So, the decision has been made. We are going to live in Sweden. The next steps will involve a great deal of selecting, arranging and organizing… First and foremost, though, the school.
In October we were able to register Vidar for the Backa förskola (“pre-school” that caters for children of 6 and 7). Rune is also on the list but to finalize that we must contact the Karlstad municipal council around April. (Molkom falls under the auspices of Karlstad). After having phoned the relevant authority, we understood that we shall be given a temporary registration number for him which will only become definite once we are able to produce a Swedish address. We then rang the school again to check whether Rune really was on their list and that was the case. All that now remains is to simply wait.
Another important area to focus on is that of employment.
In September, October and November we contacted Skatteverket (the income tax authority) on a number of occasions. We were pleasantly surprised by the rapidity and efficiency of the one-to-one service and attention we were given.
A similar level of cooperation and accessibility was provided by the Försakringskassan (the national social and welfare body). Susanna spent a while going into all the details and establishing what our employers have to do: all that information was duly passed on within our respective work places. The ball is now in their courts. Though this, too, remains a nail-biting phase all we can do at the moment is just sit back and wait.
Indeed, how easy it is if you neatly slot into “an existing system” for the ball to keep rolling. On a day-to-day basis there is then little that needs to be organized. It generally goes quite smoothly. However, when you plan to move to a new country with new and possibly very different systems, you are confronted with all sorts of matters that you’ve never before had to contemplate. One instantly begins to understand how hard it must be for foreigners who have to adjust to the Dutch system and way of dealing with matters. Once more we were reminded how useful it can be to have a fairly good grasp of the Swedish language: the key to any culture.
The next area that will demand our full attention is: accommodation.
We are still a bit early to delve into all of that in great detail but we have drawn up a flyer stating that we are searching for rented property, in the first instance, and giving a description of our family. Susanna’s friend and language assistant, Caroline, and the Airbnb landlord Andreas (from whom we rented in the autumn) checked the first drafts for us. They, too, will give a helping hand with the distribution channels: Andreas has quite a network in Molkom. He also gave us some tips on the best Facebook pages to use. The Swedes are heavily into the Facebook phenomenon. Coincidentally Caroline has a friend who has recently moved to Molkom! A lady school head that we met in the autumn half-term holiday also gave a good tip for our flyer distribution. We shall wait until Christmas to pursue this avenue of inquiry as we are now a bit early for temporary rented accommodation inquiries from July onwards.
Suffice it to say that in all these matters we have met with nothing other than friendliness and cooperation. Evidently that must all be part of the natural make up of the Swedish people.
