10 days at Balderado

Posted on Saturday, 30 August 2014, 0:45 by Alexandra

I have now been at Balderado a total of 10 days. Today and yesterday were number nine and ten. I can honestly say that I was a bit dissapointed both yesterday and today when I found out that I was at that area when the supervisors told me last weekend that they were gonna try and put me at Berget my last few days because they understood how lonely and monotonous it is to only have three single-manned attractions. Yesterday they tried putting two people at Spinrock, but because someone went home during the day I had to be alone that last hour anyway. Today I had half an hour with someone at Spinrock but right when I was on my way to my last hour at Spinrock I was told that someone was closing it with me. Yay!! That made my day. Working with my colleagues makes Liseberg way more fun to work at. I know it is supposed to be about the guests, but we employees must have fun too and it is easier to have that when we are working together.

But tomorrow and on Sunday I will be at Berget, I have that confirmed. Yay! I can’t believe my last day is coming up in just a couple of days though. This summer was over way too soon. I feel exhausted and I need the time off, but I’ve had so much fun this summer. I am so lucky to have gotten a job at Liseberg, and at the attraction department. Lucky lucky me!

I think I need to go to bed now, I have 11 hours of work tomorrow to look forward to. But before that, I will watch the season premiere of Doctor Who. I have waited so long for this day to come!!

P.S. Two weeks until departure!! In exactly fourteen days I will have 30 minutes left in the air before landing in LA. D.S.

Structural engineering exam #4

Posted on Thursday, 28 August 2014, 1:26 by Alexandra

Today was definitely not a good day. I am still very angry with Chad, but right now I am also very angry at the exam I did today, my lost necklace, the girl I was interviewing today who stood me up and told me way too late and I am not allowed to donate blood.

The exam felt really good at first, during the theory questions. As usual I didn’t even understand the fourth theory question, but the other three I actually knew about. There might be 3 or maybe even 4 points there. BUT, then comes the problems. The first one felt good, but I think it wasn’t supposed to be that easy. But I came up with an answer, the same answer twice with two different methods.That’s good, but it probably isn’t more than 3 points (4 is max). The next one would have been easy if it weren’t for the short term load instead of long term like all the problems I’ve solved. I had even written down questions in my books, how to solve this?? But no answer after. Fuck. The third and fourth problem were two jokes. I just put some equations on the paper, tried solving a few and then just handed them in. I am so upset that it felt exactly the same as the last three times I took the test. And this time I studied the whole f-ing summer!! Waste of time (maybe). I won’t jump to conclusions just because of what I felt when I left the room. It might have worked, no one knows.

Right after the exam I was supposed to do an interview with a future au pair. But when I am at our meeting spot she texts me and tells me she can’t go. I totally understand that she had to go to work when they asked her, but she could have told me earlier. And that would have saved me another anger enhancer, because then I would have gone home instead to downtown.

I have been thinking of becoming a blood donor for several years now and today I finally got my thumb out and went there. I knew I wouldn’t be able to donate any today, but I could at least take the tests and start as soon as I come home from the US again. BUT, I am not allowed to give blood until my PAP smear is okay. So I just walked out of there without even taking the tests. I am taking the second PAP smearon Monday by the way. A little bit nervous about it to honest.

And the blood central was probably the reason for my last anger today. I’ve lost my beautiful silver/opal necklace I bought on Hawaii! I probably lost it when I removed my sweater to take a blood pressure test there. I feel really naked now. The good thing is that I can order a new one online from the store where I bought it. I won’t be able to do it before I move to California though. I think I will order it the day before I leave so I will get it as soon as possible. It won’t be the same, but it will still be a beautiful necklace.

I felt like I needed to get all of this out. My blog is usually about happy things, but today I needed this. I have been so extremely tired today now that my exam is finally done. Even if I fail again, I can’t do anything about it until when I come back from Cali. So long, structural engineering!

Since I came home I’ve been doing a bit on the online course I need to do before moving to SLO, I will do the rest tomorrow. It is about being an exchange student. Good-to-know things about pretty much anything.

I have also paid the Week of Welcome fee of $175. I am getting good at making abroad payments with my internet bank. I think I better get used to it.

Not much else today. Tomorrow’s work again but before that I will sleep until I wake up (last time I did that I slept until 1pm a few days ago). Four more days at work. How can a whole summer already be gone??

Late evening

Posted on Wednesday, 27 August 2014, 0:16 by Alexandra

Shit, I should already be in bed and sound asleep. What happens with time during the night? And why do I always feel like procrastinating when I really can’t do it? Tonight I have emailed a lot of people at Cal Poly asking how I will pay for my rent and Week of Welcome. Since Cal Poly is blocking web addresses from out of country I need to use PeerTransfer and it works okay. So my first rent will be paid tomorrow, $838.75 (=5957 SEK). It’s retarted that I have to pay that much for a tiny tiny bedroom. Well well, I pay for the experience of living abroad again, it’s worth it.

When it comes to Week of Welcome it’s not so clear though. I really want to be a part of it, but I don’t get any answers from the board of WoW on how to pay. When I use PeerTransfer it gives m four options for what kind of payment it is, Registration and Tuition Fee, Housing, Dining or Continuing Educataion. What to choose if I am paying to an orientantion event? I need them to answer soon. Orientation starts in less than three weeks!

Today I was up early (compared to yesterday when I slept until 12:30pm. I didn’t do that much studying. I did two problems and read through all the theory questions like six times. I didn’t want to try to learn anything new, that would have juts made me confused. So I’ve played RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 today. I will so enjoy my free time after tomorow. I have a lo of things to do tomorrow after the exam, but after that will be free!!

Dinner was almost ready when mom came home from work. Pulled pork in tortilla bread. It has smelled amazing the whole day. But I have to admit that it tasted more last time. I don’t know if it was because we marinated the meat over the night or if it was because of the gas oven instead of my electrical one. But with some extra bbq sauce it was really good anyway :). We were both full as a small-pancake though (that Swedish saying wasn’t translated very well…).

So, the exam is tomorrow. I have to wake up at 6:30 am, and the hours until then are disappearing faster than I would have wanted. But at least I am tired now. Yesterday I couldn’t fall asleep until 3am, wasn’t tired at all!

Wish me luck on tomorrow’s five hour exam on Structural Engineering. My fourth try. And I think I might have a good feeling about it this time.

Good luck, me!

Thank you, me!

Studying

Posted on Tuesday, 26 August 2014, 0:09 by Alexandra

The only thing I’ve done today is studying. I ended the day by writing a 8 page summary of all different types of problems this course include. It is pretty obvious what types of problems I know more about. Easier to write things when you know more. Wood and steel are nice types of construction materials. Concrete not so much…

I did feel prepared yesterday. It felt good and I felt that I could have a chance this time. But today, when I finished all the problems that I told myself I would do before the test, it doesn’t feel that good anymore. I think it is because I know time is running out to prepare and it is too little time to do everything I want to do and it just gets overwhelming and I don’t know what to do instead. I think I will do some problems tomorrow but focus on the theory. I haven’t done any of it since June!

While I’m studying tomorrow I will be cooking dinner for mom, pulled pork!! We put the meat in marinade tonight and I hope it will taste even better this time.

Lightning

Posted on Sunday, 24 August 2014, 23:32 by Alexandra

This evening has been retarted. Lightning across the sky every 20 seconds, no thunder though, that came later. The sky is being lit up all the time and with the thunder it is a bit scary. But lightning is beautiful! On the way home from work I actually caught a couple of lightning bolts on camera. My first photo and I got it. I tried for a while more on mom’s balcony but I only got the last millisecond of it, which was pretty cool too. After that I tried to study for a while but I didn’t understand the problem so I just quit halfway through the problem and will continue tomorrow. I am so exhausted from the last week.

It’s been a crazy week. I feel like it is time to make it official online. On Monday, August 18th, I broke up with Chad because of some reasons. I don’t want to go in to the details here because that’s no other person’s business. But everything bad between us has escalated so quickly and it has ended with him moving out very sudden and me living on mom’s couch for now. He hates me and I am trying not to think about him with my exam coming up on Wednesday. I need all my attention on that so I can pass this stupid thing.

I am very sad about what happened, I really am… But it was for the best for both of us.

I didn’t go in to work yesterday and today was really tough. I was at Berget and had a lot of different attractions instead of two or three at Balderado. For the first time ever I had to ”break” Höjdskräcken. And at lunch right before that I talked about how I had been on breaks on all the attractions on the mountain except Höjdskräcken (none at Balderado). A break is when the attraction is closed due to technical issues.

Mom picked me up from work and we drove to my place to pick up some more clothes and water my plants.

Now I will go to bed (=couch), watch the second half of a True Blood episode I started watching this morning. I hope I will be able to fall asleep with all this lightning and thunder going on outside! Because I have a long day of studying tomorrow…

Chip was keeping me company late last night when I was studying.A pink/blue sky outside my apartment. So beautiful! My first try at a lightning bolt photo! Success! This is the second best shot. This is at the very end of a lightning bolt. It was behind that cloud. Pretty cool.

Crawfish party

Posted on Wednesday, 20 August 2014, 23:56 by Alexandra

Every year at the end of the season the different departments and areas at Liseberg have crawfish parties. A crawfish party is something very Swedish where you sit down with friends for a night in August, eat crawfish and shrimps and drink. It is a very fun occation!

Last night, at Berget’s crawfish party (kräftskiva in Swedish) I didn’t eat any crawfish though. I haven’t had time to buy anything so I did what a lot of others did, bought pizza. It was very good aswell. I will miss the Swedish pizza.

During the evening awards were handed out. I didn’t even get nominated for anything. But that’s okay, the only thing I felt that I could have won was Pooler of the year. But since I’ve almost only been at Berget people don’t really see my as a Pooler.

The evening was over at 2 and I stayed behind and helped cleaning for a bit. At 2:45am I started walking home and got home at 4. It was a long walk from Majvallen to Svingeln. Now I have blisters on my feet from walking that far in heels/barefoot.

It could have been a more fun evening if it weren’t for the situation I’m in right now, but it was still a nice evening with friends!

Today I’ve been studying a little bit. I only did 1,5 problems though. But all 9 problems I have left are concrete ones. And the tough concrete ones! I got stuck on the second because of way to many minuses and it got me confused. And I also got distracted when dad and Karin invited me to dinner at Öltullen, the bar/restaurant at the corner of my building. It was a nice couple of hours. And when I got home from that I saw that the information about my housing at Cal Poly was available. I will be living in Poly Canyon Village – Gypsum with three American girls. One of them emailed all of us already and told us a bit about herself and asked if maybe we should make a list of things we need in the apartment. It will be so cool living in an apartment with four bedrooms and three other girls. It is way better than what college dorms looks like in the movies. I have a good feeling about this.

I most definitely need to go to bed now, I have to get up early to be in school to study with Linnea and after that I will work. But only for 5 hours.

Rabbit Party

Posted on Monday, 18 August 2014, 23:55 by Alexandra

Last night was the seasons last rabbit party for us Lisebergers. And because of that I decided that I wanted to go. Preparty right after work where I spent my 7th day of the season at Balderado. All the attractions I have there are single manned from now on, so I was all alone the whole day except for 1,5h in the middle where I was at Berget. I closed Kristallsalongen so I sat there for one hour, not doing much except eating candy and mentally preparing for the party. It was actually okay sitting there solving crosswords.

I changed into my beautiful Abercrombie dress, brushed my hair and then went will all the others to Hisingen where Victor lives. The preparty went by so fast. It was fun! And at 11:30 we went to Valand, the nightclub where the rabbit parties are. I could skip the line and paid 125 as cover and wardrobe and then I was in.The music was good, but I’m not much of a dancer. I spent most of the evening on the outdoor patio talking. It was nice! At 1am the Helix song went on and we were all inside dancing to it, but that was all the dancing I did. I talked to a lot of people and actually felt that I connected with a lot of them. Alcohol makes people honest and sharing.

I was there until it closed at 3am and then walked home. Took me 45 minutes.

Today I woke up at 10am, I didn’t feel bad at all, a little, but not much. Took a shower and then went to Kosmetisk Kirurgi to do an IPL treatment for hair removal under my arms. In total it was my 7th time I think and it is definitely working. Almost all of it is gone, but I still have a little left, so after this today I will go there once more after my year in California. Then I will probably be done, but I’m not sure all the hair will be gone forever. Anyway, it hurt really bad. I forgot how painful it is. At the end of the second armpit it hurt so much that I started wincing. Normally the burning pain is there for a millisecond, but after a while it hurt all the time. Not a nice feeling. I am still a bit sore, but it’s not too bad.

Today I also enrolled in the EDES 406 class. Open enrollment started today and I now have it on my schedule. So fucking awesome to have that done! I also tried registering to the semester at Chalmers but I couldn’t since I’m not enrolled in any classes at Chalmers. But I need to be registered for CSN to see that I am doing some classes. I sent Chalmers an email and will probably get an answer tomorrow. I will call them otherwise. I was gonna call my landlord also to tell them my fridge is kinda broken. There is always a pool of water at the bottom of it. But I forgot. That’s for tomorrow.

After that I spent the afternoon studying and talking to mom. The problem I’ve been trying to solve for two days makes sense to me now. The mistake I made was that the ”d” in the formulas wasn’t the diameter which it normally is, but it was the distance from the top of the beam to the center of the rebars in the bottom. After I realized that I actually understood the problem. Yay! I love breakthroughs. Tomorrow I will start with wood again, and I might have time for another steel problem as well. But I have a feeling I won’t be in a study mood, but we’ll see.

In the evening anyway there is Berget’s crawfish party. I’ve been looking forward to it the whole summer, it’s gonna be legen… wait for it… dary!

Crown of Midnight

Posted on Sunday, 17 August 2014, 0:30 by Alexandra

Last night I finished Crown of Midnight which was the second Throne of Glass book. So amazingly awesome! The ending was so unsuspected and I so look forward to the next book which will be published on September 2nd. Until then I will be reading the prequel The Assassin’s Blade

This series, written by Sarah J. Maas, is about a young orphaned girl who was taken in by the league of assassins and she is the best in the land at what she does. She is betrayed though and ends up in a slave camp and the first book begins when the king’s men get her out of there so she can fight in a tournament to become the King’s Champion and then get her freedom. A lot of other things happen to around all this. Magic, demons, love triangles. If anyone is looking for a book to read, I highly recommend Throne of Glass.

Today was my Sunday and I tried to study for a while. I managed to solve two problems today before I found myself infront of a contrete problem. I decided to take a tiny break, but I ended up taking a break for the rest of the day. Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 is too fun. But I don’t feel bad, I did 5 problems yesterday! And I will get up early tomorrow and solve this concrete problem before work. And then I have three days off when I can study.

While I was studying yesterday I was also cooking dinner. I tried pulled pork for the very first time and it turned out great. I flavored it with honey barbecue sauce and garlic. It was served with mashed sweet potatoes. Yummy in my tummy!

Tomorrow’s 6 hours of work and then Rabbit Party! It’s the last for the season so I thought I would go. But right now I’mnot so sure. I am going to the pregame but I’m not sure about the real party at Valand. It is 100kr and I don’t even like nightclubs. We’ll see. I have to feel okay on Monday too to study.

Now I will go to bed, read, and mentally prepare for an early morning with concrete and rebars and then work and party!

Sangria and taco night

Posted on Friday, 15 August 2014, 1:53 by Alexandra

I had such a lovely evening with my girls Andrea, Emma and Julia. We were at Andrea’s place eating tacos (and I thought them that it is possible to put pineapple in it) and drinking homemade sangrias. We talked about everything and nothing for several hours and later in the evening Andrea’s boyfriend and friend joined us. They told us they were having a blast. Two guys who could participate in girls’ talk was apparently fun.

Andrea had her last day of work today and on Saturday she is going to Greece for a week. After that we decided to have another girl’s night where we will go out after a typical girl’s preparty. I look forward to that!

Work today went on fast. I only had 6 hours of work. I had a couple of hours at Höjdskräcken, a couple at Helix and one hour at the end at Balderado. So far I’ve been at Balderado five full days, one half day and three hours spread out over three different days. I chose Ponnykarusellen and Kristallsalongen for my last hour. So awesome!

At my one break there were cookies and candy in the break room because three different people had their last day today. It is always a bit nice when people have their last day and put out cookies and stuff but it is also very sad. I am gonna bake chocolate muffins when I have my last day in two weeks.

10 hour day

Posted on Thursday, 14 August 2014, 0:09 by Alexandra

This morning when I got in to work I got a special assignment from one of my supervisors. I got ten minutes of extra pay for going around to all the attractions at Balderado handing out new schedules. It was hard finding the right way to both Balder and Kållerado, but I managed. So my first few hours of the day, until lunch I was at Balderado, and after lunch I was at Berget. It was perfect with that combination on such a long day.

I have been extremely tired today. Five days in a row of working late and closing attractions is getting to me. And this day’s ending was even worse than the rest. I was at Helix and the OP forgot to tell me that I could go home at 11. Everyone else got off at 11:20. That meant that I missed my tram home and got home at midnight instead of half past eleven. That sucked. We also had to close down Helix very sudden because one of the mechanics called and told us to absolutely not send another train on the tracks. It was weird.

Now I need to go to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow, work until 6pm and then have a cozy taco evening with Emma and Andrea :). I really look forward to that!