Two days in SLO

Posted on Tuesday, April 30th 2019, 0:34 by Alexandra

My last full day in California is over. I am really excited to go home if I’m to be completely honest (like I miss eating healthy, even if I have enjoyed every single bite of everything delicious I’ve had here, and I also miss not being this ridiculously tired all the time). But other than those two things, I don’t want to go home. From what I’ve understood, Sweden had better weather than California this past week. I didn’t get tan, but this was not a sunbathing trip though. We have done so many things. And lying on the beach, just soaking up the sun is only fun for so long.

So this vacation ended with a roadtrip. Me and the Elin who is sharing a flight with me tomorrow drove up to San Luis Obispo, my SLOME (SLO-home). It was 3.5-4 hours each way. Up was not a big deal, but going down tonight was rough.

The first Elin flew back home yesterday and the last thing the three of us did together was going to UCLA campus for a pie contest. Miriam’s sister told us about it, and free sampling from the baking competition sounded nice, so we stopped by there to get some free pie. But the tasting didn’t open until 3pm and with the 3 hour drive, it wouldn’t work. And perhaps that was for the best. We had leftover cheesecake for breakfast that day, haha!

We arrived at like 6pm and started with a “fika” at SLODOCO (San Luis Obispo Donut Company) with Rachel, my former roommate. It was so nice to see her again. She still lives in SLO, she managed to get a good job there. I am happy for her, SLO is the cutest city. And it was also nice to see Slodoco again. I have missed their chailatte so much!

Elin and I then drove to Pismo Beach where we had clam chowder soup for dinner and then down to Santa Maria and Steven where we were staying for the night. We watched the last two Game of Thrones episodes. Such a great evening!

This morning it was raining, so we took a slow breakfast at Kreuzberg in SLO. Their acai bowl is amazing! We also did some shopping at Victoria’s Secret.

The weather cleared up and was perfect hiking weather after that. So we parked on campus and did the serenity swing. I love that hike. It is only 6km roundtrip. My calves don’t like it, since it is always going upphill, but for the amazing views, it is totally worth it. Here’s a 3D pic of the swing.

Right after, we met up with my former WOW-leader (Week of Welcome) for lunch at Firestone Grill in downtown. If I have to be honest, it was not as good as I remembered. It was good, but the pulled pork was not as shredded as I remember it being. Very nice to meet Sam again.

I would have loved to go to Montaña de Oro State Park, but it was a 30 min drive up north, and it was already getting late. So we skipped it. Bought some donuts at Slodoco and I also got a picture of the chai powder they are using. If I could get a bag of those somehow, I would be so happy. We will see how that works out.

Then a small stop at Target to get some things to bring back home and then we hit the road. At 9:30pm we arrived back home in La Habra. I can barely keep my eyes open. But everything is packed and I am ready to spend the morning at Huntington Beach playing beach volleyball. I don’t look forward to the flight at 5pm…

A quarter century!

Posted on Monday, April 11th 2016, 22:59 by Alexandra

So, 25 years ago I was born. Twenty-five years! It is a big number and definitely a milestone. It’s crazy, but I can’t do anything about it than thank everyone for their happy-birthday-wishes today. I had a wonderful day, it was the most beautiful spring day ever! Not a single cloud anywhere to be seen and it was warm in the sun. Sure, I guess it could have been any other day than a Monday and a school day, but it was still okay. I didn’t do much, went to class, went grocery shopping, cleaned the apartment, played a little on my new Wii U (that Jesper gave me yesterday) and waited for Jesper to come home from work. Soon after that mom came over and we made dinner; tacos. And for dessert; princess cake! Doesn’t matter how old I am, there should always be a princess cake, haha!

It’s been a long time ago since I updated, and not because not many fun things have happened, I just kinda lost my will to write. So here comes a bunch of photos from the last three months instead (sorry, but many of them are of the cats).

Ramses There was a period when the cats pooped shapes, here was a cat! Cleo is sit-sleeping. You can’t go to the bathroom alone. They removed the soles from my shoes not once, but twice!! They got a new active toy which they love, blinking balls on a rollercoaster. This is the cutest picture ever. I did not put them like this,they fell asleep like it! They always sleep along my legs or on them when I am sitting on the couch! Never alone. Even if they fight a lot, they still seem to like each other. Ramses is very chill! We had some very pretty sunset the past months. Semla mudpie Ramses the chill. St. Patricks Day. IMG_20160401_192251 Jesper and I went up to my cousins in Nynäshamn a week ago. We had a great time up there, played a lot of cards, walked around in the harbor, enjoyed their new hot tub with an ocean view and just hung out. IMG_20160403_112435 I got new toys for the cats, and it did not take long before one of them was in its natural habitat. Now it is completely gone! Cleo is such a beautiful cat! Rachel (for those who don’t know, to the right, and my former roommate in California) came here with her friend Elyse to visit for a few days. We went out to the archipelago and enjoyed the amazing Swedish spring on the west coast.

Here is a link to google maps where I uploaded a sphere picture taken at Öckerö after my 17-year old cousin told me about it, haha! (I am getting old):

Other than what I have taken pictures of, I am doing well in school. I am almost done with my first year in grad school, one more to go. Last quarter I took a class called Leadership & Communication and the home exam I wrote with another girl was super interesting: Why do people follow destructive leaders? We brought up Hitler and Trump as examples and it was the easiest finals week ever. I haven’t gotten the grade for it yet, but it should arrive very soon.Then we had three days in school and then two weeks off. I needed it, just relax for a bit. Today was the first day back after the break and on Wednesday we have a presentation. A few more weeks and then the summer is here and lots of work at Liseberg (where I actually start in two weeks already, but not full time until the last week of May).

I have also been reading, but haven’t finished anything new in a while since I am reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and it is long. The new ereader (Kobo GLO) is working perfectly!

I have also played a lot of beach volleyball and have already have many ups and downs. I hope I will have time to play this summer as well, even with lots of work at Liseberg (or maybe SKANSKA if they will contact me about my application I sent in a month ago).

I should probably go to bed now, I am not as young as I was yesterday and I have a lecture tomorrow at 9am. I can’t make any promises about more frequent posts, but I can almost say that the next one won’t take three months.

Kelsey in Gothenburg

Posted on Thursday, September 3rd 2015, 13:53 by Alexandra

I just dropped off Kelsey, one of my roommates at Cal Poly, at the airport after she spent a few days here in Gothenburg. We had a great time together and did a lot of things. She got here on Monday while I was at a course to learn how to use the cashier system at my new job (oh, right, I haven’t written anything about that yet, I will get to it), so mom picked her up at the airport and I was home when they got here. The first thing we did was go to the grocery store to buy stuff for dinner. I wanted to make something Swedish for her so I made korv stroganoff. She loved it. In fact, she loved everything she tried. Back in Cali she was kinda picky and didn’t like to try new things, but here she tried everything and liked it all. I am proud!

On Tuesday, we walked around downtown and had a fika in Haga where the big cinnamon buns are. I’ve never had one before and it was so good. I showed her Avenyn, Nordstan (where we of course went to 4-Gott and bought Swedish candy), Haga, Linné and later also Eriksberg. Axel met up with us at Café Husaren and then tagged along when we went out to Eriksberg for Gothenburg’s best pizza at Sannegårdens Pizzeria. It was good, but I have to say that I didn’t like the dough, it didn’t taste anything else than just flour mixed with water. But she liked the kebabpizza as well.

Poseidon at the top of Avenyn. The city library. She was impressed that I was a part of that construction. Bältespännarparken. 4-Gott. Big and delicious cinnamon bun (kanelbulle).Kebabpizza.

After that we picked up Jesper at his place and drove to Andra Långgatan where we hung out at a bar. Her first time legally in a bar and she didn’t even get carded. She also liked Ginger Joe (ginger beer), Axel was proud, Jesper made gagging noises, haha! I actually had a Ginger Joe too, they are really good.

Yesterday, Wednesday, Kelsey and I drove out to the northern archipelago. We started on Hönö and then spent more time out on Öckerö. The weather was extremely weird with sun switching to dark clouds and rain and rainbows. Annoying. But we had a great day anyway. I guess rain can be seen as exotic?

Ferry to the islands. Weird-looking house on Hönö. I went here all the time when I was a kid, it was probably ten years ago I was there the last time. I always thought it was called Hönö Röd, but I learned that it is really called Lapposand. It was 17C in the water. If it hadn’t been that windy, it wouldn’t have been too bad with a swim. Hjälvik beach on Öckerö. To this place I still go at least a few times a year with mom. It is a nice and calm place. Hjälvik is a calm bay. Lot’s of cliffs outside of Gothenburg. Not many beaches here. But I love the Gothenburg cliffs. In the summer when they are warm! Mmmm! “Take a picture of me when I am conquering Sweden” Hönö harbor.

We had a late lunch at Max Hamburger restaurant. She really liked that too, so much that she bought Max at the airport today for lunch again, haha! Then we picked up Jesper after his work and we three went to Guldhedstornets Café. They have the best view in the city. It is at the top of an old water tower and is also on top of a mountain. It was beautiful. Gothenburg is really green! And of course, because of the weird weather, there was a rainbow. Pretty Gothenburg! The three of us then walked to Chalmers where I gave a tour of campus. Neither of them had been there before and I think I made it pretty interesting. It is a small campus, but it is always gonna be my school! (Except if I go back to Cal Poly, because after two more years over there I will actually have spent three years there and only two at Chalmers)

New buildings at Chalmers.The A-pond outside of the civil engineer department building. The Swedish king has sailed across this pond, and every year there is a bridge competition where students build bridges across this pond, and also there are events here such as a wake-boarding event last spring.

View from Guldhedstornet (The tower of Guldheden).

Her stay in Gothenburg ended with The Minions and a cup French tea back home. It has been a few really nice days and I can’t wait to see her again. We might meet up in Germany this fall and meet another fellow Cal Poly student or if I find time to come to her in England. We will see.

Chip, “Massive cat”.

And this other job, it is only an extra job on the side of Liseberg since it is not open every day of the week anymore. I am a receptionist at Slottskogsvallen, a track and field /gym arena here in Gothenburg. Last week I had three education days where I learned how to do the job and this Monday I went to that class to learn how their cashier system works. It is a very chill job and they will pretty much just call me a day on advance and sometimes the same day and I will work when I am needed. It seems like e nice and relaxing job.

I have also been accepted to University of Gothenburg. The plan is to take an English class for the whole semester. But with two jobs while applying for a master program and scholarships, I think it will be hard to attend school full time. But I will go to all the classes I can and it doesn’t really matter if I pass or not. The only reason I take this class is so I can keep my student apartment since it is impossible to get a real apartment in this city. I am applying for apartments every single day and I don’t get anything. I have been in the queue for more than 4 years, but still, I don’t get a real contract. Stupid stupid!

Now I am gonna go back to bed until I will pick up Jesper after work. For the past month I’ve been reading a series called Silo by Hugh Howey. I must say that it is probably the best books I’ve ever read! The first one, Wool, I just finished a few days ago and I am now already about 60 pages into the second, Shift. It is a dystopian future, the first book takes place inside silos underground, people live in 150 story buildings underground because the world is destroyed and poisonous. It is not until the second book that the truth about how it all started comes up. I can’t stop reading, it is so fricking good! Read it!!

First day of finals week

Posted on Monday, March 16th 2015, 21:05 by Alexandra

This quarter’s finals week started off good. I got some stuff done, like finished my part of the group project about the bus routes here in SLO. That felt good. I sent some emails, finished writing the definitions of some concepts for my Urban Planning final tomorrow. And that is it. I missed the beautiful day, but I was in a weird mood today anyway.

So, tomorrow I have the final in Introduction to Urban Planning, but it is not exactly a final since it is not cumulative. It’s gonna be 50 questions, mostly multiple choice. I already have an A in that class so I am not too worried about this. And on Wednesday I have the German final, but I can’t study for that one. We are gonna watch a movie and then have group discussions about it afterward. I am so thankful for these past two weeks that was very relaxed and with not too much work. Even if it’s been super chill, I can’t wait for spring break. Traveling again will be so much fun.

I made an appointment to cut my hair on Thursday after a sunrise hike up Bishops Peak, we are having dinner at Firestone, and will go to Slodoco. This week Kelsey, our former roommate from Iowa is visiting for her spring break with three of her friends. The place is packed. I am just glad I don’t have too much to do. It is so nice to have Kelsey back, I really missed her! But it is a weird situation to have her here with her friends from back home and “sharing” her. I am still very glad to have her here, today we went to dinner downtown and last night we hung out in our living room for ever with some of our neighbors. That was fun.

I think I will hang out in my room tonight, watch a movie or read and then go to bed early.

Thanksgiving break in LA

Posted on Wednesday, November 26th 2014, 22:36 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 two years in California. This full post can be found here.

I am safe and sound in LA after a long drive from SLO yesterday. Kelsey and I left right after her class ended, and after packing the car, bying roadtrip coffee, and so on, we were on our way at 4pm. We didnt arrive until 8:30. So you could say that we were pretty hungry.

Before going to Glendora, where her aunt lives, we stopped in Beverly Hills to meet up with Axel from my high school class. I haven’t seen him since graduation so that was a fun little reunion. We had dinner at Cheesecake Factory and I had my favorite, Chicken farfalle with roasted garlic. So freaking good!! I got half of it with me home in a box and I will save it for Friday dinner. For dessert we had a cheesecake each. I had the ultimate red velvet and it was delicious as I remembered it!

At 11pm we parted ways and we had 45min to Glendora. Her aunt greeted us and we stayed up for two hours talking. She is really nice.

Today we woke up at 8, that’s what happens when a two-year old lives in the house. He is super cute and today was his birthday. We chilled for a while after eating breakfast at a mexican place nearby and then at 3pm we threw a little party for him at his preschool, with cupcakes and juice and funny hats. Our next stop was at a fruit and juice place called La Tropicana where we ate bionico, a fruit salad pretty much with a creamy sweet sauce on top. It was really good.

Then back to the house where we chilled some more. I think I took one or two accidental naps. I don’t know why i am so tired… Ate a little cheesecake, talked and went to bed at ten. Super awesome time to go to bed!

Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving and I am very excited. I love Thanksgiving! We are going to a friend of Kelsey’s aunt.

Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

Axel, Kelsey, and, I.

Tourists in Beverly Hills.

Host family reunion

Posted on Friday, July 11th 2014, 0:24 by Alexandra

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.

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 :).

Roadtrip in a convertible

Posted on Sunday, January 19th 2014, 23:02 by Alexandra

Today was all about doing a roadtrip around big parts of the island of Oahu since this was our last day here. And I have to admit that the car made a big part about it better. For $11 extra we got a convertible Chrysler!! It was so awesome! The guy who helped us got us a discount so we pretty much got the GPS for free, and the upgrade was $20 normally. Maybe it’s good to be blonde and blue eyed.

#1 Our first stop was Matsumoto’s Shave Ice. It is Oahu’s most popular shave ice place. Shave ice is just ice in snow form with flavored juice poured over it. Really good actually and it looked cool. Mine with mango, pineapple and watermelon flavors looked like a rainbow.

#2 Our second stop was Turtle Bay. I got fooled by the name of the place. I thought that was a beach where turtles always lay in the sand, but no. It was a big resort and a cute little bay. It wasn’t as nice with the bunch of grey clouds completely covering the sky and I was disappointed when I only saw some tourist lying on sunbeds.

#3 Third stop was Mokoli’I, also called the Chinaman’s Hat because it looks like an old Chinese worker’s hat. The park, Kauloa Regional Park was so beautiful. The beach was almost empty and the mountains were right behind it and if it weren’t for the clouds it would have been even more perfect. We tried taking a few funny pictures with the hat and then Caroline drove us to our next stop. And while she was driving it started raining. Quite a lot too. So we had to pull the roof back in the car. Too bad. But good too, because my hair got so messy after driving 70mph on the highway.

#4 The fourth stop was supposed to be for the rest of the day but the bad weather caught up to us and we had only 20 minutes before the cold wind and rain came. The stop was at Hawaii’s most beautiful beach, Lanikai. It was indeed beautiful. Not exactly as the pictures on google, but we might have been at another spot on the beach than the photographers on google. The sand there was the finest sand I’ve ever seen. It was like a powder. I wish Waikiki Beach could have been that amazing! We took a few pictures and started towards our last stop on our little roadtrip.

#5 Nu’uanu Pali Lookout. Our last stop for the day. From up there you’re supposed to see the northeast coast of Oahu and we did. At least part of it. Because of the bad weather there were a lot of fog. But we could see the ocean, not all the way to Chinaman’s Hat, but we could see Valley of Temples and the city (don’t know which one) down there. I read online that it was supposed to be super windy up there, like you literally could be blown away. But it wasn’t particularly windy at all. It was chilly because of the drizzle of rain. The story about that place goes like this. To try if a person was a liar, they threw them down the side of the mountain and if the wind carried them upward to save them, that meant that they were honest. Otherwise they were liars and deserved to die.

It was an Alaskan older couple who told us the story after they so kindly helped us change one of the tired on our car. This is the really stupid part of the day. When we started driving we heard a noise. We went out of the car as soon as we got the chance to take a look at the tires but couldn’t see anything at all. So we continued to drive for like 6h. Still a noise and a tire pressure warning sign lighted. I know that’s common among rental cars so I thought it was no biggie. But it was. When we were parked at Pali Lookout to wait for the rain to ease a couple of Japanese women came up to us and told us that one of our back tires were completely flat. We got help from the super nice Alaskan couple and we got the tire change within 15 minutes. We saw that there was a big nail stuck in the tire. Now the noise made sense. But it wasn’t particularly nice of the rental place to give us a car with a ticking flat-tire-bomb. So when we returned the car we asked for some money back, and we got $36 back without any questions.

At 3:30pm we drove back to Waikiki to return the car. An hour later when we were in the hostel the lobby was full of policemen. I have no idea what happened and I didn’t want to stay and find out. I was hungry so we went to Burger King to bring it to the beach and eat it while waiting for the sunset and Vasoula (she is the German girl living in my neighborhood in San Diego). She found out this morning her hostfamily’s secret destination. It could have been Costa Rica, Mexico or Hawaii. So after the last sunset on Oahu we met up and talked on the beach for a couple of hours. So weird, but nice, seeing her here on Hawaii!

Back to the hostel, took a quick shower, packed everything and went through all the pictures from today so I could upload them to my blog. Now I’m done and so tired! I will fall asleep as soon as my head hit the very flat pillow.

Tomorrow a new island waits! Maui!! I really look forward to it :). I’m guessing it will be completely different from Oahu.

Matsumoto’s Shave Ice. They had so many flavors I didn’t even read them all, I just took three of my absolute favorite tropical flavors, and it turned out like a rainbow. Big waves on the North Shore! Turtle Bay. Chinaman’s Hat. Kualoa Regional Park. Beautiful scenery while driving (Caroline was the photographer). Waimea Bay Beach Park. Way out in the water on the huge waves some surfers did what they do best. Lanikai Beach. Powder sand. Nu’uanu Pali Lookout. On my right side is Valley of Temples and on my left side is a city (don’t know which one) and farther to the left is Chinaman’s Hat supposed to be. Sunset on Waikiki Beach. A small reunon with Vasoula in front of Duke Kahanamoku! 🙂