Bake a little cake

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This morning I decided to have a long sleep in, it was so nice. I started the day with watching some Doctor Who but got bored and baked a white chocolate mudpie. I really don’t like mom’s gas oven. The sides ofthe cake got almost dry and the middle was still batter. It was delicious, but I have to give it another try when I’m back in my own apartment with a normal oven.

Soon I will head downtown for my first Cultural Care Au Pair meeting. This first meeting I will pretty much just observe and learn, maybe do one interview. I am excited.

White mudpie Chip in the bathtub Chip is weird. As soon as I’ve gone into the bathroom and locked the door he scratches on it from the outside and wants to get in. He jumps in the bathtub and wants to drink…Stuff in her box Stuff isn’t much better. She loves sitting in this box. She is completely still and just sits there!Chip in the bathtubLike I said, I have very normal cats!

City Library of Gothenburg

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Today was a pretty productive day for me. I got up at 9, showered, had a small breakfast and went to Chalmers to leave all the papers for the official application to CalPoly. Compared to what I had to give Cultural Care, this was nothing. The only thing I had to do was fill out the application form, find the copy of my passport on my computer, get a bank statement and a list of courses I want to take. That last document took the longest time. Find the right courses and they had to be in the right quarters. I just hope they are good enough and that I will be able to transfer the credits to Chalmers. It’s a bit confusing that whole thing…

After that I went to a meeting at Veidekke. We put up a time plan and now I know what we have to do. It’s not a lot of time until it has to be done. I thought this thesis would be bigger. But it’s nice that it’s not.

I didn’t even knew I had plans after that until I was on the tramon my way to downtown. I can’t remember if I ever wrote about that awesome drinking game Cards Against Humanity. I probably did. Well, I need thick paper to print it on, so I was looking after that. It turned out though that the printer at mom’s job couldn’t print on that thick paper so I didn’t buy anything. She came with the brilliant idea to laminate thin papers. That would be even better! She is so smart, my mom!

My fourth and last stop of the day was at the city library. When I knocked on the door and my old boss opened she asked me what I wanted. Haha, she didn’t recognize me! I had to introduce myself again. My other coworkers didn’t recognize me either. I’m not that different. They asked me how my year had been and offered to give me a tour of the inside of the library. They told me that it was supposed to be completely done by the end of the week. I find that a bit had to believe to be honest. A lot were done, but there were still a lot to do. But what do I know after a hang-loose lifestyle in SoCal. They have done an amazing job though and I’m sure it will be amazing when they open it on April 23rd (the international book day). The plaster walls that I drew on the ground were three dimensional now and that was so cool to see. When I watched the done I labored on that floor for so many hours and now I saw the results. I will always be the one who did that. It’s awesome! Maybe I will enjoy being a building and civil engineer after all :).

New computer

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I am too addicted to my computer so it didn’t take me more than a day to get a new one. Yesterday I went with mom to her job and then borrowed her car to drive around and look for a new computer. Well, first to the support and see if they could fix it. They could, but that would have cost me like 4000 SEK (and my new one was 6000). First 1000 to send it in to find out what was wrong with it. The guy who helped me at Inet told me that it was probably something wrong with the motherboard. It might have been the keyboard too, but to find that out I would have to pay 1000. I bought my old computer when I graduated high school which is almost four years ago so neither he nor I thought it was worth spending that much money on that old thing. But I can’t really say that I was super sad about it.

So we talked about what new computer I should get and he showed me a pretty good Asus (Intel core i5-4200U, 8GB RAM (upgradeable to 16), 500GB, 15.6″, GeForce GT 740M, 2kg (my old one was probably like 4)) . I had googled some the night before and found one at Elgiganten, an Acer with tuochscreen. It would have been so awesome to have a touchscreen, but it would have made the computer slower so I didn’t want that one in the end. I drove to MediaMarkt but they didn’t have anything and after I took a quick look on the plastic Acer at Elgiganten I decided to go for the Asus at Inet. I love that store and it feels good to buy electronics there.

I called mom andI picked her up so both of us could go to Inet. I can’t part pay because I don’t have a fixed income.

I’ve been working with the computer for two days now and I have to say that I actually like Windows 8. I’m still installing programs and stuff, but it will be nice with this computer the next years!

 

Last night was the first omsits for me in a very long time and I had such a great time. Pregaming, three course dinner, after party and keps. The sittning was really big this time. More alumni than normal.There were even two guys from VIRUS 1995! The next one is on March 29th and it’sa fancy dinner (ugly-fancy as we call it, we are nicely dressed, eat nice food, but drink a lot of wine). I really look forward to it!

VIRUS omsits

Stupd cmputer

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1 am prbably n0t gnna update th1s bl0g f0r a wh1le nw. Ths mrnng my computer decded t shut ff sme f the keys n my keybard and 1 am really upset abut t. S0 1 wll sk1p y0ga tmrrw and g0 t0 1net and ask them 1f they can help me, therwse ‘ll have t buy a new computer whch s a bt exctng t be hnest.  Ths ne’s 4 years ld s0 1t’s almst abut tme t0 get a new ne. ‘ve fund ne that 1 want, but that means 1 wuld have t0 brrw mney. Whch  1 wll need t0 d0 anyway fr the Calfrna taxes… and prbably rent…

Stupd computer!

(the keys 1 can’t use are: i and o, backspace, ctrl, and mst f the numbers. Extremely rrtatng)

Gym membership

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Two days and I haven’t even thought about updating the blog. It’s not that I’ve done a lot of things.

On Monday I bought a six months membership at Fysiken Gym and went to two classes with mom. First some weird stretching with a foam roll. That hurt, and not in a good way, so I probably won’t do that anytime soon again. At least not until I know how to do it correctly.

Right after we did a Body Control class. You have a pilates ball and then use it to work on the inner muscles in your core. It feels kina ridiculous jumping around on it, but I am still sore, two days later.

Yesterday I had lunch at Chalmers with Hanna and the two other people who are going to CalPoly with me. Hanna talked about a lot of things and I don’t remember it all. But I don’t need to think about that much right now. I just have to finish my application so I can hand it in tomorrow.

Last night I realized I don’t want to go home during Christmas. Johanna wanted to go to Hawaii, but I don’t want to go there again, so I decided I want to go to the Caribbean instead. I have a lot of ideas, but can’t decide just yet. Jamaica, Costa Rica, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba? It’s not easy!

This morning I had a meeting with Chalmers about my thesis. It went well and I have now a much better idea of what to do. And I’m guessing it will be a lot clearer on Monday when we will talk to Veidekke again. I and Johan went through everything after the meeting, came up with a rough time plan and a description of the project. I think we will manage to do this!

I am tired now, I just had lunch, and am watching TV shows. I’ll probably take a nap…

Rainy and foggy The weather’s been awful since I came home. One or two days was pretty okay with a little sun. This is depressing!

Birthday party in Sjövik

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My day started with som studying actually. I am almost done with that stupid library online course. I still haven’t read through all of the papers Veidekke sent me about old environmental impact data. Maybe tomorrow.

At 2pm my dad’s girlfriend’s son picked me up and together with his girlfriend we drove out to Sjövik where dad and Karin lives. There we had chili for dinner and then pies for dessert. The chili was amazing! And so was the apple pie with marzipan too. I love birthday parties :). Anyway, the birthday boy was Karin’s middle son who turned 22.

It was a nice Sunday afternoon and now I am really tired. I don’t know why I am still awake… Go to bed, stupid!

Frozen

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I had a very nice evening tonight with my mom and three of her friends. First we went to Max to have real Swedish hamburger. I just love those burgers! At 6:30pm the movie started at Bergakungen movie theatre. We saw it in 3D and English. And for once I didn’t have to focus on the Swedish subtitle. Felt really nice to just watch the movie!

The movie was so good! I think it is one of the better Disney movies. And it was beautiful. I don’t like cold, but I have to admit that ice and snow is pretty! I also totally understand why the song “Let It Go” is nominated for a Oscar for Best Original Song.

After the movies we all went to Bishops Arms, my first time ever being there. Mom was so kind and bought me a Somersby cider. It was very nice and we didn’t stay too long which was good. I was tired.

But I’m not going to bed just quite yet. Tomorrow I’m going to dad’s girlfriend’s son’s birthday party and I’ve been asked to put my best photos from last year on a USB stick and have them roll on the TV. So I have to pick them out. I’m about halfway done. So many pictures. So many pictures…

Party @ Chalmers

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I’ve attended my first Chalmers party in more than a year and it was so much fun. But before the party could start there was a student held department meeting. Normally those are kinda fun, but this time they didn’t allow alcohol at the meeting so I got really really bored. And when they talked about the year’s budget for about an hour it didn’t make it better. So I went down to “Buren” (translated into The Cage), our room in the basement. In the pause my grand-grandchild came down and gave me some pasta salad. Very nice of him to think of his elder!

At like 9:30 pm (the meeting started at 5) we were dragged up to the meeting again to vote for the new person to join the group. One quit…

The meeting didn’t end until I think 12:30am but as soon as it was over we all went down to welcome the new girl. We drank champagne and after some talking they brought forth the tray, caps, glasses and beer. It was time for keps! I’ve been missing that game so much in the US. I couldn’t play too long though. Sober for almost a year and keps is not a good combination so I stopped after four ciders. I was lagom drunk. And no hangover today, win!

But I slept the whole day. I came home around 5am, slept until 11am, watched some sitcoms and then fell asleep again and got up at 3pm to take a shower.

I should read through some documents for my thesis and for once I actually think I will do it instead of being a lazy-ass.

 

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!! ❤

 

SNOW This is my view yesterday morning. SNOW! But it only lasted a few hours…No SNOWWhen I walked to school it was actually a bit pretty. My camera isn’t very good with lights, but the sky was a peach color and it almost felt like California/Hawaii. Except that it was very cold…

Project Management Course

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Wow, what an eventful day! I don’t even remember what I did this morning. I guess I started on that library information online course thingy, ate breakfast, talked to friends abroad on FB and showered.

At 1pm I had to be at Lindholmen for something. To be honest I didn’t know what. So I was surprised to learn that I was gonna participate in a Project Management Course. I managed to keep myself awake the whole four hours, but my mind wandered so I had a hard time focusing. But I didn’t expect anything else, I’ve been having a hang-loose-lifestyle for the past 13 months. It’s gonna take some time getting used to this type of life again. Halfway through we had fika and I’ve really missed that. I think it’s time to get to downtown and have a fika pretty soon!

When I was going back home I thought I was gonna go to Försäkrsingskassan and ask about the financial aid I can get for my rent. It’s so complicated online so I wanted to ask someone. And they were very helpful, they gave me a form and told me exactly what numbers to put where. The hard part at home was to estimate how much I will earn this summer. It’s pretty hard when you don’t have a job yet. It felt better anyway when mom told me that I can always change those numbers as soon as I get them if they are wrong. According to the preliminary calculation I did online with those numbers I will get 500kr a month! That would be so awesome!! 1300 would be better, but I’m not complaining, my life is pretty good right now anyway. Like when I woke up this morning I had a notification from my Internet Bank. I got my study financial aid!! And in two weeks I will get it again and I will be rich!!

On my way to that office Cultural Care called me and gave me specific information about what it means to be an ex-au pair at the information meetings for future au pairs. So on Feb 25th I will be attending my first meeting, mostly observing and maybe have one interview of my own. So the deal is that I will hold a presentation about my year like every third meeting (which is held once or twice per month), and afterward, interview the future au pairs. That sounds like so much fun!

Back home I had the rest of the papers I needed for the last scholarship I wanted to apply for. But then we noticed that one paper was missing anyway. So I will be able to send it in on Monday.

 

And the last big thing I did this busy day was to fill in my application to CalPoly. It’s weird that we have to send in another application when Chalmers already accepted us into the exchange program. A lot of unnecessary work. But it was fun. I added the two other people going from Chalmers and I have been talking to one of them the whole night. He apparently had talked to his counselor and had a lot of information about all the documents we need to send In and so on. So he helped me a lot. The part that took the longest time was to find courses so I had 12 credits per quarter. Some of the courses I chose in my application to Chalmers were in wrong quarters so I had to find new ones. And then that guy tells me that we can choose 4 credits per quarter (tree quarters) that has nothing to do with our area of study. So I chose German step 2 and 3 in the second and third quarter and in the first quarter I didn’t take anything special. It is so much fun to choose my own courses. And it was a bit of work choosing the right ones so they fit. But now I have a set of courses that I really will enjoy taking next year! It’s a lot of environmental and infrastructure courses which is relevant to building and civil engineering. I look forward to next year so much!! And I am glad that I’m sharing it with two other students.

I am done with my application now, except that I have to ask to my counselor if those courses are okay, but I’m sure they are.

 

Now it’s super late and I’ve been seeing double since 8pm… Tomorrow I will sleep in and then visit my old work place, the city library! And I should finish that stupid library information search course thingy. And in the evening there is a student meeting at my department at Chalmers and after a big party! I’ve missed Chalmers’ parties so much, I’m really excited. Today I went to the attic and unpacked my overall (and all my books for the course I will redo in March, so many heavy books… anyway, I will start studying before it starts so I will be prepared, I don’t have too much to do nowadays)!

Job interviews and thesis meetings

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Yesterday morning I was heading to my first job interview in almost two years. I was a bit nervous, but not too much to be honest. For some reason (maybe the American in me) I was calm and I had a good feeling in my gut.

I thought the interview was fun. I’ve never been to a group interview before so it was definitely a new experience. It was also something new, walking around in the park when it was closed. There were machines everywhere and people in yellow vests running around.

After the interview I took the bus back home, had a little lunch and then went to Chalmers for my first meeting about my thesis. I was confused, because I don’t know anything about it to be honest. I have read the description of the project, but I don’t know how we a thesis is supposed to be done, what to do when and so on. And I was still very confused when I left our examinator’s office. We got some questions for the meeting we had this afternoon with the company we are gonna work with, Veidekke.

 

This morning I got a very happy email from Liseberg. They told me that they want me for a second interview next week already! So the first interview was for Liseberg in general and the second one is with different departments they saw fit for us. And I will have an interview with the café department inside the park. I’ve always wanted to work in a café, so I am really excited right now.

Later this afternoon I had my second meeting about my thesis, but this time with the company. I went there confused but left with a clearer view on what to do. Now we now pretty much what we are gonna do. We just have to make a time schedule and write a description of the project. It’s still a bit confused, but we have our next meeting with our examinator and mentor at Chalmers next Wednesday and a week with Veidekke the week after. I think we will make this work :). Once again I have a good feeling about it.

I just have to do that stupid library/information search online class sometime soon. If I don’t I’m not allowed to do my thesis. But I blame my jetlag. I actually have been feeling rather crappy this last week…

 

On my way home from that meeting I got a call from Cultural Care. They wanted to know what type of job I was expecting and what they had available right now. They have a spot as a helper and interviewer at information meetings with future au pairs. They also said something about school visits and fairs I think. But the meetings are the main thing and that’s once or twice per month. That would be so much fun! So the girl doing the meetings are gonna call me with more information. Awesome!

Everything is so working out and I feel that my life is really awesome right now :).