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.

The first day of my new life is over, almost. And I wish I could go to bed right now, but going to bed at 8pm in a hostel where four other people sleep is probably not a good idea. Or maybe it is, so I can get some sleep before they all come in.

Yesterday was a very long day, I was awake for about 24h.  I got up at 9, picked up Johanna at 10 and I said goodbye to mom almost an hour later. The plane to Stockholm left Gothenburg at noon and 35 minutes later we were at Arlanda. A million people decided to be at that airport at the same time, retarted. We had no time at all left to do anything than to hurry to the gate, which of course was at the other end of the airport. Our plane from Gothenburg also landed at the national terminal so we had a long walk.

Me and Johanna had two of three seats in the middle on the second to last row in the plane. We left the middle one empty to have our feet on. The flight was only 10h, I was expecting 13, but then I remembered that 13 was the whole travel time. It was over very fast and it wasn’t that bad. At one point I was extremely bored and couldn’t do anything so I just sat there until I got the ants in my pants away and read some more. I finished The Assassin’s Blade and started the third book Heir of Fire. Amazing books!

I also watched a couple of movies. I saw Free Willy for the first time in probably 15 years. So cute movie! And then I watched Frozen for the third time in just a few months. That movie gets better and better every time I see it.

We landed at 4pm in Los Angeles and it took us three hours before we were on the road up to SLO. A million people had to get out of the plane before us, the qeue to US Customs was the longest I’ve ever seen and then we had to take a shuttle to the car rental place and that line was also retardedly long. We didn’t get a Nissan Altima which was a big win. Instead we got a Toyota Camry which was nice to drive. But it was a 3 hour drive and any 3 hour drive is tough after being awake for almost 24 hours. We survived and had dinner at Ihop. For some reason not as good as I remember. Maybe my sweet toothness has started to disappear?

I dropped Johanna off at her house and then tried to find my hostel. It took a little longer than it should have, but I arrived at midnight, got my room, and fell asleep directly.

Today I woke up at 6am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I lay in bed until 8:30 though when I got up and paid for my room and tried to connect to the wifi on my computer. I talked to one of my roommates which turned out to be a Swedish girls I’ve talked to on Facebook a few weeks ago. SHe was checking out today to move to her house.

I picked up Johanna and we took a brunch at a place we found in downtown SLO. It was good and well needed.  This whole eating-out-thing will stop as soon as I get a routine here which should be in a week when classes start. After that we went to Bank of America to start up bank accounts. They were busy today though, so we got appointments for it on Monday morning. That was too bad, I was looking forward to get rid of my big bunch of cash… Our next stop for the day was to get cell phone plans at T-mobile. We went to Best Buy and took the car there. A car would be so convenient (but we will wait a bit to get help with buying one, bot me and Johanna very much wants to buy a car so we can easily go to the beach, do grocery shopping and take weekend trips), but until then we will get to know the bus system and buy bikes as soon as possible. They have a very nice system with plans here if you don’t want to sign up for a long period of time. I was amazed when the guy told me how it worked. So, you bought a sim card for $15 and then you bought a month of a plan of your choosing. So depending on how much you pay (30, 40 or 50) you get different things. I decided to go for the one which cost $50 and in that unlimited texts and minutes and 1 GB are included. That is valid for 30 days and when that time period is over I need to buy a new plan and it doesn’t have to be the same as I had. And I don’t have to go to a store to buy it, I can do it online or by just sending texts. An awesome system. The only problem with it is that it is so ridiculously expensive. But I will survive.

The third stop was Target where I bought a lot of things, like towels, a hair dryer, hairspray, after sun lotion, tooth paste, Nair hair wax roll on and nail polish remover . I also had to buy a bag since the city of San Luis Obispo has decided not to hand out plastic bags anymore to save the environment. I like that, but I wish I would have remembered to bring my bags I brought from Sweden.

At Albertson’s I actually bought a reusable shopping bag when I bought some snacks for tomorrow’s visit to the beach.

We returned the car, took a taxi to downtown where we had an early dinner. We met four of the five Swedish students from Uppsala and then we went home and on the way took a few detours in to some stores, like Bath & Body Works, Victoria’s Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch. At Bath & Body Works I found a scented candle that smelled amazing!! I am not allowed to have scented candles in my room, but I am thinking about buying it and just having it smell in my room and then bring it home. It was amazing! Oh right, I don’t think I can have things that smell in my room either. Then I will ask them if it is okay to have it in a plastic bag until I get home to Sweden. I need to have that candle! It smelled of Mahogany Teakwood. Sounds weird, smelled amazing.

At the hostel I went straight up to my room, started writing and will go to bed as soon as I am done. Maybe start marking interesting things out on the SLO map I got from the reception.

Tomorrow I will move to my room in the shared apartment on campus. The other girls won’t be there for another day or two. After that it’s beach time with Johanna and maybe Maria. There might be some shopping as well, I have a feeling I need to buy things for my room, like a comforter and pillows.

It was a nice day, the weather was warm (26C at its warmest) and the sun was out at all times. Palm trees does exist this far up north, even though there aren’t that many, and I still get happy every time I see them. I am back in California and I couldn’t be happier about it. This will be an amazing year!

SLO downtown All around the city mountains rise. It is beautiful! It’s not over the ocean, but the sunset tonight was still amazing. I came to the realization today that San Luis Obispo is very very tiny. This is pretty much it. A bicycle will be plenty enough and even walking. Only 45 000 live here. But it will be a nice experience to live in such a small city too.