Three month update. And snow?

It has been a full 3 months since my last post on this blog, meaning THREE months since we moved back to the US from Stockholm. So much has changed! And is changing!

But before any real update, happy halloween. We spent our Halloween Saturday night (when most people shoulda been dressed up and drunk) watching movies under piles of quilts, since the heat in our new building hasn't turned on yet. And we had a frickin' BLIZZARD on the East Coast in October, making it way too cold to do anything but make things in the oven and then leave it on and open for extended stretches. We checked: it was 15c degrees in Stockholm; 6c in Washington D.C.

Anyway, Stu & I spent the first nearly two months of our return in Virginia, living with family, catching up with friends, applying to jobs, eating awesome and cheap American food, and watching a whole lotta crappy morning news shows (pathetic, I know, but I didn't realize how much I missed the Today show and Good Morning America.)  There was nasty DC August heat, a hurricane or two, an earthquake, a tornado, and now, a snow storm in October.

We moved back in my 7th month of pregnancy, so the slow pace of transition was a really, really good one for me. Finally got our shipment of stuff from Sweden almost a month later than planned, but all intact and with few major problems. But by late September, we still didn't want to *unpack* our Sweden boxes without knowing where at least one job would be. We'd both had a few job interviews but no real bites, and my belly kept getting bigger, which made life a little more stressful since we didn't quite feel settled yet and the range of possible scenarios when Baby arrived was sooooooo wide. Oh, and diapers are expensive.

But within literally 12 hours of each other, Stu and I both got AWESOME job offers in DC, which we both accepted embarrassingly quickly ("Really? You want to employ me? Ohmygodyesyesyes!" It was seriously like a marriage proposal for me. At 8 months pregnant, a shotgun wedding?) Within a week, we bought a car and rented and moved up to an apartment in Arlington, and basically did a complete 180 from the "back-up" plans we had put in place.

Dressed up and gigantic!

Stu has been at his new job at a big consulting firm here in DC for the last few weeks, and so far likes it a lot. I am incredibly excited to start my new position as an art reference librarian with the Smithsonian (the job I have been working towards for years now.)  However, I don't know *when* that start date will be, since I have been sitting around waiting for my federal background check to process for the last month, and I have exactly 3 weeks until my due date. Best case scenario: I start November 7, work for 2 weeks, then pop out a healthy baby boy in a quick and pain-free delivery, just in time for Thanksgiving. Buuuut, I am full-term and could literally go into labor at any time, and the government is frickin' slow. So I won't be surprised if I have this baby the day I get told I can start work, then immediately take maternity leave until late January (and the quick & pain-free delivery was probably never in the cards.)

So here we are, in our last few weeks (or days?!?) of being a family of two, still figuring out the day-to-day grind. I had to find a new doctor near our new place, which is really tough when you are on Medicaid and 34 weeks pregnant and in the DC area. And the doctor aside, finding day care in this area is damn near impossible: 10-12 month waiting lists for centers that charge $1900/month tuition for an infant. Almost a year? "Tuition" for a 3-month old?! $1900?!?  Needless to say, we were completely ruined by the prospect of Sweden's system of health and child care.

The nursery in process.

And we miss a lot of aspects of our life in Stockholm, the city, our friends there, our awesome apartment. It isn't completely gone, though. I will probably never wear shoes in my house again. We still speak in Swenglish to each other, though I'd say the most oft used phrase is "Vad fan gör du?" by Stu to me, and rightly so, since pregnant women do a lot of strange things ;). We made kardemummakaka last night in an attempt to warm up our frigid apartment. We've gone to an event or two at the House of Sweden. And I have spent more money than I would like to admit at Ikea recently.

But we definitely think, especially with a little clarity from these last 3 months, that moving back to the US was the absolute best possible choice for us. And also that our time in Stockholm was so, so, so worth it. The travels and the experiences, and even the education (though I complained a whole lot about mine!), were life-changing, and I can honestly say we are in a better place in our lives than we would have been without those two years in Sweden.

So that is a little of what we have been up to since leaving Sverige. Aside from a picture or two to announce our new little Swedish meatball when he comes, I probably won't post much more here, and would rather keep it as a kind of time capsule of our lagom life in Stockholm. 

Ack! 3 days left!

Wow, how the time flies. How do we really only have 3 whole days left as Swedish residents?!?  I would like to note that on July 19th or thereabouts, we received notification from the immigration office that we could legally stay in the country until August 31st. Thanks, Migrationsverke, a whole week and a half before we ship off for good. Couldn't have told us in June, when our other visas expired and we HAD to make exit plans?!?

Not that we could have really afforded to stay much longer than we are. We haven't secured jobs in the States (not for lack of trying...Stu is throwing CVs out there like candy on a parade float!)  And we've been in "Goodbye" mode here, which means lots of lunches, fikas, dinners and drinks out to spend a last few hours with the lovely friends we've met here.

Our apartment is pretty bare. We had to pre-pack this weekend to figure out the last of it...we had roughly 6 suitcases worth of stuff and only 4 worth of capacity. Thankfully my giant, pregnant belly is a weeding device of it's own: can't pull it up or down over the bump? In the pile to Myrorna!

We have a few other things to donate, but we just got news in the last few days that our landlady wants to rent our awesome apartment out for at least 6 months (she had told us she would sell, and we should get rid of everything extra we have purchased.) Her renting is good news for us IF she can get someone in on August 1st, so that we don't have to pay rent on an empty apartment. And at 10.000kr (~$1,600) a month, we would very much appreciate someone having that kind of flexibility. So much so, we would leave them those extra plates and cups and lamps and all that useful stuff we accumulated while living here the last 2 years. Trust me, it is worth it!

The weather is sunny and 70-something, and we are enjoying the last of our time here. But we are also pretty excited to leave. Three days!?!?!

25 boxes, gone!

 

25 boxes, gone!

The guy came 2 hours earlier than we were told he would, and two of our wardrobe boxes wouldn't fit in the elevator down from our 5th floor apartment (whoops!) but they all fit on two pallets, and hopefully make it to Gothenburg today. They'll be put on a boat sometime in the next week, and we hope will make it to the DC area in early August. We hope.

Now our apartment feels empty. Well, not totally...we rented it furnished, so we still have our bed, desk, dresser, dinner table, dishes, etc. We have someone coming to look at our couch this afternoon (Finally! cross your fingers! That couch was a bitch to carry in, and we don't want to be the ones to carry it out!)

And tomorrow, we head out for a weekend in the country with friends. Two weeks left in Sweden!!! Wow, I don't even know how to spend the last 14 days. What do you do with two weeks of vacation in Stockholm?

Moving progress - part 1

We fly one way from Stockholm to the DC area on July 27, so still nearly 3 weeks until the big move. 

BUT our stuff leaves us on Wednesday. The cheapest option for overseas moving is to pack-it-yourself and send it on a boat, which we did on the way over here in 2009. We could have forked over nearly $4K to have a company pack us up and handle all the details, but I guess like pain. To be honest, in paying that labor, we would  have been paying for someone else's time, and Stu and I have lots of time right now. And, bottom line, it costs almost FOUR GRAND! Our DIY option will be closer to $1500. Not quite the $700 it cost to come over, but what can you do? Thanks, crappy US dollar exchange rate!

Regardless who packs, the boat option generally takes a month for your stuff to find its way to your door on the other side, so we're sending it off a little earlier than we are sending ourselves off. We managed to get a ton of it done in the week after graduation and before our big trip to France & Italy. But these last few days have been our final take-it-or-leave-it decisions on what gets put on the boat, what gets crammed in our 4 checked bags & 2 carry-ons, and what just gets tossed/donated.

Hooray, moving! So far, we have 26 large boxes filled. We came to Stockholm with 15. And granted, Stu doesn't let me *do* any heavy lifting, but I still acutely feel the stress of moving and heaving boxes, what with the fact that they are TAKING OVER our apartment. 

But after Wednesday, they'll be gone. I've sold a large chunk of our other stuff on Blocket (ahem, we still need someone to buy our lovely red pull-out couch...it sleeps real comfy! Promise!) 

Stu, taking apart our 3 large wardrobes for a Blocket buyer. Now our bedroom is so empty. 

So Thursday, we'll have a pretty empty apartment to enjoy for a last 2 weeks. So sad. 

Home, not home

We're back from our big ol' contesting, mediterranean Europe touring, wedding crashing, babymoonin' vacation through France and Italy. We had a late flight out of Rome, and after a dirty, sticky hot day of dragging our butts around that too-busy city, waiting for the time to head to the airport (seriously, the last 6 hours felt like we were on Survivor), we were SO happy to be HOME. In Stockholm. To our impossibly comfortable bed, our awesome little apartment, and absolutely perfect Swedish summer weather.

But its only 'home' for a few more weeks! Then 'home' is back to the DC area, where we will be living with my mom until we figure out the next step (i.e. where jobs take us).  Which is great...I love DC. And going 'home' to mamma's (meaning: the suburbs) still means we have a ton of friends really close by. But it is weird. I am going to miss my Swedish bed, and having our own lovely little place, and 74 degree sunny days, especially when its generally 94 in Virginia. And I'm going to miss a whole lot more, too many people, places, things, and ideas to list. Not so many people get to say they just picked up and popped over to live in Europe for a few years, and I feel so lucky that we got the chance and the experience. And had a great time doing it!

Getting Ready to Move and Travel Plans

So, we're project people. No sooner have we finished up school and finally don't have any deadlines overhead, and we're already on to a new project... this time, the move. Plus, we're doing a farewell European road trip through France and Italy.

The Move. We saved all our boxes. I know my Scottish Grandmother would be proud: the plaid blood, as my mother calls it, makes it difficult to throw things away. And, boxes are useful! So thanks to our good fortune of having a storage unit in the basement, we kept them. We'll be donating a lot of clothes and such to the second-hand shop Myrorna, I think, and then deciding what we really need to take with us. Everything else must go.

The Trip. I feel pretty good about this one. Besides our great luck in getting to Paris, we've a friend's wedding in Bordeaux, a road trip through Carcassonne to Antibes, a little of Provence and a last night in Nice. Then we're taking a train to Florence for a few days, another wedding at a villa in Tuscany, then meeting friends from the US for a few days in Rome! Since this is our last big trip before leaving Sweden behind, plus the last vacation sans children I think it's fitting that it's a bit over the top. What do you think? It sounds fabulously bougie. I'm worried that my pants aren't tight enough.

Figuring out the details today was pretty exciting. I know the next few weeks will rush by us. Then it will be late July and we'll be gone. We're sad to leave Stockholm, but excited to return home. We have something like just 20 days of meals and dishwasher runs left in our apartment. Have to think of all the food we'll have to eat, and what dishes to box up. Finally, what the heck do we do with all this peanut butter!? Anne has amassed quite the stash. We'll have to parcel it out to worthy expats...

Moving!

It is decided. We fly back one-way to DC on July 26, moving back to the States officially!

I hadn't bothered to apply to a single job in Stockholm this year, so I wasn't expecting amazing job offers on my end. Stu had some great leads on jobs here, but none materialized as solid offers by our self-imposed deadline. So, with our residence visas expiring June 30th, a whole 2 weeks after Stu graduates, we figured, why drag it out? Holy crap, June 30th is in 28 days! Thankfully, we could apply for short-term extensions to finish the move (and keep health insurance!)

We have a super summer vacay planned, with a week in France (including 5 days in Paris, which are fully paid by  major int'l company Stu is competing for!) then a week in Italy, with spending time with lots of friends in between. Then a few last weeks of decadent Swedish summer before the big move.

This weekend, we've got friends visiting, but starting next week, we start packing! I've already posted a ton of stuff for sale on Blocket (anybody in Stockholm looking for a pull-out couch? Some great Ikea chairs? Lamps? Coffee pot? Other random household goods? Here's a link to pictures of some of the stuff: https://picasaweb.google.com/lagom.sverige/Collages?authkey=Gv1sRgCPz1p8bS2vSvWw&feat=directlink#)

Uggg, another overseas move!  We got so lucky coming over--it was cheap, the company was good, everything turned up on time and intact. But of course, that shipper is out of business and I don't expect it to be nearly so cheap on the way back. And to boot, I'm preggers, and we don't have jobs, and DC is hot & miserable in the summer. I hate moving.

But I am still so, so, so excited to move back. I've been pulling for this for months now. We have had such a great two years in Sweden, but it just feels like it is time.

But what will happen to the blog? 

Who speaks Swedish anyway?

I realized it has been a few since I posted, but I had no idea what to write about?!? What we are up to? What we have planned coming up? Something totally random?

Currently, I am helping out with a project on postmodernism that involves 1980s Swedish art journals at Moderna Museet (and spent 8 hours today helping an artist make 400 paintings for the project...I have paint in my ears.) I am also supposed to be working on my final exhibition and thesis. It'll happen. I hope.
Stu is busy working full-time at a Swedish company for his capstone project, but he'll be done in 2 months. In fact, he'll be done with a 2-week break right when I will be most busy preparing for my final exhibition presentation, so I need someone to take my husband for that time....anyone want to babysit Stu? Anyone? If he is home with nothing to do, while I have to focus and produce, we might get divorced. Not really, but he could use a vacation then, anyway ;)

We are applying for jobs all over. I see lots of museum/library jobs in the States, but Stu has more options in Europe. So it's a bit of a toss up...I guess we'll take the first thing we get! We are traveling a bit. We are apartment-swapping in London in a few weeks, and are thinking about taking a weekend up to the super-north of Sweden to see the Northern Lights and have dinner at the Ice Hotel (yeah, just dinner...not all that interested in sleeping on a chunk of ice and wolf pelts.) We were invited to a wedding in southern France and one in Tuscany. I love it when people get married in exotic places. And our friends from NYC are coming for a visit in April, which I am *psyched* about! Hmmm...what else?

And for the something totally random...a commercial I really like. Tele2 has a sheep as a gimick because Swedes pronounce the word "cheap" as "sheep". Clever.



Consummentbaguette?
Ha. Swedes.

Figuring out the future so soon?

Stu & I moved to Sweden to be full-time grad students about 14 months ago now. We came from the US with shiny student visas (and in my case, a spouse visa since I hadn't heard about school yet.) We knew even though our programs were two years long, Migrationsverket (the immigration board) would want to check up on us after a year to make sure we were passing and still had some money to live off. Since his visa was set to expire September 1, Stu recently sent his renewal forms in for what I think of as "Stockholm, Year II." He just got his approval today, meaning he can head to Migrationsverket office for a new picture in his passport, and should have no problems traveling to London when we take my dad there next week.

But we were surprised when reading the forms...apparently, they only approved Stu to stay in Sweden until June 2011. We had been going on the assumption that we would have a full two years here, and though we would graduate in June, we would have the summer to finalize plans our next phase, post-grad school. We even signed our lease at our apartment to end on August 31, 2011.

That may not seem like a huge time difference, but we have no idea where we will be heading as of June 2011! The timeline in my mind was to start looking at the job market next May or so, and we would both basically apply for anything and everything that we saw in Stockholm, several large UK cities, and the major cities in the US. In an ideal world, we would get the summer to travel again, knowing exactly what city we would live in by July and then could leisurely move to new digs (whether in Stockholm or abroad) in August, starting fantastic and well-paying jobs in September. But the economy hasn't exactly bounced back as high as one would have hoped, so I know the job hunt could be challenging.

In fact, though, we hope to get jobs here in Stockholm, to take advantage of the connections and networking our education has fostered, to enjoy living in this country while making a decent living wage, maybe take advantage of some of the amazing parental benefits while we were at it, and pay back into the tax system that has so generously supported us for what will be 22 months.

But leaving Sweden in June is too soon! We have to give our landlady 3 months notice that we will be leaving (so that's the beginning of April.)  I foresee April being the *busiest* 30-day stretch for us school-wise in nearly 2 years, without even thinking about applying to jobs, applying for new visas, moving across more large bodies of water, etc.

I think it's worth noting how dysfunctional we find aspects of the Swedish education system when it comes to educating foreigners. Sweden has always (and will continue until next year) made education free to everyone, whatever nationality. One would think that if the government is investing millions into human capital every year, they would want to make it as easy as possible to reap the benefits of their investments! To educate someone from outside the EU, bestowing masters or even PhD degrees, and then giving them NO time to find suitable work in this country before they are legally required to leave just doesn't make sense. One of the reasons given that the country elected to institute tuition starting next year is because "people come for the free education and then leave." But in reality, the government gives them no choice.

It's going to be winter here sooner than I'd like to admit, so maybe if I were writing this blog post 2 months from now, the tone would be different. As in "get me the hell out of here!" Working in San Diego *would* be pretty great, come to think of it. But the point is that it is too soon to think about it!  Ugg, how frustrating.

party hats and our sort-of Darth Vader chair

It was so cold today. Like a biting, freezing, killer cold. The sun eventually came out, but it was really struggling. I took a few pictures (and burned out countless retinal cones, no doubt) of the sun behind the clouds...they are all kind of surreal and creepy.

They look it, but they weren't shot in black & white. It was just so gray out, and the Stockholm sun just looked like an odd floating white golfball.

It probably felt especially cold because I didn't properly bundle when I went out to buy balloons and stupid party hats for Stu's birthday.

Just a note on Swedish birthday hats, they are very much like the cheap dollar store party hats you buy in the States, but they are not cheap! They sell them separately, so I bought exactly 9. (Maybe I'll make a few more out of paper.) We are having a birthday party at our place on Saturday, expecting a large number of people, and we can't afford to put them all in silly party hats.

I am hoping Stu wears the one with the pony on it. It just screams "Birthday Boy," doesn't it?

And the party hats are being modeled by our new chair:

Another inexpensive Blocket purchase. Of course, because it was Blocket (the Swedish Craigslist) it should be no surprise that the guy told us his place was just a short walk, and it turned out to be about 700 meters from Skanstull T-Bana. Which maybe isn't so far, unless you are the one hauling a 55 lb. chair down the icy street. Well, actually, I carried the cushions and kept an eye out for cars at the cross-walks, Stu hoisted the thing over his head and shoulders and managed to get the thing all the way back to our place in perfect shape.

Upside-down and from behind, this chair looks a bit like a white Lego Darth Vader head.

And Stu, in his giant billowing winter coat, looked very much like a bobble-headed Lego Darth Vader from behind. I wish I had gotten a picture. Better yet, I wish the party store had had Star Wars party hats. Dern Sweden.

Blocket and shopping

I am a fan!

Of course, I was/am a big fan of Craigslist, and Blocket is essentially the Swedish equivalent (without the scuzzy personal ads and job listings.) Despite that it is notoriously flakey, I have bought a ton of furniture and odds 'n ends through Craigslist in DC, collected random crap for our wedding, found my apartment, listed the condo for sale. When moving to Sweden, we sold a third of our furniture and posted an announcement for a yard sale through CL. Soooooo glad Sweden has something similar!

We made our first purchase through Blocket yesterday. We bought a microwave (Swedish word of the day: microvågsugn.)
It was super easy, and from a nice Swedish dad-type in our neighborhood, who coincidentally, and oddly, has two daughters going to college in the US on golf scholarships (in Oklahoma & Louisiana, even more odd.)

When I mentioned it was on our list of things-to-buy to some of the int'l kids in Stu's program, we got pegged as typical Americans, unable to live without our beloved microwave. Why give us a hard time for something that makes our lives easier? First use: I melted butter in it yesterday for the pancakes we ate for dinner. Call me nuts, but I'm just excited for microwave popcorn, the ability to heat up leftovers, and to make a cup of tea without having to futz with the gas stove.

(FYI, we have a gas stove/oven. I have never, ever had a gas stove, always electric, so it may be basic for some, but learning to turn on the burners has been a small challenge for me.)

And it was cheap! Nearly brand new and quite nice, for 350:-. That's less than 50 bucks. It fits really nicely in our kitchen:



So shopping. I am embarrassed to admit this, but Stu & I spent 6.5 hours in Ikea this week (SIX and a HALF!) working on outfitting our new place a little better. A large chunk of that was custom-designing a set of PAX armoirs for me, with the color, size, drawers, rods and shoe racks I want/need.
And we picked a couch! Not one that I loved, but one that was 1) a decent price, and on sale! 2) long enough for us both to cuddle up to some TV on and 3) a bäddsoffa, so we could have guests. The only reason they didn't come home with us Friday was because Ikea closes at 8pm (!) in Sweden, and we didn't have enough time to check out and arrange for delivery. Because, like I said, we spent almost 7 hours there (with fika and dinner thrown in.) So I hopped online to order the same items for delivery. But they were more expensive. I guess the sale price was in-store only. Then I did the mental exchange rate math, and got freaked out by the prices. Its cheap, but I want it cheaper. Hence Blocket.

So next on the Blocket purchase list: a couch (pull-out for all you people who SAY you are going to visit us) and some armoir-type thing. Because the reason I spent so much time custom designing the wardrobes is because we have a coat closet & a linen closet, and that is it (Stu's mom warned us, having lived in Germany, we'd be lucky to have a closet at all!) My clothes are crumpled in bags on the floor of our bedroom.
We are going to see 2 couches and a set of wardrobes today, in fact, in an hour. I'll post our thoughts later. But E should appreciate that one couch is red. Stu is very excited.

Still no internets

yeah, Comhem is inept and 'forgot' to send us our modem for the internet service they are providing. They sent us a digital TV converter box, but no modem (we don't even own a TV). I'd say they are the Swedish version Comcast, and I'm not looking forward to the year contract we're roped into.

So no posts. Its been a busy week, and I've been sick, so there may not have been any posts anyway. But soon!

Banking in Sweden

Its meant for Swedes. They don't have English translations of anything banking related. Its confusing.
We opened a bank account a few days after receiving our personnummers (that took about a week and a half, after first being rejected for putting the wrong address on the paperwork!)
We went first to Handelsbank, which is a block from our new apt. They didn't want to open an account for us, even though we had all of the paperwork they said they required, because we did not have a Swedish ID card. The ironic thing is that it has been the Swedish banks that issue ID cards for the longest time. We were even told that we could probably get one at Handels! Whatever. No arguing, we left.
And opened an account at Nordea, a half block further down. They had no problem with our paperwork or American IDs, and we got all our stuff on the spot! Including the wierdest little card reader ever:





(I blurred out my card numbers because I don't know who really reads this blog. Välj funktion just means choose a function)

It is how you make online transactions with Nordea. You slide your card in, type in the website's unique code for your session, then your PIN, then it spits out another unique code that you type into your bank's website. THEN you can see your balances, pay bills, transfer funds, etc. Every time you bank online.
Anyway, we haven't gotten hit with any fees yet, but I have been told you get charged a monthly fee for having a debit card, for paying bills online, for existing as a customer basically. Great. Oddly, our account is called a "CheckIn" account, which confused me the first time I heard it. This country (maybe every European country?) does not do checks.

Now I just need to fill this account up! Ha. We have to pay a few thousand kronor to get our stuff through customs and delivered to our new apt (yay!!) so it'll all be eaten up soon enough.

Mascara is expensive

The exchange rate is in the toilet. At least as far as we are concerned, considering we are living off of our American savings. When we first started planning our move to Stockholm back in April, the rate was about 8.5 kronor per dollar. It meant the rent for our bigger, better Swedish apartment in a great neighborhood was the same as the mortgage on our DC condo. Fine by us! But the exchange rate has fallen steadily since its height in March, and is now hovering at 7 kronor per US dollar. It doesn't sound like that catastrophic of a fall, but it means that our rent is about $200 more per month than we were planning, just 5 months ago.

Aside from the exchange rate fluctuations, Stockholm doesn't seem all that much more expensive than DC.
Aside from the alcohol.
And cosmetics.
I was reading the Metro paper the other day (the free fluffy newspaper that they give out free on the subway, like the DC Express paper) and saw several ads from stores that sell cosmetics. They all advertised mascaras that ranged from 95:- to 165:-, and that is on sale (FYI, in Swedish, its "på rea". I learned that one real quick!) The Maybelline mascara I just tossed out was about 115 kronor...that's $16!! I am cheap, so I probably paid less than $5 for it at a CVS. Had I read the ad before getting rid of the tube, I might have kept it longer! And mascara is one of the few things I am anal about keeping fresh...they say toss it after 2 or 3 months of use, which I do. With always having contact lenses and sensitive eyes, and even more since having lasik in May, it's been important in preventing eye infections. Especially since moving, as we get free health care, but eye care and dental are NOT covered by the Swedish government (which makes me think I should stop eating all this Swedish candy soon. Probably.) But I can't afford to buy $16 mascara every few months being a broke student!

I'll miss using mascara. My eyes won't look the same. And we haven't been here long enough for me to miss all that much. American chunky peanut butter, affordable beer, friends, fam.
That's where you guys come in, friends and family. Several handfuls of you have said you will come visit us in Stockholm. And we WANT you to come visit! Come stay on our couch or blow-up bed (when we get it from the other side of the country, that is.) We'll play tour guide and make you Swedish food and entertain you. And when you come, bring a jar of chunky peanut butter, a bottle of scotch (at Stus request), and a tube or two of cheap Maybelline mascara (preferably not the waterproof kind...I would have to shell out for equally expensive eye make-up remover for that stuff!)

Please?

Bye til September!

This week has been insane, while we've dismantled and boxed up our apartment in DC, and moved a ton of furniture to my mom's, and saw exactly 1.88 cubic meters worth of our stuff shipped off to Stockholm. And we sold our place!

That picture is our stuff at the shipping depot in Baltimore. Very industrial, very gritty, very loud, very mechanical. We were told it was featured in season 2 of The Wire. Awesome. But it was fine...we had our crap boxed up, organized and labeled, and they very nicely took it from us to send away on a boat. It takes about 35 days on average, but we've asked it to be held to be delivered in September, when we are in our more permanent apartment. So in the mean time, Stu & I are living out of 2 suitcases a piece for the next 6 weeks. SIX WEEKS! What that means is that I have exactly 3 pairs of shoes to wear until September.

State of affairs

One week!! Left in the Mt P apartment, anyway.


Our place is a total disaster. We move out this Saturday, driving down to Fred Vegas for storage and up to Baltimore for shipping. Anyone want to help us move?

Yard sales and parties...

The worst part (okay, besides the Swedish winters) is saying goodbye to everyone here. We'll be back for visits, and we'll have space for visitors there, but it will still be sad to leave our friends and family. Since its not feasible to spend a ton of quality time with everyone we love here, come spend time with us!

---Right after our giant YARD SALE (more below) please come to a potluck picnic in Rock Creek Park near the Peirce Barn on Sunday, June 28th, 3pm-dusk (weather permitting). We'll have plates, utensils, cups, napkins, etc, but bring a dish, drink or dessert to share. http://www.nps.gov/rocr/planyourvisit/peirce-barn-directions.htm

---Yard sale: We're selling a ton of stuff Saturday and Sunday June 27th & 28th (9am-1ish) at Nina & Todd's at 18 14th St SE in Capitol Hill. Please come take it off our hands.

---If you can't make the BBQ, join us Saturday night, July 18th, for goodbye cocktails. Details to follow, when I figure them out.

Vi kommer att bo i en fin lägenhet i Stockholm!

Well!

We've getting boxes packed and preparing for our move today. For we have found an apartment!

It's such a relief. We just got off the phone with our new landlady and she was so nice. It gives us a real good feeling to know our living arrangements aren't a big scary question mark, looming...

?

Can't you guess, yes, it is I, Stu, as our silly/intrepid blogger du jour.

In anycase, Anne and I are very excited. And she wants me to quit goofing off and post the pictures. Without further ado I present you, our new cuteness.

It's so bright! Such long, pretty windows. Granted, it won't be as bright at night, which will be approximately from Nov-Feb, but time will turn. (We'll break even from the basement light we "enjoy" now.)

Anne's particularly psyched about the bathtub. This is a one bedroom place, but is actually 10 whole square feet more that our current place! Plus, it's a stone's throw from school. Somehow that will make our first Nordic winter more bearable when I just have to do a quick 200 meter dash. Hardly seems fair, no? Well, I endured Siberian air blowing down to Korea for two winters, so I've paid some chilly dues.

Oh! And we found great deals on cold weather boots and a parka with a fur-lined hood for Anne. We'll do fine.

When it rains, it pours

One of the biggest sources of anxiety with moving (for me, anyway) has been finding a decent, affordable place to live in Sthlm.
We got ourselves on at least one student housing queue, but since nearly everybody goes on to higher education in Sweden (its free, so, duh) students can get on waiting lists for apartments when they turn 16. So I'm competing with people who have been waiting YEARS for a place.

I've found the Swedish equivalent to Craigslist (blocket.se), which of course, has proven just as flaky as our Craigslist, and I had contacted several people about their listings (in English) without a peep in response.

We decided to shell out for the pay service, with the thinking that people have to pay for posting their apartments, so they are pretty serious about getting good tenants. For the Stockholm area, Bostad Direkt charges 695 SEK (which came out of my bank account at $92) and after a little juggling to get access, we can now contact owners. And I have. And I've already heard back, from several of them! And these are nice apts in super nice neighborhoods...Vasastan, Kungsholmen, Sodermalm, etc. For about what we pay in DC, if not slightly less.

But Stu also got a lead from his school on a great-sounding place about .2km from his campus, so we should get pictures and further details tomorrow. And because we have a Swedish-speaking university employee vouching for us, its a more solid possibility. Fingers crossed.

Another hurdle we're kind of, half-way over. At least I feel like we're getting somewhere, and won't land on August 4 with no where to go. So if we get housing wrapped up in the next few weeks, all I have to do is move! Oh, wait...

Yesterday, I weeded, organized and packed my jewelry. No small feat. This morning I organized pens. Who knew that between us, we had so many writing instruments. I think I should be moving a little faster.

Visas!

We got them!
We were told to expect 2-3 months turnaround on getting our residence visa applications approved and back from the Swedish Migration Board. We dropped them off at the DC Embassy on May 9th (and I went back a few days later to re-do what was the wrong paperwork...whoops!) And we received a call on June 4th to say that we'd been approved to live in Sweden until September 2010. We'll have to renew after the first year, but it seems like we just have to submit a renewal application that shows that Stu didn't flunk out, etc.
The actual visa is an odd little print-out with our pictures and a raised stamp in the back of our passports....I don't know what I expected.
Either way, big hurdle jumped!