Well, we really got our Swedish life rolling today! At 7:45, we left the hotel and walked the 15 minutes to the kids' international school! They all got their schedules, were assigned a student helper, and we left them to do their thing! I think that I was more nervous than they were but they all came home reporting a good day! All said that the other kids were very nice, that it was great to speak English, that the other students were from all over the world, and that the classes were tough! Should be an interesting transition but since they are all super smart, we really don't worry too much. Just happy to hear that the other kids were nice. Tabitha has another girl in her class (12th grade) who just started here at the beginning of her school year. She is from Texas and pleased to have someone in the same boat as her. Max has this girl's younger brother in his class (7th grade). And, most interesting of all, Calvin has class with another new kid who also started school today! He is from Denver, CO. After dropping the kids off at school, we went back to the hotel and packed up all of our stuff. Our relocation assistant then picked us up and drove us to our new home. We will now be living on the first floor of a five story building with four small bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a large kitchen! Can't beat it! A 12 minute walk to school for the kids, easy walking access to "the city", and a large park just across the street for Coco! We are thrilled but unfortunately, when we arrived at the designated time at the flat today, the cleaning crew had just started so we were only able to drop off our bags and then had to vacate the premises for four hours while they did their cleaning. It was cool and windy today and we were stuck with Coco on her leash so we wertn't overly thrilled with killing time outdoors for four hours but we did just fine. Josh was able to open a bank account for himself but cannot add me to the account or access the account online until we receive that almighty personal number that we need for EVERYTHING! But, at least we have an account.... We were also able to purchase our Tunnelbahn cards today which allow us to ride the public transportation (subway and busses) without limit. After all of that business stuff, we plunked ourselves down at an outside table of a wonderful little bistro. We were the only ones brave enough to eat outside on this blustery day but we had Coco and in the sun, with jackets, we were wonderfully comfortable. We ate a fantastic meal and then sat for as long as we dared just to kill time. We then headed out for a long walk through the very hilly but beautiful park across the street from our flat. Very nice as you can see from the picture at the top of the hill below. Finally, at 2:30, we were able to get into our flat, receive our keys, go through the paperwork, and explore! Love it! A little disappointed to find that the owners had left some things, taking even more of our storage than we had hoped but we are hoping to remedy this soon since it was not part of the agreement. Before we could even unpack though, it was time to get the kids. We walked them home so they would know the way and heard all of their stories. We all then explored the apartment, unpacked and settled in. This is going to be fun! We did make two quick trips to the grocery store around the block, enough to make an easy pasta dinner and some quick breakfast in the morning, and then back again for the essentials that we forgot. Fortunately, the grocery store is not more than a two minute walk around the corner. Now, if I could just read some of the labels... I am now doing laundry... It may just take me two solid years to catch up as we have a tiny little washer and a drying closet to make it through our massive loads...
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