All Our Bags are Packed We're Ready to Go

Finally, after several months of at times painstakingly slow preparations, our bags were packed and we were leavin’ on a jet plane for Stockholm.  The most complicated preparation was acquiring the Swedish residential work permits.   That process was handled by Jay’s company that is much better equipped processing visas/transfers from India to some other place.  A US citizen transferring to Sweden was not the norm.  Jay’s transfer may have been the first.  All that is behind us now.  Flight reservations had been completed. Hotel reservation booked.  A seven-week “vacation” apartment rental secured.  The last preparation was the luggage weigh in.

When we returned from Bangalore to the US in 2007, we discovered as we finalized our packing that we had more “stuff” than we had thought.  How did that happen?  We paid dearly in luggage fees.  This time we checked with Lufthansa….50 lbs for checked luggage…18 lbs for carry on.  Miss the limit and pay $150.  We checked an additional bag giving us a total of four checked bags…two free…two charged.  No weight problems.  Our carry on was within the specified weight limit, but was never weighed.

As with all international travel we gave ourselves plenty of time to arrive early at the airport.  Our journey to the airport found us twice in stand-still Atlanta traffic.  Some anxiety joined our travel, but we arrived with sufficient time to check-in, only to discover a slow moving line of fellow travelers inching mountains of luggage towards the Lufthansa counter.  A Lufthansa gate agent confirmed, “It’s like this every day.”  We checked in, cleared security and arrived at our departure concourse.

We wanted to acquire some Swedish currency (Kroner) before arriving in Stockholm.  Although there are options such as currency exchange counters or ATMs at every airport to acquire local currency, something always goes wrong.  In Atlanta, Helen was told at the exchange counter, “I don’t have any Kroner and my colleague’s who does has her drawer locked and I don’t have the key.”  Time was too short to search out another option.  Okay; we’ll try in Frankfurt.

Our departure to Frankfurt was delayed about 2 1/2 hours due to the late arrival of the incoming flight and a mean-tempered Atlanta summer thunderstorm which hammered the plane that stood just feet from the jet way.  Our three-hour layover in Frankfurt was now looking pretty slim.  One can only role with the punches…it will be what it will be.

Thankfully, we arrived in Frankfurt with sufficient time to pass through passport control and complete the long hike to the next terminal to catch our SAS connecting flight to Stockholm.  No time for a currency exchange.

We touched down on schedule in Stockholm.  We gathered luggage and passed to the main public area without any local passport stamping due to the Frankfurt passport control experience. Local currency was acquired at an ATM. A taxi was hailed. Hotel check-in at the new Marriott Courtyard in Stockholm was smooth.
We can now start unpacking our bags. 

On the Road Again

 May 2007, we packed our bags, tossed the apartment key on the kitchen table and closed the door on our Bangalore home for the last time.  After nearly two years, we were off the road and back in our home in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Four years later, the road beckons again. On June 24, 2011 we will pack our bags, toss the key on the kitchen table and start another adventure in Stockholm.

For those in our extended family and circle of friends who find the recurring comfort celebrating Christmas holidays and other life events in predictable venues, our lives appear exotic. We are not jet-setters, rich or gifted.  We actually have unfulfilled yearnings for the comfort of repeated predictability.  We are, however, susceptible to faint whiffs of possibility that forever swirl about all our lives.  With an inclination to conclude… “that will be a fun adventure”… before common sense resumes its normal control over our senses, Jay accepted a work assignment in Europe.

So Stockholm it is.

Preparing for this overseas move is so different from our preparation for India in 2005.  Looking back on that preparation, we can only conclude that we were pretty naïve.  That’s our kindest self-evaluation.  The biggest advantage we now have is knowledge of the vast network of overseas women’s clubs. 

In Bangalore, Helen’s early discovery of the Overseas Women’s Club helped us orient ourselves and provided a rich circle of friendship.  On a job scouting trip to Hanoi, again, the International Ladies of Vietnam provided instant insight on opportunities and living conditions.  The ink was not dry on Jay’s offer letter before Helen had already round-trip corresponded with the president of the American Women’s Club in Stockholm.

Corporate support for this move is limited.  Yet even if we had the most engaged corporate transition team behind us, there is no substitute for insider scoop from a fellow American already on the ground. 

Our early research revealed that living in Stockholm was very expensive.  But now we also know that even money can’t buy Crest tooth paste or Secret deodorant. It took us at least four months of searching in Bangalore to conclude that stick deodorant was nowhere to be found in the southern tip of the Indian sub continent.  What a head start we have this time!

Another tidbit of insider information is the cost of peanut butter.  Stratospheric!  We’ve converted this data point into our traveling slogan.  Helen to Jay, “You bring home the bacon. I’ll bring the peanut butter.”

Our extended family and close circle of friends have been most supportive and wish us well…”Farväl och lycka till”…..goodbye and good luck.