Tag Archives: beach volleyball

Video interview

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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  actually intended to update my blog every night the past couple of days, but I just didn’t have time! I got home safe and sound on Sunday evening after 5.5 hours in the car with David.

On Sunday I went down to Mission Beach again for some more beach volleyball. It was overcast in North County but down there it cleared up, but with the blue sky came the wind as well. It was hard to play but I did actually get better very fast when I got used to it. I met up with Ko that I met on Saturday for the first time. We went to a Meetup group and I talked to them for literally four minutes before a random guy came up to me and asked me if I wanted to play a co-ed game. It was a very even game in the end. Me and my partner were under with several points up until half game. I guess that’s when I got used to the wind and we were actually on the verge of winning. But then we just kept giving away points, and so did the other team, so the game ended at 25-23. Such a long game! Unfortunately we lost, but it was a very fun game.

Then I chilled for a bit before playing a second game with Ko and two guys from the Meetup group. It was also an even game and my team lost again, 21-19. And after that I didn’t wanna play more, and there were hardly any people there, so I moved closer to the water and fell relaxed for a couple of hours before I had to leave and get ready to leave.

The last 30 minutes I was on the beach I was laying on my stomach and actually think I fell asleep for a bit. When I came home to my hostfamily I realized that my bikini had slid up so a very very white part of my butt was out in the sun. It was so red and just got worse during the evening and yesterday (Monday). Now I know how my normal skin reacts in the Californian sun in only 30 minutes. It is scary! It is still very pink today, two days later. I am used to getting rid of my redness the morning after with this tan skin I have now. I can sit down without it hurting, but I still have to be careful when putting on pants. I actually burned my calves pretty bad too.

Yesterday was a pretty chill day, I went to beach volleyball practice and was all alone. So me and the coach did a lot of intense peppering and then he made me practice setting a ball which hit the net. Doing that for 15 minutes or how long it was, was very tough on my thighs. And then of course we did a lot of squats in TRX right after. My legs have been a little spaghetti-y today, but that’s not a bad feeling!

Today was a long day. I woke up and realized that I had forgotten about the quiz that was due at 9am this morning. I quickly did it and managed to get a 94% on it. I would have gotten 100% if I only had read the material… During my one hour break I sat in the library reading, because it was “freezing” outside. I was also very tired and that makes me cold. And because I was so tired, it was hard to stay awake in my two last classes.

In my German class the professor told us that he once again was disappointed while correcting the midterms. But he added that there are the few A’s too, and he said that Swedish people apparently are smarter than Americans. I guess that means I am getting a decent grade? 😀

When I came to beach volleyball practice again today it was just me again. So the coach asked me if I still wanted to do it. It was kinda windy, the sun was out though. I said no, I wanted to be prepared for the interview at 5pm and didn’t wanna stress about it.

Until then I worked on the big assignment in Land Use and Transportation Studies. It is almost 1am and my group members still didn’t do their parts. This is due tomorrow at 10am. We are meeting at 9, so I hope we have enough time to finish it.

My former WoW-group member came over with her two groupmembers and sat up all their video equipment in my room. I sat on my bed with the Swedish flag in the background while they were filming from two sides and had a LED-lamp. It was some pretty serious stuff. They asked me questions like how my childhood was in Sweden, what made me decide to finish my studies here and how I deal with cultural differences and about my travels. It was fun! I’ve never done anything like this and I have never been in front of a camera. I felt like a star! We are doing more filming on Friday but outside. I am so curious about the final result.

Later tonight I went out to the intersection here in PCV and measured it for another Land Use homework that is due tomorrow. Tomorrow night will be a busy night too… It is soon weekend again. This weekend I am just gonna chill (or not if some adventure comes up).Beach volleyball courts at the Rec Center Yesterday was a perfect day for beach volleyball! And the gym’s courts just got new nets as well!Filming in my room

Beach volleyball, beach volleyball, surfing

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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.

Today I broke a personal record, how many beaches visited in one day; three. I was up so early this morning so I could be at Ponto Beach at 7:30 to play some beach volleyball with the old gang. I played three games with Dan and I have to admit that I played so bad… It might have been because of the wind, or something else, I don’t know. It was very fun even if we lost all the games. At 9:30 am there were so many people there and the waiting time was ridiculously long, so I decided to head down to beach number two, Mission Beach. I met up with Wes and Cathleen from February. I didn’t understand how that worked, at Ponto it is so easy with the list, next on the list play on the next court available unless you are waiting for the challenge court or doesn’t wanna play on that one. But this was just chaos. So I started talking to this other guy, Ko, and he introduced me to a group of players a little bit away from all the chaos and I played with them for the rest of the day (until 2pm). It was so much fun, everyone was friendly, funny and let me in right away. We were a bunch of people so we did side-out, but I liked that. It is easier to focus on every side-out when you don’t have to worry about scores. And we got to play a lot all the time instead of one intense game, then a long wait and another game and so on. It was great and I had so much fun! In the end we played two games, one 4 on 4 (which was the first time I ever enjoyed that type of game), and then one doubles. That game was really fun and even and I have to say that I played really well today. My sets were perfect, even my bump sets were better and more consistent than they have been in a very long time. Fun fun! I even managed a jump serve as the winning point in the 4 on 4 game. I could also jump and hit pretty hard, and also place balls. There was one sick ball where I was so close to the net on the right side, and the ball went straight parallel with the net and landed almost on the line on the angle shot. I think I was more surprised than everyone else.

Today was just a really really good beach volleyball day for me and I am so exhausted and tired in my whole body now. I love this feeling. I don’t really like that my foot soles are sore from jumping and running around in hot sand for a long time.

I am going down there tomorrow again before going back home in the evening with David.

At 3pm I arrived in La Jolla and found a parking spot right away, and very close to the beach too. Lucky! My Swedish friends left right when I came though, but David came and we went surfing right away. Unfortunately I couldn’t be in the water more than about 30 minutes because my eyes were burning like nothing before. I’m guessing that it was sunscreen and saltwater. But that usually goes away after like two waves, but today it just kept burning and burning. It was even worse when I looked out in the water facing the sun. It was so bad I had to go up… My eyes are still sore and it kinda looked like I had cried my eyes out when I got back to the house around 6pm. A shower helped a lot, but I still feel like my eyes sting a bit. What happened?

I took care of the kids tonight while the hostparents went out to the movies. I feel like that is the least I can do for them for letting me come down here, stay with them, AND use the car. They are so nice, and I wanna give back. And also I like spending time with the kids again. Tonight we baked “havreflarn” a Swedish oatmeal cookie, we watched Cupcake Wars, and played basketball in the backyard. I then put the kids to bed and was ready myself to go to bed. But there are always stuff to do on the computer, so here I am, almost midnight and not asleep yet. Well well, I can sleep another time.

Ponto Beach Beach #1, Ponto Beach.Mission Beach Beach #2, South Mission BeachLa Jolla ShoresBeach #3, La Jolla Shores

PCV Honor Banquet

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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.

Yesterday was a packed day again. First an hour of beach volleyball practice in the burning (but amazing) sun. Then an hour of extreme TRX. Well, technically it was only 25minutes of workout, but it was tough. Five different exercises and six different sets. First 30 reps, then 25, 20, 15, 10, and 5. I didn’t have time for the last five reps, which was running back and forth in the room five times. I was so dead after that. My whole body shaked really bad. I can’t really say that I feel worse today than after any other workout. Somehow I don’t get sore after pushing myself to the absolute limit. A little strange, but I am not complaining. Then I had almost an hour of waiting for my German class. We started watching a new movie, Herr Lehman. So far it is good.

As soon as I got back home I took an hour nap before heading to the main building in this village for some amazing (and free) cake from Madonna Inn. I also got a certificate saying that I got really good grades last quarter. This was the PCV Honor Banquet. Feels pretty good.

The rest of the evening I didn’t do much. I watched the new Game of Thrones episode, and then went to bed at 10pm. I couldn’t fall asleep though, so tonight I will take one of my pills so I will get a good night’s sleep.

I have kinda gotten sick again which really sucks a lot. It is not too bad yet, just a little bit of headache, a very heavy head, and a stuffed/runny nose. I hope it doesn’t get worse than this, being in the middle of midterm madness would not be any more fun with a bad sickness.

It is not too bad, because I did go to beach volleyball practice this afternoon. I actually felt better while doing it. After that I ran into David and a bunch of other Germans and hung out by the pool for a bit. But when it got hard to breathe again I went home for a shower, soup for dinner, a couple of TV shows, and now I am so ready for bed. It’s been a long day. Tuesdays and Thursdays are no fun.

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End of week 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

César Chávez Day

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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.

Beach volleyball practice

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

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

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

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

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Double A’s

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All this late night studying has finally started to pay off. Two days ago I got the result on my Urban Planning midterm and I got a 90%, which equals an A-. I am happy!! And today I got my German midterm back and I got an A! My name was torn off the paper and the professor told me it was because he showed it to another professor. Does that mean that my midterm was a really really good one? Maybe even best in class? Only two or three marks on the whole test and I am very very proud of myself. All the hard work I’ve put into school the last three weeks have really paid off.

And the German class in general was so fun today, I laughed all the time! We are starting to have conversations and actually talking in class now and it was just great. I love that class!!

Another cool thing that happened today was that I got the videos of all the 8 games of beach volleyball we played on Monday evening. Here is a link to them if anyone feels like watching. I played with Chris and against Wes and Cathleen. It was such a fun night.

What else happened today? Pretty much just studying, today before class as well as after. When will this ever end? I miss sleep…

Last night I was at the library until midnight. But after tomorrow the weekend will be here and I can’t wait!! Tomorrow will be a long day though. Doctor’s appointment at 9, then two hours to kill (maybe nap in the library?), presentation practice at 11, class at noon all the way until 6pm. And right after that there is a career fair for architects/urban planners and all the others in that area. I haven’t had time to research the companies yet, I will do that tomorrow on my two hour break I guess. I borrowed some nice clothes from Rachel and I hope I will get at least a few companies attention. If it is even possible with an internship at private companies. We will see. I also reached out to all the cities down in San Diego County and asked for internships. Please cross your fingers that I will get something down there! That would be a dream come true!

Late night beach volleyball

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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 have missed this sport so much and I will try to play as much as possible from now on. Yesterday on the beach I ran into a guy who was really really good at beach volleyball. We peppered some, exchanged numbers and set up an evening session tonight with two of his friends in the backyard of Qualcomm. No wind, but it was a bit chilly but it was easy to get warm. We played for 3.5 hours without any breaks. I have never played that much before in a row. And the only thing that got worse was my right arm from all that serving and spiking. It was very close on all the games and I think we played 8 games to 21. I loved every second of it!

There is something very funny about this guy, Chris. After we became friends on FB, I saw that he had some pictures of Chad from San Diego on there. They were both in Mexico last summer playing a random-tournament, where you are partnered up with a random person and they were partnered up. So without knowing, I have had pictures of this guy (since Chad sent me pictures of both of them) on my phone since last July, and then I ran into him. The world is so small!

I am a little bit sad about going back to SLO tomorrow. I love San Diego and it was so nice to get away from reality for a weekend and live the life I did a year and a half ago. I miss it. Not that SLO is bad, I love SLO too, but it has been tough lately.

Today, before the volleyball (we played from 7pm to 10:30pm, I am impressed by myself) I was in my old room studying all day long. I got a lot of stuff done on the project, but I still have more to do. Probably a late night at the library tomorrow…

Yesterday I went with the Swedish girls to Del Mar Beach. The guys with the surfboards never got back to us so no surfing. We decided to go to a closer beach. I had actually never been there. It wasn’t the best of beaches, but it was a nice day. Until 4:30pm when out of nowhere a big fog cloud came in. It seriously went from clear blue sky to foggy in 30 seconds. Super weird. So I didn’t get my SoCal sunset this weekend. But I am planning on coming down for the second half of spring break.

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Beach and banana bread

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It is January, isn’t it? Today it definitely didn’t feel like it. The afternoon was spent at Avila Beach with Matt and his friends and it was like any other Swedish summer days. Maybe a little bit colder, but not much. We played a lot of beach volleyball, Kan Jam (which is a Frisbee game, actually pretty fun), and then ended the day by going in the water. I still find it incredible that it is even possible to be at the beach in January, and go in the water even! I can’t say that it was warm, but after a while of just standing there, watching the sun get lower and lower in the sky, it didn’t feel cold anymore and I jumped in. According to internet it was 60F (15.5C), which is cold. But definitely not too cold. Maybe I am embracing my Swedish Viking heritage more when I am away from home?

We stayed until the sun set and on our way back the whole sky was the most amazing pink color I have ever seen a sunset be. It was so beautiful!

It was a very fun day anyway. I spent two hours at Matt house trying to get warm, he cooked dinner for me and then drove me home. The plan tonight was to hit downtown, but no one wanted to except me and Toby, so we will do it tomorrow instead and try to recruit more people.

So instead of going downtown I spent a lot of my time awake baking. First I baked white chocolate macadamia nut cookies for Rachel (and I got two) so she could pay with that instead of money to the line dancing thing. And then I baked banana bread for the very first time, and also from scratch. It turned out delicious! Why haven’t I ever baked that before?

I made my sweet cravings go down, now I am very super full and totally ready to go to bed and watch an episode of The 100. It is Saturday, 11pm, and there is nothing wrong with that even for a college student!

Internet again

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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.

That only took a few days. Boring days. But early-to-bed-days.

Yesterday I was at the library for most part of the day studying. Doing homework in Transportation Engineering. It took 4 hours to do 6 out of 8 problems, and another two hours of trying with the last two in the evening. It didn’t work. So I will go to office hours with our professor on Monday morning and ask for some help. I guess most students might go. We had two problems which we haven’t even talked about in class.

At 8pm I went to salsa lesson with Johanna. My roommates dissed me because they wanted to go to the social salsa dance tonight, but they ended up not going. I had fun last night. I was so much better than the first time.

I went home and spent the rest of the evening talking to people. Everyone was at the toga party, I wasn’t in a party mood so I just waited until everyone got back and didn’t go to bed until 3am for some reason.

This morning I went to Pismo Beach with Johanna and the Cal Poly beach volleybal club. It was very very foggy this morning but the sun came out eventually as it always does. I couldn’t play as much as I wanted though. I pulled a muscle in my upper but and I couldn’t stretch it out. It still hurts, even if I’ve been on a foam roll a lot this evening. I should probably do some more before I go to bed (which I should have done a long time ago).

Pismo BeachBeautiful Pismo Beach! New bikiniMy new bikini (Victoria’s Secret) is beach volleyball friendly. A little more athletic than my other ones. The neon color makes my tan look nice. Retrieving a flip flopWhen we were getting to the car I dropped one of my flip flops down the rocky side down to the beach. It stopped in the middle, so first I tried throwing rocks at it to make it slide dow to the bottom. Then I decided to walk down there (walk all the way to the staircase and then back on the beach) to try to reach it from down there. It took me like 30 minutes to finally get it. Stupid flip flop…

When we had had a cinnamon roll at Old West Cinnamon Rolls we drove to Avila Valley Barn where there was a pumpkin patch. All the holidays are big here in the States (I’m sure I wrote the exact same thing last year) and a pumpkin patch is where you buy your pumpkins and do stuff like ride horses, feed fat goats, buy locally grown fruits and vegetables, go on hayrides, and buy corn on the cob and stuff like that. It was a fun event and I am going back next weekend with my roommates. We are gonna by pumpkins and carve and put in our windows for everyone outside to see. I so look forward to that. Today we went there with the international students. I only saw a few though.

Avila Valley Barn Pumpkin Patch Avila Valley Barn Pumpkin Patch Avila Valley Barn Pumpkin Patch Avila Valley Barn Pumpkin PatchI got three small pumpkins to have as decorations in our apartment. They are soo cute. The big ones are being bought next weekend. I also bought a lot of fruit. It felt good buying something from a farmer’s market. I do buy a lot of organic food here, but it still felt more special.

When I got home I did my Sustainable Environments homework. And that was a fun homework actually. By taking a test (you can take it HERE) I found my ecological footprint and wrote a 1-page paper about it. I took the test twice, once for my life in Sweden and one for my life here in SLO. If everyone in the world lived like me we would need 1.44 Earths (Sweden and 4.09 (USA). I compared and retook it again to see if some changes made big differences. Very very interesting.

Kelsey baked banana bread tonight and I’ve been trying to figure out what to wear on Halloween. It is not easy. And I feel like it has to be something good since holidays are big here. I have four options so far. What do you think?

Halloween 2014Minion from Despicable Me, Viking, Penguin or a Zombie Fairy? Or something else?

I also got to see the car I probably will buy in December. It is a small convertible and it works perfectly. I so look forward to buying my first car!! And it will be a VW convertible! An international student bought it the other day, but he is only staying this one quarter so I will buy it together with Johanna to use for the next two quarters. I am so excited! And about the driver license. I called the DMV office in Sacramento and they told me I didn’t need to retake the tests. I just have to show up with all my legal papers, take a new photo and wait for the plastic card. I am so happy! Everything works out in the end, like is has for the past year. Life is good.

Volkswagen Cabrio 1999

I really need to go to bed now. I am planning on going up at 8am to study before going to the beach around noon. (And I don’t have any trouble going in and out of bed anymore. I was extremely sore yesterday (3 days after TRX) but now it’s better. I played some beach volleyball at the PCV court Thursday late evening and that removed the last of the soreness. Too many people there though so it wasn’t fun. Next time I will exlusively invite only three people to play seriously with. I look forward to a new week of exercise starting on Monday, for real this time, I will take it even easier this time.)