I can now enroll in SFI ( Swedish For Immigrants) so that I will be given the opportunity to learn the Swedish language. This is a free program provided by the government, and funded by taxes to teach all non Swedish speaking immigrants the basics and fundamentals of Swedish. How cool is that? I have even heard that if you complete the course within a certain time frame (I think one year) and have a passing grade the government will pay you around 12000kr (roughly $1500) as motivation for you to learn the language quicker. I will find out more of the details tomorrow after I go register. I am very excited to get moving with this whole thing. I have spent nearly two months doing nothing so just being able to have something structured to do for four hours a day is exciting. Also, I really want to get a job. I oddly enough miss working terribly, and without knowing much Swedish the jobs are harder to come by.
The personnummer is also necessary to work in Sweden. Now that I have one I am allowed to work. I wish that it was that simple though. The job market is pretty tight here, and as I already said knowing at least conversational Swedish is required for a majority of jobs. There are plenty of jobs I have found where the working language is English, but Swedish is still necessary. I am going to go and register at Arbetsförmedlingen (the Swedish labor office) also. This is where everyone goes for unemployment benefits and help finding a job. I am not eligible for benefits, however I will take all the help I can get with finding a job.
Along with those two big things my personnummer allows me, it also allows a host of other benefits. I can now get an id kort (id card), and I can open a bank account. I can now be a real person! This one little number will allow me to do everything. It has been a long and tedious wait for it to show up. It almost seems to have these magical powers, and maybe it actually does because it gives hope and possibilities. Both of those things are a little magical aren't they?
Now the real work begins. Vacation is over, and it is time to achieve or at least try to achieve all of the things we set out to with this move. We came to Sweden with the goal of having a better family life, and so far we have been doing that. I want to put these final pieces in to place, and get on with the business of LIVING!
