Category Archives: USA

Home sweet home

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I am finally home in SLO, exhausted like I don’t know. I had to spend 6 hours at Phoenix airport today because there was no chance of me getting on the standby flight at 11am (the aircraft was changed to a smaller one so 20 people were without seat, and ahead of me on the waitlist). I was at the airport at 9 am, and left at 3pm. Long day.

But it started pretty good. I had difficulty falling asleep last night, but when I did, I slept like a rock. The bed was so soft and awesome. I got up at 7am, took a hot shower, put on the hotel complimentary body lotion and felt awesome (the dryness was back when I was at the airport three hours later, it was nice as long as it lasted). I got free breakfast buffet. It was definitely an okay breakfast and I had a lot because I knew it was gonna be a long day either if I got the earlier flight or no.

For lunch I had Starbucks, I helped my dad get Snapchat, texted with Matt and my mom and just tried to keep myself busy the whole day. I was bored, but 6 hours was actually over pretty fast.

This flight was also delayed. The crew was not there on time. I couldn’t believe it! Once they arrived everything went smoothly and we took off ten minutes later than planned. The flight was a very comfortable one. You couldn’t even tell you were on an airplane, it was so smooth. I read two chapters, listened to a few songs, and then it was time to land. It was only 1.5 hours.

I landed and my baggage didn’t come to baggage claim. Great! It took almost 30 minutes for the security guard to tell us that our bags had arrived with the early flight (even if the lady at the gate told me she rerouted it to my later flight). I was relieved. This horrible trip was over!

Matt picked me up and drove me home. I was tired, but started unpacking and talked to my neighbors. At 7pm Måns from Sweden told me he was at Slodoco, so I managed to get a ride there and we went back to my place. Stayed for a few minutes and then headed to Firestone with Lauren, Rachel, Toby, and Pelle. It was a great way to end a long day.

Back home and I did laundry and finished unpacking. I looked at my schedule and made one for my door. I have a pretty great schedule this quarter too. Not as nice, but it is still okay.

Oh, how could I forget? We didn’t get a new roommate! So it is just gonna be the three of us this quarter. Kinda boring actually, the closed door ruins our corridor. But now we are all over 21 so we can have alcohol in our room, yay.

I have to go to bed now, my first day of class is tomorrow!

January 4: Stuck in Phoenix

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This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

This day has been the worst. I was so looking forward to come home, but instead I am stuck at Doubletree Hilton hotel in Phoenix for the night. It is kinda comical how much bad luck I’ve had today. Never before has this happened that I missed a connecting flight. But I guess there’s a first for everything.

This morning I was in a good mood, I was ready to go home, I was ready to start school tomorrow. But US Airways had other things in mind for me today. My first flight from Montego Bay to Charlotte, NC went as it should. I was nervous about missing that connecting flight since I had to go through customs and recheck my bag, but it went smoothly and I reached the gate 20 minutes before boarding. But then the flight got delayed again and again and again. When I got to the gate and asked for my boarding pass from Phoenix to SLO I understood that something was wrong. The guys back there were on their walkie talkies all the time and something was clearly wrong. We then found out that they had some serious maintenance problems and we had to change plane. So we all ran to gate D7 (we were at B something). Boarding was supposed to happen within 20 minutes. They said. That would have made the plane takeoff an hour later than originally planned. BUT, then there were problems with this one too. First the people on it had to get off, which took a long time, then the crew had to get on and get ready and our boarding was said to happen at 5:30pm (originally the flight would have taken off at 4:15pm). Still all good, I had two hours in Phoenix. I wasn’t too worried. BUT, then we found out that there was a flat tire and it had to be changed. It took an hour apparently. Okay, I was most probably screwed, I started to realize that the possibility of me spending a night at a hotel in Phoenix was getting bigger by the minute, since the flight from Phoenix to SLO was the last for the night. But they still gave us hope and told us we could board any minute, as soon as the doors opened. BUT they didn’t. It thought it was an international thing. So first we had to wait for a British plane coming in and dropping off the passengers, then the doors could open. I don’t know exactly what it was, but it had something to do with an international flight. This took forever and three hours after original take off time we finally boarded. BUT, it took us an hour more to actually take off. First there was some trouble with baggage not reaching the plane. Nice that they wait, but seriously, WTF?! And then we stood probably 20 minutes on the runway.

We finally took off and the flight wasn’t too bad. Okay, it was pretty bad. The guy next to me smelled real bad, I was tired, upset, sad, angry. Everything at once. I hardly slept and felt awful when we finally arrived after 4.5h flight.

As soon as I landed I started up my phone and I had three voicemails. From US Airways telling me my flight to SLO had been delayed due to previous delays. Could the world really be this nice and try to make up for the stress I went through in Charlotte? NOPE. They said in the first one that it was delayed until 10:43pm (which was five minutes after we landed). I ran as fast as I could to the closest US Airways person with hopes on getting home tonight anyway. BUT no. Apparently it took off at 9:50pm. Which my second voicemail said. STUPID F-ING US AIRWAYS to give false hope like that. I got frustrated and upset again. WHY ARE THEY SO MEAN?? I am already a whole day delayed, I will miss my first day of class.

I went nicely to customer service. I was booked for the 2:50pm flight tomorrow, but when I got there apparently it wasn’t so anymore. It took forever to get me on that flight again. The bad thing about that flight is that it is not the earliest flight, because that is full booked.  I am on standby for that one at 11am though and I am crossing my fingers like a crazy person and hope that I will get a spot. How much bad luck can one person have in 24 hours?! If I get on that one I will have time, not much but still a little bit, and will make it to my classes that starts tomorrow at 2pm. I really hope I will get on the flight at 11. I don’t think I deserve more bad luck. And I don’t wanna spend another day at the airport. I’ve kinda gotten tired of it after this trip. 9 flights in four weeks. And in the past 8 days I’ve stayed in 5 different hotel rooms. I am sick and tired of this now. I want my own bed…

I will go to bed now and hope for everything in the world that tomorrow will be a better day!

2015-01-05, 01:12

Doubletree hotelroom It was a very nice room and the best bed I have slept in in a very long time. Even better than my own bed!Cookie at DoubletreeA cookie at check-in made me feel a little bit better.

Quarter #1 is over

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This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

I just finished my third final and I feel so free! I love this feeling. The test today went okay, I think it is a pass. I know that I’ve had a lot of difficulties with the Byzantine time period, when Christianity became big in the world and all the churches and basilicas and whatever were built, so I probably messed up on all of those questions. I just can’t see the difference of those churches. But except for that I felt that I had studied a lagom amount of time and recognized everything on the test. The Asian names where difficult tho and I mixed them all up.

The test last night went okay too I guess. I didn’t really try since I already had passed the class, this test would just lower my A to a C worst case scenario. But I answered a lot of questions, skipped a lot. But I think if I get a C on this test, then I will still get an A in the rest of the class.

I am still waiting for my result for the extra credit assignment, but I am not worried about that class anymore. And I don’t have to worry about classes next quarter either. Today I got an email telling me that I got one of the classes I was waitlisted for (Introduction to Urban Planning). Yay! I am not dropping Introduction to Environmental Engineering until I know for sure if I can take Public Transportation (which has Fundamentals of Transportation Engineering as a prerequisite). I guess I could take 16 units (4 classes) next quarter, and take another environmental engineering class in the spring quarter, but I don’t know if it is worth it.

Why am I writing about this? I don’t wanna think of school at all right now, and for the next three weeks. (except for reviewing some German to be prepared for next quarter)

 

After my final last night (which by the way, was the Sustainable Environments) my roommates picked me up and we went to Olive Garden to have one last dinner together. I have to admit that the food I got wasn’t that good. Or maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for eating that late. But it was a nice dinner nonetheless.

When we came home we had a little Christmas and opened gifts. I got suitcase tags from Rachel, a Jamba Juice giftcard from Lauren and a photoframe from Kelsey. In there are four different pictures of us, and when I saw it I started crying. I think I realized at that point that Kelsey is actually leaving. She also wrote me a super sweet card. I am gonna miss her so much!!

After that I walked around in the building handing out Christmas cards and they were all very appreciated. We hung out in our apartment for a while and I started studying at 1:30am. Fell asleep at 3 am, got up at 6 to sit through three hours of presentations in Transportation Engineering. It wasn’t too bad, I studied for the final and listened to the most fun ones. Some of the videos made were very funny!

Now I am planning on doing nothing until 2:30pm when Matt is picking me up :).

And at 8:35pm tonight the plane takes off and I will be on my way to Dominican Republic!! I can’t wait!!! I am planning on updating my blog as often as I can. I won’t have too much to do during the evenings, so if I have access to Internet then maybe even every day. So excited I can’t even!

Roommate date Mani-pedi This color will look great in the sand tomorrow :). It’s stupid how much prettier a manicure and pedicure can make you feel.I survived!I survived the two hell weeks! Basketball gameKelsey and I at the basketball game last weekend.

Studying and more studying

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This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

Ugh, I am getting tired of this, can’t this week be over already? It’s not too long left now though. My first final tomorrow evening, and the next one the morning after, and after that I will be on my way. One more day of studying and I am done!

The test tomorrow will not be too bad. If I get more than 75% on the test I will still get an A as a final grade. But it is still stressful to go to a classroom and now that there will be a test waiting for me. So that’s what I’ve been doing today, I studied for that test, I also finished my Architecture History summary and finished the extra credit assignment for Fundamentals of Transportation Engineering. It felt so good to submit it and after that was crossed off my list I now only have two things left, yay!

I should probably go to bed now and read in my new book. I finished Revenge of Seven last night and started reading The Maze Runner. Goodnight!

Kelsey's Christmas giftKelsey got her Christmas gift from the British boys today, a golden egret and a pair of British socks.The egret is placed on our counter now and just looks glorious!

Four days left

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This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

I just packed everything, except for my underwear (I only have 24 pair of panties, so I will need to do laundry right before I leave) and it feels a little bit more real now. Still very much surreal though. I think I think too much about school right now to realize where I will be in five days. One of the things I look most forward to is to just chill at the beach and read. I am gonna read sooo much! I’m hoping I will finish at least three, four or maybe even five books in those three weeks. Can’t wait!

Today I was at the library most hours of the day. I tried to do the extra credit assignment for Transportation Engineering. I kinda understood what I was supposed to do, but it would take hella long time to sort all the data. Everything was given in the same column and I don’t think that was the point. I will go to office hours tomorrow and ask the teacher about it. I will also ask him to calculate my grade because I have no idea how to do that with a curve. I realized today that if I fail this class, that means I am one class back when it comes to transferred credits. So I will either have to switch German step 3 in spring quarter for an engineering class, or just take an extra class that quarter. Or take it when I get back home, but that means I won’t get my degree in June, which I really want. And I am so glad I enrolled in a class too much this quarter so I have a backup plan in case I can’t take Public Transportation. Everything will work out in the end! 🙂

After giving up on the extra credit assignment for the day I studied Architecture History all day until 9:30 when I biked home. Ate dinner, wrote 20 Christmas cards, wrapped some gifts, and packed. A productive day, but now the clock tells me it is 2:30am. Time for bed and another long and hopefully productive day tomorrow!

Wild Mustangs? I have heard that wild mustangs roam these areas so I am guessing these are them? The fence is to keep wild animals (like mustangs and deer) off the street. Pretty cool!90 % packedI think I could have managed with a backpack and a carry-on, but this will be so much more comfortable. The suitcase is like half full, and the stuff on the side will go in a backpack. Excited to thousand!

Busy busy busy

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This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

And now it’s been three days since the last update again. I seriously can’t wait to leave this all behind. I am not too overwhelmed, but I always have school on my mind and it is really exhausting. One of the midterms I could probably skip and still pass the class, but I will of course study for it anyway, because it would be fun with one good grade this quarter. The other final is a bit harder, but it isn’t until Thursday morning so I still have time. I will start focusing on that one tomorrow.

My biggest priority right now though is to nail the extra credit assignment for Transportation Engineering so I can take Public Transportation next quarter. I will start on that tomorrow.

So, the last two days. Thursday was my final in the lab class. It felt awesome when I did it, but the day after when I got the grade, it turned out to be a C-. It is still a pass so I am not complaining and my final grade will probably be a B since everything else is A’s. I also found out yesterday that I totally failed my Transportation Engineering midterm (that’s why I need to do the extra credit assignment). In the evening on Thursday I actually went out on a date to the Grad where the line dancing thing is. It was a very nice evening and I had 100% more fun this time than last time (probably because I was sick that time). We had a couple of drinks, talked a lot, and danced. Line dancing is fun.

Yesterday, hmm. I guess I was at home and studied? Oh yes, and in the evening we were a bunch of people going to the Christmas Parade in downtown SLO. It was nice, but mostly because of the company. Back home there was a surprise party for Toby, since he is leaving. I only stayed for like an hour and then went home and to bed. I slept for 11 hours, woke up at 9am. I actually went to the library today to study. I was there with the guy from Thursday and I got some done, not too much. I don’t have any motivation to study… I try but it only gives me C’s. I miss Chalmers! We had a late lunch together and then I went home and didn’t get anything more done until after midnight.

SLO Christmas Parade

At 7pm we were a bunch of people (everyone is procrastinating!!) who went to see the basketball game between Cal Poly and Menlo. Cal Poly owned the other team. Final score 72-35. It was my first basketball game every, and it was cool. Two of my neighbors are on the team, but redshirts, which apparently means that they are on the team but they aren’t allowed to play any games until next year because they are transfer students. No idea why, but that’s just the way it is, so I am just gonna accept it.

Cal Poly vs. Menlo Cal Poly vs. Menlo

After that a lot of people came over to our place, we ordered pizza, and talked for hours and hours. It was a fun night but I feel bad for not studying… I did some, but now I see double, so I will go to bed and try to find more motivation tomorrow morning. Goodnight!

Wednesday

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Today was a normal day, I got out of bed at 11:30am, chilled for a bit, took a shower, and then studied for my final tomorrow. It feels good, I wrote the summary a few days ago and felt that I knew most of it, and today I did the engineering economics problem (12 in total) and felt that I knew all of them. I am not worried about this final at all. Probably mostly because it is only 20% of the grade and I have an A up until now in this class. I think I can get an F and still pass the class. Great feeling!

The Sustainable Environments class tonight was just a long review of the whole class. The teacher basically told us the questions which were coming on the test. I am not complaining and I don’t feel too stressed out about it. It is the same situation there as it is with the lab class. I have an A so far and the final is 35% of the grade, so I will do well in the end no matter what happens on the test.

I am more concerned about the Architecture History final. The week before Thanksgiving the teacher told us 90% of the test would be on the last 6 lectures and the rest 10% would be on the first 12. But yesterday he told us it would be 20 questions out of 80 which is 20%. That is gonna require a lo of studying… I have a C+ in that class right now, and I can’t get worse than that on this test. It’s a week away, so I have time to study.

I think I will go to bed now, I have a presentation in Transportation Engineering tomorrow morning and then I have to prepare for the final at 3pm. And at 8pm I will celebrate that I survived dead week at the Grad with some linedancing and maybe a drink or two. I am excited!

December already!?

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Yes, dead week is almost killing me. But the worst is definitely over (for this week). The midterm this morning went real bad. But I think everyone had trouble with it and since the teacher is using a curve when he is grading I might be fine. But you never know. I am just glad that it is over. There is still the presentation on Thursday, but that will be a piece of cake. What I have to focus on now is the final I have on Thursday in the lab class. I don’t understand why we have to have a final when we’ve worked our butts off for all the lab assignments. But I have an A in that class so far, and this test is only 20% of the grade, so I don’t think I have to study too hard. The last two nights I’ve stayed up really late and today I was planning on going to bed early, but I still haven’t done much because I enjoy talking to our neighbors too much. And I can sleep-in tomorrow. I will solve some engineering economics problems now and then to bed.

Oh, right, I got two packages today. One from mom, and one from Amazon. Mom’s package was missent to Canada, but it got here today and it made me so happy. It was a lot of Swedish Christmas candy to share with roommates and friends, and four chocolate calendars for me and my three roommates. She is the absolute sweetest. I also got two packages of Swedish lasagna, and a tiny Christmas cat. She knows I miss the cats, and now I have a little bit of Christmas in my room. I love her!

In the package from Amazon was most of the gifts I bought for people, but also my Bluetooth speaker that works gloriously. Those two packages made me forget about the awful midterm. The lab in the afternoon wasn’t too bad. It was our last assignment and we were supposed to walk downtown and learn about some things there. But since it’s been raining this whole day we did it virtually with google maps. Worked that too. And I actually got done with the writing before class was done so I don’t have to worry about it, yay!

Now I will focus on the lab final!

Hello “dead week”

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I realized tonight that I have more due this week. My list is so long now! Monday: Transportation group project meeting at 9am, Transportation homework due at noon, Sustainable Environments group project meeting sometime in the afternoon. Tuesday: Transportation midterm (based on the homework I still haven’t done and don’t understand at all). Wednesday: Sustainable Environments project is due. Thursday: Transportation project due + presentation, Transportation lab FINAL and 2 page paper due (we get the assignment on Tuesday evening). Finals week will be nothing compared to “dead week”. Thursday evening couldn’t come sooner…

Today I gave the homework a real shot, but I seriously couldn’t solve a single problem. I am screwed. If I mess this homework and midterm up I will have to ace the extra credit assignment (which is pretty much Greek as well). No one’s been home this week so I couldn’t ask anyone either. Sucky situation. If I don’t get a C in this class I won’t be able to take Public Transportation next quarter and I really want to take that one. I’m sure it will work out the way it is supposed. If I don’t get that class I will probably have to take more Environmental Engineering classes which won’t be too bad either I guess. And even if I am on the wait list to Urban Planning I’ve heard that it’s not too hard getting into it when classes start. Nope, not worth worrying about now.

I started my study guide for the final in the lab I have on Thursday. That was the most productive thing I did today. I really hope I can get some help from Eric and Johann with the homework a after we put together our presentation. I am a bit worried for the first time in a long time to be honest.

Now I really need to go to bed! Hello no-life for a week…

A boring day

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I had looked forward to this weekend for quite a while, my alone time. But now when it is here I can’t wait for my roommates to get back here. I’ve been so very bored today I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was gonna study, but I only did one of the many things I should have done. Well, when I think about it, it isn’t too bad since I don’t care about the grades. But now anyway, my two projects are more or less done. I didn’t start to look at the homework, but I will do that all day tomorrow.

I started to pack today and I also did a little research on weather and such, apparently it will be awesome weather all the time (80F in the air, 77F in the water), maybe some rain on Puerto Rico, but December is a very nice time to go there according to the Internet. Even if I ordered a new suitcase today, I decided to try the challenge of living in a carry-on suitcase and a backpack for 23 days. I think it will work. But all the hostels have laundry facilities so I might just pack lighter and use the washing machines there. I don’t wanna pack too much, I wanna be able to bring home stuff I buy too. I have gotten really excited again and actually a bit nervous. I am doing this all by myself! It is a long trip, more than three weeks, all on my own. I feel that this should give me some grownup points. And I am pretty sure that I will find people to hang out with while I am there.

Oh, by the way, I think they shut of the heat in the apartments this week. I’ve been freezing my toes off all day!

No, I think I will go to bed now and hope for a more productive day tomorrow. Goodnight!