I like kids. I definitely want to have kids in the future. But I’m not gonna let them have big birthday parties. Oh my god… The girl have 15 girlfriends over and I was supposed to help. My first clue it was gonna be a tough night was the fact that I had to make tacos for them all… It took me two hours to cut up all the vegetables and fry the beef. I wouldn’t have minded doing it if my stomach was okay, but it hurt really bad. It got better eventually. So when the girls arrived they played games. First they did karaoke and then a big boardgame with themselves as pieces around the house. That was  horrible. They were screaming so much and loudly about ridiculous stuff like who in One Direction is the most handsome and ugly. My head hurt and I was scared of what the rest of the evening had to offer. It got better though. While I heated the beef and tortilla breads the girls played the murder game. The girl who got the king from a card deck was the murderer. And then they were all gonna shake hands and the murderer tickled the one she shook hands with. That person, three handshakes from the murderer later dropped dramatically dead and then the game’s goal was to find the murderer.

Tacos for dinner was good and the meringue cake for dessert was even better. But after that I got some serious stomach cramps and had to lie down for a while. I missed the present openings but that’s fine. I helped taking everything away and now the girls are watching a movie, Brides War. And soon I will head over to Chad’s place. I don’t wanna wake up here tomorrow when 15 girls (I don’t know if some are going home tonight) are jumping in the room above mine way before I want to wake up.

The other big thing that happened today was that I finally finished Under the Dome. An awesome book and all Stephen King lovers should definitely read it. It made you hate it but it was sooo good. Now I will read the Bane Chronicles. It’s 10 short stories about the warlock Magnus Bane in The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. It will be nice with short projects now that I just finished a 800 pages brick.

Tomorrow I don’t have anything planned except eating dinner at Cheesecake Factory with some girls.

Today’s big thing was me and Lovisa’s trip to IKEA. We walked around, pointed out our furniture we have back in Sweden, had lunch and then walked through the first floor too. I didn’t have the meatballs for lunch but I had a Waldorf Chicken Wrap which was really good, and healthier than 15 meatballs. In Sweden you can choose a smaller portion if you want.

I miss Sweden…

Back home I took a quick shower and then picked up the kids. The boy went to the kid next door and the girl made bracelets with the Rainbow Loom while I was reading the conclusion of Under the Dome. I still have no idea what’s gonna happen, but since I only have 50 more pages, the end must come after this big visitor event. Exciting!

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 is the 11th birthday of one of my hostkids. She got breakfast, and by breakfast I mean a big cupcake and hot chocolate, in bed. In school she got like 6 Happy-Birthday-balloons. In the afternoon she wanted to take it easy, so she did a little homework, read and watched Doctor Who. I love it that she also love that show! Me and the boy did a lot of homework during that time and then we made Rainbow Loom bracelets. That is like therapy. It was really nice sitting there in the couch with the kids making those rubberband bracelets.

For dinner we had Swedish oven pancake and cookies and cream cake for dessert. It was okay, the cream was really good, but it was too much of the chocolate “cookie” part. I love chocolate in candy, but when it comes to cookies and cakes, I’m more of a vanilla person.

In my freetime I skyped with my adorable cousin Ella for two hours! We haven’t skyped since the beginning of the year and she has grown so much! I remember last time when she all of a sudden said goodbye because she was done talking to me. Now we just kept talking. They grow up so fast! The reason for the skype was because she had her 9^th birthday on the 9^th of November and she wanted to thank me for the gift I sent her. She was so happy about it! I sent her a pretty glitter card, an “E” key chain from Hollywood and an arts and crafts book. You take out the piece of paper, follow instructions and fold them into a 3D chic boutique. It made me so happy that she thanked me and was so happy about it. I already figured out what to get her (and her brothers, I think they would like that too) for Christmas. Not sure I will send it though. I will probably bring it when I visit when I’m back in Sweden again. It will be much more fun seeing her face in real life instead on Skype.

I didn’t have too much time after that, so I just had lunch, read a little and then picked up the kids. That book is just too awful. I was a bit hopeful, I think it was yesterday, but then the bad guys survived and now all hell is loose with just 150 pages left…
Stephen King is awesome!

It was very nice weather today. When I was sitting at the playground at the boy’s school this morning I had leggings and a sweater on and I was burning up. It’s been like 88F. That is around 30C. In November! This is just too crazy. Next time it’s that warm I will hang out at the pool. Unless it’s tomorrow, because tomorrow I will spend my freetime with Lovisa at IKEA. Hello Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, lingonberries and a little bit of home!

Every kid here in SoCal are doing these rubberband bracelets now. And there are so many different designs to do with like a million different colors, including self glowing.

This is a first, I don’t know what to write even if it was a good day and stuff happened. So I guess this will be a short post. I went to the gym this morning for some spinning. I love Wednesday spinning, the instructor has good music and it’s not too hard, but the sweat is pouring anyway. In the afternoon there was homework with the boy and then he had a playdate. I drove the girl to soccer practice and right after work I met up with a new British girl for coffee. She was very nice and we already made plans on Sunday evening, Cheesecake Factory with Lovisa and maybe another girl too. That will be nice!

I guess I will head to bed now and read. I have less than 200 pages left in Under the Dome and I can’t see what’s gonna happen at all. Stephen King is too good. He has made me hate the characters in that book soo much!

November 12th 2013

Schoolday for the kids meant a few hours on my own in the morning which I spent skyping with mom and sleeping. Homework with the kids in the afternoon and the boy played with some friends on the street while I was sitting watching and freezing my but off. When the sun is gone it’s cold here… For dinner I made honey/ketchup glazed salmon with mashed potatoes. It was really good! Honey/ketchup didn’t sound very good but sometimes you have to try new things.

No gym today, but tomorrow morning I will spend one hour in the spinning room at LA Fitness!

So many weird holidays in this country. Today was about honoring the veterans. The kids were off from school, but my hostparents worked. So I had a long day today, but it wasn’t exhausting at all. Ten hours of work today just flew by!! I had a very nice day with the kids. First there was normal breakfast at 8:30. They wanted to have muffins, but we didn’t have a mix for it. Then we played some boardgames before the big thing today. The kids wanted to see Free Birds, that new movie about turkeys going back in time to change Thanksgiving. It was a cute movie!

After that I made Swedish pancakes for lunch, I had a salad, I don’t wanna gain those pounds again now that I’ve finally started to lose it. I actually gained a couple this weekend, I have to be more careful and stay away from ice cream. I swell up everytime I eat that. Last night I was with Lovisa and a new girl named Cati at Stacked. I had my usual, an amazing chicken salad with cranberries, candied pecans and bleu cheese. And then I couldn’t resist so I made my own ice cream sundae.

The afternoon disappeared so fast. We had a late lunch and then at 4pm I had to drive the girl to soccer practice and back home again I played Battleship with the boy. I won, but not by many rounds.

When I got off work at 6:30pm I changed and drove to the gym. I wanted to try my very first 5K. I managed to do all of the kilometers so I feel good about myself. I ran all 3.1 miles except for 0.8 which is also pretty good. The total time was 45 minutes. I was pretty worn out but wanted to do one hour of yoga too. It was hard today and I was shaking. But I felt so good afterward!! Yoga is really nice :).

Now I will go to sleep in my new A&F pajamas that I got in the mail on Saturday. It’s flannel and will hopefully keep me warm. It’s so cold in my room now…

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.

Last night was so freaking amazing! I can’t believe I saw Avicii, a Swedish DJ, in LA, making the sold out Hollywood Bowl go crazy. I am proud to be Swedish, once again, exactly eight months after I saw Swedish House Mafia in the city of angels.

Our rental car was a Kia Optima, and Emma was nice and drove both there and home. It was a lot of traffic and it took us more than two hours to drive to the pregaming in West Hollywood. But we got there, played a fun beer game (I have to remember to ask for the rules again, it was a bit confusing but really fun).

We got the the Bowl late and missed two of the artists and saw a few songs of the third. He was good though. Then Avicii was up. He started with Hey Brother, played a few great songs and then he played a lot of dull songs and I don’t think I was alone wishing for Wake Me Up to be played. It got really cold and my feet started hurting. So two hours was a bit too much. But then came good songs again, like Levels. And then he finished with Wake Me Up. But you couldn’t really hear anything because of the huuuuuge firework that was going on through almost the whole song. That was the end!

The arena was really great. Everyone had their own seat, but we had plenty of room to dance and move around and everyone saw the stage perfectly. I really liked it there.

He is playing in Stockholm in February again, but I don’t think he can match this one in LA, so I’m not even gonna bother go to that one, haha!

When we got in the cab to get to the arena I did something awfully cool. I told the cab driver to “follow that car!” We were gonna follow the other cab to the right place. Now I can check that off the bucket list!

On the way home I fell asleep right when I allowed myself too. And when I woke up like an hour later, when we were almost at my house I was gonna ask about the gas and I totally did it in English, even if the other two girls were Swedish. That was so random! I took over the car, drove Lovisa home and then returned the car and drove home to my place. I got to bed at like 4:30am and got out of it at 1pm today. But I did get awoken a lot of times. My hostfamily isn’t exactly quiet around here. And then the girl across the street started playing tuba outside. I think I’m well rested now.

I’ve been in such a good mood this whole week. I’m not usually in a bad mood, that’s not what I’m saying, it’s just that this week has been better than a normal week. At first I had no idea how I could wake up at 6am and smile and wondering what the day would bring. But then I thought about it and there have been a lot of good stuff happening this week. For example, the weather has been awesome, today it was 75F. Unfortunately I spent my freetime in the gym, but I have a feeling I haven’t seen the last of the sun. Daylight saving time makes it light in the morning, a big plus factor for my good mood. I’ve lost weight and found motivation to start exercising again. My toothache is completely gone, I’m going to the Avicii concert tomorrow and this morning my mom told me she get her company’s apartment in London in May next year. I’ve always wanted to go there and was so happy when mom told me that I could join her and her friend!! 😀 It’s for a whole week, and probably the week before the exams, but I will only have one, so that won’t be a problem. I’m so excited!

But today I found out that I have to work a lot the rest of November, there are a lot of days off and halfdays for the kids. Then there is December which will probably be as normal and then I will finish my year with Winter Break. So there’s gonna be a lot of work these last two months which also means less time to work out now that I’ve finally found my way back. Too bad. But I’m not complaining, my hostfamily is very fair and never make me to work more than what my contract says.

I’m really excited about Avicii tomorrow, can’t wait!!

Today was crazy! It’s november 7th and this morning at 8am it was 75F outside and it got warmer and warmer. When I was lying at the pool in my freetime it was more than 80F and I was about to melt away in the sun. It was awesome! And it is November!! I don’t wanna go back to Sweden where there are no palm trees, no sun, no beaches, no dolphins…

It feels like I’ve been here one month per season. One in the winter, one in the spring, one in the summer and right now I’m in my fourth, the fall. It sure doesn’t feel like ten!!

When it comes to work it was a kinda weird day. The girl had minimum day, which means she got off school at noon instead 2pm. But I picked her  up at a friend’s 45min later to drive her to the boy’s school where she was gonna do 2h of community service in his class. So then I had a second freetime for an hour today. And then at 3pm I picked up them both and we went to Swedish School. But we were only there for an hour because the boy had cub scout meeting so his mom picked him up and then of course the girl wanted to come too.

So I got off work at 5:30, did some errands, for example I bought my $15 gift to my next LCC meeting when we are gonna play a game called White Elephant, a Christmas gift game.  I bought a hand lotion and lip balm from Ulta and I think I will try and get that gift on Dec 8^th. They both smelled delicious!

After that I went to the gym for the second time this week. First I ran 35 minutes on the treadmill and then one hour of yoga. It is surprisingly hard and I have to start doing that regularly so it won’t hurt so much doing the different postures. I’ve also decided that I’m gonna practice for the 5K run I’m gonna do in a month. So I will try to run at least one 5K run every week at the gym. One 5K run is about 3miles and today I ran 2.3, so it shouldn’t take too much time. We’ll see.

I’m just glad I’ve started working out again and I’ve really tried eating healthy this week and since Monday I’ve lost 4lbs already. Now that I see results I will hopefully keep going like this. 2.5 weeks in bikini awaits me in January!

A normal Tuesday is just about to end and I think I will end it earlier than usual and go to bed and read or maybe watch a movie. It was a good day, didn’t do much. Had a long and nice nap in the morning. I tried doing one of the two days with less than 500 calories but my hostfamily made a too good of a dinner for me to resist. So I will have to do it again tomorrow.

In the afternoon I wrapped up the girl’s birthday present, she is turning eleven next Thursday! She is getting so big. I know I’ve just known her for ten months but she’s grown so much, not just with her height but maturedness (if that’s even a word).

I am gonna miss these kids so much, not just being around two amazing children, but seeing them grow up. They are like my two younger siblings and I love them so much, and not being able to see them grow older than 7 and 11 years old makes me sad. I will see them again, for sure, but I won’t see them grow up.

Both of the kids, especially the boy have realized that my time here soon is up and tries to talk about it, that it’s not that much time left and so on. Since that also makes me sad I try to avoid talking about it by changing the subject. But it is really touching that they are aware of my departing and doesn’t like it anymore than I do.

I forgot to write something on Monday. I’ve finally sent in my exchange program application to Chalmers about studying at CalPoly next year. I got some amazing help from one of the beachvolleyball guys. I wrote the letter, he just added some fancy words and made it sound better. So very nice of him. I can really see myself getting accepted with that letter.