Tag Archives: studying

DMV 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.

A long day has finally come to an end. I can’t relax just yet though. Two midterms is coming up tomorrow. And the lab report assignment we got yesterday has to be handed in in the afternoon. I did my part of it this afternoon. Honestly, it only took me 40 minutes to write that one page about the history of the penetration test of bituminous materials. I know I am doing great in that class (the GIS lab we had last Thursday gave me 19/20 points), but it is only a 2 unit class. So I decided to do the lab report half heartedly and then focus on the Transportation midterm tomorrow. That didn’t work out that well either. I spent two hours at the library studying with Johanna and Eric. I got three problems solved and a cheat sheet done. It is so weird that we are allowed to have one page full of equations and notes. The teacher should have written that paper. It feels wrong. I didn’t put much on there actually. I hope it will be enough. I am a bit nervous actually. I haven’t really had time to study much. I put most of my time into Architecture History. That class is 4 units instead of 3. And Arch Hist only has three tests, while Transportation has homeworks and other assignments that contribute to the grade. So it felt more important to try and remember all the 50 or more places. I haven’t done that too well either I guess. I have made a summary of it all and answered almost all of the short essay questions. I hope it will go well aswell. There is not much I can do now at 2am the night before. And it is multiple choice questions. How hard can it be?!

After my study session at the library I went to a house on campus to eat free dinner with Rachel. It was nice, and free stuff is always nice! Right after that I bought a chai latte at Starbucks and went to class. A paper about ecological footprint was due today. That was a very fun assignment, I liked it a lot! We took a test to find out how many Earths we would need if everyone in the world lived like me. (I don’t remember if I wrote about this before, so I will just do it again). I took the test three times, once for my life in Sweden, once for my life in USA, once for an improved version of my life in Sweden. The first test in Sweden showed 1.44 Earths, in USA we would need 4.09 and if I chose to not fly any airplanes and buy mostly organic and locally produced food in Sweden we would need 1.11. It was an interesting assignment and it was easy to get one page. The more I get into this subject, the more I realize that I want to work with environmental issues in the future. Super fascinating. In today’s class we watched a lot of videos and some parts of Capitalism: A Love Story by Michael Moore.

After that I was picked up by Kelsey and Cody so we could go grocery shopping (at 10pm). I bought everything I needed, mostly vegetables, but also ice cream. That was my carrot this evening. I needed motivation and a reward system for studying this late. Shit, I just realized, that from right now I have 3.5 hours of sleep… Good thing I have very good-working energy pills to take in the morning. I can’t wait for tomorrow evening at 6pm when I am done with everything and can take four days completely off (except for the 7am field trip on Saturday morning, but that will be interesting as well, we are going to a waste landfill with Sustainable Environments).

Midterm studyingI am still sick. I’ve had a horrible headache this whole day. I’ve started coughing (I guess the ice cream was a bad idea…) and my throat feels raw. I’m not getting worse though, and that’s the most important thing right now. I don’t wanna be sick this weekend!

 

This day started with an appointment at the DMV. I had called the DMV office in Sacramento and they told me I didn’t have to retake the tests, but when I get there it turns out that I have to take the written test. The could make an exception and make mes kip the behind the wheel test. I wasn’t prepared at all to do the test. But I took the photo and went to the computer to give it a try. It went awesome. Two minor errors because I didn’t read the question thoroughly. But it doesn’t matter. I passed and within three weeks I will get my real plastic card! Yay! I hope this picture was good, the last one wasn’t with my sunburnt nose. This time I’ve actually stayed away from sunglasses so I wouldn’t get that.

Okay, so 7:40am tomorrow, first midterm of my life. 9am is the second one. Then I will nap until 2pm when I have to meet up with Steven to write on the lab report. Then a lab and then Farmer’s Market and sushi with Julianne! Can’t wait. Wish me luck on the test, I might need it. Or maybe I don’t, people keep telling me that I am smarter than I think.

No sleep

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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 think someone was punishing me for going to bed early last night. I was in bed at 9:30pm. But I didn’t fall asleep until 2 or 3 am. Worst ever. I got up at 6am and managed to go through the whole day without being sleepy. I couldn’t even take a nap at lunch. So weird. And now it is 2 am and I am still not very tired.
I am still sick, but it’s not too bad. I’ve been coughing a lot today and I’ve had a headache and I’ve been hoarse.

Class today was fine. I was very motivated for some reason. I felt ambitious. At lunch, when I couldn’t nap, I watched the pilot episode of The Flash, a new TV show. It was so good. And Grant Gustin is one of the most gorgeous guys in the world.

In the lab at 3pm we did a very short test. It was a penetration test in bituminous materials. In other words, we tried the resistance of the material which is put in paved roads. It is a new group project, and our group could do the test first (there was only one machine) but that means we have to go last on Thursday. We all did a test each, measured whatever we measured and were done an hour after class started. That meant more time to study at the library. I finished my summaries in Arch Hist and then walked up to PCV to pick up a package. It was from mom! She sent me bike lights, some candy and a glass nail file. Incredible how much mom’s pay attention. This summer when I visited her once and tried hers out, she must have seen how much I liked it. And now she bought me one and sent it all the way here. So very sweet of her!

Package from Sweden

At home I talked to Lauren and studied for the rest of the evening. I ordered permanent eyelash dye (no one can see my long eyelashes when they are so bright at the tip) and a Halloween costume. I decided to go for the viking. It suits me. And my awesome roommate Kelsey bought me a scale (which I of course paid for when she got home). It not only shows my weight, but body fat, body water and muscle mass. Well invested money.

While studying I started listening to Demon Hunters  latest album and I love it more and more each time I hear it. What an amazing album!

I talked a lot to mom as well, she is going to the airport now to go to Rome for a long weekend. I am jealous!

I will go to bed now and I really hope I will be able to sleep. I don’t have class tomorrow during the day, but I still have a lot of studying to do… Two midterms on Thursday and the lab report is due in Thursday afternoon. On Thursday evening I can relax for real for a long four-day weekend. Can’t wait!!

A sore throat

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I woke up this morning with a pretty sore throat. It’s been hurting all day, not extremely much but it has definitely been there as soon as mu cup of tea was empty. I did manage to study a lot though. I finished the Transportation Engineering homework at the library and then I summarized the third lecture in Architecture History. I still have three more to do before the midterm on Thursday. But I’m sure I will have time to do all that tomorrow when I will go to the library after class to study with Eric. For some reason I am not as worried anymore. The good thing about midterms is that they are only part of the whole grade, like homeworks and other assignments as well. It would take a lot to get an F here I think.

I feel feverish so I will go to bed now and cross my fingers that I will feel better tomorrow. There will be no TRX tomorrow either… I never get sick, and it happens now, when I am three days away from two midterms…

Goodnight everyone! 8 hours of sleep awaits me!

The pool and studying

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This weekend was over so extremely fast. I know I have one more day of weekend, but kind of no. I can’t sleep in, have to get up at 8am to go to the office hours of Transportation Engineering because I don’t understand the last two problems of the homework which is due Tuesday.  And then I guess I have to study for my midterms on Thursday. I did some studying today for Architecture History. I read some at the pool in between the mandatory stays in the water (it was about 95F (34C)) so I couldn’t stay up on land for more than four pages. I read a whole chapter on the Greek world while talking to friends. It was fun. We were gonna go to the beach at first, but we decided to go to the pool. Easier to study there.

Went back to the apartment at 5pm, had dinner, took a shower, and I’ve been studying since. I am doing a summary document of all the names and dates and pictures and short descriptions. It takes time. So far I’ve gone through two out of six time periods. I will hopefully be done with it tomorrow and then I guess I need to do some studying for Transportation Engineering as well. I look forward to Thursday evening. All homework will be handed in, my two midterms will be done and I am going out with Julianne to Farmer’s Market and we are also having sushi for dinner. Hopefully this week willbe over as fast as the rest of my four weeks I’ve already spent here. Where does time go?

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.)

TRX

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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.

Today was my first day of working out and I feel awful. Right when the TRX class ended I was sore. I couldn’t lift my arms and my legs transformed into spaghetti like right away. And I guess it is only gonna get worse from here. TRX again on Thursday doesn’t sound so fun right now. But I am gonna be serious about this now, no skipping work out days! And working out is the best medicine for muscle soreness.

Green lunchMy super green and healthy lunch; spinach, cucumber, avocado, grapes and pearl couscous and an egg. I definitely get my share of greens here. My problem (especially now when I am gonna start working out seriously) is protein. I am thinking about buying protein powder and drink shakes. Anyone know a good brand? I’ve hard that the best is the 100% whey protein powder and I found a brand on bodybuilding.com called Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard. It’s 100% whey and according to their site it is the best protein powder 9 years in a row. Half price right now. I should probably try it. Salads are healthy, but I need more.

It was pretty hard going to class after that. I was tired and it hurt, but the class was over pretty fast and I was done 45 minutes early so that was nice. We were learning a GIS-program (Geography Information Systems) called ArcMAP. Thursday is all individual and we have to show the teacher what we learned today. He didn’t call it a test, but it seems like it is. I feel okay about it though. I’m doing pretty well so far. I haven’t gotten any grades in any class yet except for that class (transportation engineering lab), but I am doing good. On the first assignment I got 10/10 and now on the second I got 19/20 on the paper and 8.5/10 on the presentation. He is gonna add all points at the end of the course and that will be the final grade. So far I have an A or A- I think. Not too bad for someone who aims for a C.

This morning we got our second homework, this time in transportation engineering. 8 problems that we need to solve before Tuesday, and the midterm is on Thursday. I solved the first one today, but all the other one were like Greek… I will study with Eric probably Friday. I feel lost. Usually I have some clue of what to do, but this was just weird.

Tomorrow I will stay in bed all day reading ARCH history. I have a lot of catching up to do. And now I will go to bed. Early for once! Which means I can get up early tomorrow and get things done, like calling the DMV office in Sacramento. So looking forward to that.

DMV and quarter schedules

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Today was not a very productive day. The only thing I did was some ARCH reading before biking down to the DMV on the south end of SLO. I was prepared to just show my old CA driver license and take a new photo and then be done with it. But apparently I forgot to bring my I-94 paper, which I never got this year (but now you’re supposed to print it yourself). So we had to make a new appointment for next week. AND I can’t just renew it since my application period expired. So I need to retake both the written test and the behind the wheel test. I’m not cool with that so I am gonna call to the Sacramento head office and tell them my story and hopefully I will get away with it. But I got the Driver License Handbook just in case. I am getting a driver license this year, doesn’t matter how!

The way back was hard. Up almost all the way. I stopped in downtown for a bit to buy body lotion (my skin is so dry in this weather! I will get used to it eventually, but it might take time). I got home and had 15 minutes before I had to be at the library, so I grabbed a small snack and then jumped on the bike again. I was so sweaty. It was hot today again, but not as hot. I was at the library with Johanna and Courtney to work on our homework in Sustainable Environments which is due Wednesday. We sat there togetherfor an hour and then I sat alone finishing for another two hours. It felt good to study for once.

When I got back I had dinner, hung at at Ryan’s for a bit and then got back home where I talked to Tobi about my winterbreak trip. He wants to join me for Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. And another guy from Brazil messaged me on Facebook today telling me he was interested too. It would be so great if we could be four people, it would be cheaper and more fun. I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS TRIP! I am guessing it will be more epic than my Hawaii trip in January.

Last night I also stayed up late, but I actually did something productive. I decided what classes I want to take. I am not gonna have as awesome schedule as I have now, but I will have a three-day weekend at least. So for Winter quarter I will take ”Intro to Environmental Engineering”, ”Public Transportation”, and ”Elementary German II”. 12 units in total. Monday’s+Wednesday’s 12-17:30, Tuesday’s 14-15, and Thursday’s 14-18. Not too bad. And in Spring quarter I will take ”Water Chemistry and Quality Measurements”, ”Traffic Engineering”, and ”Elementary German III”. Also 12 units. Monday’s 15-16, Tuesday’s+Thursday’s 7:30-16 with a gap between 11 and 15, and Wednesday’s 8-16 (no gaps). Not too bad either. The early Wednesday mornings won’t be too fun, but I guess I will be bored with Pint Night by then. All of those courses sound interesting. And I hope that we will have Professor Bertini on both Public Transportation and Traffic Engineering. He is a good teacher (from what I can tell after two weeks of class with him).
I can register for class on November 10th, so it’s far away. But I wanted to be sure of what to do so I don’t have to stress about it later.

It is way past my bedtime now, I should have been in bed like 1,5 hours ago. I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow… My first TRX session is coming up, exciting :).

CA HSR presentation

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(=California High-Speed Rail presentation)

Today was the big day. A week of ”hard work” in transportation engineering lab is over. Last Thursday we got a huge assignment, a 15 page paper and a presentation due today. I am very relaxed I’ve noticed. My groupmembers (we were four people) were super stressed out about this whole thing, while I did my thing and wasn’t panicking at all. They got me all worked up the last hour before hand-in this afternoon. And it actually made me a bit upset. I’m never worried about these kinds of things. I know that everything works out and I am satisfied with my part. But the presentation didn’t go as well as I thought. I am always very confident when it comes to presentations (at least now, maybe not five years ago) and the rehearsal before went awesome. But I choked when I was up there in front of the class. I guess there is a big difference holding a presentation in your native language and in your second language. I forgot words, I mispronounced a lot of words and I guess I stuttered a little too. I hope the teacher understands that and understood  what I was trying to say. It feels good to be done with this though. This was the toughest assignment in the lab class if I don’t misremembered.

After that I went to the rec center (Recreational Center = the gym on campus) to end this long day with an hour of yoga. The gym is amazing by the way (google ”cal poly rec center”!). I am so excited about starting to work out again. I need to make a work out schedule though. I don’t wanna go to the gym unprepared. And after yoga (first time in like five months) I realized that I need to increase muscle mass. I am ridicoulusly weak at the moment… I guess my legs are good after all the walking on this huge campus, but my upper body strenght equals zero.

The evening was spent with Lauren on the couch watching 21 Jump Street, drinking tea, eating Reese’s Mini Peanutbutter Cups. It was a very nice evening. After that a lot of people stopped by as usual which I love. It is so easy to meet people with an open door. I think I met four new people today and I think i remembered all of their names. Yay!

 

So, my day started at 5:40 with a shower, a real breakfast (scrambled eggs and avokado) and a cup of Yerba Mate tea and then class at 7:40. I couldn’t get home on my four-hour break today so I decided that I needed to wake up properly before class. The tea is full of caffeine and I think I was more awake during my first two classes than normal, but I’m not sure. In Architecture History class I sat next to a guy from Carlsbad, CA and who had also been to the three Caribbean islands I am going to. I can’t remember his name though…

After my two classes I went to the Study Abroad Fair to be one of the international students who the American students could ask questions. It was fun, but not many people who asked me things. I got free lunch and that was nice. At 1:30pm I met up with my trans lab class and rehearsed for the presentation and fixed the last things in the paper. And that was all that happened today.

No packages today. I want my bathroom rug and the small cutting board! Hopefully tomorrow. I am completely off (no homework except reading due Tuesday) so I am gonna relax by the pool all day tomorrow after I wake up. It is supposed to be around 97F tomorrow and it was the same today and that is hooooot! I love it though, where else is it 38C in October?! 🙂

I am tired, but I don’t feel like going to bed. But I probably should anyway. I really need to update the page ”Who is Alexandra?” though…. That’s for tomorrow!

Goodnight/goodmorning!

Packages

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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.

For a day off, it’s been a busy day. I didn’t get a sleep-in since I had to be at the library at 8am to work on the paper and presentation which is due tomorrow. We worked for about two hours before I had to go home and have a skype date with Lovisa. I miss her and it would be so much fun if she decided to come back and visit.

I did laundry today as well and picked up packages at two seperate times. In total I got five packages today (and one yesterday, my beach volleyball ball came :D). I am still missing three things, but I’m sure I will get them tomorrow or Friday. So today I got my mattress pad, the dishrack, my reading lamp, a new purse, storage boxes for my bathroom stuff, the two flags and pins to put them on the wall. My room is starting to feel like my room and not a hotel room as it have for the past two weeks.

I went back to the library at 2pm to work some more on the lab project. Left an hour later because the others had to go to class. I went home, did a little studying, mostly preparing for the presentation tomorrow. I made a pearl couscous salad (I’ve never had pearl couscous before, but it was good, I don’t think I cooked it correctly though, so I will have to give it a few tries). Unpacked everything and folded my laundry and then it was time to go to class. Sustainable Environments. It was tough at first, I almost fell asleep, but then I woke up a little bit. We watched two short movies, one was called ”The Story of Stuff” and that was interesting. I think it would have been more fun if it was about my cat Stuff, but still. I didn’t feel too bad about not reading anything before class, because no one else did it. We got out of class 35 minutes early which I am grateful for. I have a very long day tomorrow and I couldn’t wait to get home to my ”new” bed. I have a feeling I will sleep like a princess tonight.

PackagesIt was like a mini Christmas Eve today! 🙂 Memory foam mattress padFor this 3 inch thick memory foam mattress pad I paid $99 instead of $530 which was the normal price. Yay! Roxy Abroad 2My new purse, since my old one is falling apart. I have to get used to having a colored purse instead of a black one. My room!And this is what my room looks like now, it still looks a little bare, but I guess that’s okay, it looks clean ;).

A normal Tuesday

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Today was just a normal day at a Californian university. I got up at 6am, had a little breakfast, went to class, didn’t fall asleep, worked on the transportation engineering project about Swedish roundabouts, had lunch, took a short nap and then back to class where I worked on the second project I have right now. The one about California High-Speed Rail system in transportation engineering lab. Right after that I went to an information meeting with Poly Escapes which is a club here at Cal Poly. They have a lot of outdoor activites throughout the quarter and I have signed up for one and I am on the waiting list for a second one. They are popular, so next quarter I am gonna sign up as soon as they are released. The one I am going to is a surf weekend in Ventura November 8-9. And I am on the waitng list for  a stand-up-paddling weekend in Yosemite Valley. I do hope I get that one, otherwise maybe next quarter.

Right after that I went grocery shopping with Ryan and when I came home at 9pm I finished my part of the 15 page paper (California high-speed rail), watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory and now I will go to bed. Early for once! I can’t sleep in tomorrow though, I am meeting with HSR group at 8am to make the presentation which we will presentin front of the class on Thursday afternoon. I guess I could sleep by the pool after that.