Tag Archives: summer

Sunburn

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve got a good share of my long longed-for Swedish summer. First yesterday at Öckerö and today before work at Björlanda with mom. It was warmer today because there was no wind. I put sunscreen on the most exposed areas, like shoulders, back, and chest. But I got burned on my stomach and thighs. Stupid me. I should know by now that the sun up here in Sweden can most definitely give you a sunburn. It is not extremely bad fortunately and it will probably be fine tomorrow.

BjörlandaThe water was very very shallow at Björlanda so it was hard to get all of the body cooled down.

Mom drove me straight to work after that and it’s been a very rough day. I’ve been trying to drink as much as I can, but I’ve still felt like I was melting away. It is still around 32C and that is the warmest in all of Europe right now! Crazy that Sweden is warmest… It is gonna stay like this and even if I normally like warmth, it is not very fun to work in. I think I will need to eat more salt from now on, skip the sweet semolina porridge and go for scrambled eggs and bacon. I have almost 10 hours tomorrow and I really hope it will be cooler tomorrow, but I doubt it…

Liseberg at nightI had to wait for 15 minutes for my second tram and spent that time taking pictures of the glittering Lisebergshjulet.

Liseberg and Öckerö

Posted on by
Reply

What a weekend! Yesterday I had an amazing day at Liseberg with my cousins and today I was out by the ocean, enjoying the Swedish summer to the fullest. The best part of weekends at Liseberg is that we have almost a whole day after the weekend as well. I don’t start working until 4pm tomorrow so me and mom will go out to the ocean tomorrow again.

My cousins in Hjo comes down to Gothenburg once a year to go to Liseberg with us. That day was yesterday. After we had decided to take this day (which was pretty much the only day that worked for all of us) I had heard that Tuesday or Wednesday in week 30 is always the worst day of the year. And with the amazing weather it definitely was. It was hot, and tons of people everywhere. But that didn’t matter, we had the best day together anyway. We cooled ourselves down with Flume Ride and Kållerado and went on Helix three times. I even tried Uppswinget which is an attraction that I haven’t even been able to look at before. It was actually pretty fun, the second time though almost made me throw up and I was done after that and skipped the last rides on AtmosFear and Helix. Instead I talked in the mic on AtmosFear and waited after Helix.

I told my cousins a lot of fun and interesting things that happen at work, explained how things worked and introduced them to some of my coworkers. They thought all of them were really nice and funny. They got a little jealous of me for having the best summerjob!

We were in the park from 11am to 10:30pm. It was a long day and we were all extremely exhausted when we all got back to my apartment. We bought candy on the way and watched City of Bones. I found out that the middle cousin also loves to read and she loved the movie, so I told her about all those books and gave her a list of all of Cassandra Clare’s books so she can read them. It is not that common today that people read. But she and I share that interest and that made me very happy. ”It’s like going to another world for a while”.

2014-07-22 22.19.48Me and my lovely cousins! ❤

2014-07-23 12.22.42This is a famous statue of Poseidon at Götaplatsen in Gothenburg. Not everyone knows that if you look from a special angle it looks like he is extremely well equipped. Normally he is the opposite.

Today I held an interview for Cultural Care Au Pair for the first time since April. It is very weird that I haven’t done any recruiting since then… It was a very nice interview with a girl who’ve been living in Bangkok and Singapore and had interesting hobbies and were easy to talk to. Right after that I took the bus to Chad. He got home from Minnesota yesterday so today was the first time I saw him in three weeks.

A few minutes later mom came and picked us up and we went out to Öckerö where we spent the rest of the day. I read a little, tanned a little, but most important of all, I went swimming in the water! I haven’t been in the Swedish ocean in two years, it was definitely time! It was a little bit cold at first, but after I got used to it it was so nice. It was so nice that I went in there twice!

It was an amazing day, this is what I love  about the Swedish summer. The warmth, the sea breeze, and the warm cliffs on the west coast.

After dropping Chad off to pack his things I shared a pizza with mom. A chicken pizza with banana, pineapple, curry and kebab sauce. My favorite!

On the way back home we decided that I want to take advantage of my half day off tomorrow aswell so we are going back to the ocean tomorrow but in Björlanda. I haven’t been able to enjoy the Swedish summer yet so I might as well now when it is so warm. I love the Swedish summer!! I am so glad I won’t miss it next year ❤

2014-07-23 19.58.33

Colder weather

Posted on by
Reply

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

Posted on by
Reply

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

Posted on by
Reply

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

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Tropical weather in Gothenburg

Posted on by
Reply

The weather today has been weird to say the least. It has been extremely hot and the humidity must have been at least 110%. It has been sunny but it has also been pouring and lots of thunder. And its’s been back and forth between these conditions all day. Around 28C and right outside my window at its hottest it was unbelievable 40C! That’s right in the sun, but still. It’s been sticky inside but nothing I could do about it, opening the windows would only make it worse. I remember my first summer in this apartment three years ago. It was barely possible to be in here because it was like a sauna. I haven’t felt that at all this summer even if once in a while gets pretty warm outside. Maybe they improved the ventilation?

I’ve been inside most of the day, studying. I didn’t do more than yesterday, but not less either, so I am satisfied with my accomplishment. It was actually hard to quit when I needed dinner. That’s good! For once I am following my study schedule and I actually think that I will check every box on that paper (one box = one problem/one old exam/one theory question, a total of 63 boxes) before I will take the exam for the fourth time. Go me!

I did a lot of theory questions today and realized that I have never been in class when they talked about them. Both my first year and this year I didn’t have them among my notes. I never miss a class, but those two I have missed were the same both years. Not particularly good.

I didn’t do much more than that today, I put all my recyclables in the recycle room in the backyard, I did the dishes, watched a couple of Revolution episodes, shopped for groceries, and cooked dinner. Mashed sweet potatoes and meatballs, yummy! I have a very hard time right now figuring out what to eat. I get stuck in patterns and eat pretty much the same thing for a month before I go on to the next. Lack of money is mostly behind that, but I tried to think before I went to the grocery store today. What do I want to eat? I remembered that I loved semolina porridge when I was a kid and decided that that might be a good breakfast (the last couple of weeks I’ve only had scrambled eggs) right now. And to put fruit and berries in it will make it a little more healthy. I look forward to tomorrow’s breakfast! Let’s hope my tastebuds haven’t changed…

Today I also got an email from CSN telling me that I will get money next year!! The bad thing is that I will get it in three lump sums (swe=”klumpsummor”) instead of every month. It probably won’t be a problem, but I am gonna have to think through exacylt how much money I will have after rent and food. But it will feel pretty awesome to have 50 000 kr in my account! The only thing missing now is that I have to decide what I am gonna do the first two nights before I get my room and how to get from LA to SLO. No biggie!

Blonder

Posted on by
Reply

Not much happened today except some Guild Wars 2 until Dzejna asked me if I wanted to go to Heden and play some beach volleyball. I wasn’t expecting it to be warm out, but playing for an hour in this heat was barely bearable. It was nice and fun anyway. I miss the warmth and sun!

After that I went to Ica Maxi where I met mom. We bought hair color for me. Now and then I get impulsive and it was time for a change. I can’t afford going to the hairdresser at the moment so a change of haircolor was what I could do right now. It was really blonde highlights, but we put it in all of the hair. It turned out like highlights anyway since I had most of it left since January. It is very lighter now and I like it. It looks a bit uneven on top, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It looks more alive and “real” I think. Hair is never one and the same color. If too many people tell me it looks weird though I am gonna redo it.

I got home pretty late from mom’s and have been playing more Guild Wars 2. I have played for so long now and I still don’t have 100% of the map explored. I am getting there though, 75% now!

Before-AfterThe difference is much bigger in reality. I blame the lighting in the kitchen!Chip on the balconyChip chillin’ on the balcony in the late warm summer evening.

Öckerö

Posted on by
Reply

I am so glad I didn’t work today. Last day of Partille Cup, many people’s first day of vacation, a very warm Saturday in July = a million people at Liseberg. Instead I went with mom out to the cliffs that are the Swedish West Coast. In the middle of Gothenburg it was so hot today it was unbelievable. But as soon as we got out to the ocean it wasn’t that warm at all. So we just stayed for a couple of hours, read, ate vanilla buns, cherries and strawberries and then went back home. We ate baconcovered meatloaf with feta and beets inside it with sweet potato/potato/carrots/mushrooms on the side. Mom baked a vanilla cake for dessert. A good celebratory dinner for a completed thesis! Chip, one of the cats seemed to be very happy to see me. I will probably see him tomorrow again when I am thinking about getting new highlights with the help from mom.

I don’t know why I am so sloppy with the blog right now, so many things happen all the time. Yesterday at work anyway I had to call the guards again on a ~12 year old kid who disturbed me on Uppswinget. I am too tired to go into the details, but I ended up calling the guards and they got there right when I had to go to AtmosFear. The rest of my day went on and I forgot about the incident. But when I have 20 minutes left of the day (about two hours later) I got a call from a colleague who told me the guards wanted to talk to me about the incident and that I needed to talk to the police. The kid refused to talk to the guards for two hours and because he was a minor they had to call the police to get something out of him and I had to give them my side of the story. I was nervous but it worked out fine, the policeman was very nice and so was the guards I had to talk to for a while before the police showed up.

I don’t have any plans for tomorrow. I might go to Liseberg with Dzejna, or I might stay home to study, or be out in the nice weather (if that is the case, you never know with the Swedish summer), or get new highlights. A mini vacation can be full of surprises! But now, time for bed!!

ÖckeröIt was all cloudy today. No wind in the city, but out on the island Öckerö it was windy and not that warm at all. So weird. 28C in Gothenburg and windy and cold just an hour outside.

Thesis: DONE!

Posted on by
Reply

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!