Author Archives: Alexandra

Kelsey in Gothenburg

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I just dropped off Kelsey, one of my roommates at Cal Poly, at the airport after she spent a few days here in Gothenburg. We had a great time together and did a lot of things. She got here on Monday while I was at a course to learn how to use the cashier system at my new job (oh, right, I haven’t written anything about that yet, I will get to it), so mom picked her up at the airport and I was home when they got here. The first thing we did was go to the grocery store to buy stuff for dinner. I wanted to make something Swedish for her so I made korv stroganoff. She loved it. In fact, she loved everything she tried. Back in Cali she was kinda picky and didn’t like to try new things, but here she tried everything and liked it all. I am proud!

On Tuesday, we walked around downtown and had a fika in Haga where the big cinnamon buns are. I’ve never had one before and it was so good.  I showed her Avenyn, Nordstan (where we of course went to 4-Gott and bought Swedish candy), Haga, Linné and later also Eriksberg. Axel met up with us at Café Husaren and then tagged along when we went out to Eriksberg for Gothenburg’s best pizza at Sannegårdens Pizzeria. It was good, but I have to say that I didn’t like the dough, it didn’t taste anything else than just flour mixed with water. But she liked the kebabpizza as well.

11950797_10155918060140063_1910910974_n Poseidon at the top of Avenyn.11940321_10155918060125063_695262047_n The city library. She was impressed that I was a part of that construction.11921979_10155918060070063_584568546_n Bältespännarparken.11920332_10155918060075063_1870253476_n 4-Gott.11939025_10155918060105063_1747241667_n 11950970_10155918060160063_1138734571_n 11992582_10155918060215063_1888803744_n Big and delicious cinnamon bun (kanelbulle).11940226_10155918060055063_1851038093_n11940185_10155918060135063_375777384_nKebabpizza.

After that we picked up Jesper at his place and drove to Andra Långgatan where we hung out at a bar. Her first time legally in a bar and she didn’t even get carded. She also liked Ginger Joe (ginger beer), Axel was proud, Jesper made gagging noises, haha! I actually had a Ginger Joe too, they are really good.

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Yesterday, Wednesday, Kelsey and I drove out to the northern archipelago. We started on Hönö and then spent more time out on Öckerö. The weather was extremely weird with sun switching to dark clouds and rain and rainbows. Annoying. But we had a great day anyway. I guess rain can be seen as exotic?

11938914_10155918060080063_1914276193_n Ferry to the islands.11992283_10155918060100063_249532714_n 11949635_10155918060155063_637069794_n 11992390_10155918060110063_905153641_n Weird-looking house on Hönö.11930652_10155918060120063_1481103640_n IMG_20150902_122900 IMG_20150902_124706 IMG_20150902_130546 I went here all the time when I was a kid, it was probably ten years ago I was there the last time. I always thought it was called Hönö Röd, but I learned that it is really called Lapposand. It was 17C in the water. If it hadn’t been that windy, it wouldn’t have been too bad with a swim.IMG_20150902_133303 Hjälvik beach on Öckerö. To this place I still go at least a few times a year with mom. It is a nice and calm place.IMG_20150902_134006 Hjälvik is a calm bay.IMG_20150902_134714 IMG_20150902_135853 Lot’s of cliffs outside of Gothenburg. Not many beaches here. But I love the Gothenburg cliffs. In the summer when they are warm! Mmmm!IMG_20150902_135905 “Take a picture of me when I am conquering Sweden”IMG_20150902_140051 PANO_20150902_124324 Hönö harbor.PANO_20150902_122417

We had a late lunch at Max Hamburger restaurant. She really liked that too, so much that she bought Max at the airport today for lunch again, haha! Then we picked up Jesper after his work and we three went to Guldhedstornets Café. They have the best view in the city. It is at the top of an old water tower and is also on top of a mountain. It was beautiful. Gothenburg is really green! And of course, because of the weird weather, there was a rainbow. Pretty Gothenburg! The three of us then walked to Chalmers where I gave a tour of campus. Neither of them had been there before and I think I made it pretty interesting. It is a small campus, but it is always gonna be my school! (Except if I go back to Cal Poly, because after two more years over there I will actually have spent three years there and only two at Chalmers)

IMG_20150902_192920 New buildings at Chalmers.11940323_10155918060170063_1442919669_nThe A-pond outside of the civil engineer department building. The Swedish king has sailed across this pond, and every year there is a bridge competition where students build bridges across this pond, and also there are events here such as a wake-boarding event last spring.

hdr_00035_0 View from Guldhedstornet (The tower of Guldheden).PANO_20150902_182550 hdr_00038_0PANO_20150902_183213

Her stay in Gothenburg ended with The Minions and a cup French tea back home. It has been a few really nice days and I can’t wait to see her again. We might meet up in Germany this fall and meet another fellow Cal Poly student or if I find time to come to her in England. We will see.

IMG_20150902_230734Chip, “Massive cat”.

 

And this other job, it is only an extra job on the side of Liseberg since it is not open every day of the week anymore. I am a receptionist at Slottskogsvallen, a track and field /gym arena here in Gothenburg. Last week I had three education days where I learned how to do the job and this Monday I went to that class to learn how their cashier system works. It is a very chill job and they will pretty much just call me a day on advance and sometimes the same day and I will work when I am needed. It seems like e nice and relaxing job.

I have also been accepted to University of Gothenburg. The plan is to take an English class for the whole semester. But with two jobs while applying for a master program and scholarships, I think it will be hard to attend school full time. But I will go to all the classes I can and it doesn’t really matter if I pass or not. The only reason I take this class is so I can keep my student apartment since it is impossible to get a real apartment in this city. I am applying for apartments every single day and I don’t get anything. I have been in the queue for more than 4 years, but still, I don’t get a real contract. Stupid stupid!

Now I am gonna go back to bed until I will pick up Jesper after work. For the past month I’ve been reading a series called Silo by Hugh Howey. I must say that it is probably the best books I’ve ever read! The first one, Wool, I just finished a few days ago and I am now already about 60 pages into the second, Shift. It is a dystopian future, the first book takes place inside silos underground, people live in 150 story buildings underground because the world is destroyed and poisonous. It is not until the second book that the truth about how it all started comes up. I can’t stop reading, it is so fricking good! Read it!!

A broken computer

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I have no idea what happened, the screen just didn’t want to cooperate so I had to send it in to the shop to get it fixed. Unfortunately they couldn’t recreated the faults so they just kept it for three days and now I have it back, all fixed (except lots of virus or something, but I can’t install Windows 10 yet, I have to wait a few days or weeks….).

I haven’t updated since Marseille, so I can first tell you about my last day there. It was beautiful weather, we got up early in the morning to spend three hours by the ocean, catching the last rays of sun. We sat by the cliffs by the entrance to the harbor and the water was so warm and nice. Then we spent three hours at the airport and I slept most of the way home.

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And since then I have worked four days, three extremely long days so those four days summed up to a full normal work week. I was exhausted. Right after work on Sunday I went to the preparty to the last Bunny Party of the year. I didn’t drink anything, but had a great time with my colleagues anyway. I didn’t stay too late since I had a German test the day after.

IMG_20150814_142008 In one of the gondolas at Lisebergshjulet.IMG_20150814_204059The sunsets behind Lisebergshjulet can be really really beautiful!

At 1pm on Monday I had the German test. I was prepared to spend at least two hours on it, but I was done after 40 minutes. It was a diagnostic test to see if I was good enough to get accepted to the German course at Gothenburg University. I don’t have any grades from Sweden and they didn’t think I had taken enough in the US. Honestly, the test didn’t go that well. Mostly because my vocabulary isn’t big enough. I was really good at the grammar part, but the words failed me. We will see. If I don’t get accepted there I can always take the English course or just stick with the Solar Systems course I also got accepted to.

Jesper and I sat down by the canal in downtown and had ice cream in the beautiful summer weather. At 4pm we borrowed mom’s car and drove out to Gråbo where we drove to his friend and swam in a lake for a while before going to his mom and had dinner with all of his siblings. It was a nice evening. The lake was 22C and it was so nice. We played games in the evening and it was just nice.

IMG_20150817_185642A small Swedish lake in the woods outside of Gothenburg.

On Tuesday Berget had its annual Crawfish party. I had half a bottle of wine before realizing for sure this time that alcohol is not for me anymore. I just can’t drink it. But I had fun anyway. I left pretty early once again because I had a job interview at 9 am the morning after. On the way home I stopped by Nordstan to hang out with Jesper for an hour, he was working night as a security guard there.

IMG_20150818_191718Crawfish party with the best people!

So yesterday I didn’t know what to expect. I had been in contact with this lady for a while, and she asked me to stop by. Not saying if it was an interview or not. But once I got there it was oretty much just to meet and talk and book a course in working at a cash register and book two introduction days for next week. So from now on I have two jobs, one as an attraction operator at Liseberg and one as a Receptionist at Gothenburg’s Sports utilities.

After that meeting I went home to Jesper and went back to bed. He just got home from his night shift so we slept until 2pm and then went out to pick up my computer, eat lunch/early dinner and then the whole evening we sat and tried to figure out what we are gonna do. Our plan A is to move to California next fall to go to school. But if that doesn’t work out we will probably try to do something here. We will see. We are gonna look more at it tonight.

 

Now I am going to work, only 6 hours today, that will be chill in this beautiful summer weather! I hope this will last so Kelsey will see how nice the Swedish summer can be! I am seriously so excited for her to get here on August 31!!!

Dive #7 Les Moyades

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This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my travels. This full post can be found here.

Today was the nicest days we have had. Cloudless and so warm we were constantly sticky, and now we are both very red. I did put on sunscreen but I guess I should have done it more often than I did. It is not too bad, but it is definitely red.

IMG_20150811_064514Morning in Marseille.

My day started 6:30 am to get ready to go on two adventures. First, get myself to the dive center with the local buses. I am always nervous about doing that, but it worked out fine and I got there on time. The dive center had two companies working there and I went with Aquadomia and the two main people could speak English really well. It felt so nice to speak English here. I was a bit sceptic about this before. How could it only cost 89 euros and include everything? All the rented equipment, including a dive computer, and a boat dive as well. I am surprised and happy! It was a pretty short dive though, but it was still so worth it. The dive site was called Les Moyades and was in the national park (since two years) Calanques. We pretty much just dove around a rock and I really enjoyed the dive. It was only 31 minutes, and I kinda wished we could have been under longer. But we saw some pretty cool stuff like moray, starfishes, sea urchins, a scorpionfish, and lots of schools of Saloma. We saw some other specific fish too, but I am too lazy to get out of the couch and get my dive log, haha!

The surface temperature was apparently cold today, only 17C, and the bottom temperature 15C. I didn’t think it was cold at all, I was actually really warm when we were done. When I was on the boat, waiting to fall backward into the water I was burning up, sitting there in a 6.5mm wetsuit in that hot sun. I was scared of getting a heat stroke. So the “cold” water was welcome. The maximum depth today was 18 meters, that’s the deepest I’ve ever been before. Because of the great visibility, 20m+ it didn’t feel too scary.

We took a very fast boat out there and it was just so nice with the wind. But I was a bit afraid of falling over board, haha! We were back at the dive center around noon, I cleaned my equipment, filled out my log book and thanked the two guys (one was Vincent, but the other had such a French name I honestly don’t know what it was) and went back. It went smooth going back and I even got a couple of French tourist girls asking me for a specific beach. What’s crazy is that I actually knew where it was and told them how to get there and that they had to change bus on the way, haha!

DCIM100GOPROG0010805.Scirpionfish. DCIM100GOPROG0010720. DCIM100GOPROG0010726. DCIM100GOPROG0010734. DCIM100GOPROG0010775.Cool blue stuff.DCIM100GOPROG0010784. DCIM100GOPROG0010804. Highlighted scorpionfish.DCIM100GOPROG0020829. DCIM100GOPROG0020844. DCIM100GOPROG0020835. Snapshot - 102 Moray in the crevice.Snapshot - 123 Sea urchins.Snapshot - 108 Snapshot - 114 Snapshot - 117 DCIM100GOPROG0050973. DCIM100GOPROG0050998. DCIM100GOPROG0051029. DCIM100GOPROGOPR1052. The rock we dove around.DCIM100GOPROGOPR1057. DCIM100GOPROGOPR1087.Turtle island to the right.

I met up with Axel in the park behind the building we live in. Sat there for a while and just chilled. Then we went up to the apartment and got ready for the excursion to Calanques National Parc. We went on a tourist boat and it was okay. The tour guide only spoke French which was not very fun, and there were too many people on the boat. But the scenery was pretty amazing! But the only thing I could think about was how badly I wanted to jump in the water. It was so blue and it was so hot under the gazing sun. I got burned, but this might have been my last chance of getting any sun, so why not. It is not too bad, but my shorts gave me a pretty bad new tanline…

IMG_20150811_163817 IMG_20150811_165213 IMG_20150811_165453  IMG_20150811_165520 IMG_20150811_165554 IMG_20150811_170020 IMG_20150811_170517 IMG_20150811_171250 IMG_20150811_171357 IMG_20150811_171515 IMG_20150811_171545 IMG_20150811_171604 IMG_20150811_171902 IMG_20150811_172636

The whole boat tour was 3.5 hours and we were back in the harbor at 7pm. Went straight to dinner and I had the best pasta carbonara I have ever had. Then we went to the same park by the building and watched the sunset. It was a very beautiful sunset.

IMG_20150811_185000 I almost feel bad for taking this selfie in the mirror thing down in old port…IMG_20150811_190628 The square where we had dinner today.hdr_00027_0hdr_00030_0

Then back up and I looked through the videos from the dive. They weren’t as good as I hoped. The blue color is not even close to what it was in real life. And the pictures are kinda blurry. Well well, it’s at least something.

Churches, the ocean, Hard Rock Cafe

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This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my travels. This full post can be found here.

This day was very touristy, we started the day bying a ticket for a “hop on, hop off” bus and it was a great thing to do. We could sit outside in the sun, we could get off wherever we wanted and go in it as many times today as we wanted. So first we went to Basilique (I call it basilisque) Notre Dame de la Garde which is the big church on the mountain in the city. We have a great view over it from the apartment we are staying in. It was really cool! And the view over Marseille from up there was amazing. But it is a rather boring city. All the buildings look exactly the same, a beige color and brick roofs. It looks very boring. Our next stop was Cathedrale de la Major. It was a cool church too, but not as cool inside. Before the church we had dinner at a place right under it and it was really good. I had a meat plate with lots of cold cuts. We then walked to the museum at the end of that pier. But it was 8 euro admission fee so we skipped that and walked around Fort Saint Jean. On the way back we walked through the market that had opened up in the Old Port and bought several nice things. Not gonna write what, since people actually read my blog, haha!

We also bought tickets for the Parc National des Calanques tomorrow afternoon. I am so excited for that trip. 29 euros for 3.5h of boat trip to beautiful nature scenery. In the morning I am actually going there as well, but to dive. I am really really excited for that too! And it will be an adventure going there in the morning. I am gonna take the bus and switch bus one time. Haha, wish me luck everyone!

We took the bus home to the apartment, changed into swimwear and walked to the beach close by to go for a swim. It was so nice, 24C/75F. Amazing! But we didn’t stay in the water too long, we were paranoid over the stuff we left on the beach. It was very cloudy today, still very warm (and it would have been unbearable if it was sunny), so we didn’t stay at the beach but walked back home and took showers. There is a shower in the bedroom. And the toilet is in a small and very tiny room, the sink in another one with another shower. French people are weird. They also refuse to speak English and all the text and information around here is in French. It is an adventure.

Anyway, this afternoon I got an offer on an apartment in Kvillebäcken on Hisingen. I got super excited, called mom and asked if she could go to the viewing of it with Jesper on Wednesday when I am on the airplane on my way back. It is a perfect apartment, 57 square meters, 7115 KR/month, balcony, dishwasher, place for a washing machine and it is very close to downtown. I want it!! I told both mom and Jesper to tell the lady that I want it. I really really hope I get it. If I do, then I think my brother will stop hating me for wanting my student apartment back. The move-in date for this one is September 1st, so very very soon! And I am so very very excited!!

After we were done with showering we went down to Old Port again to have dinner at Hard Rock Café, but first I bought breakfast and lunch for tomorrow, two bagels. I wasn’t very hungry so I had a salad for dinner, but it was really good. Arugula with grilled chicken, orange, dried cranberries, pecans, feta cheese, and a lemon dressing. I also had a pina colada. I love pina coladas!

Then we walked back home and I should probably go to bed now, the bus leaves at 7:24 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow will be so much fun! I hope the sun is out so I will get a little tanner again, I am honestly getting pale…IMG_20150810_101728Ponnykarusellen 2.0IMG_20150810_101824 IMG_20150810_115644 On the bus to Notre Dame.IMG_20150810_120346 Extremly narrow roads to the church.IMG_20150810_121242 Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde.IMG_20150810_121933 It was very pretty inside.IMG_20150810_122503 PANO_20150810_122252 PANO_20150810_122318 The harbor. And the tower by the water to the left of the harbor is where we live.PANO_20150810_123647 IMG_20150810_131442IMG_20150810_143830 Cathedrale de la Major.IMG_20150810_144101 Not as fancy as Notre Dame.IMG_20150810_144235 IMG_20150810_145014 IMG_20150810_145358 Yes, he has a pigeon on his head.IMG_20150810_150124 Palais de Pharo.PANO_20150810_150102 Modern museum.IMG_20150810_150935 IMG_20150810_151159 Fort Saint Nicholas and Notre Dame from Fort Saint-Jean.IMG_20150810_154740 The market.IMG_20150810_192136 A narrow street with lots of restaurants.IMG_20150810_194151Hard Rock Cafe #15.

Marseille day 1

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This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my travels. This full post can be found here.

Our first day in Marseille is over and we are already tired and exhausted, haha. At 10:20 this morning the plane to Marseille took off. It was not a comfortable flight, but you get what you pay for (RyanAir). I read some, slept some, and it was over very fast. I was in Marseille and in the apartment before Jesper was back home in Gothenburg after going by train from Söderhamn up north. He didn’t think he did too well in the competition, but I am still proud of him. Not everyone can compete in the Swedish high jump championship.

We were adventurous and took the bus to where we are staying. My brother and his friend flew with us but apparently weren’t gonna stay in Marseille at all but going direct to Cannes instead. Axel and I then tried to find the next bus from the train station. It took a while but at 3pm, two hours after landing we were in the amazing apartment. It is really really nice, on the 17th floor of a skyscraper, we have oceanview and a nice view over half the city and of course the Basilisque Notre Dame de la Garde. It is really amazing!

First we went on a walk along La Corniche which is a nice walk along the coast. It was super windy but warm. Then we walked back and stayed a little at Palais du Pharo and then to Vieux-Port and had dinner there and then walked back to the apartment. The dinner was fail, haha. We wanted to be adventurous and try something French so I took a tapas plate with seafood and Axel the same but with meat instead. I got a bowl of whole sardines, and cold octopus. Not good. Ugh!

Tonight we have planned for the rest of the days. I booked a scuba dive on Tuesday morning, and we tried to book a tour to Avignon tomorrow, but it was declined because it was too late. Too bad. But we have other things we want to do. Like the Notre Dame.

IMG_20150809_155652 IMG_20150809_155700 IMG_20150809_161728 The way-too-full beach right where we live.IMG_20150809_162529 La Corniche.IMG_20150809_162921 IMG_20150809_163005 IMG_20150809_163055 IMG_20150809_164154 IMG_20150809_164344 IMG_20150809_165418IMG_20150809_171315 Yes, small cars can park like this…IMG_20150809_171902 The tower we live in.IMG_20150809_172216 Palais du Pharo.IMG_20150809_172253 Vieux-Port. The harbor.IMG_20150809_172257 One of the many forts here. I forgot this ones name.IMG_20150809_173343 Weird statue.IMG_20150809_174917 IMG_20150809_183833 Not my favorite dinner ever…IMG_20150809_194739 IMG_20150809_201054 Fort st Nicholas.PANO_20150809_202403 IMG_20150809_202349 IMG_20150809_202735 PANO_20150809_155737 PANO_20150809_172301 IMG_20150809_225553

Packing for Marseille

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Last day at work today for four days. It is gonna be so awesome with a long weekend. And I am so excited to go to France tomorrow for the first time ever. Marseille is promising us amazing weather and it looks like there are lots of cool stuff to see and do. I can’t wait! It will be nice to spend some time with Axel after working so much lately. My brother and his friend is coming too and I hope that won’t be too awkward since I told my brother that I wanted my apartment back.

I packed tonight and filled half of my carry-on and decided to skip the backpack completely. I am sure that I packed lots of stuff that I won’t even wear. But that’s normal. It will be nice to go away for a bit, and I am happy that I have something amazing to look forward to when I come home again <3.

Here are a couple of panorama’s over Gothenburg from the top of Ramberget the other day.

PANO_20150804_212501 PANO_20150804_213517

Last week

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Let’s just face it, I am not gonna update this as often as I used to in the US. It is a shame, but with no time, there is not much to do about it.

I have lots of things I want to write about, and for the best reading experience for you guys, I will start with something not very happy and then end with something happy. Something is weighing on my shoulders and I feel a very big need of writing it down so I can let go of it. It is not exactly a big deal, but it is something I shouldn’t have to deal with when the only thing I am doing is doing my job. But I guess dealing with upset and angry people is what to expect when working in the service industry. I understand that we are all humans, have feelings and have better or worse days. Today was honestly the best day I have had at work since I started on July 1st. Not because of anything special, but because I felt happy and energetic, woke up on the right side. No idea why (maybe because my sweet boyfriend called me to wake me up this morning, he is up north to compete in the Swedish Championship in track and field, he is high jumping tomorrow, I send all my wishes of good luck to him), but it was just a good day, and sometimes I have bad days for no particular reason too. I think this lady at Helix today had a bad day, and she let it all out over a colleague of mine and me. She was of a bigger size and everyone knows that Helix is very sensitive and even people who you would normally not think of as bigger can’t go on the normal seats and have to sit in the last two seats because they are bigger. We who work there are always very sensitive when we tell the guests that we can’t get the restraint in the right position and that they can wait for the next train and sit in the back. Most people are understanding and even joke about how fat they are. Which honestly makes me a little uncomfortable but better that than them yelling at me. And that’s what happened today. She was even too big for the seats in the back and before my colleague could even try to push the restraint down to the right position, she started telling him how bad at his job he was and that he was very insensitive about the whole situation. Which of course he wasn’t, he did exactly as he was supposed to, he has worked at Liseberg for many years and know how to talk to guests and handle difficult situations. They had to go to the side and they kept talking. After a while he left to go talk to our supervisors (I am not sure exactly what they said, so I am not completely sure why she was upset). We rotated on the station (so we don’t just check restraints on one side for a full 30 minutes or an hour, to prevent injuries), I was happy as I had been all day so far, when I was done with my five restraints I walked to the exit and gave signal for the operator to send the train away. And out of nowhere she starts yelling at me. I was so shocked at first I didn’t know what to say. I asked her why she took this out on me and she replied that I started it. She kept telling me that we all did a horrible job and that we should handle situations like these better and that we represents Liseberg. I then told her that she represents the guests at Liseberg, she was quiet for a few seconds, shocked I guess. Then kept going on and on, told me that we didn’t want to deal with her and just left her. I of course tried to defend myself and told her that my colleague was up on the phone and that we treat every guests well. And when she still wouldn’t let me be I told her straight up (because there was no way to reason with her) that I didn’t want to just stand there and take the shit she unprovokedly threw at me, and then walked away.

I am sure she was embarrassed, because everyone on the station can see when we have to move these bigger people around. But I don’t understand why  she has to make an even bigger deal about it and make us feel bad? I honestly was just seconds away from crying when I walked away. We are doing the best we can and frankly, we are all doing an amazing job. Working at an amusement park with guests is hard. We are there for them, safety comes first and guests happiness a close second. I wish the guests would understand that most of the things that happen aren’t our faults, that we are just the people between. Don’t shoot the messenger kind of.

I have had a lot of uncomfortable situations with guests lately, for example when they are missing the right bracelets to go on the ride or when kids are too short and the parents blame me when the kids have gone on the ride before, even though there are several centimeters missing.

I have to say that I am getting better at handling situations like these unless I feel threatened. But when I know that I am right, I feel like I get authority and eventually they listen. Today was an exception, I got hurt, my feelings got hurt, and I just wanted to leave. I am sad to say that a very similar situation happened during the last hour at Helix too. Fortunately I wasn’t the victim, but another girl I work with got yelled at pretty badly by another guest who had some unrealistic demands. I knew that these situations would come up when I accepted this job, and most of the time it is okay. Today got out of hand though…

On a better note, that didn’t ruin my day, it ruined the rest of that half hour, but I was almost as happy on the next attraction as before.

This is becoming a very long post, but it feels good to get rid of these feelings. I had half an hour set aside today to talk to one of my supervisors about my feelings about this job and so on. She told me that the group of supervisors think of me as very stable and a safe employee, that it feels like I have been working at Liseberg forever. Hearing that made me so happy!

 

Now I feel done with work-related things. On Monday Jesper had his birthday, unfortunately he was working the whole day but we met up with his mom and youngest sister for dinner. It was good to finally meet them and they were both very nice. The day after we met up with his dad and his younger brother, who is only 11 months, and seriously the cutest baby ever. That was also a very nice afternoon. And later that evening Jesper and I took mom’s car and drove to Ramberget where we sat for a while with a small picnic and watched out over Gothenburg. That was our day off together. It really is too bad we are both working so much. But I think from this week and forward we are not working as much.

I am too tired to try and find the pictures that correlate to this post on my phone so I will post them tomorrow. Now it is high time to go to bed. 11 hours at work. You could say that I am tired…

Earthquake in Gothenburg

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I have lived in California but never felt an earthquake before. Apparently I sat through a 5 one time, but didn’t feel a thing. Last night, I was aware of my first earthquake ever, and it was not in California, but in Sweden. How is that even possible when we are right on one of the continental plates? The epicenter of it was right here in Gothenburg and I definitely felt and heard it. I thought it was thunder at first, but then I read the newspaper (and on Facebook of course) and it seems like this northern city got a 2.5. Kinda scary. What is happening with this Swedish summer? It is the worst ever…

I had my day off yesterday and spent most of it with Jesper once he woke up after working the whole night. We didn’t do much, we cooked dinner, and enjoyed the company. I’m sure we watched a movie, but I can’t remember which one, haha. At 9pm he went to work and I spent the night there doing some things I needed to do, and then he joined me at 7 this morning. I don’t like when he is working night. Fortunately it is only two more nights!

I was off today again and we spent most of the day in bed watching Family Guy. We then went to Max for dinner. It was good, but not as good as I imagined after a year.

Now he is working again, and I am sitting here alone, eating candy and drinking Ginger ale. I will soon go to bed so I can start reading my new book Wool by Hugh Howey. One of my coworkers told me about it and I am so excited to start reading it!

Power outage

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Oh my. Haven’t updated this since July 15th? I feel bad. It always feel like a lot of interesting stuff is happening, but when it has been this long none of it seem to matter anymore somehow.

For example, I’ve had several weird dreams, like me dating Harry Styles and he confessing to me that his real name is Don Sverige and later in the same dream we were running around in raptor suits. I have also dreamt that I’ve been surfing with diving equipment. On the surface there were tons of dolphins, but when I looked under the water was all blood red and full of sharks.

I have been working A LOT. None of my weeks have gone over 40 hours, but it feels like I am working all the time with the weird evening and weekend hours I am working. No time for nothing. Work work work, and as often as possible; Jesper.  We have been seeing each other for a month now  and I seriously feel like a teenager, butterfly-y and giggly all the time. I can’t remember ever feeling like this before. He’s met my mom several times and even my dad once when we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant a week ago. I am going to meet his mom on Monday when we are going out for his birthday dinner. I look forward to it.

What else? Lots of work, and today at work there was a huge power outage. First we thought it was only on the mountain at Liseberg, but then we found out it was the whole park and soon thereafter we heard that most of the city was out of electricity, trams stood still and it was chaotic. Liseberg was also chaotic. I was at AtmosFear (the free fall) at the time and we managed to get all the guests out safely and easily. The power outage was because of a thunderstorm, and as soon as we hear thunder we have to close all the attractions up on the mountain. But this storm came upon as before we realized it an people were stuck on almost all of the attractions in the park, some for a short time, and some for longer. I felt so bad for the people working at Lisebergshjulet (the big ferris wheel). When there’s no power there, it is not easy getting the guests down and the operators have to climb up in the wheel to manually release the breaks and then let gravitation do its own thing. I am glad everyone came down safely in the end. For the rest of my two hours I just sat at different attractions telling people we were closed because of the power outage. Pretty chill, but sad for the guests coming from far away.

Now I have my weekend, and couldn’t be happier. I’ve worked 6 days in a row, 9h every day, and very bad stomach pain at the same time. I really needed this break. I have some things I need to do, try to get a second job is one of them and try to figure out my study situation this fall and contact my international students I will be a “phadder” (=wow-leader at Cal Poly) for this fall. And try to hang out with Jesper. He is working night shifts this whole week which sucks pretty bad.

There should be tons of more fun short stories of things that have happened the past couple of weeks, but I can honestly not remember them anymore. I’ve had these dry streaks before, I’m sure I will write more often soon again. Now I am going to bed to finally finish the third Fifty Shades book. I don’t like the series, but I can’t just stop in the middle, I can’t not finish a book. After this I will go back to fantasy/sci fi/dystopia again. I was told by a friend at work to read the series Silo by Hugh Howey. I really look forward to that, he spoke highly of it.

I will try to get next post up much sooner than this time.

A week full of stuff

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Whoa, last time I updated was a week ago. Embarrassing! Sweden is definitely keeping me busy. I have been working like crazy the past 6 days, and when I haven’t been working I have spent time with Jesper. Lots have happened, for example I have been at Balderado two days last week and actually enjoyed it and realized that it isn’t too bad that every now and then. On Thursday I was there and finally got Balder! The week before they called me and asked if I wanted to work 1.5h earlier on Thursday so I could get an intro there. I had the intro in the morning before the park opened and climbed up to the top of it. The view was amazing, but it was high up and I was a bit scared. But I survived and got a cool selfie up there. The rest of that 9.5h day I had Balder for most of it. Only 30 minutes were spent at another attraction. But during that long day I got the intro, the check-up and the test. So now I have 9 attractions that I can work at. Cool! Most people only have 5.

Liseberg from Balder Balder is the big wooden rollercoaster.Selfie on top of BalderThe traditional selfie from the top of Balder.

The day after I was at Balderado again with the most chill day ever! But during that day, my boss called me while I was working and asked me if I wanted to work over time the day after, Saturday. So instead of working 11am-8pm, I would work 11am-11pm. I felt like I needed the extra money so I said yes. 12 hours was tough. I was up on Berget and it was an okay day. Very long, I was there from the opening of the park until closing. Crazy! But I survived. Those 3 extra hours gave me 100% OB (Uncomfortable Hours), so instead of 107 kr/h, I got 214.That’s more than 600kr for those 3 hours. Totally worth it!

Both my Sunday and Monday were both only 7-hour days, but I was so tired after 6 days and a week of 43 hours. I am still tired. But today has been busy with laundry and gift shopping for my second cousin’s babyshower on Saturday. The things I bought were so ridiculously cute that I honestly considered buying them for my future kids, haha! I also visited Jesper at work while he was on a break. We had ice cream together down in the harbor in the kinda nice weather.

Right, my Saturday was a very crazy day at work. The first crazy thing that happened was that one of the trains on Helix collided with a bird. The girl in the front seat was very upset when she came back to the station after the ride. There was a big splatter mark right next to her face and half the train had bird gore on it. We had to rinse the train off and it was super gross. I hope the bird died right away. It feel down  from the train, so no bird on the train.

The second thing was during my very last hour of the day when I was once again working at Helix (we move around and change attraction once every 30 or 60 minutes). This is actually very scary but from what I have heard, the boy is stable, even if he was seriously injured. So what happens is that I was working like normal and then I hear the operator say that we have to stop the attraction because someone is on the attraction area which is an extremely dangerous place to be. At first we thought it was a kid who jumped in there to pick something up that he dropped, but it turned out that he fell from a fence and fell 7-8m (23-26 feet) and landed in the area. So it was not an attraction-related injury. Very scary incident, and so real when I was there when it happened. I hope the 15-year old boy recovers soon and that other people will learn from this, do not climb on the fences around the attractions! This accident brought forth some evacuation practice for me though which was actually a good thing. I have never been part of an evacuation at Helix, so I am glad that I have experienced it and will now be more comfortable and confident next time it happens.

I have big plans for tomorrow as well. First I will sleep until I wake up, then I will do chill stuff for a while until I’m going to mom’s work to meet her there so we can go and buy a new phone for me. I love this one and don’t really want to buy another one, but the last week it has been a disaster. It discharges three times a day, and I haven’t been able to connect it to my computer. It is getting old so I guess it is time to say goodbye to the best phone I ever had, my Google Nexus 5. I hope HTC One M9 will be as good! I guess I could just pay 600kr and change the battery, but I would still buy a new phone within 6 months because it is getting closer to its 2-year birthday, and everyone knows phones don’t last much longer than that. I will sleep on it. It is a lot of money for an already old phone. But on the other hand, it is my beloved Nexus 5. But I love new phones… Aargh, dilemmas!

Chip and Stuff My fluffy cats! ❤Rainy at Liseberg This is how fun it is to work at Uppswinget when it is raining a lot!Änggårdsbergen Today I went for a walk with Axel up in Änggårdsbergen. It was beautiful!Änggårdsbergen ÄnggårdsbergenThis was such a beautiful scenery, but I got wrong focus. It was almost 9pm, the sun on its way down and it was so green beneath it. Sweden is very beautiful!