fifo.nl

Last time I blogged, I was sitting at the hospital (Huddinge Sjukhus, for the people who like to know where I go), waiting for my doctors appointment to check out how my finger was. Well, the fractures in my finger (about five or six in the little bone) were healing, but my finger was rotated. When making a fist, my finger doesn't go in the normal direction, but a few degrees too much to the other side. The orthopedic doctor didn't really know what to do with it and told me that I should go to the hand surgeon in a different hospital (Södersjukhuset this time) and let him check what we should do. The doctor made me and appointment on Monday morning, which meant that they would wrap up my finger in plaster again for the weekend. She told me that I should be at the hand surgeon sober, since if this guy wanted to operate on my finger, he might do it the same day. Well that kind of sucked. I wasn't really looking forward to getting my finger operated, since I want to use a computer. On Monday, I went there and after another set of x-rays the surgeon told me that my finger was rotated a bit and that there were 3 options: operate now and make it straight, operate later (which means breaking it again) and make it straight or just live with it and accept the fact that I have a crooked finger. The doctor wasn't a big fan of operating now, since the results might not be that great and there would be a chance of having scar tissue, since my muscles are still recovering. The same goes for operating later, but then the results might be slightly better. But operating would mean a stiff finger for 3 to 6 months. Keeping it as it is would give me back 100% strength and grip with the help of physiotherapy, but the only thing would be that my finger will always be a little bit rotated. No biggie I think, so I decided to leave it for now and do physiotherapy. The doctor gave me a splint that I can take off at work and that I have to wear for two weeks, outside and when I sleep, since my finger is still broken. After that, I should use the thing for 4 more weeks when doing something dangerous (whatever that means). Så, all well, I think.. I can type and thus code again, which was (apart from the difficulty of wiping my ass with my left hand) the biggest annoyance of not being able to use my right fingers..

Sorry, I'm a bad blogger. I promised a lot of people to blog about my move to Sweden, but I haven't. And since I still don't have a mobile phone subscription, I can't use twitter as I used to, every moment of the day. The short version is in the title: Sweden is awesome and I broke a finger.

The somewhat longer version is that life is great here. Me and Kasia are doing great; I'm having such a great time being with her. Work is great too. I'm doing pretty cool stuff, both coding and tinkering with networks and unix systems to squeeze out every possibility to get even better performance. We're currently serving 50 million ads a day (and yes, online ads.. I sold my soul) with just a hand full of servers, running a Ruby application. The team I'm working with consists of only smart an experienced people, which makes it even better. I'm learning every day.

My Swedish isn't really great yet. I've signed up for a course, but I have to wait some months to start, since it's fully booked. In the mean time I'm doing some Rosetta Stone, but not so much. I hear a lot of Swedish at work, but everybody speaks English, so there is no real need to speak Swedish. Reading is not so hard, since there are a lot of commonalities with Dutch, but speaking is a lot more difficult.  However, I had a small breakthrough yesterday, when I went to the hairdresser. She doesn't speak English, so I was forced to speak Swedish and I had an actual (and pretty decent) conversation with her! I guess it's all about not being shy and just try.

Swedes are friendly people and very modest. Business is somewhat different than in the Netherlands. For example, meetings are different. In the Netherlands, often people go into a meeting with a goal. Decisions should be made. A general consensus is OK, but there should be a result after a meeting. Here it's different. Meetings are for listening to people and talk about the stuff that needs attention, but decisions are made at the coffee machine. I read some articles about this and some said that Swedish mentality is closer to the way people do business in Belgium, but I'm not sure. Belgians seem far more hierarchical; one person is the boss. Here, it's more about compromises and talking.

Some people asked me if Sweden is expensive. I guess it can be, but apart from the alcohol, it feels a bit like the Netherlands. Of course my salary is in Swedish Kronor, so it's harder to compare, but I don't really have the feeling that products are that more expensive here. I must admit that I'm not very price aware, so it's more a gut feeling. VAT is higher; 25% and 12% instead of 19% and 6%, but I guess you get a lot back from that. Alcohol is excessively expensive though. Half a liter (note to Wayne: "I'm sorry sir, I don't know what a liter is") of beer costs roughly Euro 6,50 in a bar and a Mojito is roughly Euro 13,-. Next to that, you can't buy wine or (normal) beer in the supermarket. There is only one company that sells alcohol and it's run by the government and there a bottle of beer is about Euro 1,50. In the supermarket you can buy 3.5% vol. beer, but that just tastes like water.

But you get a lot back for the stuff you pay. Public transport is good. I think it's better than in the Netherlands. Metro runs pretty much on time (in the Dutch meaning of the word) and often. Swedes tend to have a thing for time. If the metro is 3 minutes late, it's late. 13 past the hour isn't a quarter past, it's 13 past. Interesting difference.

Another thing you get is health care. Paying for that is done through taxes, directly. Not through strange systems with insurance companies. If you need health care, you will get it. Everybody is equal. The first 900 kr (90 euro's) per year, you'll have to pay by yourself, and then it's free for 365 days.

How do I know this? Experience. 3 weeks ago I broke my right ring finger. I went snow boarding with a friend and at the beginning of the first run, I touched the ground with my hand while trying to keep balance. It hurt, but I thought that it would be just a contusion. It wasn't even a cool crash or anything and I had been standing on my board for only 5 seconds. I went to the first aid at the slope to have it checked, but the guy there said it was probably only a contusion and that it was just a little bit swollen. so, I continued boarding for a couple of hours. My finger turned blue and purple the next day, but when the swelling disappeared after a couple of days. I still couldn't move it and it still hurt, so I decided to see a doctor and after some x-rays it turned out to be broken. At the hospital, I got a cast that is coming off today. I'm actually sitting at the hospital while writing this piece. I just had x-rays and I have a doctors appointment in an hour. Hope it healed a bit and that they'll take off the cast, because it's really uncomfortable and typing is pretty hard.

I'll try to make some more time in the future to blog and I hope I can get a mobile subscription soon, so I'm able to be online a bit more. But I'm alright!

For everybody I didn't speak, or who doesn't follow me through other ways: I have arrived and I'm great! The last week has been pretty busy. On Thursday, I moved. Wayne drove me and it took about 15 hours to get from Utrecht to Stockholm. It was kind of strange to close the door behind me, but I was really prepared for the moment. We drove through Germany, took the ferry to Denmark (probably the most boring country in Europe) and from there drove to Sweden, using the tunnel and bridge between Copenhagen and Malmö. Malmö is about halfway, so it took around 7 hours to drive up to Stockholm. In the evening we finally arrived and it was great to see my girl again. My sister and my mom were already there and the following weekend we spent strolling around Stockholm. My girl threw me a welcome party on Saturday, which was awesome. Some people I already knew where there and I met some new ones. On Sunday, my mom and sister said goodbye and went back to the Netherlands. Because of all the traveling, moving and stress of the last couple of months, we didn't do a lot in the evening. On Monday, I went to some government offices to take care of the paperwork and on Tuesday, I started my new job. The company is great; a lot of very smart people and a great atmosphere. In the next couple of days/weeks I'll get more adjusted, but I really feel home here. Life is great!

I'm almost done. Yesterday, I said goodbye to a lot of friends and some family during the party I threw. It was amazing to see how many people came and to talk to all of them. Of course I'm not gone, but I know that I will see many a lot less and will probably not speak with them so often, so it was good to speak and remember great times together. Thanks to all of you who joined me in celebrating the beginning of a new chapter in my life! I had a lovely day and will remember this for the rest of my life.

My task list is almost empty. I sold my car, my dad took care of the beds and tomorrow I will bring the cats to their temporary home. In February I will fly back to get them. The last thing to do is to actually drive. Thursday the 26th at 5 o'clock in the morning, we drive. It's a 16 hour drive through Germany and Denmark and I really can't wait. Over the last weeks I felt a little nervous and excited, I felt stressed, but after yesterday, I feel only excitement. I took care of everything and everything worked out very well, so I am ready!

I thought I'd write more about the progress of moving to Sweden, but I've been terribly busy lately. In short, the status is that almost everything is done! At least the most important stuff. First, I found a job. I'll start the 1st of December at a company called The Delta Projects, where I'll start as a System Developer. I'll probably start working on their flagship product AdAction, with which they serve about 30 million online ads a day. I've met with my new manager 3 times already and spoken to my new colleagues twice and I'm really excited to start. I'll probably code in Ruby a lot and play with new technology.

The second biggy is that my house is rented. Thanks to Wayne, I was able to rent it to a company. The house worried me a bit, since it's not that easy to rent it for the price I wanted to get for it, but it finally worked out.

My cats will stay in the Netherlands for about 3,5 months, since they need a rabies check, 120 days after their vaccination. Through http://clubvan100.rvu.nl I found someone that is willing to take care of them for a couple of months.

The rest was basically canceling  lot of subscriptions, getting the right documents from the Dutch government, canceling my company and so on.

My friend Wayne is going to drive me to Stockholm on the 26th of November. Today I started packing my stuff, since next week we're going to try if everything fits in his car, but from the looks of it, it might fit.

The only things I still need to do is to sell my car and take care of my bed. Since 4 expats will live in my house, I would like to trade my bed (boxspring) for 4 single beds. So if you happen to know anyone, let me know.

The final date comes is really in sight and I can't wait to go. Me and the misses are great and it feels more and more that this has been the right choice.

At the 21st of November, I'm throwing a party. This is of course because because I'm migrating. I don't like the words farewell or goodbye party, since I'm not saying goodbye to anyone. I'm just moving to another country. If you feel that you should celebrate with me, you should be there. The location isn't clear yet. Could be my house, could be somewhere else. Details will follow. If you want to join me, let me know (I have an event page on Facebook, or you can just email me, twitter or comment below), so I can make sure that there will be enough drinks. It will probably be the last time that I'll be able to throw a party with (relatively) cheap booze.

In my last post, I wrote about my plans for moving to Stockholm, Sweden. I forgot to mention the exact date, but later, I edited the post and said that it would be the 1st of February 2010. Over the last few weeks I've been speaking to people to find a job and I already had a job interview in Stockholm with a company that seems very interesting. Because I sold my shares in Jewel Labs and staying in the Netherlands will only cost me money, I decided (after discussing this with my colleagues, my family and my girl) to move to Stockholm early. The planning now is to move before the 1st of December. Of course, I still need to rent my apartment to someone (contacted some companies that rent stuff to expats) and find a job, but I know that everything will work out.

Let me just cut to the chase: I'm moving to Stockholm.

For real. Not just for a holiday, or something else. I'm moving there to start a new life. Some months ago, I met an incredible girl and fell in love. She's living in Stockholm, Sweden and since I've had a long distance relationship before, I know that being apart for too long is not going to work for me. We spoke about how a relationship would be possible and the only way seems to be close to each other. Because of circumstances, I would be the one that should move and after some consideration, I decided to take the plunge an just go.

Of course, there will be stuff and people that I leave behind. Family and friends, but Stockholm isn't so far (cheap 1.5 hour flights from and to Eindhoven), my house (I will rent it to someone), my company (this was actually the hardest part of the decision) and swimming with my visually impaired friends. I told most of the people close to me about my plans already (I'm really sorry for the people who I didn't tell yet. It's not something personal).

Since I want me and her to be boyfriend and girlfriend like other people, I will rent my own place at first. Next to that, I'm currently looking for a job as a Ruby developer in Stockholm, so if you happen to have connections there or you are looking for a developer in Stockholm, let me know. I deliberately decided to quit my current job, since I also want to build social life. I know it sucks for my current colleagues, but this is something I need to do. Some time ago (before I met her actually), I figured that I don't want to regret stuff I didn't do. Some things I did, I regret, but I learned from my mistakes, but not doing things that I could have done.. It's a whole different story.

My house, I will rent to someone. Preferably to a friend or an acquaintance, so if you would like live in Utrecht, 5 minutes from the central station, in the middle of the great neighborhood of Lombok, let me know. It's a two story house (about 85 m2) with a large living room, two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom (with bath) and a small back yard. I'm considering renting it furnished, but this depends who is going to rent my house (I might do it through a rental company if I don't find someone I know).

Of course there will be things that I'm going to miss (think peanut butter, stroopwafels and other typical Dutch things), but most of all, I'll miss my friends and family. But since flying is cheap, I will still be able to see all of them. Because of the Internet, everybody is only 30ms away. The only thing is that if someone will visit me there, he or she needs to take alcohol, since in Sweden alcohol is very expensive. Swimming every Wednesday, I will miss. If there's anyone out there that wants to do some voluntary work and drive 2 or 3 people from Utrecht to Amersfoort once a week and swim for an hour, let me know. I've been doing this for over 2 years now and I still like it a lot.

Luckily people speak English very well in Sweden, but I've already started learning the Swedish language. I bought Rosetta Stone and I really like it. Swedish isn't so hard for Dutch people; there are a lot of similarities and the grammar is not so difficult (no cases, no conjugation of verbs), so I'll manage.

As said, I already told most people that are really close and I got great support from all of them. Since I've never done this before, I'm very open for advice from anyone. Over the coming months, I'll keep all of you updated on the progress I make on my blog and probably also on Twitter.

All in all, this feels like the right decision and I'm looking forward to living there, in a beautiful country, with a beautiful girl.

And oh, my cats will be moving too

Edit: I forgot to mention the date. I'm moving before the 1st of February 2010

Last 4 days I spent at Hacking At Random, a festival for hackers held here in the Netherlands and I really enjoyed everything that was going on there. The atmosphere was great and I had great conversations with a lot of people from all over the world. This time, I really liked that a small project was born amongst the people I was with (mainly pruts.nl members). At the festival, visitors had the ability to register their DECT telephone to Eventphone, so you could use your own phone to call other visitors and even call to the outside world. More than 800 visitors (out of 2200) had their phone registered which made meeting people very easy. Next to using a DECT phone, you were also able to hookup SIP enabled stuff to the telephony network.

Since we wanted to stimulate social interaction at the festival, we set up an Asterisk server and connected it to the telephony network via SIP. Then we took the whole address book that is published by Eventphone and put it in a database. After writing some scripts, we had the possibility to randomly select a phone extension and call this. After listening to an announcement, the call was put into a conference call. Since not all phones were connected and not everybody picked up, we participated in the calls sometimes, to keep things alive. Normally a person would pick up the phone and we'd pretend that we were also randomly called, so that an actual conversation was held. When more people picked up and added to the call, we stopped talking and let the others (mostly 2) people have their conversation.

The nice thing about this was that everybody reacted in a very positive way. People who were called and also the (not so many) people we told what we were up to were all enthusiastic by the whole thing.

Since I've started taking lessons to ride a motorcycle, I decided not to go on a holiday this year. I'm going to both HAR2009 and Lowlands and thought that would be enough fun this summer, but things turned out differently. Currently, I'm in Stockholm, Sweden. My two colleagues are on a summer vacation for two weeks and I really didn't want to sit at the office by myself, so I decided to go to Stockholm. Since I can work anywhere when I have my laptop and an internet connection, I'm doing some work here. Next to that, I'm partying with friends and just having fun. Stockholm is a great city. Swedish culture is quite close to the Dutch one and even the language has a lot of resemblance (although it's hard to understand when spoken). Because I didn't want to travel by plane and wanted to see a bit more of Northern Europe, I drove here by car. It was a 16 hour drive, but it was doable. I left Utrecht at 7:30 in the morning and arrived here 15 hours later. Some days ago, we went on a booze cruise to Finland. It was a one-day trip in a big cruise ship (Love Boat style) from Stockholm to Aland. On the boat, there was a huge tax free shop where all Swedish people went crazy. I've never seen so many people buying so much alcohol. Apparently alcohol is expensive here.

Although the countries I drove through (Germany, Denmark and Sweden) are quite similar, there are some things that I noticed and I need to write down for future reference (I might edit this list over the course of my stay):

• In Germany, a Frikadelbrotchen is something different than in the Netherlands.
• Danish people can't drive. They stick on the left lane, which is quite annoying when you want to put the pedal to the metal.
• Swedish ATMs and other machines that eat credit cards want your card upside down.
• Supermarkets and other shops have an ingenious system of giving you cash change. Everything is automated.
• Swedish highways are great. Not a lot of cars (except around Stockholm).
• Parking is much cheaper in Sweden then in the Netherlands. Where I'm staying, it's 5 SEK (0,50 euro) per hour and 30 SEK (3 euro) for a whole day.
• Traffic lights go to orange before switching to green (we should have this in NL too..)
• Only saw one police car (without cops in it).
• Most people drive exactly the maximum speed.
• There are some nice rock and metal radio stations here in Stockholm. Not only mainstream crap.
• There is a toll system in Stockholm. It's automated with license plate recognition, but I'm not sure if they can read mine and if, where and when I have to pay.
• The bridges in Denmark and the one from Denmark to Sweden is awesome.