Tag Archives: Halloween

Halloween at Liseberg

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I can’t even remember the last time I updated this. But living my normal life here in Sweden doesn’t really seem read-worthy. But on the other hand, some things have been happening lately that might want to be good enough to post here.

First of all, a week ago the first ever  Halloween at Liseberg ended and I was part of it the whole week. We had exam week that week and since we barely have any exams in this program I chose to accept the schedule I applied for before I got accepted to this program. I ended up quitting early a few days and taking one day off to finish a big paper of 5000 words on project management, but worked all the other days. It was fun and I really enjoyed it. It was more exhausting than a normal summer week. Acting was actually a little part of it when we were working on AtmosFear – The Experiment. It was too bad the story behind the Experiment didn’t reach out to the guests. Doctor Volt is a “mad scientist” who wants to create a superhuman. To run her experiment, Atmosfear provides the electricity needed when it falls down and the adrenaline the people get from going on the ride will help them survive when Doctor Volt saw them apart. No one understood this story and therefore didn’t want to go on the ride (the Experiment was after the ride) and that made things very complicated for us. It was chaotic but I hoped the supervisors learned something from it and will give us a routine for next year. It was tough working without one when it is normally very strict with routines.

It was a fun week, the weather was good, and Liseberg got 200,000 guests during that week compared to the 80,000 they had counted on. The haunted house tickets sold out every day, and yes, it was full in the park. Very pretty decorated also.

 

So, my first quarter at Chalmers (again) is over and I would have to say that I did pretty good even when I missed the first 3 weeks out of the 8. Project Psychology was an interesting class. I haven’t gotten a grade on my 5-page paper about cross-cultural business behavior yet, but I hope it will be a pass at least. The second class was harder, Project Management. We wrote a 5000-word academic essay. I had troubles with that one. First of all, 5000 words is a lot (half of my whole bachelor thesis)! And I had to do more research than everyone else since I wasn’t there for the first three weeks of lectures.  The week it was gonna be handed in, I was working full time and the week before, when I had planned to finish it, I was sick and could barely get out of bed for five days. I was stressed, but I handed it in on time and in a week we will get the grades for it. I am nervous.

This quarter is not that interesting, we are taking one class called Financial and Management Accounting and the other one is called Organizational Project Management. We have a lot of papers to write in OPM and one exam and a couple of workshops in FMA. It will be a busy quarter, but there are fun things to look forward to as well. For example Jesper’s dad’s wedding on November 28th and our move to the new apartment in Kvillebäcken on December 28th. This weekend we went shopping for the wedding, Jesper spent almost 5000 SEK on a suit and I bought two dresses and a blazer for 3000. The dress I am gonna wear at the wedding is gorgeous, the other one I will probably wear on Christmas or New Years or some other time, it was just too pretty to not buy it.

What else has happened? Not much I think.

Kitten at my second cousin's Jesper and I went up to Sofia and said hello to her baby. I think the kittens craved attention because the baby stole all of it. This one was adorable!Halloween pumpkins 2015 Mine and Jesper’s pumpkins.Liseberg The dismantling of three of the attractions at Liseberg.Babysitting We were babysitting Jesper’s adorable 13 month old brother for an evening and overnight.Liseberg We had perfect Halloween weather on October 31. Foggy and colorful. We had a very pretty fall this year!Chalmers tunnel Oh right, this was a big thing that happened recently. The tram broke down in the middle of the tunnel on the way to Chalmers. We were let out and had to walk through the rest of the tunnel. It was very very cool!Christmas food Last Thursday (four days after Halloween was over) I was back at Liseberg to signmy contract for Christmas at Liseberg which opens on November 20th. My first schedule I got before Halloween only had five days on it, my new schedule last Thursday had 10 days, and today I got a new version with 12 days. I need all the extra money I can get. I will try to be smart about my studies this quarter (I have said that every quarter in school so far, bt maybe this time it will happen?) so I won’t be stressed out of my mind.LisebergLiseberg is kinda scary witouth any guests…

Soccer: Cal Poly vs. UCSB

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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.

How did November get here so fast?? I’ve been here for almost 2 months now, but it really doesn’t feel like it. So weird. I don’t like it. It has been pretty fall-y the past two days. It’s been cold and I’ve worn jeans and a sweater even during the day. I hope it will get warmer soon again.

Today’s big thing was the soccer game and before that I didn’t do anything else than waking up at noon and then going grocery shopping with Kelsey. My sinuses has been congested today as well, but I bought ClearQuil, pills that will help sinus & congestion. I hope it works, I don’t wanna get sick again.

So going to a big soccer game, the biggest of the year actually (they say that Cal Poly and UCSB has the biggest sports rivalry within college), was probably not the best idea ever. But I didn’t scream and I do feel okay. I feel a bit feverish to be honest, but I hope that will be gone tomorrow. I am off, but I really need to finish my paper and start on my Transportation Engineering homework.

Anyway, the game was fun, except that the level of the game was pretty low. The arena was filled to the limit and everyone was super into the game so it was definitely a fun experience. For some stupid reason I forgot to put on my Cal Poly hoodie and went to the game in my new knitted sweater instead. Stupid. But it is warmer so it was nice. A lot of people meant that we stood like packed herring so it wasn’t too cold. We lost by 2-0 and we missed a penalty shot.

Alex G Spanos Stadium

I am gonna try and go to a lot of Cal Poly games. Not many within each sport, but at least one in each. There are a lot of sports, but the ones I want to go to are women’s volleyball, men’s baseball and basketball. I just love the school spirit everyone here has. So different from Sweden.

Goodbye pumpkinsBefore I went grocery shopping with Kelsey we brought our pumpkins to the top of the parking structure and kicked them off the ledge. That was so much fun, haha!Cauliflower-spinach-feta-cod casseroleI also cooked tonight again, cauliflower/spinach/feta/cod casserole. I made the mistake of putting cod in there so it got very runny. But it was still very good and Toby enjoyed a homecooked meal for once. He will pay me back by cooking for me.

Halloween 2014

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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.

Well, this evening did not turn out as I was hoping. I have to say that I am pretty disappointed. For the first time in like 200 days the rain finally came and that made everyone crazy. First, everyone hated it and didn’t wanna go out in the “freezing cold”. So after like one and a half hour of discussing how we were gonna go downtown (which was after a long discussion on whether we were going to a house party first, but then decided no because we had heard rumors that they were full) and we finally found a ride, the three girls I was with decided to skip the whole thing. That’s when my party mode totally disappeared so I just went to my room, wrote a little on my field trip thinking paper for Sustainable Environments. Then I started thinking about the Caribbean and started researching what to do there. I have a nice list now. So many beautiful beaches, and I’ve found many tours that sound nice. But I’ve decided that I will need a car most of the days on Puerto Rico. I might skip the car the last two days if I take tours on those. I will start looking into Jamaica now, unless I fall asleep, I am kinda tired. These lists will be updated, but it feels good to have something already. I am still very very excited about this. For example, google Flamenco Beach, Puerto Rico. I am totally going there!

So, Halloween didn’t turn out what I was hoping, but I think we are a bunch going out tomorrow, so I guess I can use my $50 costume then.

The day in general was pretty okay. I finally sent those two packages, it was a bit annoying since I had to go downtown to do it. And it was even more annoying that I got an email when I got home telling me that I got a thing that should have been in one of the packages I just sent to my brother. Stupid!

I started writing the paper in the afternoon and I made a spinach/mushroom omelet which turned out really well. The only thing missing was the feta cheese. Next time!

Halloween 2014, viking The British boysThe two British boys living a floor above us. Adorable!

Pumpkin carving

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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 didn’t get much sleep last night. I hate Wednesday evenings, I get out of class at 10 pm and I have to get up early so I am in class at 7:40am the next morning. It sucks! But tomorrow I don’t have to get up until 10:30am, yay!

After my first two classes today I went to the bike guy and traded my bike (and a 6-pack of Corona as a processing fee) for a new one. It is way nicer, the breaks works and the tires are wider so it’s more stable to ride. Love it!

New bike

On my break today I painted my nails and watched the latest episode of The 100. Love that show!

In the lab we handed in our latest lab report and got a long introduction for our next lab which is a four class project about AutoCAD Civil 3D. We are gonna design a road in the coastline mountains north from here. That will be fun. It s a 30 point lab. Normally they are 10, so this is big.

I went to Target with Kelsey to buy LED candles for our pumpkins. And when we got home we started carving them. We were a few people sitting on the floor on the third floor carving. This year I made a similar design as the one I did last year. But instead of a howling wolf, I made a cat. The problem was that I carved out the whole moon before I realized that I shouldn’t have done that. I got really upset, but went to my room instead, picked up the tape I bought yesterday (that was lucky) and taped the whole piece back onto the pumpkin and started over on the other side. It turned out pretty.

Pumpkin Carving in PCV Gypsum 3rd floorToby, Rachel, me, Cody, Ryan, Margarita and Lauren. (Ryan’s pic) Pumpkin 2014The five steps to the end result. First an ugly design which now looks like a mutilated Mew Pokémon, then the taped pumpkin, the new cat design, the carved cat and the cat pumpkin in action. It’s funny when the cute cat is facing out, and Mew is visible from inside our living room/kitchen, haha.

After that the same people hung out in our apartment, eating ice cream and brownies. A very nice evening, many many laughs with Ryan’s weird horse head (those are very creepy, but very funny) and Kelsey’s funny video when she brushed the horse’s teeth. Hilarious!

Hanging out in our apartment

Our pumpkins are decorating our living room window and tomorrow’s Halloween! I am so excited!

Internet again

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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.

That only took a few days. Boring days. But early-to-bed-days.

Yesterday I was at the library for most part of the day studying. Doing homework in Transportation Engineering. It took 4 hours to do 6 out of 8 problems, and another two hours of trying with the last two in the evening. It didn’t work. So I will go to office hours with our professor on Monday morning and ask for some help. I guess most students might go. We had two problems which we haven’t even talked about in class.

At 8pm I went to salsa lesson with Johanna. My roommates dissed me because they wanted to go to the social salsa dance tonight, but they ended up not going. I had fun last night. I was so much better than the first time.

I went home and spent the rest of the evening talking to people. Everyone was at the toga party, I wasn’t in a party mood so I just waited until everyone got back and didn’t go to bed until 3am for some reason.

This morning I went to Pismo Beach with Johanna and the Cal Poly beach volleybal club. It was very very foggy this morning but the sun came out eventually as it always does. I couldn’t play as much as I wanted though. I pulled a muscle in my upper but and I couldn’t stretch it out. It still hurts, even if I’ve been on a foam roll a lot this evening. I should probably do some more before I go to bed (which I should have done a long time ago).

Pismo BeachBeautiful Pismo Beach! New bikiniMy new bikini (Victoria’s Secret) is beach volleyball friendly. A little more athletic than my other ones. The neon color makes my tan look nice. Retrieving a flip flopWhen we were getting to the car I dropped one of my flip flops down the rocky side down to the beach. It stopped in the middle, so first I tried throwing rocks at it to make it slide dow to the bottom. Then I decided to walk down there (walk all the way to the staircase and then back on the beach) to try to reach it from down there. It took me like 30 minutes to finally get it. Stupid flip flop…

When we had had a cinnamon roll at Old West Cinnamon Rolls we drove to Avila Valley Barn where there was a pumpkin patch. All the holidays are big here in the States (I’m sure I wrote the exact same thing last year) and a pumpkin patch is where you buy your pumpkins and do stuff like ride horses, feed fat goats, buy locally grown fruits and vegetables, go on hayrides, and buy corn on the cob and stuff like that. It was a fun event and I am going back next weekend with my roommates. We are gonna by pumpkins and carve and put in our windows for everyone outside to see. I so look forward to that. Today we went there with the international students. I only saw a few though.

Avila Valley Barn Pumpkin Patch Avila Valley Barn Pumpkin Patch Avila Valley Barn Pumpkin Patch Avila Valley Barn Pumpkin PatchI got three small pumpkins to have as decorations in our apartment. They are soo cute. The big ones are being bought next weekend. I also bought a lot of fruit. It felt good buying something from a farmer’s market. I do buy a lot of organic food here, but it still felt more special.

When I got home I did my Sustainable Environments homework. And that was a fun homework actually. By taking a test (you can take it HERE) I found my ecological footprint and wrote a 1-page paper about it. I took the test twice, once for my life in Sweden and one for my life here in SLO. If everyone in the world lived like me we would need 1.44 Earths (Sweden and 4.09 (USA). I compared and retook it again to see if some changes made big differences. Very very interesting.

Kelsey baked banana bread tonight and I’ve been trying to figure out what to wear on Halloween. It is not easy. And I feel like it has to be something good since holidays are big here. I have four options so far. What do you think?

Halloween 2014Minion from Despicable Me, Viking, Penguin or a Zombie Fairy? Or something else?

I also got to see the car I probably will buy in December. It is a small convertible and it works perfectly. I so look forward to buying my first car!! And it will be a VW convertible! An international student bought it the other day, but he is only staying this one quarter so I will buy it together with Johanna to use for the next two quarters. I am so excited! And about the driver license. I called the DMV office in Sacramento and they told me I didn’t need to retake the tests. I just have to show up with all my legal papers, take a new photo and wait for the plastic card. I am so happy! Everything works out in the end, like is has for the past year. Life is good.

Volkswagen Cabrio 1999

I really need to go to bed now. I am planning on going up at 8am to study before going to the beach around noon. (And I don’t have any trouble going in and out of bed anymore. I was extremely sore yesterday (3 days after TRX) but now it’s better. I played some beach volleyball at the PCV court Thursday late evening and that removed the last of the soreness. Too many people there though so it wasn’t fun. Next time I will exlusively invite only three people to play seriously with. I look forward to a new week of exercise starting on Monday, for real this time, I will take it even easier this time.)