Canadian, please...

Success!

The Christmas dinner was wonderful, with a taste like heaven and home.

Making Christmas candy in the bus.

Raingirl and Blackjack left for Chicago the morning of 26th and left Hippie and me trying to entertain ourselves. The only way we know how is to visit national parks, so we went to Mount Rainer National Park. Mt Rainer is an enormous snow dressed mountain in Seattle, we drove for hours to get there, but the park was closed >:-0. Still, we took a bath in a melt water river, and, o boy, it was invigorating! (Hippie: "This is a stupid, stupid idea!" Me: "Yeah, let's do it").

In need of a bath

Yesterday we picked up Angel from the airport before the sunrise, he celebrated Christmas in Hawii with Turtle and McConaughey and was now returning to spend some time with his family in Vancouver. The family was supposed to pick him up at 12, but was delayed at the border, so the three of us spent some time experiencing Seattle. We went on the Boeing factory tour and watched the birth of airplanes, 747, 777 and the new 787. The boys were all ah's and oh's, but I was too tired from waking up at 6 for really enjoying the tour. Apparently it's not an engineer thing, it's a guy thing. Still the 787 was cool, it's made from composite materials that are stronger and lighter than the usual aluminum, which results in a more fuel efficient plane.
Fun fact: The resason why most ariplanes are white is because bright colors are lighter than dark.


After the tour we headed north for the Canadian border. In the customs there was some confusion when brusque guards asked us to step out of the car and walk to a building. Oh no, what's going on? was my thought, but they only wanted to put some stamps in the passports. Now we stay at McConaughey's apartment, while he's still in Hawii. I can not explain how good it feels to stay indoors again...

A Merry Little Christmas

We arrived in Seattle the 23rd of December. Driving in Seattle is driving you crazy, so we had a hard time finding the B&B where Raingirl and Blackjack stayed. It was on 22nd Avenue, but it turned out to exists a number of 22nd Avenues, not to mention 22nd Streets too. Raingirl was kicked out from her apartment during the holidays, that is some kind of American thing to close campus apartments during breaks. Her family was visiting for the holidays and they will travel to Chicago and NY when we go to Vancouver.

The first thing we did, even before taking a shower, was going to the movies and watching Avatar 3D. It's the first time I ever saw a 3D movie, so it was amazing. The movie will get an Oscar for best special effects, for sure, but the story was not particularly interesting, it was about a colonial force trying to subdue the native people and get the natural resources of a planet. The skin color of the natives was blue, but might as well have been red.

I had to buy new warm clothes, because of course I didn't bring too much winter clothing when moving to California. The number of long sleeved shirts I had could be counted on the fingers of one hand, now I have two more and might survive the winter in Vancouver.

On Christmas Eve we exchanged some gifts, I got peace symbol earrings, a necessary accessory for a red dread head and then had a Christmas dinner at a fancy seafood restaurant. It was no white Christmas, in double meaning. For Hippie, Blackjack and me, this is the first Christmas without our families. To be honest, it's not very much of a celebration, but still it's fun in an odd way. Since they don't have the same Christmas food here as back home, Hippie and I decided to make a proper traditional Swedish julbord in the VW bus. We went grocery shopping yesterday morning: herring, ham, sausages, beef for the meatballs, rice for the rice porridge, whipping cream for the candy. And Blackjack brought the spices we need to make hot spiced wine, glögg.

It will be legendary, I'll keep you tuned.

From all of us, to all of you, we wish you a

Merry

Christmas!

The Long and Winding Road

The long and winding road took us to Berkeley, where we slept in Lovebud's co-op. She told us about her trip to Oregon, where she'd visited redwoods and hot springs. We wanted to do the same and after a really short stay in San Francisco, we barely grabbed an organic fair trade vegan lunch, we headed north to Redwood National Park.

More trees. Seriously, we travel from LA to Vancouver and all we do is watching trees. However, these trees were the tallest in the world, and we spent a foggy and rainy day on a hiking trail, in a forest world like the moon of Endor.


From the redwoods we drove until late at night and crossed the border to Oregon. We wanted to visit Crater Lake on the way. Crater Lake was created by a volcano that collapsed on itself. We arrived in the middle of the night, in full snow storm and drove up the slippery slope to the top. There was no campground, so we just parked on an empty parking lot and slept there. The morning arrived a few hours too early when a park ranger knocked on our window, demanding to see ID and registration. Illegal camping. We were kindly advised to leave, unless we wanted to camp until the snow melting in April.

And then we came to Oregon...

The pages on Oregon in Lonely Planet USA are sparse, and honestly, there's a reason for that. The only remarkable thing about the Beaver state is that it is not allowed to pump your own gas. There's a scenic drive along Hwy 58 trough a mountain pass, but the weather was so bad that no mountains could be seen. The rumors about hot springs were true though, but they were well hidden. A frantic search in wet woods and along a huge dam finally led to the hot springs. It was more of a one feet deep muddy pool, but it was HOT. Nice!

Additionally some hundred miles later we arrived in Portland. Christmas and window shopping. By an accident we found Backspace, a hip little internet café (a café with free wifi).

The beautiful void of Oregon

Born To Be Wild

The first day we spent entirely in the car. Traveling the roads in more or less the direction of Sequoia National Park. The bus has gas stove and fridge, and we filled the fridge with necessary supplies (wine and fruit).

The bus

The scenery changed dramatically on the way, from desert like conditions, to fertile green vegetation, and then to red fields of grape vines, to yellow-grey sand and rock. We arrived in Sequoia in the middle of the night and found a camping.

There was only two other cars, so we went to speak with some youths with a campfire. They were Swedes. Who else would go camping in the middle of December? The Swedes were pretty cool, two of them had travelled from New York, down the East Coast to New Orleans and then to San Diego. On bikes. We shared mashmellows and stories.

In the morning we hiked to see the sequoias. The biggest trees in the world. And they are BIG!

Video of Sequoias. You don't believe how big they are...

In the evening we drove to Yosemite and camped in a nice camping spot. It was cold, 0 degrees-Farhrenheit. When camping in a national park you're supposed to store all food, or anything with the smallest recemblance to food, in a bear safe metal box. Because the bears might break into the car otherwise. The bears are supposed to sleep in winter, but still, I lay awake for a long time listening to the sounds from outside the car. I am sure that I heard a bear once, or some animal, sniffing outside, and I hurridly woke up Hippie, but our voices scared it-whatever it was-away.

We had arrived at midnight and not seen anything in the dark. So in the morning we were surprised over the beautiful view. There was a river just outside the camping with water that tasted way better than the tap water!

We drove down to Yosemite Valley and marvelled at the sights of the mountains. And then we dared to hike up to see Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in North America, with just a few hours left before sunset. The climb was steep, and soon the legs felt like lead, but it was worth the pain and the effort when we got there. While gazing at the falls and having a snack, a big chunk of snow fell down from the cliffs with a tremendous thunder. We waited for a while, cameras ready in hand, to capture the next falling chunk, but that Kodak moment was lost on us, since the sun was setting rapidly and we had a long way back.

El Capitan and the Half Dome in Yosemite Valley

I've heard that it is possible for a person to live without internet for up to a week, but we found the public library and borrowed computers to connect with the world. I have a few gigabytes of memories in my camera and I will upload pictures as soon as I get a stable wifi-connection...

Hit the Road Jack

The car is loaded, the cameras are charged, the iPod contains audio books. We're ready to hit the road. The road leads to Sequoia, Yosemite, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver and yet undecided sights on the way.

It's wonderful to be young and free and have a car that can take you anywhere. The sky is the limit. Or at least the horizon.

PS. I'm now $8 righter after winning in our poker night yesterday. Eddie is $45 poorer after getting a parking ticket. DS

Vacation

Yesterday we surfed. It was stormy and rainy, but we jumped eagerly into the waves anyway. This time we had huge surfboards which turned out to be much easier than the small ones we used before. A few times I even managed to get into a standing position and keep it for a fraction of a second before I gracefully splashed into the ocean. It was cool. Literally. The feet were icicles.

After the surfing we baked ginger bread and cooked rice porridge with cinnamon and vanilla. And then we danced into the night, singing loud like tone deaf vikings, cheerleading the shots. Life is fair.



Did I mention that Hippie's a breakfast person? Well, it's definitely worth mentioning. In the morning, when I zombie out into the kitchen, I'm greeted by Swedish pancakes, French toast, grilled sandwiches, scrambled eggs, bagels and bran flakes. Getting up in the morning doesn't necessary have to be a bad thing.


I have a plan. A simple plan. A road trip along the West Coast up to Seattle. Celebrating Christmas with Raingirl and Blackjack. New Year's in Vancouver. And a return ticket from Seattle to LA the 3rd of January next year. If I get a signature on my DS-2019 visa form (so that I can re-enter US) tomorrow we are ready to hit the road.

Sugar Baby Love

Finally, all my finals are over and I have a life again. Holidays until January 4th. I LOVE my life.

But first things first. It's time for a proper update.

Last weekend, the girls down below, the boys next door and our apartment had a gift swap. Everyone drew a name in a hat and had to buy a gift for that person in the price range $5-20. Many bottles of beer changed owners, I got a scarf, gloves and a cap, which was perfect since the weather suddenly turned freezing cold!

My last three finals went well, and when I got the result from the first Computer Graphics final, I was positively surprised, but somewhat perplexed, because there is no way 83% of the answers were correct.

Yesterday, Hippie came to Santa Barbara. In the (next) most amazing vehicle ever. An old Volkswagen bus with bed, stove and fridge in it, painted in brown and orange. VoW!

My plans for Christmas and New Year's had more or less vaporized, because it was impossible to find affordable housing in NY this time of year, with such short notice. But now when Hippie is here, in such a wonderful car, the temptation to get on a roadtrip with him up the west coast is an irresistible adventure.

But the important things has to be prioritized. So today we kick started the Christmas celebrations. Turtle brought spiced wine (glögg) that filled the kitchen with nostalgic smiles, happy signs and blank eyes. And we baked like madmen. Saffron bread (lussekatter) in creative forms. Christmas candy (kola and knäck). Ginger bread dough. It smells like heaven. Tastes like heaven. Feels like heaven. The recipe for happiness is: cream, syrup, raisins, almonds, sugar, baby, love.

Something Stupid

Four finals in forty-eight hours. The first one is finished and probably failed. Fuck it! Maybe I'll get a few points for creative storytelling: "Once upon a time there was a matrix M, he was a translation matrix, or, no, a rotation matrix, or...ehrm, he was a 4 x 4 matrix, or, maybe 3 x 3, or, an n x n-matrix..."

OK, I will probably not fail the course completely, because there was this math question, that had absolutely nothing to do with computer graphics, and hence was solvable. But the rest sounded like C to me.

Tomorrow I have two finals, one in the cursed AI course. It contains logic and reasoning. You might be misled to believe that I should master this subject since I'm not completely brain dead. However, the sentence

¬ brainDead(Me) ⇒ goodAtArtificialIntelligence(Me)

is NOT valid.

Ah, the best thing with advancing within the academia is that it opens up a world of nerdy inside jokes. Like: curiosity killed Schroedinger's cat. Your moma is so fat, that when I put her in an array, I get index out of bounds exception. Or: how does a physicist wage bargain? Saying: "Who cares about a factor 2, it's the same order of magnitude."

The Final Countdown

I have four finals the upcoming week. Two of them are easy, two are hard, I need to pass three to get the credits I need. I have no idea how the grading system works here, but the finals are generally 30-40% of the grade, and to pass a course with C you need 70% in total. So, I basically need to score 30% on the finals to pass. I prefer higher grades, for sure, but now I'm most concerned with being able to count the credits as a full year when I get back home (then I need 12 credits/quarter).

There is something I've planned to do for a long long time: Adding links to the post titles so that the reader can listen to the songs (just click on the title text). The links refer to youtube-clips (nothing that requires software installation). Hence the links might "expire" after a while. I've just added links to a few posts back and not all the way back to the September posts, they're coming after the finals.

And: I want to wish happy birthday to someone who just turned sweet 16.

Hips Don't Lie

Eddie was the first one to complain. After one month. Then Youtube started and after a while Soleil joined in the wailing. After Las Vegas and Thanksgiving I couldn't agree more. Hips don't lie. We've gained weight since we got here. A lot. Who's that fat whale in the picture, she looks familiar somehow? Ooops, it's me! But well, the but swells, it is time for a lifestyle change....

Tomorrow. The first day of the rest of my life...

Money, Money, Money

Santa Claus came early this year. Mom send an email telling me that I've received a scholarship! Most of it will, naturally, sink into the black hole called household budget, paying for housing, course literature and food. But a little part of it will be used for fun. I will start by getting new headphones to my iPod, so that I can listen to music on my way to classes, singing along with Abba: Money, Money, Money, ain't it funny, in a rich man's world?

New Wave

Finally I got a Google Wave account. This is supposed to be a paradigm change in communication, but for me, it seems to be an advanced chat and not very backward compatible for that matter. I managed to send emails, but it was a hazard. I hope Google will make it merge well with gmail in the future, because, after all, people are conservative.

And after trying it for a while, it's still not better than a normal chat, not between two people. If you want to show pictures, for sure, drag-and-drop is nice, but the writing part is annoying. Too mouse based, opening new windows all the time. And using shift+enter to send instead of enter, what's the logic in that?



Add me and see you in the Waves!

Beat It

Soleil's French friends were visiting for Thanksgiving and they, Golfer and I went to Neverland, because it was in the neighborhood. Michael Jackson sold it five years ago and there's apparently nothing there anymore, except a black gate. Fans had left flowers and declared their love on the walls. The guard didn't want to let us in, naturally, and told us to beat it. What we saw on the other side of the fence was mostly dry desert, which wasn't very thrilling. But at least we had a good time in the car, singing along with They don't care about us, which now is an anchor for a warm and happy memory, play it for me and I will smile :-D.

When we got back there wasn't no sunshine, but still we wanted to go surfing. The waves were huge and the sky gray as a rock, but it's human nature to think that you're invincible and we jumped in. For an hour we fought the current, kicking frenetically when being caught under a wave, getting up again and paddling like crazy to get out from the shore. Don't stop 'til you get enough, well, you've had enough when half the ocean is in your wetsuit and the other half is in your lungs.

We ended the evening by falling asleep with the Usual Suspects playing on Eddie's HD projector.

Perfect Day

Thanksgiving day I slept until 14, then went to the bay with Eddie, Eddie's friend Golfer who's visiting from Texas and Turtle and there we tried to surf. I have been here for more than two months and today was the first time I tried surfing. We borrowed the surfboards and wetsuits from Eddie's housemates. Surfing is difficult. The theory is simple enough, when you spot a wave you start paddling and when you're on the wave you stand up and glide. In reality, it's way harder. First, the waves are rare. Second, it's hard to get on a wave. Third, it's hard to stand up. Everything is basically hard. As a beginner, you don't even know how it's supposed to feel when you catch a wave, but when you do, there's no doubt that this is it! It's like...well, you know. I got on a wave once, suddenly I just glided on the water, but it was so unexpected that I didn't even think about getting up before it was too late. It was so much fun, though, I hope to return tomorrow...

In the evening we had Thanksgiving dinner at Soleil's with a group of friends. We had turkey, mashed potatoes and cranberry jam, punch and brownies. Afterward, we we're in food coma and played who-am-I, having cards with names of famous people on our forehead trying to guess who we were. Except for the food, we didn't really care about the purpose of celebration: the European immigrants being welcomed by the native Americans with food and gifts and afterward returning the favor with genocide, cheers for that!

It was a perfect day.

Thank U

Thanksgiving. Now we're supposed to think about why we are grateful. And then devour a giant turkey and tons of pumpkin pie. I'm grateful for having you, my family and friends, new and old, who cares about me. I'm grateful for the opportunity to pursuit happiness, to get an education, to travel the world. I'm grateful for the result of the genetic roulette, so that I was born with 46 chromosomes and turned out healthy (physically at least :-P).

When thinking, there is usually one factor involved: Alanis Morissette. So I made a tribute to her by adding my own lyrics to one of her songs, and as always, it's basically random thoughts put together and maybe you can find some sense in the white space between the lines...

Thank U

How bout getting off of these perfectionistics
How bout stopping drinking when I'm fed up
How bout them ignorant by flashing blackouts
How bout that ever yes-saying mantra

Thank you fairy tale
Thank you day-dream
Thank you disgrace, embarrassment
Thank you irony
Thank you criticism
Thank you thank you science.

How bout me not begging you for approval
How bout me enjoying the freedom for once
How bout how good it feels to fuck without caring
How bout bleeding it all out at one time

The moment I stopped worrying was
The moment I finally saw things clearly
The moment I quit searching it was
The moment when I found peace

How bout no longer being hid in shadows
How bout remembering my integrity
How bout stopping the quest in search for Prince Charming
How bout not equating love with hurting

Thank you fairy tale
Thank you morning sun
Thank you disgrace, embarrassment
Thank you atheism
Thank you irony
Thank you thank you science...

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Today I got the H₁N₁ (swine flu) vaccine. The efficiency was impressive, I walked in and out, shot in the arm, within 5 minutes.

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There was a dinner at Alvright's that turned into a party. And my no-idea-what-to-do-during -winter-break turned into a plan. Alvright and me. For Christmas and New Years. In New York.

I Will Always Be Your Soldier

Hazel, I'm truly amazed that you read my blog so unholy early in the morning and that I get a response so quickly after posting my last sorrowful tirade, you're hardcore, and if I can help you get going in the morning I'm not the one denying you your morning fix, :-D. I've done some talking with important people in my life and once again I feel loved and appreciated, thank you, guys!

When visiting Las Vegas I caught myself thinking this I have to write on my blog and this picture will be perfect for my blog, so I'm obviously not done writing. It's a neverending story...

What Happens in Vegas...

...stays in Vegas. Except herpes. Las Vegas is legendary, we have all seen the shaking film clips of the bright lights in the night to the sound of pumping music. Here couples elope to get married, but usually marriage is the last thing on people's mind. Gambling, strip tease, drinking in the street. Welcome to Sin City.

We left 5 am Friday morning from Santa Barbara. Two cars went in the morning and one in the afternoon. Eddie, Apple and I went to Santa Monica to pick up Hippie (who just landed in LA on his world tour spanning from China, the Philippines and Japan and now the North American West Coast) and Nightingale. It's a five hour drive, mostly through the unforgiving Nevada desert.

The first stop was an outlet. I bought the most adorable Converses with orange laces and Hippie got "matching" pink ones with neon green laces. You cannot take yourself too seriously when walking the streets in those bright colors, but no one takes me seriously anyway, so why should I start doing it?

To get into the clubs you need to maintain a certain dress code, including black shoes for men (women can dress how they like, they are to rare to reject). Eddie and Apple who might be the worst shoppers ever, had a hard time finding black shoes in the outlet. Nightingale and I finally dragged them into a store where they got the cheapest shoes they could find, and we were ready to hit the dance floor.

We stayed in Luxor, a hotel with a giant sfinx in front and formed as a pyramid. Like all the other hotels, there was a casino in the bottom floor. The first night we went to LAX, the club in our hotel, right after midnight the day Pokerface's girlfriend turned 21! We sang and drank for her and made a very improvised birthday cake from a muffin.

Saturday we walked along the Strip, entered the hotels and marveled at the sights. Most of the hotels have a theme, for example the Venetian, where there is an indoors channel with gondolas and a fake sky in the ceiling.

Or Caesar's Palace, build in "ancient" architecture and with Romans á la Asterix-style walking around waiving to the visitors. In Paris, the Eiffel tower is one third of the original 's height and we managed to get pretty good breakfast croissants. I felt like a cultural snob walking there, looking at the fake copies of European cities, together with an Italian guy and a French girl, dropping comments like "What on earth does a Trojan horse do in Caesar's Palace?" and I didn't even notice all the statues and fountains with mythical creatures and gods, because, well, that's what people have as garden gnomes back home.

Outside Bellagio there is a fountain that follows the sound of music.

In the night we went to Pure, a night club in Caesar's Palace, and danced on the roof with a view of the neon lit night. Interesting fact is that women entered the club for free, while men had to pay $30. I don't mind saving money, but that is still discriminating. But it's good for business, I suppose, because the more girls in the club, the more men will it attract and the more money will they make in the bar and entrance fees. Money that is used in a dollar rain on the dance floor. That only happens in Las Vegas. My feet hurt like hell when I got back at 5am to the hotel, the price of wearing high heels, but it was totally worth it.

The others gambled a bit, but I don't really like the idea of games of chance, and I'm not good enough when it comes to poker or black jack, so I let it be. As a concept, Las Vegas is interesting, a temple devoted to Bacchus and lust, where the god is money and your worth and dignity depends on the pile of poker chips in your palm. The night flashes by at the pace of a racing heart, ready to live and burn, as if it will burst from the first sunbeam.

Sunday we got back, early enough for me to finish my logic assignment due today at 6.30 this morning.

Enjoy the Silence

I have had a lot of fun writing this blog, it has been an open diary to let you know how and what I'm doing and what I'm thinking and experiencing here in the United States. It is very private, although I try to avoid too private matters. I've been positively surprised when people who I didn't expect to read my blog says something about it, but since you don't post the comments on the blog I don't know what you think about it, or who you are, before you talk to me.

Lately, however, I've gotten a lot of negative comments about the way I chose to live my life, usually involving statements of lacking mental ability, that it's a waste sending me to US because I don't seem to learn anything and if I'm gonna drown my brains in booze I could as well do it in Lund. I get critique for the friends I'm hanging out with, for being irresponsible and behaving like a 14-year old on an emancipation mission.

I want you all to know that I love my life. The pace is fast, juggling studies and social life, battling both practical problems and cultural differences. But still, I make the my own decisions and will face the consequences. You might not like all the things I do, or agree with me, or even recognize me anymore. But what is the point of going abroad if you don't expand your horizons and develop as a person? I'm surprised and sad that you don't seem to feel the same way. I'm not failing classes. I'm not broke (my financial situation is sound). I'm not a drug addict. I'm not pregnant. And I intend to keep things that way.

Due to the lack of encouragement and support I'm not sure I want to continue writing California Dreamin', it's time to wake up from the dream. I opened up and let you have a peek into my life, and I'm sorry that what you see isn't as perfect and beautiful as you expected. This said. Good bye.

Subterranean Homesick Alien

Sunday night Soleil, Eddie and I kidnapped Alvrigth. He was asleep at 7 pm and we we're let in by his room mates, jumped in his bed and pulled him into the car of an Italian maffia guy and drove out to nowhere where Eddie lives and had a nice Italian carbonara. Youtube came back from a week of exile in LA and talked non-stop about the astounding Vegas-trip.

Right now, I'm drowning in assignments and yesterday I was so mad at the classes. They are more interested in testing us than teaching us! I know exactly what I want to do, but I don't know how!. It's the first state of cultural shock I've been told. The anger and frustration, that nothing is like it was back home, where everything per definition is much better. I miss my home. Here I'm an alien, I don't even recognize the image in the mirror anymore.

Last night I went to the movies with Eddies photographer friend. We saw District 9, a science fiction film about an alien colony on earth, but in reality a commentary on how the society handles immigration and the violent nature of man, especially all the running around with weapons and a camera angle reminding of first-person-shooter games.

E.T phone home...

I Don't Wan't to Miss a Thing

Having dreadlocks is like making a social experiment. The hair is a girls most important attribute for sex appeal and when she deliberately "destroys" it, the reactions are strong. When I emailed pictures to Mom, she wasn't exactly happy about it. She asked if I had gotten too little love as a child and pointed out that she loved me just the way I was without dreadlocks. I'm glad you love me just the way I am, no matter what my hair looks like :'-P. But most people are impressed and like it, of course, few would tell to my face that it looked awful and that I should shave them off. Especially strangers give loud approval: a girl on the bus mouthed "I love your dreadlocks" and when I skated to a party Friday night guys yelled "I like your hair" and "Legit!" after me. For sure, then I had two high pony tails, stonewashed jeans and a red jacket, skating, looking rather like a cartoon character.

T's boyfriend is here celebrating his birthday. T gave him a longboard, the same that Bomber has. Three fourths of the enormous chocolate cake is still in the kitchen. They're so cute together and T is all flushed and blushed all the time :-).

On a party last night, Alvright confessed that he'd never seen to girls kissing. He's from Chile, they're kind of conservative there. "We can fix this!" was my immediate reaction "Where is Soleil?". I don't have too many inhibitions really, I mean, if you never dare to try something, you might miss out on one of the greatest experiences in life. We found Soleil in the kitchen. After waving her over it took about five seconds to explain the gravity of the situation and additionally five seconds later we had made Alvright's dreams come true. When Eddie came he was devastated for missing out on us making out. Yes, Eddie, Y O U M I S S E D I T !

Dreadlock Mädchen

Some of you will freak out when you read this. Or like it. But most likely freak out. I have d r e a d l o c k s. We sat in the living room in Flamingo's co-op for more than 4 hours, combing, rubbing and waxing my hair. Now it smells like coconut surf wax, feels like a woolen helmet and looks like stripes of a sandy dusty blanket. I guess that I won't get anymore comments on parties about my pretty hair (the soft red curls have been replaced by tight wired locks). Bomber and Accio seemed to be cool with the dreadlocks, but the boys next door were dreadful. Not a white chick with dreads! Personally, well, I just couldn't resist something new and exciting. Where else than in California? I will put ribbons and seashells in the hair and look like a hippie mermaid. And then, when I need to get a real serious job as an engineer after graduation, I might think about brushing them out, or shaving my head :-0. Although in my business, as a female programmer, when companies want to be creative and innovative, I'm not sure that dreadlocks is a negative thing on a work interview...

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It's a Sin

What do tourists do in Santa Barbara in the middle of November? Still Santa Barbara has its mediterranean charm even when it's "cold" (today was a pretty decent Swedish summer day), so the boys went exploring the shopping district. Yesterday we had a small dinner and went to the movies, however, not having a working phone makes my life way more interesting, the Expressos walk in whenever they feel like it and we play cards or have a drink, which is very nice surprises (OK, I'm not surprised anymore). The movie was a sweet lullaby and all four Swedes fell asleep before it even started. Today the boys went to LA and I'm supposed to do some studying.

Today there was an art demonstration on campus, at least I think it was art because they have many of those (but I haven't seen the gorilla chasing the two bananas in a while, maybe he caught them). This time there was people with signs "Satan's child" and a long paragraph from the Bible about Satan's children, sinners burning in Hell in afterlife. I say like the Pet Shop Boys: "Everything I long to do, no matter when or where or who, has one thing in common too, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a sin!" And truth be told, living here in California is like entering OC or 90210, there is drama! But I can't write on my blog about who spent quality time with the DEA, who are lovers, who went to prison and so on. If you want to know, just ask, and I might or might not tell you...

Circus

Flamingo invited me to his circus show in the park in Isla Vista. A brave crowd had gathered in the dark chilly night to watch. And we got a show worth to remember. There was a guy with a giant screw that he screwed through his nose and mouth with an electric screwdriver. Another put hooks through the skin of his back and hung in the air making acrobatics. They had ropes and rings for air acrobatics too and ended with a fire show. The crowd was wide eyed with amazement.

I had to run home to meet the boys from Canada when they arrived. Angel, McConaughey and one of McConaughey 's friends from Sweden. The boys had left San Diego this morning and been to Six Flags before they got here. Long time, no see.

Eternity

The second wave of unpleasant surprises after Halloween hit us. When everybody left, things where taken or misplaced, especially important things like chargers. I had to send Lovebud's computer cable to Berkeley, and T sent a phone charger to her friend, who accidentally had taken my phone charger instead. I still haven't found my camera charger, but T has a Canon too, so I hope to borrow hers until I've located mine.

Running around as an iPod might be really exciting on Halloween, but the days after when I caught a cold was not so fun. I stayed at home Thursday and Friday, sleeping and drinking lots of tea.

I ordered Eternity II from Amazon in UK, which was only 20% of the price on the US Amazon. Today it arrived. Eternity II is a puzzle, there exists a solution, but no one has found it yet (not officially at least). The first one to solve it gets a £2 million price. The problem is that it's really hard to solve by just trying to fit pieces together, it would take longer than the life of the universe. So you need either be 1) autistic, 2) fu*?ing lucky or 3) write a really good computer program that solves it. Now I have something to do in the enormous amounts of spare time I have...

Rolling

"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately.

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life."
-Henry David Thoreau

Now the midterms are over, they went OK I think, considering the fact that I didn't study for any of them. There was no time, there was Halloween. In the middle of my midterm yesterday I got a text from T. I had to finish my test before I could read it, but when I did I felt pure joy: "Hurry home, there's a package waiting for you!". OK, guys, I know you imagine a delivery boy with a package waiting to teach me... the definition of the pumping lemma, erase that picture! It was my longboard (shortboard) that had arrived. It's so pretty and small. My neighbor and a friend of my roomies, Bomber (who once won a skateboard with the motivation: What I like the most is to see the boys faces when I bomb the hills) helped me to adjust the wheels and remove the spacers, so now I can turn easily. Bomber's a really good skating teacher and she tells me what I should think about, for example that you pick up a lot of speed in the hills. I went skating all afternoon. The first thing I did was making a new acquaintance: Mr Asphalt. I bombed a hill with myself as kamikaze pilot and scratched my knees and hands when I flew off the board. Well, a little war injury has never hurt anybody.

During the last weeks I've expanded the Venn diagram of friends with new circles. Many fellow exchange students, say hello to my dear Mr Carrot and Double-O-Seven (aka Jean Connery) and a very extraordinary person, Flamingo (pink dreadlocks) who can make any sleepy afternoon way more interesting. He taught me to swallow fire the other night: "Breathe out, if you breathe in, your lungs will collapse and you'll die. Are you ready?"

Halloween

Friday night.
The road blocks went up around five o'clock in the afternoon just outside our house. There were police officers everywhere. People were arriving all day. T had friends coming over from San Diego. Lovebud came from San Francisco and Nightingale and two friends visited from Santa Monica.

The first night The Expressos dressed up as smurfs. I used blue stockings for my legs and arms and we had painted our faces blue with tint. Girls are "supposed" to have small slutty costumes during Halloween so many girls just wear underwear and put on some wings to be a fairy. Being blue in your face is not sexy, but it's fun. We were walking along Del Playa and people pointed and yelled "Smurfs!" after us. Pokerface later told me that smurfs are invited to all parties, they just went to a house asking for a "Brian" or a "Phil" and got in. Del Playa was crowded with people dressed as pirates, flintstones and super marios. And I have a lot of compromising pictures of my friends making out with clowns and cavemen (actually it was the same caveman every time).

Lovebud had a midterm this morning and arrived late, she was supposed to call me when she got here, but my cell phone battery died. I had to hurry from a great party to get home and charge my batteries and be able to call her. Then she had already waited for almost half an hour! I felt so ashamed. On our way home we run into Flamingo, and invited him along. We had been five minutes at myspace before the door opened and people welled in. The invading army dried up all alcohol in the house and broke the sofa. One of the party people was my plastered TA and when he realized that he was at one of his student's place he told everyone that he could get fired for socializing with students. "Don't tell anyone and you'll get an A" he said, I laughed and told him that I would write it on my blog. He will not remember anything of it though, so wasted as he was.

Unfortunately there were so many people running in and out from our apartment so two iPods got stolen, which make my sad and angry.

Saturday Night Fever.
There were people sleeping on the floor and in every corner of our apartment, and everything was so messy. I went with the girls to get coffee in the morning and checked out the beach. Of course the girls from Santa Monica have a way better beach, but we still saw some dolphins!

Then we went downtown Santa Barbara. We didn't really have time for sightseeing before we got back. After dressing up, this time I was an iPod (isn't it ironic?). I got a lot of compliments for the costume...and a lot of pressing on my wheel too, making me sing in high and low volumes, skipping tracks and fast forwarding in songs.

Sunday, bloody Sunday.
And now it's Sunday. Lovebud had to return really early to Berkeley and Nightingale and her friend went back to LA. I have a midterm tomorrow and two on Tuesday, so it's time to study now...


Halloween

Take off your jeans and Abercombie,
dress up like a butterfly or zombie.
See the girls in teeny tiny tops,
Zig-zag between the CSOs and cops.

Join the hubbub on DP,
but careful so you don't get a public intoxication fee.
Filter the SKYY through your liver,
and we're rolling, rolling down the river.

High Highlander and stoned Flintstone,
you never have to be alone:
Make out with Captain Jack Sparrow,
let an Apache pierce you with his arrow.

It's a night to be crazy, be insane,
nothing will pass the roadblocks on Memory Lane.

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.

Gauchos

Sunday:

Gauchos met the Anteaters (UC Irvine) in a friendly soccer game. We went to the game to support our team, "Go gauchos!". US soccer is not the same as anywhere else (ask a Brazilian), they count down (2 x 45 min) and have time outs (what?). The players are, however, just as civil as their foreign peers, calling names and kicking each others' balls. The audience was fun though, when the gauchos scored (once) they threw tortillas on the field and every time the clock counted down to four twenty they chanted :"9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 ,2, 1, 4.20!" (this is after all California).

After the game we went to Al's and Eddie made Italian lasanga. We have our own international cooking club, making sushi, burritos and pasta!

Monday:
I like my classes and my schedule. It's tough: I start 9 every morning and as late as 1.45. With a 2-hour break between classes. There's a lot of reading and homework assignments on the other hand.

All new students have to do an online alcohol course. Today I finally did the course. Answering questions like:

"What is NOT a sign of problem drinking?
1. Having headache and shaking hands.
2. Falling behind on school work and assignments.
3. Having a drink with dinner every day.
..."
-I think the answer was having a drink with dinner every day, which at least I would classify as more of a drinking problem than falling behind on school work...

F*** the Ying Yang Twins

Good morning, America! When I wake up I clean. I do the dishes, sweep the floor, maybe vacuum clean too. And carry the bottles to recycling.

By now, I have gotten to know the Expressos quite well. The Expressos is my gang: Turtle, Youtube, Pokerface, Eddie, Al and me. We're a cultural mix, which makes some discussion very interesting. For example, Youtube told us how a Brazilian picks up a girl: if you're at a party the guy has to make an excuse (usually very transparent) to get a private moment with the girl, e g saying that he needs bandages from his car to get her there to make out. It's a social code, just like inviting someone up for coffee or tea...

Hence we weren't surprised when Pokerface left us with a Brazilian excuse to help a girl grab something in her dorm (who do you think was grabbing what? :-P)

The uni organized a concert with the Ying Yang Twins. The group is apparently famous here with songs like "The girl is a hoe" and "Smoke break". Most of their songs involved crashing sounds and the words "nigga", "bitch" and "fuck". Still we stood in a crowd of drunken teenagers listening to the...music. Turtle was harassed by a 18-year old girl, who pressed herself against him while he tried to avoid touching her, poor Turtle. A weird looking guy with gloving gloves wanted to sell us E, but he too without success.

Thanks for letting me steal your photo, Youtube

After the concert we went to a birthday party, which was fun until the police shut it down 1.30.

EDIT: After debating the subject our group got the name Expressos instead of Nespressos.

The Cliffs of Insanity

This is one of the most surrealistic days of my life, like a Dalí painting.

I woke up feeling awful after four hours of sleep. The first thing I did was crashing a class. When crashing a class you go there without being registered and hope to get in. It was a math class and well, we had to write a proof of some statement. It was supposed to be done by induction, but I wrote one line stating that since the multiple of two positive integers is larger than zero, the statement was obvious. Somehow I felt that this didn't suit the instructor at all.

After buying books on Amazon.com for $220 I went to the a welcome reception for international students. Youtube had promised to make sushi and at the welcome reception we invited people over to Al's for the evening. It was really fun. Youtube cooked rice and rolled sushi for hours while we watched, talked and enjoyed ourselves.

Later, when I got home I entered a world of insanity. There where people at our place, but I could find any of my room mates. My neighbor was there and told that his room mate had fallen off the cliffs by the sea and was in the hospital. He was worried and upset. Last year one of Sho's friends died falling off the cliffs, so she had an emotional meltdown when she heard about it. Zac and his room mates went to the hospital, but we still haven't heard from them how bad it is. My roomies wanted to go after in the car, but I stopped them, saying they were incapable of driving and that we didn't want to end up in the hospital, although that was precisely the purpose.

There's still people on our balcony, smoking, while my roomies have gone to bed, taking care of Sho, trying to cheer her up. She is really sad and upset because of all the bad memories that have been triggered.

oh, it's knocking on the door, it's Zac's signal. He tells that everything is all right with his roomie, he's gonna be fine and is coming home with his brother soon. Everything's gonna be all right.

Walk In, Walk Out

Today was the first day instruction. But many teachers were on strike. Due to the economic crisis there has been budget cuts and since University of California is a public school the cuts are deep. The staff members get lower salaries and the tuition fees increase. In protest many staff members walked out on the first day. Just when the new students arrive!

My instructors were there, however. I ran hurriedly between classes, clutching a map. First I had a small Indian professor in a programming course and I immediately fell in love with the subject. Next instructor was from China, he too had a funny accent and talked one hour about the economic situation and the cut backs. The last course, a mathematics course, was awful, I have taken it already (like the first year at university) and will drop it as soon as it can be replaced.

I went to the gym and afterward to the grocery store. When I got home I didn't know what to do, so I went to Pokerface for a coffee. It was a desperate move since I don't drink coffee and had a hard time emptying the tiny espresso cup, but I liked the company. But as you know, one thing led to another and somehow we ended up having a party at our place, Youtube making caiperoskas and shots flying in the air...

Now it's time to introduce my room mates properly. They are all back now and we're having so much fun together. And tonight, I found out that they read my blog, so I have their watching eyes on me... We've already med T, she picked me up from the airport remember? We share room. She's really neat and study econ. Then we have Sho, one of the first thing she said was that she loved shoes, so that stuck (plus it sounds Asian). Sho is so funny, tonight she run around taking pictures documenting our shame for future generations, or at least, future facebook tags. The last one I met was Accio [acki-o], she is stunningly beautiful and cool, with a piercing in her lip. She's the one I called when I lost my key, an awkward first conversation on the phone (her nickname is Latin for call, summon...)

And finally, I have to thank Al for the help with my computer, he fixed it and now it works perfectly...until it crashes the next time that is.

Recreation Day

It was a challenge to get up to the Convocation ceremony at three o'clock. The new students were welcomed by the dean, professors in Whatever and presidents of associations of Something. The ceremony was outdoors and it was a hot day, we sat there perspiring while the speakers repeated the same mantra about cut backs, hard studies and pride.

Afterwards, Turtle, Youtube and I hit the recreation center. Wow! Wowwowwowwow! Tennis courts, squash, soccer, an indoors skating rink, two gyms, a pool, climbing walls, you name it! We tried climbing, which was difficult. Then running: it took a while to get used to the machine and I had to type in weight and speed in pounds and mph. After that we went to the pool and dived and finally we found a hot tub...La vita è bella.

We spent 3-4 hours in the reccen and walked home on weak legs. The best thing is that it's payed for by the tuition fees, with other words: FREE! I usually hate gyms, but this, this...I lack words. I might even return on a regular basis, so great is it!

After days of raving I finally had a sober evening and had time to chat with Angel. He is in the same time zone, unlike my friends back home. Since he studies on the west coast too, the stories were similar. His room mate sells weed, at this very moment McConaughey's room mate was there to buy some (McConaughey is one of the other Swedes in Canada). Angel could at least answer the question why he doesn't try drugs with "My father puts druggies in jail for a living".

The semester starts Thursday. My room mates will be back soon :-D

Mad World

The last days of summer the students party as if there's no tomorrow. So did I with my new made friends from the introduction.

Saturday evening started off with a dinner, Turtle and I cooked chicken-curry and invited Chatty and Smiley over. In the middle of dinner Al and Pokerface walked in. They had called, but I answer my new American phone as often as I did my Swedish one (very seldom that is). Al needed somewhere to crash. He was homeless (but will hopefully get a place tomorrow) and I had an empty apartment, so I had given him access to our futon. The first thing Pokerface asked when he entered the room was: "Do you have weed?" The deal is, that Chatty knew where to find some, so he could help Pokerface out in that department.

Our party continued to Chatty and Smiley's apartment. When I told them that I'd never seen, or for that matter tried, marijuana, they had to show me. I found myself smelling on some dry balls of green-gray herbs. This was not the day my Swedish don't- take- drugs-heritage caved in, but the cultural shock was quite massive. If you get caught possessing marijuana, you'll get a ticket, the same as you would get for walking over the street outside a crossing. With other words, smoking weed is no big deal here, public intoxication is much worse.

However, as long as you're in a group of people and don't draw attention to yourself, the cops will leave you be. But if you're alone and unable to identify yourself, you're in serious trouble (of course I had forgotten my ID that night). But still we walked from party to party, meeting patrols on the way.

The Americans have a different way to drink than Europeans. We take it slower and the parties continues until early morning, here everyone gets plastered really fast and the party dies before 12.

I woke up early afternoon and, after directing Al to the shower, I took a jog in an attempt to revive the brain dead sponge in my head. When I got back and had breakfast people started to drop in. If you don't have plans a Sunday afternoon you go to friend and do nothing together. The first to arrive was Youtube, a Brazilian film student. The next one was Pokerface. He was hungover and needed a double espresso to start the day, so we went to Starbucks and spend a few bucks on shots of coffee. Afterwards we took the bus to downtown Santa Barbara (students ride the bus for free!) and Pokerface could buy an espresso machine for his dorm room.

Turtle and Eddie (there's many new characters being introduced today, you'll get used to them soon) had joined us and together we made dinner at my place. Youtube excelled in the kitchen, making quesadillas to all six of us. Inviting people over who can cook is a perfect way to get dinner when you're too tired to make some yourself. He was really good at making caipiroskas too...And yet another day faded into a mist...