11/05: Yes We Did! (and lots of other stuff too)

Do you ever have one of those weeks? Not one of those bad weeks ... but one of those good ones. Where everything falls into place?

As a graduate student I felt like my life was in constant limbo. As an undergrad you at least had a pretty good idea when you were going to be finished up; but with the fun-fun of a thesis hanging over your head there is never any certainty. Some periods are more frustrating than others, for example a year and a half ago I was waiting on the Valle committee to decide on whether I got the scholarship or not, and there was drama with my research funding and all sorts of other fun stuff.

The past 2 months has probably been worse. The transition from being on scholarship to having a job has been frustratingly slow. I finally received an offer from a company I really wanted to work for, but then found that getting a visa was going to be a much more difficult situation than I had expected. After that I needed to get registered with the tax office, the health office, open bank accounts, the list goes on.

Well, after all this time where life seemed so up in the air, it seemed like I was due for a week of awesomeness. Fortunately for me, this came, and has cascaded into a series of things falling in to place. In short, things are good. I’ve been behind in the current events so I’ll try and rush through a whirlwind of the latest events.

10/22: Norrköping

I had been on the phone with the migration board trying to see how I could get myself a work visa. They flat out said that I couldn’t get one if I was on a tourist visa. Basically they said I had to apply from the States. This meant that I would have to fly home, apply, wait for 6-8 weeks and then return. We finally decided to say fuck it, and go down to the head office and just talk to people and submit an application in person.

The head office is for some reason in Norrköping. A moderately small town about 2 hours from Stockholm. It also happens to be home to what is universally declared the most awful Swedish accent. We spent the afternoon in the town while we waited for the office to open. It turned out to be a really cute industrial town, and had a distinct Spokane feel to it.

After seeing the town we went to the office. I paced like a caged lion while waiting for my number to be called but ultimately it went very smoothly and I submitted my application. The person informed me that they’d let me know their decision before the 1^st of November.

Although there was no clear up or down sign, the fact that I was not in handcuffs being deported was reason for celebration. So we went out for a great meal. We ordered a meat dish but due to a fortunate mixup we instead got this steak on a wood plank, which turned out to be awesome.

Following that we headed back to Stockholm.

A week later I was told that they had reached a decision and they asked to come down to their city office in Stockholm. They did not say whether my visa had been approved or not and Courtney half-joked that if I saw any police officers that I should turn around and hide. Ultimately I received my visa.

I think the only way I could look more like an engineer is if I was holding an engineering scale and my TI-89.

10/31: Halloween

I had a pretty decent Halloween last year, but it definitely is not a big deal out this way. Plus, since we’ve moved things have been pretty slow on the social scene front. Not to sound pathetic, but my lone social interaction outside of speaking to Courtney was chatting with people at the pub I go to to watch NFL games on Sunday and talking to robots for the various call centers I was on the line with. Courtney, having a job, has met a few people through work, either directly or through one degree of separation (she has yet to meet Kevin Bacon). Through our (again, mostly Courtney) modest contacts we were able to put together a pretty fun Halloween party.

We had a handful of people over for food, pumpkin carving, as well as some hot hard cider and glögg (mulled wine). Courtney already posted about it here. Courtney made an awesome dish of fondue in a pumpkin.

Here you see the spectacular results of their pumpkin carving adventures. Note the awesome Obama pumpkin. That was done by Courtney and her friend Karin.

11/1: Alla Helgons Dag (All Saints Day)

One of Courtney’s coworkers suggested we go out to this big cemetery in the evening for All Saints Day. The tradition is people go out there and light a candle for loved ones. It was an amazing scene. There were throngs of people, vendors selling candles and food, and it was all in all the most fun I’ve ever had in a cemetery. Honestly.

11/2: New Apartment!

One thing that was contributing to the rather boring life I have been leading since I moved was that our apartment is 35 minutes or so from the city center by metro. Our little area we lived (called Farsta) had a decent mall with all you would really need, but we both felt really detached from the city. I know what you’re thinking, “Blake. You love malls. How could you ask for anything more.” Well, I don’t know how to respond to that, but the place was swarming with a chaotic mix of elderly people with walkers and high school aged brats. Our goal was to move into the city. Courtney stumbled across an ad for a cute little place, we ended up seeing the place and both immediately fell in love with it.

We decided to go grab a cup of coffee and mull it over, and ultimately decided it was for us. We rushed back and in excitement told them “We’ll take it!”

This was followed by awkward silence and we peered around them to see a family who they were showing the place to. Eventually however they called us and greeted us with good news. We signed our lease on the 1^st, and stayed our first night on the 2^nd.

Here are a few photos of our new pad (the first, depicting the cool light feature, was taken by Courtney).

A funny thing though is that we’re renting from a pair of actors: Jonatan Rodriguez and Josefin Ljungman. They seem to do a lot of theater but they both show up on an IMDb search. They both seemed really nice. They left a tiny little bottle of wine waiting for us when we moved in. I returned the favor by accidentally breaking one of their wine glasses on election day.

11/4: Election Day!

As if all this good news wasn’t enough, we have a new President Elect! There was a big event here hosted by the Democrats Abroad, but we didn’t buy tickets in time and ultimately the two of us streamed MSNBC and watched from home.

I read on cnn.com the day of the election a headline along the lines of "Voters Ready for History Election". It then said that regardless of the outcome, history would be made. We would have America's first black president! Or ... America's oldest president elected to a first term. Wow, talk about two history making choices. But seriously, how come nobody pointed out that he would have been the first Vietnam veteran elected as President. That's a little more worthy of note than being the oldest. But I digress ...

Here's a photo of the Swedish TV calling in the results. Fortunately we were able to find the web-cast.

Courtney napped from around midnight to around 1:30 am which is when the first results started coming in. We watched with growing excitement as he Pennsylvania and New Hampshire were quickly called and then uncorked a bottle of champagne when Ohio was called.

Obama’s speech, although not his most powerful, was an emotional moment for me and the whole event really shook me to my core. Seeing the tears stream down people's faces similarly brought tears to my eyes. After all this time I almost couldn't believe it had happened. (Update: I just watched the speech again. Apparently exhaustion strips some of the excitement. When watching again I take it back. The speech was amazing.)

I am curious to see what the future holds but it was awe-inspiring to see history made. I’ve received countless text messages and facebook posts from people celebrating in our win. This was an event watched the world over and it is great to think that when the sun rose on all parts of the world, people are now looking at us in a different way.