Tag Archives: summer

Midsummer

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This Midsummer we actually had sun and it was a nice day. I spent it with Chad and his friends in Vebgy which is a small small village outside of Borås. It was a small house right by the lake. The guys made the Maypole while the girls made flower wreaths. Mine was okay, but not pretty enough to wear. We had the typical Midsummer food with herring and potatoes and snaps. We sang stupid songs, danced around the Maypole and had a penthalon with stupid games. It was a typical Swedish Midsummer.

Except for the weather. It was sunny! Normally you just know that it will rain on Midsummer, but this year it was sunny and with some clouds. The biggest problem was that it actually was cold. And as soon as the sun disappeared behind clouds it got really cold. But when it was out it was really nice. I have proof that it was out, I got burned in my face. Now it’s a nice brown tan and I got complemented at work today.

Late in the evening on Midsummer the guys went wakeboarding and after that we spent many hours in front of the fire we had made in the firepit in the backyard. It was too cold to be anywhere else. At 2am I went to bed in the tent we brought. We couldn’t fit in the small house. But since it wasn’t raining and we had eachother to keep warm it was okay. But it wasn’t. It was extremely cold anyway and in the early morning it started raining. We didn’t get wet, but everything else did. Gross…

At 12:30pm the day after we hurried home so I could go to work at 4pm. I just got there in time.

Making of Maypole Swedish Midsummer

 

Yesterday I only had 6 hours at work. I wasn’t that tired, today was way worse. I had 8 hours today and 3 hours at Uppswinget. One of those hours it were on break because of some technical faults with the “byglar” (I really don’t know what it is called in English, it is the things that keep you in your place on an attraction). But I sat outside the attraction with one of my colleagues and told everyone that a bird had hit one of the swings and that the mechanics had to remove like a lot of feathers and make sure all the cables and stuff were okay. The bird was in the booth and were waiting for a veterinary. Everyone bought the story. So fun!!

Have I mentioned that there is a huge problem with people stealing other peoples bracelets? Yesterday evening there was a gang of people going after a family with a mom, dad and two kids. One of the teenagers threathened the dad, and then he took up his police badge. KARMA!!

I feel really sorry for the kids who get beaten because someone doesn’t want to pay for their bracelets. The thing is that it is not only kids who cheat with the bracelets, adults do it too! My colleague at Uppswinget the last hour of the day today caught a dad with his son. The dad had a fake bracelet. What the fuck is going on with this world??? I thought Liseberg was a safe place. Yesterday one of the people working in the entrance got beaten up too beause she didn’t want to let some kids in for free. She got bitten and had to get a tetanus shot. This is all so upsetting!!

My plan for this evening was to try and play som BioShock Infinite, but I don’t think I can stay up any longer. I got 10 hours of sleep last night, but I am still not okay since the horrible night on Midsummer… Another day!

A bad thing that happened today was that one of my two remaining wisdoom teeth started hurting. I thought it was just the two bottom ones that were problematic, but now the upper ones started too. I am gonna call the dentist the first thing tomorrow and ask what I should do. I don’t wanna go back to the US with another tooth ache. Maybe this one should be removed as soon as possible.

Sunny Gothenburg

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Even with the relief of not having cancer I am still tired. The honeymoon phase of working at Liseberg is over and I’ve started to see it as a job. I still enjoy it a lot, but it’s easier to get tired. 6 days in a row, long and late hours. You definitely feel that.

I had the test at Uppswinget today and passed it galantly. After closing Höjdskräcken today again I found out that I will have the test at Ponnykarusellen tomorrow, which means I will be at Balderado. Maybe I will get Balder as well? I had 3,5 hours at Höjdskräcken today, which is A LOT. You are always alone on that attraction and with few guests at Liseberg it was pretty lonely. I was surprised, it was a Sunday and amazing weather. But the day went by pretty fast and now I will watch the second episode of The 100 and the sleep like a rock for many hours. Tomorrow morning before work I will start studying for the reexam in August. Yay…

US Embassy in Stockholm

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My Saturday was spent in Stockholm after four hours of sleep. I tried sleeping on the 6am train this morning but just couldn’t. I read a lot instead. The train was almost 30 minutes late which meant I got to the centralstation in Stockholm at 9:10. My interview began at 9:30 and I had no idea from where the bus went. I asked around and finally found the right bus stop. It came almost directly and I actually were at the Embassy 9:35. It’s not extremely important to be on time because a lot of people have the same time and then there’s a line inside. What was frustrating though was that I was the last one to leave the Embassy even if other people had showed up after me. Not fair! I think it might be because I already had a visa for last year or something. I was done by 11am and took the bus back to the train station. My train back home didn’t leave until 4pm so I decided to have lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. I googled the location and walked there to kill time. I could have taken a bus, but I had five hours all alone in the capital. What to do? So I had lunch by myself in the summer sun. I didn’t take a burger, they were expensive, so I ordered a chicken/goatcheese/dried cranberries sandwhich on the lunch menu. It was really good! The staff there spoke English too me, it was weird, but HRC is an international restaurant chain so people from all over work there. My waitress was from Australia and the guy who sold me the pint glass was from California, but he spoke Swedish. It was cool.

After lunch I went to a park nearby and sat down for like two or three hours and read. After a couple of hours I was so tired I could barely sit straight up, I almost fell asleep right there and then. But fortunately an old and grumpy lady woke me up by screaming at me to take down my feet from the bench. It was a wooden bench and it was extremely uncomfortable with short shorts so I moved around a lot and decided that it was comfortable to have my feet up somehow on the bench. She yelled at me really loud but I just pretended I didn’t understand Swedish and she walked away continuing being pissed off. What is it with old ladies?? It’s a wooden bench out in the open, it will get dirty even if I don’t have my clean shoe on it. And it will get off when it rains. It’s another thing on buses to put your feet up on the cushioned seat in front of you, but a bench made out of wood in a park under a bunch of trees that drop tons of seeds? Stupid lady! But, she woke me up so I could stay awake for like thirty more minutes before my butt got a little bit too much wood flavor. So I slowly walked back to the train station where I waited for 40 minutes until the train came and took me home.

On the way back I tried to sleep and did that most of the three hour ride. There was a guy two rows behind me though that just couldn’t keep his mouth. He had some mental disability, but when you only had four hours of sleep and need to sleep it doesn’t matter if he is really happy and only says nice and happy things. It was irritating. I read some though, and I finished Throne of Glass and started on the 6th and last Mortal Instruments book City of Heavenly Fire. Throne of Glass was really good. It is about a young and world famous assassin whogets caught and ends up in a slave camp for a year. One day the Crown Prince comes along and wants here to participate in a competition to become the kings Champion. Really exciting and I really wanted to start the second book right away, but I have so many books that I really want to read so it’s hard to decide…

I got home, started doing laundry right away and I am almost done with it. I watched the latest Game of Throne episode during and the whole episode was just on the Wall! I thought I knew what was gonna happen at the end, but I guess that will be the next episode which also happens to be the season finale!
I also edited the thesis report and sent in it again. The second final version. I hope this gets approved! If it doesn’t very soon I won’t be able to get any CSN next year because of lack of study results. I got a letter from CSN yesterday that told me that I needed to fix my grades from this semester if I want a study grant next year. I can’t help that my thesis has been dragged out for this long! Cross your fingers for us that it will get approved this time!!
As soon as the laundry is done I will go to bed, read a couple of pages and sleep until I wake up tomorrow!

Oh, right, might be worth to mention that my visa got approved and I will get it back along with my passport within a week. Yay! 🙂

Liseberg at nightThis is a photo I took of the backside of Liseberg one evening when I walked home. Hard Rock Cafe StockholmMy 12th Hard Rock Cafe visit. Next will be Gothenburg!

Stress

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I wish I could fastfoward my life three weeks, maybe four just to be sure all of this is over. I have so much going on and it’s not doing me any good. This stupid test on Monday for one. It’s Friday tomorrow and I just started… It doesn’t feel too bad though when I did half a test today. A lot comes back when I reread the old exams and theory questions. But I am still not expecting a grade.

The thesis is not going so well. Our examinator and supervisor at Chalmers are very negative towards our report and seriously can’t say anything good about it, except that it was a bit better since the first draft. It sucks! I hate this project. We got confirmed that we can have our presentation at Chalmers on June 3rd though at 2pm. That’s something. Now we just have to book a room and talk to Veidekke and ask them if we can give the presentation in the morning the same day.

My visa application is confusing. I have a very nice picture that would look good in my passport but today I got paranoid, what if it isn’t and I go to the embassy with it and get neglected? I took this photo myself, but I seriously don’t want to pay a fortune to go to a photographer. I am concerned about the small shadows in the background and they might go away in photoshop. So will try that and then go to a photo store and ask them if it is an okay photo for a US visa. It hopefully is, I am looking straight forward, I have a neutral and not an exxagerated expression, white background. But slanting shoulders and small shadows in the background. I don’t think the shoulders should be a problem, what if I looked like that? Maybe I have to walk crookedly at the embassy. And then there’s the problem of when I should go to Stockholm. I need to book the appointment very soon in case the spots run out. I want to talk to my brother and see if he works on SJ a day when I am off work. I am not sure he knows in advance when he works. But I will ask him. Otherwise paying a shitload of money on a regular train or taking a car and stay the night with my uncle and cousins. Or convince my dad to come with me again. Unfortunately I can’t get it with a weekend this time since I am working. Complicated! I also have to make 100% sure what I need to bring to the embassy. It can get nasty otherwise…

My new visa picture(?) to the left, and old one to the right (taken by a photographer).
AlexandraBemmVisa 2013
I think this should be okay with a lighter background and no shadows.

My last stress thing is that I start working on Wednesday and I will work every day until our presentation. That will be fun. Long nights or early mornings at Chalmers!

The awesome summer weather is making sitting inside all day miserable. This morning at 7am it was 20C outside, that is ridiculous!! And by the afternoon it was way warmer. I really hope it will be a nice summer.

I have tried to study today, but procrastinating is at its best during exam times. I have calculated an estimated sum of what I will earn this summer and it’s not too bad. The total for three months will be about 60 000 SEK, which is what I earned during the whole 2013. But the taxes are much higher here. But I won’t have any trouble with rent or living expenses at least. Great!

 

I need to go to bed now, read a little fiction, and get up early to continue with this nightmare of studying I am living right now…

Changing the Guard

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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 travels. This full post can be found here.

Today was pretty much just about waiting for the flight back home to Gothenburg. A lot of walking though and my legs gave up today. All parts hurt now, not just my feet. It felt really good to sit 30 minutes on the train to the airport, and then an hour or two at the airport and two on the plain. I can stand up now without making painful noises.

Not much happened today, the biggest thing was that we accidently came upon Buckingham Palace when we were just walking around, trying to figure out what to do. And it was perfectly time with the daily change of the guards. It is a show they put on every day at 11:30. The new guards marsh in and then they play some music, walk around inside and then the old ones marsh out. It took about 45 minutes for the whole process to end. Kind of a waste of money in my opinion. But England loves its traditions. Mom took the coolest pictures, and I haven’t gotten them yet, so my crappy ones have to do for now.

After that we walked to St. James’ Park where we sat down for a while. I read a bit. Our next stop was lunch in Chinatown. I had dumplings. I’ve never had it before, but it is really good.

Then we went to M&M World where Helana bought gifts to her nephew and niece and I bought a small bag of crisp M&Ms. I’ve never had them before. It was my energy source when we walked all the way back to Victoria Station where we had left our bags earlier in the morning.

The flight back went very fast. I didn’t sleep, but tried. Can’t really say that it worked when I had ten year olds sitting behind me and a baby crying a few rows back. So I kept reading. I finished Fifty Shades Darker. I am dissappointed. Sure, it’s fun to read about sex, but it is so unrealistic and silly it’s not fun any more. The first book was okay, but this was just too much. But I can’t stop a series right in the middle (unless it is the worst ever, which this is not), so I will read the third and last book eventually. Right now I am reading Throne of Glass. I guess it is a fantasy book? I’m actually not sure, but so far it’s good. At first I wanted to start reading the Guild Wars books, but I had a bad version and some of the text disappeared in my eReader, so I have to get new ones…

Tomorrow reality starts again. It will be so nice to be able to walk across streets without being afraid of being overrunby cars coming from all different and weird directions.

The Albert barA better picture of the cute house on Victoria Street. Change the Guard at Buckingham PalaceTons of people at Buckingham Palace today for the Changing of the Guard. It was such a beautiful day, probably 27C, perfect in my opinion :).Change the GuardThey were also riding on horses, but mom has those photos. A curved Buckingham PalaceEven in daylight Buckingham Palace is curved by my panoramic feature in my phone. WEIRD! Buckingham Palace

Notting Hill & Science Museum

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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 travels. This full post can be found here.

Our last whole day in London is over and today was nothing special really. We took a quick walk in Notting Hill, then bought froyo and sat down in Kensington Gardens. It was a nice park and the froyo was well needed in the warm afternoon. It was about 23C today, perfect. Shorts and tank top, no problem! We then went on to Hyde Park.

Gudrun went home to Sweden after Hyde Park and I and mom (Helena was home today because of migraine) went to Science Museum. It wasn’t what I expected. Much more boring than what I had in mind. I guess I expected it to be more hands on, and about things that exist or is going to exist. But it was science history which isn’t that fun in my opinion. It was quite interesting about the human medicine history though. And the shop was fun too.

After that we went back to the British Museum where mom bought a birthday present to Helena’s birthday tomorrow. A viking necklace.

We had mushroom toasts for dinner and some candy for dessert. It’s not even 10pm, but everyone is in bed. We are all so exhausted (20,000 steps today), and I look forward to have the next week with just sitting still studying. I don’t really look forward to the exam though. I have a bad feeling about that one…

I wonder if I should read or watch the season finale of Revenge… Last night I saw the season finale of Once Upon a Time. I was dissapointed. It could have been the perfect ending, “happily ever after” for everyone. But no, of course not. The evil queen who just had turned good because she was in love, lost the guy when the guy’s dead wife came back. And then the last scene was of Elsa from Frozen. That could  be fun though. I have to remember when the season starts so I can stream it when I am in SLO next year.

Hyde ParkHyde Park. Kensington PalaceKensington Palace in Hyde Park. Albert MemorialAlbert Memorial statue in Hyde Park. Diana Memorial FountainDiana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park. Science MuseumScience Museum. Science MuseumApollo 11 inside Science Museum. Crowded underground stationA very crowded underground station. It was barely room on the train. When you see this on TV it’s completely different from the real thing. I can’t really explain it, but it seems exotic with a subway system, but when you are on a crowded train and standing like pickled herring with the other people, it feels just like the trams back home in Gothenburg. Victoria StreetA cute house in the middle of new and modern skyscrapers.

Outdoor beach volleyball

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Yesterday I played beach volleyball again. And outside this time. First in Sweden! I was afraid that it was gonna be cold, but it was blue sky and perfect temperature for playing outside. I and Dzejna didn’t play very well, but we had fun, and that’s what matters.

After two hours of play we stayed on the sun deck tanning for 1,5 hours. It was amazing! But I was a bit read in my face when I came home. It is mostly gone by now, but it is clearly visible that I was wearing sunglasses yesterday.

One of the girls we were playing, Maria, asked me about my upcoming exchange year. I just told her that I am going to California. She said she had also been an exchange student in California. I didn’t ask where, I assumed it was in Santa Barbara or something where most go. But then she asked me if I had heard of a place called San Luis Obispo, when I said yes, she asked me CalPoly? It turned out that she was an exchange student there ten years ago from Chalmers. She’s not a building and civil engineer though, but a mechanical engineer. She told me I have an amazing year ahead of me and was happy for me for going to such a great school. The world is so small!

Beach CenterMe, Sarka, Maria and Dzejna.

I took a nap and in the evening I went out to dinner with Chad and met up with my dad and his girlfriends and some friends at a bar watching the Eurovision Song Contest. I wasn’t paying that much attention to the competition. But it was a nice evening.

Today was all about changing bed. The one I had was making way too much noise and was so old it was falling apart. So mom and I got the extra one from mom’s apartment, drove it here, and threw away the old one. It took a while but now it is done! I should buy a new mattress pretty soon. The one I have is almost falling apart…

Mom dropped me off after a quick grocery shopping. I felt like cooking blue cheese chicken casserole with grapes on it. It was well worth it, so delicious! It’s extremely easy, just melt the blue cheese with some cooking cream, put it in an oven safe thing for 10 minutes and then put grape halves on it and 5 more minutes in the oven. This time I completely forgot about what to have with it, I was gonna try the new tricolore quinoa I bought, but it would have taken too much time so I just made some couscous instead. A very nice dinner for a Sunday!

I never got my Course Permission Number for the EDES 406 class. It’s not okay to say that you will send the number within an hour and then don’t do it. It looks like the class is still not full in the student center, but still! It’s not okay to put this stress to international students. It’s hard to figure everything out without these kinds of problems… I hope I get an email tomorrow night, when she is back at work.

 

Okay, so tomorrow I am leaving this country again. The London trip is finally here! I packed today and it is surprisingly few things. What takes the most space is probably my school books. I am really excited and think it will be a fun week with mom and two of her friends.

Slottskogen

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Summer came to Gothenburg early this year. This weekend has been the best and I spent both days in Slottskogen.

Yesterday the Formula team from last year were hanging out and barbecueing and I was invited to come along. I felt a bit alone, all mechanical engineers and me, a civil engineer. But I had a great time anyway. The sun was up, it was warm, I got tan, had the year’s first BBQ and watched the crazy people running Tough Viking. I read about it after and it was sick! Electrical shocks, swimming through mud and ice cold water, monkey bars and other crazy stuff. It would have been cool to do it. It definitely would have been an accomplishment, maybe in two years so I have time to exercise before.

We stayed there until the sun disappeared behind the trees. All those 6 hours of sun was enough after almost three months of pretty much no sun (compared to Cali). I was so tired so I just spent the rest of the night inside.

Me and Chad decided, before we said goodbye, to play frisbee golf today, but when I couldn’t reach him at all for three hours this morning I decided to go to his place and see if he was alive. He was and was definitely surprised when I showed up unannounced, but he was glad I did. Otherwise he would have missed out on the awesome weather today!!

We played 18 holes of frisbee gold, third time ever for me and I didn’t do too bad, even if I lost by way too many points to count. After that we rewarded ourselves with soft serve ice cream and took a walk in Slottskogen watching the animals there. Mooses, peacocks, sheep, ducks, goats and wild squirrels.

The day ended at mom’s where she made us dinner, flying jacob. It’s a chili chicken stew with bacon, cashews and bananas. One of my all time favorites! My brother was kind and drove us home and I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 ever since. That game is ridiculously big and I have a feeling I will never be done. I’ve played for probably 250h total and I’ve only explored 50% of the world… And I haven’t even tried the PvP part of the game yet.

I think I have to take a tiny break from playing now though. I have two weeks until my thesis deadline and I have two more weeks of structural engineering classes (four until the exam) and I have to start with applying for courses at Cal Poly. Tomorrow the list of all the available classes will come up, so I need to find mine, the names of the professors and syllabi for the prerequisites classes I’ve taken in Sweden. This has to be done in two weeks as well.

In addition to all the studying and Cal Poly preparations I have a lot of other events going on. Like Cortégen (a parade built by Chalmers Students each year (I did it in 2011 and it was so much fun), birthday dinner for Dzejna, birthday party for me/mom/my cousin, job interview, dentist appointment and a funeral. I also have a book I really want to start to read, but I am one of those who can’t start reading something without finishing what I am currently reading and I am not too excited about Fifty Shades Darker. It’s not bad, but not my type of book (not fantasy).

Anyway, about that job interview! Yesterday I got an email from another Home Service office (but in another part of town which is closer and easier to get to than the one I got an interview for a couple of weeks ago), asking me if I still was interested. Today we decided to do the interview on May 5th. It sucks a bit that the interview isn’t for another week since the first place called today and offered me the job. I had to tell her that I couldn’t give them an answer yet and she was very understanding when I said it was the same job but another district. I hope I get the later one, the woman who talked about it sounded so passionate about it and told me the team was super nice and it wasn’t just old people, but every age between 13 and 98. But I would be totally fine with the first district too and I am so relieved I finally got a job! The problem is though that I probably won’t get my first paycheck until the end of July, and that would mean two months without income… But that’s a problem a month away!

Now I need to focus on my course applications and thesis!

 

Weight lossOh, right, another awesome piece of news! Since it’s been really warm out, I’ve had to leave the jeans at home and put on shorts. A year ago these shorts were kinda tight and now I have to wear a belt so I don’t drop them. They are almost too big to wear actually. 😀