Swedish Facts II

Here are some interesting facts about the new place I’ll call home:

1.    All employers are required to provide FREE MASSAGE to their employees and it is a write off for the company.
2.    You can pay your taxes by sending an SMS (Text message) from your cell phone.
3.    Any property (with exception of fenced areas, private gardens, government or military) is open to anyone for hiking, bathing in your lake, picking berries or mushrooms or for camping overnight. This is called “Every man’s right” or Allemansrätten.
4.    The sunrises at 3:30am and sets at 10:30pm during the summer
5.    The sun rises at 9:30am and set at 3:30pm during the winter.
6.    Swedes celebrate Midsummer (Midsommar) on the 23rd of June. It is the celebration of the longest day and on this day in many parts of Sweden the sun never sets.
7.    Prime Minister, Olaf Palme, was shot and killed in 1986 when walking home after viewing a movie. His killer was never found.
8.    Thursday is pea soup and pancake day.
9.    Sex is the number six.
10.    Sweden ranks second in Europe (after Finland) in terms of technological achievement.
11.    Total taxation in Sweden amounts to 54.2 % of GDP, the highest level worldwide.
12.    The world-famous discount furniture chain IKEA was founded in Sweden in 1943.
13.    On Easter children dress up as witches and go trick-or-treating.
14.    Carl Von Linne, known as Linnaeus, was a Swedish botanist and naturalist who lived in the sixteenth century. He introduced the scientific method of naming flora and fauna.
15.    Yes, the women in Sweden are drop dead gorgeous (I find this daunting) but the men aren’t hard on the eyes either.

Dreams

It has been a very long time since I can remember having a dream. I wonder if this is because my dreams are coming true while I’m awake.

A Swedish Residence Permit

Today was a milestone day. After ten days (or more) of preparing my residence application, I was finally able to slip the application, several other forms, photographs proving Tapi and I know each other, passport photos, essays, receipts and a cover letter into the $30 FedEx envelop guaranteeing delivery by 10:30am tomorrow at the Swedish Embassy. The simply act of mailing these documents proved to be a heady experience making me feel almost as if I have one foot in the US and another in Sweden. I spent the rest of the afternoon feeling rather dizzy.

Before a person can move to Sweden, a residence permit must be obtained from Sweden’s Migrationsverket. The application and it’s accompanying forms may be downloaded from the Swedish Embassy in Washington D.C. and a personal interview will be conducted. There are several ways a person can obtain a residence permit. You can do so if you are someone who will be working in Sweden as an employee, if you are a student, starting a business, an au pair, or if you are a spouse, cohabitant or child of a primary applicant. My permit is based on a family or personal connection so there’s a special app for that.

Once I filled out the application form, I also had to fill out a Family Details Appendix and an additional form #T91 because I’m planning on living/marrying a Swedish citizen. These forms ask such information as my name, address, passport info, names of my children, my parents and of course information on Tapi and on our relationship. Filling out the forms were pretty straight forward and easy. The hardest part was trying to boil down the history of our relationship into four paragraphs but other than that it was a fairly enjoyable experience… as far as paperwork is concerned. Also included in my package were photos of Tapi and I at various locations and at various times. Receipts proving that we’ve met and been together and a copy of one of my monster cell phone bills showing our communications.

Now that I’ve submitted my paperwork, the next step will be for me to attend a personal interview at the Swedish Embassy in Boston. The Migrationsverket will also interview Tapi in Sweden. An application fee of $220 is required and then hopefully a happy decision will be made and I’m off to my new home.

Saturdays

Every Saturday morning I wake up excited and enthused about the weekend. Oh, the plans I have. And because it’s the weekend, everything is going to be just for me. I’m going to write, read and take photographs. I’m going to sort through those papers, take myself out to lunch and maybe even do a bit of shopping.

In the late afternoon, I sit on the couch my living room bathed in the afternoon sun. I am a sun worshipper. I pick up a book and after reading five pages, my eyes begin to close. I am frustrated because unconsciousness is a waste of time.  But my hands are cold and my feet are cold. I only want to warm them under the soft comforting embrace of my favorite blanket. What’s so bad about a Saturday nap after all?

I love when the garbage man comes

Every Tuesday night is garbage night. Now, when my sons lived here with me, I have to say garbage night was always an issue. Yes… David and Kyler are garbage retarded. I don’t know exactly what the issue was but it seemed that every single Tuesday for YEARS, I had to remind them it was garbage night. Even after reminding them sometimes those big black garbage cans never made it to the roadside. Sometimes only half of the garbage made it out there. So to help remind them, I started to charge them $10 each for every time they forgot to take the garbage out. Still . . . no avail. What was up with that?

Now that I’m on my own, garbage night is an event. It actually causes excitement for me. Every Tuesday out go a myriad of things. I’m ruthless in my ability to throw stuff out and every Wednesday morning I’m happy to look out the window and see that it’s all been taken away.

Facts about Sweden

Here are some facts about “the land of the midnight sun”.

1.    Sweden is often confused with Switzerland. Sweden is NOT Switzerland. It is part of the Nordic Countries which also includes: Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland.
2.    Reindeers do not wander about the streets.
3.    The capital of Sweden is Stockholm.
4.    The second largest city in Sweden is Gothenburg (or Göteborg in Swedish).
5.    The Swedish spelling of Sweden is Sverige.
6.    Sweden is a member of the European Union but does not use the euro as currency.
7.    Sweden’s currency is the Swedish Krona (or crown). SEK or Kr. There are 100 öre in a krona. It’s 1 krona but 2 kronor.
8.    The Swedish Parliament is called Riksdag and the house is known as Riksdagshuset. There are 349 members.
9.    Sweden is a constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy. King Carl XVI Gustaf, Queen Silva, Crown Princess Victoria, Princess Madeline and Prince Carl Philip.
10.    The Swedish alphabet is similar to the English alphabet, but Swedish has three more letters at the end of their alphabet which are å, ä and ö.
11.    Swedes, like most Europeans, write the date in the following format: yyyy-mm-dd (example: 1961-05-12)
12.    They also use the 24 hour clock.
13.    Sweden was the first country to require sustainability reports from state-owned companies.
14.    Everyone in Sweden has equal access to health-care services.
15.    The pacemaker, the ball bearing, the refrigerator, computer mice, the safety match and the adjustable wrench are examples of Swedish inventions.
16.    Sweden is six hours ahead of East Coast Standard Time (US)… well mostly, except for when daylight saving time messes it up.

Dumpsters

It’s nearly 3am and I can’t sleep because I’m thinking about dumpsters! Seriously. . . isn’t this something I can think about in the morning? After I’ve slept. This is the stuff that drives me insane. So what kind of dumpster should I get? 10 yard, 12 yard, 20 yard? How does renting a dumpster compare with taking stuff to the dump? What does an actual 12 yard dumpster look like and will it suit my purposes?

They tell me that here in Westbrook, one must pay $50 a load (one load = one pick-up truck) at the dump. This price seems ridiculous. My garbage guy tells me that a 12 yard dumpster is the equalivent of three pickup trucks worth and comes at the price of $333. The price of having a lovely dumpster, readily accessible for 2 weeks, parked in my front yard (while attempting to sell my house) unfortunately seems the way to go. I don’t own a truck and my thinking is that it will be heaps (no pun intended) easier for me to just squish as much stuff as possible day by day into a dumpster and then have them take it away!

Decision made. Now let’s get some sleep.

Pictures from the past

I had no idea that my parents were such lovers of photography. They documented everything, especially my father, who it seems had a pretty good eye. As I prepare to move to a far away land, sorting through boxes and drawers, I’m stymied by thousands of photographs and slides. Each image screaming for my attention. Some I know. Some I remember. Some have notes and descriptions. And some are unknown to me.

As I wander through this pictorial history, I’ve found love letters and poems between my parents. I’ve discovered that my father was six years older than my mother. I learned that before they became engaged, they broke up for a time. I’ve seen the inside of their little house . . . the place they lived before my birth. I’ve watched the construction of the house where I grew up, knowing it took my parents three years to build it. I’ve been on vacations with them to Expo ’67, The World’s Fair, motorcycle tours, and dude ranches. I’ve been privy to watching my Mom prepare for an evening out… they often went out on the town, all dressed up, beautiful and bright. What a wonderful life they must have had.

Often my father would set up a scene for photographic composition. His favorite subject my mom…that is before I came along. Pennies spread across the floor, my mom looking gorgeous and sexy as she posed on the floor in front of the Christmas tree. What significance did those pennies hold? If I could only have an hour with them both, so they could explain these things to me.

Such a legacy few are fortunate to have. Snippets of history, not only of my parents, but of the world.  And while my parents are no longer with me, they have informed through photos, who I am and where I came from. They have provided my sons with a history and now as I add my own photos to these boxes, I find that I too am a lover of photography.

Everything!

I didn’t really grasp the meaning of  “everything”. When I said I was selling everything I owned and moving to Sweden, of course, I considered selling or giving away the furniture, my computers and my beloved shoes and handbags. I thought about pots and pans, crystal and china, but what I didn’t count on are the seemingly thousands of inconsequential items that make up a person’s life. In some ways parting with these items can be so liberating and in other ways it’s like separating from one’s own personal history.

I had a formula in place for the sorting and tossing of all the crap I’ve collected over the years. There were only two questions involved: 1. Will I pack it? 2. Will I sell it? Everything else would fall into the “toss it out” category. Ahhh, but I found it’s not quite as simple as that.

Everything really means everything and includes such items as pens, favorite magazine issues, trinkets from far away lands, half full bottles of shampoo (I hate to be wasteful), perfume, linens, picture frames, and bits of jewelry from when I was a kid. There is that candle stick holder I bought with my best friend at the flea market on that wonderful summer morning and there are the funny little illustrations that my sons made me. What do I do with the birthday cards they so proudly presented me when they were learning to read and write? And what do I do with Bear, the well-loved stuffed animal from Kyler’s childhood? Some things just defy classification and parting with everything is not quite as clear cut as it sounds.