End of week 3

Posted on Sunday, 19 April 2015, 22:28 by Alexandra

Sorry blog, I will try to be better from now on! Time goes to fast, and before I know it another whole week has passed since I updated.

This weekend was very very chill. Friday and Saturday I spent all day at the pool reading. On Friday I finished the second Artemis Fowl book, started reading the second Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy, and also finished it since it was only 100 pages. And then I finally started Ghosts of Ascalon, the Guild Wars 2 books. I finished half of it already and it is actually really good.

Today was a little bit different. I went to Pismo Beach with Cal Poly beach volleyball club. Unfortunately there weren’t many girls so I didn’t get the opportunity to play more than two games. I can totally play with three guys, but I don’t think they would like that. I need female beach volleyball players in SLO, where are you?? The two games were really fun though and the guy I played with, we played well together, at least the second game. Our peppering was also amazing, I don’t think I’ve ever been going on for so long without dropping the ball. SO much fun! I am a little bummed that I didn’t get to play more than two games, and lessons are cancelled tomorrow. I am gonna pick up beach volleyball seriously when I am back in Sweden!

Last week was normal, lots of homework like normal, nothing special happened.

After the beach today I wrote my own review sheet for my German midterm on Thursday. I feel like I have that under pretty well control.

Now I will play a little Guild Wars 2 before going to bed. A new week awaits!

Crazy birthday weekend

Posted on Monday, 13 April 2015, 21:31 by Alexandra

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.

Wow, I haven’t updated my blog in more than a week. I’m sorry blog. So much happening all the time, and mostly homework. The workload is approximately the same as last quarter, maybe even more.

Last week wasn’t very interesting, I spontaneously went downtown on Thursday, on Friday I hung out with some friends and Saturday was my birthday. I started my 24^th birthday with skyping with mom and opening her gift. I got teary-eyed. It was a beautiful silver ring and silver infinity sign bracelet. And in the card she said that the bracelet was the first thing she made in that silver smithy class she is taking. So sweet of her!!

Then I spent the rest of the day with Lauren. First we went for breakfast at Slodoco and then to Pismo Beach. We were only there for 2 minutes, it was so windy. My dad called me while we got there and wished me a happy birthday. That was nice of him to call all the way to California!

So we went to the pool in PCV instead. Not too bad that either. We were there for like an hour before we needed to go back and prepare for dinner and downtown. Rachel, Lauren, Cody, Aiden, Pelle, Ciara, and I went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. From Lauren and Rachel I got a tiara to wear so everyone downtown would know it was my birthday, I also got a sweet card and nailpolish. Lately I’ve been very focused on painting my nails. I wonder where that came from? From Cody I got a cute seahorse decoration thing and a princess wand to match my tiara, haha. Also a very sweet card. These guys are the best!!

So, our night started at SLO Brew and then we went to Motav. People kept buying me drinks, even random people who just wished me a happy birthday. People here really like birthdays. I didn’t have to pay any cover fees and the music was good at Motav for once. The first song played was The Nights by Avicii. I wasn’t feeling too drunk until after midnight. It went from nothing to everything very fast. I honestly can’t remember anything from after midnight. That never happened before, it is scary, and I will never ever get that drunk again. Yesterday I only left bed to shower. I was still hungover today. It got pretty okay at like 6pm. And now I can eat normally. I feel kinda done with alcohol now, and besides, I am old, haha!

This morning I skipped the beach volleyball lesson and TRX, because I was still hungover. German class was fine, it was a recap of the last two quarters. Then I went back home to study. So much homework… Free pizza in the courtyard and I don’t feel bad anymore. I would have needed that pizza yesterday, haha!

I did one quiz in Digital Cities today, I finished most of my German homework (but I can’t focus, so I will save the last two assignments for tomorrow). I should do more, but my brain is all mushy and I am tired. I have another day tomorrow too!

The Swedish Easter bunny found its way to SLO. Rachel baked my favorite cookies (oatmeal raisin) and left a chunk of dough on my fridge shelf. Isn’t she the sweetest?! Pismo Beach on Saturday was ridiculously windy. Way way away from where I stood there were a ton of kitesurfers. Maybe you can see them if clicking on the picture to zoom in? I got flowers from the people. The jewelry I got from mom ❤Cody, me, Rachel, Lauren, Ciara, Pelle, and Aiden. Thanks guys for an awesome birthday!!

The P

Posted on Sunday, 5 April 2015, 21:09 by Alexandra

Another ”I finally did it” happened today. I finally hiked the P, one of the closest hikes to where I live. On the hillside facing campus (and the rest of the city), there is a big concrete P. I hiked up to it today and then up all the way to the top of the ridge. I sat up there for a long while just looking out over campus, the hills, and the whole City of San Luis Obispo. I can’t get enough of beautiful views!

I didn’t stay until sunset, I got too hungry. It was a pretty short hike and I was up all the way to the top on, I would guess 30 minutes and down in less. A “lagom” hike. But it was very steep and lots of loose rocks.

I had dinner, took a shower and am now doing laundry and thinking if I should be a good student and do Thursday’s reading and quiz. I did Tuesday’s this afternoon. I probably won’t. A movie, some ice cream and then bed sounds like a good Easter Sunday evening.

Someone repainted the P recently to the colors of the rainbow. PCV, the village where I live.Cal Poly SLO has a very big campus! Behind the ridge. SLO side of the ridge. 360 degree panorama.

Home

Posted on Saturday, 4 April 2015, 1:15 by Alexandra

Tonight was a roommate night. We hung out in the living room for a couple of hours before we went downtown where we went to the movie theatre and watched the new DreamWorks movie Home with Jim Parsons as the lead voice. We were the only ones in the whole room and that was kinda nice actually. The movie was super cute and I am glad we watched it. Afterwards we drove to Albertson’s where I bought butter for the banana bread. We have so many frozen bananas so I thought it was time to bake again. This time it turned out the best yet, and one of our neighbors, Cody, said that with chocolate chips in it, it would have been the best banana bread he ever had. It was really good. This time I took ¾ cup normal white sugar and ¼ brown sugar instead of just all white sugar. It turned out pretty well.

This whole day (well, after I woke up at noon) I was at the pool with a bunch of guys from the building. It was a very nice day and I got a lot of reading done. 40 more pages and I am done with the first Artemis Fowl book. For some reason it takes longer to read a page in this book than in any other book I read. I think I have to switch page more times per actual page, if that makes any sense. eReaders.

Last night I spent $275. In a month I will take a scuba certification class at Cal Poly. This school is so cool, they offer so many untraditional classes. I was planning on shaping my own surfboard, but it would have been too much to take home. There are ceramics classes, chocolate classes, salsa dancing. During five days in May I will be at the Rec Center pool and out in the ocean to get my scuba certification. I am so excited!!

Now it is very late, and I am seeing double and this banana bread coma is not helping. Goodnight!

German at University of Gothenburg?

Posted on Thursday, 2 April 2015, 18:59 by Alexandra

Last night I spontaneously applied to a fulltime German class at GU for the whole fall semester. I won’t have anything else to do, so why not? Now I just have to figure out how I will send in transcripts of my American grades for all the German classes I have taken/am currently taking. I don’t have any prerequisites from Sweden. I think it will work out, otherwise I have to come up with something else to do after the summer. More than just living with mom and read.

First week of this quarter is over now and I have had my classes. It will be a good quarter, very similar to the last one. I am taking one fun planning class Digital Cities, German 103 and then a transportation/land use planning class. I think the workload will be like the last one. A lot of stuff to do, but it shouldn’t be a problem. Ten more weeks and then I will have a Bachelor of Science in Building and Civil Engineering. Yay!

César Chávez Day

Posted on Tuesday, 31 March 2015, 22:00 by Alexandra

I have never heard of this dude, but he was apparently a civil rights activist among farm workers. And because of this, we didn’t have any classes today. It was perfect with 20 minute class on Monday and then nothing on Tuesday, a soft start on the quarter.

On this day you are supposed to hang out on the beach, but I was planning on going to the beach volleyball lesson at 3pm and since I don’t have a car and wouldn’t wanna make another person drive me back just for that. So I stayed home, but the lesson was canceled so I hung out at the pool for an hour and a half before Rachel and I went to buy food.

Last night we were a bunch of people going out in downtown SLO because it was Ciara’s 21^st birthday. I had a great time and felt a little hungover today to be honest, but it wasn’t too bad.

During the day I had my first class of the quarter, German. We were only in class for like 20 minutes talking about the syllabus. It was a pretty sweet first day. Before that I went to the gym for two hours. First one hour of beach volleyball practice and then one hour of TRX. I took it very easy with the TRX since I haven’t really worked out in a long time. It was mostly just to go through the postures and how this works, so it was only like 15 minutes of actual workout. That was enough for me. I hope we will gradually make it harder in the classes. The next one is tomorrow. It feels really good to get back to working out, I have missed it. Let’s just hope I stay healthy this quarter! I don’t wanna get sick again.

Ponto Beach/Pacific Beach/La Jolla/sunset surfing

Posted on Sunday, 29 March 2015, 1:11 by Alexandra

Wow, the last two days were so eventful and I am tired out of my mind right now. If you feel like you need a vacation after your vacation, you did the right thing on your vacation! I have had an amazing time in San Diego and I can’t wait to go back, which I will hopefully do at least one more time before I go back to Sweden. I know I didn’t take San Diego for granted a single day when I lived there, but it still feels like I did, because every time I go here I fall more and more in love with it.

The past two days has been full of San Diego adventures. Friday was all about hanging out on Ponto Beach with Pelle (Swedish exchange student at Cal Poly). It was a very nice day, no pelican poop, 86F on land, 62F in the water, not a single cloud during the whole day. No dolphins unfortunately. Later in the afternoon a few people from the beach volleyball group at Ponto came and set up nets and played. I didn’t join because I had to go home and get myself ready for going out in PB with Helena in the evening. I ran into Chad there, first time I saw him since we said goodbye at the SD airport more than a year ago. It was nice to see him again.

Ponto Beach for the first time since January 2014! ❤ It is not a very special beach to most people, but to me this is the most special beach in all of San Diego. This is where I played beach volleyball, and met a lot of fun people, this is the beach where I always spotted dolphins, and it was always empty.Friday’s sunset over Carlsbad! I think everyone following my blog knows by now that I love sunset!

I left the beach at like 5:30pm, back home I showered and packed for the night and today and picked up Helena for dinner at 8. We met up with another German girl at In N Out, first time for both of them. Delicious as always! We then bought drink ingredients at Vons and made a Solero drink at home before taking an Uber to PB (Pacific Beach, the party area of San Diego). We first went to Tavern, a place I really liked because they played good music. We then moved on to Duck Dive which was Helena’s favorite place. The music and people there were weirder. The people might have been because it was later in the night and they were more drunk. But I wasn’t very drunk at all and didn’t enjoy it as much as I probably could have. I can definitely see myself having fun there though, more fun than in downtown SD. The people in PB are young. But on the other hand, I am not much of a party person anymore. I have realized that I would much rather wake up not hungover the day after and do stuff, like surfing. It was still a fun evening and I am glad I finally went out in PB, what everyone kept talking about all the time last year.

We got a ride from some random creepy guys, but we used them and just said goodbye when they dropped us off. But it took a while for them to go away and stop ringing the doorbell. Creepy. But I fell asleep as soon as my head it the pillow. Helena’s house is by the way incredible! It’s humungous and so nicely decorated inside. Helena’s bathroom was ridiculous, she even has radio in her shower, which is also a tub with jets. Only a little bit jealous, haha.

This morning Helena made breakfast for both of us (the third girl didn’t drink and drove home late last night) and that was so sweet of her. Avocado/scrambled eggs bagels. Yummy!

We drove to La Jolla Shores and I am so thankful she knows an old German family right there on the beach so we could park in their driveway. It is a pain in the butt to find parking there. I think you have to go there at like 7-8am to get a pretty decent spot. It’s so stupid. I hate parking here (one of very few bad things about SD). We lay down close to the surf tent and I read a little bit, finished a 100-page cross-over story between Percy Jackson and Carter Kane and then started the second short cross-over story and after that one (which I will probably be done with tonight) I will start reading Artemis Fowl.

Before Johanna came we just lay on the beach, I read some, took some naps, and went in the water with just our feet once. It was cold and with the cloudy sky I would not warm up enough to go all the way in. Fortunately it cleared up later in the day and the day ended in a very beautiful way. Johanna came at 2pm and soon thereafter we put on wetsuits (I had my own with me this time) and went out in the water. It was Helena and Jessica’s (the German girl from last night) first time surfing and they got tired pretty fast and went up after not even an hour. I stayed the longest, more than two hours. It was not the best conditions for surfing today, the current were extreme and it was hard to just be in the water. But I managed to stand up several times and I would say that it went almost as good this time as last time.

The waves got better in the evening and Johanna and I decided to go out one more time, during the sunset. It was so amazing! The waves were better so we both did much better than earlier in the afternoon. And the sunset was sooo pretty! I wish I had had my GoPro with me for that. Watching the sunset from the water was something I had never done before (not that I can remember anyway), and it was incredible. Definitely not the last time I did that, but next time I will bring my GoPro.

Resting between surf sessions.Pre sunset surfing. Post sunset surfing. Johanna and I posing in front of a sunset that was much more beautiful in real life. The person who invents a camera that can capture exactly what we see is gonna be the richest man on Earth! I love sunsets!

On my way home I picked up Panda Express and then watched an episode of Arrow while eating a very late dinner. It was a nice evening. I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. Surfing is energy consuming.

I think I will pack everything now, so I can sleep a little bit longer in the morning. Or I can sleep in the car, we have a few hours to kill there, haha!

This first and last spring break of mine has been the best! Especially the last part. San Diego will always be my second home ❤

Beach volleyball practice

Posted on Thursday, 26 March 2015, 19:55 by Alexandra

I can’t believe I woke up before sunrise for the second time in a week. This morning I watched the sunset while I was driving to the beach and played in the rising sun. Not as much playing as practice, but I enjoyed it. I can’t remember the last time I went to a beach volleyball practice. The guy I met here in SD last time know the coach so he made sure that I could join. Chris didn’t come until later, at like 8 (we started at 7 on Mission Beach), and when he was done (after I had done a workout in the sand with one of the girls, and then went in the ocean, which by the way was so much warmer than SLO and actually very nice today) we went for brunch in Pacific Beach at a place called Kono’s. It was a popular place and really good and cheap.

We then went to his nice apartment complex in PB where we hung out by the pool. Not too much hanging out, he was working, so I read, and got burned. I pretty much ran out of sunscreen so on the way back home I stopped at Target to buy a new one. I hate being burned! Even if it is not too bad. It feels irresponsible.

I probably read about 10 chapters in my book today (Homecoming by Kass Morgan, the third The 100 triology) and only have 6 more until I am done. It is a very good series, but I am not sure this will be the last one. Unless she crams a lot of stuff in those last 60 pages.

It is only 8pm, but I am ready to go to bed. It’s been a long day, and the sun makes you tired. It was over 90F today and it will be this beautiful the rest of the weekend too. Yay!

Last couple of days in SF

Posted on Wednesday, 25 March 2015, 23:53 by Alexandra

It was harder than I anticipated to update my blog while couchsurfing, even with a good wifi. I will try to remember what we did all the days.

MONDAY

Monday started in a very good way with breakfast in the sun with a view over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a perfect start of the day. Right after that we took an uber to the Cable Car museum and I was surprised at what I learned there. It is not just a museum, but the place which runs the whole cable car system. I don’t know why I thought it was called a “cable car”, but clearly the logic didn’t hit me. So under the city there are cables pulling the cable cars and they are being powered in this cable car museum. Pretty cool!

The rest of the day we went shopping at Union Square. I didn’t buy much, but necessary thing. We went to Nordstrom Rack for the first time ever and I bought two pair of underwear and a bra. I also bought a pair of jeans at Gap. They fit like a glove and I didn’t even need to think about it. They were perfect!

In the evening Julianne and three other girls from SLO came into the city from north and we had dinner together close to where Helena and I was staying. We had crepes and it was so good. I have been so unhealthy in San Francisco and that needs to stop now! My stomach’s been hurting real bad.

We saw the bridge every single day! There was a big group of surfers in the bay, but no waves so they just paddled back and forth. Here are the cables that run the whole SF cable car system. We walked through Chinatown.

TUESDAY

Yesterday morning Helena, Patrick and I went for brunch and then to Sutro Baths. In the late 19^th century it was the world’s biggest private indoor swimming pool but it was too expensive to run, it was closed and while being demolished in 1966 an arsonist burned it to the ground. Now there are only some concrete walls left. It was a cool spot.

Then we drove (luxury not to be limited to ubers, but have a driver) to Castro District and walked around there for a bit. Went through Mission Dolores Park and sat down for a fika. Oh, right, the Castro is the gay district in San Francisco.

Patrick then dropped us off at Jacob’s place and we said goodbye. Helena and I were craving sushi and found a place with good ratings on Yelp called Akiko. We went there and it was the tiniest place ever, but we came before everyone else and managed to get a spot by the “bar”. We ordered so much sushi and it was so delicious! I love sushi.

It was still early when we got out, so we found a bar and sat there until midnight. I had four drinks and I haven’t had that much to drink since beginning of January. I was pretty buzzed, haha! We went to a bar called Sugar Café and I really liked it. The bartenders didn’t check our ID’s and we had tabs and I felt so like a grown up!

On our way home we stopped for pizza slices and then took an uberpool back. I think the driver and the guy with us thought we were crazy Europeans for getting drunk on a Tuesday, haha! They were laughing the whole ride. It was the most fun uber ride I have had so far.

Castro District. Limited edition gay Absolut Vodka. Mission Dolores Park was full of hippies of all kinds. It was a weird place. Pretty view over SF.Helena at Sugar Cafe.

WEDNESDAY

Today we didn’t do much more than getting breakfast and then started the long traveling down to San Diego. First we took an uber to the closest BART station, then took the BART to the airport where we missed the first train going around the terminals and I almost got cut in half by the doors, then flew down to San Diego, and then I had a long uber ride up to SLO.

I was excited to ride the BART for the first time. It is the subway-whatever system they have in SF and we have talked about it a lot in my classes at Cal Poly. It was okay, but very loud…

The flight was 1.5 hour long but very nice. The flight attendants were friendly and the pilot was funny sometimes. I saw SLO when we flew over it, that was cool.

It was hard finding an uber at the airport, but I finally got one, and he drove me to SDSU where I looked at an amazing apartment if I get an internship here in San Diego. It was a big room in an apartment and in the complex was a pool, a gym, a movie theatre and close to trolleys. It was the perfect place. Everything was included in the rent and it was only $840. Too good to be true! Let’s just hope I get the internship now :).

The uber driver waited for me and then drove me all the way up to San Diego. All of this for only $67. Super awesome!!

I got to the house at 8pm, hung out with the kids a little bit, but not too much since they still had homework to do.

I should really go to bed now if I am to get up at 5:30 so I will be down in Mission Beach at 7am for beach volleyball practice! What will one don’t do for love?! (love for beach volleyball)

Tourist in San Francisco

Posted on Sunday, 22 March 2015, 22:48 by Alexandra

Two days are over in San Francisco and I am so tired from all the walking. But we have seen a lot. Yesterday Patrick and I met up with Helena, Nicki and our host Jacob for brunch at a place close to his place on Chestnut Street. Then we all took a walk down to the water, looked at the Golden Gate Bridge (it was not foggy so I could actually see it this time), then went to Palace of Fine Arts and back to his place. So we are couchsurfing now, if I never said that before. My first time doing it and it is nice that we are two girls (three until tonight). It is free and we literally sleeps on a guy’s couch. It’s a new experience.

After that Patrick had to leave and the rest of us hang in the apartment for an hour or so before we decided to explore the city some more. We took an uber to Haight-Ashbury Street. This is where hippies used to live, but then got replaces with vintage boutiques, cafés and restaurants. Still a lot of “hippies” though, lots of weed and smoke stores. We kept on walking from there to The Golden Gate Park. We just walked in a little part of it and then walked all the way to the Painted Ladies six houses painted in different colors. It was not as grandeur as it looks on pictures (that does not happen often, now does it?). We were so exhausted all of us, so we sat down on the grass for a while, watching all the funny tourists taking weird photos in front of the houses.

We then took an uber back to the apartment and got ready to go out to dinner. All of us went to Cheesecake Factory at Union Square for dinner. They were out of my favorite Farfalle with chicken and roasted garlic, so I took my second favorite, the Roasted pear and bleu cheese flatbread. We all shared a Red Velvet Cheesecake afterward. So delicious. Our last stop for the day was a bar called Bacchus Kirk. I played pool against Jacob, won surprisingly! Had a drink, petted the dogs in the bar (SF is a dog city so dogs are everywhere here and apparently allowed in some bars).

Today was all about the piers and wharfs and Alcatraz. Pier 39 was fun as usual, watched the sea lions. Then we walked to Pier 33 and picked up our tickets for Alcatraz later in the afternoon and then walked all the way to Fisherman’s Wharf. It was not that far, but many small trips make a long distance. We walked around, went to Ghiradelli Square. It would have been so cool to sit down in the Ghiradelli “restaurant”, but we just walked through. That chocolate is really good.

On our way back to Pier 33 we stopped at Ben & Jerry’s for milkshakes. Yummy!

We were the first to board the boat out to the island and it only took us 12 minutes. We pretty much just did an audio tour, walked around to watch the SF skyline and then back. We then met up with Jacob at Union Square for dinner at Burger Bar. I made my own burger with avocado, bacon, caramelized onions and cranberry sauce. Very good.

Straight back to the apartment and now I am so ready for bed!

Golden Gate Bridge. Palace of Fine Arts. Turtles at PoFA. Haight/Ashbury Street. Golden Gate Park. Painted Ladies. Union Square.Hearts all over SF (no idea why).Bacchus Kirk bar.

The super cute and fluffy dog in the bar. Palace of Fine Arts at night. Pier 39. Packed sealions at Pier 39. Alcatraz in the arch where they loaded the prisoners. Fisherman’s Wharf. Ghiradelli Square. Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz island. Alcatraz. Hospital inside Alcatraz. Showers inside Alcatraz. “Broadway”. So many cells!! There were four aisles (only two with cells on both sides). 6 confinement cells. The library. A normal and “decorated” cell. There was an escape in March 1963, three inmates dug themselves out with spoons and climbed up a shaft behind this wall up to the roof and supposedly swam somewhere. No bodies where ever found so no one knows if they survived the very treacherous one mile long swim to the main land.Bay Bridge, San Francisco skyline, and Golden Gate Bridge seen from Alcatraz.