A mix of pics

Posted on Wednesday, January 25th 2017, 19:30 by Alexandra

Not too long again the river that runs next to our neighborhoos was very very flooded! One morning on my way to school, this beautiful sunrise took place! It took a while for Ramses to get used to the new drinking fountain, at first he was afraid of it, then he slowly started to get near it, then he drank the spillwater Cleo had played with and now he is drinking from the running water like nothing. We redid our hall, looks much nicer now. And Cleo approves! The same week as the sunrise (it might even have been the day after), we had an incredible sunset.

One day in Denmark

Posted on Monday, January 2nd 2017, 19:53 by Alexandra

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, Jesper and I did the most spontaneous trip abroad ever. We went to Denmark today and we decided it late last night. We have decided to do more stuff together this year and it has started well so far. Yesterday, even though Jesper was hungover like an egg, we went out for dinner last night and then went Pokemon hunting after spending the day on the couch watching Storks and Secret Life of Pets. It was a good day.

Also, New Years Eve was fun. We had some people over for dinner and games. And for the first time since my 24th birthday I actually had a little to drink. And I didn’t feel sick, so three 4% ciders works. Good to know. It got late, but it was a really fun evening.

So, back to today. We took the ferry at 8 am over to Fredrikshamn in northern Denmark. Three hours on a ferry actually made me a bit seasick. It was a relief to get out on the ground where we did a little bit of shopping. They had some fun home decoration shops. We drink a lot of tea, so we bought some tea, and a cute teabag plate. We also got an ice cream scoop, some small glass bottles for sand from future beaches. We then had a fika at a café which was also close to a Pokéstop and from those 40 minutes we learned that Fredrikshamn is full of electric Pokémons, weird I have to say.

We actually only stayed in Denmark for two hours, but now we get to scrape another country on our scratch map. Stena Line is by the way very cheap right now, so we barely paid anything for our tickets. What cost a little bit was the buffet on the ferry back. We had the best seats with an ocean view and it was a nice dinner.

Now we are both very tired, it has been two eventful days in this new year so far.

And here is a picture of my two cats doing this exact thing again. Ramses opens the book shelf, jumps in and Cleo is outside and very jealous.

Spontaneous book purchase

Posted on Thursday, December 8th 2016, 20:22 by Alexandra

It was not my intention to go to Science Fiction bokhandeln (Sci-fi bookstore), but I tagged a long when my boyfriend wanted to go there. I ended up buying Siri Pettersen’s book Odinsbarn, the first in the trilogy called Ravneringene. It was originally written in Norwegian in 2013 and has a pretty high rating on Goodreads. I have also heard a lot of good words from people and reviews, so I am really excited to read it soon.

Other than that, my life is a mess right now. The end of the quarter is coming up and I really feel like I am done with school now. I have been enrolled at Chalmers since 2010. I am ready to move on. It just feels rotten that I don’t enjoy the end of my last two classes ever because both of them are group projects. One is going fine and we are on schedule. The other one though, the really fun one is not going so well. We have to send it in on Wednesday and we are not close to done. I am done with my part, so next step is to put our four different files together and create the space between the houses, and make the presentation for Thursday. We don’t really have time and I feel stressed. The project is to create a neighborhood in Revit, a 3D CAD program. It is really fun and I have learned a lot. But it is sad that my experience in this class falls on other people. It is also sad that I had limited time so I couldn’t do everything the way I wanted. Much of this took so long, and I would have loved to make it better. I might continue to make it better after it is done.

This is what my part for the project looks like. This is not a rendered picture so the materials aren’t really visible. Maybe I will do one of those tomorrow and post it. The ground was almost black today for some reason, maybe it was some setting on that specific computer, I don’t know.

I haven’t posted any pictures of my cats lately, so here’s two cute ones!

And I finish this post with a picture from work last weekend. Liseberg might not be as fun as it was before, but it sure is pretty!

Spontanious 1-year anniversary

Posted on Wednesday, June 29th 2016, 23:26 by Alexandra

I can’t believe it has already been a full whole year with Jesper. It has been the best year ever, full of adventures and love. I am a little bit sad that we couldn’t really celebrate yesterday. He was working 8-17 and I was working 16-23:30 so we didn’t see each other at all yesterday except when going to bed. But, we have decided to celebrate in a big way next week instead. So yesterday we spontaneously booked a last minute trip to Rhodes, Greece. I have been there many times when I was younger and I am so excited to go back there with the love of my life! And we are not just gonna stay at a normal hotel, it is a five star hotel and we are staying in a suite which is as big as our apartment, it has an ocean view and a Jacuzzi hot tub. It is located in Ixia on the west coast which is not preferably, but with a car it will be easy to reach the amazing beaches on the east coast.

There is one problem though, and that is that I left work early today because I feel sick. I have gotten a really nasty cold. I will stay at home tomorrow as well and hope that I will get better, no fun going on a trip with a cold. My colds usually don’t last long, so I am sure it will be fine.

Work is going really well, I feel really comfortable being the head operator at Helix. It is also very nice to sit down and rest my legs and feet for a bit. It is so nice to have something new to do, work is fun again.

Now I am almost delirious, so I will go to bed now and continue to read the latest and last book in the “I am Number Four” series. 15 companion books and 7 full books to an end. I always get a little bit sad when a series is over. I am also almost done with the whole “A Series of Unfortunate Events”. 13 books is a lot, but it is really really good, especially the last ones. I have finished 9 so far.

This is me when driving trains! 😀 Lately, Cleo has been taken every opportunity to jump up on my back, which results in lots and lots of scratch marks on my neck and shoulders and back.Cleo was the cuddliest cat ever today, and he LOVES tummy rubs. He never starts biting when he gets it.

Promotion, surgery, and lots of other things

Posted on Friday, June 10th 2016, 0:03 by Alexandra

I honestly want to write more often, but I have been so busy. My first year as a master student at Chalmers is done, and I think I passed everything. The last two grades haven’t been registered yet, but I have a good feeling about it. The last assignment we did in International Projects was really interesting. We acted as consultants for a company who wanted to build a pharmaceutical plant in Uganda, so we did a full analysis of the process and I would love to do that as a living in the future if I am lucky enough.

And speaking of school, I have decided to stay at home in Sweden this fall. I have done the whole studying abroad thing, and I really feel like being home this fall will be nice and easier. It just feels more right to stay at home.

Another big thing that happened was that I got promoted at work. A few weeks ago I got the surprising news that I will be an operator at Helix, which means that I won’t just check the restraints, I will actually be the one in charge of the whole attraction. Lots of responsibility, but I am so excited! The training for the position will start on Monday and I will be done on Midsummer Eve. This does not only mean that I will get a much higher salary, but I will be stuck on the Mountain and not be in the pool anymore. I won’t be at the Balderado area where I am stuck with two attractions. This whole spring I have been mostly there and have actually gotten pretty badly injured because of the monotone work I did there. My hip and knee is all broken. According to my new schedule I will be in the pool this fall again, but hopefully they will fix it so I am only on the Mountain then too.

The only other Liseberg-related thing I can think about, is that one day last week when I was heading down to lunch, a pigeon flew into my face, that was kind of weird.

And speaking of other jobs, today I got two more! First today I tried to work in an Yves Rocher store downtown. They thought I did a good job and I will start working there as soon as I have time and they need me, yay! Right after that I was at an interview for a company where students act as substitutes in schools on different levels. I got that job directly after the interview was done. That will be so exciting! But since school is done for this academic year, I will start in August with that.

Hmm, anything else? Oh right! I recently did a new PAP-test, which I do every three months since the cell changes won’t go away. And they still haven’t. So now they have decided that it has taken long enough time that it is time to remove it. I got an appointment for surgery next Friday. I am a little nervous, but not too much, I am sure it will be fine. I am glad they are finally going to do something about it and hope it will go away for good.

Everything is also fine with Cleo and Ramses. We made some big changes around here about three weeks ago and Cleo seems to be feeling a lot better now and hasn’t peed in the bed since then. Every morning, Ramses is so cuddly and sleeps by our faces, and some mornings Cleo does it too. He is still scared and doesn’t like to be hold when he doesn’t want to. But I love them both.

Now I should probably go to bed, I have a 10 hour day at Liseberg tomorrow. Here are some random pictures from the last month:

Ramses got neutered but couldn’t stop licking himself, so he had this cone on for a few days. It was not super nice waking up early in the morning when he wanted to cuddle and we got that big thing up in our faces, haha. I played a tournament in the beginning of May with Miriam, and we actually came in third in the B-finals. Not bad at all 😀 My oldest cousin graduated high school last week and in two weeks she is moving to USA to be an au pair. She will have an awesome year. Västtrafik has out in new signs in the trams to thank everyone from different backgrounds that go together on the public transit, and this sign shows a man holding his phone. I thought it was funny. Cleo wanted to come with me to school. Ramses as well. This is Cleo every time I take a shower. He literally uses his paw to withdraw the curtain to make sure that I am still alive, haha!

Northumbria or Chalmers?

Posted on Thursday, April 21st 2016, 0:14 by Alexandra

When I applied for this master program late last summer I didn’t expect to get in, the name of the program sounded interesting, it could be a good back-up plan if I didn’t get a job, which I didn’t. So it turned out great. I had no idea what it meant to pursue an MSc degree, and even less what International Project Management meant. It basically means that I prolonged getting a job with two years and being part of a class of around 40 people where a big majority of them are foreigners. It also means that, to get international experience, one semester abroad at another university is an option. That semester is coming up and I have no idea what to do. I know from experience that writing it down can help, and also some help from my few readers perhaps? The university abroad is called Northumbria and is located in Newcastle, England and I would spend 3 months there (mid-September to mid-December).

Here are the pros and cons I can think of at this moment.

NORTHUMBRIA
+ If I go and then do my master thesis on my own I will get 2 MSc degrees.
+ I will get more experience
+ It will hopefully be fun (I have heard that there are lots of drinking going on there and since I don’t drink I am afraid that I will feel left out).
+ It is only 3 months away from home.
+ Jesper and I can scratch more countries on our Scratch Map if he comes and visit me (England is close to Sweden and it is rather cheap to fly there).
– I have signed a contract for Liseberg until mid-October.
– It will be expensive and I would have to take extra student loans.
– I will be away from Jesper for 3 months.
– I will be away from Cleo for 3 months (I am pretty much the only one he really likes).
– I won’t be able to play any beach volleyball (and just as I was getting started with it again…).
– The courses don’t seem too interesting and I can’t change them:
Research skills and methods of inquiry
Project, Programme and Portfolio Management
Risk and Value Management
Project Sustainability

CHALMERS
+ I can transfer the German credits I got at Cal Poly so I can study 50%, work more and make more money.
+ I can choose whatever classes I want to. And I can choose to take either 2 or 4 depending on if I want to transfer the German credits:
Urban Metabolism
Managing Stakeholders for Sustainable Development
Project, Simulation and Modeling in Urban Planning
Quality Management
Environmental Impact Assessment
+ I can start early on my master thesis if I want to.
+ I can save money.
+ I don’t have to quit my job at Liseberg.
+ I don’t have to be away from Jesper nor Cleo.
+ I can play lots of beach volleyball.
– I will only get 1 MSc degree.
– No abroad experience.

I have already figured out where I want to live if I go, so that’s not a stress element. I made a brief budget and with the extra student loan, after both rent back home and in Newcastle, I will have about 6500 SEK per month to spend on food, cell phone and stuff. And that is without the money I will be able to save after working at Liseberg all summer.

It would be so nice to continue my good life here at home and only study 50% this fall and take it a little chill. But at the same time, 2 master degrees and a semester abroad sounds like fun. I don’t know what to do. Last day I have to decide is June 1^st, so I have a little more time. But before May 10^th, I have to pick classes for Chalmers for the fall and I have to apply for university housing in Newcastle as soon as possible… Decisions.

And here are some random pictures:

Jesper’s new baby sister Joeli. Such a cutie! She didn’t make a sound during the whole time we visited. And Benji, the proud big brother couldn’t let go of Youtube. Family birthday party, Ramses is of course in the middle of it all. Having two cats means always being observed. Cleo and Ramses had a party when Jesper accidently spilled food. Ramses sleeping in the sink. My new background on my phone.

Desert Safari and kitten

Posted on Sunday, January 24th 2016, 2:15 by Alexandra

Our last day in Dubai was amazing and was over so fast. We started the day at Kite Beach. It was a beautiful and warm day, we spent some time in the water and it was just awesome! We got back to the hotel at 1pm and we actually had time to take a taxi to Deira City Center and crossed our fingers that that Max hadn’t closed down as well. And it hadn’t. We ordered a normal Frisco meal with fries. They said they had Crispy Fries but it was not the same as in Sweden. The Burger wasn’t the same either. But it was still worth it.

We got back to the hotel and had time to pack everything before we got picked up for the desert safari. A humongous Toyota Land Cruiser. It was the two of us and another Indian family of four. The first stop was at a Dune Buggy place, it wasn’t included in the package and none of us went. Then we went straight out in the desert, the road just ended and there were so many cars! We all went in a long line and it was a bumpy ride. I guess I should have known, but I was surprised at how bumpy it was, I felt sick. We then stopped for some pictures in the desert, the sun was setting and it was beautiful. It was windy and we had sand everywhere, but it was nice. We then took normal roads (and at the end in the dunes) to reach a camp that was set up in the desert. It looked like a small small circular city where there were small stalls where we could pick up starters, coffe, tea, sodas and then later a buffet table. The food was okay and I guess the closest to the Arabian culture. We sat on pillows on the ground and in the middle of the whole camp was a stage where people danced. Right outside of the camp there were two camels that we could ride as well. That was scary, especially when it rose and lied down.

We got back to the hotel at around 9:30 pm and the taxi came and picked us up at 11pm to go to the airport. The flight would take off at 2 am, but it was delayed and we didn’t take off until 3am. And also because of winds the plane had to take a detour over Poland and make a landing to refuel. And that meant that we lost a lot of time and therefore missed our connection flight in Stockholm. We landed when it took off at 8:30am. The next Norwegian flight that we didn’t have to pay anything for was at 5:45 pm. We could book with SAS, but that would have been expensive, so we stayed at the airport the whole day instead of being home with Cleo and chilling. In total we stayed up for 40 hours with a few hours of bad sleep in the plane from Dubai to Stockholm. It was brutal. I am still tired, even if I got a good amount of sleep last night. I guess it can also be because I spent two hours this morning playing beach volleyball. We were only 4 people there so it was a lot of practice time. I was dead afterward.

I am still not 100% recovered, but I have a full day of just doing nothing at home tomorrow which is good, but then on Monday, school starts again.

Today was a big day. After practice I met up with Jesper downtown and we picked up the scratch map we left for framing before we left, we then bought a frame for the pictures we bought in Dubai, and our last stop was Webhallen where I bought a new eReader. My old one was drenched when my water bottle leaked last Thursday on my way to practice. Too bad, that was a good eReader and they are not sold anymore. So instead of a Sony, I now have a Kobo Glo HD which has light in the screen which is a huge plus! It actually seems like a really cool eReader and much more complex than my old one. I think I will like it.

And then we made an even bigger purchase, we got Cleo a Friend! He looks almost exactly like her, but he is fluffier and a boy and 1.5 months younger. He is adorable, and didn’t complain at all when we drove him home. He was curious and then fell asleep. When we got home Cleo was super curious about this new little guy. But she is very rough with him, playing all the time, refusing to leave him alone and he is much smaller than she and can’t defend himself. I guess she is making sure that he knows that she is in charge here, but she is kinda overdoing it. I know that she is very playful, but I hope she will calm down and not be so rough with him, he is just a baby! But I guess in a month or so he will be as big and will be able to hit her back. They have slept together twice, but as soon as nap time is over they are fighting again. I really hope this will calm down soon and that Cleo won’t hate us because we brought a smaller cat here. All of last week she was with mom and her two cats and apparently she was all over them there. She would never leave the two oldies alone so we thought a friend for her at home would be nice too. But I don’t think she realizes that the cat she played with most at mom’s was 8kg, while she was only 1.7kg and this new one can’t be more than 1.2kg. We will let the small one sleep with us tonight with a closed door and Cleo on her climbing tree and hope she will behave better tomorrow.

We don’t have a name yet, so if you have any suggestions for a fluffy red boy, let me know.

It is so beautiful in Gothenburg right now! It is kinda sad that we missed this last week when it was this much snow. Unfortunately tomorrow it will be above freezing and therefore everything will melt… On our way to Orust through Winter Wonderland to get our new family member. And here he is! At first she followed him around like an extra tail. And then she started to get rough and play with him. One nap was okay and they were like siblings lying there. And then there was some more fighting… And another nap, closer this time! And then some more fighting.And lastly before they went their seperate ways to sleep in different locations, Cleo washed him. Cute! I think this will work out, we just have to give them time (especially for him to grow more).

Wedding, new apartment, Cleo and so on

Posted on Thursday, December 17th 2015, 22:27 by Alexandra

I think it is easier for me to just post pictures from the last month and let them talk for me. I don’t know why I don’t feel the urge to write anymore, it is kind of a bummer, but here is a small update since last I wrote. Many things have happend, for example we moved to a bigger apartment, we went to a wedding, we got a cat, I have worked at Christmas at Liseberg, there was snow one evening, we went to see the final Hunger Games movie, we watched all Star Wars movies to prepare for Episode 7 which we will see in four days, I was at Sofia’s kid’s namegiving ceremony, and I have drowned in school work. That is some of the things that happened. And also, we spontaneously booked a one week long trip to Dubai in January after my finals! We both really need it, me after a hectic semester in grad school and he needs to take some time off from his security guard job. This is surprising. How can One DIrection be the band I listened to most this year?? I don’t understand! Fall Out Boy is more suprising now that I think about it… 42 thousand minutes of listening to music this year. Chip. Stuff. Jesper and I before his dad’s wedding. Jesper’s dad and his new wife Roxanna.Jesper’s super adorable baby brother with a vest and a tie. Roxanna is half Iranian so there was a traditional Iranian wedding ceremony after the church. New shoes that can handle the Swedish winter (=rain and sometimes slippery ice). On the 8th of December we left this apartment that has been mine since the summer of 2011. Christmas at Liseberg is pretty with the fake snow and all the lights. But it is cold to work outside in the just-above-freezing weather. I got rid of a lot of work shifts to focus on school which was needed. So far I have two courses done, and I got a 4 out of 5 in both of them. Not too bad. But I have to admit that grad school is much harder than undergrad. I am so stressed and with tough classes this quarter, work, and the move, it has not been an easy month. Now I have only one more report to submit in 4 days. I should be able to finish it tomorrow so I can go up to my cousins on Saturday to celebrate Christmas and work on Sunday and Monday.

The move and this little cute furball. Her name is Cleopatra, but we call her Cleo. She is the sweetest, cuddliest, kitten ever (I think it has been too long since Chip and Stuff were kittens so I don’t remember correctly, but this one is more energetic and cuddly at the same time). She was born on September 7th this year and we drove out to Trollhättan the day we moved in to our new apartment to pick her up. The first few days she was extremely talkative, we are guessing since she was insecure and felt scared, because now she doesn’t talk at all almost. We noticed right away that something wasn’t right with our new little family member so three days after we got her we brought her to the vet for vaccination and to chip-mark her. It turned out that she has scabies in her ears (really bad), and since none of our cats had it before. We noticed that her ears were black, but didn’t think too much about it. So twice a day until her next vaccination on January 8th, we have to clean her ears. I feel like it was really bad of the previous owner to sell us a cat with scabies, but we have loved her from the moment we picked her up and gladly help her get better. She acts normal though, runs around like a normal kitten should, and according to the vet she is perfectly healthy, except for the scabies. It already is a lot better and I hope it will all go away soon so Cleo won’t hate us every morning and evening when we thoroughly clean her ears while firmly holding her, she is not a big fan of that. In the evenings (when we let her if she is not too annoying and playful) she sleeps between us, it is super cozy! Eventually we will probably get her a friend and a big climbing tree (our living room is huge, I will post pictures next time I update my blog so you will see our nice apartment. However, we are gonna replace a lot of furniture eventually).

This is what the living room looked like before we put everything to where it should be. Coziest cat and boyfriend ever! She loves to climb and my back is all scratched up because of it, haha! Four days ago I went up to Trollhättan again to go to my second cousin’s baby’s namegiving ceremony. Lots of cookies and cakes were offered and the cute baby finally officially got his name, Ville. Waking up like this is not too bad! Cleo playing with our tiny Christmas tree. Cat selfie! The Christmas gift I got from Liseberg, 1.6kg of expensive Chocolate. She loves to walk around on the keyboard, annoying when I am trying to study. We have a washing machine and dryer in our apartment which is the best ever! Cleo enjoyed it too, cutie! Last night we were baking Christmas sweets. Lussekatter, Mozartkulor and Knäck. The knäck didn’t turn out firm enough, but it was still very good! Lussekatter!!Studying when she is sleeping in the lap is not too bad.