Visa approved, I am heading home!
For those of you who haven't been paying attention, I met a wonderful man last November, did the long distance thing for a month getting to know him (2 to 5 hours a day on skpye or msn or yahoo video calls), and followed him home in January when my contract in Italy expired. Soon after arriving in Luleå, Sweden, we applied for an extended visitor visa for me (since as an Australian citizen I could stay only three months without a visa). That visa was approved for an additional three months, but they didn't actually get around to doing it till the better part of two of them had elapsed. When they did, and we picked up the visa, they told me that when I apply for the permanent resident visa to stay with him I would need to return to my "home country" to submit the application. This gave me only a little more than a month to prepare my visa application and plan a trip that would take an unknown amount of time between 1 week and the better part of a year, depending on how long it took them to process the application.
Given a choice of two home countries from which I could apply I selected the one which A) has fewer applicants wanting to move to Sweden (and so potentially faster visa processing times, at least for the part where the application is still at the Embassy) B) has my PhD advisor available so that I could work with him on getting that paper based on my research finished up so we can finally publish the data and C) where my mother would be visiting during the time I needed to be there. D) has the Swedish Embassy at which I must physically turn in the application in a city in which I have friends whom I could visit while in town.
They warned me when I applied that "typical processing times" are four weeks, but since summer in Sweden is the time when there are more applicants, and when more people who process applications are on holiday, it could take longer than that.
Nonetheless, I was hopeful that mine would be approved sooner than that, and, indeed, it was! Only three weeks after turning in my application in Canberra it was approved! I got the word by phone call with the Embassy at 13:45 on Tuesday. I had been saying all along that I would take the "next available flight" once it was approved. And I did. As soon as I got off the phone with the embassy (and before the email with the written letter of approval arrived) I checked the JetStar web page and saw that they had a flight to Sydney that evening at 19:35 for only $99. So I called FinAir to ask them to change my return flight to the next possible flight, so long as it was enough after that flight arrived. It turned out to be necessary to re-route me, so even though the ticket was the sort that has no fees to change, there was a fee for switching in which cities I would be changing planes (which has to do with difference in airport taxes etc. I think). She managed to find me a flight on Wednesday afternoon, and charged me $61 for the change. I was totally ok with this-I am heading home!!!!!
The next several hours were constant motion, calling or emailing everyone who MUST be contacted before going (including the friend who had said she would take me to the airport), packing the suitcase, booking that flight to Sydney (which, in the meantime had gone up to $109, but still not bad for such short notice) printing the tickets and the letter approving the visa, baking some cookies for the trip… I managed to get it all done on time. Just. As it turned out, I forgot to get back the key chain with the usb stick that I had handed mushroom_maiden to print for me, and I forgot to give her back the house key. Oops. Those will have to cross in the post back where they belong.
Now I am on the longest single part of my journey-the layover in Sydney. Since I landed at 21:00 I opted to just stay at the airport, where they have free internet for travellers. I have spent the time thus far alternating between taking naps, reading, posting that house key back to Tassie, and doing stuff on line. I have a couple of more hours before I can check in for my flight, which might be enough time to catch up on recent adventures in Tassie.
Tuesday morning, before calling the Embassy, I met not_an_elf for breakfast, since he was in Hobart for some training for work. We even had time for a walk into town before he had to report to work, and while on that loop we ran into another friend we know and stopped to chat a bit.
Monday was full of adventures. I went out with my artist friend in the early afternoon-first lunch and running a couple of errands, then we went up the mountain. Such fun! I have missed Mt. Wellington-it is a delightful peak. There was still a fair bit of snow at the peak, and, as usual, a strong wind, so we only stayed at the top (one can drive up) long enough to stand in the visitor's centre and admire the view of the city and the view away from the city a bit, and walk out to the end of the boardwalk, too, before heading down to the Springs to take the hiking trial to Sphinx Rock to admire the view of the peak from there(forgive the lack of snow in that link-there are far fewer images of Sphinx rock on line than I expected to find).
We finished that walk just on sunset (around 17:00, or a bit later), and as we drove down the hill she asked what we should do next. I was hit with a sudden inspiration and asked if she had seen the current Harry Potter movie yet. She hadn't, so we decided to go see if there was a conveniently timed showing. We stopped into Eumerrah first to pick up some tasty yeast so that I could put it on the popcorn at the movie, and then arrived at the theatre at 17:50 to discover that there was an 18:00 showing. That sounded like perfect timing, so we got into line. To discover that the couple standing in line in front of us were good friends of my mother's! I had been meaning to give them a call, but kept forgetting to ask her for their number, so the chance meeting was perfect.
So the four of us watched the movie, which we enjoyed-I probably liked it better because I had already read blamebrampton's eloquent rant about things that have been changed between the book and the movie where the book was better. As a result, since I was already prepared for those changes, and had pre-experienced the rant, I was free to just enjoy the movie, without the usual twitches from poor decisions as to when to deviate from the source. Then we all went out for coffee and spent a delightful bit of time catching up before I got sleepy and had to head home (getting up at 04:00 or 05:00 to talk to one's beloved before he goes to bed in his time zone is very good for getting productivity out of one's morning, but it means that one gets sleepy shockingly early in the evening!)
On Sunday I went along with mushroom_maiden to the filming of a music video. One of her friends at the Con at Uni (she is a music major) was filming a music video, and invited as many people who would to come participate. I decided to wear my 12th Century dress and attached my braid extenders, just for the heck of it. I got several compliments, and some amazed looks when I said that I had made it. Since there weren't as many people as they would have liked for the crowd, they did the filming from several different angles, and had us mix up and move around. Therefore for some takes I put on my coat over the costume and added a hat, just to give the appearance of a different person. A few others did the same, but my clothes were the most distinctive there, so it was probably good for me to cover them for some takes.
On Friday I actually emailed my advisor a good draft of the paper I have been working on. It took longer to get it together than I might have liked, but in the process we discovered a problem with some of my data, and found a solution to it, too. As a result we are much happier with everything. Now I need to wait till he has a chance to read it and get back to me. I hope he likes this version-it is quite different from the last draft I gave him. (this is why I was free to do so many adventures over the weekend and the first part of this week). Friday afternoon I did stop by his office to chat and see if he had had a chance to look at the file yet. He hadn't, but instead we spent a good 30 minutes discussing the research I had done in Italy and where I might go with that paper, so the trip was well worth the time it takes to get there. I then spent a couple of hours searching the literature for papers on those topics before attending the departmental seminar. By that time it was getting dark, so he drove me and my borrowed bike (which has no headlight) home.
The last half of last week was mostly uni work, and I am quite happy with the progress I made.
I think that brings me current in the reporting of my adventures.
Given a choice of two home countries from which I could apply I selected the one which A) has fewer applicants wanting to move to Sweden (and so potentially faster visa processing times, at least for the part where the application is still at the Embassy) B) has my PhD advisor available so that I could work with him on getting that paper based on my research finished up so we can finally publish the data and C) where my mother would be visiting during the time I needed to be there. D) has the Swedish Embassy at which I must physically turn in the application in a city in which I have friends whom I could visit while in town.
They warned me when I applied that "typical processing times" are four weeks, but since summer in Sweden is the time when there are more applicants, and when more people who process applications are on holiday, it could take longer than that.
Nonetheless, I was hopeful that mine would be approved sooner than that, and, indeed, it was! Only three weeks after turning in my application in Canberra it was approved! I got the word by phone call with the Embassy at 13:45 on Tuesday. I had been saying all along that I would take the "next available flight" once it was approved. And I did. As soon as I got off the phone with the embassy (and before the email with the written letter of approval arrived) I checked the JetStar web page and saw that they had a flight to Sydney that evening at 19:35 for only $99. So I called FinAir to ask them to change my return flight to the next possible flight, so long as it was enough after that flight arrived. It turned out to be necessary to re-route me, so even though the ticket was the sort that has no fees to change, there was a fee for switching in which cities I would be changing planes (which has to do with difference in airport taxes etc. I think). She managed to find me a flight on Wednesday afternoon, and charged me $61 for the change. I was totally ok with this-I am heading home!!!!!
The next several hours were constant motion, calling or emailing everyone who MUST be contacted before going (including the friend who had said she would take me to the airport), packing the suitcase, booking that flight to Sydney (which, in the meantime had gone up to $109, but still not bad for such short notice) printing the tickets and the letter approving the visa, baking some cookies for the trip… I managed to get it all done on time. Just. As it turned out, I forgot to get back the key chain with the usb stick that I had handed mushroom_maiden to print for me, and I forgot to give her back the house key. Oops. Those will have to cross in the post back where they belong.
Now I am on the longest single part of my journey-the layover in Sydney. Since I landed at 21:00 I opted to just stay at the airport, where they have free internet for travellers. I have spent the time thus far alternating between taking naps, reading, posting that house key back to Tassie, and doing stuff on line. I have a couple of more hours before I can check in for my flight, which might be enough time to catch up on recent adventures in Tassie.
Tuesday morning, before calling the Embassy, I met not_an_elf for breakfast, since he was in Hobart for some training for work. We even had time for a walk into town before he had to report to work, and while on that loop we ran into another friend we know and stopped to chat a bit.
Monday was full of adventures. I went out with my artist friend in the early afternoon-first lunch and running a couple of errands, then we went up the mountain. Such fun! I have missed Mt. Wellington-it is a delightful peak. There was still a fair bit of snow at the peak, and, as usual, a strong wind, so we only stayed at the top (one can drive up) long enough to stand in the visitor's centre and admire the view of the city and the view away from the city a bit, and walk out to the end of the boardwalk, too, before heading down to the Springs to take the hiking trial to Sphinx Rock to admire the view of the peak from there(forgive the lack of snow in that link-there are far fewer images of Sphinx rock on line than I expected to find).
We finished that walk just on sunset (around 17:00, or a bit later), and as we drove down the hill she asked what we should do next. I was hit with a sudden inspiration and asked if she had seen the current Harry Potter movie yet. She hadn't, so we decided to go see if there was a conveniently timed showing. We stopped into Eumerrah first to pick up some tasty yeast so that I could put it on the popcorn at the movie, and then arrived at the theatre at 17:50 to discover that there was an 18:00 showing. That sounded like perfect timing, so we got into line. To discover that the couple standing in line in front of us were good friends of my mother's! I had been meaning to give them a call, but kept forgetting to ask her for their number, so the chance meeting was perfect.
So the four of us watched the movie, which we enjoyed-I probably liked it better because I had already read blamebrampton's eloquent rant about things that have been changed between the book and the movie where the book was better. As a result, since I was already prepared for those changes, and had pre-experienced the rant, I was free to just enjoy the movie, without the usual twitches from poor decisions as to when to deviate from the source. Then we all went out for coffee and spent a delightful bit of time catching up before I got sleepy and had to head home (getting up at 04:00 or 05:00 to talk to one's beloved before he goes to bed in his time zone is very good for getting productivity out of one's morning, but it means that one gets sleepy shockingly early in the evening!)
On Sunday I went along with mushroom_maiden to the filming of a music video. One of her friends at the Con at Uni (she is a music major) was filming a music video, and invited as many people who would to come participate. I decided to wear my 12th Century dress and attached my braid extenders, just for the heck of it. I got several compliments, and some amazed looks when I said that I had made it. Since there weren't as many people as they would have liked for the crowd, they did the filming from several different angles, and had us mix up and move around. Therefore for some takes I put on my coat over the costume and added a hat, just to give the appearance of a different person. A few others did the same, but my clothes were the most distinctive there, so it was probably good for me to cover them for some takes.
On Friday I actually emailed my advisor a good draft of the paper I have been working on. It took longer to get it together than I might have liked, but in the process we discovered a problem with some of my data, and found a solution to it, too. As a result we are much happier with everything. Now I need to wait till he has a chance to read it and get back to me. I hope he likes this version-it is quite different from the last draft I gave him. (this is why I was free to do so many adventures over the weekend and the first part of this week). Friday afternoon I did stop by his office to chat and see if he had had a chance to look at the file yet. He hadn't, but instead we spent a good 30 minutes discussing the research I had done in Italy and where I might go with that paper, so the trip was well worth the time it takes to get there. I then spent a couple of hours searching the literature for papers on those topics before attending the departmental seminar. By that time it was getting dark, so he drove me and my borrowed bike (which has no headlight) home.
The last half of last week was mostly uni work, and I am quite happy with the progress I made.
I think that brings me current in the reporting of my adventures.