More banking and bitching

Seriously, I hate banking in this country. I genuinely hate it. I had to go to the bank during my lunch break to pay my rent, and just the thought of going there filled me with dread.
And of course, it's not like in England or Finland where I'd go to the counter with my account details, my landlord's account details, and they'd just make a transfer. I had to fill out one slip to withdraw the money from my account, and another to put it into his account. Having never done this before it was a bit confusing and the staff in the bank were not particularly helpful.
The best (or worst) part of it, was that one member of staff told me they usually charge a fee to make such a transaction in a branch - I'm starting to wonder why they actually bother to have branches at all, when most are open for 3 or 4 hours a day, and only one SEB branch in all of Stockholm actually handles cash - but they could waive it as it was the first time I'd made the transaction so I obviously didn't know. I told them I don't have a choice seeing as I'm not allowed online banking due to the personnummer issue. At that point the man in the bank said they'd waive it this time, and then told me things would be a lot easier for me if I got a personnummer. My only reaction to that is:

Because obviously I'm being treated as a second class citizen through choice!

This brings me neatly on to the next subject - I'm leaving! I'm going back to the motherland next month, I feel like I'm ready and happy to go now. There are various reasons for this, but feeling that I cannot be treated like everyone else for no good reason is a significant factor. It is sad in some ways, and I definitely like Stockholm and will still visit in the future, but I feel like this experience has run its course for me. I've got a month left, and I'll make the most of it, starting with going to Turku tonight! I'm still slightly paranoid that Viking Line will screw up my booking somehow - I've been obsessively checking the booking on their website to make sure it hasn't mysteriously disappeared. So far so good, but until I'm checked in at the harbour in a few hours I'll still have some worry in my mind. I'm so excited though, despite that fact that one of my friends got his days confused, and called me about 5 times at 7am this morning because he was at the harbour in Turku waiting for me! I'm so happy to be going back for a few days, it doesn't feel quite real.

As well as banking being unfathomable to me, last night I discovered another strange part of living in Sweden. My friend and I went for a couple of drinks at Mosebacke Terrace, which is really lovely with beautiful views of Stockholm, especially now when the sun is going down so late. It turns out that it's not allowed here to drink outside after 10.30pm - we were surprised that the outdoor bars shut down after 10pm, and at around 10.30 they started to take away unfinished drinks, although it was an option to finish them inside. It was getting chilly so we went home anyway, but it was quite a surprise. What a view though.

Something slightly different

So I've still not hear from either SEB or my UK bank, which is disappointing on both counts. SEB have a dedicated international branch, and as I now have Monday off work ahead of my holiday, but will be in Stockholm still, I should be able to physically go to the bank and get some advice. My bank in England advised it can take up to 5 working days for them to respond. Bearing in mind that there was a UK bank holiday this week, that gives them until Monday to respond to me. I'm travelling on Tuesday, which means they have until Wednesday morning to respond. If not, they'll find me in one of their branches on Wednesday, and they'll be looking at the business end of a very big complaint. Especially seeing as I'll have to pay my rent and be subjected to their huge charges in the meantime.

But never mind that for now. I'd like to concentrate on another new experience I've had since I came to Stockholm, and something that plays a big part in what my life is like here. My job.

Since February I've worked for the European Union. That's new, and the public sector in general is new for me. I realised yesterday that sometimes my workplace feels like a little parallel universe in the center of Stockholm. Compared to living in Finland, I have a much more international circle of friends and acquaintances here. On the one hand I'd like to meet more Swedish people and find it easier to learn about Swedish culture and traditions, but on the other I think it's lovely to meet people from so many backgrounds, and to not feel at all intimidated by people from cultures that are different to my own. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have that mindset. My boyfriend is half Japanese and half German, I am English, and I am proud that our future children will never be ignorant about different cultures.

I've always said that Stockholm reminds me of London in that there is such a diverse mix of people, and when you're in public you can hear so many different languages being spoken, not just Swedish. The feeling that you can get anything or do anything in London, however obscure it may be, is one of the reasons I like it so much, and why I think of it as my home, even though I'm not originally from there. Stockholm is like a smaller, quieter version of that.

People from all over Europe, and the world, work at the same place as me. Throughout the day, even in just one room, you can hear multiple languages. We tell each other about strange things from our countries. As we are in Sweden, Sweden is better represented amongst the staff than any other nation, but overall the majority of staff are not Swedish. Many have worked at more than one EU agency, so a lot of people have moved around a lot. The way of thinking about the world seems to be a bit different. Commuting between countries, having long distance relationships, or living in a different country to your children or family is quite normal, As is a term I quite like, being a "love refugee" - someone who moved to Sweden for the sake of their Swedish partner.

We're in Sweden, so we'll take any opportunity for fika, but the components of our fika cross borders. Today for example we sat around a table filled with Turkish Delight, chocolate from Greece and Denmark, Dutch butterscotch, and German teabags amongst other things, whilst talking about house prices in the UK, Sweden, and Bulgaria. Every day I hear different accents and unfamiliar sounding names. It's not perfect - at the end of the day it's still a day job, not the thing I care about most. I don't bounce out of bed every morning super excited to go to work. But it could be so much worse, and I'm really grateful that I can meet and get to know such a diverse range of people.

I was asked today what I thought about the election. I'm not a political person at all. This was the first time that I actually had the good intentions of voting, just to count as a vote against UKIP and the Conservatives. I assumed I could vote at an embassy, like pretty much every other person I can think of who lives away from their country, but no. When I wanted to register as an overseas voter I had to choose either a postal or proxy vote. Both involved sending an application form to London. My family live far away from where I'm currently registered to vote, so I couldn't think of someone I trusted to vote by proxy for me. I don't see why I should have to pay international postage on an application form and the vote itself, when that is my right anyway, and didn't trust a postal vote not to go wrong. Surprise surprise, an English person I know living in Finland had problems with her postal vote, so my suspicions were correct. I haven't ruled out that it was intentionally made difficult for overseas voters, and in the end it was too much hassle for me. We'll find out tomorrow, but I hope that the people who were able to vote have done the right thing, and not voted for certain parties are racist or intolerant. I know it's a complicated issue, and I know that not everyone has good intentions, but my recent experiences have confirmed in my mind even more that integration between cultures is something enriching, that we should be thankful for.

A lovely afternoon in Södermalm

As it was Valentine's Day yesterday we wanted to do something nice, so we decided to go to Greasy Spoon in Södermalm, which was recommended to me when I previously wrote about my desire for a vegetarian fried breakfast.

We got there around 2pm, and didn't think that it would be extremely busy, but maybe it's understandable seeing as it was both Valentine's Day and a Saturday afternoon.There was a one hour wait for a table, so we went for a little wander to pass the time.

Yesterday was really a beautiful day - the weather is definitely improving, and there's much more daylight now than when we arrived. We walked to the tip of the island, and from there we had beautiful views of Djurgården, Gamla Stan, and Skeppsholmen. It reminded me how beautiful Stockholm is, and I felt so lucky that I can live here and that our life here is starting to become more stable. We also walked to the Viking Line ferry terminal, so it amused me to see a street sign pointing to Finland. Now that I have an income I really need to look into the price of ferry tickets so that I can visit Turku.

By the time we'd had a walk for an hour we were so hungry, so back to Greasy Spoon we went. Actually getting food was quite a slow process because it was so busy, but I don't want to criticise the staff, especially the kitchen staff because they were putting food out constantly. The staff were all English, and automatically speaking English to every customer. I only heard Swedish being spoken amongst groups of customers. As it's clearly as English themed cafe maybe this added to the experience for non-English customers. The customer based seemed to be English people, and Swedish hipsters who probably think eating breakfast in the middle of the afternoon is edgy. I do actually find it a bit funny that this kind of food is a novelty here because it's the most normal thing in the world to me.

I like the way the cafe is decorated - the wallpaper looked like it had attractive scenes of London at first, but when we looked closer it actually showed scenes of gangs and police cars. I liked that - it felt more real to me, as someone who has lived in London for years, than having various tourist friendly pictures of Big Ben and double decker busses.

Eventually the food arrived, and wow, it was worth the wait!

Needless to say, this cafe is not a greasy spoon in the traditional sense. The ingredients and cooking were obviously of a much higher quality, and it may well be one of the best fried breakfasts I have ever eaten! Even now, the next day, I am still thinking about the food! Usually I prefer fried eggs to be more well-done, but these were actually delicious, and I say that their chefs are doing an amazing job. I also feel that you can't have a decent breakfast without some nice toast, and the toast here was just perfect, with lots of butter. Every single component was perfect, and I was so happy to find that the vegetarian sausages were Linda McCartney sausages. Maybe it's a bit sad that I knew that from taste alone. Fortunately, they're my favourite vegetarian sausages, and went perfectly with the rest of the food. I remember that the same sausages are available in The English Shop in Medborgarplatsen, and now I'd quite like to buy some to have at home. I've been to a limited number of restaurants in Stockholm, but for now I'm actually going to say that this is my favourite.

I'm not homesick, and I don't actually want to surround myself with purely British people and British culture here, but it was nice to be in an environment where my native language was expected, rather than potentially awkward. There seemed to be a sense of humour that's very familiar to me, the staff were lovely, the food was amazing, the coffee was very good, and it really did feel like a little piece of my home. They were playing English music from a cool jukebox, the cafe looks lovely, and I really enjoyed every part of our visit. I will definitely be going back there, and if I ever want some comforting food I think it's the obvious choice.

I would highly recommend Greasy Spoon. British people will love it because it's so comforting and familiar, I think for Swedish people it must be an interesting novelty. At least I know now how popular it is, and will maybe time my visit better, or at least be prepared for a long walk whilst I wait, as by the time the food actually arrived I was so hungry I could have passed out.

Friday night was the first night we'd spent in our new house, which we are so happy with, so overall yesterday was a really nice day. We're still exploring our new area, but there a more shops and businesses than there were in Hagsätra - so far we're really pleased. The flat is beautiful, and the two guys who already live here have been really friendly and welcoming to us. I think it's a really good thing that we now have the Swedish language being spoken in our home, so it's there all the time and hopefully this will help us both to keep improving.

My weekend is going very well, and I'm already looking forward to my next trip to Greasy Spoon. If they could start a home delivery service that would just be even better!

English food

I've been back for just over 3 weeks now, and definitely don't miss England, but I've been craving some English food, some things I could probably replicate here, some things probably not.

1.) Pret A Manger

Until recently I worked in Central London, meaning that Pret A Manger was literally everywhere, and took care of my lunch most days. My last meal in England, in the departure lounge at Gatwick, was a mozzarella and tomato croissant and a cup of coffee from Pret. Maybe it's just something familiar and dependable, but every now and then I've wished there was a Pret around the corner. Perhaps I could open their first franchise in Sweden! There are so many things I love from Pret it's impossible to list them all, and I love walking into their shops knowing that there are so many options. Once I start working here I think I'll be a bit lost at lunchtime at first.

2.) Fried breakfasts

Although I'm vegetarian and therefore don't eat the traditional breakfast, cafes in England always offer at least one vegetarian fried breakfast, and on a couple of occasions I've felt like a greasy breakfast would really be perfect. I suppose this is something I could replicate quite easily if I bought the ingredients, and I noticed that The English Shop in Stockholm sells Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages, which I quite enjoy, so if I get very desperate I know what to do. I've noticed that people from outside of Britain find the ingredients of a fried breakfast quite odd for breakfast - Heli and I once had a debate about whether this meal was suitable for breakfast or dinner, but I suspect most British people living abroad probably miss this one. It's normal for England.

3.) A very particular halloumi burger

I had a strange experience one day last week where I literally dreamed about a halloumi burger, and woke up desperate for it. For a little while I thought the burger was one I ate in a bar in Medborgarplatsen during the summer, in which case problem solved! After a while it dawned on me that unfortunately the burger I'm dreaming of is from Mildreds, my favourite vegetarian restaurant in London, and possibly the world. All of their food is delicious, I've actually only ever gone there with meat eaters, and all of them have loved it, including my mum, but it's the bread that makes that burger. I don't know what kind of bread they use but it really is amazing. A halloumi burger and a Kir Royale sounds like a pretty satisfying lunch to me. I need to stop thinking about it because I want one again, my friend Elena did offer to post one to me but I think I might pass on that offer.

4.) Refried beans

I love refried beans. Any mexican inspired food I make is incomplete without refried beans, and bizarrely, the Swedish public don't seem to be into them! When we visited The English Shop I noticed they were selling Old El Paso refried beans, which seemed very odd because that brand is available in all the normal supermarkets here. A few days later when we decided to make fajitas we noticed that the Old El Paso range in the supermarket included everything EXCEPT refried beans! I've looked in more than one supermarket, and it appears that Swedish people just aren't on board with refried beans - they're nowhere to be found in Swedish food shops! I'm a bit confused by this, especially as all the other products are available here, and Mexican food seems to be fairly popular in this country. Unfortunately, until I bulk buy beans in the only shop I've seen them, probably at a fairly high cost due to being imported, it seems that my fajitas and enchiladas will be a little bit lacking. Last time we did attempt to make out own "refried beans" - they were bloody awful.

That's all I've been missing for now. As mentioned before, restaurants are good and there are a lot of vegetarian options available in Stockholm, so I definitely don't feel like I'm going without. I think that wherever you go you end up missing things from other places. I miss a lot of Finnish products, some of which I can buy here, some not. Heli pointed out to me last week that the ferry between here and Turku has no luggage limits, so I have a feeling that sooner or later I'll be getting on that ferry with an empty suitcase, and coming back with a very full one!

A huge complaint

There is one part of my experience moving to Stockholm that has left a very unpleasant taste in my mouth, and it has nothing to do with Stockholm or Sweden. It is to do with the company I used to send some belongings ahead of me, a company based in the UK called First Luggage. I am writing about this here because I know that this blog is likely to be read, either now or in the future, by people who may be moving to Sweden from the UK, and I feel that this is relevant to anyone considering moving abroad from the UK.

I used First Luggage three years ago when I was moving back from Turku and needed to send some things ahead of me, and I was completely satisfied by their service. I remember that I actually entered the wrong collection date when making my booking, and this was changed without any difficulties at all. The luggage was collected and delivered promptly, and based on this experience I had no hesitation in using them this time. In fact I didn't even consider any other options because I was so confident in using First Luggage. What a mistake that turned out to be!

Heli agreed that my luggage could be delivered to her house in Stockholm, and so I booked the collection, arranging for my case to arrive here the day before I did, and paying over £100 for the privilege. A few days before the collection was due I received a phone call from First Luggage, informing me that the delivery address was incorrect, and that their system was displaying "foreign characters." The person I spoke to did not elaborate on this, and also told me she had googled the address and it didn't exist. I told her that I was quite sure my friend knew her own address, but that I would check with her and get back to them. Heli obviously confirmed that the address she'd given to me was correct, and for the sake of it I decided to google the address myself. It was definitely there.

Heli's address contains some accented letters that don't appear in the English alphabet. First Luggage claim that they can deliver your luggage anywhere in the world, but if their system can't recognise accented characters that surely rules out multiple addresses in Scandinavia, Iceland, Finland, France, Germany, Spain and other Spanish speaking countries, to name a few. I started to wonder if first time round I was just lucky that my address in Finland only contained letters also found in the English alphabet. I also considered that when entering address details on the First Luggage website, you're only able to enter them in a UK format, with the postcode coming last after the city name. This is not how Swedish addresses are laid out, nor Finnish addresses, and I'm sure addresses in some other countries have a different layout too, and I wondered if this might also cause a difficulty.

Anyway, when First Luggage contacted me it was a Friday, and it is unfortunate that the following Monday was a UK bank holiday, meaning it wasn't possible for me to speak to them. I know this is not their fault, and it is just unfortunate timing.

My collection was booked for the morning of the Tuesday, so I called them first thing in the morning to confirm that the address in Sweden was correct. I spoke to the same person as on Friday, who told me she would speak to her operations team and get back to me. I have previously worked in customer service for a well known gift retailer in the UK, and regularly dealt with a number of serious complaints. I really think this has made me more patient and reasonable than the average customer, as I am aware of how much stress and pressure customer service staff are sometimes put under. However, two hours later I still had not heard anything and needed to go to work, so I called First Luggage again. They didn't seem to have made any progress with the issue, and asked me to email the address to them. I did this immediately, and quickly received a reply confirming that the address was ok, they would send me the documents I needed that day, and would collect my suitcase on Wednesday morning instead. I sent two further emails, one asking when the luggage was likely to get to Stockholm in light of the delay, and another asking that the documents were sent to me by 4pm. This was because I did not have a printer at home, as I had mentioned on the phone, and would need to print the documents at work. First Luggage make it very clear that you must print the documents they send and give them to the courier when they arrive. I did not receive a response to either email.

I finished work at 4pm, and still did not have a copy of the documents I needed. I called them yet again, and was promised that I'd receive them by close of business, which was apparently 5.30pm. I was not very impressed, as I would now have to pay to have the documents printed. I informed First Luggage that I was moving abroad, they were delaying me in dealing with multiple other things I needed to do before leaving the country, and that I wanted a partial refund. When I said the whole experience had been ridiculous, the person on the phone actually agreed with me, but she did not apologise, and tried to blame the whole thing on the bank holiday. In regards to a partial refund, she told me "we'll see" once I had received the documents. So that basically meant no.

5.30 came and went, no documents were received, so I sent them a lengthy complaint email explaining what had gone on up to that point. I received a phone call from a different member of staff first thing the next morning, and to be fair to him, he was apologetic and seemed sincere. He had arranged for my luggage to be delivered to their office, so that they could attach the paperwork themselves, and to then be sent on an express service to Sweden so that it would still arrive on time. He told me it would actually arrive the next day, which did not help because Heli had arranged to stay at home on Friday, not Thursday. He told me he'd add a note asking that delivery was made on Friday, and also assured me I'd still be receiving a written response from a manager.

The case was collected and delivered, and I safely arrived in Stockholm. Last week I realised I had not received a response to my email, so I forwarded this to them and chased a response, pointing out that the email had obviously been received and read, otherwise no one would have contacted me the day after I sent it. And then it all gets worse...

Yesterday I found that another week had passed with no response from First Luggage, so I took to social media to air my concerns. Within minutes of posting on their Facebook page, which has over 8,000 likes, they commented that they would look into this as a matter of urgency. A while later I received an email from their Customer Care Manager, who just fobbed me off. He claimed that the initial communication issues were caused by a problem with their phone system. Frankly I find this quite confusing, as I had to call them multiple times and never had a problem getting through on the phone. The problem was that they failed to respond to emails, emails that I know for a fact they received and read. He also provided me with a £25 voucher to use against my next booking. It's an insult to my intelligence that they think I would use their service again after this. I had already told them several times that my previous experience with them was excellent, and that they had completely ruined this.

I replied to this email, informing them that their voucher was worthless as there is never going to be another booking, and that I didn't see what the phone system had to do with the issue. When I worked in customer service we occasionally had issues with the phone system, but this never affected our ability to send emails to customers. Considering that an email I sent on a Tuesday evening was read at about 8.30 the following morning says to me that they weren't struggling to catch up that much. I wanted some honesty, and a partial refund rather than a voucher I would never use, a voucher worth less than a quarter of what I paid for this shambles.

I decided to add a comment to my Facebook post, and discovered that it had mysteriously disappeared from their page! First Luggage clearly are concerned primarily with protecting their image - whether or not the customer is satisfied isn't relevant. I then posted again, specifically pointing out that they had removed my previous negative post from their page, and that I really felt the 8,000 people who liked their page deserved to see a real customer's experience with them.

At around the same time two rather odd things happened that just made the situation worse. First of all, a request to add First Luggage as a contact on Skype appeared. My Skype details are not listed anywhere, meaning that First Luggage had gone searching for my details, and I'm unsure how legal or ethical this is. Secondly, Heli text me and said they'd called her, claiming they thought that was my Swedish phone number. They know it isn't - they called her on that number to check my luggage had arrived, I provided that number at the point of booking, weeks before I even got to Sweden, and have never indicated to them that the number belongs to me. Contacting her when she hasn't even made the complaint is totally unacceptable.

I then received an email from the manager, not addressing anything I'd said, but saying he'd like to discuss the matter on Skype as he doesn't want to send emails back and forth, and also doesn't want to cause me a costly phone bill. I'm very hesitant to do this, as I will then have no evidence of anything that is discussed, and my knowledge of complaints procedure tells me that serious complaints like this should be kept in writing as far as possible. I replied to him telling him exactly this. I'm now waiting to see what happens from there.

If they had just dealt with the complaint at the time I would not be making the fuss I am now, and it's almost like they're intentionally causing more trouble for themselves by acting in a questionable manner. I am so frustrated with these people, and this is honestly the worst experience I've ever had with an organisation of any kind. I'm shocked at how bad their customer service is, and I think my former colleagues would agree that if any of us had acted in this way we may not have had jobs for much longer. I am an intelligent person, and First Luggage will not succeed in fobbing me off.

This morning I looked online for reviews of the company, and it seems I'm far from the only person who has had a negative experience. I'm also not the only one who doesn't get replies to complaints. It looks like I just got lucky first time round, and that using them again was a massive error. I don't want to keep dealing with this, it is no more enjoyable for me than it is for them, but I refuse to let them get away with this. 

The time now in the UK is 10.30am, so they are definitely in their office, and as yet I have heard nothing. I will keep chasing this, perhaps they think they can just make me go away, but what they don't know is that I learned from some very tricky customers and I will not be disappearing without a resolution. I wonder how long this nonsense will get dragged on for...

Eating my way through Stockholm

I've now been here for a week, and I realise that I've pretty much devoted myself to eating my way through Stockholm. I've been spending a lot of time with Heli, my friend from Finland, this week, and thankfully we're both pretty into food.
This week we made two visits to Vapiano, which is extremely popular in Stockholm, but with only one restaurant in London. I first visited Vapiano when I was last visiting Heli in June, and was very happy to visit again. The concept is kind of unusual, as you order your food directly from the chef, which means you can have some control over seasoning etc. The downside is that this means your food might be ready at separate times. We found this when we went to the restaurant in Gamla Stan - Heli had to queue for about 40 minutes for risotto, I ordered a pizza and had completely finished it by the time she sat down with her food. Kind of defeats the object of going out for a meal together. This wasn't a problem when we've visited the restaurant in Östermalm previously. I also found that the pizza in Gamla Stan wasn't cooked as well as in Östermalm, so I'm not sure if I'd go back to that particular restaurant. Generally I really like Vapiano, the food is good and the prices are very reasonable too.
There is another Italian restaurant in Gamla Stan that we went to both times I visited Stockholm in the past, called Michelangelo, which I really do recommend. I've never actually had pasta there, but the pizzas I've eaten have always been really good. Again, the prices are really reasonable, and the atmosphere there is very nice.
Yesterday we had a lovely lunch at Sushi Hjorthagen, very close to where Heli lives and across the street from Ropsten station. This also marked the first occasion that I ordered something completely in Swedish and the other person spoke back to me only in Swedish. I assume I have a very foreign accent, as Swedish people tend to start speaking to me in English even when I am speaking Swedish. Yesterday an Irish man I met advised me to just persevere and speak Swedish even when they speak English, so I think I'm not the only person who has experienced this. The sushi was delicious and beautifully presented - they also had a number of vegetarian options, which is a big positive for me. As it was a small, local restaurant in a residential area I wondered whether the quality would be that good, but I was really impressed and would definitely visit again. It was a lovely, sunny afternoon, so sitting out on the terrace of the restaurant was great, and the area was really peaceful.
Last night we intended to go to the nacho buffet at Hellströms. Everyone I meet seems to have heard of this, even if they haven't been there. We visited when I was last in Stockholm, and it's amazing that you can get all you can eat food for only 20kr. That's unimaginable in London, 20kr is approximately £1.72! It would cost you more to buy the ingredients and make the food at home! Even better is that beer is only 29kr, and this is the weekend price, throughout the rest of the week it's only 24kr! Definitely the cheapest drinks I've seen in Stockholm. The buffet is from 4-7pm, unfortunately this time we turned up a bit too late and there was no food left. In terms of value for money I can't think of anything better. There's always next Friday...
As an alternative we went to Opal in Söderhallarna, which we've visited before just for drinks. I like that they have shiny silver sofas and some tables that look like a glitterball cut in half. Opal mainly offers burgers, I had the vegetarian halloumi burger and it was pretty good, very filling. It was almost 200kr, quite expensive for what it actually was, and definitely more than you'd pay for something similar in London. Although people often say Stockholm is very expensive I find that the cost of living is roughly the same as London, with some differences. Alcohol generally costs slightly more, cigarettes are much less, and rent is much less. Shame that it's so difficult to find somewhere to live in the first place!
When I was last here I ordered a falafel wrap at the end of a night out, and was very confused to find that this wrap included mashed potato as a filling! I like mashed potato, and it was very tasty mashed potato, I just really didn't understand why it was there. Sweden is apparently really big on mashed potato, and this is quite normal. I mentioned this earlier today to a German person who I'm currently sharing a house with, and she didn't seem to be phased by this at all, so I'm wondering if this is actually normal outside of Sweden too. Definitely not in England though.
In other news, I've decided in a couple of weeks to go back to England temporarily, as my boyfriend and I are both quite unhappy about being separated. It also seems the more sensible option, as when we get back here in December or January we'll have more money and more options for housing, which is the biggest concern I have here. I can go back to my old job on a temporary basis, and save even more money too. It's sad to leave Stockholm again so quickly, but something is really missing being here alone, and I'd much rather change the plan and come back in a couple of months. I'm still going to go to job interviews and look into jobs in the next couple of weeks, and also use this time to improve my spoken Swedish, and generally integrate more with Swedish people. I'm planning to leave a lot of my belongings in Stockholm, so I can say with absolute certainty that I'll be back before long. I have a meeting about a job on Monday that's quite important, but this is the plan regardless of the outcome of that. I don't think that company will want an immediate start, and I'm told that a notice period of three months is quite normal here, which takes us up to December anyway. Coming here now was still completely worthwhile, but I do feel that I could be much happier than I am. So that means two more weeks to keep munching my way through Stockholm, and then a little while to plan what to eat when I'm back!

Smells like red tape

Foolishly, I assumed getting a personnummer would be a straightforward process. I am an EU citizen, I am looking for a job, and in the meantime I have the funds to support myself, which I have proof of. So off I go to Skatteverket, feeling quite confident that I can sort this out early on in my time here with minimal fuss. Wrong!

I got to the office, and the lady who I spoke to was pleasant and helpful. She told me that whilst I was living on my own funds I needed proof of medical insurance. I have an EHIC card, which I used whilst I was living in Finland without any problems, and I thought this would also be sufficient here. She told me this wasn't enough to get a personnummer, and that I needed an S1 form from the health service in England. She recommended I arrange this and then come back. This was a slightly frustrating turn of events, but didn't seem so difficult to resolve.

Finding out how to acquire this form was a struggle in itself. It is not available online, and when I googled the form I found countless forums and discussions from English people living in various European countries who couldn't work out how to acquire the form or were having problems with it. I also found a discussion between English people in Sweden that did not fill me with optimism, as it outlined many people's problems with either getting the form or being accepted by the Swedish authorities whilst they were in the same financial position as I am. The NHS website was useless quite frankly, and I eventually found a UK contact number on a forum.

I called and explained my situation, and was promptly informed that I'm not entitled to the S1 form! Since June the form is only issued to pensioners or people working for UK companies overseas. Prior to June they would have taken my National Insurance number to find out how much I had contributed, and then worked out how long my form should be valid for based on that. As Sweden requires coverage for at least one year that might not even have been successful. I actually said to the woman on the phone "So they're telling me I can't register without this form and there's no alternative, and you're telling me I'm not entitled to it and there's no alternative, so basically I'm stuck." Her response was "Yes."

The only other option if I really want to register at this point is to pay for private medical insurance, and I'm not going to do that. Before looking into the process I assumed I'd need a job before anything else, the same as in Finland, and this seemed like a faster way to get things done. Clearly not, so I just need to concentrate on finding work, which is obviously one of the main priorities right now. 

This has dragged me down a bit and I'm not brimming with confidence right now. I know I can't fall at the first hurdle, and I know I can only make so much progress in a couple of days, but I'm not used to being in such an unstable position. This was my choice so maybe I shouldn't feel sorry for myself about it. I know that living in Finland was far from straightforward at times, and it seems I'd conveniently forgotten about the problems I had. At least I can rest assured that I'm far from the only one who has experienced this problem, even before the policy with the S1 form changed. As the personnummer isn't even necessary unless I'm definitely staying at least a year I think I should stop worrying so much, stop expecting so much of myself, and just get back to working on a house and job. In a couple of weeks if I'm still struggling I'll have to think about what to do. I hope it works out.