This day was one of the better I’ve had here. Waking up in a very nice way, playing a lot of beachvolley, swimming in the ocean several times, and reading. For once I played really well! My passes and sets were perfect almost every time and I was better than usual at placing the ball on the opponent’s square. It felt so good and the only thing keeping me from playing until the very end was the extremely hot sand. I don’t understand how the other people could keep playing. I could hardly walk in the sand without burning myself.

I don’t know how warm it was, but it was perfect, there was a sea breeze, and the water was cool. It was pretty humid though so I was sticky all day, but I didn’t mind. It was the perfect day at the beach!!
It was definitely not as warm as yesterday when the temperature hit 90F, but then it’s always a little cooler at the beach. Even in the evenings it’s still very warm, so no hoodies needed anymore. Awesome!

BUT!, when I was leaving I had some troubles… First of all some stupid RV blocked the parking lot exit so no one could leave. The cops were there and a lot of people were annoyed and wanted to leave. Some people tried getting out where the entrance is, but all of them got stuck in the sand so it wasn’t worth it. After 45 minutes the right car drove away so everyone could leave through a hole. A random guy was standing by the road making sure no one parked there. Very nice of him!

And then something else happened. The car beside me was driving out before me because he had a smaller car. He drove out and then backed a little to make room for a turn (it’s always tricky getting out of those spots, hardly any space at all) and he totally backed into my parked car leaving a mark. I knew that I had to get the guys information, but I just froze, blacked out. It wasn’t any big damage, but I get nervous when something I’ve never experienced before happens. The family in the car on my other side realized that I wasn’t from here and told me what to do. So I took a photo of the damage and then of his insurance and drivers license. I hope I didn’t miss anything. I talked to my hostmom as soon as I got home, sent her all the pictures and she will take care of it. I’m glad it wasn’t anything bigger than one, maybe two scratches.

I realized I got a little burned on my left arm today, took a shower and then put on some aloe after sun cream. Should be gone by tomorrow. Now I’m waiting for time to go by so I can have my longed-for bbq at Phil’s BBQ with some friends.

Nothing is gonna stop me from seeing Maroon 5 this time. I missed it last time in March because it was on a Friday and in LA. I would never have made it in time with the traffic. But this time, it’s on a Saturday down in Chula Vista. So I bought a ticket today for $45. It’s gonna be awesome!

My day was really lazy today. I worked in the morning as usual and when I got home I was so tired (I didn’t sleep like a baby last night…) so I napped for a couple of hours before lunch. I had lunch and then I read for a little more than an hour before I had to pick up the boy from school. I had more than an hour extra because I didn’t pick up the girl from her school, she was being picked up by a friend for a playdate. And the boy had a playdate over the whole afternoon so I didn’t have too much to do. I read some more while keeping an eye on them. I remember when I was a kid and didn’t want my parents to interfere when I was playing with a friend.

The last thing me and the boy did was playing Mario Kart on Wii. And now it’s weekend!

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

Today something mysterious happened. It hasn’t rained in months and it’s not supposed to now in the summer according to my hostfamily. But at 6pm, apperantly just in our neighborhood, the rain all of a sudden started pouring down. I’ve never seen it rain that much here before. In Sweden we have those showers, but here it just drizzles when it “rains”. It only lasted for like five minutes also.

I’m feeling good now so I decided to go to the gym as soon as I got off work at 7pm. I started with 15 minutes on the stair machine, then a strength routine of four excercises, and I finished with 35 minute on the elliptical. I’ve heard that’s not a good machine to use, but never why. So until then I will keep burning 100cal/10minutes.

In my freetime I went to the doctor’s office because I’ve had kinda like a bump on the side of my but for two weeks. In the beginning I thought it was a pimple, it was a really big bump. After a few days the swollenness went away and it started looking like a bug bite of some sort. And it was fine (but red and kinda nasty) for a week. But then, two days ago it started hurting like crazy! I woke several times a night because it hurt so bad. So today the doctor said it probably was a cyst or a pimple that got infected. She gave me a antibiotic cream to put on twice daily and told me to come back as soon as it got worse in any way. In which case I would need real antibiotic for the infection. It’s gross… and it hurts!

I read a little too and I have to admit, this is the first time I’m having difficulties reading an English book! There are a lot of new words and I have troubles following what’s happening. I guess the new terms for all their weapons and group of people makes it more confusing also. I’m one third through the book, not used to this many pages so it will take longer to finish all these five books.

Tonight I also finished the last of my shopping for the package I will send home to my three cousins, finally! Hopefully I will have time to send it next week. Hope they will like it :).

Now the time is nigh for some sleep. My muscles are starting to ache so I will probably sleep like a baby tonight, awesome!

This is what I saw when I drove to the gym. Much prettier in real life though!

I’m feeling okay now but I didn’t want to try my luck and go to the gym today so I spent my morning at home, reading a little, watching Two and a Half Men, talking with mom. No nap though, so I was a little bit extra tired this afternoon. I am starting to stress out a little. I can request my flight home to Sweden already but before I do that I have to talk to my hostfamily and I really want to book Hawaii before I request anything. And I don’t have anyone to go there with… Maybe I can convince my mom to come back, don’t think it will be too hard, I mean, who doesn’t wanna go to Hawaii?!

I finished the last Percy Jackson book today and started reading The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I have been wanting to read them for a while now, and since the movie came to the cinemas five days ago I felt it was time to do it now. The last eight books I’ve read (except Narnia which is so easily written it’s ridiculous) have been written from a first person perspective and this is from the third. Not used to it and it’s very confusing sometimes, especially when they switch person just like that.

Hmm, what else… The boy is starting to get sick. His nose has been super runny these last two days, his eyes are a little bloodshot and he is exhausted. Poor thing. But I guess this is what it’s like having kids in a family, when school starts they get sick. And with the girl’s pneumonia and my fever and their love not keeping them away from me and each other… Hope it’s just a cold!

Oh yeah, they title. Starbucks Wednesday is back. Today it was way too hot (I’m sure it was at least 85F) for a warm Chai Latte so I had it iced. I’m still surprised how good that one is.

Dinner was spaghetti with meatsauce, my favorite dish here. Right after my hostmom picked up the girl from soccer practice and I stayed home with the boy helping him getting ready for bed.

And now it’s time for me to go to bed. I’m slowly getting used to the early mornings, but I know myself, I’m not a morning person so I need to be asleep by 11pm at the latest to be able to get out of bed at 6am!

I was still feeling very crappy today, so no gym. Instead I spent all my free hours in bed skyping with my sweet cousins (who are getting too old, I can’t believe they are already 16, almost 15 and 13 in just a few days!), reading and sleeping. One moment feeling cold and the next super warm. It’s a little bit annoying to take off and on a hoodie all the time. Most of the times I’ve felt like I’m burning up though. I hate feeling like this. I picked up the kids from school and was prepared to take both of the kids to soccer practice, but my hostmom said that she could take them so I could rest some more. Very sweet of her! So I slept almost the whole afternoon too until the boy rang the doorbell a million times when they got home at 6pm. The girl told me that he was crying in the car because he wanted me to go with him to his practice. Next week I promised him!

I’ve also talked to one of the Swedish girls, who arrived the same day as I did in January, about going to Vegas together in October. I’m trying to convince the Swedish Sarah to come with us. It would be so awesome to have a Swedish party weekend in Las Vegas!!

We’ll see if I will be able to get some sleep tonight, last night I had a really hard time falling asleep. But now I will at least go to bed and continue reading the last Percy Jackson book (there are more, in  series 2 but I won’t start reading those until October when the next book comes out). Or maybe I will just keep watching Rise of the Guardians.

This day was really crappy. First I found out that the couple renting my apartment back in Sweden put stuff down in the storage room which was flooded last week. Everything got destroyed. Mom will be an angel and call my insurance company and help me with everything.

Then I couldn’t keep my eyes open and I was freezing like crazy so I slept the whole afternoon and was super unsocial with our guests. My hostdad came in to me right before dinner asking how I was feeling and when I say not too good he felt my forehead and told me I was really warm… Just typical. He gave me two Advils and an hour later I was feeling better. I’m still very warm though.

We had leftover from the party for dinner, almost as yummy today. Then we gathered around the fire table they bought just a few weeks ago and grilled S’mores. Katta and her boyfriend Tobbe are really nice and it’s too bad I couldn’t hang out with them more, they are leaving tomorrow.

When the kids went to bed I refueled the car and bought some ice cream. Since I slept so much this afternoon I figured it would be hard sleeping early tonight, so I will watch some True Blood while eating my favorite Ben & Jerry’s, Phish Food. It’s okay, I’m sick!

The party night on Friday was really nice, the movie in the backyard was a huge success and it was surprisingly good quality. Too bad I had a headache most of the night so I couldn’t really socialize much. I think I have to look it up, and I might as well look up my knuckle that’s been hurting for more than a month too, while I’m at it.

Yesterday I was supposed to do the Color in Motion 5k run down in San Diego, but once again, I was the one who bought a ticket, and people said they wanted to join, but then didn’t… So I decided I didn’t wanna do it and went to Ponto to play some beachvolley instead. I didn’t play too much because of my extreme muscle soreness. But the three games I played with Chad wasn’t too bad but after that I just lay on the beach reading and finishing Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth.

In the evening Chad took me to a sushi restaurant. It was very nice and the food was really good. Raw fish is good!

Today I have nothing planned. I’m alone in the house, the family and the old au pair that’s visiting this weekend just went to the pool, but I have a headache (big surprise) so I will just stay here, maybe drive somewhere nice and quiet.

I have dreams quite often, but for some stupid reason I don’t write them down. So tonight I dreamt about a super huge meteor shower where rocks as big as soccer balls fell from the sky… It was really cool but scary and I was afraid I was gonna die. Two days later I remembered about the meteor shower and my first thought was that I had to put it in my blog! And I was so certain that it was real life. Maybe that’s why I felt like I should write it down here, haha! Don’t remember much about what happened more than that though.

When I had dropped off the kids at school this morning I drove to the gym for the first time in months. I started with 30 minutes on the elliptical which was really hard with some resistance, there was some sweat for sure. So I had to rest for a few minutes before I could continue with a little strength/cardio. Three/four strength exercises, low resistance, no rest between each exercise. Really tough when I hadn’t worked out in a while. I was nauseous afterward and now, like 9 hours later my arms and legs are starting to feel like spaghetti. Wonder how well it will go to play beach volleyball tomorrow.

After the gym I made a good couscous salad with fruits and then took a nice, long and warm shower. The rest of the afternoon (I had three hours after I was done at the gym, awesome!) I read and watched Two and a Half Men.

Today’s Pia’s birthday and tonight there will be a house party at our place. Three of the girl’s friends with families will be here. There will be food and cake and my hostdad bought a projector so they are gonna watch a movie in the backyard later.

I think summer is finally here. It took a while but now it’s been warm for two weeks straight! Today it was low 80 and it was perfect. But waiting in the car in that heat wasn’t so nice…

I didn’t do much today, I tried the drop off lane at the girl’s school and I think that is what she wants me to do from now on. I read in my freetime, halfway through The Battle of the Labyrinth now. In the afternoon the boy was at a playdate and me and the girl looked for cupcake recipes. Her mom bought her an amazing cupcake/pie book with so many funny recipes. Like high heel cupcakes, animals, holiday themed. But we decided to find a recipe online instead, both for a normal vanilla cupcake but also cream cheese frosting. Tomorrow there will be a party at our house with the families of four of the girl’s best friends.  So the two of us is gonna bake the cupcakes after school for the event.

The afternoon disappeared so fast and before I knew it my hostdad was home making naan bread pizza, which is so delicious!

I was right, now that the kids are back in school, the days just fly by and once again I’m seeing the end of my year approaching a little too fast for my liking…

Last night I watched the first Percy Jackson movie and I have to say I’m really dissapointed. They had changed the whole story and everything was so different. So now I’m not sure I want to see the second one… With The Hunger Games though, it was exactly the same and I wasn’t disappointed at all.

Yesterday I was home the whole day with the girl because she was sick. It was a long day but still okay. When she’s not feeling well she can’t really do anything which means I get to rest. Today was a long day too, but I had the morning off. Wednesdays are early-release days so the kids get out of school one hour earlier. But I still had time to be at the pool for a couple of hours, finishing Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse.

Tonight my hostdad told me what the boy did in school today (he rarely can answer me when I ask him what he did in school, he forgets). So they were writing or talking about their families and the boy said he had five family members. My hostdad looked at him when he was explaining; five? “Yeah, Alexandra’s the fifth!” That’s sooo adorable, my heart melted!