond paste and a hearty dose of whipped cream, dusted with powdered sugar is heavenly! In the past (before moving abroad) I have baked my own for this occasion, but with everything else going on, I completely forgot that it was already today. As luck might have it, my work had gotten some for us. And I was lucky enough to get two.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
ROI - Still in the red
I can't help to wonder, whether moving to Sweden was the right decision. I am quite positive that in the long term it is the right place for us to be. The main reason being: this is where we want our children to grow up! Also, it is home to me. Still, the process of getting to this place, where we see the long-term benefits of living in Sweden has been tough and is still not over.
Sure, I managed to get a job.
Sure, we managed to find a nice townhouse to rent.
Sure, we managed to fix our house up to be put on the market.
Sure, we managed to sell it.
Sure, we managed to pack and ship, sell or donate a house full of stuff.
Sure, we managed to get Lejon the paperwork needed to bring him into Sweden.
Sure, we survived the long trip here.
Sure, we found a decent, used car to buy.
Sure, we managed 3 weeks in an apartment that wasn't ours.
Sure, I started my job, working 5 days a week for the first time since William was born.
Sure, we got through moving into our townhouse and got some furniture to make us feel at home.
Sure, our crate arrived and we got unpacked.
Sure, we succeeded in getting Chris' residence permit.
All these things add up! It's been hard work! We are still exhausted! The stress of the move, will take a long time to recover from. So what did we gain, from doing all this work?
Yes, I like the snow. So does William and Lejon. Chris, not so much.
Yes, I love being able to ride a bike, and Linköping is a very bike friendly city. However, the winter isn't the best for biking.
Yes, we much prefer the food in Sweden. And the candy :)
Yes, we love being closer to my family. But it wasn't until last week my parents came to see us, and we still haven't been up north.
Yes, we love being closer to friends. But so far we have only seen a few of them, when we went to Gothenburg to visit one weekend in January. None of our friends actually live in Linköping.
Yes, we like the central location, with the proximity to Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and the continental Europe.
I am well aware that my picture of Sweden is very idealistic and probably not realistic. Most of the benefits of living in Sweden are so far assumed positives. Whether they will come true or not, is still to be seen. But I do know, at the time being, the move hasn't paid off. We are still in the red. What we have gained from moving here, has so far not been worth the work we put in. We do not have a positive Return of Investment.
I am usually an optimistic person and this is probably a destructive way of looking at the move. All I know is we had to make a decision and go with it. We worked our asses off, without looking back and here we are. Still looking ahead. Believing one day, we will feel that the move has paid off. Hoping to add balloons to help lift our mental backpack that this move has filled with stones.
Sure, I managed to get a job.
Sure, we managed to find a nice townhouse to rent.
Sure, we managed to fix our house up to be put on the market.
Sure, we managed to sell it.
Sure, we managed to pack and ship, sell or donate a house full of stuff.
Sure, we managed to get Lejon the paperwork needed to bring him into Sweden.
Sure, we survived the long trip here.
Sure, we found a decent, used car to buy.
Sure, we managed 3 weeks in an apartment that wasn't ours.
Sure, I started my job, working 5 days a week for the first time since William was born.
Sure, we got through moving into our townhouse and got some furniture to make us feel at home.
Sure, our crate arrived and we got unpacked.
Sure, we succeeded in getting Chris' residence permit.
All these things add up! It's been hard work! We are still exhausted! The stress of the move, will take a long time to recover from. So what did we gain, from doing all this work?
Yes, I like the snow. So does William and Lejon. Chris, not so much.
Yes, I love being able to ride a bike, and Linköping is a very bike friendly city. However, the winter isn't the best for biking.
Yes, we much prefer the food in Sweden. And the candy :)
Yes, we love being closer to my family. But it wasn't until last week my parents came to see us, and we still haven't been up north.
Yes, we love being closer to friends. But so far we have only seen a few of them, when we went to Gothenburg to visit one weekend in January. None of our friends actually live in Linköping.
Yes, we like the central location, with the proximity to Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and the continental Europe.
I am well aware that my picture of Sweden is very idealistic and probably not realistic. Most of the benefits of living in Sweden are so far assumed positives. Whether they will come true or not, is still to be seen. But I do know, at the time being, the move hasn't paid off. We are still in the red. What we have gained from moving here, has so far not been worth the work we put in. We do not have a positive Return of Investment.
I am usually an optimistic person and this is probably a destructive way of looking at the move. All I know is we had to make a decision and go with it. We worked our asses off, without looking back and here we are. Still looking ahead. Believing one day, we will feel that the move has paid off. Hoping to add balloons to help lift our mental backpack that this move has filled with stones.
Residence permit - check!
When we first started thinking about moving back to Sweden I had looked into the application process for Chris' residence permit. William and I are citizens and Chris had a permanent residence permit last time around, when we lived together in Gothenburg 2000 - 2005. However, if you leave the country for more than one year, you lose the residence status, and have to reapply to return. Other than the hassle, we were not concerned about whether he could get the permit again.
As I looked into the process, it was clear to me that it would be very difficult for us to apply from the US, even though this is the main rule. I called the Immigration board and the lady I spoke to agreed; for our circumstances it would be much easier to apply from within the country. The main reasons for this is when you apply based on family ties: a) you need to apply to move to your family member who lives in Sweden and b) you send your application to the regional Immigration office of the region you are planning to reside in. Obviously a) was an issue, since I was not living in Sweden at the time - we were moving there together! And also b) was an issue in the early stages of our move planning, since we did not know where in Sweden we were to end up. This is why we ended up moving without the residence permit, hoping for the best.
Once in Sweden we tried applying online, but got stopped after the first question: "Are you currently in Sweden?" When answering yes, it said you can't apply online. You need to return to your country of residence to apply. I called the immigration office to ask some questions, and when I asked how long the application process might be, I got the answer "seven to ten months"!!!! I wasn't really buying it, but thought maybe half of that would be reasonable for a simple case like ours. The uncertainty of it, however, made it difficult to make any plans for Chris to start working. Obviously, you need the residence permit to be able to work. Without it, it didn't make much sense for Chris to even start looking for a job, since he wouldn't be able to set a start date. We figured we would be in limbo for a while.
It took us several weeks to get the application ready and in the mail. It wasn't until the first days of this year that we mailed it. About a week after, we got a letter inviting us to the Immigration office for a hearing on January 28th. That was fast!
During our scheduled visit, we had separate interviews. The immigration officer asked us questions about our time spent in the US, about our reason to move back and most importantly, whether we were aware of the main rule, to apply from your country of residence. She then asked what would happen to us, if they were to enforce this rule - forcing Chris to leave to apply from the US. It was obvious to me, she had to ask this, to justify granting residence to someone breaking the rule. The hearing took approximately 30 minutes. Two days later Chris got a letter in the mail granting him permanent residence permit in Sweden. Wow! That was easy! Never would I have dreamed it would take less than a month!
So here we are, ready to start living the Swedish dream, whatever that might mean...
As I looked into the process, it was clear to me that it would be very difficult for us to apply from the US, even though this is the main rule. I called the Immigration board and the lady I spoke to agreed; for our circumstances it would be much easier to apply from within the country. The main reasons for this is when you apply based on family ties: a) you need to apply to move to your family member who lives in Sweden and b) you send your application to the regional Immigration office of the region you are planning to reside in. Obviously a) was an issue, since I was not living in Sweden at the time - we were moving there together! And also b) was an issue in the early stages of our move planning, since we did not know where in Sweden we were to end up. This is why we ended up moving without the residence permit, hoping for the best.
Once in Sweden we tried applying online, but got stopped after the first question: "Are you currently in Sweden?" When answering yes, it said you can't apply online. You need to return to your country of residence to apply. I called the immigration office to ask some questions, and when I asked how long the application process might be, I got the answer "seven to ten months"!!!! I wasn't really buying it, but thought maybe half of that would be reasonable for a simple case like ours. The uncertainty of it, however, made it difficult to make any plans for Chris to start working. Obviously, you need the residence permit to be able to work. Without it, it didn't make much sense for Chris to even start looking for a job, since he wouldn't be able to set a start date. We figured we would be in limbo for a while.
It took us several weeks to get the application ready and in the mail. It wasn't until the first days of this year that we mailed it. About a week after, we got a letter inviting us to the Immigration office for a hearing on January 28th. That was fast!
During our scheduled visit, we had separate interviews. The immigration officer asked us questions about our time spent in the US, about our reason to move back and most importantly, whether we were aware of the main rule, to apply from your country of residence. She then asked what would happen to us, if they were to enforce this rule - forcing Chris to leave to apply from the US. It was obvious to me, she had to ask this, to justify granting residence to someone breaking the rule. The hearing took approximately 30 minutes. Two days later Chris got a letter in the mail granting him permanent residence permit in Sweden. Wow! That was easy! Never would I have dreamed it would take less than a month!
So here we are, ready to start living the Swedish dream, whatever that might mean...
The eye sore of the street is gone
Today we finally got rid of that huge wooden box that has been littering our driveway the last month and a half. I had listed it on "Blocket" (Swedish equivalent of Craigslist) before Christmas and had a prospective buyer withing hours of listing. He fell through and so did the next couple of people who messaged me within the next several weeks. I guess there isn't much of a market for wooden crates.
Two weeks ago I got a phone call from someone, considering to make it into a hen house. I told him I didn't know much about hen houses, but surely with some modifications, it would work... Unfortunately he lived 3 hours away and needed transportation. He didn't get back to me until this week and today, the crate was loaded into a horse trailer and hauled away. We won't miss it one bit nor will our neighbors. It's safe to say, it's been the eye sore of the neighborhood for the last month and a half.
Despite the pain getting rid of it, I do recommend having your own crate to load/unload when moving overseas. It gave us plenty of time to carefully load it and like solving a 3D puzzle, fit as much as possible of our beloved belongings into before shipping out. For us it made a huge difference!
Two weeks ago I got a phone call from someone, considering to make it into a hen house. I told him I didn't know much about hen houses, but surely with some modifications, it would work... Unfortunately he lived 3 hours away and needed transportation. He didn't get back to me until this week and today, the crate was loaded into a horse trailer and hauled away. We won't miss it one bit nor will our neighbors. It's safe to say, it's been the eye sore of the neighborhood for the last month and a half.
Despite the pain getting rid of it, I do recommend having your own crate to load/unload when moving overseas. It gave us plenty of time to carefully load it and like solving a 3D puzzle, fit as much as possible of our beloved belongings into before shipping out. For us it made a huge difference!
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Reunited with Ficus Benjamina
When visiting Gothenburg, one weekend in January, we stayed with our friends Sini and Lars. After putting our overnight bags in their bedroom, which we were to occupy, Sini asked: "Did you recognize the plant?" "No. Which plant?" I asked. Turns out she still had our ficus that I had given her before moving to the states seven years ago. Then she tells me I can have it back. At first I think that I can't take her plant from her. I gave it to her to keep, not just to watch over while we were away. But when she insists, I accept. Feeling really excited about the fact that my ficus from our years living in Gothenburg, has been well kept and is ready to move back home. That is how we have come to have a Benjamin Ficus in our living room window.
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