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? 

Visit from the States!

Anne's Dad has come to visit! We went and picked Dave up at the airport on Saturday, taking public transportation up to Arlanda and reminiscing about how we did it the hard way our first time with our trip into Stockholm and too many bags... It's been great to show him around our new city, and having been here for a full turning of the seasons it does feel more like "ours", at least for now. Especially now that we're getting the chance to revisit old favorites.

Speaking of which, first, the horde: Dave brought us five jars of peanut butter, four boxes of hot cocoa mix, three jars of marshmallow fluff, two rounds of candy corn and a partridge in a pear tree. Anne is a very happy girl as this is truly the mother load... er, father? In any case, it's happily received and will be gone before we know it. None of these are that dear, they're just unusual here, which puts them on our Fall 2010 list of favorite things. (Hot chocolate packets, are for convenience at the office. Marshmallow fluff, have you seen those new jars? They're so light!) Yes, we now have more PB than one should ever have in one cupboard due to our previous stockpiling. But that means there is an excuse to make cookies. A Very Happy Anne, indeed.

The flight didn't allow my father-in-law much opportunity to sleep so we first faced a challenge and a decision of how to best manage the jet lag which was promptly met with a nap. Wise choice, I'd say. But to counter that we had to get out and do some walking. And walk we did, about five miles, give or take (Yankee miles, not Swedish). Down through to Gamla Stan we wondered. Ran into a men's choir promoting their concert and it filled the air with a charming, old-timey atmosphere: just right for the old towne as we took a fika in a medieval cellar near the Stortorget. (Site of the Stockholm Bloodbath in 152o the tale of which I related...)

Then we took a quick photo op at the corner of Kåkbrinken & Prästgatan for the runestone... I'd heard it was there and must have walked by it countless times in our visits to one of the cutest parts of town but only this time was I smart enough to write down the address.

How the runestone got there is an interesting story... And it reads, "Torsten and Frögunn had the stone erected after their son." Which I take as kind of an inside joke: there's all these fabulously ancient runestones left lying about and you'd assume they had some mystical, Stone Henge sort of use to them but they mostly amount to saying "Ragnar was here". Norse graffiti. Don't even get me started on cave paintings...

But Dave enjoyed walking about the cobblestone streets, and it was a really nice evening. We had gorgeous weather and I'm already mentally storing up sunshine for the winter months ahead...

I was impressed when Dave stayed awake until 9 in the evening and survived us walking him up Montelius Vägen. Another walk down memory lane for Anne and me.

Finally, we went for a beautiful walk on Sunday as well, through Djurgården and stopping for lunch at Rosendahls Trägården. So beware, a visit to Stockholm requires good walking shoes. But it really was a wonderful time.

Ah ha, and then, best of all. I got to enjoy a football game with my father-in-law. Packers won.

Here are cute pictures. A charming garden, and a lonely hat.

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.

Don't get too big for your britches

So, I have been really happy to learn that Sweden's grid is a very clean one. Most of Sweden's energy is sustainable, and very little is from fossil fuels. We've been reading the Omnivore's Dilemma and watching Food, Inc. In general I've just been thinking more about where my food comes from and trying to be healthy. For example, it's been nice living without a car for two years, although I know we'll offset all the good our public transportation is doing by flying all over the place. When I do get a car, I might try for something like a Nissan Leaf for the all electric option. However, I know that in the US about half of our power comes from coal. So an all electric car is a half-coal car. I'd like to see us move to a more sustainable energy policy... But well, I'm not holding my breath. Anyway, a big plus to life in Sweden is that it just feels cleaner. Heck, coming from D.C. I love how clean the water is.

So then I thought it was ironic to find out, some (probably not most, but some) of our biofuel energy comes from bunnies. Can't be too proud about that. Just saying, the "killing bunnies" position is a hard one to defend. I understand the practical reasoning; D.C. had poisoned pigeons to take care of a pest problem and the pigeons weren't even going to a good use, just being discarded. But this reminds me of what Thich Nhat Hanh says that ideals are like traveling towards the North Star, it's enough to give it a good try. But it's important not to get too big for one's britches.

Nobody's perfect. Just lagom.

Okay, actually a year now.

Kind of hard to believe it's been a year!

We moved here for Stu to attend graduate school at the Stockholm School of Economics. I hadn't even gotten accepted to my program yet at Stockholm University. I didn't have a job, just a lead on a babysitting gig making a measly 100kr an hour. And the U.S. dollar to Swedish krone exchange rate was crap. We didn't know anyone. We didn't have our "permanent" apartment yet, so we were in a teeny, tiny, temporary studio the first month. We lived out of suitcases for more than 6 weeks between shipping our stuff in July from DC and it arriving in Stockholm in September. We spoke less Swedish than your average Swedish 3-year-old.

A year later, today, we've both completed the first year of master's programs, with the rest seeming an easy downhill coast from here (it probably won't be the case, but it *feels* that way now.)  I don't nanny for the kiddos regularly anymore, but I am having a playdate with them tomorrow! Still making 100kr an hour. And the U.S. dollar is still crap. But Stu has had several short-term jobs while juggling school. We have made some great friends. We have a lovely apartment, and we didn't have to move half a dozen times during the year like most students in this city. Embarrassingly, we have more clothes than I care to admit, and I have probably not worn a third of my wardrobe we shipped in the last year. Even more embarrassing is that I have probably only progressed to understanding Swedish on the level of a 5-year-old, and I'm still a 3-year-old when it comes to constructing a sentence.

And we have gotten to travel! In the past year, we've made it to Oslo, Venice, Milan, London, Berlin, Riga, Amsterdam & Utrecht, Edinburgh and various towns in southern Germany. I have a Paris trip planned for the end of August, and we just booked a trip to Egypt for December. On the travel wish-list for the next year is Prague, Salzburg/Vienna, Ghent & Brussels, more London, maybe some various Poland, and hopefully a Spain and/or Portugal trip?

Even though I have days when I can't wait to head home to the U.S. (okay, sometimes it's hour-to-hour that I change my mind as to whether to stay in Stockholm) we feel so lucky to have gotten this time here. Two years living and traveling in Europe and a few extra master's degrees? Not bad at all.

Fingers crossed that Year Two is a great as Year One has been...

Stockholm residents for one whole year

We flew over one year ago, today! 

Technically, we arrived August 4th, but I don't care...it's a milestone regardless.

We're half done! 

One year! One month!

Amazingly, it has been one whole year since we started this blog.  And more amazingly, at least to me, we are almost 10 months in to our planned stay in Sweden. Crazy what has changed and happened!

We are also exactly one month from heading to the US for a few weeks, to celebrate weddings and graduations and babies and seeing friends & fam. I am so looking forward to the trip. And call me shallow, but one of the first trips I am making is to Target when we get home. I miss Target and Whole Foods more than you know.

We are planning on traveling most of this summer since we assume it will be our last before re-entering adulthood, with real jobs and maybe babies. After our short east coast stint, we have plans in July to be in Edinburgh and London for about two weeks, and to spend a few weeks all over Germany with Stu's mama. August we have plans for Paris, and maybe Turkey with Emre & Patti between August and September. And anywhere else we can squeeze in some time. Any suggestions?

One year of blogging! And one month til we are back in DC! Woohoo!

Stalking the Ambassador sounds harsh

Stu and I went to an art opening last week at the Milliken Gallery. We've been to several openings there, but it seemed especially crowded last Thursday (or maybe it just felt claustrophobic with all the incense they were burning to complement the wierdo art on view?) And there were a lot of guys in suits, with those little FBI-looking earpieces. Like I have mentioned, we watch a lot of Burn Notice, so maybe I was just especially sensitive to spooks...you never know, there could have been a Russian-Swedish arms deal going on right under our noses under the guise of an art exhibition?
Anyway, we were chatting with some friends, and I guess it was crowded enough that Stu stepped on some guy in a suit. The guy was nice enough about it, though we noticed a little nerdy-looking and wearing a pin on his lapel with an American and Swedish flag. It took us a sec (okay, it took us several seconds) to realize the guys-in-suits must have been security for the American ambassador to Sweden. I remembered I had read that the gallerist Aldy Milliken (who is American) had very recently curated the collection for the ambassador's home.  Ah ha! Stu and I thought, "So he is American, WE are American, obviously he likes art, we should meet this guy!" But a moment of opportunity as good as Stu stepping on him didn't present itself a second time, so we just left and went home.

Last night, the galleries at Hudiksvallsgatan were opening new shows, and I promised Stu free wine after he impressively hauled 2 heavy bedside tables home for me from a Blocket puchase. And, full disclosure, I really wanted to check out the WhyRed pop-up clearance sale happening yesterday in the same complex...let's face it, I can't afford WhyRed designs unless they are at a pop-up clearance sale.

We were in Nordenhake Gallery, taking in some cute but bizarre story concocted by an artist who seemingly wanted to live in a rubber suit under water, when we saw the spooks again! And the nerdy man wearing the Am-Swe flag pin!

Sometimes Stu and I can communicate full conversations with very few words, so we made a nearly non-verbal agreement that there in that gallery, possibly next to the rubber aquaman suit, we would not squander another opportunity to step on this man and make his acquaintance! And we did. I forcefully invited myself into his conversation when he was talking to the gallery manager (yes, I did that. Rude, I know.) said something stupid about his bodyguards and immediately made him shake my hand and told him my name. He was quite nice, Mr. Matt the Ambassador. We chatted for a few, he introduced us to his lovely blonde wife (whose name is Brooke, btw) and I introduced him to my dashing husband. And that was about it. But we met the Ambassador! In my research figuring out who he was, turns out he is an internet big shot (founder or something of C-Net?) recently appointed to his position, and he moved to Stockholm the same week we did.

The rest of the art we encountered was okay. The WhyRed shop had some cute stuff, but still too expensive for poor students, even at pop-up clearance sale prices. And with a little wine in our bellies, we went on a silly late-night hunt for places still serving waffles, walked all through Vasastan, downtown and Stureplan, and we still didn't get waffles on Våffeldagen! We made it up to ourselves this morning intercontinental-style, with walnut bread French toast.

First Sunday in February

Makin' Superbowl chili and Superbowl cornbread. Drinkin' Superbowl beer. Watchin' Superbowl pre-game commentary (I know, right? Did I hit my head?) Its an American tradition.

But the game starts after midnight, because our timezone is GMT -1. I know now I am not going to make it through...Stu is far more dedicated. And he even has a presentation tomorrow.

Even though I only really care about the commercials and the awesome food on Superbowl Sunday, it still feels a little sad to miss out on the parties back home. Especially the boys' 3 hours of football shit-talking, Blonde Justice's ridiculously awesome Velveeta cheese dip. Patrick's ridiculously ridiculous Bacon Explosion (woven bacon strips rolled up with sausage and cheddar...a heart attack in log-form.) And inexpensive beer.

I'm having a little homesick moment, oddly related to tonight's Colts/Saints game. Though I'm hoping the Saints win (I like the black & gold color combination.)

Learning Swedish

Its late January, and Stu & I have now lived in Sweden for almost 6 months. There are so many aspects we love that the stuff we don't is still somehow not that bad. I think we both feel we have found a good fit here, and though we miss a lot of things, we definitely think of Stockholm as "home." Looking ahead, we will both have shiny new master's degrees in spring 2011, and the plan so far is to apply for jobs at various locations in the US, in London (because I *loved* it) and, of course, in Stockholm. One of the biggest hurdles to our eventual job search here is the language.

We have had a lot of people ask how our Swedish is coming. Well, its, kind of, not. At the moment, anyway. When we decided in April 2009 that we would move to Sweden from DC, we bought the Rosetta Stone language program. I recommend it...pretty pictures, easy to understand, total immersion in the language. It helped with the basics and with pronunciation, putting us roughly on the level of a 3 or 4 year old (which sounds demeaning, but kids ain't no dummies!) If we see an uncommon word we learned on Rosetta Stone, the exact phrases we learned it in still comes back to us. Its a bit weird, actually.

So in getting here, I signed up for SFI, Swedish for Immigrants, which is offered for free to nearly anyone. The government used to pay immigrants to take Swedish classes, and though they stopped that a while ago, I read that they tweaked the system and are piloting a version of the pay-for-learning plan in a few places, including Stockholm. I am not sure I'd qualify, but I'm sure I'd do it if I they threw a little money at me! I didn't start until late October, and only lasted until December. It wasn't terrible; they were educated, smart people taking the class with me, and it was nice to have nothing but Swedish spoken at me for a solid 3 hours. But it wasn't great, and after two months, I didn't feel like I learned all that much. Not to mention, all the art galleries in Stockholm hold their opening parties on Thursday nights, and I was either missing the openings or the class once per week. So it just didn't work out for me. And I have taken a month or so off from active Swedish learning.

But next week is when it all starts up again! Stu and I are paying to take a course at a local school together, once per week. It promises to have only a few students, and we took a placement test that will put us with other people on our level. Thankfully, we placed higher than total beginners! I would have been a little embarrassed otherwise. At once per week, we aren't going to become fluent anytime soon, but I might feel a little more comfortable talking to the grocery cashiers, and maybe later step up to the next course. I'm taking a beginner class at Stockholm University, mostly just to get more class time with professional professors (as opposed to the not-so-professional SFI professors.) And because it is for school credit, there is a bit more incentive to go to class and to do well. I think I'd also like a "language buddy" or something, too. A Swede that could get together for an hour or so a week to just practice the everyday phrases, etc. I could pay in cookies. Once I learn how to bake them here, that is. Or maybe Swedish pancakes. They are at least supposed to be super thin.

I was chatting today with Patti, a friend who just moved with her bf (and Stu's best friend) to Utrecht a week or so ago, and they are facing some of the same issues we did when we first got here...starting a new life, settling in, finding things, communicating with the locals, learning Dutch. I guess that is why I started writing this post. To acknowledge that its been 6 months! It feels like so long ago, but we definitely feel settled in Sweden. Even if we aren't fluent in Swedish (yet).

Oh, shameless plug, Patti just started a blog to keep up with everyone: http://goedgouda.blogspot.com/

Coming soon: complaining about taxes!

I just got official, finally! I just got my paperwork for a visa change...and can now legally work in this country. I had been on a residence visa as Stu's spouse (or, as I much prefer it in Swedish, Stu's fru.) You can't work on that thing, you can only "reside." I didn't bother to change my visa status to student back in August because it cost 1.000:-, we had just paid for it a few months prior, and I am insanely cheap. But we always planned to get at least part-time jobs while here, and that's probably going to have to happen sooner, rather than later. And then, I can officially start complaining about high Swedish tax rates (okay, I do that already...we pay 25% VAT!) Speaking of...our US W2's should be coming soon. That should be depressing.

So I just got the notice in the mail that I am all set to get a real job, aside from what promises to be a painful trip to the Immigration office to get the stamp in my passport! Good thing, too, because it was all in-process when we traveled to London, and we held up the lines leaving and coming while they scrutinized my passport. They are EU, but have different regulations, so the passport check IN Sweden was much more rigorous than when we visited Italy. Strange? Yes. And no, they didn't give two flips about Stu's passport.

Anyway, happy day! And I turned in an exam and did a presentation this morning (both went well) and now am finally done with the first semester of this graduate program. We are going to friends' house for dinner tonight, and I am in charge of wine and dessert. I am thinking something chocolate to celebrate!

2009 ends with teenager sleep

We were talking yesterday about how jam-packed 2009 has been and that it didn't leave us where we thought we'd be. And try as we have, we still can't remember what we did for Stu's last birthday. I remember it being a Tuesday because he had to get a sub for a yoga class, but that is it...anybody remember?

Anyway, January was Obama's inauguration, the weekend of my birthday and notably the coldest DC had been for a while (something like 22F over the weekend.) We watched it from the warmth and spaciousness of our sofa. It was February (also the elusive birthday plans) that we put our tiny DC condo on the market because we randomly popped into an open house on Monroe St. and fell in love with a 1900 rowhouse with 4 (FOUR) fireplaces. It was March that we found out about Stu getting accepted to the Stockholm School of Economics, April that we decided for sure that it was too good an opportunity to pass up, May that I got laid off (with severance and unemployment and an extra 2 months to pack up for the trip.) In June, Stu taught his final yoga class, and in July we said goodbye to our belongings and put them on a boat destined for Stockholm (okay, so they ended up in Gothenburg and I had to finagle customs clearance and delivery to Stockholm.) We arrived in August and spent nearly 3 weeks just hanging out in our new city before Stu started school, I got accepted to the Curating Art program at Stockholm University and started working as a nanny. You kind of get what we've been doing since then in this blog.

So now we're in Sweden until at least 2011. Its December, and we experience daily far colder temps than that inauguration weekend nearly a year ago. And its the longest I have been without some type of job since I started working at Ruby Tuesday when i was 16.

I am not kidding about the job thing...it is kind of amazing. It has led to what Stu and I call teenager sleep. School ended for the year on the 18th, and we have been regularly getting 10-11 hours of sleep each night. I actually don't think I ever slept this much, even AS a teenager! Most embarrassing, we slept until after 11am when Stu's mama was here last week...we get *at most* 5 hours of light-outside time to do things now, and we slept a good chunk of that day away!
And when we do get up, we laze about for an hour or so, catching up on the internets, drinking an entire pot of coffee. In fact, its 10:53am as I type this, and Stu is still in bed. I am not mentioning teenager sleep to make anyone with full-time jobs or kids jealous. But to point out that we didn't expect a year ago to be able to spend several weeks straight sleeping until whenever we wanted to, staying up as late as we wanted to, doing whatever we wanted to, or doing nothing at all. And in a few years, we'll both be back at full-time jobs and hopefully popping out a few kids, and we will never get this kind of teenager sleep again. Ever again. Until we retire. We have to seize the sleep opportunity while it presents itself because its fleeting.

So happy new year everybody. All our friends here in Stockholm are out of town, so we are going to a NYE party with complete strangers tonight, but are looking forward to it. And tomorrow, we leave for a week in Italy. Can. not. wait.

And if you can remember what we did to celebrate Stu's 32nd bday in 2009, can you remind us? Its bugging the crap out of me.

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!