Two days ago the warning lamp in the car told me that one of the stop lights were out. Typical! The car was at the workshop like just four weeks ago. Yesterday the warning light told me I had to get the airbag system checked and soon thereafter the whole dashboard stopped working. Everything was at zero! And when it’s not at zero it’s stucked at like 40mph or something. It’s a good thing I’ve driven so much car that I have a feeling how fast I’m going, and when that’s not possible I have my GPS to show me the speed.

My hostdad googled this and apperantly this is a common error in that years Volvo V70’s. So he just had to order a new dashboard. I hope it’s gonna work out fine!

Class tonight wasn’t as good as it was the last two times. I thought it was gonna be interesting talking about how to speak more naturally. But all he said I already knew. Like phrasing (when to pause) and intonation. I think Swedish and English is kinda similiar when it comes to those two things. But it’s still a nice way to spend 3 credits. No homework and no tests :).

The weather is better. This week has been really really cold and today when I woke up it was a blue sky. It was windy though. This years weather has been unnatural like everywhere in the world. The spring is apperantly in Sweden now, but here it’s just weird. Some days in February were warmer than they are now in the middle of April. I’m blaming global warming and hoping for a warm summer!

Just got home from the gym and my whole body is sore again. First one intense hour of weightlifting, my second PT program and then 35 minutes on the elliptical machine. First time I ever try that one and it was nice! It wasn’t so hard as it looks and you burned 300 calories. My cardio from now on is gonna be on that machine! Warm up is still gonna be the stairmaster though. Five minutes and you are sweating!

Vasoula spent one hour at a Zumba class and after we were in the jacuzzi and sauna for a while. I feel really good!

This morning was the first I overslept since I got here. I must have accidently turned off my alarm in my sleep but fortunately I woke up 7:25, five minutes before I start working. But I didn’t get a proper breakfast and it was kinda hectical for me when I had to prepare breakfast for the kids, make lunch for the girl and empty the dishwasher at the same time.

In my freetime I slept for a while. I knew that I didn’t have time to do my workout in the afternoon so I did it in the evening instead. My next session is on Thursday and we are gonna talk a little about Nutrition and hopefully we will go through my third workout. I think at least we are gonna have three days a week.

LA Fitness posted a ten week work out routine on their blog today and since you have to alternate exercises the whole time I think I will alternate with that one.

Now I’m gonna go to bed, I’m soooo tired…

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 was such a great day! It started with a nice workout at the gym with Vasoula and then some time in the jacuzzi! After that I was preparing myself for the girls night in San Diego. I picked up Vasoula at 4pm and we drove to Fashion Valley. We went straight ahead to The Cheesecake Factory. We weren’t gonna eat until 7pm but I wanted to try if I could ask for a table for 8 at 7. No problem, good to know! So we went for a little shopping. First Forever 21 which is a store where Vasoula never been to. She went crazy inside, haha! After that we went to Abercrombie so I could try out a pair of shorts that I would order online later with my 40% off Birthday code. Then to Victoria’s Secret where I bought a new strapless bra. I only have a white so I kinda needed a black one too. I had a $10 gift card and you got a pair of panties of your choice when you bought a strapless bra. A good deal :).

Then we didn’t have more time for shopping and went to the restaurant to wait for our table. We didn’t get it right away though, we had to wait almost an hour!

When we sat down Anna took out a ”Happy Birthday” tiara for me, a cupcake candle and a happy birthday table decoration. Even though it technically wasn’t my birthday yesterday I got a lot of attention with that tiara. I tried the soft tacos from the Skinnylicious menu and it was really good. For dessert I had Craig’s Crazy Carrit Cake Cheesecake. It was okay, but all the other I’ve had tasted better. When it was served the waiters sang Happy Birthday for me. I also got presents from all my wonderful friends! A pretty bracelet from Vasoula, candy from Anna and Laura, and body products from Victoria and Karin. Super sweet of all of them!!

Something funny happened during the dinner too. A guy came up to me and thanked me for the drink I bought him. The waiter told him that one of us bought him a drink and he wanted to return the favor by paying my cheesecake. No one bought him that drink. Later he came back and appologized. His friend had tricked him that one of us bought him the drink when it was him who actually did it but he never thought he would walk up to us and thank us. Haha! He said it was his 25th birthday dinner.

After the dinner me and Vasoula had to change dresses. I had my black long dress at the dinner and wanted to have the short party dress from Diesel at the nightclub. So we went to my car, I locked myself in the trunk while I changed and Vasoula was in the backseat. Thank god for shaded windows! Haha! Even though we changed clothes we got to the nightclub first and had to wait outside for the others for about 40 min. We got in and danced until they closed at 2am. My feet hurt like they’ve never done before. Dancing in 12cm high heels without alcohol does that apperantly. But I had a lot of fun anyway. Much attention from strangers wishing me a happy birthday.

Stingaree was a nice nightclub, but I thought they were playing a little too much hip hop. Much more fun to dance to music you can sing a long to.

All in all, last night was awesome and I had a really great time! I didn’t get home until almost 4am so I was kinda tired today, but totally worth it! Thanks girls! :).

SEAGROVE PARK

Today was my third LCC meeting (I’ve missed one). Once a year all the au pair groups in San Diego County have a picnic meeting together at a park somewhere. We were at a really nice park right by the sea in Del Mar. Unfortunately the weather today was cold and rainy. But it was nice anyway. I met all my friends and finally met the new Swedish au pair who lives in Ramona. There were cookies and cake which ended my unhealthy half-week. If it’s your birthday it’s okay!

We were there for two hours and then drove back home. I didn’t do much, watched Two and a Half Men more or less.

Time for my date with Mr. Pillow and GoT ep3 now!

Carrot cake and cheesecake swirled together, topped with creamcheese icing and roasted almonds.

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 birthday was really nice. Though I have to admit it didn’t quite feel like a  birthday (like normal I guess when you’re getting older). Anyways, I got breakfast in bed today, a big cupcake! And the girl had made me a ”drawing” to put in my room (I asked for one). It was a lot of post it notes  where it said: ”Alexandra is the best!! Alexandra is amazingly talented and…. AWESOME! Alexandra Bemm is a shooting …” and then a star ”Love you”. Cutest thing ever! I love my host children :). The kids sat with me in bed while I ate (and of course shared a little of) my cupcake. Super cozy! I didn’t have to empty the dishwasher or do the girls’ lunch so I had an easy morning. Directly after I left the girl at school the boy had a playdate which gave me some time to skype with my mom. I really miss her! And I’m really looking forward to when she is coming to visit in the summer. We have never done this kind of vacation together before so I’m really excited!

I made lunch for me and the boy, drove him to school and then off to the gym for my PT #2. He showed me a lot of new exercises that I think will be one day out of my three work out days from now on. This new schedule seems very complicated but I guess I will learn eventually. My muscles still hurt since Monday and I think it will be worse tomorrow, especially my hamstrings and shoulders. He taught me how to do the deadlift today, it is really hard!

We made a new appointment for next Thursday and until then I have homework, do both days at the gym, preferably Saturday and Monday or Tuesday. I have good notes so I hope it won’t be any problems.

After school we went to Cold Stone Creamery (an ice cream store). I figured since it’s my birthday I might as well spoil myself a bit.

At six we had a table reservation at a resutarant called Shogun in San Marcos. It was a Japanese restaurant where they cooked your food right at the table. It was super nice! The food was really good too. The cook built a volcano out of onion rings and then poured something in it and then lit it. The flame was huuuge!

When they found out that we were there celebrating my birthday they brought me a dessert, green tea ice cream with fried bananas, which I shared with the rest of the family. The ice crem was surprisingly good.

That was a really nice experience!

When we got home it was time for some homemade meringue cake. It wasn’t crispy as it should have been but oh my god it was good! I love when pastries are tough!

I got two presents by mail. The one from my cousin yesterday and one from Hanna. From Ella I got three awesome drawings, a bag of Polly (my favorite) and a cute card where she wished me a happy birthday. Inside were also a pretty picture of her. My heart melted! ❤ She also sent me an email today which was so cutely written by her.

From Hanna I got a package of three body products, body lotion, shampoo/shower gel/bubble bath (a fun combination) and body polishing scrub. They smell of passion fruit daiquiri, awesome! 🙂 I also got some perfume samples. Very sweet of her! Thank you so much, if you are reading :).

From my host family I got a gift card I can use wherever I want, that is really awesome! 🙂 Why don’t they have those kinds of cards in Sweden?

To sum it up, this day was really nice! To be able to walk around in a summer dress on my birthday was definitely a first.

When I was skyping with my mom Stuff came up to the computer, stared into the camera and mjaued a few times. When I realized I should take a printscreen she turned her head around…

I took out the camera too late, I missed the flame…

Just got home from my second class and I am kinda insecure about my English now. We talked about consonants today and unvoiced and voiced sounds and that really confused me. I don’t think I had so much of a trouble with it before, but now when I think about it. Oh my god English is difficult…

My biggest problem though is till the z. I can pronounce it but I don’t know when and in which words!! Super annoying…

My day was nice, I spent some time in the backyard reading. The boy had a playdate on the street with some other kids so I sat outside for a while there too. It’s been a really peaceful day. And I love my book. I’m always halfthrough all the 1100 pages. And that kinda sucks…

This year, my birthday is gonna be the longest ever. In Sweden it’s been my birthday since 3pm this afternoon and it won’t stop until 33 hours later, awesome.

I’ve already gotten a present from my sweet cousin Ella! Haven’t opened it yet, but I’m super curious about what it is!

I think tomorrow is gonna be the best birthday in at least three years :).

Yesterday was cold and windy. Today was sunny and warm. It’s crazy how fast the weather can change here. So my freetime was spent in the backyard reading. All of my body hurts like hell after the work out last night so it felt good doing nothing. But I actually went for a walk. Instead of driving 1,5 miles I walked a shorter way to school when I was picking up the kids from school. We took a longer way home and in total I walked 3.5km which is pretty nice!

The dinner tonight was good too. I made a fish/shrimp stew with pasta and the girl loved it!! I thought it was really good too, tasted like fish pudding but more liquidy.

The MyFitnessPal app is awesome btw. You can even scan the barcodes and it recognizes the calories in that product. That app is gonna make my life easier from now on. Another thing that made me happy today is that I’ve lost 4 lbs since last week. I think that’s a “lagom” pace. But I really miss sweets… But on Thursday there will be cake, yay! 😀 And that will be okay!

Now it is high time for the season premiere of Game of Thrones! I could borrow a friends’ login to HBOGO and that made my day again! Awesomeballs!

I think these four sessions with Chris is gonna be worth the money. He totally understood what I wanted and gave me some really good advice. So far we went through three good exercises that together trained the whole body. The exercises I’ve been doing are focusing on one muscle group while these focus on more. So these are the new kind of exercises I will do. After our session he told me to do all three. Three sets, first 21 reps, then 15 and last 9. It was really hard and now my whole body is shaking and feels like spaghetti! Pull-ups, push-ups and sitting squats.

Even though I have a genetic error with my calves he told me that that wouldn’t stop me from doing squats. He just told me to do them differently and that worked perfectly fine!

He also told me about an app called MyFitnessPal. I actually have it, but I’ve never used it but it seems pretty nice actually. So instead of writing by hand every day, I think I will use that instead, it has all the calories already so you don’t have to do the math by yourself.

My next session is as soon as on Thursday. Good way to spend my birthday!

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.

Three months away from home already. I can’t believe I only have three quarters of my time here left! I’m pretty sure the days here are shorter than in Sweden…

Today was actually a little shorter than normal days. I slept until 11am. I felt like I needed it since I got up so early yesterday. I skyped with my mom and then went to the outlet mall with Vasoula. Last time I was there, like a month ago, I saw a pretty jacket in Sun Diego and wanted to go back and try it on. I know that I don’t need a jacket here, but I’ve had mine since I was like 16, so it’s about time to buy a new one. It fit perfectly and Vasoula kind of hates me now. She loved it too and bought it in blue instead of my red. Haha! I love that store, they have super awesome clothes. I also bought a pretty blue/white striped beach dress. I didn’t bring mine from Sweden and thought it could be nice to have one here in a beach community.

After our shopping we went to Carlsbad downtown. The first time since I got here! It wasn’t much but it was pretty. We found a cute outdoor café where we both had a waffle. Our third and last stop of the day was Oceanside Pier. I wanted to see if that souvenir shop had gotten the towel I want to buy, but they hadn’t. They should have had it 1-2 weeks ago… Instead we went to the beach where we sat and watched all the surfers and kids swimming. It late afternoon but the sun was still warm (unlike in Carlsbad where it was cold…). After a while we went up on the pier and watched the surfers from a closer distance. I really want to learn how to surf so tomorrow I’m gonna send an email to a surf lesson company that I heard about last weekend. I 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.

This day was divided in two. Before lunch and after lunch. Before I had breakfast with the kids while my h-mom was at the gym. The girl went to a birthday party and I was alone for the rest of the day, the mom and the boy did something together after. So I played a little GW2 and Aion for the very first time since I got here. In Aion I hardly remembered anything and died at once… At 3.30pm Vasoula picked me up and we went to the community pool where we lay in the sun for about two hours. We also swam in the pool and sat in the hot jaccuzi. It was awesome! Home for a quick shower and then to San Diego downtown. A Polish girl who Vasoula met at the au pair training school was visiting San Diego with her host family (she lives in San Fransisco normally), so we three went to Hard Rock Cafe San Diego. I had the California Burger, but only half because of my diet. And now I have lunch tomorrow!

After that we went to Coronado where we met some Americans who started talking to us. They thought it was super cool with European girls being au pairs.

Back home and now I am super super tired. I am gonna sleep until late tomorrow and then go to the Premium Outlet Mall with Vasoula. Goodnight!

I just got home from the movies with my h-mom and the kids. We saw the Croods and it was really good! And I’m really looking forward to the summer when more fun movies are coming! (I love animated movies  ;)).

This was the first time I was at the movies here in the US. A small drink was like a large in Sweden and you didn’t get seats, you had to choose when you got inside. Weird.

At the gym I had made an appointment for a body scan and measurement. So that’s what I did instead of working out. I don’t remember the numbers, but I think my upperarms is about 4cm bigger since before I got here, and that is not fat. My arms are the only part of me where I really can see improvement. My thighs, hips and core have gained a lot of fat and that’s why I was curious about my new body fat percent. It was 23%, just 1,1% more than before I got here, but I can feel the difference. And according to the guy helping me, a girl at age 21 should have 9-15% body fat. That’s just crazy! So according to him I need to lose  around 12 pounds. Which is actually less than what I’ve gained since I got here… So, I bought an early birthday present for myself, a month with 4 PT sessions with one of the master trainers at my gym. First session on Monday. He will help me find a work out schedule with exercises that fits me, apparently google can’t help you with everything. I really hope that this works, because I don’t like myself right now… I miss the old, slim me! When I had a BMI less than 20.