Tag Archives: Cal Poly preparations

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

Easter BBQ

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The Swedish spring goes on! Today was as nice as yesterday, a few more clouds, and a breeze, but it was perfect. I’ve been sitting out in the sun in Sjövik all afternoon in shorts and a tank top. Super awesome!

My dad and Karin had a BBQ party today, so I borrowed mom’s car and drove out to them at 2pm. I got a comfortable chair and sat there until it was time to eat. As appetizer there were Swedish easter food, like pickled herring, salmon, Jansons frestelse, gubbröra. Really good!

And the main course was grilled pork and lamb. Really good that too! Chocolate cake for dessert.

It was a very nice afternoon!

 

Before I drove there I tried a trick mom told me she read about somewhere. All my frying pans and pots are black underneath. With sugar cubes that easily went away. Amazing.

Sugar cubes

I also found extremely cheap flight tickets to the US. I was told on Saturday that Norwegian Airlines has started with direct flights from Stockholm to Los Angeles. September 1st, 2500kr!! That is ridiculous! I was afraid that I was gonna have to pay 10 000 for a roundtrip. Now it seems like half that price. Awesome! I’m not gonna book anything though until I am certain of what I will do. Maybe I won’t even fly in to LA, but somewhere else for a short vacation before school starts?

 

Now, I will watch the latest Game of Thrones episode, eat some easter candy and drink påskmust!

Cal Poly 2014-2015

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This day has been getting better by the hour from the start! First me and my partner finished the big thing on our thesis, the only thing missing are some emission numbers for excavators. We emailed a guy about it today. Hope we get an answer, we have asked a lot of people and no one has been able to give us what we want.

After three hours of work in the morning I went grocery shopping and then home where I got stuck on the couch in front of the TV. In the evening I went to the gym with mom and she was kind and gave me a ride back home.

At home I cooked a soup full of chlorophyll, consisting of spinach, green peas, broccoli and lime with a feta/avocado topping. It took a while, probably because it was the first time I ever cooked it, and I was texting/on the phone at the same time. The result anyway, was a very calorie controlled and yummy soup. Completely green. And what made my late dinner even better was that I ate it in front of Game of Thrones, the second episode of the fourth season. I was almost laughing out loud at the end. I knew it was gonna happen, but it was a huge relief anyway! When I read that part in the book I was so happy I didn’t know what to do. Haha! I really want The Winds of Winter to be released soon. It’s too long between the books and I forget what happens…

After that I was told by my dad that you can see Mars on the sky today. I thought it was on the 8th, but it was clearly visible today to, right above the full moon. So unbeliavably cool! And what’s even more cool is that my phone could get it on picture! Too bad I’m getting a new one tomorrow 😉 That was the second piece of information my dad gave me. He transferred money for my birthday present, Google Nexus 5!

And the last thing that really made the end of this day awesome was my acceptance email from Cal Poly! Now it is completely completely done! I will get a lot of papers in the mail pretty soon and then I can start getting my visa and figure out when I will get over there and buy a flight ticket. I am so excited!! Less than five months 🙂

Oh, there is one more thing, this is the last night with my troubling wisdom tooth. Tomorrow it will be gone! And even if I will be in pain this week, it will be the last of tooth aches hopefully forever!

I should probably go to bed, I have a dentist appointment at 8am tomorrow. Mom is picking me up at 7:30. I don’t wanna go through it alone, even if I know it’s not gonna be too horrible…

Full moon and MarsThe tiny dot just above the moon is Mars! I’ve always been very fascinated by space and seeing that big red dot in the sky made me really excited! Almost like seeing dolphins and turtles in the wild.

23

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It’s been a very boring day so far. I guess birthdays aren’t that special when your number is getting higher and higher. I spent the morning in school trying to concentrate on structural engineering. I actually recognized a lot today. Interesting since I’ve hatade concrete since the beginning of time and I remember more of it than steel and tree.

After school I did a little grocery shopping and had lunch. I took a two hour nap and then started doing laundry. My apartment is almost completely clean, I just need to do the dishes and then I am ready to have guests. I still don’t kow what to wear but that’s a later problem. My face is baby smooth after a bicarbonate/hot steam treatment and I am so bored now that I will actually play some Guild Wars 2!

 

I was at Gothenburg’s University yesterday afternoon where a person from the American Embassy was giving us information about what it’s like to study abroad and how to get a visa and other stuff. She said the same thing I got as a reply on email a few months ago. I will be able to get a new visa and if I meet the right requirements I can do it over email and I don’t have to go all the way up to Stockholm for the visa interview at the embassy.

She also told us that if we get government funding to stay over there for a while when having the J-1 visa we won’t be able to get an immigrant or work visa for two years! Two-Year Home-Country Physical Presence Requirement. That’s just such a weird rule! I will probably stay in Sweden after I get my degree, but still, what if I get an awesome job? My other choice is to have $15,000 on my account when I apply for the visa and present proof of it at the embassy that rule might not apply to me. Stupid rule!

 

I just got an email from Chalmers telling me that I’ve been accepted to CalPoly!! Now everything is done, I just need to get a new visa and find somewhere to live. In less than five months I will be in California again! ❤

City Library of Gothenburg

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Today was a pretty productive day for me. I got up at 9, showered, had a small breakfast and went to Chalmers to leave all the papers for the official application to CalPoly. Compared to what I had to give Cultural Care, this was nothing. The only thing I had to do was fill out the application form, find the copy of my passport on my computer, get a bank statement and a list of courses I want to take. That last document took the longest time. Find the right courses and they had to be in the right quarters. I just hope they are good enough and that I will be able to transfer the credits to Chalmers. It’s a bit confusing that whole thing…

After that I went to a meeting at Veidekke. We put up a time plan and now I know what we have to do. It’s not a lot of time until it has to be done. I thought this thesis would be bigger. But it’s nice that it’s not.

I didn’t even knew I had plans after that until I was on the tramon my way to downtown. I can’t remember if I ever wrote about that awesome drinking game Cards Against Humanity. I probably did. Well, I need thick paper to print it on, so I was looking after that. It turned out though that the printer at mom’s job couldn’t print on that thick paper so I didn’t buy anything. She came with the brilliant idea to laminate thin papers. That would be even better! She is so smart, my mom!

My fourth and last stop of the day was at the city library. When I knocked on the door and my old boss opened she asked me what I wanted. Haha, she didn’t recognize me! I had to introduce myself again. My other coworkers didn’t recognize me either. I’m not that different. They asked me how my year had been and offered to give me a tour of the inside of the library. They told me that it was supposed to be completely done by the end of the week. I find that a bit had to believe to be honest. A lot were done, but there were still a lot to do. But what do I know after a hang-loose lifestyle in SoCal. They have done an amazing job though and I’m sure it will be amazing when they open it on April 23rd (the international book day). The plaster walls that I drew on the ground were three dimensional now and that was so cool to see. When I watched the done I labored on that floor for so many hours and now I saw the results. I will always be the one who did that. It’s awesome! Maybe I will enjoy being a building and civil engineer after all :).

Gym membership

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Two days and I haven’t even thought about updating the blog. It’s not that I’ve done a lot of things.

On Monday I bought a six months membership at Fysiken Gym and went to two classes with mom. First some weird stretching with a foam roll. That hurt, and not in a good way, so I probably won’t do that anytime soon again. At least not until I know how to do it correctly.

Right after we did a Body Control class. You have a pilates ball and then use it to work on the inner muscles in your core. It feels kina ridiculous jumping around on it, but I am still sore, two days later.

Yesterday I had lunch at Chalmers with Hanna and the two other people who are going to CalPoly with me. Hanna talked about a lot of things and I don’t remember it all. But I don’t need to think about that much right now. I just have to finish my application so I can hand it in tomorrow.

Last night I realized I don’t want to go home during Christmas. Johanna wanted to go to Hawaii, but I don’t want to go there again, so I decided I want to go to the Caribbean instead. I have a lot of ideas, but can’t decide just yet. Jamaica, Costa Rica, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba? It’s not easy!

This morning I had a meeting with Chalmers about my thesis. It went well and I have now a much better idea of what to do. And I’m guessing it will be a lot clearer on Monday when we will talk to Veidekke again. I and Johan went through everything after the meeting, came up with a rough time plan and a description of the project. I think we will manage to do this!

I am tired now, I just had lunch, and am watching TV shows. I’ll probably take a nap…

Rainy and foggy The weather’s been awful since I came home. One or two days was pretty okay with a little sun. This is depressing!

Project Management Course

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Wow, what an eventful day! I don’t even remember what I did this morning. I guess I started on that library information online course thingy, ate breakfast, talked to friends abroad on FB and showered.

At 1pm I had to be at Lindholmen for something. To be honest I didn’t know what. So I was surprised to learn that I was gonna participate in a Project Management Course. I managed to keep myself awake the whole four hours, but my mind wandered so I had a hard time focusing. But I didn’t expect anything else, I’ve been having a hang-loose-lifestyle for the past 13 months. It’s gonna take some time getting used to this type of life again. Halfway through we had fika and I’ve really missed that. I think it’s time to get to downtown and have a fika pretty soon!

When I was going back home I thought I was gonna go to Försäkrsingskassan and ask about the financial aid I can get for my rent. It’s so complicated online so I wanted to ask someone. And they were very helpful, they gave me a form and told me exactly what numbers to put where. The hard part at home was to estimate how much I will earn this summer. It’s pretty hard when you don’t have a job yet. It felt better anyway when mom told me that I can always change those numbers as soon as I get them if they are wrong. According to the preliminary calculation I did online with those numbers I will get 500kr a month! That would be so awesome!! 1300 would be better, but I’m not complaining, my life is pretty good right now anyway. Like when I woke up this morning I had a notification from my Internet Bank. I got my study financial aid!! And in two weeks I will get it again and I will be rich!!

On my way to that office Cultural Care called me and gave me specific information about what it means to be an ex-au pair at the information meetings for future au pairs. So on Feb 25th I will be attending my first meeting, mostly observing and maybe have one interview of my own. So the deal is that I will hold a presentation about my year like every third meeting (which is held once or twice per month), and afterward, interview the future au pairs. That sounds like so much fun!

Back home I had the rest of the papers I needed for the last scholarship I wanted to apply for. But then we noticed that one paper was missing anyway. So I will be able to send it in on Monday.

 

And the last big thing I did this busy day was to fill in my application to CalPoly. It’s weird that we have to send in another application when Chalmers already accepted us into the exchange program. A lot of unnecessary work. But it was fun. I added the two other people going from Chalmers and I have been talking to one of them the whole night. He apparently had talked to his counselor and had a lot of information about all the documents we need to send In and so on. So he helped me a lot. The part that took the longest time was to find courses so I had 12 credits per quarter. Some of the courses I chose in my application to Chalmers were in wrong quarters so I had to find new ones. And then that guy tells me that we can choose 4 credits per quarter (tree quarters) that has nothing to do with our area of study. So I chose German step 2 and 3 in the second and third quarter and in the first quarter I didn’t take anything special. It is so much fun to choose my own courses. And it was a bit of work choosing the right ones so they fit. But now I have a set of courses that I really will enjoy taking next year! It’s a lot of environmental and infrastructure courses which is relevant to building and civil engineering. I look forward to next year so much!! And I am glad that I’m sharing it with two other students.

I am done with my application now, except that I have to ask to my counselor if those courses are okay, but I’m sure they are.

 

Now it’s super late and I’ve been seeing double since 8pm… Tomorrow I will sleep in and then visit my old work place, the city library! And I should finish that stupid library information search course thingy. And in the evening there is a student meeting at my department at Chalmers and after a big party! I’ve missed Chalmers’ parties so much, I’m really excited. Today I went to the attic and unpacked my overall (and all my books for the course I will redo in March, so many heavy books… anyway, I will start studying before it starts so I will be prepared, I don’t have too much to do nowadays)!

34 hours of travelling

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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’m in Sweden and have been for a while now. I’ve already had time to do a little grocery shopping, a Swedish lunch with mom, a nice talk with my brother and a lot of hugging my cats. I’m starting to feel a bit crappy, I have been awake for about 48 hours with a few one-hour naps on the planes.

The trip went surprisingly fast and I can’t really complain about it. Some parts of it were pleasant and I had lots of luck. But not to confuse my readers I will write about everything in chronological order, starting what happened right after my latest blog post (in the bar at the hotel on Big Island).

I didn’t want to go to bed even if I had a long couple of days coming. So I shut down my computer and sat down on the stone wall by the rocks and the ocean. The bar had a big light out on the splashing waves. It looked really cool when it was lit up. So I sat there for a long while trying to take good pictures. I also saw fireflies! I was so excited and when one of the bartenders came up to me to talk to me I asked about it. It was just regular flies in the light of the lamp. I’ve never seen fireflies. But it was still beautiful.

Waves in the night Last night on Hawaii

I got an offer to go look at manta rays (he knew a very good spot to see them apparently) when he got off his shift 30 minutes later. I was very tempted, but I had to be boring and go to bed. It would have been cool though!

My alarm went off at 7am on Sunday morning and my trip home started at 11am. My first flight was to Honolulu and on the way there I saw whales from the plane when we were closing in on Oahu. It was cool to see from above, I could just see the splash of water, but still.

Kona AirportThe world’s smallest airport…

My second flight was to San Diego and it was nicer than the one I had to Hawaii three weeks ago. I saw the sunset from above and it was really beautiful. It was also very beautiful seeing the starry sky. We have either too many clouds or lights here in Gothenburg to be able to see the stars…

Sunset over the PacificSunrise above the Pacific Ocean.San DiegoSan Diego! I love this airport, you’re going down right next to the skyscrapers.

At the airport 9pm Lovisa picked me up and drove me home. Very nice of her! She even gave me food for the road, Rolo and Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars.  The kids came running down the stairs when I came inside. I got big hugs from everyone and since it was so late, 10pm, I had to start saying goodbye to the kids so they could go to sleep. They both were so sweet and it didn’t feel like a goodbye, just a normal goodnight. No tears shed and the girl told me that they are going to Sweden again this year in June. Maybe that’s why we didn’t cry, because we are gonna see each other so soon. And that’s not enough, I will go to San Diego in Aug/Sep to visit them also! More on that later!

I talked to my hostparents downstairs for a while about my trip, the year and how glad I was to have spent it with them. At 11pm I started to pack. It was hard, but after some reorganizing they were both close to 50lbs. I think they actually showed 50lbs on the scale but I took a risk and went to the airport like that. I spent the remaining 3 hours with Chad. I couldn’t sleep even if I tried. At 3am we left for the airport. I put on a lot of clothes, leggings, sweatpants, a tank top, t-shirt, hoodie and a big jacket. I forgot my white Converse at my hostfamily’s house so I had to travel in my workout shoes which aren’t very comfortable. But my other ones were on vacuum bags so I didn’t have much choice.

My first big worry turned into my first luck. My suitcases were 49.8 and 49.6 lbs. Haha! It took me like 15 minutes to say goodbye to Chad and I have to be honest and say that it wasn’t so hard. Like with my hostfamily I just couldn’t understand that it was happening for real. My sadness came later…

My second big worry was my carry-on and personal item. They say that the personal item should be like a laptop or purse. I had a big tote bag full of papers, computer and my purse. I was afraid that they weren’t gonna allow that, but they did! I went through security without any trouble. But then I realized that the people at the gate decides that. Crap, I had to go through that nervousness two more times?

Both my personal item and carry-on were really heavy and I was dreading to carry it around airports. But there was that thing called luck again! The flight to Chicago was so full that all of ours carry-ons wouldn’t fit. So we could check them free of charge to the final destination. Perfect!! So I only had my super heavy tote. My right arm is sore from carrying it, but it’s still better than two heavy bags.

To be honest I don’t remember anything from the San Diego-Chicago flight more than that Chicago was really beautiful with the snow, the ice covered Lake Michigan and the blue sky.

Chicago Beautiful Chicago. I missed the skyline by the lake unfortunately.Three seats

After the 2 hour layover I had the best flight ever. I had a window seat again, in the back of the plane with no one sitting next to me. So I had three seats all to myself with a screen in the chair in front of me, with a lot of new movies. I had time to see three, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Thor: The Dark World, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters. I tried to sleep some, but didn’t work very well…

The last flight was the worst. I was a little less than two hours away from home, the airplane was small and uncomfortable (but the sunrise outside above the clouds was amazing). And I was sad after realizing that I was on my way home. But when we arrived I felt a little better, it was cloudy, but light, a little snow and I got my bags right away. My mom wasn’t expecting me to come out just ten minutes after we landed so she didn’t see me when I walked up to her. It felt really good seeing her again and we hugged for a long time. Dad was stuck in traffic but came like ten minutes later. We talked for an hour and then me and mom went home.

Sunrise above Gothenburg Sunrise above Gothenburg.GothenburgGothenburg under the clouds.

On the way we stopped at Ica Maxi, I needed to buy a toothbrush and a deo. And then I bought a bag of bulk candy. Hehe!

Back home I had two gifts on my bed. A Bräutigams marzipan pig and a pair of turtle earrings. My mom definitely knows me! I had a Swedish shrimp salad sandwich and mom went to work. I talked some with my brother, apparently he wants to go to Chalmers University and asked me about the different programs. We talked about my trip, his trips and my job interview on Monday.

I tried taking a nap but couldn’t fall asleep even if I’m so tired I feel drunk. I can’t believe I’m still functioning. I’ve been away for two days with like 3 hours of sleep. Maybe I’m just excited about being at home again. I’ve been away for a long while and even if I always write how much I didn’t want to go home, of course a big part of me wanted to do it. And it feels better now that I’m here.

For dinner we had Swedish pizza and it was as delicious as I remembered. Yummy!

Okay, so here comes some big news! Six hours after I landed I got an email from my university telling me that I, with two other girls, will be sent to CalPoly this fall to study! CalPoly wanted to send three students to us, so we could send three too. I can’t believe that I found out, six hours after I landed, that I’m gonna go back to California in just six months! I don’t think my mom liked those news. She was so happy to see me, and then finds out that I’m leaving again. I mean, she was aware that it maybe would happen. But this was so sudden. I am excited and I am gonna go! It will be some work with it though. Get a new visa, get a place to stay, get money from CSN and so on. But it will fun and I will have a long winter break so I can celebrate Christmas at home. And it’s not even gonna be a whole year, just Sep-Jun.

Okay, I think I need to go to bed now. I’m getting drunker every minute… It’s a new experience being this tired. I’ve stayed up for one day before, but two. It’s not very nice… I wonder how long I could stay awake if I tried?