it's done

Well, it's done. About 10 days ago -- the day after I arrived in Pretoria -- I handed in my Swedish residency permit application. I could have done it earlier in the US but that would have been a bit more complicated. The Swedish embassy here is within walking distance while in the US I would have had to send my passport to L.A.

I started working on it after the Python conference. I spent a lot of time on my talk for the conference, then spent time working on my business plans. I think I can only write so much per week, and beyond that I don't have much time for blogging like this.

The first few drafts were very technical. I had many, many pages of different possibilities. Craig pointed out it was more that I was trying to convince myself that it would work, and not the Swedish government. He convinced me to drastically shorten it. The result was about 1/2 page for the plan, 1/2 page for marketing, and a few more pages for the other requirements. I only really talked about the consulting side of things. While I did mention some other possibilities I left out a lot of depth.

Ayton went with me to the embassy, to help with directions. The woman at the desk didn't know what to do so she got another woman to help me out. I said "I'm would like to apply for residency for Sweden as a self-employed person." She gave me the form to fill out. I pointed out that I had all the information ready to submit.

This was the first time she'd done the self-employed permit using migrationsverket's new electronic system. I figure there aren't many who apply to Sweden as a self-employed person, and of course even fewer doing so through the South Africa consulate. I had to pay R1000, deposited into their bank before processing continued. Took care of that, again with Ayton's help.

Sat around for a bit while she entered the forms into the system. There was a bit of confusion, again because of the newness of the process. It wanted "employer in Sweden", so she used an AstraZeneca contact. Waited some more .. and it was done.

Now the wait. Migrationsverket by email said it would be about 5 months before I hear back. I should check online to see how things are going.

Icelandic

Grr.. Can't use this new blogger account in Safari. Writing a new post causes the spinning ball of business to appear and drives Safari to 100% CPU. Firefox it is then.

I was tracking down the source of the name "Iceland." Someone else saw the Icelandic name "Ísland" and thought that it was the same as the English word "Island". It's not. Years ago I read that in the 1800s there was a mistaken belief that the then correct English word "iland" was derived from the French "isle" so they stuck an "s" in there that didn't belong. Silly grammarians. See this
posting and related threads for details.

I also looked up why Iceland got its name. Wikipedia's History of Iceland says:

The first Scandinavian who deliberately sailed to Garðarshólmi
was Flóki Vilgerðarson, also known as Hrafna-Flóki (Raven-Flóki).
Flóki settled for one winter at Barðaströnd. It was a cold
winter, and when he spotted some drift ice in the fjords he
gave the island its current name, Ísland (Iceland).

I decided to double check the source, which is the Landnámabók or "The Book of Settlement". I don't know Icelandic but my Swedish and the Wikipedia page were enough to get me to this quote:

Þá gekk Flóki upp á fjall eitt hátt og sá norður yfir fjöllin fjörð
fullan af hafísum; því kölluðu þeir landið Ísland, sem það hefir síðan heitið.

which I roughly translate as (guesses in []s)

[Then] Flóki went up the mountain [a ...] and looked [north over the ...] fjord
full of [half]-ice; [they] [called] [their] land "Iceland", [as it's been called since that time]

Lots of guesses, and knowing what it's supposed to say does help, but still neat that I could do it! Plus, I think Icelandic uses such cool letters.

ouch

To add to the list of things not to do: incautiously peel a potato with a brand new peeler. A 1/2 sq. cm of skin doesn't coagulate quickly. I'll wait a bit more with this bandage before replacing it with the 3rd.

Good thing I finished the first draft of my PyCon talk earlier today. Hard to type w/o me left index finger. This also means I won't be going into the hot tub this evening. Did I mention that this casita compound includes a hot tub?

have your cake and eat it too

I bought a book of English idioms translated to Swedish when I visited the UK a couple of weeks ago. It was a cool find. I've been asking people "give me an idiomatic expression" then looking it up to see the Swedish version.

Many of them mean the same, but not all. As an example, though not from the book, using "guinea pig" to mean a test subject is translated correctly to "försökskanin" or "researcher's rabbit."

Dana wanted to know "have your cake and eat it too." It's "båda äta kakan och ha den kvar" which is directly translated as "both eat the cookie and have it remain".

That ordering make more sense to me. In English at least "and" can mean a temporal ordering. "Go to the store and buy food" means "Go to the store and then buy food." If I have my cake then of course I can eat it. But if I said "eat my cake and have it too" then the conflict stands out.

Learning Swedish helps me understand my native language.

Saying goodbye

I said goodbye to people in Sweden last week. It wasn't as bad as previous times. When I was in South Africa and last year in Sweden I felt rather torn in the last week or two. It was hard to see people because I knew I was leaving. This time it was more that I'll be gone but I'll be back. I think it's also that I've become closer friends to people here and it doesn't feel like I'll have to start from scratch again. I also think I've started to become part of gänget - the gang.

When I left Santa Fe I got a dance circle. I've blogged about that before. In Cape Town Mark gave a small announcement that I was an honorary Capetonian and also got a dance circle. In Göteborg, although people knew I was leaving, it was a more personal thing.

The most touching came from Gudrun: "Golvet ska gråta / när Andrew är borta". "The floor will cry / when Andrew is away". It rhymes in Swedish. Thank you Gudrun.

Speed football

I turned on the television here in Oxford. They are showing the Patriots/Colts game. I was surprised to see a US football game in the UK, even if it is the championships. They are squeezing the game into something like an hour. It's strange watching the game whizz by. I'm used to seeing each play at least twice during a normal game, given the time needed to get things set up for the next play.

It isn't a highlight reel. They show most of the plays, just without the breaks. It goes from the end of one play direct into the snap of the next. A few times they'll do a replay, but not often enough, IMHO. They'll also skip several minutes at a time, like 10 minutes where there's a slow press up the field.

I did think it was too fast, although it was nice to not see so many ads. Looked like it was a great game for those watching.

Speed football

I turned on the television here in Oxford. They are showing the Patriots/Colts game. I was surprised to see a US football game in the UK, even if it is the championships. They are squeezing the game into something like an hour. It's strange watching the game whizz by. I'm used to seeing each play at least twice during a normal game, given the time needed to get things set up for the next play.

It isn't a highlight reel. They show most of the plays, just without the breaks. It goes from the end of one play direct into the snap of the next. A few times they'll do a replay, but not often enough, IMHO. They'll also skip several minutes at a time, like 10 minutes where there's a slow press up the field.

I did think it was too fast, although it was nice to not see so many ads. Looked like it was a great game for those watching.