In Sweden they are just called fisk.

How much is your dollar worth?

$1 = 7.7353 SEK (down from a high of 8.2 earlier this week).

FALL HERE IN UPPSALA

We are back again with some news finally. Hooray! Where to start…

We finally heard that our visas have been renewed for another year. As you may recall we reapplied for the visas back in March or April after we figured out that we had to have proof that we would be staying more than a year to get our person numbers. We were told a couple months later after we had not heard anything that the migration office was backlogged and they would not even consider our application until there were two months left on our current ones. We purchased plane tickets back to the US for the holidays and would not be arriving until after our current visas expired so Ragen sent an email to them to ask when we could expect a decision. The next day they replied and told her that, as a matter of fact, they had decided that day to grant us a renewal. Coincidence?

We had to go to the migration office to get new stamps in our passport. Now one would think that a government office like that may be located closer to downtown with the other government type offices. But you would be wrong. The office was actually located on a back road in the industrial area of Uppsala, by a power plant and behind a place that washes busses and semis, and it was smelly back there. Ragen left work early on Monday so we could go before they closed at 4:00. We got there about 2:30, took our number and sat for the next hour and a half before we gave up and decided to come back the next day, when they opened, at 1:00. Typist Swedish office, only open three days a week for three hours each day. We were seen the next day and it took about 20 minutes for us to get everything taken care of. So now we have person numbers, ID cards, and renewed visas. So everything is taken care of so we can stay another year. The only piece left is me finding a job.

On that front, I did have my first interview about a week ago. I had called up a company that produces wave based power generators. It was a good meeting and I think it went well. They are looking to move into the US market and could use some help navigating the environmental regulations in the US and federal and state permit requirements. They told me they could use someone more “local” and familiar with the system and could probably use me at that point. However, since they do not have any US customers at the moment they didn’t have anything for me at the moment. But I think it was a good meeting, they were very happy to meet with me, which was a first since I’ve been here, and I think it was worth it. In the meantime though, I’m still looking. It’s just a matter of time right?

If you ever wondered what the H and M stand for in H&M

We went to a Halloween party this last weekend that one of my football players was hosting. We met some more nice people that he works with and goes to university with. We had some good conversations; people are very interested in the election next week. Met one guy who works at an insurance company and told me that they are very interested in increasing the diversity of their workforce and can always use more lawyers so once I get into some Swedish classes and improve my language skills he can put in a good word for me then. So I’ve got that going for me.

Speaking of the elections… that bird is crazy. Kind of glad that we are over here and are not being bombarded with all the campaign ads. But we received our ballots a couple weeks ago and filled them out and returned it. So by the time you are reading this, our votes have been cast and counted. Now that we are under a week to go, remember to vote next week.

In cultural news, Halloween is just in its infancy here in Sweden. Most grocery stores and stuff have some costume pieces, mostly masks and witches hats. We found one “costume” shop in town that had a few costumes and lots of wigs and makeup and some other assorted pieces. But nothing like the big costume shops and wide assortment of costumes and decorations you’d find in the big box stores in the states. They don’t have special Halloween costumes and we aren’t really sure if we will even get trick-or-treaters on Friday. We decided to represent at this Halloween party last week by going as “greeks.” Not the Socrates type but Alpha Kappa Iota Sigma Delta types. This also doubled as a good excuse to go to IKEA (pronounced EE-KAY-UH… I’m here to educate) and get another set of bed sheets. We are going to another party this weekend I think and since we are getting to help decorate and stuff we are going to do it old school. Since most of these people have never been to a haunted house and stuff we are going to do the whole cold spaghetti, peeled grapes kind of shenanigans that we are used to from grade school. Good stuff.

On Friday we are planning to have some of Ragen’s colleagues over for a scary movie night which will be fun. Speaking of scary movies, there is a new one out here in Sweden and in select US cities. It’s a Swedish vampire movie called Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In and already slated for a US remake in 2010). We are going to go see it, even without English subtitles, and we will let you know. From the trailers it looks pretty good, with some stark visuals… very bright lighting compared to your usual darkly lit type of move. But as we are starting to find out here, when it gets dark here, it gets very dark. And a lot of things are painted with some bright colors to reflect the light, so lots of sharp contrasts here.

So until next time…

Darkness falls down town, at 7:30