Category Archives: Sweden

Job interview and the doctor

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday I went to the doctor about this B12 problem of mine. A new investigation was put to action and I took a lot of blood tests. Big bruises on the insides of my arms now. I hope I will find out why I have this deficiency once and for all. And I also want B12. It is getting to my head and I am ridiculously tired all the time.

Today I had another job interview. This time it was at Burger King. I think that sounds more fun than at Home services. But it is only a part time job and I think I will get much more money from the old people job. That is a dilemma… I think I need to wait and see if I get any of them and then compare salaries or just take whatever I get.

What was so funny about this interview though was that the interviewer recognized me. I had no idea who he was. But then it turned out that we were in the same class in middle school! How small isn’t the world? Back then he was a tiny guy who didn’t speak Swedish very well. Now he was tall with barely no accent at all. Wow! I still think it is cool that I was being interviewed by a former classmate.

In the afternoon I was working with my thesis partner at Chalmers on our report. I hate writing. But we have come a long way and I hope that we will be done sometime next week. I won’t be able to do anything  else this week, maybe Sunday. But I have a lot to do. Structural Engineering studying tomorrow at school, baking a birthday cake for mom, yoga, working at Cultural Care, thesis meeting, London trip planning, visit from a cousin, BBQ in Slottskogen… Lots of stuff to do all the time. No wonder I am so exhausted.

Today was the opening of the City Library here in Gothenburg. I didn’t have time to go there today, but since the opening is going on for the rest of the week I am planning to go there on Sunday and listen to the architects of the building giving a presentation and take a look at my beautiful plaster and glass walls.

Yesterday I decided that it was well overdue to clean my earrings. Silver tend to get a layer of something on it after a while. So I searched online and first tried toothpaste, which didn’t work. My second try with aluminum foil balls in salty boiling water worked! A few, not to tight, foil balls, salt in the water, get the water to boiling point and then boil the silver earrings for five minutes. Almost as clean as new ones. Perfect! I like these household remedies :).

 

The last thing I want to write about before passing out on my bed is that I’ve gotten a lot of emails from CalPoly lately. I accidently turned off the email function on my phone and realized that today. I got a welcome email from the international center giving me my account information and CalPoly email. Of course my username is HBEMM (Hanna Bemm). I think I will get used to everyone calling me Hanna next year.

Another email was from University Housing telling me that they were happy to offer me space in their beautiful campus apartment for the upcoming academic year. That is great news! The problem is that I don’t understand what I am supposed to do now. So I sent a long email to that international center asking a lot of questions about everything. In a week I will have to sign up to the classes that I submitted in my application to the exchange program several months ago.

This thing is complicated! It is so much easier here where you apply for schools and programs and then get accepted to all the classes that is included. You sign up on a webpage and there you get a list of apartments you can apply for. So much easier!

This CalPoly thing is getting really real now. About four months until departure!! It will get even more real when I get my welcome package with all my legal papers (so I can apply for a visa) and tons of information from the school. Excited, oh yes! But at the same time, I wouldn’t mind staying here in Sweden either… I love my new  life here!

Easter BBQ

Posted on by
Reply

The Swedish spring goes on! Today was as nice as yesterday, a few more clouds, and a breeze, but it was perfect. I’ve been sitting out in the sun in Sjövik all afternoon in shorts and a tank top. Super awesome!

My dad and Karin had a BBQ party today, so I borrowed mom’s car and drove out to them at 2pm. I got a comfortable chair and sat there until it was time to eat. As appetizer there were Swedish easter food, like pickled herring, salmon, Jansons frestelse, gubbröra. Really good!

And the main course was grilled pork and lamb. Really good that too! Chocolate cake for dessert.

It was a very nice afternoon!

 

Before I drove there I tried a trick mom told me she read about somewhere. All my frying pans and pots are black underneath. With sugar cubes that easily went away. Amazing.

Sugar cubes

I also found extremely cheap flight tickets to the US. I was told on Saturday that Norwegian Airlines has started with direct flights from Stockholm to Los Angeles. September 1st, 2500kr!! That is ridiculous! I was afraid that I was gonna have to pay 10 000 for a roundtrip. Now it seems like half that price. Awesome! I’m not gonna book anything though until I am certain of what I will do. Maybe I won’t even fly in to LA, but somewhere else for a short vacation before school starts?

 

Now, I will watch the latest Game of Thrones episode, eat some easter candy and drink påskmust!

Easter lunch

Posted on by
Reply

I had a very calm day today. Except for all the aching in my body of course. It’s hard playing that much beach volleyball in one day. That was the second time I played since I got back home and I can feel that today, my whole upper body is pretty much dead and now in the evening I’m also starting to feel it in my butt. But it was totally worth it, and it’s awesome having muscle soreness in your stomach!

What’s not so nice about my whole body aching is that that includes my tooth, or lack of tooth. It’s not exactly the hole that is hurting, but my whole jaw bone. And it’s not always, just now and then, but when it does hurt, it hurts crazy much! I am gonna call my dentist on Tuesday and ask her if this is normal. I can’t imagine it being so…

Anyway, today was all about having an Easter lunch with mom. Pickled herring, meatballs, prince sausage, shrimp cheesecake, smoked salmon and of course easter must (påskmust). So delicious! And for desert I got an easter egg full of candy. I don’t think I will ever be too old to get one of those!

I hugged my cats a lot and had a nice time on the couch with Stuff. I pet her nose and she copycat me and put her paw on my nose. So adorable! And we held hands while we watched a part of Return of the King.

In the afternoon mom and I went shopping. She needed a shoe shelf and I needed more painkillers. So we drove around to different stores and bought everything except what mom needed. We found some really cute tête-a-têtes, small easter lillies (daffodil is the correct name according to wikipedia). 5 kr for one pot so we bought one each. Really pretty on my kitchen table.

When I got home I watched one episode of Once Upon a Time and played Guild Wars 2 the rest of the evening. It’s a quite addicitive game…

I hope tomorrow brings as good weather as it was today. It really felt like summer! It was way too hot for a jacket and everything is getting greener by the day and the sky was completely cloudless. I love this season! My dad and his fiancé have a BBQ tomorrow and if the weather is as good, I will probably go out there earlier to get some of my tan back.

Swedish springThe Swedish summer is amazing. But I actually think I enjoy spring better when it is like today!

Easter Cup

Posted on by
2

This day has been so much fun! I am exhausted but happy. It takes a lot of energy to play beach volleyball. And I have to say, me and Dzejna did very well today and were this close to coming second in the group play. The first game we played we won with a lot of points. Our second game we lost with the same numbers and the third, that was the most intense game. It was so close and the first set was totally ours except that they won eventually with 18-16. The last set was also close, not as, 15-12.  We played awesome though and we were happy and cheering each other on all the time. We have come a long way!

This meant that we came third in our group which also meant that we were out of the tournament. The first and second team kept playing, but the third has to judge the next game. So as usual we had to stay for a couple more hours before we could go home… I hate that system! It’s so much better to be last/fourth and just go home. But we were also soo close to coming second. Stupid.

I had fun anyway and I look forward to the next tournament, whenever it is.

 

The weather has been awesome on this Easter eve. Blue sky and no wind, it really felt like summer today. I kinda wished we would have played outside. If it’s nice weather tomorrow again I will occupy mom’s balcony after our easter lunch together.

Easter Cup 2014My new phone has a good camera too, puh!

 

Yesterday I got a phone call from a Burger King here in Gothenburg. That was one of the places I applied for a summerjob a few weeks back. And they wanted me to come in for an interview on Wednesday. It is closer than that old people job which would be so much more convenient. But we’ll see what happens then.

In the evening I was with mom and some of her friends on their game night. They have that now and then and this time I was invited. I didn’t have anything better to do so I joined. It was a very nice evening and I taught them how to play Munchkin. It took me a while to remember, but it worked out in the end. It is a very fun roll playing card game.

Job interview

Posted on by
Reply

I have to say that I was surprised after the interview I had today. Before I walked into the home care service office in Torslanda I thought this was my last resort. But to be honest, it actually sounded like a nice job. Except for the diapers and help in the bathroom stuff of course, but nothing is perfect. I will either work during day or evening and I would be fine with both. If I work during the day I would be done by 4pm and would have time to head out to the sea and enjoy the Swedish summer, and I would be able to work as a beach volleyball coach too. If I work evenings I have time to sleep and be outside during the day. And the ocean is very close! And it isn’t too bad of a salary either. I will be able to pay my rent, save some AND buy a plane ticket to the US. Awesome! I will find out next week if I got it or not.

The only bad thing about it is that it is out on Hisingen and it will take me 40 minutes to go there everyday. As long as the buses goes okay, which they usually don’t do in the summer, I will be okay. It’s not too bad to commute, but it could of course be so much better.

My cheek is pretty swollen and it hurts a lot. Last time it was fine by the end of the day. I really look like a chipmunk… I hope it goes away soon, it’s embarrassing. And I will be able to play the beach volleyball tournament on Saturday! I am really excited about it and I might even have a tiny audience.

And speaking of teeth, when I came home after the interview I had mail from my dentist. They want me to come in for a normal examination in three weeks. Silly, I’ve been there three times the last couple of months. Maybe I will postpone to August, right before I go to the US. Or maybe I should go now and let them take a look at my newly healed holes.

The painkillers are making me a bit off, but I probably should go to school to study some anyway. Or maybe I should take a nap like the last couple of days. It is well needed. We’ll see if my study partner wants me there or not after lunch.

A pulled tooth and a new phone

Posted on by
Reply

My second wisdom tooth is gone and I am finally done with this horrible teeth-pulling-thing. I knew it wasn’t gonna be so bad, but I was still very nervous and my heart was racing. I did feel the needles this time but I didn’t flinch, guess I am a viking.

It felt like it was more difficult with this one compared to the other one, four weeks ago. But I don’t know. I was freaking out when I heard a machine starting up. It felt like they were filing the tooth or something and I was afraid this one wasn’t as straight as the X-rays said. But mom told me after that it was just a water sollution to clean. It totally felt like a drill/file or whatever though. Scary.

Mom drove me home and I got stuck on the couch for one hour while I waited to take out the thing the dentist put in my cheek to stop the bleeding. It didn’t bleed much at all this time which was a relief. The last time it kept bleeding the whole day.

Anyway, when that thing was out I fell asleep in my bed and slept for three hours. I could have slept more, but I got hungry. So I rinsed and ate some yoghurt and ice cream. Not together.

At three I met up mom at Siba by her job. The line to get help was long like last time and that feels so unnecessary when I, both of the times, knew exactly what I wanted.

Well, I got it and I am surprised it only cost 3000kr. That’s not very much for one of the better phones on the market right now!

We stopped at the grocery store on our way back to my place and back home I had an early dinner and watched a few TV shows. Then I charged my new phone, played a little GW2 and then set up my phone. It went super fast! I just wrote my Gmail address when it started and it even downloaded all the apps I had on my old phone. Very convenient. What I really don’t like about it is the lack of a normal text (SMS) app. It wants me to use Hangouts which is the worst shit ever! The idea to have SMS, MMS, phonecalls, videocalls, in the same app is good. But it doesn’t work. It didn’t give me the name of the person I was texting with, just the number. And how am I gonna remember all those numbers? This has apparently been a problem with Hangouts for months, but it is still not fixed. So I downloaded a new text app that I put to default, Textra. And so far I like it. You don’t even have to open the app to answer the text, you can just get a popup window, and when you press send it goes back to what you did before. Awesome!

I rebooted the HTC One X to factory settings and I hope my dad will enjoy it as much as I have these past two years. It is a great phone! He is very curious about the awesome camera. I hope my new phone camera is as good, if not better.

I should probably get to bed, I have to be in school again tomorrow. Or maybe I should watch another Once Upon a Time…

Google Nexus 5

Cal Poly 2014-2015

Posted on by
Reply

This day has been getting better by the hour from the start! First me and my partner finished the big thing on our thesis, the only thing missing are some emission numbers for excavators. We emailed a guy about it today. Hope we get an answer, we have asked a lot of people and no one has been able to give us what we want.

After three hours of work in the morning I went grocery shopping and then home where I got stuck on the couch in front of the TV. In the evening I went to the gym with mom and she was kind and gave me a ride back home.

At home I cooked a soup full of chlorophyll, consisting of spinach, green peas, broccoli and lime with a feta/avocado topping. It took a while, probably because it was the first time I ever cooked it, and I was texting/on the phone at the same time. The result anyway, was a very calorie controlled and yummy soup. Completely green. And what made my late dinner even better was that I ate it in front of Game of Thrones, the second episode of the fourth season. I was almost laughing out loud at the end. I knew it was gonna happen, but it was a huge relief anyway! When I read that part in the book I was so happy I didn’t know what to do. Haha! I really want The Winds of Winter to be released soon. It’s too long between the books and I forget what happens…

After that I was told by my dad that you can see Mars on the sky today. I thought it was on the 8th, but it was clearly visible today to, right above the full moon. So unbeliavably cool! And what’s even more cool is that my phone could get it on picture! Too bad I’m getting a new one tomorrow 😉 That was the second piece of information my dad gave me. He transferred money for my birthday present, Google Nexus 5!

And the last thing that really made the end of this day awesome was my acceptance email from Cal Poly! Now it is completely completely done! I will get a lot of papers in the mail pretty soon and then I can start getting my visa and figure out when I will get over there and buy a flight ticket. I am so excited!! Less than five months 🙂

Oh, there is one more thing, this is the last night with my troubling wisdom tooth. Tomorrow it will be gone! And even if I will be in pain this week, it will be the last of tooth aches hopefully forever!

I should probably go to bed, I have a dentist appointment at 8am tomorrow. Mom is picking me up at 7:30. I don’t wanna go through it alone, even if I know it’s not gonna be too horrible…

Full moon and MarsThe tiny dot just above the moon is Mars! I’ve always been very fascinated by space and seeing that big red dot in the sky made me really excited! Almost like seeing dolphins and turtles in the wild.

Tooth ache for the last time

Posted on by
Reply

So bad timing for another stupid tooth ache. It started a few days ago but today I woke up and it really hurt. And it is still getting worse. I am so glad that these problems will be gone forever in two days!

The right one that got pulled almost four weeks ago stopped hurting like a week after, but I am not sure it healed properly. There is a hole there and I am afraid that food will stuck. I have to ask them if that is how it is supposed to be like on Tuesday.

Today I was at IKEA with mom after a short 40 minutes of work. Not many people wanted to be interview today so I had only one. At IKEA we had lunch and then bought a few things each, like potato smashers, candles and a new and bigger box for Cards Against Humanity.

The rest of the afternoon I was on the couch and accidently fell asleep watching Once Upon a Time. I hate being this tired all the time!!

Next week will be a short one and after that I need to start studying structural engineering for real. I thought I was gonna be better at studying this time since I only have one class, but I am just too lazy, so it will probably be like normal, the last two weeks before the exam, 24/7…

Party & water polo

Posted on by
Reply

Last night’s birthday party was awesome! My daytime birthday was boring, but it ended with blue sky and a nice party. There weren’t so many people there, but we mixed drink, took shots and played Cards Against Humanity for the first time. I had so much fun.

We didn’t go out after, no one was interested, but that was how I wanted it. I’m not really a fan of nightclubs.

The original plan for this morning was to have lunch with mom, but I wasn’t feeling very well, so I went to Max Hamburgers with Chad instead. So delicious and greasy and perfect for a hangover day.

He helped me clean up the mess and then went home to get some sleep. I on the other hand was feeling surprisingly well and went with VIRUS to play water polo. I wasn’t even sure what it was, but I had so much fun. We were three girls and maybe 11 guys. But everyone was very nice at the end and passed the ball to me and I did some nice pass interruptions. And I surprised myself by crawling pretty okay. I’ve never been able to do that before and now, all of a sudden I can. It’s like with my setting in beach volleyball. It just worked!

Before the game at the end, when we had to have those stupid hats, we had some exercises like how to pass and shoot and drown eachother. It was hard and after one hour in the water I was done. So much fun tough.

23

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been a very boring day so far. I guess birthdays aren’t that special when your number is getting higher and higher. I spent the morning in school trying to concentrate on structural engineering. I actually recognized a lot today. Interesting since I’ve hatade concrete since the beginning of time and I remember more of it than steel and tree.

After school I did a little grocery shopping and had lunch. I took a two hour nap and then started doing laundry. My apartment is almost completely clean, I just need to do the dishes and then I am ready to have guests. I still don’t kow what to wear but that’s a later problem. My face is baby smooth after a bicarbonate/hot steam treatment and I am so bored now that I will actually play some Guild Wars 2!

 

I was at Gothenburg’s University yesterday afternoon where a person from the American Embassy was giving us information about what it’s like to study abroad and how to get a visa and other stuff. She said the same thing I got as a reply on email a few months ago. I will be able to get a new visa and if I meet the right requirements I can do it over email and I don’t have to go all the way up to Stockholm for the visa interview at the embassy.

She also told us that if we get government funding to stay over there for a while when having the J-1 visa we won’t be able to get an immigrant or work visa for two years! Two-Year Home-Country Physical Presence Requirement. That’s just such a weird rule! I will probably stay in Sweden after I get my degree, but still, what if I get an awesome job? My other choice is to have $15,000 on my account when I apply for the visa and present proof of it at the embassy that rule might not apply to me. Stupid rule!

 

I just got an email from Chalmers telling me that I’ve been accepted to CalPoly!! Now everything is done, I just need to get a new visa and find somewhere to live. In less than five months I will be in California again! ❤