9 Days

9 days to go.. Its hard to believe that I will be packing everything up and moving to Sweden for a year in just ten days. Its surreal. I have been getting more and more excited as the day comes closer and closer. It hasn't fully hit me yet that I will be gone for a whole year.

The thought of leaving for a whole year is hard to stomach, but I know it will be amazing! I can't wait to embark on this great new adventure learning a language and adapting to a culture.

 I finally got all the paper work for my residence permit! It was not as exiting as I thought it would be. When I called the embassy, they had not even sent it out yet, so someone emailed it to me. Most of the letter is in Swedish, so I do not know exactly what it says, but my sister who speaks Danish has been translating it.

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Those Permits

The residence permit. Oh, yes, I did say that word. That big scary word, believe me it has been haunting. Ever since I sent off my application to the Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C. it has been eagerly awaited. Thought it came once, but it was just a letter about how the process had been changed and my application was sent to Sweden. Since then it has been nothing but waiting. I finally decided that I had to contact someone, my application had not been registered, no decision had been made and I was supposed to leave in 30 days. Let me just say that contacting the embassy directly was not the best idea. If you thought 24 hours a day tech support from India was annoying, try one hour a day visa support. That's right, the embassy only answers questions an hour every weekday except Tuesday, talk about convenience. After that I decided to contact the Consulate in Dallas and see if they would be so kind as to help me. Boy, was I in for some wonderful help! The Vice Consul in Dallas, Tina, has been the most helpful person I have met in my life. She figured everything out for me and has been so kind. Granted, I do not have my permit yet, but it is well on its way speeding through the Migration Board. Now a little more waiting. 

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