Our First Two Days: Apartments and Person Numbers

I have one week in Sweden before I start my job, so Melissa and I plan to use our free time to get ourselves registered with the state and search for an apartment. We have been staying at Melissa's aunt and uncle's house outside of Stockholm since we arrived, but obviously we want to find our own place as soon as possible.

Finding an apartment in Stockholm is very different from finding one in the United States. First, most people rent apartments "second hand," which is basically the same thing as subletting. Because of this, most leases are less than a year in length, so you end up switching apartments frequently. If you want to get an apartment "first hand," you have to get in a queue, and you might not get an apartment this way for 8 years or longer.

We went into Stockholm to register ourselves with the Swedish tax authority, Skatteverket, which was pretty fast and easy, but now we have to wait two weeks to receive our official person numbers. Until I have a person number, I can't open a back account or get a cell phone, so it is an important thing to have.

While we were in Stockholm today, we make this video with our new Flip camera... the sound is a little bad at first because of the wind, but it gets better: