Category Archives: Sweden

Friday 13th

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* On my first two days at work, more than two weeks, I had a pair of shoes on that I probably shouldn’t have worn. Because now a third of my big toe nail is completely blue/black. It’s gone so bad now that I couldn’t stand it and painted all of the nails dark blue. I guess I will have painted toenails for a while now. Mom says it can take up to a year to get it all away. Crap.

* I’ve learned that if you work at Liseberg you can get free candy, and chocolate in particular. You just give the guest with a star prize a look that says it looks really good or just say it. Most of the time, depending on what type of person it is, that person offers you a piece or two or three. Last week I got some Plopp on Uppswinget and Toblerone on Lisebershjulet. Today at AtmosFear I got another Plopp but without “asking”. I am not complaining.

* Another thing I’ve learned after more than two weeks at Liseberg is that people on the attractions AtmosFear, Höjdskräcken and Spin Rock like to dangle their legs which results in me being kicked when I check their safety belts. It is starting to get a little annoying.

* I now have 7 attractions at Liseberg; Lisebergshjulet, AtmosFear, Höjdskräcken, Kristallsalongen, Spin Rock, Uppswinget and Ponnykarusellen. Technically I am still in training on Ponnykarusellen (which I really don’t understand why because it is just two buttons to press and there are no reocurring errors) and Uppswinget. I was supposed to have the test today at Uppswinget, but I guess I was needed somewhere else.

* Yesterday I got my first paycheck. I was disappointed, 304kr. Apparently Liseberg doesn’t count from the first of the month to the last, but the 25th of the month before to the 25th of the current month. And we get the money on the 15th. This month it totally sucked because I neeed money. I have pretty much nothing. 1500kr until July 15h! It will be a challenge.

* And speaking of money, today I found out that I will get 519kr back from Radiotjänst. I don’t know when though. Today in the court it was decided that computers/tablets/smart phones aren’t recievers for a TV signal which Radiotjänst interpreted that they were a year and a half ago. So they have charged people without a TV but with a computer. That is not fair. I am one of those people. But I am glad I’ve only paid the fee for three months instead of a year. 519kr instead of 2000 something. I paid my last bill for the upcoming three months yesterday and called them today to cancel my TV license agreement because I don’t have a TV, only a computer. And because the bill covered a time that has not yet began they told me I will get those 519kr back. Awesome!!

* Yesterday I played beach volleyball again. Outside, in the extreme wind. I wasn’t too excited because I had just found out that I failed the structural engineering class again. For the third time. And I didn’t wanna spend money on something I wouldn’t enjoy. But it wasn’t as hard as I thought. It worked out and I got some sun for once! I played with Ina, Joanne and Zandra.

* I had lunch with Chad today, we won’t have much time to hang out this week since I get off work at 10 or 11pm every night. I checked my mailbox before going there and had two letters. One was my passport with new visa inside and the other was the results of my PAP smear I did a month ago. I had completely forgotten about it and wasn’t very happy when I read what it had to say. It said I have minor cell changes and there was no sign of cancer at this point. But I was too upset to read that properly. So I’ve spent this whole day being extremely sad and haven’t been able to get the idea of cervical cancer out of my mind. Now, after a lot of reading I’ve figured out that it isn’t as bad as I thought. And I wish those fuckers who wrote that letter could write a letter so everyone understands. I had no idea what cell changes meant more than it can be a prestage to cancer. After reading online I now know that about 5 out of 100 PAP smears give these results and that about 1 out of 4 have to get it treated. And that is done with minor surgery that removes a small piece of the thing that is affected and that is it. The worst that could happen is that the person who gets it removed will give birth too early, but at least that person will get pregnant. I so wish they could have added an extra paper in that letter with that information. It would have saved me a whole day of worrying!!
What it also said was that I need to come back for more and thorough tests in like four months. But my problem is that I won’t be in Sweden then. So I need to call them on Monday and tell them about my situation and ask them what I should do, come in earlier, do all this in the USA or wait a year. If they want me to get it looked at as soon as possible and I have to remove it, it will be tight with time since I am leaving the country in 90 days. The reason they want to wait four months is to wait and see what happens to the cells, if the heal automatically, if they stay the same or get worse.
I am seriously pissed that they made me this upset today!!

* Last thing I want to write about today is that I’ve found a new TV show that I after one episode think seems great; The 100. It’s a futuristic setting where Earth has been completely wiped out after a nuclear attack of some sort. A few people survived up on space stations and now, 97 years after, they are sending down 100 prisoners to make sure the Earth is inhabitable again after all the radiation. I like it so far. I want to watch another episode, but it is getting late and I have a 10 hour day ahead of me.

LisebergshjuletIt was an amazing sunset today. I am in love with beautiful sunsets and today I couldn’t stop watching it while I helped people in and out of the gondolas on Lisebergshjulet. Full moon over Liseberg southIt was also a full moon tonight, and it was a huuge moon! Way prettier in real life.

US Embassy in Stockholm

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My Saturday was spent in Stockholm after four hours of sleep. I tried sleeping on the 6am train this morning but just couldn’t. I read a lot instead. The train was almost 30 minutes late which meant I got to the centralstation in Stockholm at 9:10. My interview began at 9:30 and I had no idea from where the bus went. I asked around and finally found the right bus stop. It came almost directly and I actually were at the Embassy 9:35. It’s not extremely important to be on time because a lot of people have the same time and then there’s a line inside. What was frustrating though was that I was the last one to leave the Embassy even if other people had showed up after me. Not fair! I think it might be because I already had a visa for last year or something. I was done by 11am and took the bus back to the train station. My train back home didn’t leave until 4pm so I decided to have lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. I googled the location and walked there to kill time. I could have taken a bus, but I had five hours all alone in the capital. What to do? So I had lunch by myself in the summer sun. I didn’t take a burger, they were expensive, so I ordered a chicken/goatcheese/dried cranberries sandwhich on the lunch menu. It was really good! The staff there spoke English too me, it was weird, but HRC is an international restaurant chain so people from all over work there. My waitress was from Australia and the guy who sold me the pint glass was from California, but he spoke Swedish. It was cool.

After lunch I went to a park nearby and sat down for like two or three hours and read. After a couple of hours I was so tired I could barely sit straight up, I almost fell asleep right there and then. But fortunately an old and grumpy lady woke me up by screaming at me to take down my feet from the bench. It was a wooden bench and it was extremely uncomfortable with short shorts so I moved around a lot and decided that it was comfortable to have my feet up somehow on the bench. She yelled at me really loud but I just pretended I didn’t understand Swedish and she walked away continuing being pissed off. What is it with old ladies?? It’s a wooden bench out in the open, it will get dirty even if I don’t have my clean shoe on it. And it will get off when it rains. It’s another thing on buses to put your feet up on the cushioned seat in front of you, but a bench made out of wood in a park under a bunch of trees that drop tons of seeds? Stupid lady! But, she woke me up so I could stay awake for like thirty more minutes before my butt got a little bit too much wood flavor. So I slowly walked back to the train station where I waited for 40 minutes until the train came and took me home.

On the way back I tried to sleep and did that most of the three hour ride. There was a guy two rows behind me though that just couldn’t keep his mouth. He had some mental disability, but when you only had four hours of sleep and need to sleep it doesn’t matter if he is really happy and only says nice and happy things. It was irritating. I read some though, and I finished Throne of Glass and started on the 6th and last Mortal Instruments book City of Heavenly Fire. Throne of Glass was really good. It is about a young and world famous assassin whogets caught and ends up in a slave camp for a year. One day the Crown Prince comes along and wants here to participate in a competition to become the kings Champion. Really exciting and I really wanted to start the second book right away, but I have so many books that I really want to read so it’s hard to decide…

I got home, started doing laundry right away and I am almost done with it. I watched the latest Game of Throne episode during and the whole episode was just on the Wall! I thought I knew what was gonna happen at the end, but I guess that will be the next episode which also happens to be the season finale!
I also edited the thesis report and sent in it again. The second final version. I hope this gets approved! If it doesn’t very soon I won’t be able to get any CSN next year because of lack of study results. I got a letter from CSN yesterday that told me that I needed to fix my grades from this semester if I want a study grant next year. I can’t help that my thesis has been dragged out for this long! Cross your fingers for us that it will get approved this time!!
As soon as the laundry is done I will go to bed, read a couple of pages and sleep until I wake up tomorrow!

Oh, right, might be worth to mention that my visa got approved and I will get it back along with my passport within a week. Yay! 🙂

Liseberg at nightThis is a photo I took of the backside of Liseberg one evening when I walked home. Hard Rock Cafe StockholmMy 12th Hard Rock Cafe visit. Next will be Gothenburg!

6 attractions

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I now have 6 attractions on Liseberg and more will definitely come. Yesterday I got Uppswinget, a really big swing on Berget. I hate the attraction but it is fun to work on. Like all of them, except Kristall Salongen which is just sitting taking tickets. At the moment I have Lisebergshjulet, AtmosFear, Höjdskräcken, Kristall Salongen, Spin Rock and Uppswinget. I know for sure that I will get Helix, Ponnykarusellen and Balder as well sometime. I don’t know if I will get a third area, some say I will, some say I won’t. We’ll see I guess.
I’ve been in training these past couple of days and I will have the test the next time I am on Berget.  I might be on Balderado tomorrow. I don’t know.

Today nothing special happened except that I got to work an hour extra. I took another person’s last hour on AtmosFear. I didn’t see any of my fan clubs and there were surprisingly many people in the park this Monday. Probably because of the awesome weather.

Yesterday I went with a lot of Berget people to first Vino and then to Stage Door for a couple of drinks. I got home at 1am because I needed to get up pretty early today and work on my thesis. We were sure that the final version we sent in on Thursday was gonna get approved. But instead of that we got more to change. So I worked on that this morning, and tomorrow morning I will do the same. I really don’t want to do it. I want to have a long night of sleep for once!

Tomorrow’s my 6th day of work and then I have my weekend again. And that will be celebrated with a daytrip to Stockholm and the American Embassy, laundry and some beach volleyball.

15,500 steps

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I brought a pedometer to work today, and after a ten hour work day I took 15500 steps. That’s pretty amazing! But I am not surprised my feet feel like they are flat.

I wasn’t at Baldorado today, but back on Berget. And I had Helix on my schedule. But that of course was a big error. I can’t work there and cover my own position without the introduction. I wonder when I will get that. The reason they thought I already had had the introduction was because I was supposed to have had it by now. It was a pretty okay day anyway. I wasn’t that much on AtmosFear, but spent a lot of time on Lisebergshjulet and Höjdskräcken instead. I actually closed Höjdskräcken all by myself. It was my first closing! It went well and there were hardly any people the last hour, so I let people ride it again and again. There was one guy who had never been on a free fall before and was nervous. When I closed the attraction he had gone on it probably four times in a row. He was so happy after that he gave me a big hug and thanked me for something. I actually don’t know what. I guess I opened his eyes or something. It was fun!

I don’t like this circadian (=dygnsrytm?) I have now. I get home almost at midnight when I get off at 11pm and when I do get home I have the munchies and just can’t stop eating. At least I am not eating candy, but I have the perfect oppurtunity to lose weight now with this walking-a-lot-job and I feel like I am wasting it. The best would be if I could just go to bed right when I got home, but that is also weird, I need to relax for a bit before I can go to bed… I hope I will get used to this pretty soon.

I can say now, that I won’t post anything tomorrow. I’ll be out partying with my new colleagues 🙂

A new area at Liseberg

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The day when I left “Berget” on Liseberg has come. I was a bit disappointed when I didn’t see my name on the list this morning. It turned out that I got my second area as a Poolare; “Balderado”. It was the area I wanted as my second area so I am not complaining. But I have to say that I miss the people on the mountain. The people at Baldorado is nice too, but Berget will always be my home area. First I got an introduction on Kristall Salongen whichis basically just a house of mirrors and a glass labyrinth. The intro was five minutes long and when that was done I had passed the test. It was the easiest attraction ever. I just have to sit and check tickets. After that we went to Spinrock which is a big spinning swing with a round gondola. It is awful, even worse than AtmosFear. But to work on it was okay. I was on there for the rest of the day, all of my 6 hours today.

The only problem today was the weather. It was raining the whole day and everything got soaked again. And by everything I mean my feet. I hate having wet feet!

The day was over pretty fast which was nice. I went home to mom, she had a surprise for me apparently. And I realized when she texted me that I haven’t seen her in a very long time. It’s been three busy weeks with exams, thesis, work and Cal Poly preparations. She had bought a case to my phone for me. Very nice of her and well needed for my poor phone. We talked for a bit but I couldn’t stay very long, I needed dinner.

For dinner I made spaghetti with bacon/feta/meatsauce. Really good as usual, and my dinner company agreed.

It is really late now and I have a long day ahead of me. Ten hours! But it is a holiday so I will get 50% extra paid. Not complaining! I will probably be on Balderado tomorrow again for my test on Spinrock and then get Ponnykarusellen. On Sunday I will probably be back on Berget. I look forward to that! I won’t get Helix. It had a break tonight and apparently that was a big one and the supervisors aren’t sure when it will be back in action. It’s okay though. I’ve gone on it and I like AtmosFear, Lisebergshjulet and Höjdskräcken.

Thesis hand in

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We handed in our final version of the thesis report today! And the feeling of relief is indescribable. It might still come back as a “no pass”. But if that is the case, then the examinator must have been in a bad mood when she read it through. It can’t be that hard to fail a report you have handed in and changed several times and that you can only pass or fail. I am sure it will go well. We did put a lot of effort into this report and it isn’t that bad anymore if I myself can say that.

The last few adjustments took four hours and after that I had a nice nap and then it was time for a 6 hour day at Liseberg. It was a nice but weird day. No Helix today either. I only had AtmosFear and Lisebergshjulet. Super chill! I love to work on AtmosFear but hate going on it. The weird part was the weather! One moment it was sunny, then it was raining, then it was pouring, then it was sunny and so on. Super annoying! The worst was when I was on AtmosFear when it seriously poured down like in a shower. It was ridiculous! I think some people were in the middle of the ride when it started. Poor people. And I was surprised when more people wanted to go on it, even if it rained like hell. I also felt sorry for myself that I needed to be out in the rain checking the safety things. We had raincoats to wear though, but we looked like mass murderers in them. Black, long coats with a big hood. My gloves were soaked through after one ride and my fingers were like raisins a short while later. Awful! The worst thing was probably the wet shoes that stayed wet through the rest of the day. Gross!

I got off at 11pm, shut down AtmosFear for the first time and then missed my trams home so I didn’t get home until midnight. And tomorrow I am working from 10:50am. It’s not very fun to work early after a late evening. But I get off at 6pm so that’s nice at least!

Thesis presentation at Veidekke

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The thesis is a day away from being finished. I can really see the light at the end of the tunnel now! This morning we presented our thesis at Veidekke and they were satisfied and liked it. They gave us a lot of tough questions, but in general they liked it and told us they were gonna use the template for their next environmental review this year. But it was just a proposal so they will probably have to change it and then update it eventually. It felt really good afterwards!

The next thing on the days agenda was the opposition on another thesis. It also went well so the last thing we need to check off the thesis list is the report. We will write on it tomorrow morning and hand it in as soon as we are done. Exciting! In 15 hours I will be done with my thesis, such an awesome feeling. (well, if it gets approved, but I would doubt it, it feels like they are stricter now and pointing out everything they find is wrong or should be improved, but in the end it is just pass/fail so I think it will be fine).

Right after the opposition I walked home to Chad who has the luxury of living three minutes from campus. Together we walked down to Liseberg. We were there the whole afternoon going on rides. I felt sick after most of them, even with the motion sickness pill. We went on Balder, Kanonen, FlumeRide, Lisebergshjulet, Höjdskräcken, AtmosFear and Helix. My first time on Helix (the brand new rollercoaster) I sat in the front. It was a really good rollercoaster, but I felt sick after and rested in the Lounge, our break room. I’m not sure I was allowed in there when I wasn’t working. But I really needed to sit down without any people around. We actually went on it again, but not in the front. Both times we skipped the line though. Perks of being a Liseberger.

AtmosFear wasn’t as bad as I remembered. It was awful going up on it, I was almost panicking. But I survived and wasn’t feeling that bad afterward. The pill I took made me feel really bad and extremely tired though so we just sat down and had a small dinner at Trebello and then went home. It is still very light out and almost 10pm. It is okay to go to bed, but because of the light it doesn’t feel like it… But I can’t keep my eyes open, so I will go to bed, read two pages, and then prepare for a really long day tomorrow! First thesis writing, then work until 11pm. I look forward to work again, in this stage of my life I think I prefer to work on the attractions instead of going on them.

Thesis presentation at Chalmers

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One of two presentations is done and it feels really great. Our examinator liked the presentation more than the report and was surprised at how good it was in comparison. A relief but at the same time not. We got the presentation approved which is one less thing to check off the list, but the report is still not good and we have to prepare it for a final hand in on Thursday. We got a lot of feedback though and will sit a little bit with it tomorrow before our second thesis presentation at Veidekke. And we will have most of Thursday before we both have to go to work at 4pm. I’m sure it will work out and I will be so relieved on Thursday afternooon!

After the presentation I went home for a bit and then went back to Chalmers to watch the launch of the Chalmers Formula Student car. I wouldn’t have gone unless Chad hadn’t invited me. We haven’t seen each other in a week because of my stupid working hours. Tomorrow we will have the whole day together at Liseberg though. I bought motion sickness pills today. I hope they work and that I will be brave enough to go on the attractions where I now work and “hated” a couple of years ago.

 

Time for bed! One presentation, one opposition and thesis report writing is waiting for me tomorrow morning.

Friday on a Monday

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This is a really weird feeling. Today is my Friday, my last day of work before two days off. This will be a very unusual summer. But I am not complaining, not at all. I love my job and it gets better and better every day. I didn’t get a new attraction today and could work on my own the whole day. I was mostly at AtmosFear but also a couple of hours at Höjdskräcken and Lisebergshjulet. A Monday on Lisebergis the nices thing ever (until all the kids get out of school in a week or two). So few people the park was practically dead. The weather was amazing and I so wished I was there in my freetime. It was the perfect Liseberg day! Sunny, with some clouds, lagom warm and no people. Not even Helix had a particuarly long line (I was told, I still haven’t gone on it. I could go on it on a break if I wanted to, but I want to wait).

I decided today that I want to go to Liseberg in my freetime pretty soon. So I got my employee tickets and asked Chad if he wanted to join me on Wednesday after our presentation at Veidekke. I’m not gonna have time to go on Helix by myself before so he will have to deal with me freaking out. I think I should buy motion sickness pills before that. Just in case. It will be so weird going on the attractions that I work on normally, and where my friends will be working. I am really excited about it. It will be my reward for almost being done with the thesis!

When I got home I sat down and watched the latest Game of Thrones episode while eating candy. I really felt like I deserved that after 6 long days of work. I was actually very grossed out at the end of the episode and had to look away. I didn’t remember that happen in the book, not exactly like that anyway. Ew, it was gross! I am sad that it is only two more episodes of the season… It would have been okay if George R.R. Martin would release the sixth book in the series. But that will most likely take many more years…

This morning was spent in school, first working a bit on the thesis presentation we are gonna hold tomorrow, and then we listened to a couple of other thesis presentations. We didn’t have time for more, I needed to go to work. It seriously only takes 20 minutes to walk from Chalmers to the backside of Liseberg.

The presentation isn’t until 2pm tomorrow so we will have the whole morning to prepare. That’s why I don’t do anything tonight. I am not nervous about tomorrow, we know what we have done and it can’t be a disaster unless it comes from someone else. I am confident.

5th day of work

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My 5th day at Liseberg is over and I am still in love with it. I love working with people so this is really perfect for me. Of course there are annoying people and some scary and angry people too, but I haven’t met them yet. Not the angry ones at least! But annoying, the “Guldpass” kids who think they are soooo coool but really aren’t. I can tell that people appreciate what I am doing for them, and that is such a good feeling! For example when you say something funny when the guests are at the top of AtmosFear and are laughing and giving my high fives or thumbs up when they are down. It’s amazing!

Today there was a young guy, maybe 17, who threw kisses at me when I was in the booth pressing buttons on AtmosFear. He waved all the time too and smiled and just being silly. Yesterday though there was an older guy (about my age) who flirted with me when I was at Höjdskräcken. I didn’t notice it at first, and then my colleague told me about it. As long as it is innocent it’s actually a bit fun to be recognized.

Today there were also a gang of Guldpasskids who were pretty okay. I checked their bracelets and one of them checked my nametag and greeted me by name. I greeted him back and he told me his name was Hugo. When I a few moments later checked his safety things right before I started the ride he asked me to make the ride even scarier. I thought about what I could say in the mic, but I seriously think AtmosFear is the scariest attraction so I said something like this: “My new friend Hugo wanted me to make this ride as scary as possible, but since this already is the scariest attraction in the park, the only thing I can do is to wish you Good Luck!” And right then it dropped. Of course I said this with a very serious voice. He thought that was very funny!

I was supposed to get Helix, the brand new and extremely popular rollercoaster. But one of the attractions in our area was broken and a lot of people were sick from other areas so I was at AtmosFear most of the day. I had my test on Höjdskräcken and passed it galantly! I am in the pool which means I will get as many attractions as possible, so I will get a new one tomorrow, and that will probably be the rollercoaster. So super cool! That will also mean that I am allowed to go on the ride while I am in training on that attraction. I’ve never gone on it. I hope I dare and won’t be crying when I get back to the platform and back to work…

 

I won’t start working until 1pm tomorrow so I will have time to be in school before that and work on the presentation and watch a couple. We all need to do that to get our thesis approved. My ambition is to be there at 8am, and then go straight to work. It’s gonna be a long day. But then I have my “weekend” when I will have to give two thesis presentations. But that will be easy.