Två hela år

Well trusty readers, if you've been following along you've read about my hits and misses in Sweden; the ups and the downs. Well, to be honest, some of the downs, like being unemployed and so forth, I didn't concentrate on here so much because of the fact that I am a true believer in spreading good vibes, not bad ones. But like anyone would've guessed, I've had quite the life-altering experience in moving here.

Today I have lived in Sweden for exactly two years.

"Two years" has been a time period I've thought about quite a bit even before moving here. In my pre-move research I read that it took "about 2 years" to get a comfortable grasp of the language. "It could be two years" until you find a job. "The first two years" are going to be the hardest. And so forth.

When I was sitting in Chicago reading this online I thought to myself, "two years, that's a breeze." Look how quick a month can go sometimes. String about 24 of those together and you're there. Ok, not realistic. If you didn't know, two years can be a long time when you begin from the absolute beginning and have nothing to do but claw your way up the rungs of the social ladder.

Oh, so you want to work and by work you don't mean carrying boxes through the snow from a semi truck to a warehouse? Well, that's fine, you'll just have to learn a completely new langauge eventhough you're 28 years old and your brain isn't quite the sponge it used to be.

Ok, so you want to learn how to speak Swedish? That's cool dude, just find the time and resources to be in a class five hours a day, five days a week for six months (you aren't eligible for student loans yet). Crunch those numbers.

Nice! You are interested in sliding into a completely new culture with its own set of customs, traditions and routines? Sweet, how about we just throw you into the mix and see what happens. In oh, about 2 years you'll have a clue. Good luck!

A clue I finally have. I feel like I'm a part of something again. I feel like I am living my life here, for real. I got that job. It took about 2 years. Me and m'sweet signed the paperwork with the realator last night; we own our own apartment now after exactly 2 years of basically subletting and wondering where we'd end up next.

I don't have a climatic ending to this really. I can only say that it's been worth it. Totally worth it.