First days...

This blog is the journeys and trials of Team Green-Beitch.  I am the Green part of the team and M & G are the Beitches. So...we thought it would be a good idea that M contribute to the blog.  So without much ado here is M and his journey navigating Stockholm without his partner in crime and sidekick. 

Rachel covered us leaving Seattle so I'll pick up my part of the journey from there. I've been in Stockholm for 4 days and it has been a whirlwind. 

I landed in Stockholm on Sunday night. The flight was uneventful until I got to baggage claim. There were hundreds of unclaimed bags lying around which was odd. Turns out Heathrow was having major problems getting bags to their destination. 

One of my bags arrived and then I waited and waited and waited and the other one didn't show. 

Luckily, the one that arrived had the important stuff except for the plug adapters. I was told there was a good chance the bag was on the next flight but if I didn't stay to check it could take a week to get it. Needing at least the iPad to work until Tuesday I decided to wait for the 2.5 extra hours which was the right choice even though it felt like an eternity.

I got in a cab bleary eyed from the travel to get to our temporary apartment. Turns out the apartments are in the top floor of an office building with no clear signage. I asked some people and they didn’t know where it was. I dragged my 100 lbs of luggage around the back and saw a small sign for the Beautiful Apartments. Whew, I made it!

I was overtired but couldn’t sleep. I managed about 2 hours before Monday showed up and needed to run errands. Armed with only the iPad and no connectivity I journeyed to the migration bored, north of Stockholm, to get biometrics taken. I had a 10am appointment and left hours early. A lady at the first bus stop told me to take the metro which totally threw me off. I was in the vicinity but not walking distance. After walking around looking for the street names and not seeing anyone to ask for help I decided to hop in a cab at the metro station and made it. 

The rest of the errands were in central Stockholm so I was able to pop in and out of coffee shops for connectivity.

Tuesday was the first work day. Met my new manager and "buddy" first thing and proceeded to go get my supplies. They ordered me a Swedish laptop, whoops! Even though my manager clearly specified US English. Luckily, it’s just for the laptop keyboard.

Work has been great. I am the only American on a team of 3 Swedes and 3 Spaniards. It was a revelation realizing I am the weird one. Everyone speaks English MOST of the time. I’ll write more about work later. 

I will say that I can tell already that Spotify is a special company. Here’s a few pics from the office, including the lunch from my team retrospective (part of Agile development) - Mexican burgers!

 

My desk

The hallway

Burger!

I haven't had much time to explore Stockholm except for the random times I stay on the train for an extra stop or exit the subway on the wrong side. I’m planning to wait for most exploring until Rachel and Gaby arrive because I want to experience it with them for the first time. But here's a few pics from my mishaps...

Gondolen restaurant and observation deck

An outside restaurant in Sodermalm