Author Archives: Alexandra

St. Patrick’s Day

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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 two years in California. This full post can be found here.

I don’t really get the hype with this St. Patrick. Someone told me today that St Patrick was part of getting Christianity to Ireland. Why is that something to celebrate? And get shitfaced over? At 6 in the morning? I don’t get it. So I slept until 11 am today, had a final at 1pm, worked on a project after that, Target, and then a beach bonfire. It was a nice day. I was done with the final after 40 minutes and it went pretty well. Not as well as the last one. But this time it felt like the multiple choice questions were easier, but the short answer ones were not. I definitely passed it though and will get a good grade in the class. The project in Public Transportation is not quite done yet, we are gonna put together the last parts tomorrow after my German final. Tomorrow evening is gonna be so awesome when I am done with all of this horrible quarter. I guess it hasn’t been too bad, just a lot of work, and a lot of stuff going on outside of school. I correct myself, it will be nice to put the last ten weeks behind me and start over new for my last quarter ever in school (until I decide to get my master of science degree). The thought hit me today, that if I go back to Sweden, I could get my master, spend two years in school in Sweden and wait out the 2-year rule and then try to move to San Diego and earn A LOT LOT LOT of money! And also live close to the beach and have a year-long tan.

Kelsey and her friends decided to have a bonfire at the beach today, but Rachel, Lauren, Ciara, Cody, and I only stayed for an hour. I’m glad, because now I don’t smell as bad as I would have if I stayed the whole time. And I had time to watch some episodes of Welcome to Sweden and then work on the project. That TV show is by the way very funny. It is about a guy who moves to Sweden from New York to live there with his girlfriend (who is Swedish), and it is so stereotypical Swedish it’s hilarious. I love that show.

At Target I did something bad, I bought a bag of white chocolate M&M’s (it’s Easter soon). As long as this doesn’t turn into a habit, I am good. I never promised myself to not eat any candy at all. But every now and then I feel like I need it. Like now. I needed it.

Now it is past 2 am and I should probably go to bed. Last day of the finals week for me tomorrow, whoop whoop!

Oceano dunesWe went to Oceano Dunes which is just south of Pismo.

First day of finals week

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This quarter’s finals week started off good. I got some stuff done, like finished my part of the group project about the bus routes here in SLO. That felt good. I sent some emails, finished writing the definitions of some concepts for my Urban Planning final tomorrow. And that is it. I missed the beautiful day, but I was in a weird mood today anyway.

So, tomorrow I have the final in Introduction to Urban Planning, but it is not exactly a final since it is not cumulative. It’s gonna be 50 questions, mostly multiple choice. I already have an A in that class so I am not too worried about this. And on Wednesday I have the German final, but I can’t study for that one. We are gonna watch a movie and then have group discussions about it afterward. I am so thankful for these past two weeks that was very relaxed and with not too much work. Even if it’s been super chill, I can’t wait for spring break. Traveling again will be so much fun.

I made an appointment to cut my hair on Thursday after a sunrise hike up Bishops Peak, we are having dinner at Firestone, and will go to Slodoco. This week Kelsey, our former roommate from Iowa is visiting for her spring break with three of her friends. The place is packed. I am just glad I don’t have too much to do. It is so nice to have Kelsey back, I really missed her! But it is a weird situation to have her here with her friends from back home and “sharing” her. I am still very glad to have her here, today we went to dinner downtown and last night we hung out in our living room for ever with some of our neighbors. That was fun.

I think I will hang out in my room tonight, watch a movie or read and then go to bed early.

A day at the pool

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Today was pretty chill, I had a check-up with the doctor, and she was happy to hear that the pills are working and that my mono symptoms are still gonna be here for at least a couple of more weeks. So I don’t know what I really got out of that, but it made me get out of bed pretty early so I had more time to relax at the pool.

They changed the sunbeds a couple of days ago and they are so nice now! A lot of people from the building were there and the weather was beautiful and it was such a nice day! It was around 30C and just amazing. No burns, but I am tired from all the sun. I didn’t read much, but I will have plenty of time to do that when my finals are done in five days.

I don’t really have much to study now anyway. I reviewed all the old quizzes for the Urban Planning midterm on Tuesday. It feels okay, I have some concepts I want to define before I feel completely ready to take the midterm (it is during finals week, but not cumulative, so I call it a midterm). And I can’t really study for the German final on Wednesday. We are gonna watch a movie and then discuss it in groups. I thought we were gonna answer questions individually on papers. So now I am not worried at all about this. I am gonna do more of the old German homeworks another day, probably tomorrow night.

I was very unhealthy tonight with both Panda Express and a donut from Slodoco. So I will go to bed now and dream intense dreams and hopefully burn some of these unnecessary calories.

Dead week

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I have to say that this dead week is very dead. Last quarter I had stuff up over my ears to do. This quarter pretty much nothing. And I am so thankful for that. I’ve not been feeling so well the past two weeks because of all of this stress (non-school related obviously). I got my prescribed sleep pills on Monday and those are weird. I guess I need time to adjust maybe. They do the trick though, I fall asleep very fast after I take one, but exactly 8 hours later I wake up and can’t go back to sleep even if I want to. Today I woke up 4 hours before my alarm went off and I just couldn’t go back to sleep. Very annoying, and I was tired still! I read some, texted some and I think I fell asleep for another 40 min or something. What’s also worth mentioning about these pills is that they make me remember dreams (maybe that’s why I wake up?). Last night I dreamt I was roadtripping to the Caribbean with a big fancy car and I went on strange-shaped ferries, fell in the water a few times, but just swam with the car in my hand to the closest yacht (the car was not heavy at all). So I hitch-hiked with this yacht the size of a small island through a small channel with luxurious hotels right next to it. Weird! I also go on a fun trip right before I fall asleep. Last night while I was reading I remember thinking that I had to go to bed because all the letters on my eReader turned to fabric figures and stood up so it was impossible to keep reading. They get the job done, and I will consult with the doctor about all of this again on Friday. And I will also talk to her about the stomach pains I’ve been having the past two days. It has to do with the mono, but I think it will be good to tell the doctor about it.

Today I last-minute studied for a quiz I have tomorrow in Public Transportation. I did my cheat sheet and that’s all I need I think. I try not to stress too much about it, it is only 10% of my grade. But still, wish me luck on it tomorrow! This cheat sheet thing (I don’t remember if I ever wrote about it before, but it is worth writing about again) is a very interesting thing. In Sweden we are not allowed to bring anything except ourselves, a pen, an eraser and maybe a calculator. And we are maybe provided with a paper with equations.  But here, we are allowed one (sometimes double-sided) page with our own notes on it. We can write pretty much whatever on it. So if you can write superdupertiny, you can put everything on there! I kinda like it, because I learn better when I write stuff by hand.

It’s pretty late now, and I should go to bed. And read a couple of pages in Day 21 before I start trippin again. I finished The 100 yesterday. Even if I watch the TV show, it is still entertaining to read the books. Somehow the books always have a different and better story. And it is interesting to see what has been added to the show. I can recommend both the TV show and the books!

Daylight saving

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Today was a pretty boring day. Or not boring, but uneventful maybe. I woke up at noon, having slept since 11 the night before, but it took me many hours before I realized that I didn’t sleep for 13 hours, but only 12. Daylight saving time was last night, we “lost” one hour of the day. But for me it doesn’t matter, it is for the better in my opinion. Now it is light longer in the evening! That also means the sun is at the pool for another hour, yay.

Deadweek is coming up, but I won’t have too much to do, which is a relief.

I think Sweden will have their change of time next weekend, so until then I have to remember that there is now only 8 hours of time difference.

Pirate’s Cove

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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 two years in California. This full post can be found here.

Sorry blog for being so lazy on updating lately. I’ve been busy with sorting through all my digital books since I found this amazing program called Calibre where you easily can change the metadata, convert epub to/from pdf without any struggles and also change the context in the file, so freaking cool! I’ve been really into this the last few nights, but now I am done with it all and can get back to my normal life again.

This week has actually been pretty bad. Surprisingly many symptoms of my mono in form of one of the worst headaches I’ve ever had, fever, and more fatigue than ever before during this sickness. Today and yesterday I’ve been fine though. I actually went to the health center yesterday, and after talking to the doctor for a while about everything that’s been going on, she came to the conclusion that I am under a lot of stress right now (not from school, but from life), and my sleep is getting affected by this. So without any hesitation she prescribed sleeping pills that I can pick up on Monday. I’ve been thinking a lot about my future lately, should I go back home, should I stay? What will happen to my apartment back home in Sweden if I stay? What will happen if I stay and then have to go back home during the process of the HB-1 visa? I am thinking way too much, I’ve realized that too. And I have come to the realization that it doesn’t matter. Everything will work out in the end the way it was supposed to. I have applied for two jobs down in San Diego, I have an apartment that I will most likely get, a car as well. If it doesn’t work out with the jobs, I will be totally fine with going back home, move back in with mom, work the whole summer, save up some money for the first time ever, and then take whatever happens after that.

Right now I have to live in the now. (Which is what I have been doing up until a month ago)

 

So to make myself not think about all of this I’ve spent this whole day at the beach. It’s been really warm today, 80F. The water only 57F, but that didn’t stop me from going in the water several times. Very refreshing. First time at Pirate’s Cove beach today, which is also a nude beach, and I have to say that I was more uncomfortable that I thought I would be. But it was a small beach, right under cliffs, and very pretty. And when I focused on my book it wasn’t that bad.

We then “hiked” up to the actual cave and sat down for almost an hour, waiting for the sunset. It set behind the Avila hill, but it was still beautiful, and warm, and otters where swimming in the water below. This is definitely one of the reasons (maybe the biggest?) that I really want to stay in California.

Pirate's Cove nude beach Pirate's Cove To the left on the big rock is Pirate’s Cove.Pirate's Cove Pirate's Cove Pirate's Cove Other side of the cave. Avila in the distance. Pirate's Cove Pirate's Cove sunset Normal photo of the sunset.Pirate's Cove HDR photo of the sunset.California sunsetWhen the sun was down the whole Avila hill was glowing!

Shell Beach sunsetHere’s a photo from last night’s sunset at Shell Beach. The sunsets and the beaches make me so calm and relaxed. I wish I could have spent more time at the beach this year.

Tired and dizzy

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This day was not very long, but it felt like it would never end! I didn’t have my first class until 2pm, and was done by 5:30 and then spent two hours at the library doing two Urban Planning quizzes and all my German homework. After that I was completely done, had dinner, watched an episode of Once Upon a Time and now I am all ready to go to bed. I hope I can fall asleep. And also, there are people in the apartment so I guess that won’t happen anytime soon. Why are the walls so thin in this country??

Books

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This mono is definitely here, I am so tired all the time. But I still have my sleeping problems which is extremely disturbing. I managed to fall asleep at 11pm last night, without any sleeping pills. But I woke up at 4am and couldn’t go back to sleep for the next three hours. That sucked big time!

I was in bed most of the day yesterday reading and finally finished Bitterblue, the third and last Graceling book. It was so good, but I feel like there should be a fourth book, it wasn’t really a good ending when everyone left for different places. I had a hard time, like always, deciding what book I wanted to read next. After a long while I decided that I wanted to read the next Lorien Legacies: Lost Files novella, The Fugitive. It is only 100 pages and I should finish it tonight. After that I will read the first novella in the new companion series to The Mortal Instruments. I am so excited for that one. And after that? Hmm, Maybe The 100? These decisions all the time.

Week 9 starts tomorrow. Where did the quarter go? Two full weeks left in school, then spring break! Also, it’s March 1st today! 3.5 months until I am done with school. Scary!

Long Thursday

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I only have two long Thursday’s left before this quarter is over. Today I was doing stuff non-stop from 11am until 7pm. It was a long day with my feverish and very tired mood. I survived though and got some new information about the internship process, I can’t really say the Urban Planning class was very giving today, German was okay and fun as usual, and we had a guest speaker for two hours at the lab. Was rough. I thought Shannon and I would be able to analyze the peak hour bus routes after the lab, but since it was after 6pm it had to be the off peak. But we needed to do that too. So we basically just sat on the bus route all the way around, wrote down the arrival and departure time of all the stops and also how many boardings and alightings. It wasn’t too bad.

Then I spent I short while at the Farmers Market and had dinner downtown before going home where I had a big slice of warm cookie/cake with ice cream. I see double now and so look forward to sleeping for as long as I want tomorrow.

Bake a cake

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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 two years in California. This full post can be found here.

I thought this week was gonna be super hectic, but turns out it is my slowest week this quarter so far. I am so happy about that!

But instead I am tired and have no energy for nothing, so after I got done with everything today I baked and then just watched TV shows. I baked an American cookie(/cake) with chocolate and caramel. It turned out divine and now, after a piece, and dinner, I am so full I can’t stand it. It is only 9:30pm, but I am definitely going to bed as soon as I am done with this post.

Today was very chill, I went to my two classes, and sat out in the sun in between for an hour reading Bitterblue. It is a thick book and with the lack of freetime and energy I’ve had lately I haven’t read as much as I would have wanted. I have such a long list of books I wanna read, and Cassandra Clare released the first book in a companion series to The Mortal Instruments. I so wanna read that one now, but I have told myself to stick to one book at a time, otherwise this would be chaos!

The quiz in Public Transportation didn’t go well at all, but I don’t really care right now. It is just one of three quizzes, and is only 10% of my grade. And I didn’t fail miserably.

Okay, time for me to call it a night, I will hopefully wake up not too tired tomorrow and prepare for a very very long day.

American Cookie with chocolate and caramel Here is the recipe for this divine piece of cake. It is in Swedish though, and I am way too tired to translate it tonight. If you don’t speak/read Swedish, use Google Translate, or ask me tomorrow. It is gonna be worth it, just ask my roommate Rachel ;).