Just got internet to the apartment yesterday - seems things take a lot more time in Sweden than I remembered/imagined. Internet took two weeks to installed. Registration with the authorities is on six weeks+ and running. Before the registration is ready, all insurance matters, mail issues, car rentals etc is a major hassle.
Otherwise it's GREAT to be home, I have this really weird craving of getting back to the 9 to 5 rat race (why is it 9 to 5 btw, isn't it 8 to 5 in the rest of the world too? Is this Dolly Parton's fault?). So no culture shock. There's a few things that bums me out, I'll bitch about that sooner or later, but all in all it's just perfect.
I'm going back to work on monday. New company, same shit. They paid a bit more and since everything is so expensive here money matters quite a lot. Will miss my friends at the old company, but I'm sure there's some decent people working at the new place also.
We've done some work on the apartment, which is now starting to look good. We've moved around a lot of the furniture and re-painted so it seems a lot bigger (it's a lot smaller than the house in Phils, 66 m2). It's good enough for now, but sooner or later we'll have to get something bigger. Housing prices are crazy here now, so we'll see how it goes. We have neighbors who sold a flat just like ours and got equvalent to 475 000 USD for it. And, of course, if you want something bigger you have to cough up an extra couple of hundred thousand dollars. Now, I make something like 5000 dollars a months - how am I supposed to even begin to pay off the mortage in my lifetime? And it's not like we're going to buy a mansion. Just a four-room flat.
We've threw out our old (25 years old) couch, which is literally a pain in the ass since we have to sit on the floor. But there are lots of nice swedish second-hand sites on the net so I'm sure something will come up soon. Will also try and get a bunk bed for the kids, their beds are taking up most of the space in the kids room, and also they smell like horsesweat (most of our stuff is really old, things that I had when I was a kid or that I/Lotta bought really cheap second-hand as students). The we got a long wishlist of stuff on the fridge (a rug, a car, a bike for me, re-painting the living room etc) so as soon as the money start rolling in there'll be change around here.
Ok. Boring entry. I'll quit now.
/J.
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3 comments:
BTW G. Sorry if you read that before.
J.
Ha. It had a familiar ring, but is slightly different.
Is this you BTW? http://my8.statcounter.com/project/standard/stats.php?granularity=monthly&project_id=1751917&PHPSESSID=610fd63fa626a52abb4138f8bb84cb08
I think I'll be adding a few more hits a week on my part. Somehow reading about being stuck here didn't draw me in the way that a big transition does. It's the stuff of envy and depression-- as in... Bloody hell, you're home everybody doesn't know your name and stare at you, must be great. But the other side of it is we sacrifice our kids' health, careers, sanity, and optimism, just so we can move home to be financially strapped.
Hell, I may even start blogging again after taking slowfanchen out behind and barn and shooting the old nag.
LG, congrats on the new job. Long may novelty reign.
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