This move was probably the easiest for the human, yet so stressful. I had a tremendous amount of help, from applying for a visa all the way to moving my belongings. But you know you are in the end THE PERSON moving over the Atlantic.

One thing you have to realize when you live in North America is that the banking system is ancient. For example, making a bank transfer to an account in Canada requires me to go to a branch, physically. They have the so-called “interac” system setup but god, heavens or whatever you believe in forbid that you want to move some money that doesn’t involve an interact transfer… How dare you even think of it? My first piece of advice for you would be: Setup an account in a bank that meets your needs. Don’t wait. I have waited and now I am paying the price.

If you haven’t used before, and this is not a paid commercial, using Wise is quite a good alternative to having a local bank account. Depending on your local bank in Canada or USA, you may not be able to move money to Wise that easily. You will pay a small fee for sure but that fee can be a really high one too. So do shop around and see if you can transfer money to wise without paying a hefty sum. You also have to do that quite early on in order to receive our card. Once you have wise, check their conversion fee. I figured that if I convert 60 CAD, I am paying a smaller amount in conversion fees as opposed to converting 120 CAD.

Wise must have a conversion fee not as 0.2 but something like 0.2009 or something like that. As you convert a larger sum at once, you start to realize the few dollars that disappear. Also if you are going to spend some money in the local currency, open up an account in that currency and convert some money. You will be losing a few dollars or up to 10s of dollars, depending on how much you spent if you don’t do the conversion beforehand. You are losing money both depending on the exchange rate and in terms of conversion fees.

As the human, all I had to think about was the finances during this move. I have banged my head against REVOLUT, WISE, CIBC, … and more. In the end, I have settled into a system that works for me despite still losing some money along the process.

The paperwork feels like it will never end. Seriously… I am still filling in stuff for taxes, and other things. I didn’t even start looking for doctors here in Sweden. That’s going to be fun. Finding a doctor that cares about my tinnitus, my muscle problems, the difficult-to-cure sores in my foot and the hair loss I am experiencing will all be challenging. My consolation is that nobody cared about those no matter where I am in the world. So the nationality or the background of the doctor does not matter in this case. They are problems I am not dying from, therefore nobody cares.

I am actually forgetting something much bigger. As the human, I will have to deal with other humans more than ever during the first years after a move. While I like some humans, others tend to overlook me. Some make a guess at my age and belittle me, others just simply cannot grasp the fact that if an event is paid for, people are more likely to show up to get their money’s worth. But there are also people with whom I get along. So it will just take time to find my crowd and I have to do the work for that.

I had promised myself not to write after I get mad at someone but it’s hard to keep that promise when you meet with all kinds. Anyways, I am at least making the effort to get out of their company! After all, I DID NOT CROSS THE OCEAN TO INCREASE THE NEGATIVITY IN MY LIFE DARLING! With that, I might owe you, dear reader, a proper description of a move from Canada to Sweden at a later date. For now we will leave it at , use Wise or be Wiser.