Tag Archives: books

Crown of Midnight

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Last night I finished Crown of Midnight which was the second Throne of Glass book. So amazingly awesome! The ending was so unsuspected and I so look forward to the next book which will be published on September 2nd. Until then I will be reading the prequel The Assassin’s Blade

This series, written by Sarah J. Maas, is about a young orphaned girl who was taken in by the league of assassins and she is the best in the land at what she does.  She is betrayed though and ends up in a slave camp and the first book begins when the king’s men get her out of there so she can fight in a tournament to become the King’s Champion and then get her freedom. A lot of other things happen to around all this. Magic, demons, love triangles. If anyone is looking for a book to read, I highly recommend Throne of Glass.

Today was my Sunday and I tried to study for a while. I managed to solve two problems today before I found myself infront of a contrete problem. I decided to take a tiny break, but I ended up taking a break for the rest of the day. Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 is too fun. But I don’t feel bad, I did 5 problems yesterday! And I will get up early tomorrow and solve this concrete problem before work. And then I have three days off when I can study.

While I was studying yesterday I was also cooking dinner. I tried pulled pork for the very first time and it turned out great. I flavored it with honey barbecue sauce and garlic. It was served with mashed sweet potatoes. Yummy in my tummy!

Tomorrow’s 6 hours of work and then Rabbit Party! It’s the last for the season so I thought I would go. But right now I’mnot so sure. I am going to the pregame but I’m not sure about the real party at Valand. It is 100kr and I don’t even like nightclubs. We’ll see. I have to feel okay on Monday too to study.

Now I will go to bed, read, and mentally prepare for an early morning with concrete and rebars and then work and party!

Lightning and thunder

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After weeks of tropical heat, rain was so very needed. The day started out hot like every other day, but that changed in just a few hours. It dropped 10C (it was actually a bit cold when I walked home at 10pm in shorts and a tank top) after the heavy rain and thunderstorm in the afternoon. Up on the mountain we aren’t allowed to have any rides open when thunder is roaring and because of that we had several breaks. First at 2pm there was a 15 minute break when I was on Helix. The second break came at 4:30pm and lasted for almost two hours. And right after it stopped to thunder I was going to be on AtmosFear for an hour, but after lightning hit that tower we had technical problems and the attraction was closed that whole hour. I think all of the park heard the boom when it hit Atti, and just a few minutes later it hit the middle Gothia Tower. I missed it all, I was down in our pause room.

Because of the weather I’ve had a headache a big part of the day. Not too fun. I also hit my elbow on one of the Helix gates and that still hurts when I move it in a specific way. I hope it will be better tomorrow, it will be hard checking the safety restraints otherwise…

Last night I saw Divergent and it was so good. I probably would have had a lot to say if I read the book recently and didn’t have 30 books read after that triology. I remember the story, but not details about what happens. But I want to reread them. But I probably shouldn’t since I have like 600 books on my to-read-list. At the moment I am actually reading the four short stories from Four’s perspective. I wish I had more time for reading…

City of Heavenly Fire

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I am now done with the sixth and last book in the Mortal Instruments series. I love Cassandra Clare, all of her books are amazing and the story is really good. The ending was perfect. A happy ending. But this was not the end, Clare has said that she will write six (or was it seven or five?) series about Shadowhunters and this was just the second, or first, depends on how you look at it. This one took place in the present, the other one, The Infernal Devices, in the 1800. Several characters from the Infernal Devices came back in the Mortal Instruments, but not too much, just for a little while. They were hard to let go of so I was happy when they came back. In this sixth book, new people were introduced and the next series, the Dark Artifices will be about them. All of the books in the different series will be connected and in a very good way. I am so bad at writing reviews, but I really like all of her books, and if anyone likes demons/angles/vampires/werewolves/fairies/warlocks in a modern society I can really recommend all of her books. The series about the warlock Magnus Bane is also good. There are 10 100-page novellas.

I wish I had more time for reading, at the moment I am only finishing a book every month…

LäsdagbokThis is my reading diary. I’ve written down every book I’ve ever read in this little book.I started with the exact dates in 2004 when I realized I loved reading. In total there are 19 full pages full, one book per line. I had an ugly reading diary before but I ran out of pages (a lot of unecessary space in it for things I didn’t care about writing down, I think it was two or three books per page!) so I bought a notebook a couple of years ago and transferred the reading list to the new one. And decorated it with a dragon, because my favorite genre is fantasy. Läsdagbok = Reading Diary.

Today I had my Friday at work and that was awesome! These last 6 days have been long and my last weekend short. This weekend will disappear way to fast too. I opened SpinRock today, an attraction at my second area, Balderado. I haven’t been there in so long and had to read the manual on how to open it properly. I was there for 30 minutes before I had to run up to Helix for another half hour. And in the ridiculous heat today it wasn’t that fun.

About Helix, I had the test yesterday and I passed. So now I have 8 approved attractions I can operate at Liseberg. I have been told that I will get one more, but I think I will just get the introduction, the amount of education hours, and the test, just because. Not because they need me at that area. But I don’t mind. I like Berget!

Tomorrow will be another warm summer day and I will spend it at Liseberg with my cousins. They are driving down here so we can be there when it opens at 11am, go there the whole day, and then they will stay over at my place and drive home the day after. I look forward to it. It might be the last or second to last time I will see them before my departure in the middle of September.

I will go to bed now and read in my new book, I Am Number Four; The Lost Files – Return to Paradise. It’s a 100-page novella from the series I Am Number Four. Another good series, but this one is about friendly aliens on Earth who are being chased by evil aliens who want to take over the Universe. Sounds childish, but I am too tired to write a more thoroughly description. Look of the trailer for the movie I Am Number Four and you will know. Goodnight!

US Embassy in Stockholm

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My Saturday was spent in Stockholm after four hours of sleep. I tried sleeping on the 6am train this morning but just couldn’t. I read a lot instead. The train was almost 30 minutes late which meant I got to the centralstation in Stockholm at 9:10. My interview began at 9:30 and I had no idea from where the bus went. I asked around and finally found the right bus stop. It came almost directly and I actually were at the Embassy 9:35. It’s not extremely important to be on time because a lot of people have the same time and then there’s a line inside. What was frustrating though was that I was the last one to leave the Embassy even if other people had showed up after me. Not fair! I think it might be because I already had a visa for last year or something. I was done by 11am and took the bus back to the train station. My train back home didn’t leave until 4pm so I decided to have lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. I googled the location and walked there to kill time. I could have taken a bus, but I had five hours all alone in the capital. What to do? So I had lunch by myself in the summer sun. I didn’t take a burger, they were expensive, so I ordered a chicken/goatcheese/dried cranberries sandwhich on the lunch menu. It was really good! The staff there spoke English too me, it was weird, but HRC is an international restaurant chain so people from all over work there. My waitress was from Australia and the guy who sold me the pint glass was from California, but he spoke Swedish. It was cool.

After lunch I went to a park nearby and sat down for like two or three hours and read. After a couple of hours I was so tired I could barely sit straight up, I almost fell asleep right there and then. But fortunately an old and grumpy lady woke me up by screaming at me to take down my feet from the bench. It was a wooden bench and it was extremely uncomfortable with short shorts so I moved around a lot and decided that it was comfortable to have my feet up somehow on the bench. She yelled at me really loud but I just pretended I didn’t understand Swedish and she walked away continuing being pissed off. What is it with old ladies?? It’s a wooden bench out in the open, it will get dirty even if I don’t have my clean shoe on it. And it will get off when it rains. It’s another thing on buses to put your feet up on the cushioned seat in front of you, but a bench made out of wood in a park under a bunch of trees that drop tons of seeds? Stupid lady! But, she woke me up so I could stay awake for like thirty more minutes before my butt got a little bit too much wood flavor. So I slowly walked back to the train station where I waited for 40 minutes until the train came and took me home.

On the way back I tried to sleep and did that most of the three hour ride. There was a guy two rows behind me though that just couldn’t keep his mouth. He had some mental disability, but when you only had four hours of sleep and need to sleep it doesn’t matter if he is really happy and only says nice and happy things. It was irritating. I read some though, and I finished Throne of Glass and started on the 6th and last Mortal Instruments book City of Heavenly Fire. Throne of Glass was really good. It is about a young and world famous assassin whogets caught and ends up in a slave camp for a year. One day the Crown Prince comes along and wants here to participate in a competition to become the kings Champion. Really exciting and I really wanted to start the second book right away, but I have so many books that I really want to read so it’s hard to decide…

I got home, started doing laundry right away and I am almost done with it. I watched the latest Game of Throne episode during and the whole episode was just on the Wall! I thought I knew what was gonna happen at the end, but I guess that will be the next episode which also happens to be the season finale!
I also edited the thesis report and sent in it again. The second final version. I hope this gets approved! If it doesn’t very soon I won’t be able to get any CSN next year because of lack of study results. I got a letter from CSN yesterday that told me that I needed to fix my grades from this semester if I want a study grant next year. I can’t help that my thesis has been dragged out for this long! Cross your fingers for us that it will get approved this time!!
As soon as the laundry is done I will go to bed, read a couple of pages and sleep until I wake up tomorrow!

Oh, right, might be worth to mention that my visa got approved and I will get it back along with my passport within a week. Yay! 🙂

Liseberg at nightThis is a photo I took of the backside of Liseberg one evening when I walked home. Hard Rock Cafe StockholmMy 12th Hard Rock Cafe visit. Next will be Gothenburg!

Sand in my eye

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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 🙂

Changing the Guard

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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 travels. This full post can be found here.

Today was pretty much just about waiting for the flight back home to Gothenburg. A lot of walking though and my legs gave up today. All parts hurt now, not just my feet. It felt really good to sit 30 minutes on the train to the airport, and then an hour or two at the airport and two on the plain. I can stand up now without making painful noises.

Not much happened today, the biggest thing was that we accidently came upon Buckingham Palace when we were just walking around, trying to figure out what to do. And it was perfectly time with the daily change of the guards. It is a show they put on every day at 11:30. The new guards marsh in and then they play some music, walk around inside and then the old ones marsh out. It took about 45 minutes for the whole process to end. Kind of a waste of money in my opinion. But England loves its traditions. Mom took the coolest pictures, and I haven’t gotten them yet, so my crappy ones have to do for now.

After that we walked to St. James’ Park where we sat down for a while. I read a bit. Our next stop was lunch in Chinatown. I had dumplings. I’ve never had it before, but it is really good.

Then we went to M&M World where Helana bought gifts to her nephew and niece and I bought a small bag of crisp M&Ms. I’ve never had them before. It was my energy source when we walked all the way back to Victoria Station where we had left our bags earlier in the morning.

The flight back went very fast. I didn’t sleep, but tried. Can’t really say that it worked when I had ten year olds sitting behind me and a baby crying a few rows back. So I kept reading. I finished Fifty Shades Darker. I am dissappointed. Sure, it’s fun to read about sex, but it is so unrealistic and silly it’s not fun any more. The first book was okay, but this was just too much. But I can’t stop a series right in the middle (unless it is the worst ever, which this is not), so I will read the third and last book eventually. Right now I am reading Throne of Glass. I guess it is a fantasy book? I’m actually not sure, but so far it’s good. At first I wanted to start reading the Guild Wars books, but I had a bad version and some of the text disappeared in my eReader, so I have to get new ones…

Tomorrow reality starts again. It will be so nice to be able to walk across streets without being afraid of being overrunby cars coming from all different and weird directions.

The Albert barA better picture of the cute house on Victoria Street. Change the Guard at Buckingham PalaceTons of people at Buckingham Palace today for the Changing of the Guard. It was such a beautiful day, probably 27C, perfect in my opinion :).Change the GuardThey were also riding on horses, but mom has those photos. A curved Buckingham PalaceEven in daylight Buckingham Palace is curved by my panoramic feature in my phone. WEIRD! Buckingham Palace

Hello London!

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Another interesting day has passed. And a very long one. Up with the roaster to go to a structural engineering class and then three hours of work with the thesis. My mom was so kind and helped me with the technical language and it helped a lot. I am not sure it is enough for our picky examinator, but that’s a problem coming up on Friday.

Back home I had lunch, I packed the rest of my things and then played some Guild Wars 2. I found a place there today where you could read old history scrolls and the story behind this game is actually very interesting. So I moved up the Guild Wars book triology on my to-read list and will start with them after I finish Fifty Shades Darker. Which by the way is a boring book. The “porn” is the same in every scene. The scenario is different, but the same words are used, and it gets very boring in the long run. It is also extremely unrealistic. But I can’t stop reading in the middle of it, so I feel that I have to finish it…

At four my mom and brother picked me up and then we went to the airport. We checked in and everything and then each of us had a pulled pork wrap. Really good! The Victoria’s Secret store at Landvetter airport sucks by the way. No clothes, just things. Boring. Since I’ve lost weight I almost feel that I have to buy more underwear now… I and Gudrun are thinking about taking a shopping tour one day. I also want to buy a new pair of jeans.

At 6pm the flight took off and two hours later we were here. I had to drag my suitcase and carry-on for a while until we found the apartment and that is not a mistake that I will be doing when we are going home. The only reason I took a carry-on was because that was the only place I could fit all my structural engineering books. The exam is in two weeks, so I really have to start study now. Tourist during the day, student in the evening.

There is free wifi in the apartment which is awesome. The best part about it was that as soon as I logged in I got an email from Cal Poly giving me my last Permission Course Number. I enrolled as soon as I started up my computer and now I am enrolled in all my courses for the fall semester! Such a relief!

Right when we got to the apartment we went out again to find a place to eat. A pub close to us, The Barley Mow, was pretty nice. Everyone in our company laughed at me for ordering a Kobbarberg Cider (a Swedish cider).

We did a little grocery shopping and now we are back in the apartment and ready to go to bed. I’m not sure what we are gonna do tomorrow, but I am sure it will be fun!

Royal Kona Resort Pool

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Royal Kona Resort pool Pool by the ocean Crashing waves Last Hawaiian sunset Just because I’ve been writing about the amazing sunsets here on Big Island the last one was ugly. Too many clouds covering the horizon…Upside down moon

Last day in San Diego

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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’m writing this. This was my last day in San Diego. The day I’ve been dreading for so long has finally come. This whole day has actually been really awesome. I didn’t spend so much time with the kids since their school started today, but when we did in the afternoon, it was just so nice. The boy couldn’t stop hugging me and the girl kept saying that she didn’t want me to go. I don’t want to go either. I love this family! I love this place! I love the people!

But I’m grownup enough to know that everything has to come to its end eventually… And this is the end of a fantastic adventure. I’ve had the best year ever with no regrets. I just wish time didn’t fly by as fast as it did.

I cooked dinner for the whole family and I made tacos with the girl’s help. She cut all the vegetables. And she put away all the groceries before that without me asking for it. She is so sweet! It was a very nice dinner but it felt like a normal dinner. Because even if I’ve been waiting for tomorrow for so long now, it still doesn’t feel real. Normally I’m excited like crazy at this time but now I can’t feel it. It’s probably the sadness dulling everything.

I actually look forward to go home so I can get rid of all these mixed feelings, it’s driving me crazy. And I also want to get rid of the nervousness about my trip home. I’ve packed everything now and it barely fit. I have to extend one of the suitcases and I’m not sure how good that is… But I don’t have any options. That one is 49.5lbs and max is 50. What if the scale here doesn’t work and I have to pay $200 for overweight? The other suitcase is 48lbs I think so I can’t really put anything in there either. I wonder how strict United Airlines are? I hope they will have some mercy when they see me crying.

 

This morning I went to Moda Hair Salon to finally get my hair cut. I haven’t cut it since December 2012. I put in some highlights too and it got really nice. A lot of hair disappeared, almost 2dm, but I like it. We’ll see how much the sun is gonna bleach it during the next couple of weeks.

New haircut

Tomorrow my alarm will go off at 5:30am. My hostdad will drive me to the airport at 6:45am. So very nice of him! And the flight takes off at 9:20am. In the morning I will wash my bed sheets and mentally prepare for the trip. It’s actually a pretty long flight, almost 6h. Hawaii is very far away from everything but I have my eReader. Today I finished the latest Bane Chronicle Novella: The Last Stand of the New York Institute and it were as good as the rest of the 8 100pages novellas. I think that that imaginary world (The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices and The Bane Chronicles) is my favorite. I loved all of those books! And Cassandra Clare is gonna write a sequel triology to be released in 2015: The Dark Artifices. The 6th and last book in The Mortal Instruments series: City of Heavenly Fire will be released in May and the 10th and last Bane Chronicle book will be release in the end of February. Can’t wait!
This means that I started on The Throne of Fire, the second Kane Chronicle book today. I will probably read a lot in it tomorrow.

 

I’m going to Hawaii tomorrow!! 😀

The Red Pyramid

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Today I finished the first Kane Chronicle book, the Red Pyramid. I’ve read better books and some parts were confusing. But it was worth reading anyway. Now I’m reading the 9th Bane Chronicle book (The Mortal Instruments extras) and then I will continue with the two last Kane books.

It’s getting late but I have a lot of things to do still. First I have to go to the library and print some things, and then I need to go to like Target and see if they sell tiny screws to sunglasses. Mine broke again this weekend and I don’t wanna go to Hawaii with a safety pin holding them together. It’s awesome engineering, but a normal screw would be better. And then I wanna find snorkeling equipment, I think it might be cheaper here than on Hawaii.

Can you believe I’m going there in 39 hours?! I can’t, but I’m sooo excited anyway!!!!