The pool (again)

Posted on Sunday, 5 October 2014, 20:37 by Alexandra

All this sun is making me so exhausted. I slept until noon today, and then I spent three hours at the pool and since then I haven’t done anything except had dinner and made a work-out schedule. It is 8pm and all I want to do is go to bed…

It was so hot when I woke up, just getting out of bed made me sweaty. I skyped with mom and then went to the pool with Kelsey. It was hot, but the water was cool. Back home I had leftovers and then I made a workout schedule. I am gonna try working out 5 (or 4) days a week and it doesn’t look too bad. Monday: Interval training and light full body workout in the gym. Tuesdays: TRX during lunch and maybe Electro Flow Yoga in the evening. Wednesday: rest day. Thursday: TRX during lunch and Vinyasa yoga in the evening. Friday: rest day. Saturday: Beach volleyball at either PCV or Pismo Beach. Sunday: 6-pack abs (30 min class) followed by 45 min of spinning (called Breakaway here). I think I could survive that.

I actually think I am going to bed now. If I go to bed early I might wake up early and have energy to do something tomorrow. Maybe workout? Or maybe some architecture history reading. In the early afternoon I am going to the DMV to renew my drivers license and then doing my homework for Sustainable Environments with Johanna and Courtney. And after that the third week of school begins. I like warmth. But I do hope it cools down, I don’t like being this tired…

Kanelbullens dag

Posted on Sunday, 5 October 2014, 2:33 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.

This Saturday was amazing. We were supposed to start it by playing beach volleyball at the PCV court but it was so windy outside it wouldn’t be fun, so I cancelled. At 11am we went to the beach instead, me, Kelsey, Tobi, Coby, Evan and Julia. We did the right thing. In SLO it was too hot, over 100F. Out at Pismo Beach it wasn’t even that warm. It was okay to lay in a bikini, but it wasn’t super hot. So we spent five hours there. We played beach volleyball (no wind out there surprisingly), went into the cold water (17C /65F), and lay on the beach tanning. It was an amazing day. I didn’t get burned and the water was so much fun. It was cold, but after a while your body got numb and all the big waves made it easier. We also saw several dolphins pretty close to the beach and also some seals. I still get very excited when I see dolphins.

Oh right, I almost forgot. I also tried skin boarding, which is when you are standing on the beach and ride on a thin board out in the water when the wave is just on its way back to the ocean. It is very very hard and I fell on my butt the second time I tried. It didn’t hurt, but I got sandy and had to go in the water again.

Dolphins to the right and left in this picture. A surfer in the middle.

Before we left Pismo at like 4pm, we stopped by this awesome place called Old West Cinnamon Rolls. I got a cream cheese frosted one and coby a walnut and we shared so we each got a half of each. So good! I remembered when we were sitting there that it was ”kanelbullens dag” (the day of the cinnamon roll) in Sweden yesterday. Then I googled it and it turned out to be today. Awesome! Not Swedish cinnamon rolls, but still delicous.

The day of the Cinnamon Roll An american cinnamon roll.

Back home we all chilled for a bit. Taking showers and I ordered a new bikini in which I will be able to play beach volleyball in. The ones I have will probably fall off if I go all in. I think it was worth it.

Then me, Kelsey and Lauren went downtown where we met up with Rachel when she got off work and we had a roommate date evening at Firestone Grill. They have the most amazing pulled pork sandwhiches. THE BEST EVER!!!

My amazing roommates. Left to right: Me, Kelsey, Rachel and Lauren.

Our next thing was to go grocery shopping. I got everything I needed except pasta, but that was probably for the best anyway. I don’t have a scale here, but I am afraid that I’ve gained weight. It is hard being healthy here, but as soon as I start working out it will probably be fine. And speaking of, I just signed up for TRX classes twice a week for te whole quarter. It cost $40, but I think that will be worth it. It is every Tueday and Thursday between noon and 1pm, when I am out of class, so I didn’t really have an argument why I shouldn’t sign up for it. I love TRX and that would be a good motivator to get me to start work out again.

After grocery shopping we went to the room above ours to a party. It was fun for a while, but I got tired. So I stopped by another room on the third floor (which is my floor) to hang out for like 30 minutes before going back home. I won’t be able to get up early to go to the gym, but whatever. I feel good about myself just signing up for TRX. There were only 4 spots left. It will probably be extremely hot tomorrow as well, so I will probably just hang out by the pool. Even tonight it was hot, we were al sweating in shorts and tank tops. In the middle of the night! It was around 30C. Ridiculous. I like it though, I get tired from it. But the oppurtunity to be in the ocean in October doesn’t come too often.

I love my life here!

Shit, my calves look gigantic on these pictures… Anyway, I wanna get another tattoo. Any input, calf or ankle (the same foot as my first tattoo)?When we came home from Albertson’s and we were gonna park the car inthe parking structure, there was a big tarantula walking around in there. And I was just telling Kelsey at the beach today that I never saw a single one in San Diego and that she probably wouldn’t see one here in just a quarter. Oh, I was wrong… I’m guessing it was about 2-3 inches (5-8cm).

The pool and salsa

Posted on Friday, 3 October 2014, 23:12 by Alexandra

Today was a very chill day. I woke up at 11am, had breakfast and then spent five hours at the pool, tanning and playing waterball (basketball in the water) with some guys from the building. It was fun and exhausting. Left the pool at 5pm to pick up three more packages. The bathroom rug, my sunglasses and the small cutting board. And that was the last things from my big $200 order a week ago. So now I am just waiting for the bike lights from mom in Sweden and the package from Amazon which I am gonna send to my brother.

I also found a guy yesterday in the building who likes to fix bikes so he took a look at mine and will fix it on Monday when he get new parts for my breaks. So very nice of him!

Then I made dinner for Lauren and Kelsey. I don’t have any containers for leftovers yet. I am gonna by that tomorrow. I made spaghetti with meatsauce, and it was very appreciated.

At 8pm the three of us went to campus for a 1.5 hour long salsa lesson. I actually enjoyed it and will continue to go. $5 each time is not too bad and I had a great time. I’m not a very good dancer, but it was fun.

I am tired, my core muscles are sore after yoga yesterday (perhaps already from waterball as well) and I am going up at 8am tomorrow to play beach volleyball at the PCV court at 9. I should probably go to bed. At 11pm on a Friday.

CA HSR presentation

Posted on Friday, 3 October 2014, 1:07 by Alexandra

(=California High-Speed Rail presentation)

Today was the big day. A week of ”hard work” in transportation engineering lab is over. Last Thursday we got a huge assignment, a 15 page paper and a presentation due today. I am very relaxed I’ve noticed. My groupmembers (we were four people) were super stressed out about this whole thing, while I did my thing and wasn’t panicking at all. They got me all worked up the last hour before hand-in this afternoon. And it actually made me a bit upset. I’m never worried about these kinds of things. I know that everything works out and I am satisfied with my part. But the presentation didn’t go as well as I thought. I am always very confident when it comes to presentations (at least now, maybe not five years ago) and the rehearsal before went awesome. But I choked when I was up there in front of the class. I guess there is a big difference holding a presentation in your native language and in your second language. I forgot words, I mispronounced a lot of words and I guess I stuttered a little too. I hope the teacher understands that and understood what I was trying to say. It feels good to be done with this though. This was the toughest assignment in the lab class if I don’t misremembered.

After that I went to the rec center (Recreational Center = the gym on campus) to end this long day with an hour of yoga. The gym is amazing by the way (google ”cal poly rec center”!). I am so excited about starting to work out again. I need to make a work out schedule though. I don’t wanna go to the gym unprepared. And after yoga (first time in like five months) I realized that I need to increase muscle mass. I am ridicoulusly weak at the moment… I guess my legs are good after all the walking on this huge campus, but my upper body strenght equals zero.

The evening was spent with Lauren on the couch watching 21 Jump Street, drinking tea, eating Reese’s Mini Peanutbutter Cups. It was a very nice evening. After that a lot of people stopped by as usual which I love. It is so easy to meet people with an open door. I think I met four new people today and I think i remembered all of their names. Yay!

So, my day started at 5:40 with a shower, a real breakfast (scrambled eggs and avokado) and a cup of Yerba Mate tea and then class at 7:40. I couldn’t get home on my four-hour break today so I decided that I needed to wake up properly before class. The tea is full of caffeine and I think I was more awake during my first two classes than normal, but I’m not sure. In Architecture History class I sat next to a guy from Carlsbad, CA and who had also been to the three Caribbean islands I am going to. I can’t remember his name though…

After my two classes I went to the Study Abroad Fair to be one of the international students who the American students could ask questions. It was fun, but not many people who asked me things. I got free lunch and that was nice. At 1:30pm I met up with my trans lab class and rehearsed for the presentation and fixed the last things in the paper. And that was all that happened today.

No packages today. I want my bathroom rug and the small cutting board! Hopefully tomorrow. I am completely off (no homework except reading due Tuesday) so I am gonna relax by the pool all day tomorrow after I wake up. It is supposed to be around 97F tomorrow and it was the same today and that is hooooot! I love it though, where else is it 38C in October?! 🙂

I am tired, but I don’t feel like going to bed. But I probably should anyway. I really need to update the page ”Who is Alexandra?” though…. That’s for tomorrow!

Goodnight/goodmorning!

Packages

Posted on Wednesday, 1 October 2014, 23:06 by Alexandra

For a day off, it’s been a busy day. I didn’t get a sleep-in since I had to be at the library at 8am to work on the paper and presentation which is due tomorrow. We worked for about two hours before I had to go home and have a skype date with Lovisa. I miss her and it would be so much fun if she decided to come back and visit.

I did laundry today as well and picked up packages at two seperate times. In total I got five packages today (and one yesterday, my beach volleyball ball came :D). I am still missing three things, but I’m sure I will get them tomorrow or Friday. So today I got my mattress pad, the dishrack, my reading lamp, a new purse, storage boxes for my bathroom stuff, the two flags and pins to put them on the wall. My room is starting to feel like my room and not a hotel room as it have for the past two weeks.

I went back to the library at 2pm to work some more on the lab project. Left an hour later because the others had to go to class. I went home, did a little studying, mostly preparing for the presentation tomorrow. I made a pearl couscous salad (I’ve never had pearl couscous before, but it was good, I don’t think I cooked it correctly though, so I will have to give it a few tries). Unpacked everything and folded my laundry and then it was time to go to class. Sustainable Environments. It was tough at first, I almost fell asleep, but then I woke up a little bit. We watched two short movies, one was called ”The Story of Stuff” and that was interesting. I think it would have been more fun if it was about my cat Stuff, but still. I didn’t feel too bad about not reading anything before class, because no one else did it. We got out of class 35 minutes early which I am grateful for. I have a very long day tomorrow and I couldn’t wait to get home to my ”new” bed. I have a feeling I will sleep like a princess tonight.

It was like a mini Christmas Eve today! 🙂 For this 3 inch thick memory foam mattress pad I paid $99 instead of $530 which was the normal price. Yay! My new purse, since my old one is falling apart. I have to get used to having a colored purse instead of a black one. And this is what my room looks like now, it still looks a little bare, but I guess that’s okay, it looks clean ;).

A normal Tuesday

Posted on Tuesday, 30 September 2014, 22:51 by Alexandra

Today was just a normal day at a Californian university. I got up at 6am, had a little breakfast, went to class, didn’t fall asleep, worked on the transportation engineering project about Swedish roundabouts, had lunch, took a short nap and then back to class where I worked on the second project I have right now. The one about California High-Speed Rail system in transportation engineering lab. Right after that I went to an information meeting with Poly Escapes which is a club here at Cal Poly. They have a lot of outdoor activites throughout the quarter and I have signed up for one and I am on the waiting list for a second one. They are popular, so next quarter I am gonna sign up as soon as they are released. The one I am going to is a surf weekend in Ventura November 8-9. And I am on the waitng list for a stand-up-paddling weekend in Yosemite Valley. I do hope I get that one, otherwise maybe next quarter.

Right after that I went grocery shopping with Ryan and when I came home at 9pm I finished my part of the 15 page paper (California high-speed rail), watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory and now I will go to bed. Early for once! I can’t sleep in tomorrow though, I am meeting with HSR group at 8am to make the presentation which we will presentin front of the class on Thursday afternoon. I guess I could sleep by the pool after that.

Vacation planning

Posted on Monday, 29 September 2014, 23:42 by Alexandra

This Monday has been super lazy. I got out of bed at 11am because something was going on in the apartment. One of my roommates, Lauren had a very bad back muscle spasm and I helped her get through it until herm om came. It looked so painful but there was nothing I could do really, except try to talk to her and make her think of other things than the pain. It went away after a while fortunately. When it did she went to the library to study and then I went back to bed and watched the season premiere of Once Upon a Time. It is available first the day after it airs on the TV apparently.

When I got bored I started looking into what I will do on Winter Break. And that’s what I did for the rest of the day. It took me probably 6 hours to plan that 23 day vacation. But now I have it all figured out. I haven’t booked anything yet, I am waiting for people who wants to go with me so we can book together and so. But in a couple of weeks I will book anyway. I want to have it done, I want to have something definite to look forward to. Okay, so on December 12 I will go from San Luis Obispo to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and stay there until December 20. December 20-27 I will be in San Juan, Puerto Rico and December 27 – January 4 I will be in Montego Bay, Jamaica. I am more than excited. I want to book it now!!! But I will have to be patient and wait at least one week. I think Julianne (a girl from my WoW-group) wants to come with me to DR and my roommate Kelsey really wants to go with me to Jamaica. I think it will be hard finding someone who wants to go to Puerto Rico over Christmas, but what do I know, there are probably people here in California who doesn’t want to celebrate Christmas. Let’s hope so.

I spent a little time with Julianne in her room, and then I just hung out with my roommates, who by the way are the best. I love them! ❤

A day of studying

Posted on Sunday, 28 September 2014, 23:23 by Alexandra

I did not do much today on this lazy Sunday (which was my second Saturday). I went up at 9am, had a banana/egg pancake and then wrote on my paper in Transportation Engineering lab. I wrote two whole pages and will probably add a half more tomorrow. I then took a break when I ordered a lot of stuff from Amazon. I got Amazon Prime yesterday which means I can get free two-day shipping. I ordered a mattress pad, 3 inch thick memory foam for $99 instead of $530. I so look forward to when that comes! I also ordered two flags to put up on my walls, a Swedish one and a California Republic one. Pins to put it on the wall, three bathroom baskets so I don’t have to have those things in my desk anymore. I also got a cheap memory foam bathroom rug, a small LED lamp to have by my bed, a dish rack, a small cutting board and a new purse since mine (which I’ve had since like 2009) is falling apart. I also found my black/see-through-neon-green sunglasses that broke this summer and ordered them too. All that for $220, yay!

Then I sat on the couch for a while reading about the old Egyptian kingdom in Architecure History.

At 5pm I went to the library for the first time to study with Johanna and Eric on our project in Transportation Engineering (yeah, it is two different classes, Transportation Engineering and Transportation Engineering Lab). We decided that we wanted to look into the Swedish roundabout and right of way system and compare that to a city of the same size here in California. We are gonna compare to the 4-way stop intersections they have here and maybe take a look at the enviromental impacts. This will be a fun project I think.

After that I got home, Kelsey was baking almond bars, but muffins. They were delicious so I got the recipe. It almost tasted a little bit like marzipan. Yummy! Right after we went to Target so I could buy some food, but I guess Sunday evening isn’t the best of days to go grocery shopping, it was completely empty. So I guess I have to go to Albertson’s tomorrow to buy ground beef and onion and stuff so I can make spaghetti with meatsauce. And since I am almost done with my homework this week (that I know of so far) I will hang out by the pool. I need to work on my tan ;).

After Target me and my roomies just talked for a long while and now everyone’s in bed earlier than ever before. I will go to bed now as well and watch the season premiere of Once Upon a Time. Goodnight (/goodmorning)!

Beach volleyball @ Pismo Beach

Posted on Sunday, 28 September 2014, 1:22 by Alexandra

I’m sorry my 25 readers (which is more than last year, yay!), my blog has been dead because I’ve been too tired to update. So, I think Wednesday was the last day I updated. Since then I’ve gotten a 15 page paper due on Thursday next week, been to downtown again, walked all the way back and stopped to refill energy with a donut at the 24/7 donut shop. On Friday I baked muffins and cupcakes with my roomies and people from the building came and said hello. A great way to meet people. We had about 100 and we actually got rid of all of them.

One of my roommates, Lauren :).

In the evening on Friday we went to a house party and I have now something more on my experience list. The party got rolled, which means that the police came and asked everyone to leave. It was kinda weird and I really don’t understand how that works here, because it seems like all the house parties get rolled, even if non of the neighbors are home (like yesterday). The police earns money from it, so I guess that’s why they prioritize parties. It was only 23:30 so we headed back to PCV and hung out with some guys on the fourth floor playing Cards Against Humanity. The most fun game ever.

This morning I went to Pismo Beach with Ryan, Johanna och Franzi which is a German exchange student. We played beach volleyball for like three hours. At first not very serious, just to get warmed up. I ended up playing my last game with some pretty good players, that was fun. It was too bad though that the wind is always coming to the beach here at like noon.

On our way home we had lunch at High Street Deli which is SLO’s best sandwhich place according to pretty much everyone. It was very good and much needed after so many hours in the sand. It felt good to be back, but it’s gonna take a while to get into playing again.

At home I took a shower and then a too long nap. So I didn’t have time to study… I felt a little bad actually. But I am going up at 8:30am tomorrow to write on my paper about the High-Speed Rail in California. It is a group project, but it is still a lot of pages to write. I think it will be done pretty fast though as soon as I just get into it, which I will do tomorrow. I think I am meeting up with my group in Engineering Transportation sometime during the day as well to figure out what our project this quarter should be about. The 15 page paper of the California HSR is in Transportation Engineering Lab. I also have a lot of reading to do, so that’s what I will do tomorrow. I am also checking to see if anyone is going grocery shopping. I finally have a few ideas of food I want to cook. I am thinking spaghetti and meatsauce tomorrow. Or maybe Monday.

After the shower, nap and dinner (the other half of the delicious sandwhich) I went to Grover Beach with a bunch from my WoW-group to hang out. At Grover Beach it is okay to drive with the cars on the sand and it is a huuuge beach and you can just put the bonfire right in the sand. It was a very nice evening! I smell a lot of smoke right now, but it was worth it. My roomies were up and running when I got back at like 23:30. They were hyper from lack of sleep. Haha. I like them, they are so sweet and so funny. I am gonna miss them so much when I have to leave (way too soon!).

I guess I should go to bed now so I won’t be too tired to get up at 8:30 tomorrow…

1st+2nd day of class and Pint Night

Posted on Wednesday, 24 September 2014, 23:37 by Alexandra

I’ve spent two days in school now and I have gone to one of each class. And I like it. Yesterday morning I had Fundamentals of Transportation Engineering at 7:40am to 9am. The teacher seems to be really good and the topic is interesting too. I actually had no idea what I signed up for months ago. The teacher introduced me and Johanna in front of the whole class because we were from Sweden and that he was probably gonna ask us during class sometimes how it works with transportation in Sweden.

At 9:10 I had to find my next class. It wasn’t too hard but I was one of the last to get there so I had to sit in a left-hand seat. The tables you have in front of your chair in the lecture hall and it is just a tiny piece of table you fold up from the armrest and a few have a table on the left side, so that was weird. That class was History of World Architecture : Prehistory-Middle Ages. It is a fun subject. But I heard it is a tough class, much to remember and read. But I will probably be fine. The teacher is very monotone when he speaks though which makes two hours extra long. But I’m sure the multiple choice tests will be easy enough.

I went home after that, had a quinoa salad (so far I have actually been healthy!), and then went to my last class for the day which was a lab in Fundamentals of Transportation Engineering. It is two different classes for some reason. The teacher was nice. He called everyone’s names and he asked most of us if we preferred what he said or a nickname. So he asked me if I wanted to be called Alex or Alexandra. I said Alex since everyone here knows me by that name. Alex is a very very common name here. I meet Alex’s all the time. In the lab we were just doing a little research about the Interstate Highway System. It took a while for me, I need to get used to this. But I hope it was okay.

After that I went home, hung out at Ryan’s for a bit before we headed downtown with Johanna. Taco Tuesday offered $1.50 tacos and $3.50 margaraitas. That was fun. Then we went to trivia night at Woodstock with some of Ryan’s friends and then we headed to SLO Brew where we spent most of the evening. Apparently a guy from LMFAO was there so the line in was long, but it went really fast anyway. Not many people from our WoW-group was there but a few and it was a nice evening. So Pint Night works like this. Every Tuesday a few bars downtown sells a pint of beer for $1-3 depending on what beer you want. You first buy your own glass and then you just reuse that all the time. Cider was available for $3 which was awesome! I met a girl named Martina there last night and I met her in San Diego last year when she was roommates with Hanna (who did this exchange program two years ago). She was also an international student back then and now she is back for her graduate degree. I had no idea she was back and when I saw her, that was a nice surprise. She is very nice. I wasn’t too drunk but I still walked the bike home. I got home at 3am. And I am so glad I don’t have any early classes on Wednesday’s.

This morning I skyped with mom for the first time since I got here. It felt so normal, like I never left San Diego. Was I ever home in Sweden?

After that I went to the pool here in PCV and did a lot of reading. Here it is apparently normal to read what the teacher says before class to be prepared. So I spent a few hours by the pool reading about architecture history. I think I got a little tan. Not any redness at all. I think I am getting used to the sun here which is good. Of course I had a lot of sunscreen on but my first weekend here I got burned anyway.

I got home, took a shower, had another salad for dinner (I don’t have that much food yet) and then headed to my last class, which is Sustainable Environments. That class will be so much fun. We are gonna watch a lot of movies, he encourage us to listen to music like Bob Marley and Ramones (he put links to songs on the course webpage). And we only have three hours of class every week instead of four (it is a four credit class). So those last ten hours that’s missing we are going on field trips. The teacher gave us a lot of suggestions and after each we have to write a paper. On Monday I am going to a documentary called Cowspiracy, which is showed downtown and then I will go to a solar panel thing and a landfill and maybe something else. I need ten hours. We talked to the teacher afterwards and he seems really cool. I need to remember to bring a cup of coffee or something next time though. I got pretty tired and I don’t wanna fall asleep during class.

Tomorrow’s another Tuesday. Thursday’s and Tuesday’s look exactly the same. I don’t look forward to going up at 6am to go to class at 7:40… Goodnight!