The somewhat longer version is that life is great here. Me and Kasia are doing great; I'm having such a great time being with her. Work is great too. I'm doing pretty cool stuff, both coding and tinkering with networks and unix systems to squeeze out every possibility to get even better performance. We're currently serving 50 million ads a day (and yes, online ads.. I sold my soul) with just a hand full of servers, running a Ruby application. The team I'm working with consists of only smart an experienced people, which makes it even better. I'm learning every day.

My Swedish isn't really great yet. I've signed up for a course, but I have to wait some months to start, since it's fully booked. In the mean time I'm doing some Rosetta Stone, but not so much. I hear a lot of Swedish at work, but everybody speaks English, so there is no real need to speak Swedish. Reading is not so hard, since there are a lot of commonalities with Dutch, but speaking is a lot more difficult.  However, I had a small breakthrough yesterday, when I went to the hairdresser. She doesn't speak English, so I was forced to speak Swedish and I had an actual (and pretty decent) conversation with her! I guess it's all about not being shy and just try.

Swedes are friendly people and very modest. Business is somewhat different than in the Netherlands. For example, meetings are different. In the Netherlands, often people go into a meeting with a goal. Decisions should be made. A general consensus is OK, but there should be a result after a meeting. Here it's different. Meetings are for listening to people and talk about the stuff that needs attention, but decisions are made at the coffee machine. I read some articles about this and some said that Swedish mentality is closer to the way people do business in Belgium, but I'm not sure. Belgians seem far more hierarchical; one person is the boss. Here, it's more about compromises and talking.

Some people asked me if Sweden is expensive. I guess it can be, but apart from the alcohol, it feels a bit like the Netherlands. Of course my salary is in Swedish Kronor, so it's harder to compare, but I don't really have the feeling that products are that more expensive here. I must admit that I'm not very price aware, so it's more a gut feeling. VAT is higher; 25% and 12% instead of 19% and 6%, but I guess you get a lot back from that. Alcohol is excessively expensive though. Half a liter (note to Wayne: "I'm sorry sir, I don't know what a liter is") of beer costs roughly Euro 6,50 in a bar and a Mojito is roughly Euro 13,-. Next to that, you can't buy wine or (normal) beer in the supermarket. There is only one company that sells alcohol and it's run by the government and there a bottle of beer is about Euro 1,50. In the supermarket you can buy 3.5% vol. beer, but that just tastes like water.

But you get a lot back for the stuff you pay. Public transport is good. I think it's better than in the Netherlands. Metro runs pretty much on time (in the Dutch meaning of the word) and often. Swedes tend to have a thing for time. If the metro is 3 minutes late, it's late. 13 past the hour isn't a quarter past, it's 13 past. Interesting difference.

Another thing you get is health care. Paying for that is done through taxes, directly. Not through strange systems with insurance companies. If you need health care, you will get it. Everybody is equal. The first 900 kr (90 euro's) per year, you'll have to pay by yourself, and then it's free for 365 days.

How do I know this? Experience. 3 weeks ago I broke my right ring finger. I went snow boarding with a friend and at the beginning of the first run, I touched the ground with my hand while trying to keep balance. It hurt, but I thought that it would be just a contusion. It wasn't even a cool crash or anything and I had been standing on my board for only 5 seconds. I went to the first aid at the slope to have it checked, but the guy there said it was probably only a contusion and that it was just a little bit swollen. so, I continued boarding for a couple of hours. My finger turned blue and purple the next day, but when the swelling disappeared after a couple of days. I still couldn't move it and it still hurt, so I decided to see a doctor and after some x-rays it turned out to be broken. At the hospital, I got a cast that is coming off today. I'm actually sitting at the hospital while writing this piece. I just had x-rays and I have a doctors appointment in an hour. Hope it healed a bit and that they'll take off the cast, because it's really uncomfortable and typing is pretty hard.

I'll try to make some more time in the future to blog and I hope I can get a mobile subscription soon, so I'm able to be online a bit more. But I'm alright!

For real. Not just for a holiday, or something else. I'm moving there to start a new life. Some months ago, I met an incredible girl and fell in love. She's living in Stockholm, Sweden and since I've had a long distance relationship before, I know that being apart for too long is not going to work for me. We spoke about how a relationship would be possible and the only way seems to be close to each other. Because of circumstances, I would be the one that should move and after some consideration, I decided to take the plunge an just go.

Of course, there will be stuff and people that I leave behind. Family and friends, but Stockholm isn't so far (cheap 1.5 hour flights from and to Eindhoven), my house (I will rent it to someone), my company (this was actually the hardest part of the decision) and swimming with my visually impaired friends. I told most of the people close to me about my plans already (I'm really sorry for the people who I didn't tell yet. It's not something personal).

Since I want me and her to be boyfriend and girlfriend like other people, I will rent my own place at first. Next to that, I'm currently looking for a job as a Ruby developer in Stockholm, so if you happen to have connections there or you are looking for a developer in Stockholm, let me know. I deliberately decided to quit my current job, since I also want to build social life. I know it sucks for my current colleagues, but this is something I need to do. Some time ago (before I met her actually), I figured that I don't want to regret stuff I didn't do. Some things I did, I regret, but I learned from my mistakes, but not doing things that I could have done.. It's a whole different story.

My house, I will rent to someone. Preferably to a friend or an acquaintance, so if you would like live in Utrecht, 5 minutes from the central station, in the middle of the great neighborhood of Lombok, let me know. It's a two story house (about 85 m2) with a large living room, two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom (with bath) and a small back yard. I'm considering renting it furnished, but this depends who is going to rent my house (I might do it through a rental company if I don't find someone I know).

Of course there will be things that I'm going to miss (think peanut butter, stroopwafels and other typical Dutch things), but most of all, I'll miss my friends and family. But since flying is cheap, I will still be able to see all of them. Because of the Internet, everybody is only 30ms away. The only thing is that if someone will visit me there, he or she needs to take alcohol, since in Sweden alcohol is very expensive. Swimming every Wednesday, I will miss. If there's anyone out there that wants to do some voluntary work and drive 2 or 3 people from Utrecht to Amersfoort once a week and swim for an hour, let me know. I've been doing this for over 2 years now and I still like it a lot.

Luckily people speak English very well in Sweden, but I've already started learning the Swedish language. I bought Rosetta Stone and I really like it. Swedish isn't so hard for Dutch people; there are a lot of similarities and the grammar is not so difficult (no cases, no conjugation of verbs), so I'll manage.

As said, I already told most people that are really close and I got great support from all of them. Since I've never done this before, I'm very open for advice from anyone. Over the coming months, I'll keep all of you updated on the progress I make on my blog and probably also on Twitter.

All in all, this feels like the right decision and I'm looking forward to living there, in a beautiful country, with a beautiful girl.

And oh, my cats will be moving too

Edit: I forgot to mention the date. I'm moving before the 1st of February 2010