God with an iPod

It's Hell's week with assignments and midterms, but still I managed to have some fun. The program board arranged a free screening of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and it was really fun to go and see it. Two of my roomies, Sho and Accio are engaged in the program board, they were the ones doing the The Sounds' concert last Monday too.

I was supposed to have a midterm this morning, but the professor never showed up. No one knew what happened but it has been rescheduled til Tuesday, which is awful since I have another in the afternoon.

I have planned both of my costumes, I can't party more than two days because of my exams. Tomorrow I will go as a smurf together with the other Expressos and on Saturday I will be an iPod. I painted a wheel on a white top that was ruined by make up and created head phones of cardboard and paper. It's not slutty at all, but rather creative. And I even have portable speakers that I can connect to my real iPod and have music. The best thing is that I didn't spend a cent on it, even the speakers I got for free!

Photograph

I've added photos to my blog, the editing goes back all the way to when I got here in the beginning of September. If you want to see faces you have to log in to Facebook though, no point using nicknames if everyone can be identified. Enjoy!

Crossing the Rubicon

How can you do this to me?! What have I done to deserve this? OK, that was a rhetorical question and you can put away the list of all the sins I've committed, bad karma points are supposed to strike back in next life, not now! Fate is an evil bitch named midterms on Halloween. Halloween is Saturday, I have midterms Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday! Is this UCSB's strategy to keep Halloween a "calm and local" event?

Halloween is a big deal. We have received letters from UCSB and from our landlord regarding measures taken to keep the partying under control. Road blocks, no guest-policies (yeah, right!) and UC officials and police forces from all over California will patrol the streets (so much for keeping it local). They declare war on Halloween! But I've already passed the point of no return, I'm here to learn for life and this is a once in a lifetime experience, if I wanted to sit imprisoned in the library with my books I would've stayed in Lund - and if someone back home wrinkle their nose in disapproval, trust me, you'll say the same during the upcoming carnival this spring (vilken jävla vår?)

Swine Flew

It doesn't matter that we live in a warm place, it's still flu season. My roomies have been ill and Eddie too. There has been cases of swine flu on campus and we will probably get a shot soon since people under 24 is a high risk group. I'm fine though, my immune system runs AVG.

Living in America

Yesterday was so exciting!

First, when I got home from the store and opened Facebook, I saw the comments from my friends who still were on campus. "There's a guy running around with a gun in South Hall...cops everywhere!", "Lockdown in the library!". They evacuated buildings and rumors ran high, there were hostages, no, the gunman was on the roof, threatening to jump, with shaking hands I tried to figure out what was going on and where my friends were, but the warning system by mail reported that everything was OK, there was no threat, no weapon was confirmed and then T came home telling that her teacher already joked about it.

Second, I want to tell you that I've found the one! Eh, not the One, the right skateboard. Actually it's a longboard, a short longboard, a Sector 9 Bamboo-series named Big Rock, the board is 26.5 inches, the wheels 61 mm, small enough to bring on the flight back to Sweden and with light surface instead of the usual black (that's why it's called Bamboo). I've only tried to skate once before, so I'm superexcited to get it in the mail from the store in San Diego.

And third. The Sounds played in the Hub, the food court on campus. Yes, we're talking Living in America- the Sounds from Helsingborg. In our lunch room. It was a very small and intimate concert, with the audience jumping and singing along in Midnight Sun and Rock'n'Roll. The guards had a hard time pulling down crowd surfers and I climbed up on a pillar and had a marvelous view of the scene and the digging audience.

Thanks Youtube for the pic

And fourth, ”This is the comedy show, right?” isn't a very popular question at a church meeting.


Don't fall of the cliffs and don't go to South Hall!

(reporting to you from a very boring Computer Graphics lecture)

Underneath Your Clothes

Laundry service. I had the choice to either buy new clothes or arm myself with quarters and go to the laundry room, so I finally washed my clothes. There's a laundry room in the apartment complex next door, so I don't have to walk all the way to the laundry services on Embarcadero del Norte.

News feed:
Obama's peace prize went quietly by, except for some jokes about how easy it seems to get a Nobel Prize, just replace a very unpopular president, or why not give him the prize in literature for his book, or the economy prize for his stimulus package?

Weather: We had two days of rain this week. Students skip classes due to the bad weather, but I felt like home in the warm summer rain. However, back home it's really cold right now. This weekend the weather is hot, 30 degrees Celsius and sunny. Why don't you get a ticket to LA and come visiting me?

Wrapped Up In Books

Aaarggghhh! Homework, homework, homework. The studies take their toll. I came home past ten from the computer labs, programming an assignment due on Wednesday. It's fun, when it works. At the moment it doesn't.

Soon it's Halloween. I have to think about costumes, at least three different, I've been told! On Halloween all girls dress like sluts, so whatever it's gonna be, it'll be freezing. Now the weather has turned colder and when I walked home the air smelled of rain, the first hint since I arrived. The days are still warm enough to wear sandals, but at 6.30 pm the cold darkness swallows the sun and the skunks lurks in the shadows, ready to spray you with their aromatic perfume.

Life is a Rollercoaster

Elven friends, three cars, Six Flags. Six Flags, outside LA, is an amusement park with only rollercoasters. Like everything else in the US, it's bigger, higher and faster than what you find back home. The rides are more extreme than anything I've ever tried before. Alvright and Eddie were scared, not even Pokerface could keep his usual cool, when we hung upside down, falling in the slopes and loops.

The first one we tried was X2, where the chair flips over your head and you're laying horizontally while falling vertically down towards earth. Even a hard core roller rider like me got an adrenaline rush by the intensity of the g forces. We rode all the different rollercoasters, with names like Terminator Salvation, Superman the escape and Colossus. The lines where not bad because it was Sunday afternoon. My favorite was Tatsu, which is an inverted rollercoaster, you're hanging under the train, running on the outside of the tracks, sweeping closely over the ground in the turns and twisting upside down in utter and inner loops. I loved it, loved it, LOVED IT! Screaming at the top of my lungs is the only way I feel really alive.

Everyday

My life has slowly gotten on track, and I've formed a familiar pattern of school work and social life.

An average weekday would look like this:

7.30-8. 00 am. In the dawn of time the amoeba lives safe, warm and without any higher mental activity under it's comforter. After repeated auditive stimuli it slowly crawls to the bathroom.

8.00-8.20 am. I''m staring at the neanderthaler in the mirror, stumbling into the shower and afterward emerging as an evolved cave man.

8.20-8.35 am. Grunting I'm scoping down oatmeal as breakfast, brushing my teeth, and forgetting to brush my hair as I head for class.

9.00-9.50 or 9.30 -10.45. First class. Either math or computer science. I hand in homework on Fridays and today I got the first one back with a sticker on it, 35/35 :-D. It's so elementary school!

until 12.30 pm. Break. Studying. I bring my laptop (Marvin) to the library and study, now I'm writing a discussion on whether computers can think or not in AI. Surely, having a depressed computer called Marvin makes me partial in the debate (BTW look at http://www.naute.com/images/evolutionofman.jpg).

12.30-1.45 pm. Class. Now I'm tired and mostly bored.

After classes I might go to Santa Barbara, grocery shopping or most likely, do more homework. In the evenings I might hang out with the Expressos, usually cooking dinner together. This Monday I went with Youtube and Turtle to the movies and watched the Hangover. It's about a group of friends going to Las Vegas having a blast that they can't remember (did I tell you about our Vegas-plans? The Expressos are planning a trip...a road trip that is).

Today is Wednesday, which means a visit to the recreation center for some exercising. Youtube and Alright came over for dinner and afterward we went to a "wine tasting". Guess who I met there? Do you remember those guys the first day on the beach who invited me to a party? (I actually met them the day after that too and had a hard time explaining why I hadn't been to their party) They were there at the wine tasting! And one of them had been in Sweden as an exchange student and showed off his Swedish skills. We talked about a legendary sea battle (the regatta) and that one of his dormies had been a "hippie" when he was there last fall. This unplanned and unexpected trip down memory lane reconnected small parts of my life, filling me with nostalgia and leaving a sweet taste of home and sangria on my lips.

Livin' La Vida Loca

Now I've been one month in California. It's the best vacation ever: a never-ending summer, parties (that end 1 am) and the schoolwork is simple even if you found your brains in a dumpster.

The past week I studied Monday through Wednesday, more or less intensely because my books hadn't arrived. Thursday is college night, so we started of with margaritas and then went dancing downtown. The last regular bus is scheduled 9.40 so we took Bill's Bus, the party bus between Isla Vista and Downtown. We went to the trendiest club in Santa Barbara, Tonic. Glow sticks, vibrating dance floor and remixed Living on a prayer.


With bullets through my brain I went to classes on Friday. I had four hours of discussions in as many subjects. I became really irritated on some of the TA's who didn't seem to know the most elementary things in math.

Friday evening we had Chinese Barbecue (which involves sweet strawberry cocktails) and Saturday we had American BBQ (which involves hamburgers on the beach). In the evening we crashed parties with live bands. Nowadays "we" consists of The Expressos and our newly adopted member Soliel, a sweet French girl.

Today we all crawled back to our nests for studies and rest. I did some grocery shopping and bought 6 lb meat for $6 (pork ribs and seasoned chicken). Meat is with other words cheaper than onions!

And finally I uploaded photos on Facebook and now my mailbox is full of comments..."Oh, no, what if my future employer sees this!", don't worry, I have strict privacy settings...

Lost In Translation

To make it easier for you to follow my rambling, I made an ABC explaining some concepts in the Californian culture.

21, being. Having an ID saying that the holder is 21 years or older.

Awesome. Pronunciation: ÅÅ-som. An adjective that enthusiastically describes everything.

Bagel. Cinnamon-, whole wheat- chocolate-, what you will find when you're looking for bread.

Beer pong. Drinking game. You lose ->you drink -> you drink too much ->you lose.

Bike. 1. Transportation. 2. Something that I don't have which causes a weakest link syndrome so that everyone has to walk to the parties, see also skateboard.

Bill's Bus. A party bus between Isla Vista and Downtown Santa Barbara that runs later than regular buses. Especially popular on College Nights.

College Night. Thursday night, students go to Downtown Santa Barbara to dance.

Cotsco. Store where everything is cheap and big. Here UCSB students like to buy alcohol.

Crashing courses. Going to a course without previous enrollment hoping to get in.

Del Playa (DP). The road closest to the beach in Isla Vista, here you find the parties, the drunkies and the cops.

Expressos, the. A group of international students who like sunglasses, cameras and expresso machines.

Gaucho. 1. The mascot of UCSB (a masked Mehican). 2. Nickname for UCSB students.

iPod. An electric thingy in gay colors that everybody has.

Isla Vista (IV). Here UCSB students live in apartments separated by funny smelling allay ways and balconies with blasting speakers.

Governator, the. The man who fights the economic crisis by cutting back on education. Hasta la vista, re-election.

Majspace. From Maj's place. Be there or be square.

Mehico, Mexico. 1. Abroad. 2 Too far away.

Mehican, Mexican. 1. Someone who sorts the recycling. 2. Someone who cleans your room.

Oh My God! An expression often used by young American girls, usually with high pitched voice.

Peanut butter. A orange/brown pasta made of peanuts that is overdosed unexpectedly in food stuffs, e.g in cereal and ice cream.

Recycling. The action of putting glass cans, plastic bottles and paper containers in the same trash bin.

Roomie. Either 1. A nice, friendly person who shares your living quarters or 2. A person who snores and eat your food.

SBCC. Short for Santa Barbara City College. Here everyone who couldn't afford/ wasn't accepted at UCSB get an "education".

Skateboard. Common transportation to/from university. Skateboarders have own lines on campus.

Swedish Meatballs. 1. A sex move? 2. Not Swedish meatballs.

UCSB. Short for University of California Santa Barbara. Here the rich, beautiful and smart study.

Underaged. The opposite of 21.