Kanelbullens dag

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

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

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

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

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

The day of the Cinnamon RollAn american cinnamon roll.

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

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

Roommate date at FirestoneMy amazing roommates. Left to right: Me, Kelsey, Rachel and Lauren. Roommate selfie

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

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

I love my life here!

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

Blonder

Not much happened today except some Guild Wars 2 until Dzejna asked me if I wanted to go to Heden and play some beach volleyball. I wasn’t expecting it to be warm out, but playing for an hour in this heat was barely bearable. It was nice and fun anyway. I miss the warmth and sun!

After that I went to Ica Maxi where I met mom. We bought hair color for me. Now and then I get impulsive and it was time for a change. I can’t afford going to the hairdresser at the moment so a change of haircolor was what I could do right now. It was really blonde highlights, but we put it in all of the hair. It turned out like highlights anyway since I had most of it left since January. It is very lighter now and I like it. It looks a bit uneven on top, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It looks more alive and “real” I think. Hair is never one and the same color. If too many people tell me it looks weird though I am gonna redo it.

I got home pretty late from mom’s and have been playing more Guild Wars 2. I have played for so long now and I still don’t have 100% of the map explored. I am getting there though, 75% now!

Before-AfterThe difference is much bigger in reality. I blame the lighting in the kitchen!Chip on the balconyChip chillin’ on the balcony in the late warm summer evening.

Friday 13th

* On my first two days at work, more than two weeks, I had a pair of shoes on that I probably shouldn’t have worn. Because now a third of my big toe nail is completely blue/black. It’s gone so bad now that I couldn’t stand it and painted all of the nails dark blue. I guess I will have painted toenails for a while now. Mom says it can take up to a year to get it all away. Crap.

* I’ve learned that if you work at Liseberg you can get free candy, and chocolate in particular. You just give the guest with a star prize a look that says it looks really good or just say it. Most of the time, depending on what type of person it is, that person offers you a piece or two or three. Last week I got some Plopp on Uppswinget and Toblerone on Lisebershjulet. Today at AtmosFear I got another Plopp but without “asking”. I am not complaining.

* Another thing I’ve learned after more than two weeks at Liseberg is that people on the attractions AtmosFear, Höjdskräcken and Spin Rock like to dangle their legs which results in me being kicked when I check their safety belts. It is starting to get a little annoying.

* I now have 7 attractions at Liseberg; Lisebergshjulet, AtmosFear, Höjdskräcken, Kristallsalongen, Spin Rock, Uppswinget and Ponnykarusellen. Technically I am still in training on Ponnykarusellen (which I really don’t understand why because it is just two buttons to press and there are no reocurring errors) and Uppswinget. I was supposed to have the test today at Uppswinget, but I guess I was needed somewhere else.

* Yesterday I got my first paycheck. I was disappointed, 304kr. Apparently Liseberg doesn’t count from the first of the month to the last, but the 25th of the month before to the 25th of the current month. And we get the money on the 15th. This month it totally sucked because I neeed money. I have pretty much nothing. 1500kr until July 15h! It will be a challenge.

* And speaking of money, today I found out that I will get 519kr back from Radiotjänst. I don’t know when though. Today in the court it was decided that computers/tablets/smart phones aren’t recievers for a TV signal which Radiotjänst interpreted that they were a year and a half ago. So they have charged people without a TV but with a computer. That is not fair. I am one of those people. But I am glad I’ve only paid the fee for three months instead of a year. 519kr instead of 2000 something. I paid my last bill for the upcoming three months yesterday and called them today to cancel my TV license agreement because I don’t have a TV, only a computer. And because the bill covered a time that has not yet began they told me I will get those 519kr back. Awesome!!

* Yesterday I played beach volleyball again. Outside, in the extreme wind. I wasn’t too excited because I had just found out that I failed the structural engineering class again. For the third time. And I didn’t wanna spend money on something I wouldn’t enjoy. But it wasn’t as hard as I thought. It worked out and I got some sun for once! I played with Ina, Joanne and Zandra.

* I had lunch with Chad today, we won’t have much time to hang out this week since I get off work at 10 or 11pm every night. I checked my mailbox before going there and had two letters. One was my passport with new visa inside and the other was the results of my PAP smear I did a month ago. I had completely forgotten about it and wasn’t very happy when I read what it had to say. It said I have minor cell changes and there was no sign of cancer at this point. But I was too upset to read that properly. So I’ve spent this whole day being extremely sad and haven’t been able to get the idea of cervical cancer out of my mind. Now, after a lot of reading I’ve figured out that it isn’t as bad as I thought. And I wish those fuckers who wrote that letter could write a letter so everyone understands. I had no idea what cell changes meant more than it can be a prestage to cancer. After reading online I now know that about 5 out of 100 PAP smears give these results and that about 1 out of 4 have to get it treated. And that is done with minor surgery that removes a small piece of the thing that is affected and that is it. The worst that could happen is that the person who gets it removed will give birth too early, but at least that person will get pregnant. I so wish they could have added an extra paper in that letter with that information. It would have saved me a whole day of worrying!!
What it also said was that I need to come back for more and thorough tests in like four months. But my problem is that I won’t be in Sweden then. So I need to call them on Monday and tell them about my situation and ask them what I should do, come in earlier, do all this in the USA or wait a year. If they want me to get it looked at as soon as possible and I have to remove it, it will be tight with time since I am leaving the country in 90 days. The reason they want to wait four months is to wait and see what happens to the cells, if the heal automatically, if they stay the same or get worse.
I am seriously pissed that they made me this upset today!!

* Last thing I want to write about today is that I’ve found a new TV show that I after one episode think seems great; The 100. It’s a futuristic setting where Earth has been completely wiped out after a nuclear attack of some sort. A few people survived up on space stations and now, 97 years after, they are sending down 100 prisoners to make sure the Earth is inhabitable again after all the radiation. I like it so far. I want to watch another episode, but it is getting late and I have a 10 hour day ahead of me.

LisebergshjuletIt was an amazing sunset today. I am in love with beautiful sunsets and today I couldn’t stop watching it while I helped people in and out of the gondolas on Lisebergshjulet. Full moon over Liseberg southIt was also a full moon tonight, and it was a huuge moon! Way prettier in real life.

Sand in my eye

I’ve been home in Sweden for a few days more than I have left. Why does time go by so ridiculously fast? It’s not that I don’t look forward to going, I do, but I really enjoy being back home. Tomorrow I will start working at the world’s most fun job, and when you’re having fun time goes even faster, which means that I will be at the airport saying goodbye way too soon. I should probably buy my flight ticket soon. I don’t want the prices to go higher. Maybe before the week is over.

The only thing I don’t have for the visa interview is a printed photo and the confirmation page of my appointment at the Embassy. I am picking up the photo tomorrow morning which means I have to book the interview. I think I will just go over the day the 11th of June. It will be hell sitting on a 5am train, but I could sleep, or read, which is not too bad. A book I’ve been waiting for for a year was released today, and with this reading pace I have now I will probably read that on the train in two weeks. Or maybe it will be done, I don’t know. The book btw is the sixth and last book in the Mortal Instruments series, City of Heavenly Fire.

This morning I was in school working on the thesis. Both I and my partner are getting tired of this. Our supervisor at Chalmers has gone underground and we haven’t heard anything from him in weeks! We get different information about the formalities of the report from different people in charge and that is really a pain in the ass annoying this close to the finish line! Today we decided who is gonna talk about what on the presentations. And we are gonna work with what we want to say individually. I hope I won’t be too tired after work to be able to do a good job.

*ONE HOUR LATER*

Never mind what I wrote above. The interview appointment is schedule for June 11th at 9:30am. Train tickets bought for 700SEK and I will have a few hours on my own in Stockholm that day, but then a lunch at Hard Rock Cafe might be a good idea?

I just also bought my flight ticket! This is so real now! On September 12th I will be leaving Gothenburg and fly to Los Angeles. I am gonna take another flight from there to San Luis Obispo, but I’m not gonna book that right now, if it turns out that I can get a ride from there from my peer contact or someone else. Or maybe I will decide to rent a car and drive up along Pacific Coast Highway 1 again. I mean, it’s just a 13h flight, I’ll probably feel okay.

Tomorrow morning I will go to Chalmers, print my last paper for the interview, then head to the photo store I was in today and pick up my printed visa photo. …. I was just gonna write that I will then be totally ready. But the truth is that there is always something else to do. I willhave to go to the interview, wait for my passport to come back, book my hostel for the first couple of nights in SLO, book the last flight from LA to SLO. And packing of course! Moving my stuff out of the apartment. Saying goodbye…

I feel like I have everything under control anyway and that is a good feeling. I can stay focused on my thesis now! I’ll probably have some time for it tomorrow before work. Oh yes, I have my first day at Liseberg tomorrow! Excited or what!!

 

At 6pm I was at Beach Center with Dzejna and two other. One of them, Anna, I knew since before. But the third, Erika, never showed up because of stomach cramps 30 min before we would play, so she sent her “sambo”(=the person you are in a relationship with and living with, but not married) instead. We didn’t mind, he was a nice dude and the games were very even. I won mostof my games though and I played really well. Except my serve which didn’t work at all today. But my sets and spikes were as good as ever. What happened during our gameplay that wasn’t so good though was that I accidently threw a lot of sand in my wide open eye! I sat down, closed my eyes and was afraid of opening them. The others ran and grabbed my water bottle and poured it in my hands so I could rinse my eyes. I must have gotten most of it out, because it didn’t hurt. Phew! I remember what happened in 4th of 5th grade when I got a grain of sand in my eye and it swelled so bad that I had to go to the ER… I don’t want that to happen again. It’s been a few hours now and it still doesn’t feel particularly weird, so it’s probably fine :).

I played some Guild Wars 2 after school today for the first time in probably 3 weeks. I missed it! I wanted to play some more after beach volleyball, but it got really late now all of a sudden….

 

Ugh, this got longer than I expected. I should probably get to bed and read through my information papers I got from the attraction department last week. It’s a lot of pages I should read before I start working… But at the same time I also want to read Throne of Glass… Soon I will be able to read whatever I want, and do whatever I want in my freetime! The benefits of working compared to studying 🙂

Outdoor beach volleyball

Yesterday I played beach volleyball again. And outside this time. First in Sweden! I was afraid that it was gonna be cold, but it was blue sky and perfect temperature for playing outside. I and Dzejna didn’t play very well, but we had fun, and that’s what matters.

After two hours of play we stayed on the sun deck tanning for 1,5 hours. It was amazing! But I was a bit read in my face when I came home. It is mostly gone by now, but it is clearly visible that I was wearing sunglasses yesterday.

One of the girls we were playing, Maria, asked me about my upcoming exchange year. I just told her that I am going to California. She said she had also been an exchange student in California. I didn’t ask where, I assumed it was in Santa Barbara or something where most go. But then she asked me if I had heard of a place called San Luis Obispo, when I said yes, she asked me CalPoly? It turned out that she was an exchange student there ten years ago from Chalmers. She’s not a building and civil engineer though, but a mechanical engineer. She told me I have an amazing year ahead of me and was happy for me for going to such a great school. The world is so small!

Beach CenterMe, Sarka, Maria and Dzejna.

I took a nap and in the evening I went out to dinner with Chad and met up with my dad and his girlfriends and some friends at a bar watching the Eurovision Song Contest. I wasn’t paying that much attention to the competition. But it was a nice evening.

Today was all about changing bed. The one I had was making way too much noise and was so old it was falling apart. So mom and I got the extra one from mom’s apartment, drove it here, and threw away the old one. It took a while but now it is done! I should buy a new mattress pretty soon. The one I have is almost falling apart…

Mom dropped me off after a quick grocery shopping. I felt like cooking blue cheese chicken casserole with grapes on it. It was well worth it, so delicious! It’s extremely easy, just melt the blue cheese with some cooking cream, put it in an oven safe thing for 10 minutes and then put grape halves on it and 5 more minutes in the oven. This time I completely forgot about what to have with it, I was gonna try the new tricolore quinoa I bought, but it would have taken too much time so I just made some couscous instead. A very nice dinner for a Sunday!

I never got my Course Permission Number for the EDES 406 class. It’s not okay to say that you will send the number within an hour and then don’t do it. It looks like the class is still not full in the student center, but still! It’s not okay to put this stress to international students. It’s hard to figure everything out without these kinds of problems… I hope I get an email tomorrow night, when she is back at work.

 

Okay, so tomorrow I am leaving this country again. The London trip is finally here! I packed today and it is surprisingly few things. What takes the most space is probably my school books. I am really excited and think it will be a fun week with mom and two of her friends.

Easter Cup

This day has been so much fun! I am exhausted but happy. It takes a lot of energy to play beach volleyball. And I have to say, me and Dzejna did very well today and were this close to coming second in the group play. The first game we played we won with a lot of points. Our second game we lost with the same numbers and the third, that was the most intense game. It was so close and the first set was totally ours except that they won eventually with 18-16. The last set was also close, not as, 15-12.  We played awesome though and we were happy and cheering each other on all the time. We have come a long way!

This meant that we came third in our group which also meant that we were out of the tournament. The first and second team kept playing, but the third has to judge the next game. So as usual we had to stay for a couple more hours before we could go home… I hate that system! It’s so much better to be last/fourth and just go home. But we were also soo close to coming second. Stupid.

I had fun anyway and I look forward to the next tournament, whenever it is.

 

The weather has been awesome on this Easter eve. Blue sky and no wind, it really felt like summer today. I kinda wished we would have played outside. If it’s nice weather tomorrow again I will occupy mom’s balcony after our easter lunch together.

Easter Cup 2014My new phone has a good camera too, puh!

 

Yesterday I got a phone call from a Burger King here in Gothenburg. That was one of the places I applied for a summerjob a few weeks back. And they wanted me to come in for an interview on Wednesday. It is closer than that old people job which would be so much more convenient. But we’ll see what happens then.

In the evening I was with mom and some of her friends on their game night. They have that now and then and this time I was invited. I didn’t have anything better to do so I joined. It was a very nice evening and I taught them how to play Munchkin. It took me a while to remember, but it worked out in the end. It is a very fun roll playing card game.

Beach Festival in Nordstan

I haven’t done particuarly much today. I changed my laundry booking to tomorrow instead of today and went to Nordstan with Dzejna where we watched the two Challenger finals in beach volleyball. Both the women’s and men’s games were ridiculously intense. I wish I were that good! Two very entertaining games and I had a very nice time with Dzejna too. Talked a lot about everything and nothing.

It’s pretty cool that they put so much sand in Nordstan, the big shopping mall in downtown Gothenburg. It’s been going on this whole week to raise money to cancer research.

Tomorrow I have to get up at 7am to be in school at 8. My first class in so long! I hope I don’t fall asleep. I am glad it’s not a four hour lecture, but only two. After that I have a tough hour at the gym and then laundry right after. I might as well do as much as I can before Tuesday when I will probably be on the couch all day watching TV series and starving myself because of the pain in my mouth.

Beach Festival in Nordstan

Beach volleyball and blue sky

I’ve finally played some beach volleyball again. And it went really well! And it was so much fun! But I am tired now like never before. Two hours of just playing is a lot for a person who hasn’t worked out in a long time… I’m guessing that I will be sore all over tomorrow.

It was me, Dzejna, her boyfriend and a friend of hers. It was so good to see her again after this long time. We’ve decided that she is gonna come and visit me in Cali next year. We played mixed and it was even, but I was on the winning team pretty often and it made it even more fun. I thought I was gonna be so crappy after a year without practice, but instead I’ve become much better and my passes are awesome right now! This was definitely not the last time I’ve played, but it does suck a bit that it costs 180SEK for two hours…

I am happy but tired! 🙂

Another thing that was pretty amazing this morning was the blue sky outside! That’s the second blue sky since I came home a little more than a month ago. I would have wanted to go to Slottskogen for a walk, but it’s too late now and I think I am way too tired.

It’s been a really nice day and we’ll see what the evening has to offer 🙂

BrunnsparkenIf you don’t believe me, here’s proof of the blue sky!

Beach day

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 didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to but it was a very nice day anyway. Because of the bad weather (It’s not that bad, it was raining one night and morning and has been a little extra windy, but it is still 25C if not more. The waves on the north side of the island was supposed to be like 40feet today!!) the snorkeling with turtles was cancelled today again. So instead of that we went to Big Beach which was a very beautiful beach with yellow sand and huge waves! It was possible to be in the water, but it was tricky. They were breaking like right on the beach so it was very hard getting in and out of the water. Out wasn’t too bad. We just had to run out very fast and then we could jump with the waves, but going in. Oh my god! I thought I was gonna make it when I went in right after a big wave, but the next one caught up to me. The backcurrent of the first wave was like a brick wall and I couldn’t move particularly much.  So the next wave was at least as tall as I am and totally made me fall over and tumble around in the sandy water. I had sand, seriously everywhere after that!! But I survived and it was a workout even for just ten minutes.

That beach was by the way the same beach where the German au pair got bitten by a shark last summer and died. I wasn’t bitten and we didn’t see any sharks either. But we did see something else totally awesome! Whales! And today I learned that most of them here are Humpback whales. These were pretty close to shore and they were showing off. I think there were three of them and one of them did one of those super amazing whale jumps when they lift their upper body and then just falls down. And then they splashed with their side fins like all the time, blowing water and then one of them raised its tail and splashed it again and again and again. Like they do on SeaWorld. It was just so cool! I didn’t get a good picture of them but Caroline did get one awesome. I guess it doesn’t really matter though since we’re going to the whale watching tour tomorrow. And I can’t for everything in the world get a good translation of “whale watching” in Swedish. It’s disturbing…

The Big Beach was cut off from Little Beach by a small mountain and the view from that one was incredible. I wouldn’t say it was that good when you were looking on Little Beach, but Big beach was so beautiful. Well, Little Beach was too. But since that is a nude beach it wasn’t very nice to look at old men’s junks… Stephen Tyler from Aerosmith usually hangs out at that beach on Sundays, not nude. Maybe I will see him there on Sunday? He has a big house on that side of the island. I’m so not jealous…

Our next stop was the Kamaole Beach Park I. We played beach volleyball there for 1.5 hours. I didn’t enjoy it so much, but I missed it (I know, almost two weeks since I played!) so I felt that I had to. I really don’t like it to play more than 2 people on one side. Three is fine, but six? Oh no. But I got complemented on my serve which was awesome today. Better than everyone else’s, even the guys!

After that we had our last stop, Haui’s Life’s a Beach. It’s a restaurant and bar. I was starving and ordered a burger with ranch dressing and fried onion rings. And to that two Mai Tais. They were $2.50 each.

On the way home the girl in the front seat was so drunk. She was embarrassing herself with dancing and screaming along with the horrible songs she played on the iPhone’s AUX. Good thing it wasn’t a very long ride.

Back at the hostel I and Caroline tried the hot tub for the first time. It was warm and after 45minutes we were burning up and had to take cold showers. I will definitely go in that one after the 12 mile volcano hike on Saturday.

Our Canadian roomie left today and we got a new one. A German girl one year older than me. The funny thing about it, she came from San Diego where she’s been studying for the past six months. And the even funnier thing is that she came in from Waikiki, Oahu today and had spent 10 days on HI Waikiki where we also stayed! She arrived there on the 14th and we on the 15th. Haha! What a small world! She is very nice and is going to the whale watching tomorrow. I’m so excited about it, and then the Haleakala volcano hike on Saturday, beach day on Sunday and an amazing hike on Monday. And then of course Big Island. I just read on yelp.com that the black sand beach we are going to there have turtles basking on the sand. I really really want to see turtles up close again! Either snorkeling with them or seeing them on the beach.

Big Beach, Maui Big Beach.Big Beach, Maui Big Beach, Maui Little Beach, Maui (nude beach) Little Beach.Big Beach, big waves Big waves!Humpback whales Humpback whales!Kamoale Beach Park I Kamaole Beach Park I was a very nice beach with fine sand. But I spent the 1.5 hours playing beach volleyball instead. Even if I hate playing more than 2 people on each side. I had some fun though, and it was fun when everyone was so surprised a girl could have such a great serve as I had today (I usually dont, but today it was awesome for some reason)Kamaole Beach Park I

Goodbye Ponto

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 time I played beach volleyball on Ponto. It was a sad morning. But I enjoyed it and played pretty well. Six games in total, and two of them were with Johanna. She is too Swedish to ask a random person to ask still. I said goodbye to a lot of people, got a lot of hugs and sweet words. I’m gonna miss them! As soon as I’m back I will play with them again!

I saw one dolphin today. But that is better than none. Hopefully I will see a lot of them at least on the whale watching tour on Maui.

Now I will try to throw some clothes away and then we’ll see what the rest of the day offers. I’m hoping for a trip to the beach to watch the sunset!

Bvball @ Ponto