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