In Virginia Beach!!

Hey everyone (all two of you :P)!!

I am now settled in at my friends place in Virginia Beach! The trip was fine, long, but fine! Since I left on the christmas day there were a very few people on the flight, so I had two seats to myself! Very convenient and comfortable.

I watched The fast and the furious: Tokyo Drift. YEAH!!! .... not... It sucked, but I can't belive I am gonna type this... I kind of got a line from that movie that I found kind of on point to me. Ok, so I have to tell you a little about the story of the movie for that line to make sense. It's about a kid that was living in the United States, always got in trouble and finally he get's in so much trouble that he is going to jail if they don't ship him off to another country. So he ends up in Tokyo Japan where his war veteran of a dad lives for some reason... very strange... But anyway he is really in to cars and street races a lot. He imidietly hooks up with this black american guy (played by no one else but BOW WOW! bow wow old friend... bow wow (Friends fans know what it means :P)) that is really in to cars and has the most pimped out SUV I have ever seen, it actually has fists coming out on the sides of it... So, this guy takes him to the underground scene of street racing in Japan, but it's not like it used to be back home in USA. No no, here they do "drifting". That is basically sliding on the side with your car in really sharp turns to get around better. (In swedish, handbromssladd :P) So he has to learn that and pretty much forget all the driving he had learned back home. And well he hooks with this Japanese guy that is raised in the u.s. but came back to his roots in Japan. And that guy said to the main character "When you begin to move on, don't look back"... and well... that was kind of on point. I can't belive you just read the story from The fast and the furious 3... suckaaa! :P

hehe sorry about that... well the flight was 9 hours and it was nice as I wrote earlier. When I got to the airport and was going thru the customs it turns out the flight attendants gave me the wrong paper to fill out on the flight... thank you Malaysian Airways. So... I had to get out of the line (it was soooo slow) and fill out another form and then get back in the line, or well I didnt have to get in the back of it, I could move to the front. It was just annoying.
I got my luggage kind of fast though, so that was cool. Then I took a cab to the hostel on Manhattan. I slept thru the night, and well... kind of thru the day too :) Then I took the bus from Chinatown (35 dollars to VA Beach, cheap cheeap) sat on the bus for 7 hours... 7 loooong hours. And met up with my friend that I was going to stay with at the bus stop and got to his place around.. midnight or one o clock!

Today we have got some errands done. My friend was off today so he took me to the DMV (the place where you go to get a license) and it was a lot of people there, but we just needed some info so that went kind of fast. I need to do a lot of shit before I can take the driving test. But I will figure it out.
I got an american number too! the ones who knows me in person can just ask me! But don't send messages to the old number!

Ok... so tomorrow I am going to study for the placement test I need to take before my semester starts! and that reminds me! We drove past the school that I'm attending (Tidewater Community College) and it looked really cool! Not at all as I imagened it. Low buildings and not very big! I think I will fit in fine there :)

That's it for this time folks. Hope your all doing fine back home or whatever you are! So far it has been great and I am very excited about starting school! A bit nervous, but not too much! I guess that it will come to me when the date gets closer. But I will deal with that when it comes!

Kisses all!!

Christmas eve, the day before!

Happy Holidays! (I don't wanna get sued :P)

Damn, I am really going tomorrow! I'm kind of nervous, but in a good way. Mostly I am worried that I might forget something important or that something goes wrong in NYC. (spending one night there to take the bus the day efter down to VA Beach)
Otherwise I am mostly excited! I am all packed, just had a nice christmas dinner and the relatives and all is here! I might go out to meet some friends for the last time before I go tonight, but we'll see. I'll probably be all up in this trying to come up with something that I forgot.

The plane leaves at 4 p.m. tomorrow so it's nice not to be too rushed druing the day. Leaving the house around 12 and about an hour ride to the airport and then check in and all! The time when I'm all checked in and waiting to board the aircraft is going to be the hardest part. Too nervous to eat the slobby sandwhiches as the airport and finally a moment to fully relax and think about what I'm actually doing. I will probably freak out a bit, but as soon as I'm on that plane I think I will only be excited! Brought a couple of books that I got as a gift from my two very close friends Kristian and Isabelle so I have something to do on the plane.

The flight number is: MH090 (Malaysian Airways) if anyone wanna check my flight route or anything :)

The next post is going to be from the United states! So wish me luck and I'll see you all from the other side of the Atlantic!

Peace out Sweden, I'll miss you.

Shout out to all my friends:
Liv
Kristian
Isabelle
Helena
Fredrik
Isak
Gabrielle
Klas
Tobbe
Gustav
Unn
Frida
Sofia

and everybody else that I might have missed! Take care and I will be here on the internet for you all! Love and kisses to you all!!!

And offcourse my family:

Mom
Dad
Love
Cissi
Jessica
Camilla
Grandma and Grandad
Ant and Uncle with cousins

Love you all!

Thank you!

Thank you all that showed up yesterday at my going away-dinner! I had a really great time and it's all because of you!

Pictures from the evening will be uploaded here soon!

My packing list

It is kind of hard to decide what to bring on a move like this. So please help me decide what I am going to put in to my bag!

This is what I got so far:

The big bag

• Clothes (kind of obvious)
• Toilet products (tooth brush and shit like that)
• Some DVD movies
• My Cd-case with my records in it
• Some rechargers: for my cell phone and my Nintendo DS
• A plug-in transformer. Since the plugs in Europa is different in the US.
  
• Lense cleaning fluid (I usually have lenses, but right now I can't wear them since I have gotten some bacterias in my eyes... not important though)
• Some games, memory cards and a hand controll to Gamecube. I am planning on buying both a Nintendo Wii and a PS3 when I get to the US, it's much cheaper there! And Since they are both backwards compatible and I have some US games, I will bring them!
• Some writable DVD's
  

Carry-On Bag

• Some important papers, The I-20 and the proof of my financial sponsors funds (and some more)
• My Passport! THE MOST IMPORTANT THING! (besides clothes maybe... ahh well)
• My Mp3 player! Here I am in some what of a sticky situation though... My Ipod (product placement) got stolen and I got the money to buy a new one... not in sweden though, but in the states. So I've been borrowing my fathers Ipod since he is not using it anyway. But I guess I can't bring his Ipod to another country. So basically I do not have music when I will be flying for 8 hours. Kind of irritating, I will see how I will solve that!
• Nintendo DS, I might have to buy another game to this one if I can't bring the Mp3 player.
• A pad and pens so I can write some on the plane! [Thanks Fridish]
  

Laptop Bag

• Laptop
• Recharger chord
• Manual and shit like that to the computor
• Maybe some DVD's if I feel like watching a movie on the plane.

I will update this post if I come up with something else, and pleeeaaassseee come with suggestions on what I should bring. I always feel like I forget something...

How to move to the USA

First of all, try to know someone in the area that you wanna move to. It's easier to get connections and stuff like that if you already have a friend living in the area. Some things can almost only be done from the united states too, so it really makes things easier with a friend there!

So the first thing you have to do is to decide if you wanna study or work there. Because you can't get a visa without working or studying, and jumping the allowed time spent in the united states is not such a good idea. I decided to study, at a college.
First you have to find a college that you want to study at (usually you start at a community college since that is the cheapest), hopefully somewhere in the area that you want to live in. When you have found one, get in contact with the International Student Counselor at that particular school and he/she will help you out on how to get accepted to the school. Don't underestimate the work to get accepted though, it can take a lot of time and energy, so start to look in to it in time! I started very late, and it bit me on the ass...

You have to take and english test before applying to the school. Usually it is the TOEFL test (Their website sucks) that is needed! It is not that hard to pass, but it costs money to do it and it might not be a lot of tests scheduled, so look in to that early!

Money... money is a big problem. For me it will cost around $6000 each year to attend the college I will attend. And that is without rent and stuff like that!
Here you can view how much money my school is suggesting that you've got.

If you live in Sweden like I do, you can contact CSN to see how you can get a loan from them!

Your parents are another alternative, just remember that you have to have proof from your bank that states that your parents got the amount of money you need for the education.

When you have got accepted at the school of choise, then it's time to get a visa from the United states embassy in your country. There are only one embassy in each country, so you might have to travel a bit to get to it. Mine was conveniantly in the same town as I live in!
There are a lot of paper work that you have to do before you go to the embassy (find your countrys united states-embassys homepage for more information, click here for the swedish one). They wanna know basically everything about you. Where you have studied before, all the names and adress of your siblings, every place that you've worked at and so on. The most important thing is to fill everything out right. I accidentally put down the wrong passport number on my application so I had to send my passport back to the embassy, I was just lucky that I caught it and that I caught it in time!
Remember that you can only get a student (F1) visa if you have been accepted to a school and have a so called I-20 form!

When you have got you passport back with your visa in it, just book the flight, and then you can go! wohooo!

Important Pointers

• Try to know someone in the area that you want to move to, it makes things easier
• Make sure you can get a hold of the ammount of money that is needed to attend a college in the United States
• Make sure you have enough time to get everything done. Rushing through the applications will only resolve in you doing mistakes and getting frustrated, trust me... I know...
• Read EVERY paper twice before you send them to the school or take them to the embassy.
• Check the visa and make sure that the information on it is correct, look at the passport number and the date of expiration for instant.
  
• Do not forget your passport, both when you go to the embassy and when you leave the country! [note to self]
  

One week before I go.

One week before I go... what can I say, I have butterflies. But in a good way. I have a lot of stuff to prepare before I go, mostly things that aren't that important and doesnt take a long time to do, but if you put them all together they will transform into one really big thing... So I decided not to do anything! Well... that's a lie, right now I am burning some DVDs that I'm gonna bring!

So, this blog is going to be about moi, and my move to the United States of America! Virginia Beach to be more specific. Why am I moving? Don't ask a complicated question and you wont get a complicated answer! The ones who know, they know, the rest... doesnt know!
I am going to study Sciense for at least two years at Tidewater Community College, get my Associated and then from there see what happens. If I feel like continue my education I will, if I don't feel like it... I wont!

So anyone that wanna check in on me and how I'm doing, read here once a week and I will update it!
Leave comments so I have something to read when I'm bored and I will holla right back to you!

Peace out for now! [The picture: Mälside 4 Life]