More health care

It takes a bit to get used to a new system anywhere, most likely. But coming from a country that deals with healt insurance, and making sure they get their copays, etc, it was quite a different thing to see how things are in Sweden. I had an appointment last week with the ob clinic and walking in there, there is no place to let them know that you are there. So you just sit down and wait, with the other people in the waiting area, and look at the rows of doors. At some point someone came and called my name, and I got up and walked in. I was sitting in a office with an ob nurse practitioner, and talked about my background, my information and what I came there for. She wrote out a prescription for me, and told me it was done. The prescription is online, and I didn't need anything from her. I could walk into any pharmacy and hand them my id, and they would just find it, print it, get it and I would pay for it. That was it! Any pharmacy, in any part of the country. Granted, the country is small, compared to what I was used to, and we live in a country where socialism roams. Which means that lots of things have systems, and you exsist in the system, with just your name and number. But still, it's 2010. There should be a system for eluminating paperwork in the US as well, and have it all being emailed off, so that anyone could pick it up at any place. You would think!

Visiting the doctor and the social healthcare system

So I'm back, after almost a month of quiet, for which I appologize. I've been busy with inschooling the kids at their new preschool, which takes a bit of time and patience. For all parties. You don't just drop them off, after visiting one time. You have two weeks of slow move from just visiting with mom or dad, to slowly being dropped off for longer and longer periods of time, to get used to the new place and it's routines. It's a more drawn out process, but in the end, it's a lot better for the child, even if it doesn't always seem that way when you are in the middle of it.
But now it's done, and they have adapted very well, and really enjoy going there to play with their new friends, and they love their new teachers. Such a relief!
I also got to explore the swedish health care system, that is often talked about in the US these days! After falling on very slippery ice at the play ground one day, and had my foot swell and become very sore, I decided to go to the emergency room. But instead of going to the big hospital, and sit in the waiting room while they deal with lots of other patients, I got the suggestion to go to the private ER in town. It was an interesting experience, since I had been working in a hospital, and was very familiar with how that might transpire. But it was not like that at all. Being private, or semi private, I think they get funding from the government, but still operate as a public place. So, you walk in and get a number, to wait for a check in. This is geared towards people with urgent illnesses, but not hard attacks, etc. So you wait for your turn to check in, and there they ask for your id that shows your personal number, and with that you check in. You have no healt care card, no preapproved costs or such, just a copay of 200krones, or about $20. As I was checking in, I overheard the person next to me, who was born in Sweden, but was currently living in Italy, and visiting, and didn't have her European ID card for her child that needed care, and would therefore have to pay the full amount for the visit. 1,095kr. About $110, give or take. That's it! I know copays that are that amount in the US, and that doesn't even include the weekly or byweekly cost of the insurance itself! So next I get to sit and wait for my turn. I should also tell you that the ER has a website that you can electronically check how long the waiting time is, and how many people are before you, before you even arrive! I was called, checked into the room, and the doctor showed up pretty soon after. He seemed normal, as any doctor I had seen before, and asked a bunch of questions to determine the seriousness of the injury. He determined that I probably had a sprain, and told me how to treat it. That was it! I was done! All in all it took me 45 minutes from check in time, to the time I was out on the street again. Granted I didn't have to have an xray or anything, but still. The place was very nice, new and shiny, and all the people were very nice and polite. It seemed almost more like a spa than a hospital! That was my first visit with the health care system here. Not too bad...

Snow removal?

It's cold here, and can even snow. It snowed a few days before christmas, and even on christmas eve. But because it's also a country of unions, and holidays when people don't work, snow removal on a holiday or after hours in a big city doesn't always happen. So when it snowed later in the day, nobody came to remove it, and instead it turned slushy and wet. And when that froze up again, it became slippery everywhere. And they are very much for the environment as well, so ice melt is used to a minimum, since it's not good for the grounds, the earth and the waters. So instead there were ice everywhere, and it got pretty dangerous to just walk to the car or to the store. The play grounds are still full of ice, and I was probably one of many that fell on this slippery surface, and now I'm sitting with a sprain in my foot! 3 days after it became a problem it was finally an ordinary week day again, and they put down some gravel on the already frozen grounds. Which didn't do much. And here I was sitting and looking out the window and enjoying the fact that I wouldn't have to shovel to get out the door. I should have just picked up a shovel and made myself and everyone around me a big favor!

Living in an apartment, and the laundry room

So here we are, the whole gang, outside our "new home". We live in large one bedroom at the moment, that we are renting from my brother, who moved in with his new girlfriend. In Sweden you are allowed to rent out your apartment for 6 months, when you are "trying out" living with a new girl/boyfriend. So we have a second hand contract from him right now. It's not easy living in an apartment after having a whole house, with hardly any neighbors. And it's harder still to stay in one that only has one bedroom, but at least the kitchen and living room are both pretty big, so that we don't trip on each other too much. But just being three girls, one boy and one bathroom has proved problematic more than once, to say the least! Today being the latest one, when our oldest was "pooping", and the youngest one needed to go as well, so she pooped on the mat right next to the toilet instead! Oh well...

But living in an apartment in Sweden has much more benefits, some that I had forgotten all about. Like the laundry room. As an american in an apartment you learn to live either with the laundry mat, or you are lucky enough to have it in your building. Either way, it usually costs money, from my own experience. Here almost any place have access to a laundry room either in the bottom of the house you live in, or in a separate building near by, where you can reserve a spot to use two or more front loaded laundry machines, a spinning machine, a dryer and a drying room. If it's at the bottom of the house, you usually only have access from 8am to 8pm, in shifts. But if it's in a separate building, you sometimes have access 24 hr/day. And it's free! Granted you have to clean up after yourself, and you have to provide your own detergent and such. But the cost of it is already included in the rent, so you don't have to collect change for that all week long. You have a little lock and a key to "lock in" your time slot, and if you don't show up in the first hour of your slot, anyone can take over. And you have keys to each place, and can lock your clothes in. You don't have to wait and watch over your stuff. What a treat!

English and preschool

There are about 5 preschools that has english as a language in the Gothenburg area, with kids from all over the world, and there are two schools that use english as a way of teaching, following either the swedish school plan, or an international one. So there are a few options, if you feel that your child would do better with english as a main language, or if you don't speak swedish at all. There are also quite a few swedish for immigrants courses, which most are free of charge, as are most schools in Sweden. It is recommended that immigrants sign up to learn swedish as soon as they arrive, and they set it up so that you can get help learning how to even get help with job searches and such that way as well, as part of the training.

You can actually get by with just english in the daily life quite a bit these days. Most people speak english, even if they are a little shy, and doesn't want to let you know right away. Swedes learn english in school from at least grade 3 and on, and lots of shows and songs from the US and other english speaking countries are also popular over here. Lots of expressions have come as well, words and sayings that are not very polite are used daily here, which can be a little hard to shield from your own younger children.
Shows are usually dubbed for children, and sutitled for grown ups, and they are not far behind on top series in the US as far as episodes and what is going on. If you love all the big shows, with everything from So you think you can dance and Housewives of Atlanta, to criminal shows like CSI and NCIS are here already. And some are even reinvented or copied in a swedish setting, which are very funny at times.
A lot of releases of larger motion pictures are here as well, and some you can choose if you want to see the swedish or english version. Movies like Ice Age, which has an adult and a child audience, has that option, for example. Which is a great option, if you have children that speak mostly english, or just want to hear it in it's original.

Arriving in Swede...

So we did it! We got here, after a long, hard and very tiresome trip, we arrived. The kids did surprisingly well, and since I prepared for a lot worse, we did very well. But it took a while for us all to get into the time change, and we had a hard few days and nights for almost a week!
Now my husband has been here before, 3 times, so some things were not so strange to him. And the kids were mostly excited, curious about everything. Kids have a strange ability to adapt to a lot of different situations, at least when they are younger. That makes it crusial in terms of the decision of timing. The younger they are, the easier they have to learn and adapt.

If you live in the city, you can get by without a car pretty easily, since the public transportation system is pretty easy to use, and fairly reliable to get you places in a timely matter. The kids love to ride the bus and the tram, which it an interesting and fun experience. And swedes in general are practically minded people, with lots of smaller playgrounds everywhere and lots of green areas for kids and dogs to run around and get exercise. And the city also have lots of museums and fun activities for children of different ages, some which doesn't cost a thing! Like a thing called open preschool (or oppna forskolan), that have places all over, for free, with activities like song, dance and open play for younger kids and parents. They all have different open hours, with a combined style of story time and play group, where people who are home with their children can come to play and do activities, and adults can talk and meet other people.

Can't wait to learn more about what it's like to be living in Sweden again... but I promise to keep you all posted!

Sweden, the social wellfare country

The system is set up so that you need to register with Skatteverket as soon as you arrive, pretty much. Not much can get done until that is done. That is how you get your social security number, or personnummer, that gets you access to everything else. It is possible to go to the hospital if you are sick before you get that number, but it's easier if you can wait. It takes about 15-20 business days to get it in the mail, which is the way it works today. Once you get it, you can register for all kinds of things. Some things, like Forsakringskassan, that deals with things like child stipends and parental support, which you have a right to, takes a long time to register for. They told us 4-8 months, which is ridiculous, but they also say that if you are persistent and keep at them, things may go faster!
So much to learn, and we have barely gotten started here!

In my experience, the way to get things done here now is to keep pushing and asking, and to be nice but firm. And you get a different story from a different person at the same place every time. I went to the bank to get some information, and one person told me one thing, and a few days later I went back and got a different story. But my dear husband has been good at not taking no for an answer, and his solution is to look things up on some of the english speaking sites about living here. And they have come to great use, as the things they say there are geared towards being an immigrant, and helping you with all kinds of things that you don't know anything about. Which actually is more useful, since everything I used to know isn't really that way anymore. It really is like a clean slate, to truly start over...