In-Schooling...Settling in

We have survived our first week in our Stockholm apartment.  I think I average climbing the 5 flights of stairs about 2x a day, luckily I usually only carry G up them once.  Both M and I are feeling the walking and the climbing in our legs and it makes us wonder when will it just be natural to do all the climbing and not so much work.  But all of this is really for another post since the main focus this week was getting G settled into daycare.  

A little background

Every kid has the right to go to förskola (daycare) from 1 years old.  (Paternal leave is about 1.5 years here at 85% pay so for the first year the parents, both mom and dad, are able to take time and care for the baby.) The cost of förskola is a percentage of the combined income based on amount of kids with a maximum fee per month.  In order to get into a center you apply to either the municipality centers or there are private centers that have their own queuing system. The only difference I was able to find in public vs private was the queuing system and even that is changing and the private schools are being placed in the municipal system.   

As I mentioned previously, we got into a förskola very quickly.  As part of the helping parent and child adjust to this new environment and routine there is a period of time called in-schooling.  For the first 3 days, parent and child attend the school from about 9:30am- 3pm.  The parent acts as the child's guide through the days activities. On the first day though if the child doesn't take a nap, you go home early and try again the next day. If those three days went well then the following 2 days are still short days but the child attends the school alone.  

G Amazes us all

G and I started in-schooling on Monday.  When we arrived the first day there was circle time where there was singing and greeting the new kids, another child started too that day.  After which was some free play followed by fruit and lunch.  It was looking pretty good but then all fell apart at nap time.  The school has a room dedicated to napping where there are pads, blankets and pillows for each kid that sleeps.  The kids are assigned a spot so each day they go to the same pad and for the most part lie down and fall asleep.  WELL not my kid.  She kept looking around and sitting up and refused to nap.  I decided rather than fight her we would leave and the teachers were all very sympathetic and said "new place, tomorrow will be better." (G fell fast asleep the moment we left the building.)

The next day went about the same BUT this time I was talking to one of the teachers about how G doesn't fall asleep with me and that I need to just leave the room.  And that is exactly what we did.  I put G down for a nap, she whimpered and then slept for 1.5 hours. The teacher exclaimed that she had never seen a kid fall asleep like that on the 2nd day of being there.  

The third day was a little bit of a mess.  M came with us and that was all well and good. The kids started out playing outside which G loves and she barely looked up to see where we were once she got out. It was when we had to go inside that her whole world fell apart and from that moment on she was a bit of a mess.  Luckily the teachers saw that G was very independent and didn't need me around so the rest of the week she went by herself.  On the first day when I showed up I could hear her giggling from down the hall and was greeted with hugs and laughter.  

All and all I think G will do just fine in school, leaving me time to get a job, learn swedish and catch up on some reading. ;)

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