Frozen

Posted on Saturday, 15 February 2014, 23:15 by Alexandra

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

Posted on Friday, 14 February 2014, 16:20 by Alexandra

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!! ❤

This is my view yesterday morning. SNOW! But it only lasted a few hours…When 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

Posted on Thursday, 13 February 2014, 1:52 by Alexandra

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 25^th 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

Posted on Tuesday, 11 February 2014, 18:00 by Alexandra

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 :).

IKEA

Posted on Sunday, 9 February 2014, 20:12 by Alexandra

This morning I woke up at 8am. It’s Sunday and it sucks big time. I also woke up twice during the night at 3 and 5 but could go back to sleep after like ten minutes. It’s like the jetlag had a few days delay.

Today I went to IKEA with mom. I got a new pillow, the one I have had the last six days has been so extremely flat. Mom also bought a new frying pan and diod lamps for her closet. We had lunch and I think I have to say that the meatballs and mashed potatoes were better in San Diego. More flavor. But it is way better that you can choose how much food you want here. 8 meatballs is still a lot, but better than 15. We bought some jam and then drove back home.

The rest of the day we didn’t do anything. Well, mom installed the lamps but I’ve been so extremely tired so I’ve just been in my bed watching How I Met Your Mother. Stupid jetlag. I so wanted to go to bed at 6pm, but if I did I probably would have woken up at 4am tomorrow. And tomorrow is an important day, I have to be at my best for the job interview at Liseberg! I have a good feeling about it, but of course I’m still nervous, it is a job interview.

Wish me luck!

The dentist

Posted on Friday, 7 February 2014, 23:36 by Alexandra

I’ve been waiting for this day since October. I didn’t have my wisdom teeth pulled today, but I will be sent to the odontology specialist within a few weeks. Without any questions about it. I guess they understood how badly I needed this after my mom called in October and asked for this appointment. It is a bit scary though. What if that nerve gets in the way and I will have a lazy jaw for the rest of my life? Is it gonna hurt? Will I look stupid as a chipmunk?

I was inside the rest of the day because of the famous Gothenburg weather. Rain. Not much most of the day, but enough to not want to be outside. I didn’t start with that online course I have to take, but I will do it this weekend. Instead I applied for two scholarships and will apply for a third tomorrow and in the next few months two more will be applyable. I need every penny I can get.

The level of this blog sank a lot since I came back to Sweden, it’s not as interesting anymore because Sweden is simply put a boring country most of the times. But I will start with the preparations for my next big adventure pretty soon. It will be so much fun going back to Cali to study :).

Leaving the apartment

Posted on Friday, 7 February 2014, 1:48 by Alexandra

I dared go outside today. And it wasn’t bad at all. I had my new A&F Weather Warrior Parka and my boots and went for a walk for a little more than an hour. It must have been around freezing, but with the right clothes it was actually nice, feeling that icy cold on my face again after so many months in the sun (but I’m already counting down to the summer and my next trip to California in September). My original plan was to go to the grocery store to pick up a package for mom, but when I came there I wanted to keep walking so I took a little walk down to Chalmers and up again. It was nice! And it is fun when people are staring at me for being so tan, hehe :). The package was two pillows for the cats.

I woke up at 7am today and have, except for my walk, been by the computer organizing my external hard drives. It is needed.

I felt like crap later this afternoon. Around like 6pm I became super tired out of nowhere and so drunk at the same time. I guess that is the jetlag… I’m glad I can sleep at least! But right now I’m not tired at all and it’s almost 2am… I hope I will be able to sleep until 9.

I have a lot of plans tomorrow. First I have my dentist appointment at 10:45am. I hope I don’t have to wait more than a couple of weeks to remove my wisdom teeth, well, one at a time. And then I will apply for three scholarships from Chalmers, do an online course that I have to do before starting with my thesis and then there is the Olympics opening ceremony. Looks like I will have a day full of fun events!

No jetlag

Posted on Wednesday, 5 February 2014, 20:36 by Alexandra

I slept through last night like normal. I woke up a few times but could fall asleep again. I was a bit worried when I woke up at 3am, but there was no problem falling asleep again. I woke up at 8am and was well rested, 10 hours of sleep tends to do that.

Chip, one of my cats, slept with me through almost the whole night. I fell asleep petting him. When I woke up at 3am and had to use the restroom he wasn’t in my bed, but he was sleeping in the bathtub. Crazy cat. And then he followed me back to bed. I’ve missed having those to fluffy hairballs around!

My day after that was weird. I was so bored and restless and at the same time kind of tired so I didn’t want to do anything. I guess I suffer from some jetlag. But I did some good. I emailed my university and asked them to add me to the program again. I emailed Cultural Care telling them I am back in Sweden and that they can call me whenever about that part time job. I uploaded all my pictures from Hawaii on Facebook and then eventually unpacked my suitcases. It will be nice not living in them for a while. But I so look forward to moving into my own apartment in like three weeks. Unpack everything, have my own stuff and more clothes to chose from. Even if it’s not worth unpacking it all since I’m moving in six months again.

I cooked korv stroganoff tonight and it was heavenly! It is a traditional Swedish dish, sausage tomato puree and soy stew.

Now I will try the new Sims 3 Into the Future.

34 hours of travelling

Posted on Tuesday, 4 February 2014, 20:15 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.

I’m in Sweden and have been for a while now. I’ve already had time to do a little grocery shopping, a Swedish lunch with mom, a nice talk with my brother and a lot of hugging my cats. I’m starting to feel a bit crappy, I have been awake for about 48 hours with a few one-hour naps on the planes.

The trip went surprisingly fast and I can’t really complain about it. Some parts of it were pleasant and I had lots of luck. But not to confuse my readers I will write about everything in chronological order, starting what happened right after my latest blog post (in the bar at the hotel on Big Island).

I didn’t want to go to bed even if I had a long couple of days coming. So I shut down my computer and sat down on the stone wall by the rocks and the ocean. The bar had a big light out on the splashing waves. It looked really cool when it was lit up. So I sat there for a long while trying to take good pictures. I also saw fireflies! I was so excited and when one of the bartenders came up to me to talk to me I asked about it. It was just regular flies in the light of the lamp. I’ve never seen fireflies. But it was still beautiful.

I got an offer to go look at manta rays (he knew a very good spot to see them apparently) when he got off his shift 30 minutes later. I was very tempted, but I had to be boring and go to bed. It would have been cool though!

My alarm went off at 7am on Sunday morning and my trip home started at 11am. My first flight was to Honolulu and on the way there I saw whales from the plane when we were closing in on Oahu. It was cool to see from above, I could just see the splash of water, but still.

The world’s smallest airport…

My second flight was to San Diego and it was nicer than the one I had to Hawaii three weeks ago. I saw the sunset from above and it was really beautiful. It was also very beautiful seeing the starry sky. We have either too many clouds or lights here in Gothenburg to be able to see the stars…

Sunrise above the Pacific Ocean.San Diego! I love this airport, you’re going down right next to the skyscrapers.

At the airport 9pm Lovisa picked me up and drove me home. Very nice of her! She even gave me food for the road, Rolo and Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars. The kids came running down the stairs when I came inside. I got big hugs from everyone and since it was so late, 10pm, I had to start saying goodbye to the kids so they could go to sleep. They both were so sweet and it didn’t feel like a goodbye, just a normal goodnight. No tears shed and the girl told me that they are going to Sweden again this year in June. Maybe that’s why we didn’t cry, because we are gonna see each other so soon. And that’s not enough, I will go to San Diego in Aug/Sep to visit them also! More on that later!

I talked to my hostparents downstairs for a while about my trip, the year and how glad I was to have spent it with them. At 11pm I started to pack. It was hard, but after some reorganizing they were both close to 50lbs. I think they actually showed 50lbs on the scale but I took a risk and went to the airport like that. I spent the remaining 3 hours with Chad. I couldn’t sleep even if I tried. At 3am we left for the airport. I put on a lot of clothes, leggings, sweatpants, a tank top, t-shirt, hoodie and a big jacket. I forgot my white Converse at my hostfamily’s house so I had to travel in my workout shoes which aren’t very comfortable. But my other ones were on vacuum bags so I didn’t have much choice.

My first big worry turned into my first luck. My suitcases were 49.8 and 49.6 lbs. Haha! It took me like 15 minutes to say goodbye to Chad and I have to be honest and say that it wasn’t so hard. Like with my hostfamily I just couldn’t understand that it was happening for real. My sadness came later…

My second big worry was my carry-on and personal item. They say that the personal item should be like a laptop or purse. I had a big tote bag full of papers, computer and my purse. I was afraid that they weren’t gonna allow that, but they did! I went through security without any trouble. But then I realized that the people at the gate decides that. Crap, I had to go through that nervousness two more times?

Both my personal item and carry-on were really heavy and I was dreading to carry it around airports. But there was that thing called luck again! The flight to Chicago was so full that all of ours carry-ons wouldn’t fit. So we could check them free of charge to the final destination. Perfect!! So I only had my super heavy tote. My right arm is sore from carrying it, but it’s still better than two heavy bags.

To be honest I don’t remember anything from the San Diego-Chicago flight more than that Chicago was really beautiful with the snow, the ice covered Lake Michigan and the blue sky.

Beautiful Chicago. I missed the skyline by the lake unfortunately.

After the 2 hour layover I had the best flight ever. I had a window seat again, in the back of the plane with no one sitting next to me. So I had three seats all to myself with a screen in the chair in front of me, with a lot of new movies. I had time to see three, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Thor: The Dark World, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters. I tried to sleep some, but didn’t work very well…

The last flight was the worst. I was a little less than two hours away from home, the airplane was small and uncomfortable (but the sunrise outside above the clouds was amazing). And I was sad after realizing that I was on my way home. But when we arrived I felt a little better, it was cloudy, but light, a little snow and I got my bags right away. My mom wasn’t expecting me to come out just ten minutes after we landed so she didn’t see me when I walked up to her. It felt really good seeing her again and we hugged for a long time. Dad was stuck in traffic but came like ten minutes later. We talked for an hour and then me and mom went home.

Sunrise above Gothenburg.Gothenburg under the clouds.

On the way we stopped at Ica Maxi, I needed to buy a toothbrush and a deo. And then I bought a bag of bulk candy. Hehe!

Back home I had two gifts on my bed. A Bräutigams marzipan pig and a pair of turtle earrings. My mom definitely knows me! I had a Swedish shrimp salad sandwich and mom went to work. I talked some with my brother, apparently he wants to go to Chalmers University and asked me about the different programs. We talked about my trip, his trips and my job interview on Monday.

I tried taking a nap but couldn’t fall asleep even if I’m so tired I feel drunk. I can’t believe I’m still functioning. I’ve been away for two days with like 3 hours of sleep. Maybe I’m just excited about being at home again. I’ve been away for a long while and even if I always write how much I didn’t want to go home, of course a big part of me wanted to do it. And it feels better now that I’m here.

For dinner we had Swedish pizza and it was as delicious as I remembered. Yummy!

Okay, so here comes some big news! Six hours after I landed I got an email from my university telling me that I, with two other girls, will be sent to CalPoly this fall to study! CalPoly wanted to send three students to us, so we could send three too. I can’t believe that I found out, six hours after I landed, that I’m gonna go back to California in just six months! I don’t think my mom liked those news. She was so happy to see me, and then finds out that I’m leaving again. I mean, she was aware that it maybe would happen. But this was so sudden. I am excited and I am gonna go! It will be some work with it though. Get a new visa, get a place to stay, get money from CSN and so on. But it will fun and I will have a long winter break so I can celebrate Christmas at home. And it’s not even gonna be a whole year, just Sep-Jun.

Okay, I think I need to go to bed now. I’m getting drunker every minute… It’s a new experience being this tired. I’ve stayed up for one day before, but two. It’s not very nice… I wonder how long I could stay awake if I tried?

Royal Kona Resort Pool

Posted on Saturday, 1 February 2014, 21:53 by Alexandra

Our last day on Hawaii is over. I can’t believe how fast 18 days can go by! I can’t believe how fast 13 months can go by! Tomorrow my long journey back to Sweden will begin and I just can’t believe it.

Our last day was spent by the pool. I finished the book Throne of Fire and started a new book. Not the third and last in that series but Fifty Shades of Grey. I only read like 70 pages and he is right now showing her his playroom. It’s a sick but entertaining book so far.

And those five sentences summons up my whole day. I did get burned today, even with SPF 30 but I guess 8 hours in the sun isn’t too good, but this was probably the last time in like six months I saw the sun so I don’t care. It was a very nice day though, I had ice cream, an overlook of the ocean and my eReader in my other hand. Perfect!

So I guess this will be my last post for like 3 days. I seriously have a ridiculously long trip ahead of me… 7 hours to San Diego, 9 hours in San Diego, and almost 18 hours to Sweden. 34 hours, awesome!

My mom has prepared my bed in the living room, my cats are warming it up for me. I will be taken care of the rest of the month. It’s not gonna be too bad. The worst part about going home will be the cold! The sun was burning today, at least 30C. And in Sweden there is snow. I feel sorry for myself.

Now I’ve taken my last shower in the US, I’ve eaten my last chocolate covered macadamia nuts (Hawaiian specialty) and I’ve packed everything. I will try to go to bed earlier than last night, but the earlier I go to bed, the sooner the morning and my departure will come…

Just because I’ve been writing about the amazing sunsets here on Big Island the last one was ugly. Too many clouds covering the horizon…