Izzy and I have been in Sweden for a little over a week now, and we are finally starting to get settled into our apartment. It has been a lot of work and it has been a very long time since I started in a place with nothing, no beds, no furniture, no kitchen appliances and no dishes or silverware.
We are making progress. Izzy’s room has a bed and a desk and I have a LED string light arriving today to add decoration. Our kitchen is slowly coming together. We have a couch showing up on Monday and we have a temporary table to eat at while we look for a nicer one.
There is still lots to do. I have to finish hanging curtains on the living room; it feels a bit open living on a first floor apartment. We need dressers for our bedroom and a TV for the living room. Plus decoration. And things I’m probably not thinking of right now.
I’m starting to get used to the city. Granted, Växjö isn’t a very big city; but it is a lot more city than our house was in Preston. The apartment is much smaller than we are used to (the apartment is 75 m2 or a little over 800 ft2). On the plus size, a small apartment is a lot easier to fill up. Parking is a pain. The complex will only rent one spot per apartment, so my car is in a garage that is a few blocks away. Luckily, the dog park is half-way to the garage, so it really isn’t much extra effort to grab my car.
Izzy still misses her friends. Next week is fall break at school, so she has one more week before starting. However, on the following Monday (November 3rd), she starts at Ulriksbergskolan. We visited the school earlier in the summer, and it is a very nice school. They completed renovations to the building 2 years ago, so everything is new. The school system here is done by age and not by previous grades completed, so she will be put into Grade 3 with her age peers. School starts at 8am and finishes at 1:30pm.
I’ve been trying to keep Izzy busy, but with everyone in school here, there aren’t a lot of activities available. But the library is two blocks past the dog park, so a short walk away. Today she is going to stop by the drop-in “Try VR Glasses” event at the library. Tomorrow we are going to the Växjö 4H camp haunted tour with Susanna’s sister and her boys (Izzy’s cousins). Izzy and I have to meet the school nurse on Tuesday as part of her processing into the school district. And hopefully next weekend Izzy will be able to do a Halloween sleepover at the Växjö 4H camp.
Hoagie is getting used to the apartment and the city, but still stresses a bit when left alone in the apartment. I’m still looking for a workshop space. Tomorrow afternoon, I’m going back to the space in Rottne that I have looked at a few times; hopefully I can find a space that works and get moving on that. With Izzy going to school in a little over a week, my days will suddenly be pretty empty. Of course, I have a workbench in Dan’s workshop that I can use for now if the place in Rottne falls through.
