Tag Archives: Liseberg

Last day of Gothia Cup

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The world’s biggest soccer tournament for kids is finally over. This week means that the whole town is being invaded by people from all over the world, all of the tram’s are always full, they smell of sweat and they all get a super cheap bracelet to Liseberg that is valid for the whole week. That means that everyone is at Liseberg as soon as they don’t play any games. That means a lot to do for us who work there. It hasn’t been too bad actually, but once in a while there is half a team who wants to go on a ride without tickets or bracelets and doesn’t understand English. Or the scenario where another half of a team wants to sit next to each other one a ride… I survived and I even survived an intro and education at Helix, the busiest attraction by far at Liseberg.

So, today was the last day those special Gothia Cup bracelets were valid, but that doesn’t mean Liseberg won’t be as busy. These next couple of weeks are vacation weeks for most of Sweden, and that means that everyone is going to Gothenburg and Liseberg. I wonder if that will be worse or better than Gothia Cup? If there is something that’s actually been better this past week compared to normal weeks, is that people are too afraid of asking if they can wait for the next ride for example on AtmosFear because they want to sit next to each other. It is like they know that that isn’t something they can ask for. That that is just the way it is, we have a certain amount of seats and those need to be filled every time. I am so thankful for that!

My day started like yesterday; break on Helix. But today I had Helix for an hour and I could be a part of reopening it after about 35 minutes of telling people that it was closed. I learned how to do that which was good since I am not an approved attraction driver there yet. I did have my check-up today though, which means I will be ready for the test tomorrow. Yay! When that is done I will have 8 attractions in total at Liseberg.

When I came home from work at about 9pm I didn’t wait long until I started Guild Wars 2. Time flew away, it’s already 0:30 am and I should probably go to bed. I have a long day tomorrow. First 8 hours at work and then prepartying. Liseberg arranges every other Sunday something called a Rabbit Party at a nightclub in Gothenburg. I’ve never went, I enjoy the preparties more. And I work pretty early the day after, so I will hardly even drink tomorrow and just hang out for a while. Even if we work together at Liseberg, we don’t have time to hangout there, so we need these parties. We should do more stuff though, not just the Rabbit Parties.

Morotskort

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Today something very fun happened at work. Some guests get a special card, called a Morotskort (en=Carrot card) when they arrive in the park. They are supposed to give them to Liseberg workers who’ve done something extra and I got one of those today!! More than smiling and being nice to people I didn’t do anything special. It was on AtmosFear where a little girl was too afraid of going, so I let her out by opening all the safety restraints and telling everyone in the microphone that I just opened them but they needn’t worry because I knew what I was doing. I then started checking my half again and after a few guests there was a guy with one of his hands in his pocket and suspicious as I am I asked him what he had in his pocket (it is not allowed to have any loose objects during the ride so we try to prevent that before we start by taking everything and putting them in the baskets by the walls). He just smiled back at me and pulled out one of those cards and told me it was for me. I thanked him a lot and I was in a very good mood the rest of the evening. I don’t know if he was flirting with me, saw what I did to the little girl, enjoyed what I said in the mic or if he were about to leave the park and just wanted to give it to someone (which he didn’t because he came back on the ride). It was very nice anyway, and when you get one of those cards you get a Trisslott (you scratch it and have a chance of winning money). I hope I will win a million!

My day started with 30 minutes at Helix and like another day a week ago, it was on break. That meant that I stood for 30 minutes by the entrance telling people that we had some technical issues. Last week I had a whole hour at Uppswinget. Nice to start the day that way! And it was nice speaking English again. I haven’t done it almost at all these past two weeks, since Chad left for Minnesota. I missed it. On Tuesday he will be back though and I will have someone to talk to daily again.

A stupid thing that happened on AtmosFear today, before I got the carrot card, a guy in the seat started smoking!! I was about to go to the other side and check the restraints and I just saw a big cloud there. I walked up to him and asked him what he was doing and told him to put it out right now! He told me he wanted to throw it off the top of the attraction. Asshole! I took his lighter, I probably should have taken the pack of cigarettes instead, and also his friends lighter. I really really hope they didn’t have a third lighter and smoked up there anyway. What does some people think with?? It is not allowed to smoke in the park, why should it be okay to smoke on an attraction??

That was pretty much my whole day. Now I will go to bed and prepare for another long day tomorrow. But I do get off at 8pm already so I will have some time to do something instead of just going home and going to bed. I look forward to Tuesday (my Saturday).

Double vs single room?

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A few days ago I got a question from CalPoly housing if I would be interested in saving $1500 (or maybe it was more?) by changing my single room to a double room. It said I might be interested and today I got a reply that I need to answer before July 20th if I want to accept the change. Pros and cons with everything.

Pros:

  • I will save a lot of money
  • I will really try out the whole American student lifestyle
  • I might get a friend for life

Cons:

  • No privacy
  • What if the girl is a bitch?
  • Bunkbeds

Opinions anyone? It’s a lot of money, but I also like privacy, but at the same time it would be fun to try see what it’s like to have a roomie…

 

Still tons of people at Liseberg and it is exhausting. Even if I slept for almost 10 hours last night and woke up by myself at 9:30am, well rested and everything, I’ve been so tired today! Mostly Swedish people, but almost all of them wore the Gothia Cup bracelet. I think I saw 10 people in total with Guldpass. Gothenburg people are smart and staying away from Liseberg this week.

I’ve gotten the second introduction to Helix, the one which covers evacuations. It wasn’t that complicated. And after that I had my very first hour covering my own position at Helix. That was nervous, but I did well. And now it feels like I’ve been there for a while. It doesn’t take much time to get used to a new attraction. I can already feel it in my body though. So many complain about the ergonomics of checking those restraints. I am trying my best to do it correctly, but it is hard to avoid getting muscle soreness from doing something I’m not used to. The underside of my arms are so sore!! I hope this will go away soon.

I closed Uppswinget today and normally there aren’t many people at all at the end so they can go on the ride several times in a row. But today, there was a big line up until the very end! So I had to tell people that we were just about to start the last ride and they had to go away. That’s a first!

Time to go to bed and sleep in my own bed now. Goodnight folks!

Helix

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The day has finally come when I got an introduction to Helix, the new big rollercoaster at Liseberg. I’ve been waiting for this day from my second week at work which was more than a month ago now. It’s not just that I want o work on that awesome attraction, but now I will be a bigger part of this group of people who work on Berget. I am now one of those who can complain about how boring it is to be on it every hour of the day and be a part of the conversations about all the crazy things that’s going on there. For example, today, during my introduction there was someone in the platform, right before boarding the train, who peed themselves. That would never happen on Höjdskräcken. I am not gonna complain though, I will check the safety restraints as good ergonomically as I can and since I’ve been looking forward to this for so long, I don’t think I am allowed to complain actually. I am excited anyway! In total I only had the one hour introduction and 1,5h of working on the platform with someone walking beside me. I will probably get introduction phase 2 tomorrow and after that I will cover my own position until I have the test in a few days. Part of the education on an attraction is going on the ride. My spontaneous side popped up and I jumped on the train without really thinking it through. I was hoping that I wouldn’t feel sick, but if course not. I felt a bit nauseated for probably three hours after…

It’s nice to have something else than the typical amusement park attraction where you check the safety restraints, press the buttons and watch the ride go. This is a rollercoaster, more things happen, and of course the principal is exactly the same as the “typical amusement park attraction”, but it feels different. And it was fun being on education again, it’s been a while. I think the next attraction I will get is Balder, one of the other big roller coasters. I am not sure when that is gonna happen though since that area barely need any people from the pool.

The day went by extremely fast, probably because I only had six hours of work, 4-11pm. Tomorrow it will be longer. I was called today at work and asked if I could work an extra hour tomorrow. Nemas problemas! I need the money, so instead of working 11am-8pm I will be working 1pm-11pm. Yay, money!

After work I went home to mom’s. She is away in England again for the week and my brother wanted to sleep at his girlfriend’s place and asked me nicely if I could stay at mom’s and take care of the cats. Of course, I am a nice sister. And I like my cats and probably should take every opportunity I can to see them while I still can. One of them isn’t feeling very well and I had to wipe up four throw-ups right when I got here. Poor thing!

Now I will go to bed, I am so tired and with no computer game distracting me I will probably get a few hours of sleep. I hope it’s nice weather tomorrow so I can enjoy the balcony for a while before work. Goodnight everybody, and thanks mom for letting me borrow your computer. And you should thank me for not faceraping you ;).

Helix

Colder weather

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It has definitely been colder today, but still pretty warm, 24C. Lots of people though. Höjdskräcken had a really really long line for once. Annoying! I’ve started to rethink my fondness of that attraction actually. I don’t understand why they only put three seats on each side (four sides) when most people at Liseberg go in pairs. And when they demand to wait for the next ride because they wanna sit next to each other is really starting to get me angry. Especially when there is a long line!

The day went by pretty fast, got off at six and haven’t done anything since, except petting my cats at mom’s and picking up some tiny screwdrivers for my sunglasses. The electrical tape wasn’t enough and I’m not sure this solution with an iron wire works either… Poor glasses!

I don’t feel like I have something of importance to write about so I will just stop now and go to bed. I am sleeping very badly for some unknown reason and I think that, in addition to the heat makes me this tired… Tomorrow it will be around 20C and lots of rain and thunder! Nice 🙂

Today it is exactly 2 months until my departure by the way! 2 months and I will be back in beautiful Cali! ❤

Three days of extreme heat

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I’ve been feeling really bad today. Three long days of working in this ridiculous heat isn’t that good apparently. It was okay until I had one hour at Höjdskräcken when the booth was like a sauna and nothing made it better. The AC was on its highest, but it was still more than 30C in there. It’s been hard to think and move and it feels like my inside are boiling. To recheck all the safety restraints because something happened didn’t make me to happy, I have to admit. Doing unnecessary work under the burning sun today took a lot of energy. But I survived my six hours! I am very sore and so extremely exhausted! I’ve worked 26 hours in three days in this weather, no wonder I feel totally beat up!

I have been without candy since last Thursday (that’s 8 days!!) and felt that I really needed it today, so I bought a bag of bulk candy on my way home from work. I ate some while watching Revolution and now I am so tired I’m seeing double. So I think I will head to bed now. Without any Guild Wars 2…

Host family reunion

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It was more than six months since I last said goodbye to them in San Diego. I knew I was gonna see them again so that goodbye wasn’t too hard, but seeing them again today made me realized I’ve missed them more than I thought. Living so close with people for a year makes you really fond of them. It was a bit bad timing of them coming here on the day I worked 10 hours, but it was okay, I was so glad for the rest of the day because of those 30 minutes on my first break of the day. Everyone was there except my hostdad and they all got huge hugs! We didn’t talk about anything in particular, it was just a happy reunion. I am so glad I have a Swedish hostfamily who goes to Sweden now and then. And I am also glad that I will be moving back to California in two months exactly and will be seeing them a few times.

They had grown but still looked the same. Six months isn’t that much even if it feels like a long time. That’s what happens when you’re busy all the time.

It was still extremely hot and so sticky and sweaty all day. No problem walking home in shorts and a tank top in the middle of the night, it is still 25C outside. Crazy weather! I am jealous of my friends who could hang out by the ocean today. It was a very nice day still and my happiness from seeing my angels again got me through the whole day! I even got through my food coma/sunstroke without any difficulties.

I got my salary specification today and I was very surprised! Almost 24 000 sek before taxes!! That means 16 000 after and that is way more than I expected. I am rich! But I will be smart and save, I know what kind of goals I have in the upcoming year.

I really need to go to bed now, it’s past midnight and I start working at 11am tomorrow.

Broken sunglasses again
My awesome sunglasses broke again. Last time I lost the screw, but this time the screw is still there but the thing holding the screw broke. I didn’t know how to fix it, but there is nothing duct (electrical) tape can’t fix :).

32 degrees Celcius

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It’s like I’m not in Sweden anymore. Since when have we had this kind of weather? The definition of tropical weather is when the temperature never goes under 20C under 24 hours and that happened last night. Crazy!! What’s happening with the world?

Today at work it was hot all day. I am not complaining at all, I got a bit of Cali-feeling and missed it more than ever. 64 days and I will be back.

Normally when you have had a couple of days off you will get a short day as your “Monday”, but not for me today, no. I had 10 hours, and 10 hours tomorrow as well. But it wasn’t as bad, even in this ridiculous heat. The guests were in a good mood which made me happier. My colleagues are the best and are a big part of why I enjoy my long days. A big thank you to all of you!

A very nice thing that happened at work today was that we got cake. Everyone on Berget got cake because Helix got 1000 guests an hour a while back. I felt a little bad for eating the Nutellacake when I don’t even have Helix, but on the other hand, I should have gotten it a month ago.

Now it’s time for bed and my book.

Thesis: DONE!

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It is time to update the blog again. I just haven’t been in a writing mood at all lately, strange! But here comes an update of what’s been going on in my extremely interesting life

First and biggest; my thesis got approved today!! I am done with it!! I so wish I could say that I now have a bachelor of science degree in building and civil engineering, but that post will have to wait another year. Tomorrow before work I will go to school to get the papers signed, return literature and ask our examinator to put the result in LADOK right away (our result system that CSN relies on) so CSN will give me a happy message telling me that I will get money next year. I am thinking about changing my application and take an extra loan. My rent is gonna be bigger over there and I have some trips I really want to do. I am saving as much as I can already because I don’t want to miss out on the Caribbean, Cancun or Coachella.

What else is there more than work? Nothing really. Work has been taking up a lot of my time lately. The big handball cup, Partille Cup, has started and that means a fuckton of youths at Liseberg. They are from all over, but especially Norway and Denmark and what is really bothering me is that they (the Danes) expect me to understand what they are saying! I can’t understand Danish at all so I mostly just smile and nod.

There are actually a lot of things that grinds my gears right now except for all the foreigners (who by the way behave better than Swedish people!). There is something at Liseberg called “ledsagarband” which is a ride bracelet for people going on rides with disabled people. I totally support that system. But what I don’t support is when young and stupid (okey, they are apparently smart who figured this out) kids go to Guest Service and tell them that they get anxious when standing in line or whatever lies they can come up with so one of them doesn’t have to pay for a normal ride bracelet. This also means that they can skip lines and go through the exit of each attraction. We who work there aren’t supposed to question these bracelets. But when a gang of ten 12 year old boys who look perfectly fine want to skip the line and take the exit in, I just get pissed off! Or when you have three normally functioning kids (14 year olds maybe) who comes back ten times in 30 min, something is not right. Guest Service shouldn’t be handing those bracelets out like free candy…

Another thing, that I’ve already written about, is when people kick me on the chin on the attraction. How hard is it to stop swinging your legs when I am checking your safety restraints? It’s a good thing I don’t get bruises easily. And it is also very annoying when people refuses to let go of the restraints when I am about to check them. It’s kinda hard doing that while someone is holding it down…

And then there is the problem I face hundreds of times every day. People who don’t want to go on a ride if they can’t sit next to each other. I understand what they are saying and it makes the ride a tiny bit more fun to sit next to a friend. But when half a handball team wants to sit next to each other or people with Guldpass (who has free entrance and rides for a whole year) does it, it’s too much. I am considerate if it is a young kid with a parent, but 17 year old guys who HAVE to sit next to each other and are holding up the line because of it is just so stupid! It is also very rude of people to assume that they can skip a ride and wait for the next whenever they want. It’s not their privilege to do that. They could ask nicely instead. I can’t just let half the spots on Höjdskräcken go empty every ride!

And on AtmosFear people are obviously extremely afraid of sitting next to a person they don’t know. So instead they leave an empty seat so a lot of people late in the line has to split up. So selfish of them! We often use the microphone to ask them to not do that, but they very rarely listen…

I really needed to get that out. I love my job and most of the time I just laugh and sigh quietly at people. And most of them are actually very sweet and appreciative. They understand that this actually is my job and when they are happy, it makes it so much more fun for me, and I can give it back to other people. I wish everyone understood that.

Today the weather was very weird. First it was nice, then it poured down but the guests were as happy as always anyway. It wasn’t that fun though working in it. Completely soaked even with the huge black raincoat and three sizes too big boots.

 

Friday tomorrow and my last day of work before my four-day weekend! On Saturday it is supposed to be very nice weather, up to 27C, so I am planning on working on my tan. I am getting very pale… I am also invited to a celebratory dinner at mom’s because of my approved thesis and then I guess I will study Structural Engineering and read a lot.

(By the way, I have a very hard time realizing it is already July!!)

Rainbow over Liseberg Weird weather over LisebergA lot of thunder this past week (more than I’ve been through in the past couple of years in total). The dark clouds with sun shining through is very beautiful. And very typical Swedish summer!

Grumpy old ladies

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Yesterday morning when I was on the tram to work something weird happened. I was standing up, listening to music and texting with mom, when all of a sudden I feel someone kick me on my shin. I look up and on the seat in front of me is an old lady who seems to be wanting my attention. I gave her a very questioning face and listened to what she had to say. She was telling me that I should sit down instead of standing up. The trams do a fast and hard stop and when it does I could easily fall on her. That’s everything I registered from what she was saying. I think she actually had talked to me for a while and sat there for many stops without me falling in her lap.

The only things I said to her was that it is very rude to kick people (it actually was a pretty hard kick) and that I can stand up if I want to, I am young and won’t fall over. Then I just plugged my music in again and ignored her for another 20 seconds before getting off.

This is the second time in a very short amount of time that an old lady yells at me. Do I look provocating to old ladies? Or are they just jealous because I am young? Annoying nevertheless.

At work yesterday I called on the security guards for the first time since I started four weeks ago. I was at Höjdskräcken and a bunch of annoying boys came to go on the ride. They didn’t listen to me when I asked them to calm down, they totally ignored me and showed no respect at all. I don’t think some guests at Liseberg understands that we actually work there. Anyway, I told them that I was gonna call the guards if they didn’t stop, they didn’t. So I put them on the attraction and pretended the safety restraints were troubling while I sat down and waited for the guards.

My heart was beating like crazy and I almost felt a little bad. But they were making my job harder than it should be and I just couldn’t focus on them and operating the attraction at the same time. It was hard calling the guards actually, but from now on I don’t think it will be that hard. I mean, the security’s job is to take care of disturbance in the park. And those guys were definitely a disturbance.

I got off at 8pm last night and my last half hour was on AtmosFear. After letting people in to the attraction my colleague told me that there were some famous people on the ride. They were from America but she had no idea who they were. So I went up to them and asked them who they were, and it turned out they were Avenged Sevenfold! I haven’t listened very much to them so I apologized for not recognizing them. They have good music though and I probably should have listened more to them when I was more into Hard Rock. I was very starstruck when I talked to them and checked their safety restraints. They filmed with a GoPro camera while I was doing it. I hope I don’t look too stupid…

When I came home I cooked two dinners, Korv Stroganoff with quinoa and feta/pesto salmon with root vegetables. Both were really good and I got 9 lunchboxes.

This morning I went to the dentist with my all of a sudden tooth ache. My upper left wisdom tooth has started hurting and is now growing into my chin. Two months ago it wasn’t. Weird. The dentist told me he could extract it right away, but I had a ten hour day ahead of me at Liseberg so that wouldn’t be a very good idea. Instead of getting it removed today he cleaned it and gave me an appointment in August! I don’t wanna wait until then. It hurts now. I want it gone now! I don’t want to go through this shit again. I hope it will start hurting again on July 7th so I can call the emergency dentist and ask them to remove it on the same day so I have a couple of days at home to recover.

At work I had three hours of Höjdskräcken. Like almost every day. I think it is okay though. I like that attraction, even if I am working there alone. But that means I talk to the guests instead. I both opened and closed it and my last hour, between 10 and 11pm I had fun. Just a few guests and even fewer rides. When they did show up there though I asked them how many times they wanted to go and just pressed the go-buttons right when they came down. Happy guests =  happy Alexandra.

 

I told myself today that I was just gonna go home, brush my teeth and then go to bed. As usual, that didn’t work. I feel that I need to calm down after work and before bed. And if that is between 1 and 2 am, then there’s not much I can’t do…