Tag Archives: thesis

Thesis: DONE!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

The thesis can go f itself….

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I don’t understand what our examinator is doing. Today we got our thesis report back again for like the sixth time with new comments. This was supposed to be done two weeks ago but since they are too lazy to read the whole thing through every time they just give us a few comments here and there every time and completely new things every time we get it back. I am so sick and tired of this now! I don’t have time for this bullshit, I have a full time job with shitty hours, I have an exam I need to prepare for for the fourth time, I have to get this precancer thing under control and after all that I don’t have any freetime. In our examinators  latest email she said that a full time job (40h week) should give us plenty of time to still work on the thesis. What she doesn’t know is that one of us is working in another city and the other works late evenings and can’t get up early to work before work. I am not a machine!!

So, here we are again, tons of comments to change and the examinator goes on vacation now to come back for four days in July. If this doesn’t get approved soon I won’t get CSN next year and that will probably mean I can’t go back to the US…

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!

6 attractions

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I now have 6 attractions on Liseberg and more will definitely come. Yesterday I got Uppswinget, a really big swing on Berget. I hate the attraction but it is fun to work on. Like all of them, except Kristall Salongen which is just sitting taking tickets. At the moment I have Lisebergshjulet, AtmosFear, Höjdskräcken, Kristall Salongen, Spin Rock and Uppswinget. I know for sure that I will get Helix, Ponnykarusellen and Balder as well sometime. I don’t know if I will get a third area, some say I will, some say I won’t. We’ll see I guess.
I’ve been in training these past couple of days and I will have the test the next time I am on Berget.  I might be on Balderado tomorrow. I don’t know.

Today nothing special happened except that I got to work an hour extra. I took another person’s last hour on AtmosFear. I didn’t see any of my fan clubs and there were surprisingly many people in the park this Monday. Probably because of the awesome weather.

Yesterday I went with a lot of Berget people to first Vino and then to Stage Door for a couple of drinks. I got home at 1am because I needed to get up pretty early today and work on my thesis. We were sure that the final version we sent in on Thursday was gonna get approved. But instead of that we got more to change. So I worked on that this morning, and tomorrow morning I will do the same. I really don’t want to do it. I want to have a long night of sleep for once!

Tomorrow’s my 6th day of work and then I have my weekend again. And that will be celebrated with a daytrip to Stockholm and the American Embassy, laundry and some beach volleyball.

Thesis hand in

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We handed in our final version of the thesis report today! And the feeling of relief is indescribable. It might still come back as a “no pass”. But if that is the case, then the examinator must have been in a bad mood when she read it through. It can’t be that hard to fail a report you have handed in and changed several times and that you can only pass or fail. I am sure it will go well. We did put a lot of effort into this report and it isn’t that bad anymore if I myself can say that.

The last few adjustments took four hours and after that I had a nice nap and then it was time for a 6 hour day at Liseberg. It was a nice but weird day. No Helix today either. I only had AtmosFear and Lisebergshjulet. Super chill! I love to work on AtmosFear but hate going on it. The weird part was the weather! One moment it was sunny, then it was raining, then it was pouring, then it was sunny and so on. Super annoying! The worst was when I was on AtmosFear when it seriously poured down like in a shower. It was ridiculous! I think some people were in the middle of the ride when it started. Poor people. And I was surprised when more people wanted to go on it, even if it rained like hell. I also felt sorry for myself that I needed to be out in the rain checking the safety things. We had raincoats to wear though, but we looked like mass murderers in them. Black, long coats with a big hood. My gloves were soaked through after one ride and my fingers were like raisins a short while later. Awful! The worst thing was probably the wet shoes that stayed wet through the rest of the day. Gross!

I got off at 11pm, shut down AtmosFear for the first time and then missed my trams home so I didn’t get home until midnight. And tomorrow I am working from 10:50am. It’s not very fun to work early after a late evening. But I get off at 6pm so that’s nice at least!

Thesis presentation at Veidekke

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The thesis is a day away from being finished. I can really see the light at the end of the tunnel now! This morning we presented our thesis at Veidekke and they were satisfied and liked it. They gave us a lot of tough questions, but in general they liked it and told us they were gonna use the template for their next environmental review this year. But it was just a proposal so they will probably have to change it and then update it eventually. It felt really good afterwards!

The next thing on the days agenda was the opposition on another thesis. It also went well so the last thing we need to check off the thesis list is the report. We will write on it tomorrow morning and hand it in as soon as we are done. Exciting! In 15 hours I will be done with my thesis, such an awesome feeling. (well, if it gets approved, but I would doubt it, it feels like they are stricter now and pointing out everything they find is wrong or should be improved, but in the end it is just pass/fail so I think it will be fine).

Right after the opposition I walked home to Chad who has the luxury of living three minutes from campus. Together we walked down to Liseberg. We were there the whole afternoon going on rides. I felt sick after most of them, even with the motion sickness pill. We went on Balder, Kanonen, FlumeRide, Lisebergshjulet, Höjdskräcken, AtmosFear and Helix. My first time on Helix (the brand new rollercoaster) I sat in the front. It was a really good rollercoaster, but I felt sick after and rested in the Lounge, our break room. I’m not sure I was allowed in there when I wasn’t working. But I really needed to sit down without any people around. We actually went on it again, but not in the front. Both times we skipped the line though. Perks of being a Liseberger.

AtmosFear wasn’t as bad as I remembered. It was awful going up on it, I was almost panicking. But I survived and wasn’t feeling that bad afterward. The pill I took made me feel really bad and extremely tired though so we just sat down and had a small dinner at Trebello and then went home. It is still very light out and almost 10pm. It is okay to go to bed, but because of the light it doesn’t feel like it… But I can’t keep my eyes open, so I will go to bed, read two pages, and then prepare for a really long day tomorrow! First thesis writing, then work until 11pm. I look forward to work again, in this stage of my life I think I prefer to work on the attractions instead of going on them.

Thesis presentation at Chalmers

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One of two presentations is done and it feels really great. Our examinator liked the presentation more than the report and was surprised at how good it was in comparison. A relief but at the same time not. We got the presentation approved which is one less thing to check off the list, but the report is still not good and we have to prepare it for a final hand in on Thursday. We got a lot of feedback though and will sit a little bit with it tomorrow before our second thesis presentation at Veidekke. And we will have most of Thursday before we both have to go to work at 4pm. I’m sure it will work out and I will be so relieved on Thursday afternooon!

After the presentation I went home for a bit and then went back to Chalmers to watch the launch of the Chalmers Formula Student car. I wouldn’t have gone unless Chad hadn’t invited me. We haven’t seen each other in a week because of my stupid working hours. Tomorrow we will have the whole day together at Liseberg though. I bought motion sickness pills today. I hope they work and that I will be brave enough to go on the attractions where I now work and “hated” a couple of years ago.

 

Time for bed! One presentation, one opposition and thesis report writing is waiting for me tomorrow morning.

Friday on a Monday

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This is a really weird feeling. Today is my Friday, my last day of work before two days off. This will be a very unusual summer. But I am not complaining, not at all. I love my job and it gets better and better every day. I didn’t get a new attraction today and could work on my own the whole day. I was mostly at AtmosFear but also a couple of hours at Höjdskräcken and Lisebergshjulet. A Monday on Lisebergis the nices thing ever (until all the kids get out of school in a week or two). So few people the park was practically dead. The weather was amazing and I so wished I was there in my freetime. It was the perfect Liseberg day! Sunny, with some clouds, lagom warm and no people. Not even Helix had a particuarly long line (I was told, I still haven’t gone on it. I could go on it on a break if I wanted to, but I want to wait).

I decided today that I want to go to Liseberg in my freetime pretty soon. So I got my employee tickets and asked Chad if he wanted to join me on Wednesday after our presentation at Veidekke. I’m not gonna have time to go on Helix by myself before so he will have to deal with me freaking out. I think I should buy motion sickness pills before that. Just in case. It will be so weird going on the attractions that I work on normally, and where my friends will be working. I am really excited about it. It will be my reward for almost being done with the thesis!

When I got home I sat down and watched the latest Game of Thrones episode while eating candy. I really felt like I deserved that after 6 long days of work. I was actually very grossed out at the end of the episode and had to look away. I didn’t remember that happen in the book, not exactly like that anyway. Ew, it was gross! I am sad that it is only two more episodes of the season… It would have been okay if George R.R. Martin would release the sixth book in the series. But that will most likely take many more years…

This morning was spent in school, first working a bit on the thesis presentation we are gonna hold tomorrow, and then we listened to a couple of other thesis presentations. We didn’t have time for more, I needed to go to work. It seriously only takes 20 minutes to walk from Chalmers to the backside of Liseberg.

The presentation isn’t until 2pm tomorrow so we will have the whole morning to prepare. That’s why I don’t do anything tonight. I am not nervous about tomorrow, we know what we have done and it can’t be a disaster unless it comes from someone else. I am confident.

Sand in my eye

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I’ve been home in Sweden for a few days more than I have left. Why does time go by so ridiculously fast? It’s not that I don’t look forward to going, I do, but I really enjoy being back home. Tomorrow I will start working at the world’s most fun job, and when you’re having fun time goes even faster, which means that I will be at the airport saying goodbye way too soon. I should probably buy my flight ticket soon. I don’t want the prices to go higher. Maybe before the week is over.

The only thing I don’t have for the visa interview is a printed photo and the confirmation page of my appointment at the Embassy. I am picking up the photo tomorrow morning which means I have to book the interview. I think I will just go over the day the 11th of June. It will be hell sitting on a 5am train, but I could sleep, or read, which is not too bad. A book I’ve been waiting for for a year was released today, and with this reading pace I have now I will probably read that on the train in two weeks. Or maybe it will be done, I don’t know. The book btw is the sixth and last book in the Mortal Instruments series, City of Heavenly Fire.

This morning I was in school working on the thesis. Both I and my partner are getting tired of this. Our supervisor at Chalmers has gone underground and we haven’t heard anything from him in weeks! We get different information about the formalities of the report from different people in charge and that is really a pain in the ass annoying this close to the finish line! Today we decided who is gonna talk about what on the presentations. And we are gonna work with what we want to say individually. I hope I won’t be too tired after work to be able to do a good job.

*ONE HOUR LATER*

Never mind what I wrote above. The interview appointment is schedule for June 11th at 9:30am. Train tickets bought for 700SEK and I will have a few hours on my own in Stockholm that day, but then a lunch at Hard Rock Cafe might be a good idea?

I just also bought my flight ticket! This is so real now! On September 12th I will be leaving Gothenburg and fly to Los Angeles. I am gonna take another flight from there to San Luis Obispo, but I’m not gonna book that right now, if it turns out that I can get a ride from there from my peer contact or someone else. Or maybe I will decide to rent a car and drive up along Pacific Coast Highway 1 again. I mean, it’s just a 13h flight, I’ll probably feel okay.

Tomorrow morning I will go to Chalmers, print my last paper for the interview, then head to the photo store I was in today and pick up my printed visa photo. …. I was just gonna write that I will then be totally ready. But the truth is that there is always something else to do. I willhave to go to the interview, wait for my passport to come back, book my hostel for the first couple of nights in SLO, book the last flight from LA to SLO. And packing of course! Moving my stuff out of the apartment. Saying goodbye…

I feel like I have everything under control anyway and that is a good feeling. I can stay focused on my thesis now! I’ll probably have some time for it tomorrow before work. Oh yes, I have my first day at Liseberg tomorrow! Excited or what!!

 

At 6pm I was at Beach Center with Dzejna and two other. One of them, Anna, I knew since before. But the third, Erika, never showed up because of stomach cramps 30 min before we would play, so she sent her “sambo”(=the person you are in a relationship with and living with, but not married) instead. We didn’t mind, he was a nice dude and the games were very even. I won mostof my games though and I played really well. Except my serve which didn’t work at all today. But my sets and spikes were as good as ever. What happened during our gameplay that wasn’t so good though was that I accidently threw a lot of sand in my wide open eye! I sat down, closed my eyes and was afraid of opening them. The others ran and grabbed my water bottle and poured it in my hands so I could rinse my eyes. I must have gotten most of it out, because it didn’t hurt. Phew! I remember what happened in 4th of 5th grade when I got a grain of sand in my eye and it swelled so bad that I had to go to the ER… I don’t want that to happen again. It’s been a few hours now and it still doesn’t feel particularly weird, so it’s probably fine :).

I played some Guild Wars 2 after school today for the first time in probably 3 weeks. I missed it! I wanted to play some more after beach volleyball, but it got really late now all of a sudden….

 

Ugh, this got longer than I expected. I should probably get to bed and read through my information papers I got from the attraction department last week. It’s a lot of pages I should read before I start working… But at the same time I also want to read Throne of Glass… Soon I will be able to read whatever I want, and do whatever I want in my freetime! The benefits of working compared to studying 🙂

Structural Engineering exam

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It’s done. I’m free! Almost. The anxiety a test at Chalmers brings is gone and that feels soooo good! As the other couple of times it was a 5 hour exam and I sat in the lecture room (so weird sitting in a classroom where I have lectures, normally we sit in special rooms we use when we solve problems) until the very end. I wrote something on 7 questions out of 8. Not an answer on all of them, but I can still get some points. I can’t really say how it feels. I guess like the other times and that it can go either way. But it’s good to know that I could give as many answers after just a few days of studying instead of two weeks. Or maybe I won’t get a single point. I’m not gonna think about this, it’s done and I can focus on my thesis instead. I’ll take it again when I get the result in a couple or three weeks.

After the test I was in school for 1,5 hours with my thesis partner writing on the report. We got the feedback from our examinator and it wasn’t too bad this time. She even said we might get this appored before the summer. Good news, awesome! I got hungry at 3pm, went home, had lunch and then spent a while on my couch reading, and then falling asleep. I love this freedom feeling! I could have had summer break now, but what does two extra weeks matter?