Meet our latest addition!!

Say hello to Bella!!  She's our new baby!  She's 10 weeks old at the time of this post and a total gem.  We picked her up today from a really sweet family.

She is half leonberger and half bernese mountain dog.  She is going to be a very big dog!!  She seems to have a very laid back temperament, and loves to lay around and sleep.

I saw her on Blocket.se and well talked my boyfriend into going to look at her in person last weekend.  We drove 1½ hrs to see her.  Spent the same amount of time there playing with the puppies.  For me it was a toss up  between 2 dogs.  But for my boyfriend there was only one.  The only puppy that had white toes, our Bella.

So we went home and talked about it.  I was an absolute yes, and he was a maybe.  As you can see, in the end....I won.  :)  We had some hurdles to overcome and some logistics to figure out.  But it all turned out wonderful.

So we picked her up tonight, and had to drive home again 1½ hrs.  After finding out the puppy got car sick and threw up on the way home from the vet's earlier.  lol.  So we were a little nervous.  We put a blanket on the backseat, and I decided to sit back there with her to keep her company.  So as soon as the car started moving she came and laid down next to me.  A few times during the car ride she seemed to get a bit agitated.  But we managed to make it home without any incidents.  By the end of the car ride though she climbed into my lap and wouldn't leave my lap.  Even when we pulled into up to our apartment and I opened the car door.  She didn't even try to move (which is good at her age...I just hope she stays that way).

We got her inside (See video) and let her explore the apartment for a few mins.  Then we put out food and water for her.  It seemed as though she was afraid of the food bowls.  At one point I had to feed her out of my hand, and got her real close to the dog bowls.  She even decided to drink some water and briefly stuck her head into her food dish....but then it moved and she jumped away.  Hahahaha.  But I guess later on she changed her mind about the dishes.  :)  Sorry for crappy quality.

All in all we are super happy with her!  She's very sweet.  We hope she will become more comfortable with us and here and all the kids and other dogs in our neighborhood that are dying to meet her.  So far she doesn't seem to want to be far from us.  She is absolutely adorable when trying to fund down the hallway to one of us.  She just looks like a rhino or a bull (in miniature of course with fur).  She's just so muscular and strong looking.  Built like a tank!

Now, a little bit about dog shopping here.  Dogs are more expensive here then in the states.  We don't really have pounds and shelters here like back in the states.  People spend an insane amount of money on their dogs ($500-$1000 for mixed breed and $1500-$2500 for pure breed).  There is even a law here that says you can't leave your dog home alone for more then 4 hrs.  And people bring their dogs with them just about anywhere.  During the summer they are everywhere in the town square where all the restaurants and cafes are.  So buying and owning a dog is a bit different here.

Oh and she did the cutest thing tonight!!  When she was exploring, she walked under our coffee table and stopped and stared at the tv cable box.  Then all of a sudden she started growling at it.  It was hilarious.  She is apparently very sensitive to sounds, including the dull hum the cable box makes.  Hahahaha.

All in all I'm thrilled to death and we are so happy!

It's Official!!

I am a permanent resident of Sweden!!

My temporary visa was approved on October 13, 2008.  It was valid for 2 years (so expiring next month).  So 2 weeks ago I went to go and renew it.  We went to the immigration office in Västerås, and spent about an hr there.  We turned in our application for renewal as well as additional documents.  Spent 200 kr the night before getting passport sized photo's taken, only to discover they don't use those anymore.  Now there is this biometric machine thingy that takes the picture for your visa's and passports and stuff.  Then we find out it was more then 30 days until my visa expired, so they couldn't issue me a decision then.  So we would have to come back another day (closer to the expiration date) and do our "interviews" and get our decision.

So we went back today since it's less than 30 days to expiration.  We met with a case worker, who had to ask us some questions.  He made my sambo leave the room, asked me the questions (and we chatted about life and stuff for a bit and about or latest family addition), and then had my boyfriend come back in and asked him the same questions to make sure our stuff matched up. Some questions such as:

• Are we still in a relationship?
• Do we still live together?
• Do we intend to keep living together?
• What are some future plans?
• What does each do for work (or school)?

We passed.  He said he believed we were in a serious and real relationship and had no problem issuing me a permanent visa.  And he told me that Sept or October next year I can come back and apply for citizenship and after a passport.  :)  So I'm all kinds of happy and excited!

So now Sweden is stuck with me!

It has been a fabulous day!

-FXA

Misc. Stuff

Okay, so I'll be honest, I don't know what I'm actually planning to write about here.  I just know it's been weeks, and I'm past due.  I guess I could do a misc. Sweden blog?

1.  It's election time again.  Every 4 years the parliament is up for grabs.  And this is the lucky year.  I don't know much else other than that.  I can't vote yet.  Need to be a citizen.  But what I have learned is so far Sweden has a substantially higher voter turn out rate then in the states.  Something like 90-95% of the population comes out to vote.  My boyfriend isn't into politics at all.  But when I ask him if he is going to vote, he says "most likely".  I'm not sure the turn out is such a great thing if many are like my boyfriend and don't care.  But it is nice to see people attempting to take an interest and take part.

2.  Driving in Sweden.  Holy crap is a license here expensive!!!  My American license was good here for 1 year, and after that I had to get a Swedish license to drive.  And most cars here are stick shift.  Well like many modern Americans, I grew up driving an automatic.  So, I need to learn how to drive manual.  I learned 15 years ago, but never used it.  Here's the thing, both me and my authorized driver (my boyfriend Nick) have to go to a class (which is only in Swedish) to get approved for a learner's permit.  Then once that's done, I have to study a book about the rules, and practice driving.  Somewhere along the way I have to take an alcohol class and get an eye exam done.  Once I feel ready, I can go ahead and take the written test.  When I finally pass that I have 2 months to take and pass the practical driving test as well as the hazardous road condition test (mainly for icy roads).  Once all of that is paid for and passed I get a license.  I may have missed a step somewhere, but ugh my brain is already hurting.  Oh and did I mention all of this stuff adds up?  Especially if I end up taking any classes at the driving school.  It's just insane!!  But I've got time to worry about it.  :)

I think I'm going to end this one here.  I promise I'll try to write more.  I have several things to write about this week.  Lots of updates!!

Furnished Apartment Tour.

I did one tour video before we officially moved in.  So here is an updated tour video, where you can see our new HOME that is furnished.  :)  It's not totally done, we still need little things here and there (and curtains in some rooms).  But those things are a long way off.

Oh and I sound like I have a lisp or something, but I think it's just because Nick kept making me laugh.  :)  I hope you guys enjoy the video!  Oh and I took the video using my digital camera, so it's not the best quality. Sorry.

Apparently foolish

In answering my last blog post, it was foolish.

I went back to school this week.  And by school I mean swedish language class through Komvux (adult ed courtesy of the swedish government...and tax payers).  I pulled like 15 kg of crap out of my backpack for class. All my workbooks, insanely heavy dictionary, notebooks, reading books, etc.  Well my teacher happened to view upon Stieg Larsson's first book in the millenium series...in swedish.  Immediately afterwards she pointed out that the book was still too advanced for me, and would take far too long to read.  So it has gone on the back burner.

In the meantime, she gave me another book to read and listen to on tape.  And when I say tape, I really mean tape.  When she showed me the cassette tapes I had to stop and think if we had any equipment in the home to actually play a tape.  Sure enough my sambo still has a boombox from 15 years ago that has a tape deck.  The book is called Den Röda Vargen by Liza Marklund.  That translates to The Red Wolf.  My boyfriend says that she is one Sweden's most popular writers and has won awards so I have high hopes for the book.

So Stieg out, Liz in!

Optimistic or foolish?

As many of you may know I am an American now living in Sweden.  I have been here for almost 2 years, and have struggled miserably with the language.  Nothing against the swedish language, I've struggled with all languages.  I was even in the slower reading group in primary school in America (but thankfully I've overcome those shortcomings).

So I had this ingenious idea, thanks to my boyfriend's mom.  I figured I'll work on my comprehension and vocabulary by reading a swedish novel.  I mean, I did the kids book thing, and my swedish teacher at Komvux (long story, will explain later) gave me a book to practice reading with.  Wasn't really for real young children, and yet not for adults, nor was it a novel, but rather like short stories.  So a few weeks ago my boyfriends mom gave me some books she said were must reads!  All in swedish of course!  So what does she give me?  Stieg Larsson's millenium trilogy.  You know The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the other 2 books.

Random FYI:  In case you didn't know this already, the author is swedish, and they have already made the books into swedish movies.  Which have been quite popular here.  And I hear now they are intending to turn them into american movies.  And I hear that Stellan Skarsgård (Alexsander Skarsgård's father....he plays Eric in the True Blood series), is in the running for a role in the american trilogy.  So there's a bit of swedish entertainment facts and speculation.

Now, bare in mind that I watch tv english tv here with swedish subtitles and I can sometimes read the newspaper and easily navigate swedish websites.  So I figured a novel couldn't be too much harder.  Hahahaha.  So tonight I started reading the first book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  Well, needless to say, I couldn't get very far without my handy dandy swedish-english dictionary nearby.  I didn't need to look up every other word, but anywhere from 1-3 words per sentence.  So I guess that's not too bad.

I mean, I'm really not that good with the language.  I can't speak it to save my life.  I sound like a blathering idiot.  And my vocabulary when listening and speaking seems to be quite basic.  Yet when reading I can generally understand or figure out what the word is, and then what the sentence is talking about.

I'm hoping that by this time next year I'll be finished with the 3 books.  If they were in english, I could probably get through them in a month or so.  But it took me 20 mins to read one page tonight.  lol.  I don't have the highest of hopes.

But I do hope the book lives up to all the hype.

Telia = Incompetence

I have never in my life experienced such idiocy.  This could be a super long blog, but I'm going to try to get the cliff notes version.

Our new apartment in Torshälla doesn't have cable already in the building.  Just antennae.  So we have to arrange our own cable.  And since the cable doesn't come into the building, most companies won't offer us service.  So we have to get our cable through the internet via only 2 company options (Telia or Boxer), or via satellite (and the equipment is super expensive).

Here's the kicker.  To get tv through the internet, you have to have your internet through that company.  So it kind of ends up having to be a package deal.  So we decided to sign up with Telia for phone, tv, and internet all through DSL.  Here in Sweden you have to give your utility companies 3 months notice if you plan to terminate.  At first we were just going to move the, but then that wasn't an option.  So the month before moving, my boyfriend calls and gives everyone notice (since he had 3 different companies for all 3 different utilities).  Well Telia says they'll handle the switch over, and we can get our boxes before we move so we can connect them ourselves we get into the apartment (as we were moving over a holiday weekend).  Yeah. FAIL!!!

First, no boxes.  Second, just about everything told to us when we signed up with them proved to be false.  Third, every person we spoke to on the phone over the course of about 5 weeks told us a completely different story, reason, date, excuse, etc.  Then we got our boxes (3.5 weeks AFTER moving), and they forgot the box for our second tv, and the box for our first tv doesn't work.  So we got a non-functioning HD record box and a modem.  The following week we get our replacement box (still missing box for 2nd tv but arrives a few days later), and they haven't switched over our phone from a land line to internet line.  So we get a bill for a phone line that we didn't order (which was 3x as much money).  Then the next day they switch over the phone to internet, but every time the phone rings or your pick it up to make a phone call the tv stops working and then the modem reboots itself.  Are you freaking kidding me?!?!!?  Well last week (1 week after having the new replacement box), there is an issue and the tv stops working.  I talk to 5 people over 2 days about getting it fixed and each person I speak to tells me a different thing, gives me a different reason for the outage, and then one tells me they need to send us ANOTHER box to replace the 1 week old HD recordable box.  Turned out to be a software issue that was fixed after 10 mins on the phone!!!

So I've pretty much been the one handling all of this crap for the last month or so.  My boyfriend is quite passive and isn't much for making a stink about things.  So every time I had to call I asked to speak to a manager, only to be told there are no managers there.  Say what?!?!!?  Well I end up getting a number to a complaint line, speak to them, get connected to their compensations department (bet your sweet ass there's going to be some compensating going on!).  So I deal with this nice gentleman who does his best to speed things along.  Been dealing with him for about 3 weeks now.  We are getting a decent financial compensation and we get a bit longer then normal to test out the company and see if we want to switch.

Now, this is the short version, trust me it was a lot worse then just one paragraph.  So, most of you are already probably thinking CHANGE COMPANIES!  That's what I've been saying, but my boyfriend doesn't want to switch to boxer because the channel selection sucks and they are more expensive.  I suggested switch to satellite tv and keep the phone and internet with Telia (as those haven't had too much of a problem).  But we have to pay for the equipment up front (approx 3500 kr or approx. 500 usd) and again might increase the monthly bill.

The good news is so far this week there hasn't been any major issues.  Or even minor ones for that matter.  But when I was speaking with the guy from the compensations department I asked him if they actually trained their employees and for how long.  Because I have never seen such incompetence in all my life.  And no, it's not a call center in Dubai or something.  I mean, they can see our file on the computer screen, and all remarks made by the previous people we talked to, and yet every single time we spoke to someone we got completely different and contradictory answers and remarks.  It was astonishing to say the least.  Well the guy said they do train them for 3 weeks.  Perhaps thats not long enough.  Total lack of consistency.

So the end result.  We went about 3-3.5 weeks without any internet or tv in our new apartment.  And then spent another 1-1.5 weeks having issues with one or all 3 of the utilities via Telia.

So I'm going to give them 2 thumbs down.  I even tried talking to Sweden's largest newspaper about running an article on their customer care and incompetence.  Only to read in the paper the following week about how Telia reported record high Q2 profits.  Only god knows why!

If your reading this in Sweden and looking for a company to switch to for your home services, don't bother with Telia unless your ready for a massive headache!

-FXA