Video interview

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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  actually intended to update my blog every night the past couple of days, but I just didn’t have time! I got home safe and sound on Sunday evening after 5.5 hours in the car with David.

On Sunday I went down to Mission Beach again for some more beach volleyball. It was overcast in North County but down there it cleared up, but with the blue sky came the wind as well. It was hard to play but I did actually get better very fast when I got used to it. I met up with Ko that I met on Saturday for the first time. We went to a Meetup group and I talked to them for literally four minutes before a random guy came up to me and asked me if I wanted to play a co-ed game. It was a very even game in the end. Me and my partner were under with several points up until half game. I guess that’s when I got used to the wind and we were actually on the verge of winning. But then we just kept giving away points, and so did the other team, so the game ended at 25-23. Such a long game! Unfortunately we lost, but it was a very fun game.

Then I chilled for a bit before playing a second game with Ko and two guys from the Meetup group. It was also an even game and my team lost again, 21-19. And after that I didn’t wanna play more, and there were hardly any people there, so I moved closer to the water and fell relaxed for a couple of hours before I had to leave and get ready to leave.

The last 30 minutes I was on the beach I was laying on my stomach and actually think I fell asleep for a bit. When I came home to my hostfamily I realized that my bikini had slid up so a very very white part of my butt was out in the sun. It was so red and just got worse during the evening and yesterday (Monday). Now I know how my normal skin reacts in the Californian sun in only 30 minutes. It is scary! It is still very pink today, two days later. I am used to getting rid of my redness the morning after with this tan skin I have now. I can sit down without it hurting, but I still have to be careful when putting on pants. I actually burned my calves pretty bad too.

Yesterday was a pretty chill day, I went to beach volleyball practice and was all alone. So me and the coach did a lot of intense peppering and then he made me practice setting a ball which hit the net. Doing that for 15 minutes or how long it was, was very tough on my thighs. And then of course we did a lot of squats in TRX right after. My legs have been a little spaghetti-y today, but that’s not a bad feeling!

Today was a long day. I woke up and realized that I had forgotten about the quiz that was due at 9am this morning. I quickly did it and managed to get a 94% on it. I would have gotten 100% if I only had read the material… During my one hour break I sat in the library reading, because it was “freezing” outside. I was also very tired and that makes me cold. And because I was so tired, it was hard to stay awake in my two last classes.

In my German class the professor told us that he once again was disappointed while correcting the midterms. But he added that there are the few A’s too, and he said that Swedish people apparently are smarter than Americans. I guess that means I am getting a decent grade? 😀

When I came to beach volleyball practice again today it was just me again. So the coach asked me if I still wanted to do it. It was kinda windy, the sun was out though. I said no, I wanted to be prepared for the interview at 5pm and didn’t wanna stress about it.

Until then I worked on the big assignment in Land Use and Transportation Studies. It is almost 1am and my group members still didn’t do their parts. This is due tomorrow at 10am. We are meeting at 9, so I hope we have enough time to finish it.

My former WoW-group member came over with her two groupmembers and sat up all their video equipment in my room. I sat on my bed with the Swedish flag in the background while they were filming from two sides and had a LED-lamp. It was some pretty serious stuff. They asked me questions like how my childhood was in Sweden, what made me decide to finish my studies here and how I deal with cultural differences and about my travels. It was fun! I’ve never done anything like this and I have never been in front of a camera. I felt like a star! We are doing more filming on Friday but outside. I am so curious about the final result.

Later tonight I went out to the intersection here in PCV and measured it for another Land Use homework that is due tomorrow. Tomorrow night will be a busy night too… It is soon weekend again. This weekend I am just gonna chill (or not if some adventure comes up).Beach volleyball courts at the Rec Center Yesterday was a perfect day for beach volleyball! And the gym’s courts just got new nets as well!Filming in my room

Beach volleyball, beach volleyball, surfing

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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.

Today I broke a personal record, how many beaches visited in one day; three. I was up so early this morning so I could be at Ponto Beach at 7:30 to play some beach volleyball with the old gang. I played three games with Dan and I have to admit that I played so bad… It might have been because of the wind, or something else, I don’t know. It was very fun even if we lost all the games. At 9:30 am there were so many people there and the waiting time was ridiculously long, so I decided to head down to beach number two, Mission Beach. I met up with Wes and Cathleen from February. I didn’t understand how that worked, at Ponto it is so easy with the list, next on the list play on the next court available unless you are waiting for the challenge court or doesn’t wanna play on that one. But this was just chaos. So I started talking to this other guy, Ko, and he introduced me to a group of players a little bit away from all the chaos and I played with them for the rest of the day (until 2pm). It was so much fun, everyone was friendly, funny and let me in right away. We were a bunch of people so we did side-out, but I liked that. It is easier to focus on every side-out when you don’t have to worry about scores. And we got to play a lot all the time instead of one intense game, then a long wait and another game and so on. It was great and I had so much fun! In the end we played two games, one 4 on 4 (which was the first time I ever enjoyed that type of game), and then one doubles. That game was really fun and even and I have to say that I played really well today. My sets were perfect, even my bump sets were better and more consistent than they have been in a very long time. Fun fun! I even managed a jump serve as the winning point in the 4 on 4 game. I could also jump and hit pretty hard, and also place balls. There was one sick ball where I was so close to the net on the right side, and the ball went straight parallel with the net and landed almost on the line on the angle shot. I think I was more surprised than everyone else.

Today was just a really really good beach volleyball day for me and I am so exhausted and tired in my whole body now. I love this feeling. I don’t really like that my foot soles are sore from jumping and running around in hot sand for a long time.

I am going down there tomorrow again before going back home in the evening with David.

At 3pm I arrived in La Jolla and found a parking spot right away, and very close to the beach too. Lucky! My Swedish friends left right when I came though, but David came and we went surfing right away. Unfortunately I couldn’t be in the water more than about 30 minutes because my eyes were burning like nothing before. I’m guessing that it was sunscreen and saltwater. But that usually goes away after like two waves, but today it just kept burning and burning. It was even worse when I looked out in the water facing the sun. It was so bad I had to go up… My eyes are still sore and it kinda looked like I had cried my eyes out when I got back to the house around 6pm. A shower helped a lot, but I still feel like my eyes sting a bit. What happened?

I took care of the kids tonight while the hostparents went out to the movies. I feel like that is the least I can do for them for letting me come down here, stay with them, AND use the car. They are so nice, and I wanna give back. And also I like spending time with the kids again. Tonight we baked “havreflarn” a Swedish oatmeal cookie, we watched Cupcake Wars, and played basketball in the backyard. I then put the kids to bed and was ready myself to go to bed. But there are always stuff to do on the computer, so here I am, almost midnight and not asleep yet. Well well, I can sleep another time.

Ponto Beach Beach #1, Ponto Beach.Mission Beach Beach #2, South Mission BeachLa Jolla ShoresBeach #3, La Jolla Shores

Back in San Diego

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For the third time since New Year’s am I back down in San Diego, my second home. Once again I used Cal Poly’s Rideshare group on facebook and rode with new people again. This bunch was nice and the ride went so fast. Six hours and I was in Carlsbad. Even with some traffic.

First I hung out with my hostmom and the girl at a basketball game for like three minutes. We picked up the girl and her friend there and went for Starbucks after and then back home. I hung out for a bit more, and then spontaneously decided to go down to PB to hang out with German David (from Cal Poly). I wasn’t there too long since I have to get up early tomorrow morning, but it was still a nice evening.

Tomorrow I have three beaches to go to and I am so excited! Lots of beach volleyball and then surfing, yay!

Yesterday I had my second midterm for the quarter. It was Digital Cities and I have to say that it went really well and I am excited to see the results (I would be surprised if it is not an A). I also finished my book, Ghosts of Ascalon, yesterday. It took 13 days, longer than usual. It was a good one and now I am reading about the Guild Wars 2 lore on the Internet. It is a really good story!

My runny nose is also completely gone. It was like it never happened. Weird with only two days of a stuffy/runny nose. I’m glad it is gone!

Now it is definitely time to go to bed.

PCV Honor Banquet

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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.

Yesterday was a packed day again. First an hour of beach volleyball practice in the burning (but amazing) sun. Then an hour of extreme TRX. Well, technically it was only 25minutes of workout, but it was tough. Five different exercises and six different sets. First 30 reps, then 25, 20, 15, 10, and 5. I didn’t have time for the last five reps, which was running back and forth in the room five times. I was so dead after that. My whole body shaked really bad. I can’t really say that I feel worse today than after any other workout. Somehow I don’t get sore after pushing myself to the absolute limit. A little strange, but I am not complaining. Then I had almost an hour of waiting for my German class. We started watching a new movie, Herr Lehman. So far it is good.

As soon as I got back home I took an hour nap before heading to the main building in this village for some amazing (and free) cake from Madonna Inn. I also got a certificate saying that I got really good grades last quarter. This was the PCV Honor Banquet. Feels pretty good.

The rest of the evening I didn’t do much. I watched the new Game of Thrones episode, and then went to bed at 10pm. I couldn’t fall asleep though, so tonight I will take one of my pills so I will get a good night’s sleep.

I have kinda gotten sick again which really sucks a lot. It is not too bad yet, just a little bit of headache, a very heavy head, and a stuffed/runny nose. I hope it doesn’t get worse than this, being in the middle of midterm madness would not be any more fun with a bad sickness.

It is not too bad, because I did go to beach volleyball practice this afternoon. I actually felt better while doing it. After that I ran into David and a bunch of other Germans and hung out by the pool for a bit. But when it got hard to breathe again I went home for a shower, soup for dinner, a couple of TV shows, and now I am so ready for bed. It’s been a long day. Tuesdays and Thursdays are no fun.

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Monterey Bay Aquarium

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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.

Last day of the weekend and it was as eventful as all the other days. Today I went to Monterey with Michael, a three hour drive just to enjoy marine life. I had a great time watching the animals. We started with the sea otter feeding. They were given a frozen ice cube with shrimp in it and the four otters put a lot of effort into getting those shrimp out. They banged them on the window and twirled around in the water, adorable. But don’t forget folks, even if they are cute and hold hands while sleeping to not drift apart, they do rape baby seals. They are not small either, they were gigantic and weighed up to 50lbs. This was the first time I saw them walking on land and I was surprised at how they moved, they resemble seals in so many ways, but also looks like big ferrets and also a little bit like a badger. Funny animals.

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Then we went to the deep sea section where the humongous octopus were and also the jellyfish. I loved the jellyfish, their bright red color against the very blue background, truly beautiful!

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Then we saw the kelp forest and reef animals and lastly a very colorful tank with Nemo and Dory in it. Very cute indeed. I think I need to rewatch Finding Nemo very soon!

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And lastly we saw the penguins getting fed.

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Afterward we had a late lunch at Bubba Gump and walked through the wharf quickly and then drove back. It wasn’t a bad drive, with good music and company it didn’t feel like almost 3h (or however long it took). Back home I hung out with Aidan for a while and as usual we had deep conversations about life. I really enjoy those.

Now I am so ready to start a new week, but after all these shenanigans this weekend I kinda feel like I need another weekend to chill, haha! I also hate to admit that I feel a cold sneaking up on me… I really hope that is just allergies, it would be so typical to be sick again just as I have gotten back into working out.

Montaña de Oro

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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.

German friends mean spontaneity and as I Swede I can’t say anything else than that I love it! I didn’t have anything planned today than just chilling, maybe enrolling in that online space class that I wanna take, The Violent Universe. But then David asked me if I wanted to tag along to Montaña de Oro. A little bit later we were in Los Osos at the beautiful state park. Before going down to the beach we stood and watched out over the water and we saw two whales, small ones, so either babies or a smaller type of whale. They were breaching and it was so incredibly cool! I haven’t seen whales since Maui more than a year ago. When the whales were out of our sight we slid down a sand dune and walked along the beach for a while, looked in the tide pools, and enjoyed the nature. It was kinda windy, but not too bad. It was cloudy as well. The good weather will be back on Monday according to Google Now.

We took another way up, a wider sand dune, but it was still very hard to go up, my thighs were burning from trying not to slide down in the loose sand. That was the workout of the day.

We then followed a trail back to the car and continued to drive to Spooner’s Cave which is a beach in the park. We hung out there for a bit, building rock towers and breathing in the fresh saltwater air.

They dropped me off at PCV where I made dinner and have been painting my nails while watching Grimm. Now I am thinking of either going to bed or playing some GW2. I will most likely make myself a cup of tea, eat some fudge and play!

Whale Montaña de Oro Montaña de Oro The snake-formed path is where we came down. I have to admit that it was very fun!Montaña de Oro Montaña de Oro Montaña de Oro Montaña de Oro Montaña de Oro Eucalyptus forest We walked through an eucalyptus forest on the way back to the car.Spooner's Cove Spooner’s Cove.Spooner's Cove David, Thiago (from Brazil), and Alex.Spooner's Cove Spooner's Cove The boys climbing up on this rock. I would have followed if I didn’t have newly washed and very very tight jeans, I am 113% sure they would rip if I tried that climb, so I sat on the beach looking for pretty rocks.Spooner's CoveMy second attempt at a rock tower (I did one on the other beach but that wasn’t whole-heartedly).

German midterm and hike

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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.

So yesterday I had my first midterm of this quarter, the German one, and I have to say that it felt really good. I answered everything and that’s all I can do.

In the evening I went to a presentation given by an immigration attorney from LA who talked about the H-1B visa and permanent residency. It was interesting, and now it feels pretty hopeless to ever be able to move here in the future. Even if I would find a job, there is not even sure that I would get the visa since only 65,000 get it every year and more than 200,000 apply for it. Maybe I should just try to see myself living in Sweden now. Why should it be so hard to move here?

After that meeting I went to Farmer’s Market with David, walked around for a bit and then went for dinner at wunderbar Firestone. The rest of the evening I was just at home, not doing anything special.

Today I was supposed to go surfing in Morro Bay at 8am, but my surf partner lost his car keys so that didn’t happen. Instead, I went back to bed and then skyped with mom. It was her birthday today! Happy birthday once again :).

Then I made an adventure of going grocery shopping. No one was home and I needed food pretty bad, so I picked up my new headphones at the post office (they are amazing! My old ones broke a couple of days ago, but at least 3 years for a pair of in-ear is not bad at all, go Sennheiser), picked up my bike on campus and rode to Haggen (former Albertson’s) on Foothill. As a second breakfast I got a donut from Slodoco and then a bunch of baking ingredients. Since I am all alone (Rachel’s at Stagecoach and Lauren was home in Solvang, but she came back tonight) I knew I would be bored so I decided to bake, or rather make, rocky road fudge.

Right after I came home from the bad bike ride home from the grocery store David texted me and asked if I wanted to hike Serenity Swing and Architecture Graveyard. I never say nay to a beautiful hike, so off we went. First to the swing. As beautiful as always up there. The hills are getting browner and browner. It is sad. Why can’t Sweden send some of its rain here to California? I wonder if I would win the Nobel Prize if I invented something that would transfer the rain from there to here. Maybe that’s what I am destined to do instead of something else that I don’t know yet?

We explored around the different constructions at Architecture Graveyard for a while, took some cool photos, didn’t see any horses (bummer), and then went back where we started making the rocky road fudge. He left at 8 to watch the end of the Cal Poly baseball game but was back at 9:30 and I cooked dinner for the three of us, because he brought Alex with him. Then we just hung out until after midnight. It was a nice and relaxed evening.

Now for some reason, the time is already past 2 in the morning. I am really tired, but still have to make my bed after doing laundry tonight. It will be so nice laying down in newly washed sheets!

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Aion account recovered

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My account was never gone. Apparently there are two different games for Aion North America and Europe. In Guild Wars 2 there are different servers for the regions, but in Aion two completely different installations. I tried to install the American version. Haha! Problem solved, I downloaded the European version and have now two Aion accounts, yay!

School today as usual. Last day of German before the midterm tomorrow. I am prepared and have done what I can. Maybe I could have done more, but I still feel like I have it under control. It is just a midterm. I went to TRX today as well, like every Monday and Wednesday. It was tough today. We did a tabata similar routine with six stations, both on and off the TRX. First 50 seconds on each station, one minute rest, then 40 seconds with one minute rest, and then 30 seconds and 20. It was tough!I survived, but I will most likely not be able to move my arms tomorrow…

I should go to bed now, read through my German notes, and hope for the best tomorrow afternoon!

Nail polish and school

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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 morning was so unnecessary. I usually have a two hour lecture in Digital Cities, but this morning we had a lab instead. We were gonna research a city given to us, groups of three. We pretty much did it individually and we are gonna hand it in individually. It felt like such a waste of time going to that class. I could have slept for two more hours…

At 11am I was interviewed by the College of Engineering which is writing an article about international engineering students. Then I spent 40 minutes in the library reading my book. And then my second class of the day, Land Use and Transportation Studies. I almost fell asleep. I need to go to bed earlier!

Last class, as always this quarter, German. The midterm is coming up very fast so I have been studying all night. Except when I procrastinated and painted my nails. This time I put a pattern on there, first time and I have to say that it looks pretty good. A very light purple grey color with a little silver in the corner.

I also finished the lab we started this morning and sent it in. Five days early. That has never happened before!

I’ve done my share of German today, so now I will go to bed and hopefully fall asleep right away. Goodnight!

CRP 338 lab 1 hand in IMG_20150422_003612The light isn’t the best, but you get the idea! And don’t mind the paint outside of the nails, that will be gone tomorrow.

Lost Aion account

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Well, this sucks. Today I felt like playing some Aion again for the first time in like 7 months. But I couldn’t log in and it said something about having to migrate the account to an email address or something. I tried logging in to the website instead to do this, but it said that my account wasn’t available anymore. WHAT? I sent them an email asking how this was possible, is all of my progress lost? That would suck real bad.

With lack of motivation to do anything tonight I created a new account (apparently Aion is completely free of charge now) and started over. I hope that my other stuff can be recovered, I miss my little panda I had walking next to me. But it was pretty fun playing from the beginning. But from the Asmodian side this time. Last time I played Elyos “the good guys”. Asmodian are the “bad”. Fun.

But I am gonna have to focus on my midterm first and most. Good luck to me with two fun computer games, haha!

Also, today I got my full schedule for Liseberg this summer. I will be working all the way to closing in October, yay! They also changed it so I don’t start working until July 1st, before it was June 22nd. This means I can spend more time in San Diego before going home :).

Another thing that has happened is that Three Days Grace’s new album is out and it is so good! I’ve been listening to them for the past two days. Great band! Even with the new singer!