Category Archives: Sweden

3 attractions

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Three super intense days are over and I seriously have a hard time standing up right now. Everything hurts, but I am happy. I really feel at home at Liseberg, already made a lot of friends and I don’t feel weird goofing around with the guests. I love it!

I have had three full days so far and I’ve learned three attractions. Well, the third I got tonight, one hour before I got off, but still, that’s not too bad! My first attraction on Wednesday was the big ferris wheel, Lisebergshjulet. I am glad I got that one as my first, it is really easy. So easy that a day later I was an approved driver of that attraction. I am not allowed to push the buttons on that one, but only check people’s tickets, get them safely aboard the gondolas, let them out, and hang out with them when they are waiting. Super easy and fun.

On my second day I first had a checkup on the wheel, to make sure that I knew everything and I had time to ask questions. The next two hours I was at Atmosfear, the big free fall up on the mountain on Liseberg. And after all that new information I had the “test” on Lisebershjulet. I managed though and had three hours in total on there all by myself (except for the operator who pushes the buttons in the side room). I did good and had fun there!

Atmosfear is harder! There I need to press buttons, and there are a lot of them. But I’ve learned and did really well on the “test” this afternoon. A test is pretty much just a supervisor asking questions about the attraction. How to open it, how to run it, how to close it and what the normal errors are. It is so much easier to “study” for this instead of an exam at a university. It is easier to learn by doing instead of learn by reading. I had a few hours today by myself after that and it was fun. I felt more secure when no one was watching my every move. And I could say anything in the microphone without feeling stupid. That’s something that gets easier every time you do it. It is extremely fun for example to count down when they are on the top and stop on 7 or something. Or repeat on number several times; 10, 9, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7…. When they come down after that and have stopped screaming they start to laugh and one time they applauded. I need to come up with fun lines to say. The fun thing about Atmosfear is that I can talk to them on all the way up, there are speakers on the gondola. Extremely fun! I also counted backwards in German today.

My third attraction, that I just got an introduction to is Höjdskräcken. It is very similar to Atmosfear, it is a free fall but smaller and is actually pushed down from the top instead of just being dropped. It is only 12 seats on it instead of 36 and I will be completely alone on that one when I get it approved. And you can’t talk to the guest when they are up in the air. I guess there are other ways to entertain myself on that one. Need to figure them out though.

My first two days I worked until 11pm and tonight to 8pm. I don’t have time for much else right now. I would have worked on the thesis when I got home, but I forgot my notes at Liseberg, so I will study on my breaks tomorrow. I have another 8pm day tomorrow and on Sunday I will only work until 6pm. Luxury! In total I will have worked 7 days straight before my first “weekend” on Tuesday and Wednesday. And that’s when I have my thesis presentations. I can’t say how much I want that to be over so I can enjoy work more and get a routine on my life again.

 

If anyone can come up with fun things to say in the microphone (or just straight to the guests), please tell me. I want to be a fun Liseberger! 🙂

World’s best job

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Dear 10 readers,

I am alive, though extremely exhausted after my two first days at the best job ever. I have been working until 11pm both days and early mornings thereafter equals no blog at the moment. An update will come eventually (maybe on my first day off; on Tuesday). I should probably focus on work, sleep and thesis at the moment.

Yours sincerely,
//Alexandra Bemm, attraction driver at Liseberg.

Sand in my eye

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I’ve been home in Sweden for a few days more than I have left. Why does time go by so ridiculously fast? It’s not that I don’t look forward to going, I do, but I really enjoy being back home. Tomorrow I will start working at the world’s most fun job, and when you’re having fun time goes even faster, which means that I will be at the airport saying goodbye way too soon. I should probably buy my flight ticket soon. I don’t want the prices to go higher. Maybe before the week is over.

The only thing I don’t have for the visa interview is a printed photo and the confirmation page of my appointment at the Embassy. I am picking up the photo tomorrow morning which means I have to book the interview. I think I will just go over the day the 11th of June. It will be hell sitting on a 5am train, but I could sleep, or read, which is not too bad. A book I’ve been waiting for for a year was released today, and with this reading pace I have now I will probably read that on the train in two weeks. Or maybe it will be done, I don’t know. The book btw is the sixth and last book in the Mortal Instruments series, City of Heavenly Fire.

This morning I was in school working on the thesis. Both I and my partner are getting tired of this. Our supervisor at Chalmers has gone underground and we haven’t heard anything from him in weeks! We get different information about the formalities of the report from different people in charge and that is really a pain in the ass annoying this close to the finish line! Today we decided who is gonna talk about what on the presentations. And we are gonna work with what we want to say individually. I hope I won’t be too tired after work to be able to do a good job.

*ONE HOUR LATER*

Never mind what I wrote above. The interview appointment is schedule for June 11th at 9:30am. Train tickets bought for 700SEK and I will have a few hours on my own in Stockholm that day, but then a lunch at Hard Rock Cafe might be a good idea?

I just also bought my flight ticket! This is so real now! On September 12th I will be leaving Gothenburg and fly to Los Angeles. I am gonna take another flight from there to San Luis Obispo, but I’m not gonna book that right now, if it turns out that I can get a ride from there from my peer contact or someone else. Or maybe I will decide to rent a car and drive up along Pacific Coast Highway 1 again. I mean, it’s just a 13h flight, I’ll probably feel okay.

Tomorrow morning I will go to Chalmers, print my last paper for the interview, then head to the photo store I was in today and pick up my printed visa photo. …. I was just gonna write that I will then be totally ready. But the truth is that there is always something else to do. I willhave to go to the interview, wait for my passport to come back, book my hostel for the first couple of nights in SLO, book the last flight from LA to SLO. And packing of course! Moving my stuff out of the apartment. Saying goodbye…

I feel like I have everything under control anyway and that is a good feeling. I can stay focused on my thesis now! I’ll probably have some time for it tomorrow before work. Oh yes, I have my first day at Liseberg tomorrow! Excited or what!!

 

At 6pm I was at Beach Center with Dzejna and two other. One of them, Anna, I knew since before. But the third, Erika, never showed up because of stomach cramps 30 min before we would play, so she sent her “sambo”(=the person you are in a relationship with and living with, but not married) instead. We didn’t mind, he was a nice dude and the games were very even. I won mostof my games though and I played really well. Except my serve which didn’t work at all today. But my sets and spikes were as good as ever. What happened during our gameplay that wasn’t so good though was that I accidently threw a lot of sand in my wide open eye! I sat down, closed my eyes and was afraid of opening them. The others ran and grabbed my water bottle and poured it in my hands so I could rinse my eyes. I must have gotten most of it out, because it didn’t hurt. Phew! I remember what happened in 4th of 5th grade when I got a grain of sand in my eye and it swelled so bad that I had to go to the ER… I don’t want that to happen again. It’s been a few hours now and it still doesn’t feel particularly weird, so it’s probably fine :).

I played some Guild Wars 2 after school today for the first time in probably 3 weeks. I missed it! I wanted to play some more after beach volleyball, but it got really late now all of a sudden….

 

Ugh, this got longer than I expected. I should probably get to bed and read through my information papers I got from the attraction department last week. It’s a lot of pages I should read before I start working… But at the same time I also want to read Throne of Glass… Soon I will be able to read whatever I want, and do whatever I want in my freetime! The benefits of working compared to studying 🙂

Structural Engineering exam

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It’s done. I’m free! Almost. The anxiety a test at Chalmers brings is gone and that feels soooo good! As the other couple of times it was a 5 hour exam and I sat in the lecture room (so weird sitting in a classroom where I have lectures, normally we sit in special rooms we use when we solve problems) until the very end. I wrote something on 7 questions out of 8. Not an answer on all of them, but I can still get some points. I can’t really say how it feels. I guess like the other times and that it can go either way. But it’s good to know that I could give as many answers after just a few days of studying instead of two weeks. Or maybe I won’t get a single point. I’m not gonna think about this, it’s done and I can focus on my thesis instead. I’ll take it again when I get the result in a couple or three weeks.

After the test I was in school for 1,5 hours with my thesis partner writing on the report. We got the feedback from our examinator and it wasn’t too bad this time. She even said we might get this appored before the summer. Good news, awesome! I got hungry at 3pm, went home, had lunch and then spent a while on my couch reading, and then falling asleep. I love this freedom feeling! I could have had summer break now, but what does two extra weeks matter?

Test tomorrow

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I could let you think that the lack of posts the past couple of days has been because I’ve been studying, but it wouldn’t feel right to do that. Yesterday I was actually out drinking a little bit. Probably wasn’t the best of ideas two nights before a huge test. But I seriously haven’t been feeling the urge to study. I’ve gone through all the old tests (not solving the problems, but remembering where to find all the equations in the books and in wich order they all come). I’ve read through all the theory questions and written new summaries of all the different types of problems, and I feel like that is what I can do with this motivation (or lack of).

I am disappointed in myself, this was supposed to be my triumph. 75% of school, so I would have had more time to focus on this stupid course, but no. I’ve done everything but. When I was in London i secretly gave up. I have been trying since, but not wholeheartedly. And I will not be disappointed when I don’t pass this one.

I will go there tomorrow, do my best, and hope for problems that I know how to solve. I am really good at some of them (I actually solved one of them yesterday without the answer key), but the problems are random, and so far I’ve been in extreme unluck. So maybe this third time will be right!

Even if I don’t pass I will be so relieved to be done with this stress. I am gonna try to do a little almost every day of the summer, get deeper understanding of the subject, and try again in the end of August.

 

I didn’t study much today, but instead I got some visa preparations done. I paid another stupid fee, the one called SEVIS (or  I-901). I have no idea what it is for, but $180 is now gone from my bank account… I have been looking into when i should go to the US Embassy. It would be awesome to go on 1st class by train with my brother when he is working on July 22nd. But Chad isn’t in Sweden 22-23, and I don’t want to spend almost two days in Stockholm by myself. So I asked him when he could join me. So maybe 11-12 of June. Or my third option, going with the 5am train on the 11th, go to the Embassy at 9:30am and go back home in the afternoon. It will be a tough day, but I think that is the easiest option if I don’t have any company.

I am missing five things to bring to the embassy (I hope I haven’t forgotten anything); Proof of Fiancial Aid (which I will get from Chalmers tomorrow), SEVIS reciept (which I will print tomorrow), Confirmation of appointment at the Embassy (I can’t get this until I’ve made the appointment), Extract of the population register (I will have to call Swedish Tax Agency tomorrow and ask them to send on to me, and a printed photo. I am waiting for someone with Photoshop to fix the background. It’s not that much left until I have a new USA Visa page in my Passport 🙂
I really need to go to bed now and read through some of my notes again. I am surprisingly calm about tomorrow. I remember getting all hyped up about exams two years ago…

Stress

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I wish I could fastfoward my life three weeks, maybe four just to be sure all of this is over. I have so much going on and it’s not doing me any good. This stupid test on Monday for one. It’s Friday tomorrow and I just started… It doesn’t feel too bad though when I did half a test today. A lot comes back when I reread the old exams and theory questions. But I am still not expecting a grade.

The thesis is not going so well. Our examinator and supervisor at Chalmers are very negative towards our report and seriously can’t say anything good about it, except that it was a bit better since the first draft. It sucks! I hate this project. We got confirmed that we can have our presentation at Chalmers on June 3rd though at 2pm. That’s something. Now we just have to book a room and talk to Veidekke and ask them if we can give the presentation in the morning the same day.

My visa application is confusing. I have a very nice picture that would look good in my passport but today I got paranoid, what if it isn’t and I go to the embassy with it and get neglected? I took this photo myself, but I seriously don’t want to pay a fortune to go to a photographer. I am concerned about the small shadows in the background and they might go away in photoshop. So will try that and then go to a photo store and ask them if it is an okay photo for a US visa. It hopefully is, I am looking straight forward, I have a neutral and not an exxagerated expression, white background. But slanting shoulders and small shadows in the background. I don’t think the shoulders should be a problem, what if I looked like that? Maybe I have to walk crookedly at the embassy. And then there’s the problem of when I should go to Stockholm. I need to book the appointment very soon in case the spots run out. I want to talk to my brother and see if he works on SJ a day when I am off work. I am not sure he knows in advance when he works. But I will ask him. Otherwise paying a shitload of money on a regular train or taking a car and stay the night with my uncle and cousins. Or convince my dad to come with me again. Unfortunately I can’t get it with a weekend this time since I am working. Complicated! I also have to make 100% sure what I need to bring to the embassy. It can get nasty otherwise…

My new visa picture(?) to the left, and old one to the right (taken by a photographer).
AlexandraBemmVisa 2013
I think this should be okay with a lighter background and no shadows.

My last stress thing is that I start working on Wednesday and I will work every day until our presentation. That will be fun. Long nights or early mornings at Chalmers!

The awesome summer weather is making sitting inside all day miserable. This morning at 7am it was 20C outside, that is ridiculous!! And by the afternoon it was way warmer. I really hope it will be a nice summer.

I have tried to study today, but procrastinating is at its best during exam times. I have calculated an estimated sum of what I will earn this summer and it’s not too bad. The total for three months will be about 60 000 SEK, which is what I earned during the whole 2013. But the taxes are much higher here. But I won’t have any trouble with rent or living expenses at least. Great!

 

I need to go to bed now, read a little fiction, and get up early to continue with this nightmare of studying I am living right now…

A signed contract

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It’s official, I am an attraction operator at Liseberg! I am so excited about this job and I start in less than a week, I can’t wait!! Today was actually my first workday, three hours paid introduction evening. I was there one hour earlier to sign my contract and fill out some forms and get clothes, my card, name tags and locker. I guess I haven’t thought about how the people at Liseberg looks like in many many years because I was surprised when I saw the clothes I got. They were red instead of an ugly shade of purple/green like I remembered. Good!

At 4pm we were 8 girls and we did some group exercises and got lots of information. It was interesting and I ammore excited about the job now. I think I ended up in a very good department at Liseberg. I’ve met a few of my new co-workers, but I am in the pool (is it called that?), so I will be moving around and work where I am needed instead of being in the same area.

At 7pm we were done and I headed in to downtown to vote in the upcoming EU election. I don’t care about politics, but I don’t want one specific party in there so I voted for another.

Back home, had a skagentoast for dinner and then I studied for a couple of hours. I have now rewritten all the teoretic questions so they are understandable. Now I just have to read them through several times a day and start solving the problems and go through old tests. I don’t think I will pass it on Monday, but it will help me when I redo it for the fourth time in August. That time I will be serious about it!!

Liseberg Alexandra

J-1 Visa

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I remember the visa process being a bit difficult last year, but this time it is even worse! Last year I could pay the visa fee to the American Embassy in Stockholm easily through my internet bank. But this year I had to get a login to ustraveldocs.com where I had to answer some questions and then pay the fee, get a reciept number which was extremely important not to lose. I was able to pay with my card online though instead of going to the bank like my fellow travelers.

All this was possible after 30 minuts of trying to call the Embassy.  I went through ten minutes of automatic answers on the phone and then I could talk to a person, but they hung up, three times! Then I finally got through and got all my questions answered. It turns out that I need to go to the American Embassy in Stockholm for an interview. If I would have had the same program, then I wouldn’t have needed it, but it is different. They guy also told me I might not have to pay the SEVIS fee (which I think was automatically paid last year through Cultural Care, beacuse I don’t remember paying that myself, it was $35). But when I read my old SEVIS reciept it says it is only valid for that program. So that means I have to pay that anyway, and this year it is not the puny $35, but $200!! What?? I already paid $160 for the visa…. The money is dissappearing very quickly now… It’s good that I start working next week and will get my first (small, but still) paycheck in a month. This month I will get my housing grant and like half of my study grant. I think I will survive.

Last night I stayed up until 2am applying for the visa. The first step is to fill out an online form called DS-160. It went pretty fast, since I knew what to answer on most of the questions. But I had to answer a lot more because of my stay there last year. I had to give them my California driver license number and that gave me an idea. What if I can bring my old license and just get it renewed in September? I hope I can. And I hope it doesn’t complicate things just because I never got the real card. I have the number and that should be enough or them to see that I passed everthing. I will cross my fingers!

I think I have everything regarding the visa under control. I am still waiting for an email with the deicision if I have to pay the SEVIS fee or not. If I misread the last reciept I got, I don’t want to pay $200 in vain.

And going to Stockholm for a couple of days could be nice. That gives me a reason to visit my cousins up there again. Unfortunately it has to be on weekdays because of my working schedule. I have one weekend with Monday and Tuesday off too in July. That could work. We’ll see.

The next step when all this is done is to buy a one-way flight ticket to California. It’s only a little more than three months away. Where does the time go??

Outdoor beach volleyball

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Yesterday I played beach volleyball again. And outside this time. First in Sweden! I was afraid that it was gonna be cold, but it was blue sky and perfect temperature for playing outside. I and Dzejna didn’t play very well, but we had fun, and that’s what matters.

After two hours of play we stayed on the sun deck tanning for 1,5 hours. It was amazing! But I was a bit read in my face when I came home. It is mostly gone by now, but it is clearly visible that I was wearing sunglasses yesterday.

One of the girls we were playing, Maria, asked me about my upcoming exchange year. I just told her that I am going to California. She said she had also been an exchange student in California. I didn’t ask where, I assumed it was in Santa Barbara or something where most go. But then she asked me if I had heard of a place called San Luis Obispo, when I said yes, she asked me CalPoly? It turned out that she was an exchange student there ten years ago from Chalmers. She’s not a building and civil engineer though, but a mechanical engineer. She told me I have an amazing year ahead of me and was happy for me for going to such a great school. The world is so small!

Beach CenterMe, Sarka, Maria and Dzejna.

I took a nap and in the evening I went out to dinner with Chad and met up with my dad and his girlfriends and some friends at a bar watching the Eurovision Song Contest. I wasn’t paying that much attention to the competition. But it was a nice evening.

Today was all about changing bed. The one I had was making way too much noise and was so old it was falling apart. So mom and I got the extra one from mom’s apartment, drove it here, and threw away the old one. It took a while but now it is done! I should buy a new mattress pretty soon. The one I have is almost falling apart…

Mom dropped me off after a quick grocery shopping. I felt like cooking blue cheese chicken casserole with grapes on it. It was well worth it, so delicious! It’s extremely easy, just melt the blue cheese with some cooking cream, put it in an oven safe thing for 10 minutes and then put grape halves on it and 5 more minutes in the oven. This time I completely forgot about what to have with it, I was gonna try the new tricolore quinoa I bought, but it would have taken too much time so I just made some couscous instead. A very nice dinner for a Sunday!

I never got my Course Permission Number for the EDES 406 class. It’s not okay to say that you will send the number within an hour and then don’t do it. It looks like the class is still not full in the student center, but still! It’s not okay to put this stress to international students. It’s hard to figure everything out without these kinds of problems… I hope I get an email tomorrow night, when she is back at work.

 

Okay, so tomorrow I am leaving this country again. The London trip is finally here! I packed today and it is surprisingly few things. What takes the most space is probably my school books. I am really excited and think it will be a fun week with mom and two of her friends.

Course registration

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What a day. I hardly can keep my eyes open but I am waiting for a very important email from Cal Poly with my last Permission Course Number. I called the responsible person for the course and she said she would do it in an hour (this was one hour before the registration opened at 10pm), but I still haven’t gotten it yet. My other three courses are showing the status: enrolled and that feels good. But I’m not gonna be relaxed until I have the last one in that list too. I have heard that transfer students are prioritized when it comes to course registration, so I think it will work out perfectly fine anyway.

My other big Cal Poly Preparation today was that I went to the bank to make the Initial Housing Payment. I got help with the whole thing from a very nice lady. And the waiting line was zero at 11am a Friday morning. According to her everything was filled out correctly, but it still feels unsafe. I mean, I trust the internet bank, but when it’s about a lot of money ($1125 / 7500SEK) and used with a payment method I’ve never used before…. I can’t help but get a bit nervous. But I am sure it is correctly done and that I can put it behind me!

It is so nice to have this and the course registration done. The only thing left now is to get the visa (which I can’t get now anyway, I don’t have the DS-2019 paper yet) and then decide when I want to go to the US. I can move in on September 14th. But two weeks travelling before? Hawaii with a friend from San Diego? Hanging out with my host family? Or just stay in Sweden and work two extra weeks and earn more money? Tough decisions.

The whole morning was spent in school with three hours of class. Super boring! I have to pull myself together pretty soon if I am gonna pass this stupid exam in 2.5 weeks.

In school I also made two phone calls to the two other job had had gotten offers on. Well, one not yet, but she was willing to give me it, I could hear that in her very dissapointing voice when I said I got another job. I felt really bad, they both sounded like fun jobs and I feel like I gave them false hope by going to interviews and tell them how interested I was. Well I was. But I still feel bad for turning them down. This is an experience I’ve never had to deal with before. Turning down jobs…

At four I went to my first after work in, probably ever. There is a German girl here in Gothenburg who are going to San Diego for three months to be an au pair. A few other of her friends were also joining and we talked for two hours about San Diego, au pairs, studies and a lot of other things. And that was very nice. She is going home to Germany soon though but we will try to have at least one more after work at another place. After that I went to my second after work at another place with Chad and Mike. That was also very nice! I don’t feel too bad about paying 40kr per cider either. It could be much worse.

 

No, I can’t stay up any longer. I hope I wake up to good news in my email! And let’s hope I will get a little more than 4 hours of sleep tonight…