(no subject)

[december_solstice]

I am legitimately considering trying to land a job in Sweden, and get a work visa, especially now that I have certain perks through the Honor Society. Thoughts? I just think it's rime to REALLY think about my life and the life of my kids and grand-kids long term. Where am I going to plant my seeds? I don't think America is the place to do that. I don;t think it's in my best interest, or the interest of my husband, or our kids, the future of our family, to make a life in the U.S.

As sad as that is, that's REAL.

All of this has been encouraged my another run in with the landlord. He spoke with us outside today. And, it just hit me tonight... that he really is taking advantage of us (and that's he's a crook, and corrupt as fuck, and a liar...and trying to screw us...shrew us) and that...well...it's not all his fault. It's an entire fucking system he's taking advantage of. I don't want to go into much detail right now because I just spend 2 hours getting over the anxiety of it all. But, let's just say...he's trying to play it out like we're ducking him, when in fact he hasn't called. He's blurting out numbers, but not giving me anything solid in writing. He's trying to play like we haven't paid him any money since February, when in fact, we just paid him last month. He's trying to milk us for every cent he can by confusing us, and scaring us, before taking us to tenant court. I know I'm not in the wrong here, but I have such little faith in the justice system. I have so little faith in the rights of renters.

I went from...anger to anxiety to anger to anxiety until it was just sadness and disbelief.

So what am I going to do? Well I already made some arrangements to get legal help. Going to send Chanel 97 news a nice long report of what's going on here. Making some calls tomorrow. Lots of calls. Going to also have some pancakes tomorrow. Lots of pancakes. Oh yeah. Ideally, I'd love to take that mother fucker down, and whoever this anonymous owner is...but I don't think I can and I don't think the system is build in a way for me to win.

Comments

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

As long as you fulfill the permit requirements, they won't turn you away when it comes to getting a living permit. Their schools also accept EVERYONE. They're glad to have more people come to Sweden. It might take a while for them to process your papers, but each type of permit is seemingly processed by a different department so that might not be the case either.

I can start teaching you Swedish so you learn it fast (it's good for me, I want to write a Swedish textbook anyway). Ideally you'd want to move to a smaller town where there are jobs, basically don't move to Uppsala and I'm hesitant about Stockholm, but since you can pick from all of Sweden very likely the town you find a job in is a town that'll always have more jobs.

What kind of work are you searching for jobs in? I have to look for jobs myself anyway, so I can search a bit for you every day and link you to jobs you can apply for too.

(If you want to start your own business that's another story, I don't know how that works coming from abroad.)

Here's the immigration office's website, it's a bit confusing:
http://www.migrationsverket.se/English/Startpage.html

This is the unemployment office's webpage, they list open jobs here but it's all in Swedish (very rarely, you'll find an ad in English - that's usually for places like English pubs):
http://www.arbetsformedlingen.se/

Of course I can teach you how to pick out the keywords in the job ads to quickly see if you meet the requirements or not.

Now. There's something else as a fall-back plan to earn you extra money.

1. Can you write scripts? Comic scripts, animation (short cartoon) scripts, game scripts (text adventure, dating SIM etc)?

2. Do you draw even a little bit? Do you think you can learn how to do "in-betweeners" for animation? All it is, is someone draws two pictures and you connect the dots by drawing the slight movement in-between the two (it's done digitally, so you can practically trace stuff). Or can you clean up messy lineart, or colour? You don't have to have any experience with this, my wife can teach you, as long as you're willing to work. She was even trying to teach me and I can't draw one bit (seriously).

3. Can you write song lyrics?

My wife's going to start up her own business and any of those would be a huge help. If she can make an animated trailer, she's gaurenteed to be able to apply for funding and get the funding to make an entire animated movie or episode (and maybe get even more funding from kickstarter etc). If you can come up with lots of game scripts, it means together you guys can make short games in 1-2 days, gather up a huge collection of those and end up making enough money to earn a living, hire more people and make longer games etc. (You can write in English, it gets translated to Swedish and Esperanto so we have a three-language audience, we then also request grant money from the Nordic culture associations since no one makes games in Swedish).

Song lyrics are because we can make a lot of money making songs in Esperanto, my wife composes music and I can translate but neither of us can write lyrics. Basically any genre of music is fine, though my wife likes 80's pop, I like "Nordic pop" and it would be really great to write songs that sound like traditional Nordic ones. Ex. she likes making this kind of music (sounds like RPG fantasy stuff):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2UtAtbrUwk

This is a traditional Faroese song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD10QBgVc3o&feature=youtu.be

We can also translate any other books you may write (or have already written) to both those languages, you can sell them on a place like Lulu and we'd just take a translator's fee or something. For example, a self-biography that explains a lot of stuff about how it is to grow up where you did would sell pretty well I think. Once you arrived in Sweden, a book about all your first impressions would sell really well.

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

Ideally, I'd like to work AND study there, if possible.

I was looking on the website, "https://sweden.se/" and "https://studyinsweden.se", as well as these links:

https://sweden.se/society/obtaining-a-work-permit/
https://sweden.se/society/finding-a-job-in-sweden/
https://sweden.se/society/how-to-apply-for-a-job-in-sweden/
https://sweden.se/society/10-steps-for-planning-your-move-to-sweden/

And so far, it seems really straight forward, not nearly as complicated as trying to work, study, or live in the U.S.
The 2 links you offered are really helpful too. There seems to be a lot of assistance through-out the process too.

I'm definitely up for learning Swedish! I'm really bad at learning languages. LOL This should be fun XD
Do many people speak English there? Or not really? Kind of like...how lots of people speak Spanish in certain parts of the U.S.

I'm not too picky about where I live as long as it's too expensive and is accessible by public transportation. Neither of us drive and have always taken trains, buses, ect. to get around our whole lives. Also cars are too much of an investment to even consider any time soon. But like you said, ideally, I want to be where the work is.

To get there, I still need to make and save money, as well as survive here for a while. :/ LOL

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

If you come on a work permit, you can study for free and it doesn't matter if you fail class either. If you come on a study permit it means you can't work, you have to study full-time, and if you fail you get deported. So avoid a study permit as far as possible.

The other option is an au pair permit, where you babysit someone's kids for money for a year or two while hanging around and learning the language in their house. In that case, at the end of the permit you have to leave the country and try to find work etc. to get back in, just like you would otherwise. (You don't have to live in the US, you just can't be in Sweden while your permit is being processed.) That has you take Swedish classes here in Sweden, but I don't know if that allows you to study at a University, or how easy it is to actually become an au pair person (though I've met two girls who were doing it in Sweden). And of course, two people working for the same household just wouldn't happen.

Just so you know, Swedish classes taught in Sweden aren't actually any good. So you want to study as much as you can on your own and use them as supplements. I wrote an "introductory to Swedish" chapter for you and am working on the first real teaching chapter now.

Yeah the US is one of the most impossible countries to get into, as far as I've heard...

Everyone 20-40 years old speaks at least very basic English. Immigrants who come from another country (in some places there are a LOT of those) speak little to no English, children around 14 and under don't really speak any English at all, and old people might not speak any. Also of course, people in the countryside have worse English than people in cities or who work in tourism. Most people can read and write in better English than they can speak.

Also, all doctors (but not nurses) are required to be more or less fluent in English. So you can go to the doctor without a translator, and you can pay for stuff at the grocery store in English. But after that it's a mixed bag, and in general, the more Swedish you use the better people think of you and the easier it is to communicate. They CAN speak English but on the inside they're actually deathly afraid to do so, even if it doesn't seem like it. And practically no one is fluent in English, so while you can chat about everyday simple touristy things, get into any deep or strange topic and they won't know the words.

There's public transportation across all of Sweden so that's not a problem. If you live in the extreme north then there's almost nothing but even there it's not impossible (as in there's like, "one bus a day/week"). Also it's not like the US in general. No matter where you live, you're going to live close enough to where you can walk or bicycle to town... it just might be a TINY town, and to get to any bigger town you'd then need public transportation.

If you want a guarenteed job somewhere in Sweden, you should become either:
— a chef or butcher (it's the same education in Sweden)
— a nurse, caretaker, doctor, dentist or psychologist
— possibly a programmer

Nurses and doctors have to take further education/special tests and have to prove their language skills after coming to Sweden. I don't think that's the case for caretakers (people who wash old/disabled/autistic people and stuff). Chefs don't ever seem to have any requirements other than "having gone through chef school". Programmers don't have to know any Swedish at all, and I feel like there's less of these jobs available than there was before.

Also you can become a bus driver while knowing EXTREMELY little Swedish. I see them all the time. But since you guys don't drive cars...

Chef school is only one and a half years in Sweden and seems really easy to pass (they basically just teach you traditional Swedish food + pastries and how to cut up meat, from what I've seen), so it might be similar in the US. They're ALWAYS looking for chefs. It'd be my first choice if I thought I could pass it with my eyesight.

But, as said, I can search for various job openings for you depending on what you have experience in.

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

It seems best bet is a regular work permit. Least complicated. Let's say - myself or my husband land a gig, can the other come with immediately, or no? Also, what's the chances of a job providing a small relocation stipend? Very slim?

What do you think about language classes on those free/low cost course platforms? Skillshare...Udemy...shit like that. If you think you can put together video lectures, like power points with voice over, I really think you should look into putting them up on a site like those to make a lil bit of $$. I've made money on both. Not a lot, but I'd say...a few hundred total AND 95% of my stuff was FREE. So there's that. Lol. Granted I was doing it for "fun", and a lot of it was for self-fulfillment, meeting other writers, not really to start a business (at the time). I think there is probably more interest in language globally than there is small niche writing workshops.

Very interesting...I was thinking you know...go to where employers are looking for English speaking workers...like in tourism. Which is where a lot of my background is in (living in Hawaii, that's where the jobs are...). Before I relocated that's all I did - hospitality...tourism...customer service...ect.

I have no background in the medical field at all, however, my husband is going to school to be a psychologist so that's looking promising. People don't take psychology or mental illness seriously here so...LOL Or science in general for that matter. There is also a possibility that my husband would be interested in chef school.

This is where our experience looks like:

Me:
Customer service/retail/food service
Tourism/hospitality/hotels/time-share sales
Office assistance/administrative assistance/working in a university setting
Research writing/academic research/research assistance
Teaching writing courses

I've studied writing.
My niche is creative non-fiction.
Things I've written: scientific papers, research, personal essays, short-stories, plays, novels.

Him:
All his background is in education. Primary school/secondary school. He has a lot of background in working with autism and other special needs too.
He's studying psychology.

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

Ah I forgot about one other method. You can get hired by some company in the US that happens to have a branch in Sweden, and ask to be transferred there.

Extremely low chance of them paying for your plane ticket. They'd do it if they absolutely loved you. I'm looking now...

"To get a work permit, you have to have a written promise of employment from your employer and your salary has to be at least 13,000 SEK a month before taxes. This has to be a single job, you can't meet the requirements by having 2 or 3 jobs that add up to that much."

Can't find the info on if he can apply immediately with you, I'll get my wife to look later. But, it only took 2 weeks for me to get my living permit since we were married, so if it were to go fast enough then it's possible you guys could in fact move at exactly the same time even if he still had to apply after your permit was processed and accepted.

I can probably try making PPTs... I've never used that kind of platform and right now I have zero free space on my computer so I can't even record audio lol. I'll try to remember to clean things up and then check it out.

The problem is, it's not necessarily that they're looking for "only" English-speakers. They also want German-speakers and Arabic speakers, and there might be a lot of Swedes who can speak English, Swedish and German that beat you for example.

They really want teachers, so he can probably get a job fairly easily (if it's teaching English at least), and I don't think you have to know Swedish to teach English. I think you have a pretty good shot too but for all customer-service type things they seem to want people who are good at Swedish...

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

It's probably likely to find an international business in NYC, but the issue is actually landing a job here. The job market is so fucking brutal...

For example, when I'm applying for jobs online, I'm noticing that most jobs close applications is less than 6 hours from the time they posted it up due to the thousands upon thousands of applications they receive in such a short amount of time. It's insane.

So basically, you need to get up around 8am and apply for jobs between 8-12 to even get a chance.

13k sek seems to be about 3.5k usd which is equiv to about $20/hr here. What's your minimum wage and what are the chances of landing a full time gig that could pay that minimum salary?

I also believe that you can safely be staying there for up to 8 months as long as you have your passport. But, I'd prefer to take the least risky route because having to leave would be rough.

If/when you wanna do something like that (PPTs), let me know, I'd be more than happy to help.

Yeah I'm assuming it's more along the lines of just wanting people who are bilingual or multilingual.

That's what I've been hearing. Teaching is my overall most realistic career goal. We've both kind of grew to love it. Teaching and writing/publishing my own stuff. That's why I really want to get my MFA. I really should be getting a certificate in teaching ESL.

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

13,000 SEK is 1,500 USD a month, according to the convertor I use. Iceland requires you to have 1,000 USD a month if you're on a student permit so that sounds about right.

I've never heard of a minimum wage so I don't know. A quick google says minimum wage doesn't exist. Jobs are just classified into types - "extra job", "part-time" and "full-time". Extra is so little it's not even worth taking the job (at my extra job I got paid 15 USD a week). Full-time is 40 hours a week or so. Any full-time job should pay at least 1,500 USD a month I'd expect, I can try to look stuff up "tomorrow" (today after I've slept). Even if you're working 40 a week you have a ton more vacation days than what you'd get in the US.

"Praktik" (obviously from someone's word for "practice") is what they call unpaid internship and it definitely doesn't guarentee you a job afterwards either.

I think 8 months is too long, I thought most countries you could only stay 3 months without a permit. But I can look that up later too.

Yeah, here you're going to need an actual teaching degree if you want a position at a school. In rare occasions where they really need teachers they'll ignore that requirement. I don't know if experience can at times waive the requirement either. Just always remember, this is a country where education is free so big surprise, everyone has an education and they can afford to be picky. You'll look better than Swedes because you'll have an education in a cool English-speaking country, but otherwise....

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

1. I can write scripts. I have actually written a play! That's the one I told you I've misplaced and can't seem to find a copy of. Still beating myself up about that, honestly. Anything writing related...I'm very open to. One of my earlier goals was to actually write scripts for games (like dialogue and quests and other in-game lore for RPG's). When you mean game script do you mean like all-text RPG's/MMO's before voice acting and you just had to read everything.
2. I can't draw AT ALL. I'm so incompetent with visuals LOL.
3. I could probably write lyrics for a song like Midsommarnatt. The book I published is fantasy/folklore type stuff. This song is really beautiful btw.

I love both ideas - the games and the music. I'd also be open to translating books I've written and am writing. I am also really into the idea of publishing things like...non-fiction short stories. They can be about life in America, or anything really.

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

For now it would be like all-text RPGs, or "visual novels". In the future when we know more programming it can be other stuff but that's what's easiest for us to make right now.

Yeah, ANYTHING you write, we can translate. So don't worry about that. The biggest thing is to not choose a topic that takes forever to write about, because the idea is quantity over quality right now in our early stages.

Here's an example of what's really easy to make and sell, you can just skip through the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd_EJRgxmhw&list=PLayzTpaf6B4CBW8Atr-ae0_VzfYmRkHyc

(except... imagine it better. That game is FAMOUS and makes tons of money and it's sooo awful : l )

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

We could even turn them into radio plays. Start with basic all-text RPG's/visual novels and eventually adding voice over dialogue for characters as well as the narrator. That is definitely an added investment because we'd need people to do that, unless a single person can voice several different characters... Cool thing is, we could just add that all in later if there is an interest.

The writing in that game made me chuckle. LOL.

Just my luck, last night I was able to get a hold of all my script writing and I think it's very possible we can turn that into one of these bad boys. However, it's all dialogue with a short description between scenes to describe the setting. It's also not yet complete, but I'd say 3/4 done and could be completed over the weekend if I really challenged myself. I've already reached the big climax.

I have a lot of short pieces too. I have a short story where the topic is suicide. All kinds of topics, really. Most are not dark, though.

I'm definitely not about length. Even my books - they're novelettes. Short 50-60p pieces. I'm all about clear, concise, and to the point, you know? Good writing not long writing. LOL. I think shorter pieces that pack a punch is better, plus, it's easier for people to make a commitment to short reads. That's what makes good story telling in my opinion. Saying just enough and saying it well.

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

That's a good idea, visual novels with sound probably sell a lot better. My wife is pretty good at doing different voices, and I'm sure that if needed we can rope some friends into it so I don't think that's a problem... ; D

I've thought about doing radio plays before, they would sell REALLY well in Esperanto because none exist in that language yet, but again it's like... I can't ever seem to write anything original myself haha.

All-dialogue is fine too, these kinds of games aren't exactly strict. You can also delete some dialogue and insert a bit more description if it bothers you (or we can make some up for you). What we then need is a description of the characters and basic surroundings/background images needed (ex. "a park with a yellow bench in it and a view of the city in the background"), which is what you probably have written down already.

And in these games, you can also insert as many options as you want. So someone asks "How are you?" and you can say "Just fine!" or you can kick them into the pond. If you want to put those in it's probably a lot easier to do it after you've finished the main/normal story.

And you're right, we can always add stuff in later and release a new version!!

Dark stuff is fine... I think I've read enough fluff in my life haha. Actually I think a dark story sticks with you longer.

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

Yeah that's the great thing too. It's not hard to get people to become involved in the arts. Even if it's for no pay or very VERY little. That's how I am. I'm not too interested in profit. Of course, even a little is a huge motivation to keep it going. When it comes to being a writer...a lot of it is about getting your name out there. There is a lot of value in having an author name featured on videos/posts/ect...

Yeah in terms of a script, that's the gist of it. Dialogue and small descriptions here and there to set a scene. That would usually include backstory as well as a physical description of where the scene takes place, what it looks like, ect.

I see what you mean, different outcome for the different selections you make. Man I remember when that was so huge 10-15 years ago. Did you play Fable back on the original Xbox...man that whole making choices was like..."next gen" then Lol

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

Nah I never owned an X-box, but I read stuff like Goosebumps and played stuff like Neopets "make your own adventure" things, which were just like simple text adventures.

My wife says she can't promise to be able to draw for whatever you've written, but if you let me edit it afterwards I can edit it until she can (and possibly you won't recognize your story anymore and can have the original as a separate thing LOL). But she'll have to see it to know. Basically if she can't get a feel for things and imagine what's going on, then drawing doesn't work.

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

You can look up my book on amazon or barns and noble bookstores "Journey through the tomb" I have some concept ideas I played around with.

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

I think you have a typo in the summary there... "discovey".

Well! Based on the 2 pages Amazon preview gives me, I could translate this to Esperanto really fast!

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

Good eyes! Yeah, this is just trash I threw together in 1 minute LOL

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

I'm still working on the first real chapter of the textbook, I'm getting my wife to write some realistic dialogue + short story stuff, which I'm then translating word-for-word, after that I'm adding in explanations of certain words and how the grammar works.

The goal is that you'll just read a lot and learn some things without any effort, and learn the rest with minimal explanation necessary since you'll be seeing so many examples of it. And you won't be expected to specially memorize or look up any vocabulary, I'll just slowly stop translating certain words that I think you'd have memorized through reading by that point, and I'll explain other weird words.

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

Oh and one more thing you could do to help - doodle designs for stuff like postcards, notebooks, iphone cases and T-shirts, then my wife draws the designs. They're then sold on those sites like Society6. It's another one of those "won't earn any money immediately but the money will build up eventually" things.

I don't know if you can program or are willing to learn, but I have a LOT of ideas for stuff like browser extensions that gather donations, and game ideas of course.

There's also a few more small things you can do. ex. "nålbindning - needle-binding" is traditional nordic knitting, if you can manage to learn it you can sell the stuff you make for a LOT of money. Like, a pair of socks for $80. Or plan out children's books, my wife draw the pictures etc.

For now it would just be a way for all of us to get extra money and claim we have work experience - but once we have a lot of products it's very possible we'd be earning enough money to officially hire people with a normal salary, and then even if you can't find a job anywhere else WE can hire you and get you a work permit.

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

Huh, that's a really clever idea.

I'm pretty bad w/ anything technology related, however, my husband may be able to figure out programming. He is much better with things like that.

The Nordic knitting sounds like an interesting idea. I imagine if I really sit down and try to learn, I could do it. I've seen how much people buy any hand-knit product on like Etsy.

I could totally write children's books. I hear it's a huge untapped market, and a growing one too. In the past, when it comes to producing any writing, finding someone to illustrate a cover, or any kind of picture has always been a challenge.

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this method of knitting is older, warmer and stronger than real knitting, and you can use it to replicate viking-era clothing finds so all those viking reinactment guys love buying stuff with it too. I keep trying to learn stuff like this but I'm AWFUL at figuring out handicrafts so I just need to pay money and take a few classes I think... The other problem is, there are no "patterns", you just learn 1-2 stitches and figure out how to make stuff.

There's videos on youtube for it, it might be under nålbindning, or naalebindning or some other name.

I've looked at children's books and believe you me, most of them treat the kids as if they're idiots D : The biggest hurdle to my brother learning to read was that he had nothing interesting to read, same for my little cousin... Also we can always make expand our market by selling a second, bilingual version meant for language-learners etc.

My wife draws, but so does her cousin and two sisters, so if one of them can't do it then the other one can. You'd have to give lots of details on (or doodle out a scene of) how you want the pictures to be, and give examples of the artstyle you want. My wife really wants to just churn out a bunch of stuff so don't care about length or quality and just write.

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

I feel you. I'm the same. Lol. The only artistic thing I can do is paint. I have a good eye for color. Other than that, I can only write sentences. LOL.

As for the children's books - yup, that's how it is. I think we could really produce some good children books. I've had some ideas of a series of books that told stories of adventures children go on in other parts of the world. Or making a friend overseas? Something with a little more depth and room for perspective and growth.

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

I like that idea, the difficult part is making the other country "accurate" so that random internet people don't get pissed at you for including or not including certain things...

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

Yup...