Nine weeks has gone by so fast. I’m not sure if I’ve improved my speaking skills so mich but I’m definitely aware of my flaws, even though they are tiny and few. Tonight everyone who wanted could read a text out loud. I was the last to read and he didn’t have anything else to say except that it was a perfect ending. Happy!

So now I have 3/6 credits. And I still don’t know what to take as my next class. I think I’ve narrowed it down to the Drawing class, Physiology of Excercise and Sustainability. I have before June 12th to decide.

Something really weird happened this afternoon. When I left the house to pick up the kids from school two of our trash cans were on the curb. They were empty and I was gonna take them in when we got back. But when we got back the trash cans weren’t there, they were in the backyard, full of green waste and they stood back and the wrong way round. Super weird!! The only thing I can imagine happen (except for a ghost hobo) is that the gardeners came, cut the palm trees, and took them in from the curb. Still weird and they put them the right way round usually.

Americans have a lot of weird holidays. They aren’t off from work on Easter or Christmas Eve, but they have holidays called Presidents Holiday and Memorial Day where they are off. Weird, but I’m not complaining. I had the day off too and since it was Monday I decided to spend the day at the beach reading and then play beachvolleyball in the afternoon.

I got to the beach around 11am and it was so hard to find a parking spot! I had to park far away from the beach. The weather today wasn’t  very good. It was very windy and a little cloudy. It wasn’t cold though and I did get in the water a little after the second time I got pooped on. Pelicans are circling above the beach all day long and today they pooped on me, not once, not twice, but three times!! I don’t count the trip to the water as my first time in the ocean since I only washed away the poop. I will do the real thing when it’s not so windy.

We weren’t so many people playing today so I got to play a lot. When we started playing the sky was covered in clouds and the wind decreased a lot. So it was really nice to play! And I played really well today as well. That really makes me happy! Next time I will play, will be at the tournament on Saturday! Excited! 🙂

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.

This day was really weird, nothing went as planned. It started really good though with a couple of hours of beach volleyball. There is a list by the courts, when your name is up you can win three games in a row and then you have to get off the court. I played with a guy named Chad this morning and I’ve never played as well as today with him. Our two first game we won and then suddenly the wind came and totally messed with my head and we lost big time. Our fourth game was the same and after that I didn’t want to play anymore. So I sat down for a while watchin other people play and a flying pelican pooped on me, gross!
I did play more anyway and I’m glad I did. I didn’t play as well as before and it was with another guy, but we won two games before I had to go to San Diego and a weight loss clinic.

It’s not as is sounds. I went there with Sarah because they used vitamin B12 injections. I told them about my medical condition and they said it was no problem at all for me to get the shots. I got my first out of 15 today actually. We are gonna kickstart it and do it pretty often the first month and then less often. It’s gonna be around $200 in total for the rest of the year, but I think I don’t have a choice.

After that we went to IKEA to buy tickets to the Swedish Midsummer Smörgåsbord in June. On the website it said that the tickets were on sale now, but when we got there they told us they were gonna start selling them on Tuesday. I’m not sure that I have enough time in the afternoon. According to google maps I have plenty of time, but I don’t know about the traffic and how long it’s gonna take while I’m there. We are around 6 people (not just Swedish) going, so that’s nice!

Lunch at IHOP and then we drove up to Del Mar to pick up another au pair. We were going to Coronado for our sunset kayaking tour. Unfortunately there had been a misunderstanding, we thought it was gonna start at 6pm, but it was 5pm so Karin and Victoria didn’t make it. They had mine and Sarah’s voucher so we couldn’t go either. But we did reschedule to June 16th.

Later they invited me and Sarah to Victorias house for dinner and a movie. We made pesto chicken which was really good, and then we also baked swedish mudpie served with whipped cream and strawberries. The movie we watched was What to Expect When Expecting. It’s a fun movie.

Now I am home and am gonna fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow in two minutes…

Last nights class was the one I really had troubles with. Everything so far has been easy enough, even though I’m not understanding what the teacher says, I know what he means and I do it withouth thinking. But last night was about connected speech. I didn’t have any troubles with that, but the part where he told us about the z sounds in almost every word in the English language!! There is no way of knowing when to turn the s into a z. He said that if the consonant at the end of the word is voiced the s turns into a z but since I don’t understand unvoiced/voiced I really can’t tell. But me and Karin decided to turn all s into z’s and hopefully no one will hear when it’s wrong. It’s way harder with the s in the middle of a word… Stupid Z!

Today was a really nice day. Me and the boy spent the morning at the community park throwing a tennisball and catching with a baseball glove. It was cold.

For lunch we had quesidillas which was really good. The boy only had cheese in his but I had salsa sauce and ham as well! Yummie.

After lunch I spent an hour in the gym working my butt off. This workout schedule I have is pretty intense and I get real tired after. But I love that feeling!

After school there were more school; Swedish. It’s nice when I can sit down and talk with Karin and Jessica for a few hours. She is going to New Orleans tomorrow, hopefully she will have it warmer than I had when I was there.

Now it’s bedtime and I’m thinking about if I should start watching the fourth Star Wars movie or no. Or if I should get a lot of hours of sleep, or read… Tough decisions!

I’m sitting here thinking about my next class. It’s so hard to decide so I thought I maybe could get some help from my readers.

Drawing: Focus on Perception (beginner)
Learn basic drawing techniques through a variety of instructor demonstrations, guided in-class exercises and homework projects. Topics include contour drawing, positive and negative space, perspective, shading and composition.
3 credits, $275

Project Management Essentials in Science and Technology
Effective project management skills are important to professionals in any industry. This particular course is geared to those students interested or working in the life of sciences, engineering, and technology fields. Students will learn how to define, plan and execute a project, whether the goal is simple or complex, gain, the tools and knowledge for delivering projects on time and on budget, while meeting performance specifications explore the basic components of project management and the project life cycle.
3 credits, $540

Scientific and Technical Writing for Non-Native English Speakers
Designed for primarily for non-native speakers with advanced English proficiency, this course covers essential skills for writing well in scientific or technical settings.
3 credits, $325

German for Communication I
Includes the present tense, personal pronouns, ,possessive adjectives, the accusative case, and word order. Topics include the family, weather, telling time, describing the home and favorite pastimes.
3 credits, $295

The Physiology of Exercise
Exercise physiology, the study of human physical performance, draws its research base from applied exercise physiology, sports medicine, metabolism and nutrition. This course provides foundation for a thorough understanding of this field. Topics include: cardiopulomanary and muscle anatomy and physiology; energy pathways; muscle contraction; thermoregulation; caloric consumption assessment and expenditure; body composition; health screening and rish assessment; exercise prescription; and metabolism.
3 credits, $340

Introduction to Sustainability
Get an introduction to the basic of environmental sustainability – energy, transportation, water use, recycling, and natural resource life cycles. Discover ways individuals, organizations, and governments can manage resources in a responsible manner, with minimal impact on natural surroundings and climate. Learn scientific methods for measuring the effectiveness of eco-friendly practices, wheter in kolowatt-hours of energy use, acre-feet of reclaimed water, or greenhouse gas emissions.
3 credits, $415

I didn’t put these in any other order than they appeared in the UCSD summer catalog. What to choose?

Another weekend has come to its end. As quickly as usual… Where do all the days go?

Last night I started to watch Star Wars 1 but were too tired to stay awake through it all so I continued when I woke up this morning after a real long and nice sleep-in until 11:30am. Around noon I got up and made breakfast, french toast and mango slices. Sooo delicious!

Two hours later I had to work for a few hours. My h-mom and the girl went dress shopping and the boy really didn’t want to go with them so I spent the afternoon with him.

We ate dinner at Rubios, had a cupcake for dessert and I’m still under my daily calorie intake. It helps to get up late in the mornings. But I guess it’s the same on weekdays when I’m skipping breakfast.

Now I will get to bed and start watching the second Star Wars movie.

Today, it is also just one month left until my mom gets here, can’t wait!

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.

My second time playing beach volley here in California and it wasn’t as good as last weekend when it was no wind at all. Today it was too much for me. I played horribly most of the games. Some games were really good though and I actually won like half or even more. One of the organizers said that he could already see the improvement in my playing since last weekend. I think he said that just to be nice though, but eventually I will be master at playing in the wind.

A new girl arrived in San Elijo three days ago and I picked her up for the beach volley. We didn’t play together but she was a really sweet, young girl and she is gonna continue coming.

The sun came out early today, around 9am so I had to wear sunglasses all day. And it gave me a super pretty sunburn in my face. Luckily I don’t have any white circles, I just have a white strip on my nose, happy for that.

I forgot sunscreen because of all the wind, you can’t feel the sun burning when it’s windy. I am red like everywhere, but not as bad as it could have been. I’ve gotten a little used to the sun after four months here. But it still makes me tired and I probably wont make it through the whole Star Wars 1 movie I’m gonna start watching 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.

Yesterday morning and this morning was the same. When I got to the kitchen to take the dishes out of the dishing machine the girl was already there doing it for me. And she had already eaten breakfast and thought it was fun making her own breakfast. Sweet girl :). The only difference today from yesterday was that I saw a coyote right outside our garden fence. It’s the second coyote I see in San Diego and this was walking right outside our house!

The day otherwise was very calm. I didn’t go to the gym, every other day my PT said. So I lie in my bed reading and then I fell asleep for a while.

In the afternoon I baked some cupcakes with the girl. Vanilla cupcakes with frosting and fondant shaped like flower petals. They are really pretty. Don’t know how they taste yet, but I guess pretty good!

They boy was invited to a birthday party today so my hostmom took him and the girl there at 5:15 which meant that I got off work at that time. It was really nice, but I didn’t have anything to do because I didn’t have plans until 8:15. So I watched some series and took a shower.

My plans for the evening was a goodbye dinner for Maj in downtown. She is extending her year and is moving to New York on Sunday evening. We went to the Yard House, a restaurant on 4th Ave. I fell in love with that restaurant. The hawaiian hamburger was awesome and they had like a million different beers. Not that I like beer, but I think my mom would like that place so I’m taking her there when she gets here.

After me and Karin didn’t come along to a bar so we went to Extraordinary Desserts, a ”fika” place in downtown. I didn’t really want anything because I was so full, but I couldn’t resist. So I bought a carrot cake to go and I’m eating it now. It’s really good! But I feel bad because this intermittent fasting thing is going so well. I’ve lost 2,5lbs the last two days and I am okay with not eating breakfast. But it’s the weekend, so I think it’s okay to make it a little more luxurious.

I can’t really do this fasting thing on weekends since I usually have a late dinner. So tomorrow I wont eat breakfast again but I’m gonna pack a snack/food to eat when I get hungry. I’ve planned to stay at the beach the whole day tomorrow with the new girl who just got here. Maybe Vasoula will join us later too!

Now I really have to go to bed, my alarm will go off at 6:45…

Only two more classes and I’m starting to feel a little stressed about what my next class should be. I will post what I’m thinking about soon, now I’m too tired.

In tonights class I was paired up with a Japanese guy and the days theme was Emphasis. I actually had a hard time on that, but only because I didn’t understand it. When we did the exercises my teacher said my reading was perfect, but I had no idea what words I emphasized on. So I told him I didn’t think, just said what I thought sounded right and he kinda gave my a look that said: ”What are you doing here?”. Haha! My partner also said perfect after every time I read something. He couldn’t give me any criticism.

We talked a lot about travels and that he and his wife had been in southern Europe once and wanted to go to the northern part like Sweden, Denmark and Norway. I said that I wanted to go to Asia some day, Japan and Malaysia preferably. He said definitely Malaysia, Indonesia and even Thailand. And in Japan he suggested Kyoto because it was typical Japanese. Tokyo is just big! But I want to go there anyway, it’s been a dream since I was a tiny kid.

The intermittent fasting worked very well today. I wasn’t more hungry than usually at lunchtime but tomorrow is gonna be a little harder since I didn’t have a proper dinner tonight and I’m already hungry. But I will try not to fall to the temptation of eating before lunch and drink a lot of water instead.

I’m so exhausted and pumped out of energy right now it’s ridiculous. I talked with my PT at the gym and he said that I should do these two workouts for two weeks and then make a new appointment. I think I need more time than that, I’m so out of shape! After the warmup on the stairmaster I was super tired. And after an hour of weight lifting with little time in between exercises to catch breath, I was dead afterward. I’m still dead and it hurts so much in all of my body! Especially the chest and thighs. I hope I will get into it soon enough.

My mom gave me a link today with an article about intermittent fasting which was really interesting. Since nothing seems to work when it comes to losing weight I’m gonna try this. So I’m gonna try the least hard version of this called 16/8, you fast for 16 hours and eat during the days last 8 hours. It means that I will skip breakfast if I’m eating dinner at 7pm and lunch the next day at 11am. I’m gonna try tomorrow and see how it works. It’s okay to drink if it doesn’t contains calories so I will start my day tomorrow with a cup of tea.

My hostdad went to Asia this morning and he’s gonna be gone for two weeks. It will probably mean a little more work again, but to be honest I didn’t feel like I was working more the last time so this won’t be a problem at all. When he’s back the kids only have one more week of school, and that weekend I will go to Phoenix and a little more than a week later my mom will come. And when she is here half my year has already passed. Crazy thought that makes me a little sad. I love the kids and it’s gonna be so hard saying goodbye to them. This night when the boy said goodnight to me and gave me all those hugs he gives me every night, he told me he loved me more than googolplex and that I am the best nanny ever. The girl gives me a lot of hugs all the time as well and tell me how much she loves me. I don’t want to leave these two cuties! But two comforting thoughts are that I actually have eight months left and I will see them again in two years when they are visiting Sweden :). The boy is gonna hug my cats all the time when he’s there, haha!

Now I will go to bed and watch Game of Thrones episode 7. The third season is soon at an end…