Kelsey in Gothenburg

I just dropped off Kelsey, one of my roommates at Cal Poly, at the airport after she spent a few days here in Gothenburg. We had a great time together and did a lot of things. She got here on Monday while I was at a course to learn how to use the cashier system at my new job (oh, right, I haven’t written anything about that yet, I will get to it), so mom picked her up at the airport and I was home when they got here. The first thing we did was go to the grocery store to buy stuff for dinner. I wanted to make something Swedish for her so I made korv stroganoff. She loved it. In fact, she loved everything she tried. Back in Cali she was kinda picky and didn’t like to try new things, but here she tried everything and liked it all. I am proud!

On Tuesday, we walked around downtown and had a fika in Haga where the big cinnamon buns are. I’ve never had one before and it was so good.  I showed her Avenyn, Nordstan (where we of course went to 4-Gott and bought Swedish candy), Haga, Linné and later also Eriksberg. Axel met up with us at Café Husaren and then tagged along when we went out to Eriksberg for Gothenburg’s best pizza at Sannegårdens Pizzeria. It was good, but I have to say that I didn’t like the dough, it didn’t taste anything else than just flour mixed with water. But she liked the kebabpizza as well.

11950797_10155918060140063_1910910974_n Poseidon at the top of Avenyn.11940321_10155918060125063_695262047_n The city library. She was impressed that I was a part of that construction.11921979_10155918060070063_584568546_n Bältespännarparken.11920332_10155918060075063_1870253476_n 4-Gott.11939025_10155918060105063_1747241667_n 11950970_10155918060160063_1138734571_n 11992582_10155918060215063_1888803744_n Big and delicious cinnamon bun (kanelbulle).11940226_10155918060055063_1851038093_n11940185_10155918060135063_375777384_nKebabpizza.

After that we picked up Jesper at his place and drove to Andra Långgatan where we hung out at a bar. Her first time legally in a bar and she didn’t even get carded. She also liked Ginger Joe (ginger beer), Axel was proud, Jesper made gagging noises, haha! I actually had a Ginger Joe too, they are really good.

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Yesterday, Wednesday, Kelsey and I drove out to the northern archipelago. We started on Hönö and then spent more time out on Öckerö. The weather was extremely weird with sun switching to dark clouds and rain and rainbows. Annoying. But we had a great day anyway. I guess rain can be seen as exotic?

11938914_10155918060080063_1914276193_n Ferry to the islands.11992283_10155918060100063_249532714_n 11949635_10155918060155063_637069794_n 11992390_10155918060110063_905153641_n Weird-looking house on Hönö.11930652_10155918060120063_1481103640_n IMG_20150902_122900 IMG_20150902_124706 IMG_20150902_130546 I went here all the time when I was a kid, it was probably ten years ago I was there the last time. I always thought it was called Hönö Röd, but I learned that it is really called Lapposand. It was 17C in the water. If it hadn’t been that windy, it wouldn’t have been too bad with a swim.IMG_20150902_133303 Hjälvik beach on Öckerö. To this place I still go at least a few times a year with mom. It is a nice and calm place.IMG_20150902_134006 Hjälvik is a calm bay.IMG_20150902_134714 IMG_20150902_135853 Lot’s of cliffs outside of Gothenburg. Not many beaches here. But I love the Gothenburg cliffs. In the summer when they are warm! Mmmm!IMG_20150902_135905 “Take a picture of me when I am conquering Sweden”IMG_20150902_140051 PANO_20150902_124324 Hönö harbor.PANO_20150902_122417

We had a late lunch at Max Hamburger restaurant. She really liked that too, so much that she bought Max at the airport today for lunch again, haha! Then we picked up Jesper after his work and we three went to Guldhedstornets Café. They have the best view in the city. It is at the top of an old water tower and is also on top of a mountain. It was beautiful. Gothenburg is really green! And of course, because of the weird weather, there was a rainbow. Pretty Gothenburg! The three of us then walked to Chalmers where I gave a tour of campus. Neither of them had been there before and I think I made it pretty interesting. It is a small campus, but it is always gonna be my school! (Except if I go back to Cal Poly, because after two more years over there I will actually have spent three years there and only two at Chalmers)

IMG_20150902_192920 New buildings at Chalmers.11940323_10155918060170063_1442919669_nThe A-pond outside of the civil engineer department building. The Swedish king has sailed across this pond, and every year there is a bridge competition where students build bridges across this pond, and also there are events here such as a wake-boarding event last spring.

hdr_00035_0 View from Guldhedstornet (The tower of Guldheden).PANO_20150902_182550 hdr_00038_0PANO_20150902_183213

Her stay in Gothenburg ended with The Minions and a cup French tea back home. It has been a few really nice days and I can’t wait to see her again. We might meet up in Germany this fall and meet another fellow Cal Poly student or if I find time to come to her in England. We will see.

IMG_20150902_230734Chip, “Massive cat”.

 

And this other job, it is only an extra job on the side of Liseberg since it is not open every day of the week anymore. I am a receptionist at Slottskogsvallen, a track and field /gym arena here in Gothenburg. Last week I had three education days where I learned how to do the job and this Monday I went to that class to learn how their cashier system works. It is a very chill job and they will pretty much just call me a day on advance and sometimes the same day and I will work when I am needed. It seems like e nice and relaxing job.

I have also been accepted to University of Gothenburg. The plan is to take an English class for the whole semester. But with two jobs while applying for a master program and scholarships, I think it will be hard to attend school full time. But I will go to all the classes I can and it doesn’t really matter if I pass or not. The only reason I take this class is so I can keep my student apartment since it is impossible to get a real apartment in this city. I am applying for apartments every single day and I don’t get anything. I have been in the queue for more than 4 years, but still, I don’t get a real contract. Stupid stupid!

Now I am gonna go back to bed until I will pick up Jesper after work. For the past month I’ve been reading a series called Silo by Hugh Howey. I must say that it is probably the best books I’ve ever read! The first one, Wool, I just finished a few days ago and I am now already about 60 pages into the second, Shift. It is a dystopian future, the first book takes place inside silos underground, people live in 150 story buildings underground because the world is destroyed and poisonous. It is not until the second book that the truth about how it all started comes up. I can’t stop reading, it is so fricking good! Read it!!

Crazy birthday weekend

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 24th 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!

Swedish Easter egg The Swedish Easter bunny found its way to SLO.Birthday cookies Rachel baked my favorite cookies (oatmeal raisin) and left a chunk of dough on my fridge shelf. Isn’t she the sweetest?!Windy Pismo Beach 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?Birthday bouquet I got flowers from the people.Mom's jewlery The jewelry I got from mom ❤Birthday gangCody, me, Rachel, Lauren, Ciara, Pelle, and Aiden. Thanks guys for an awesome birthday!!

César Chávez Day

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 21st 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

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, 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 BeachPonto 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.Sunset over CarlsbadFriday’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.

La Jolla Shores Resting between surf sessions.Sunset surfing on La Jolla ShoresPre sunset surfing.La Jolla Shores 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!La Jolla Shores La Jolla Shores I love sunsets!La Jolla Shores

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 ❤

Last couple of days in SF

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.

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.

IMG_20150323_115138 We saw the bridge every single day!IMG_20150323_125321 There was a big group of surfers in the bay, but no waves so they just paddled back and forth.IMG_20150323_133014 IMG_20150323_133151 Here are the cables that run the whole SF cable car system.IMG_20150323_140709 We walked through Chinatown.IMG_20150323_141333

TUESDAY

Yesterday morning Helena, Patrick and I went for brunch and then to Sutro Baths. In the late 19th 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.

IMG_20150324_132209 PANO_20150324_134334 IMG_20150324_132632 IMG_20150324_132718 IMG_20150324_132900 IMG_20150324_133107 IMG_20150324_133727 IMG_20150324_134129 IMG_20150324_135520 IMG_20150324_135707 IMG_20150324_140651 IMG_20150324_140936 IMG_20150324_162521 Castro District.IMG_20150324_152133 Limited edition gay Absolut Vodka.IMG_20150324_150415 IMG_20150324_153503 Mission Dolores Park was full of hippies of all kinds. It was a weird place.PANO_20150324_145002 Pretty view over SF.IMG_20150324_204033Helena 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)

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Tourist in San Francisco

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.

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!

PANO_20150321_124109 Golden Gate Bridge.PANO_20150321_125729 Palace of Fine Arts.IMG_20150321_131006 Turtles at PoFA.IMG_20150321_151219 Haight/Ashbury Street.IMG_20150321_160845 Golden Gate Park.IMG_20150321_164032 IMG_20150321_163603 PANO_20150321_165923 Painted Ladies.PANO_20150321_234203 Union Square.IMG_20150321_234740Hearts all over SF (no idea why).IMG_20150322_003236Bacchus Kirk bar.

Snapchat--4904785948224871176The super cute and fluffy dog in the bar. IMG_20150322_014626Palace of Fine Arts at night. IMG_20150322_132514 Pier 39.IMG_20150322_131655 Packed sealions at Pier 39.IMG_20150322_140328 Alcatraz in the arch where they loaded the prisoners.IMG_20150322_140801 Fisherman’s Wharf.IMG_20150322_142137 Ghiradelli Square.IMG_20150322_152917 Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz island.IMG_20150322_153038 Alcatraz.IMG_20150322_165001 Hospital inside Alcatraz.IMG_20150322_155447 Showers inside Alcatraz.IMG_20150322_160302 “Broadway”. So many cells!! There were four aisles (only two with cells on both sides).IMG_20150322_161027 6 confinement cells.IMG_20150322_161231 The library.IMG_20150322_161953 A normal and “decorated” cell.IMG_20150322_163225 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.PANO_20150322_165947Bay Bridge, San Francisco skyline, and Golden Gate Bridge seen from Alcatraz.

Pint night

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

Last night was a very fun evening. My second pint night since I moved to SLO. The first one was the first week of school last quarter.

I went down there at 9pm with Måns, Pelle and Toby and met up with people down there. We thought we were early but when we got to SLO brew the line was enormous! Fortunately we found some of our neighbors halfway to the entrance and sneakily cut the line. No one noticed. We probably saved ourselves an hour. It still took us an hour to get in, good thing it wasn’t too cold. And the company was great. After a little while Matt joined us too. We got in and bought cheap beer. It was extremely crowded in there and very loud, but when we finally got a table as far away from the bar as possible it was easier to talk. It was the five of us who hung out the whole evening. The three Swedes, the German and American. I am a little bit embarrassed to admit that we spoke a lot of Swedish. But it was just one night, I will go back to my normal English (and weird-feeling Swedish) as soon as Måns has left tomorrow. I don’t know exactly when he is leaving, if he stays so we can go to Farmer’s Market or if he wants to stay even longer and go to line dancing. He should, but he also has a long drive down to LA. We will see. I have a long day in school first, noon to 6pm without any breaks except for the 10 minutes between classes. I don’t think I will be a big fan of Thursdays this quarter.

Before pint night yesterday I had my first day of classes. It started with Introduction to Urban Planning at noon to 2pm. It seems like an interesting class, but a lot of work. There are only two midterms, no final, two assignments, so not too bad. BUT, we do have readings before every class. Just skip the reading you say? Nope, because we also have a quiz before every class (which is twice a week). So this time I will have to do all the reading. Ugh… This morning I read more than 20 pages and took the quiz between my two classes today. I got 88% because the short answer questions needed to have the exact phrasing. I knew the answers, but typing it wrong many times. Annoying.

My second class was German and I can already say that I love that class and that it will be my favorite class this quarter. I didn’t miss anything on Monday, the teacher just talked about the syllabus. And yesterday he went through all of last quarter briefly. I recognized everything so I don’t think I will have any problems at all with this step 2 class. And the teacher is funny. A very important trait with teachers. He made us laugh all the time, and he seems to know most of the students since last quarter.

Right after class Lauren, Måns, and I went to Slodoco to buy 23 donuts for Rachel’s 23rd birthday yesterday. She got really happy! And now we all have donuts to eat whenever. Not too good… But still very good!

Then Måns and I went to Pismo Beach to watch the sunset, and it was a glorious Californian sunset. No clouds and it was warm. Oh yeah, the whole day had been really warm. Like a summer day. Almost 30C. Winter? Nope, SLO goes straight for summer. I love it! I was afraid it was gonna be cold when I got back from the Caribbean. Today has been as nice, but I was at home most of the day and didn’t go out until in the afternoon. Still very nice though.

Pismo Beach Pismo Beach Pismo Beach Pismo Beach Pismo Beach seals Seals were swimming right next to the pier.Pismo BeachPismo Beach

After the beach I bought food since I threw everything out when I left for winter break. Pizza was ordered for dinner and I took a hot shower with our new showerhead the maintenance guys put in over the break. Awesome!

 

Today was another day of school. I did the reading, went to my German class (where we watched an old 40’s movie about post World War II), and then took the quiz, and went to my first Public Transportation class. The teacher talked extremely fast, and he was Indian so I had to really focus on what he was saying. What I hear was that we don’t have any class next week, yay! And he also talked about the different public transit modes for an hour and a half. I talked to him afterward and I was still in the class, thank god!

I went back home, watched the last part of Sex Tape with Måns, and then he started cooking dinner. He made poppy seed salmon with haricot vert/ginger/honey pasta. It was delicious!! For dessert he made us Swedish pancakes with strawberry jam and ice cream. Very appreciated and so nice of him. I am still full and this was three hours ago.

After that Toby and Aiden stopped by and hung out for a while. We all played Trivia Crack against each other and it was just a very nice evening.

And now it is past midnight so I should go to bed. Not that I have anything to do before noon.

Bishops Peak plus moon Yesterday morning I had to go up really early to buy a parking permit for Måns, and on our way back to my apartment we saw Bishops Peak and the moon.Måns cooking

Beach volleyball @ Pismo Beach

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 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.

Cupcake frosting with LaurenOne 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.

Pismo Beach

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!).

Bonfire at Grover Beach

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

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’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.

Studying at the pool

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!

Packing suitcases

In 36h I will be leaving this country again. I will go back to California and I am getting really excited. I’m starting to realize that this is really happening. This last week has gone by way too fast though. I have taking it very easy, playing a lot of computer games and also read a lot. And I’ve realized that I want to eat a lot of Swedish things before I leave, but it is too much for the few days left. I will end this stay in Sweden the same way I started it though, with Swedish pizza.

Today I packed my suitcases. Well, my check in bag and my carry-on. I managed to stay under 20kg which is Norwegian’s weight limit, but just with 3kg. That will be tough on the way home… I will leave a lot of things before going back home, but I will probably have to send a package home. My carry-on is so far only 4kg and can be 10. But I haven’t packed my computer yet and all my paper and everything else that is going in there. But I think it will be okay.

The other thing I did today was say goodbye to dad and Karin. We had a nice evening at the bar at the corner of my building. It wasn’t really a hard goodbye, I will see them so soon again. And I am secretly hoping that they will visit me :).

Right now I feel like playing Aion. I started playing that yesterday again after about 18 months. It is a similar game to Guild Wars but at the same time very different. I think Aion is a more complicated game than Guild Wars, but that might be because I’ve played Guild Wars for 7 years and Aion for three months. In Aion you can fly and there are instances which are PvPE, if you aren’t paying attention you will get killed by the other faction. Yesterday I also got my own house which I can decorate and stuff. I really wonder why they put that in an update a year ago. Kinda uneccesary in a MMORPG, but still fun since I like both killing monsters and building houses in The Sims. Aion is a very beautiful game, the graphic is better in GW, but the scenery in Aion is still amazing. The best thing about Aion is that it is free of charge. That’s actually why I started playing it 2 years ago, when they removed the monthly fee.

Instead of playing I will go to bed. I want to read and get a good night’s sleep. I didn’t sleep very many hours last night. And I have a day of cleaning tomorrow. In the afternoon I will move to mom’s and my brother will move in here. I hope he takes care of this amazing apartment.