Tag Archives: Cal Poly preparations

It takes a lot of preparation to be an exchange students in the United States of America.

Outdoor beach volleyball

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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.

Course registration

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What a day. I hardly can keep my eyes open but I am waiting for a very important email from Cal Poly with my last Permission Course Number. I called the responsible person for the course and she said she would do it in an hour (this was one hour before the registration opened at 10pm), but I still haven’t gotten it yet. My other three courses are showing the status: enrolled and that feels good. But I’m not gonna be relaxed until I have the last one in that list too. I have heard that transfer students are prioritized when it comes to course registration, so I think it will work out perfectly fine anyway.

My other big Cal Poly Preparation today was that I went to the bank to make the Initial Housing Payment. I got help with the whole thing from a very nice lady. And the waiting line was zero at 11am a Friday morning. According to her everything was filled out correctly, but it still feels unsafe. I mean, I trust the internet bank, but when it’s about a lot of money ($1125 / 7500SEK) and used with a payment method I’ve never used before…. I can’t help but get a bit nervous. But I am sure it is correctly done and that I can put it behind me!

It is so nice to have this and the course registration done. The only thing left now is to get the visa (which I can’t get now anyway, I don’t have the DS-2019 paper yet) and then decide when I want to go to the US. I can move in on September 14th. But two weeks travelling before? Hawaii with a friend from San Diego? Hanging out with my host family? Or just stay in Sweden and work two extra weeks and earn more money? Tough decisions.

The whole morning was spent in school with three hours of class. Super boring! I have to pull myself together pretty soon if I am gonna pass this stupid exam in 2.5 weeks.

In school I also made two phone calls to the two other job had had gotten offers on. Well, one not yet, but she was willing to give me it, I could hear that in her very dissapointing voice when I said I got another job. I felt really bad, they both sounded like fun jobs and I feel like I gave them false hope by going to interviews and tell them how interested I was. Well I was. But I still feel bad for turning them down. This is an experience I’ve never had to deal with before. Turning down jobs…

At four I went to my first after work in, probably ever. There is a German girl here in Gothenburg who are going to San Diego for three months to be an au pair. A few other of her friends were also joining and we talked for two hours about San Diego, au pairs, studies and a lot of other things. And that was very nice. She is going home to Germany soon though but we will try to have at least one more after work at another place. After that I went to my second after work at another place with Chad and Mike. That was also very nice! I don’t feel too bad about paying 40kr per cider either. It could be much worse.

 

No, I can’t stay up any longer. I hope I wake up to good news in my email! And let’s hope I will get a little more than 4 hours of sleep tonight…

Job @ Liseberg!!

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This is insane! Six months after I sent in my application to Liseberg I finally got the good news. I can’t explain how relieved and happy I am. I got a little worried when they didn’t call during the day, but at 5pm I got the call. I was prepared for the worst, but instead he told me I got the job!! I almost laughed when he told me. This is what I’ve always wanted to do, and now it is finally happening! And I start working in less than three weeks already. Right after I get home from London I will sign the contract and get an introduction evening. I will have two days off in the first week of June and that is when we will give the thesis presentation so that worked out perfect as well.

This job means that I will be working at several different attractions, in two areas instead of one that is normal. I will be like an extra who works where I will be needed. I will still have my 40 hours a week though and a schedule for the whole summer. And I also got the good news today that I will work until August 31st instead of 17th. And it is possible to work longer too if I decide to fly straight to San Luis Obispo instead of travel around for two weeks before school. I actually think that is what I will do. I will have plenty of time to travel anyway.

I am so incredibly excited about this job, it will be the best summer job I’ve ever had!

 

In school today we finished the first draft of the thesis report. It felt really good, but we will still have a lot to do. Our supervisor at Chalmers is strict and has opinions about everything. I really hope we will be done with it before the summer. I don’t want this dragging behind.

I took a three hour nap today and that was needed. I will try to get to bed early today. Tomorrow I have to be in school at 8am for at least four hours of structural engineering. I don’t look forward to it, but I need it so bad! I am nervous about the exam coming up in 2,5 weeks… I will study as much as I can next week. Touristing during the day and studying in the evening.

The pie yesterday was thought to be a celebration pie, but it was completely eaten by the time I got the great news. So I felt that I had to make the dinner a little bit special tonight again. I had tomato soup, like I’ve had so many times. But I also baked corn muffins. I found a mix at Ica Maxi a week ago and just couldn’t resist to buy it. It wasn’t as good as the ones I had in the US, but it was still very good. A luxurious breakfast awaits me tomorrow!

 

Tonight I’ve also paid the initial payment for an on campus room. Or I didn’t pay, I have to go to the bank tomorrow and do that. I now regret that I chose to save 200kr, when I could have paid right now, online. Well well, it’s not like I have other things to do tomorrow afternoon.

I have also been doing some research about what has to happen tomorrow evening. The course registration opens and I think I am pretty much as prepared as I can be. So at 10pm I will just login to my Cal Poly account and enroll in courses with my permission course numbers. Except that I am still missing one of them. I’ve emailed a new person today and I hope I will get an answer pretty soon. The environmental development course is the only one I really really need to take! It is mandatory at Chalmers. All the other courses can be whatever as long as it is within my area. I hope this works out, like everything else 🙂

Rhubarb/raspberry pie

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So much going on that I can’t even remember everything I wanted to write about. I should probably make a note in my phone whenever I think of something to put here.

 

“A space has been reserved for you in Cal Poly’s campus apartments for the 2014-2015 Academic Year!” But I have been sending a lot of emails back and forth to Cal Poly about my payments. Apparently CSN doesn’t count as financial aid and that means I pay out of my own pocket and will have to pay the initial payment of $1125. I will do that tomorrow…

I have talked to both Luka and Johanna (who are the other two going to Cal Poly with me) about housing and courses these past few days. Course registration is closing in fast and I still don’t have my Course Permission Number for a course I need to take. I emailed the person just now and I hope she answers tomorrow so all of this will be done and over! There are two more semesters though…

This morning was spent at Chalmers writing the last parts of the thesis. After two hours we decided we were done for the day and we had actually done quite a lot. We work fast! Tomorrow will probably be the same, read it through once more and write the abstract in English, that will be a toughie.

I had my third “interview” with Liseberg. I was nervous but it wasn’t that bad. They told me what it was all about and showed me schedules and everything. They wanted to know who I was so I talked a bit about myself. They thought it sounded very cool with a master/teacher degree. They will call me tomorrow and give me my verdict. Please cross your fingers for me! I really really want this job.

Tonight I baked a pie for the first time in almost a year.  I invited Chad to be a guinea pig and I think it passed, he had seconds. It really was delicious! With vanilla sauce! Yummy! Awesome breakfast tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be the last day we will work on the thesis for a while. We only have the abstract left to write and that will be done in like an hour tomorrow. That means a lot of time for napping! It’s weird that I am this tired. I got my test results from the doctor today and they said everything was perfectly fine. Great! I think. I don’t really buy it though, one of my two doctors are lying, one said I will have a B12 deficiency for the rest of my life, and the other one said everything was fine. A deficiency like that doesn’t just go away like that… I will have to call the new doctor and ask her to get my old journals and compare them, something’s not right!

I need to go to bed now, I’m seeing double again…

90 year birthday party

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Yesterday I went to Hjo with mom and Chad for a tripple birthday party. The usual people were there, my uncle, my three cousins Linnea (and her boyfriend), Lovisa and Malin, my grandma, grandpa and his wife. It was a very nice day with lots of awesome food and several different desserts, perfect!

We had BBQ with different types of meat, BBQ sauces, potato au gratin and salads. I had so much food but didn’t feel very bad about and now, the day after when the scale only showed 57.5kg (that’s a total weightloss of 7kg since I started trying to lose weight), I am gonna start to not feel bad about good food I’m eating once in a while.

As dessert we had a cake that Malin baked with the number 90 printed in M&Ms on it. The total age of me, Linnea and mom was 90.

And as second dessert we made s’mores. I actually only had one. We watched a little “Gladiatorerna” and then I drove us home to Gothenburg again.

 

Today I woke up at 1pm, had lunch and played Guild Wars 2 for the rest of the day. There are so many things to do, but my first goal is to explore the whole world and then try some PvP. I have a little more than 50% explored after 150 hours of gameplay. Taking a break to focus on school was just a joke…

I also got a very fun phone call today. It seems like I get all these job calls on Sundays. Anyways, this was from Liseberg!! They need someone at the attraction department at the end of this month. Since I’ve already been through two  interviews so they just want me to come in on Wednesday and give me all the details about the job and confirm the dates I can work. I interpret that as I will get the job if I want it. And that is so awesome!! It turns out that everything works out in the end, even if it takes a lot of time sometimes 🙂

I am not completely sure what it means, but I guess everything about the attractions, like taking tickets, checking kids’ lengths, check the safety belts and such. I am so excited!

But I will still go to the interview at home service tomorrow. I haven’t signed a contract yet so I still need backup plans.

I found out today that I don’t have to pay the initial payment of $1125 to Cal Poly Housing. So awesome!! I think this application online in my Cal Poly account means that I will get the room, but I am not sure. In the email I got a few weeks ago it said that Cal Poly was glad to offer me a room on campus. It sounds like I have it 🙂

In the evening Chad came over and we cooked a gourmet dinner of meatballs and mashed potatoes/sweet potatoes with gravy and lingonberries. It is a very simple meal but oh, it was soo good! We shared a bottle of wine and talked the whole evening. A perfect Sunday evening! ❤

Valborg

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It feels like a Sunday today and Monday tomorrow. I really don’t want to go to school but it is my last chance to study structural engineering in school so I have to be there. Even if the lecture starts at 8am and there are no trams going to school. The bridge by the stop is being renovated so no trams or buses go to school until Monday, and no car traffic can go there from now and until December. Crazy!

I am glad tomorrow isn’t a Monday though, but a Friday. This time of the year we have so many different holidays. Like today was ay 1st and I am not sure exactly why we are off. I think it’s because today is the demonstration day. But that is so old school. I am not complaining though, May 1st is a good hangover day because yesterday was Valborg, one of the biggest party days in Sweden.

After two hours in school yesterday I had to do laundry for four hours. I was so tired after that that I took a two hour nap and met up with Chad and two of his friends to watch the Cortége. It was a blue sky but cold, almost two hours of watching 49 carriages was a little bit too much. But it was still nice.

We were in a hurry after that to get to Dzejna’s birthday dinner in Linné. No trams or buses were in service up on the mountain where Chalmers is, because of the parade, so we had to take a huge detour with several changes before we finally came to the restaurant. We were a big party so I actually didn’t have time to talk to the birthday girl, but I had a nice evening anyway.

Cortége 2014

Today I was a chauffeur and driving Chad around to different stores. Because of the demonstrations going on there were more or less no buses or trams in service so it was impossible to get around without a car. I bought a birthday gift to Linnea for the triple birthday party on Saturday. I hope she will like it.

Mom drove me home and on the way we did some grocery shopping. I made a chicken casserole I probably haven’t made in two years. But it still tasted the same as back then. It’s good to know that cooking is like riding a bicycle.

I probably should have been in bed already, but it is too hard when it is light out until like 9pm. And it is getting worse every day. I miss the 8pm sunsets in Cali.

 

Yesterday I got my Course Permission Codes for two of my four classes. I won’t need it for one of the other ones and the fourth is coming any day now hopefully. I will also get that money mom’s friend wanted to lend me tomorrow. That means I will apply for a room on campus in SLO. Yay!

Pre course registration

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It was so nice to sleep until 11am spend four hours in school before a good dinner on the couch in front of Game of Thrones.

We got a lot of feedback on our thesis report and some really big question marks on our Excel-file. That’s no fun when we only have 1,5 week until the first deadline. I have to admit that I am a little bit stressed. But because of this I want to work as much as possible now, which will probably mean that we are gonna have some days to relax.

When I came home from school I made dinner, falukorv with apple slices and ketchup in the oven served with mashed potatoes. It was surprisingly good! And enough for lunch tomorrow.

I’ve also started to look at courses I want to take in the fall semester. The list of all the courses became available yesterday so we students can prepare. But the real registration starts on May 9th at 1pm Pacific Time, 10pm Swedish time. One of the courses I put in my application wasn’t available this semester so I had to find another one and it took some time. But after a while I found one and got a very nice schedule altogether. If I can take those four courses I will be free on both Mondays and Fridays the whole fall semester! Awesome or what!

The classes I want to take is:

  • CE 321 – Fundamentals of Transportation Engineering, 3 credits
    The characteristics and functions of highway, air, rail, transit and other modes of urban and intercity transportation. Fundamentals of transportation design, operations, and planning.
  • CE 322 – Fundamentals of Transportation Engineering Laboratory, 2 credits
    Application of principles of transportation planning, operations, and design. Emphasis on urban transportation planning and operations, and the design of urban and intercity highway and rail facilities. Experimental determination of the physical and mechanical properties of pavement materials through laboratory and field testing. Analysis of data and preparation of testing reports.
  • EDES 406 – Sustainable Environments, 4 credits
    Collaboration of interdisciplinary faculty and guest speakers/panelists. Introduction, illustration and analysis of concepts and principles for sustainability to be used in all aspects of environmental design. Integration and application of knowledge of human and natural systems with environmental, social and economic concerns, from a global-to-local perspective
  • ARCH 217 – History of World Architecture: Prehistory – Middle Ages, 4 credits
    Architecture and urbanism in the ancient world, from prehistory to the Middle Ages. Social, cultural and physical conditions that influenced the built environment to the Mediterranean basis, plus Europe, Asia, Africa and Pre-Columbian America.

I am also thinking about taking a one credit course of volleyball. But that would mean classes on Mondays, and I think it could be worth having that day off if I ever want to go on long weekend trips. Or just be a lazy Cali girl and hang out on the beach.

It isn’t this easy to register for classes though. I wish! Two of them this semester have prerequisites which means I have to get a Course Permission Number from each teacher after probably sending them syllabi and transcripts from Chalmers. Or maybe just sucking up to them, I’ve heard American teachers love that. It’s not gonna be as hard as I thought though, I had imagined getting syllabi for ALL my courses, but the other two semesters are a later problem.
I have sent one email to the civil engineer department and asked them how to get those numbers, and I have a draft to the Sustainable Environments teacher. There are no prerequisites, but it says that I have to have the consent of the teacher.

I am still waiting for Cal Poly Housing to get back to me about how and when to apply for that room on campus. I hope they answer soon, I have a feeling that application needs to be handed in pretty very soon.

 

Tomorrow will be a fun day, except being in school at 8. And to do laundry at 11. But watching the Cortége and having dinner out with Dzejna and co will be plenty of fun :).

Slottskogen

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Summer came to Gothenburg early this year. This weekend has been the best and I spent both days in Slottskogen.

Yesterday the Formula team from last year were hanging out and barbecueing and I was invited to come along. I felt a bit alone, all mechanical engineers and me, a civil engineer. But I had a great time anyway. The sun was up, it was warm, I got tan, had the year’s first BBQ and watched the crazy people running Tough Viking. I read about it after and it was sick! Electrical shocks, swimming through mud and ice cold water, monkey bars and other crazy stuff. It would have been cool to do it. It definitely would have been an accomplishment, maybe in two years so I have time to exercise before.

We stayed there until the sun disappeared behind the trees. All those 6 hours of sun was enough after almost three months of pretty much no sun (compared to Cali). I was so tired so I just spent the rest of the night inside.

Me and Chad decided, before we said goodbye, to play frisbee golf today, but when I couldn’t reach him at all for three hours this morning I decided to go to his place and see if he was alive. He was and was definitely surprised when I showed up unannounced, but he was glad I did. Otherwise he would have missed out on the awesome weather today!!

We played 18 holes of frisbee gold, third time ever for me and I didn’t do too bad, even if I lost by way too many points to count. After that we rewarded ourselves with soft serve ice cream and took a walk in Slottskogen watching the animals there. Mooses, peacocks, sheep, ducks, goats and wild squirrels.

The day ended at mom’s where she made us dinner, flying jacob. It’s a chili chicken stew with bacon, cashews and bananas. One of my all time favorites! My brother was kind and drove us home and I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 ever since. That game is ridiculously big and I have a feeling I will never be done. I’ve played for probably 250h total and I’ve only explored 50% of the world… And I haven’t even tried the PvP part of the game yet.

I think I have to take a tiny break from playing now though. I have two weeks until my thesis deadline and I have two more weeks of structural engineering classes (four until the exam) and I have to start with applying for courses at Cal Poly. Tomorrow the list of all the available classes will come up, so I need to find mine, the names of the professors and syllabi for the prerequisites classes I’ve taken in Sweden. This has to be done in two weeks as well.

In addition to all the studying and Cal Poly preparations I have a lot of other events going on. Like Cortégen (a parade built by Chalmers Students each year (I did it in 2011 and it was so much fun), birthday dinner for Dzejna, birthday party for me/mom/my cousin, job interview, dentist appointment and a funeral. I also have a book I really want to start to read, but I am one of those who can’t start reading something without finishing what I am currently reading and I am not too excited about Fifty Shades Darker. It’s not bad, but not my type of book (not fantasy).

Anyway, about that job interview! Yesterday I got an email from another Home Service office (but in another part of town which is closer and easier to get to than the one I got an interview for a couple of weeks ago), asking me if I still was interested. Today we decided to do the interview on May 5th. It sucks a bit that the interview isn’t for another week since the first place called today and offered me the job. I had to tell her that I couldn’t give them an answer yet and she was very understanding when I said it was the same job but another district. I hope I get the later one, the woman who talked about it sounded so passionate about it and told me the team was super nice and it wasn’t just old people, but every age between 13 and 98. But I would be totally fine with the first district too and I am so relieved I finally got a job! The problem is though that I probably won’t get my first paycheck until the end of July, and that would mean two months without income… But that’s a problem a month away!

Now I need to focus on my course applications and thesis!

 

Weight lossOh, right, another awesome piece of news! Since it’s been really warm out, I’ve had to leave the jeans at home and put on shorts. A year ago these shorts were kinda tight and now I have to wear a belt so I don’t drop them. They are almost too big to wear actually. 😀

50

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I found out today that I didn’t get the job at Burger King. I still haven’t heard from Hemtjänsten so I am a bit worried I might not get that one either. And if I don’t, then I won’t have a job for the summer, no income, a very expensive rent and a lot to pay when it comes to my next abroad experience… I know I’ve learned to be optimistic about everything, but right now it is very hard. No one wants to hire me and it is totally getting to my head! It really means that there was someone a little bit better than me, but it’s not a very comforting thought right now.

I’ve gotten a lot more emails from Cal Poly with information. I haven’t gotten answers about how to get an apartment/room yet, but it seems like I need to pay $1100 right away as a deposition. How the fuck will I get that kind of money when I barely have enough to pay my own rent here in Sweden? How will I be able to buy a plane ticket to even go to the US? Or the visa? I will get a 25 000 kr grant from Chalmers, but not before November which is bullshit. That money is supposed to help us exchange students to pay for the flight ticket and so on. Bullshit!

I’ve also found out that to apply for specific classes at CalPoly (May 9th) I need to provide the professor syllabi and grades to show him/her that I have the right prerequisites. I can’t explain how much I want all these preparations to be over. I just wanna be there and have everything figured out. This is almost overwhelming with everything else that is going on.

It is very obvious that my streak of luck is long gone…

I tried to study some structural engineering at school today and it actually went okay. I solved two problems in like four hours but then I found out I didn’t get the job and spent the last hour playing on my phone. So I decided to go home instead. Have a little dinner and then join mom at the gym for an hour of yoga.

It was a tough class today and it hurt. In my mouth! This stupid wisdom tooth hole is still hurting pretty bad. It’s been more than a week. It should be okay by now!

 

I want to go to Kent’s concert here in Gothenburg on June 1st. But the problem still stands, no money=nothing. I really hate being in this situation where money means everything and the lack of it is ruining my life. I am getting back to my old self who worries, I am sad and can’t see the optimistic side of things. Not good. I need something good to happen! Like now, please!

 

Oh, right, the title. Today was mom’s 50th birthday! She didn’t seem that old when I met her so I think she will be fine 🙂 No party today, but she wanted to celebrate by doing yoga. And tomorrow she gets the day off because she is turning 50 or 60. I like that company, they are very nice and generous with days off. Happy birthday again, world’s best mother! ❤

Job interview and the doctor

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Yesterday I went to the doctor about this B12 problem of mine. A new investigation was put to action and I took a lot of blood tests. Big bruises on the insides of my arms now. I hope I will find out why I have this deficiency once and for all. And I also want B12. It is getting to my head and I am ridiculously tired all the time.

Today I had another job interview. This time it was at Burger King. I think that sounds more fun than at Home services. But it is only a part time job and I think I will get much more money from the old people job. That is a dilemma… I think I need to wait and see if I get any of them and then compare salaries or just take whatever I get.

What was so funny about this interview though was that the interviewer recognized me. I had no idea who he was. But then it turned out that we were in the same class in middle school! How small isn’t the world? Back then he was a tiny guy who didn’t speak Swedish very well. Now he was tall with barely no accent at all. Wow! I still think it is cool that I was being interviewed by a former classmate.

In the afternoon I was working with my thesis partner at Chalmers on our report. I hate writing. But we have come a long way and I hope that we will be done sometime next week. I won’t be able to do anything  else this week, maybe Sunday. But I have a lot to do. Structural Engineering studying tomorrow at school, baking a birthday cake for mom, yoga, working at Cultural Care, thesis meeting, London trip planning, visit from a cousin, BBQ in Slottskogen… Lots of stuff to do all the time. No wonder I am so exhausted.

Today was the opening of the City Library here in Gothenburg. I didn’t have time to go there today, but since the opening is going on for the rest of the week I am planning to go there on Sunday and listen to the architects of the building giving a presentation and take a look at my beautiful plaster and glass walls.

Yesterday I decided that it was well overdue to clean my earrings. Silver tend to get a layer of something on it after a while. So I searched online and first tried toothpaste, which didn’t work. My second try with aluminum foil balls in salty boiling water worked! A few, not to tight, foil balls, salt in the water, get the water to boiling point and then boil the silver earrings for five minutes. Almost as clean as new ones. Perfect! I like these household remedies :).

 

The last thing I want to write about before passing out on my bed is that I’ve gotten a lot of emails from CalPoly lately. I accidently turned off the email function on my phone and realized that today. I got a welcome email from the international center giving me my account information and CalPoly email. Of course my username is HBEMM (Hanna Bemm). I think I will get used to everyone calling me Hanna next year.

Another email was from University Housing telling me that they were happy to offer me space in their beautiful campus apartment for the upcoming academic year. That is great news! The problem is that I don’t understand what I am supposed to do now. So I sent a long email to that international center asking a lot of questions about everything. In a week I will have to sign up to the classes that I submitted in my application to the exchange program several months ago.

This thing is complicated! It is so much easier here where you apply for schools and programs and then get accepted to all the classes that is included. You sign up on a webpage and there you get a list of apartments you can apply for. So much easier!

This CalPoly thing is getting really real now. About four months until departure!! It will get even more real when I get my welcome package with all my legal papers (so I can apply for a visa) and tons of information from the school. Excited, oh yes! But at the same time, I wouldn’t mind staying here in Sweden either… I love my new  life here!