Today was a very busy day. It seems that there are some administrative issues to be resolved with my international assignment. Basically, to make a complicated story short. I can’t really be on “travel” status in Sweden since I am staying there for such a long period of time. What the proper solution is to basically to make this a formalized expatriate assignment. In the meantime, I am still going to go ahead and go to the Nordics as planned. It should all work out. What is not working out is getting Sweden to expedite the review of my Swedish work and residence permit. The Swedish Consulate in New York has recommended that someone from IBM Sweden call the Migration Board and ask them to speed up the review of the application. I have send him an e-mail asking him to do just that.

I also went to visit a storage facility. I explained my needs to them and while I liked the people, I really didn’t like the location. It was hard to find, which means that in the event of an emergency, if I need family to get to my things, they would barely know where to go. But I won’t count them out yet.

I brought several guidebooks on Sweden. I purchased one on Sweden in general, one of Stockholm in particular, one on Scandanavia, and one on Swedish culture. They will be good reads to provide me with some important preparation.

Finally, I set up a phone call to speak to another American expatriate in IBM Sweden because I think that they’ll be able to provide me a lot of assistance regarding what things I need to take into account.

Well, I have to go now…the work continues in terms of throwing out things, organising and deciding what will stay and what will go, and making a ton of other arrangements.

Ciao, Rodney

Well, I figured I’d write now. I have just finally finished my workpapers. Woo hoo! No more workpapers ever! Yay! Workpapers were the worst part of the IA&BC audit assignment. They are important, but I still didn’t like them. But I do owe completing workpapers to a new appreciation I have for documentation and clarity of thought.

Yesterday I had asked Mary Ann Laudano for her advice on packing for an international assignment. And a lot of what she said was very very true. No one ever thinks that they have a lot of stuff until they have to pack it. What I have come to learn is that packing for an international assignment is unlike packing for any other move because since I can’t bring everything, I had to make a judgement on what was essential to have with me in Sweden and the rest was destined for long-term storage. ANd even within long-term storage, the packing experience was my opportunity to evaluate everything that I was saving. I actually haven’t packed anything yet, but I have removed bags and bags of trash from the apartment of things that I just don’t need or were nice to have, but not necessary in my life. I often wonder if I’ll miss the things that I threw away, but my rationale was that as I was digging through my boxes, it there was something that I was seeing for the first time in months or years, then I probably didn’t have a need for it. Because of this experience, I have also resolved that I am going to buy a house when I get back to the United States. I think that having a house by the time that I am 30 is a good goal, and this assignment will give me the opportunity to contain some costs and build up savings…if I don’t squander it all via jaunts around Europe and vacations. I have resolved that I will only take 4 trips around Europe a year (once a quarter) and that I would reduce that if necessary.

This is the last “relaxing weekend,” meaning that I won’t have anything to do other than to just relax and prepare for the a very busy 2 weeks. But this weekend it is also Jason’s birthday on Saturday. Also Cara and Lynn are taking me to dinner and I need to do some family-related stuff. So it won’t be that busy and care free after all.

Well, all the same, it has been good having this time off to get prepared.

Ciao, Rodney

Today was a interesting day. David (my former direct manager and now my career development manager) announced to the Internal Audit & Business Controls (IA&BC) organization that I was leaving. So it is now official. In some ways, I had been looking forward to that announcement for quite some time. But in other ways, it was sad to see because that it the end of what has been a very significant part of my life. For all of the challenges it brought, it also brought some very good memories and experiences. However, there are still some small details that have to be worked out, including returnig IA&BC equipment and assets, and since some of the audit team will be in Boston for an engagement, I will be able to visit with them.

I also decided today that my schedule a bit too aggressive so I relaxed it a bit. Since it looks like I am going to moving things myself, I didn’t want to stress out and overdo anything. And I wanted to be very deliberate about everything because I didn’t feel like any mistakes could be made. SO I will start the packing and moving process on the 9th.

Today was also a good day, and yesterday was as well. My roommate had tickets to Lenny Kravitz on Monday (the show rocked!) and tonight he had tickets to Santana. Both shows were excellent and I loved them. I like to leave concerts early after the singer’s initial walk-off. Not because they are not good, but because of traffic. Anyway, it was sure nice of Jason to treat me to both concerts.

I have to keep this short. Steve just came back with the audit report and wanted it reviewed by midnight. Luckily I was just checking mail to check on some correspondance with the Nordics (they are 6 hours ahead) and happen to see the audit report. I could very easily have decided to type this journal entry on my desktop and would have missed the audit report entirely. This reminds me, I really do need to finish the workpapers. Maybe I’ll get motivated to have them completed by this Friday. In fact, I will have them completed by then.

Well, after a great night out, I finally got back to the apartment! I had so much fun and it was soooo good to see everyone one last time. And a lot of people turned out for the event too. Dinner in the North End was really nice and the Hong Kong and Sissy K’s were good too. I was so drunk I don’t even remember most of what was going on. All I know is that I didn’t have to go to the hospital this time (hee hee…ah, memories of Canada). Steph has been so good to make this all happen. I will definately get something Swedish for her and give it to her when I come back to the states…if I ever come back to the states (I’m sure I’ll have some trips home, so I am not too worried about that).

Well, now that I am looking around the apartment, I realize that I have so much to do, but that I am just too lazy to do anything about it. So instead I will be a fat oafish pig and sleep on the couch since it is too much of a burden to walk a few feet to my room. I will write some more later, I promise.

Ciao, Rodney

Today is the big day…my goodbye party. In some ways it’s cool to be going to a new experience. In some other ways, it’s gonna be sad because this will likely be the last time that I’ll be seeing people in a large group like this again. Today I spent a lot of time looking at my apartment and coming up with an action plan to get everything moved out in time for my trip. Having sought advice from many people, I can say that this is not going to be like any packing that I have ever done previously, but I am still looking forward to it.

Besides the workpapers, which I didn’t complete, I have nothing really left to do other than to begin the process of moving out. But first…party party party! I have spent this day relaxing because after more than 3 years of extensive and exhaustive travel, I need the time off! I will write more tomorrow when I get back after my party.

Ciao, Rodney

Welcome to my online journal!

Throughout my life, I have always found a way to keep a track of the major events — whether it was through pictures or whether it was through a journal.

The goal of this journal is to use it as a means to keep in touch with everyone in a way that I would not normally be able to now that I have moved to the Nordics.

There won’t really be a schedule to how often I make an entry. It is pretty safe to say that I will be making an entry at least once a week…probably more in the beginning as I learn new things and have new experiences.

Right now, I am struggling with whether to include “everything” that happens to me, or whether to filter it out because I don’t know who the readers of this will be. In the end, I’ll probably come somewhere down the middle on this, but we’ll see.

Anyway, my goodbye party is tomorrow. And I am psyched. It was so nice of Stephanie to organise the party and work out all of the details. Cara was planning something as well, but it turned out to be a bad weekend for lots of people. No worries though, I love it that she was actually the first to ask me if I wanted a party. Amongst many people, Cara is one of the people that I’ll miss the most for a lot of different reasons.

I often find myself wondering what Sweden is going to be like. Because you know, they have a lot of 6’5″ black men around so I’ll fit right in =-). Actually, I think that it won’t be that bad. Having travelled the world so much, at this point in my life, if an adjustment was necessary, it would be an adjustment that they would have to make moreso than I. But I think that it will be a good thing to have this experience. Of course, to have this experience, I need the Swedish Migration Board to hurry up and approve my work and residence permit. Until they do, I can’t even enter the country. I am hoping that they can approve everything by the time I leave for the Nordics during the third week of August (I haven’t set a date yet, but I must leave by that week). It would make life easier to bring my things to Sweden, and then fly out to Norway for the business management meeting. But I will leave nothing to chance and have to assume that it won’t be approved in time, so I am planning to fly to Norway and chill out there until everything I need is approved.

Since I have announced that I am moving to Sweden, everyone has been very surprised and very supportive. My family is also supportive as well, as long as it is something that I want to do — which it is!

Well, I would write some more, but I have a ton of workpapers to complete. I need to finish all of my IA&BC responsibilities before anything can be truly official.

Ciao, Rodney