Tourist in San Francisco

Posted on Sunday, 22 March 2015, 22:48 by Alexandra

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.

Two days are over in San Francisco and I am so tired from all the walking. But we have seen a lot. Yesterday Patrick and I met up with Helena, Nicki and our host Jacob for brunch at a place close to his place on Chestnut Street. Then we all took a walk down to the water, looked at the Golden Gate Bridge (it was not foggy so I could actually see it this time), then went to Palace of Fine Arts and back to his place. So we are couchsurfing now, if I never said that before. My first time doing it and it is nice that we are two girls (three until tonight). It is free and we literally sleeps on a guy’s couch. It’s a new experience.

After that Patrick had to leave and the rest of us hang in the apartment for an hour or so before we decided to explore the city some more. We took an uber to Haight-Ashbury Street. This is where hippies used to live, but then got replaces with vintage boutiques, cafés and restaurants. Still a lot of “hippies” though, lots of weed and smoke stores. We kept on walking from there to The Golden Gate Park. We just walked in a little part of it and then walked all the way to the Painted Ladies six houses painted in different colors. It was not as grandeur as it looks on pictures (that does not happen often, now does it?). We were so exhausted all of us, so we sat down on the grass for a while, watching all the funny tourists taking weird photos in front of the houses.

We then took an uber back to the apartment and got ready to go out to dinner. All of us went to Cheesecake Factory at Union Square for dinner. They were out of my favorite Farfalle with chicken and roasted garlic, so I took my second favorite, the Roasted pear and bleu cheese flatbread. We all shared a Red Velvet Cheesecake afterward. So delicious. Our last stop for the day was a bar called Bacchus Kirk. I played pool against Jacob, won surprisingly! Had a drink, petted the dogs in the bar (SF is a dog city so dogs are everywhere here and apparently allowed in some bars).

Today was all about the piers and wharfs and Alcatraz. Pier 39 was fun as usual, watched the sea lions. Then we walked to Pier 33 and picked up our tickets for Alcatraz later in the afternoon and then walked all the way to Fisherman’s Wharf. It was not that far, but many small trips make a long distance. We walked around, went to Ghiradelli Square. It would have been so cool to sit down in the Ghiradelli “restaurant”, but we just walked through. That chocolate is really good.

On our way back to Pier 33 we stopped at Ben & Jerry’s for milkshakes. Yummy!

We were the first to board the boat out to the island and it only took us 12 minutes. We pretty much just did an audio tour, walked around to watch the SF skyline and then back. We then met up with Jacob at Union Square for dinner at Burger Bar. I made my own burger with avocado, bacon, caramelized onions and cranberry sauce. Very good.

Straight back to the apartment and now I am so ready for bed!

Golden Gate Bridge. Palace of Fine Arts. Turtles at PoFA. Haight/Ashbury Street. Golden Gate Park. Painted Ladies. Union Square.Hearts all over SF (no idea why).Bacchus Kirk bar.

The super cute and fluffy dog in the bar. Palace of Fine Arts at night. Pier 39. Packed sealions at Pier 39. Alcatraz in the arch where they loaded the prisoners. Fisherman’s Wharf. Ghiradelli Square. Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz island. Alcatraz. Hospital inside Alcatraz. Showers inside Alcatraz. “Broadway”. So many cells!! There were four aisles (only two with cells on both sides). 6 confinement cells. The library. A normal and “decorated” cell. There was an escape in March 1963, three inmates dug themselves out with spoons and climbed up a shaft behind this wall up to the roof and supposedly swam somewhere. No bodies where ever found so no one knows if they survived the very treacherous one mile long swim to the main land.Bay Bridge, San Francisco skyline, and Golden Gate Bridge seen from Alcatraz.

Hearst Castle and PCH

Posted on Saturday, 21 March 2015, 10:21 by Alexandra

Second day of spring break was a very nice day too. It started with a pancake breakfast with the new olallieberry jam I bought last night at the Farmer’s Market. It was good. Then Patrick picked me up and we started our roadtrip up to San Francisco. It took longer than I expected but it was so worth it going up on the Pacific Coast Highway 1 instead of the much faster and much more boring freeway.

Our first stop on the way was Hearst Castle. I have known about it since I was in San Diego and I have always wanted to go since one of my hostkids told me about it and how beautiful it was. We took a tour of the cottages on the grounds and then walked around by ourselves. It was a pretty . Hearst was a rich man in the 1920’s and forward and built this big castle with pools, tennis courts, amazing guest cottages and a beautiful garden. The view from up there was so incredible, the green hills, the palm trees, the oak trees, the ocean way down.

We stopped for lunch at a place in Cambria called Main Street Grill and it was a Firestone!! So I got my pulled pork sandwich finally! So delicious.

And then the rest of the roadtrip began, the most beautiful part of it. The PCH 1 is so amazingly beautiful. We did a few stops on the way to watch the sun slowly set over the water. We then stopped for the final part of the sunset at Julia Pfeiffer Burn State Park which is a beautiful beach with a waterfall way down below the PCH. Last time I did this I didn’t see the waterfall, but today we went down a bit and saw it. It is also possible to walk down to the beach, we didn’t really had time for that though so that will be another time. The sunset was beautiful as always and I got a really really good photo with my HDR app. I will be non-modest about it and say that it might be National Geographic worthy, haha.

When we left the curvy mountainside roads, I took over the wheels and drove for a couple of hours and then Patrick drove the last part into San Francisco. We are staying at a hotel tonight and tomorrow I am meeting up with Helena and Nicki. I am so excited for this spring break. It has already started and it has done so in a very good way!

Goodnight from San Francisco!

(2015-03-21, 02:50)

Mountain view from Hearst Castle. Ocean view from Hearst Castle. One of the sitting rooms in one of the cottages. Hearst’s bed when he spent time at this estate. One of the “cottages”, more like a big fancy house! The outdoor pool with no water in it. Hearst liked foreign stuff and animals. He had the biggest private zoo in all of the States or something like that, he also had this Egyptian thing which was over 3000 years old. All the interiors were copied from 1500’s Italy and France. The indoor pool was so nice. Then we stopped and watched the elephant seals. Last time there were only males, now only females, one male that we could see. Lots of babies too. The sunset was so beautiful! Last time I didn’t see the waterfall on the beach. Next time I will go down there!

Bishop’s Peak sunrise hike

Posted on Friday, 20 March 2015, 1:58 by Alexandra

I have finally done it, I have hiked the tallest peak in SLO and it wasn’t as bad as I was afraid it would be. And I wanted it to be special because I am not sure I am gonna do this hike again. So for this special occasion I woke up at 5 am with Kelsey and her three friends from Iowa. 30 min later we were on our way to the bottom of Bishop’s Peak and the hike started soon before 6am. It was pitch dark, but no clouds so all the stars were out and it was so pretty. But it was not enough to light up the trail so we all walked with our phone lamps on. I have to admit that it was a little bit scary not seeing anything except a little bit ahead of our feet, but we didn’t hear any snarls from mountain lions. A relief. The first part was the worst part, it was just uphill on a trail. My calves did not like that. The rest was zig-zagging up the mountain side and wasn’t bad at all. We took a wrong turn once but realized after two minutes that it was wrong and was on the right path the rest of the way. It was not very warm but perfect hiking weather, we didn’t get super sweaty or tired.

We got to the top early after hiking for almost an hour. It was only 1.2 miles to the top which was not too bad actually, a pretty lagom hike. But we were early, and that meant that we had to sit up there for half an hour before the sun came up over the hills. It was windy like crazy and very cold. And we were also 34 people up there at that unearthly hour watching the sunrise with us.

It was amazing, so beautiful! I had kinda hoped for clouds so we would be over them, but this was beautiful too. You could see all of SLO and all the hills and tons of birds of prey sailing with the winds. It was a wow-experience. I might do it again for a sunset hike, but I will prioritize the other hikes first.

The way down was scary. Ever since my fall down the Potato Chip Rock in San Diego I am scared like an old lady going downhill. But we all survived and after the hike was done we bought breakfast at Slodoco. Yummy! I watched half of the pilot episode of iZombie on The CW and then took a two-hour nap before my hair appointment. iZombie seems like a fun TV show that I will start following now too. So many of the shows I watch right now are on The CW, a good TV channel, simply. It is about a girl who becomes a zombie, but she can control herself and tries to hide it from everyone, including her very attractive fiancé with whom she broke up when she became undead.

At 12.30 I rode my bike all the way to the train station and a little more to the hair salon I had an appointment at, Salon Glo. Rakesha took care of me today and she did an amazing job! It took 2.5 hours and now the worst of my split ends are gone, and my growth is pretty much invisible and looking more natural and beachy now. I love it! I can totally recommend her. And the prize was very nice too. $135 for all of that, and I even got a nice scalp massage and hair mask and tips on how to keep my hair in better shape. After schampooing my hair, I will towel dry it, then put in conditioner in the bottom half of my hair, rinse, and then be done. If there is water in between the conditioner and hair, it doesn’t work. It makes sense, and I will do this from now on so my hair can start getting healthier. Because now, half my hair is with split ends, but I wanna keep the length, so this will help. She was also very friendly. I am happy and feel like a new person.

I rode my bike back and was so tired the last 10 minutes when I reached the south entrance to campus. My butt and thighs hurt. It was no fun, so I chilled for a bit at home, took a shower, and then went with everyone downtown to Farmers Market. It was very nice, we got dinner and I bought some Olallieberry jam. I have never heard of it before, but apparently a ollallieberry is a mix between a blackberry and raspberry. It was good one and now I can mix it up with my normal strawberry I have at home for my pancakes in the morning. Which I am gonna stop with next quarter since I’ve told myself to be more healthy. Whatever.

I stayed at home after that. I was planning on going downtown again with Julianne for some partying, but wasn’t in the mood, and of course not in the mood for line dancing either. So I stayed at home, packed and prepared for tomorrow’s roadtrip up to San Francisco. I am excited!

The girls came home early from line dancing, a couple of them being so very drunk. I don’t handle drunk people very well when I am sober, but I feel sorry for Kelsey who has to drive them down to LA and take care of them on her own when she leaves here at 2:30am. I wish her last night here could have ended better than being kicked out of a line dancing event.

I had a great time with her here this week. I have been a little bit of a party pooper, but I have my reasons for that. It’s been a rough quarter and I am just starting to drop everything and start over with my last quarter in ten days. Today, my first day of spring break was great, it couldn’t have been better (except maybe for the late night’s events); a sunrise hike (which is so unlike me since I hate mornings), a new haircut, and a very pleasant Farmer’s Market. I have a good feeling about this first and last spring break of mine!

Pitch-dark start of the hike. SLO in the dark. It is not a very big city. The birds were floating everywhere. A 360 degree photo from the top of the tallest peak in SLO. It looked like nothing.It’s not a huge difference, but the growth is gone, it’s more even and looks so much more healthy. I love it!

Last final of spring quarter

Posted on Wednesday, 18 March 2015, 22:42 by Alexandra

I am done done with all of the work this quarter. Last final done today and I was a bit worried to be honest. We were watching a movie in German (Annie Scholl: Die Letzte Tage) and then discussed it in class afterwards. I am so bad at analyzing movies, but I had one input afterwards and I hope that means I will get an A. I don’t know how this type of final will be graded. The movie was a very sad one and a lot of people were crying, including the teacher. It was intense. After the final was done, I went home and watched the new episode of The Flash. It’s been on a break for the past three weeks and this episode was so full of things happening all the time! The Flash can travel in time? And lots of other stuff, but I am not gonna spoil anything. For dinner we went to Firestone and I was so stoked about that. But they were out of pulled pork so now I feel like I filled up on unnecessary calories and wasted money. Good thing I will maybe walk it off tomorrow morning when we are hiking up the highest peak here in SLO to watch the sunrise. I can’t believe it took me six months to actually do that hike, haha. Since I have to get up at 5am I should probably go to bed now. Or at least try, it’s never quiet here with so many people over.

St. Patrick’s Day

Posted on Wednesday, 18 March 2015, 2:26 by Alexandra

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!

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

First day of finals week

Posted on Monday, 16 March 2015, 21:05 by Alexandra

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

Posted on Saturday, 14 March 2015, 0:22 by Alexandra

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

Posted on Thursday, 12 March 2015, 0:31 by Alexandra

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

Posted on Monday, 9 March 2015, 0:30 by Alexandra

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

Posted on Saturday, 7 March 2015, 21:58 by Alexandra

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.

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

Here’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.