Category Archives: Sweden

Cousins in Hjo

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Home again in my apartment after a long but very nice day. I finally met my cousins and grandparents on mom’s side again. Before we came to Hjo we picked up Malin at her gymnastic practice and she didn’t recognize me from far away, but when I came closer she gave me a really big hug!

When we came to my uncle’s new house I got more big hugs. At 3pm grandma and grandpa came and we started our afternoon with mudpie. Weird to have desert before the meal, but I’ve had opposite-themed parties at Chalmers so it’s nothing I’ve never done before.

Before dinner I played Assholes with my brother, Malin and Lovisa. We only had time for two rounds before dinner, pulled pork. It was really good! I will try that one day, for sure!

After dinner we just sat and talked. Malin got impatient and wanted to open my very late Christmas gifts for them. I got one too, a thermometer to have outside my window. I didn’t even knew I needed one but my mom apparently did and told my uncle. She have noticed that I always complain that it looks warmer than it is and always choose the wrong clothes. My sweet mom who knows me better than I do sometimes!

My cousins loved their gifts. They each got a Hollister t-shirt and a key chain with their initial from Hollywood and a used card deck from Las Vegas. I am glad they liked it :).

I’ve decided with my cousins to try to redo this whole thing with them visiting me on their own for a weekend in Gothenburg. I think Malin will start on the weekend of March 29th, Lovisa April 26th and then we’ll see about Linnea. I look forward to those weekends!

Tomorrow is my last day before the seriousness begins. My classes start on Monday. On Tuesday I will pull one or two wisdom teeth. On Wednesday I will start with my thesis and on Friday I will take the train up to my grandparents and cousins on dad’s side for a weekend with them.

I hope this week goes fast and that I won’t have any complications with the teeth pulling!

San Diego in my kitchen

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Today was a very boring Friday. I had to be at home for DHL didn’t give me a specific time when they were gonna give me my last painting. It was bad weather, so it didn’t matter that much, but to know that I couldn’t leave my apartment until they came wasn’t very fun. They came at 2pm so I had only been awake for three hours, it could have been worse.

The canvas of the San Diego downtown skyline is big, and not as sharp as the Hawaii ones, but it looks good above my kitchen table. It feels really good to have both Hawaii and San Diego close even if it is so far away right…

I actually played some Guild Wars 2 today for the first time in ages. I played for at least a couple of hours and gained 2 levels. I think I ended up on 50 or 51, didn’t pay that much attention, have a long way to go until 80…

No plans whatsoever in the evening which was a bit of a disappointment. But it turned out pretty okay when I decided to buy ice cream and candy and watch Arrow this whole evening. I do feel pretty bad about eating all that. It’s not going so well with my weight loss plan… But on the other hand, I am not gaining anything either. I have been healthy this whole week, so I guess one day a week is okay to be a sweet tooth.

Tomorrow I will get up early to drive Chad to the airport. That lucky bastard is going to Florida for a week. Not. Jealous. At. All!! After that I am going with mom and Felix to my cousins and grandparents for a reunion after my year away! I can’t wait to see them all again :).

HI & SD canvas

Thursday

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I got woken up today at noon because ComHem called me at noon and offered a digital box with all their TV channels for free for three months. I didn’t say no to that. Even if I don’t watch TV, a lot of extra channels could be fun.

After that my day was very lazy again. And I am definitely not complaining, I like it! I watched some episodes of Arrow and booked a full body massage on April 6th. 200kr for one hour is pretty awesome!

Yesterday I got a mail from Försäkringskassan telling me that I will get money to help me pay rent, 600kr/month, that’s not too bad! I will get it at the end of the month and every month until I’m leaving.

Tonight was my second au pair information meeting and I told the future au pairs about my year and it went really well! I was nervous before, but it was no biggie at all when I was done. Two interviews, one guy actually, and I was home by 9pm.

I’ve paied the next three months rent and I’ve finished the interview forms and now I think I will take place in the couch and watch some more Arrows. Tomorrow I have to be home the whole day. My last painting, the one of San Diego skyline, is being delivered between 8am and 5pm… Stupid DHL who can’t give me a more specific time! I hope they get here early so I can go out for a walk in the hopefully beautiful weather.

Spring

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This is why I love Sweden, the first warming sun of the year. It will be better though, when it starts to get green! I seriously can’t wait!

I had a very lazy day today. I woke up at noon, watched an episode of Arrow and then went outside for a walk. I walked for an hour through the neighborhood I grew up in and at the same time as it looked exactly the same, it was completely different. New buildings, all the old stores were switched. Except for Lejonet & Björnen, the ice cream cafe. I am so going there when it’s a little bit warmer!

I was actually sweating and it felt so good being out in the sun. It must have been over 10C (50F)! My tan is getting paler every week and I really don’t like that…

When I came home again I decided to stay outside for a bit more, so I sat down by the water and read for half an hour. But it got cold so I headed inside, took a nice and warm shower and watched a couple of more episodes of Arrow.

I cooked dinner for the second time since I moved in, spaghetti with meatsauce and bacon. It was really really good! I am glad my cooking skills are still there.

Tomorrow night is my second Cultural Care information meeting and this time I will give my presentation and tell the future au pairs about my year and then as usual do some interviews. It will be fun!

Dinner at dad’s

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I had a very nice afternoon/evening out in Sjövik at my dad and his girlfriend’s place. I came out there at 3:30pm and we had a very late lunch consisting of barbecued hotdogs. We sat outside in the beautiful spring sun (it was blue sky today again!!). Pretty chilly, but still very nice. I can’t when the tree’s start getting leaves, that’s the part of the year I like most.

When it got cold we got inside and Karin prepared the dinner, lamb and root crops. It was very delicious! For dessert we had that apple pie with marzipan Karin made the last time I was there, just for me this time because I was coming over. She is sweet! I got a piece with me home.

Monday tomorrow, means another Saturday for me. No alarm and no plans whatsoever! I will probably read a lot. Or maybe take a trip downtown to buy some new glasses. One more week of Saturdays and then my life will get serious again…

Beach volleyball and blue sky

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I’ve finally played some beach volleyball again. And it went really well! And it was so much fun! But I am tired now like never before. Two hours of just playing is a lot for a person who hasn’t worked out in a long time… I’m guessing that I will be sore all over tomorrow.

It was me, Dzejna, her boyfriend and a friend of hers. It was so good to see her again after this long time. We’ve decided that she is gonna come and visit me in Cali next year. We played mixed and it was even, but I was on the winning team pretty often and it made it even more fun. I thought I was gonna be so crappy after a year without practice, but instead I’ve become much better and my passes are awesome right now! This was definitely not the last time I’ve played, but it does suck a bit that it costs 180SEK for two hours…

I am happy but tired! 🙂

Another thing that was pretty amazing this morning was the blue sky outside! That’s the second blue sky since I came home a little more than a month ago. I would have wanted to go to Slottskogen for a walk, but it’s too late now and I think I am way too tired.

It’s been a really nice day and we’ll see what the evening has to offer 🙂

BrunnsparkenIf you don’t believe me, here’s proof of the blue sky!

DONE

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My apartment is done and ready to be lived in! It’s so awesome and I love it! But I’m not sure what to do with all my time now. You will probably say STUDY. I say I will give it a few days until I get really bored, then I will probably do some studying.

I put down the last boxes in the basement today and threw some things away. After that I went through all my clothes. I want to be nice and give away things I don’t use or what doesn’t fit anymore. And surprisingly many jeans didn’t fit anymore. Super depressing! But that’s what America does to you. The models on those jeans isn’t what I like anymore anyway so I could put them away with not too many hard feelings. They are too low!

Then I was done for the day and watched Last Vegas and Grimm. And I think I will continue doing that now. I don’t have anything to do until 1pm tomorrow :).

Done

Media station

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This has been a very happy day! My router is up and running and I plugged in my TV and I have an awesome media stationin the corner of the apartment.I got the brilliant idea of keeping my old and half functioning computer and always have it plugged in the TV so I don’t have to move the new one around as soon as I want to watch something or listen to music from good speakers.

I started the day with getting my resume looked at by a proffesional. I got a lot of tips and should probably make those changes before I forget what it was. Then I went to pick up my five Hawaii canvas paintings I ordered online last Thursday. On my wayhome from that I bought a semla. It’s Fat Tuesday today, and one have to eat a semla. I took something called vanilla semla and that wasn’t as good as the regular one. It was a vanilla cream instead of almond paste.

Mom came by later, driven here by my brother who just got his drivers license. Big congrats to him! She helped me with that stupid router of mine. We came to the conclusion that something was wrong with it so we called my brother, who went back home, and he drove back and gave us another router, and that one worked! It’s old and not very stable, my Spotify pauses now and then, but it’s better than nothing!

When we were done with that we plugged in my TV and fixed everything with that. When mom left again I decided to have the sound system with the TV and that was the best decision I did today. So much better!! And with my old computer plugged in to the TV I can listen to music via the TV. I am transferring all my TV-shows and movies to that computer right now. USB 2 is really slow. But it will be so awesome when it’s done. I love my apartment! And with the paitings up it got even better!! I also have one of San Diego skyline on the way which will probably come up over the kitchen table.

I am not done unpacking and I am not sure I will be tonight either. I am really tired. But I don’t have anything planned tomorrow, so you never know.

Media station The books are pretty much the only thing I have to unpack now.Hawaii paintingsMy own pictures from Hawaii are perfect above the couch.

New TV

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Another fullpacked day. It takes so much time to move. Today I got up at 8am to try to wash the cover and pillows and it worked. At 1pm I had an interview and at 2pm I had a meeting at Chalmers. Right after that I printed my resume for tomorrow’s scrutiny. A company is coming to Chalmers tomorrow to take a look at resumés and give tips.

To mom, and take the car. She actually came along. First stop, IKEA to buy some hangers/gallows whatever they are called. But you can’t just go to IKEA for one thing. I had a bunch of things when I was done…

Second stop was Maxi where I, once again, bought some food. And third stop Siba where I wanted to take a look at a TV. It seemed nice so I bought it. A 40″ Philips.

But I can’t really do anything with it right now. I need to get my router to work first because the Internet hole i the wall is right behind the big furniture the TV’s gonna be on later. And that fucking router refuses to work and I’ve been in a really bad mood tonight because of it. I have Internet if I use the cable directly from the hole to my computer, but when I plug the router in it doesn’t work. The router works, all the correct lights are on with the right color, but I can’t reach routerlogin.net where I need to configure the stupid thing. I think it might be because Bredbandsbolaget (my Internet Service Provider) wants to give me a username and password (which 1st, theyshould have given me on like last Thursday and which 2nd shouldn’t be needed since I already have Internet). This is all so retarted and confusing. It’s free for fuck sake!! It shouldn’t be this complicated when I don’t even pay for it. STUPID!!

I’ll call those assholes tomorrow and I sure hope they have a sollution to this ridiculous problem.

Unpacking

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I didn’t sleep very well, first I had a nightmare about me not getting that job at Liseberg. And second, it wasn’t very comfortable sleeping on couch pillows and with blankets. But tonight will be different because I went to mom and picked some things up. For example an ethernet cable so I will be able to plug in my router, which I think I can do now, but I have no idea how to do it. I will take a look at it tomorrow. I also got my Picasso paintings, salt, a scale and a lamp.

My first errand was Inet where I bought a sound system. It was way more fun unpacking today with music coming out of good speakers. Then I went to Ica Maxi where I just walked around for a while, thinking what I should get. I only have the basic stuff, but I seriously don’t know what I need. I guess it will come eventually when I want to start cooking.

My third and last stop of the day was at IKEA where I bought a new rug, some candles, new plates, a plant and a lint roller.  And for lunch I had a 5kr hotdog.

My brother gave me a ride back to my place after I went to mom’s place. He has his behind the wheel test on Tuesday so he is out practice driving as much as possible. I just hope he will let me borrow the car tomorrow afternoon. I forgot to buy  gallows. After unpacking all mu clothes just now I realized I’m missing A LOT of gallows!

I’ve been unpacking like crazy since I got home. And I don’t have that much left now. I can’t see the kitchen table because of the layer of stuff on it. And I haven’t put anything in my bookshelves yet, but I will wait with that until I’ve bought a TV. I will probably have to move them around.

It’s time to go to bed now. I have to be up at 8 to try to wash the blanket and pillows and then I have an interview at 1pm and then a meeting at Chalmers. So much to do all the time.