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.

I’m so proud of myself! And of course of my hiking companions Anna and Vasoula! We did an eight mile hiking trip on a mountain today. Two hours up and one and a half on the way down. Four miles one way. We are dead now but so happy we did go through with it even though it was warm and our shoes were the worst ever! What we saw at the end of our trip was amazing! And the things we saw along the way. OMG!

The plan for today was to go to Julian, but the girls who was supposed to pick us up were three hours late so we got really bummed and made plans of our own instead. Anna really wanted to go to the famous potato chip rock and so we did. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, so we drove there with Vasoula’s hostmums car. We waited for so long for the other girls that her hostmum went and came back home to lend us the car (you really feel handicapped here if you don’t have a car here).

Happy in the car for 40 minutes with our Converse and sandals. When we got to the little shop by the lake in Poway we realized what we had ahead of us. A hiking trip in the moutain. An eight mile long hiking trip in the mountain just to see a rock that looked like a potatochip! But we decided to try and see how far we could manage to go and then turn around if it was too hard. The sun was shining like never before and it was really pleasant outside. I didn’t think it was too warm, it was ”lagom”. Anna on the other hand thought it was way too warm and wanted to give up all the time. But we pepped her and we got her to the top of the mountain!

After half the way up we asked some people on their way down how far we had left. They said 2 miles. Nice, we had already climbed 6! But they laughed and said that it was 4 miles up, and 4 miles down. That was such a relief! 8 miles uphill, no way! Soon after we got warned by a lot of people about a rattlesnake on the trail up ahead. Anna freaked out, but it would be worse when we actually saw it. Me and Vasoula could climb up on a mountain way past the BIG snake (everyone said it was a really big one, like three feet, so I trust them because I’ve never seen a rattlesnake). I thought it was pretty cool to see it and if you got too close to it, it rattled with its tail!

After two hours of climbing we finally reached the stone. It was super cool! We took a lot of photos and then started to go down. Our feet hurt like hell and so did my thighs. I had a jeans skirt on today and when my thighs were rubbing together with every step it eventually gave me a rash and now it hurts so bad…. Good thing I’m just gonna go to the LCC meeting tomorrow and then be on an airplane to Houston!

When we were almost at the car we found a couple playing with a snake. Me and Vasoula wanted to  do it too. We got the snake and took photos. It was awesome to hold that snake! I have no idea what kind of snake, but I hope it wasn’t poisonous :).

After our hiking trip we had dinner at Pizza Hut and when I got home I did those notes for the kids easter egg hunt. Last night I filled the eggs with candy and today I made the notes that eventually will lead them to the eggs. I hope they will enjoy it on Friday when they get home from Mammoth :).

Oh, when they went this morning the kids were so cute! Especially the girl. She said goodbye like a hundred times, a lot of hugs and kisses and ”I love you”s. I miss them. But it’s gonna be nice with a week off!

And speaking of spring break. There was a girl who was supposed to drive me to the airport tomorrow afternoon. But now, in the middle of the night the day before, she texts me and says that she can’t… I was so scared that I had to cancel my trip and the thought of being all alone this week without a car and knowing what I would miss made me sad. Fortunately I have some really nice friends here who will help me. I’m so happy I have them!!

Today was really awesome! It hurts, and I had to throw my Converse in the washing machine, but I am happy :).

Tomorrow I will be going to Houston and then New Orleans on Monday. I don’t think I will be able to update my blog as often as I would like, but I will if I have access to Internet! Otherwise there will be a big update when I get back to Carlsbad next Sunday ;).

Now I’m gonna finish packing and then get some well deserved hours of sleep, good night!

This is not a tan, it’s dirt…

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.

It was many hours ago I stopped eating, but I’m still super full and my tummy hurts! Not a good idea to take the power-ultra skinny jeans to a buffe… My host-parents were super nice to let me quit a little earlier today so I could make it in time to IKEA in San Diego for the Swedish easter smörgåsbord. It took me about 1,5 hour to drive what normally takes about 40min. But I don’t mind driving in rush hour here. It’s way worse in Sweden with the standard shift.

The buffe was really good and it felt like home. Meatballs, potatoes, herring (sill), Janssons, lingonberries, brown sauce, ham, sausages. For the dessert there were Delicato balls, princess cake, and punch rolls, also known as vaccum cleaners. There also was Swedish easter drink (påskmust). It was an awesome evening of Swedish and afterward, when we walked around in the warehouse, it really felt as if I was at IKEA back home in Kållered! IKEA looked exactly the same as in Sweden and it looked funny with all the Swedish names on the things and weird with dollars instead of SEK.

At the Swedish Food Market I bought two jars of raspberry/blackberry, two Swedish easter eggs for the kids and a little candy to put in them. Tomorrow I’m going to hide the eggs and write notes to the kids that they have to find in the right order. My mum used to do that with me and my brother when we were kids and I loved it! I hope these kids will too. The dad thought it was a great idea!

Speaking of easter candy, when I got home some easter candy was on my desk. My host family is so sweet! Hope it is as good as the candy I got on V-day!

My last day of work before spring break was rather chaotic. When we got to school we realized that the girl didn’t have her glasses with her. So I drove back home, couldn’t find the glasses and hoped I just didn’t see them in her backpack. I had planned a morning in the park with the boy, playing basket, but the mum had to go to somewhere and wanted me to stay home with him because the cleaning lady was in the house. So we played with Bendaroo’s, sticks you can bend and stick together and build stuff. We built a bike and a spider.
We did some homework and then I made pancakes. My pancake-plate look really different now from what it looked like in the beginning. Before I could eat like eight pancakes but now I only eat three and fill my plate with strawberries, blueberries and banana.

It’s very late and I should really get to bed. Tomorrow I need to get up pretty early to say goodbye to my family, they are going to Mammoth. And right after they’ve gone I’m gonna go to Julian and eat apple pie. Goodnight!

I’m so exhausted right now! It’s been a really rough day starting with almost 2 hours of basket at the community park with the boy. It was really fun though and I think we will continue our game tomorrow for a short while!

After lunch I went to the gym. Thursday’s are leg and biceps. For some reason I hate legs, no idea why. But I have to exercise the whole body and I want better-looking thighs/ass.

When the kids werehome again from school I helped the girl with some baking. Today it was time for sponge cake. It’s nice that she likes to bake so much and the cake was amazing! But the batter is slightly better ;).
While she was baking I was outside playing football with the boy. It wasn’t much playing, just passing the ball. It’s harder than it looks to throw that damn ball!!

Unfortunately the boy got hurt and had to get inside and spend the rest of the afternoon in front of the TV. I didn’t mind, it’s really exhausting taking care of tiny energy packages. And I actually think my B12 count is sinking, was a while ago I got my last shot… Stupid Cultural Care who said I couldn’t get them here in USA. I wonder what will happen in like three months. (B12 defiency makes you tired and depressed among many other things)

I got off work at 5:30pm today because of the boy’s open house at kindergarten and the girl had to be at the schools book fair representing the girl scouts. So I was home alone and did some good! I got my cabin bag and everything fit in it. The only problem is that if I don’t check in my bag I can’t bringa ny liquids more than 100ml which means I have to leave my sunscreen and hairspray at home. Good thing you can buy new ones!

At 6:30 they came back to pick me up. Their school had a ”dine-out” at Rubios today. A dine-out is when everything you buy at that specific place give 20% back to the school. So we went there and I had a chicken burrito. I hate that fastfood is so good!

I have figured out what I want for my birthday in three weeks, surfing lessons!

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.

I found a new hobby of mine today, rock painting! Oh my god it’s funny. It started with the boy asking us to do that on Monday, bu the had playdates and so on, so we couldn’t do it until today. After we dropped off the girl at school we collected a lot of rocks an when we got home I washed them (must have been a sight, washing rocks like they were real dishes). We put them out in the sun for a few minutes, and then I set the table outside on the porch. The photo explains that.

It was really nice sitting out in the sun for a short while and painting rocks. I had to stop half an hour later though because I promised the boy I would make pancakes today also. He had a temper this morning and the since my patience isn’t as good as I would have hoped it would be by now, bribing is the only thing working. But I like pancakes and I make it healthier by decreasing the number of pancakes and adding a lot of fruits/berries, like strawberries, blueberries and banana. I also have yoghurt instead of whipped cream.

In my freetime I did some shopping. A birthday is coming up (in more than a month) :).

When both the kids were back home I decided we should do some more rock painting. The boy didn’t want to but me and the girl sat at the table and painting some more rocks. I have some in my window now that I’m pretty proud of. The best one is of a rainbow but the one the kids really love is the one that I tried to make look like a converse shoe. It wasn’t so good, but they want one of their own so I will make them one each some time.

Dinner today was kind of a success again. The dad and the girl said they liked it. The boy ate his piece super slowly so I guess he didn’t like this either… I think he makes up his mind before he even tries it… It makes me really sad everytime that happens!
But I thought it was really good! Oh, yeah, I made homemade tacopizza on scones bread. On the crust they put honey or jelly. Dinner, dessert and breakfast, all in one ;).

I am super tired and I think I actually am going to bed now… before the kids!

The rainbow one is super nice! Too bad the sun reflects too much…

I am super excited for next weekend which has resulted in a surprisingly early packing. I put everything I want to bring on the floor in my room and I actually think I can manage with my cabin bag which saves me $25. I also look very much forward to when I get my big bag of Swedish candy. My candy I brought ran out a while back…

So, for you who don’t know, I’m going to Houston on Sunday afternoon and on Monday to New Orleans with some Swedish friends from Chalmers. My first spring break and it’s gonna be so much fun!

My days here are starting to look the same. Tuesdays; dance practice, Wednesdays; soccer practice. There was something on Thursday’s that I don’t remember (or was it even something on Thursdays?) and soccer practice on Fridays too. All these new activites mean that Starbucks Wednesday disappeared. Which is probably for the best since I’m trying to stop eating so much!

The boy had two playdates today, so I didn’t have much to do actually and I think that was for the best. I slept very crappy last night. I remember having a bad dream, but don’t remember what it was about…

I just got home from the gym where I was showing the new girl, Vasoula, around. She is gonna sign up there tomorrow and for a better price than me, only $30 every month. That’s super nice!
We didn’t do a very hard workout and after we sat in the sauna for 30 min. That was awesome! Now it’s definitely time for bed, goodnight!

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 when I woke up my cold was more or less gone! Awesome! So it was no problem with the plans for the day. I drove down to Del Mar, parked at Albertsons and got picked up by Victoria and Laura. Both of them are au pairs in the same family. Two kids. Crazy.

We drove to Pacific Beach where Laura had left her big car the night before. Me and Victoria continued to Fashion Valley and Laura back home to meet us after dinner. At Fashion Valley we met Michaela and we did some shopping. I just bought a hand lotion from Hollister that smelled so good!

Dinnertime was at 5:30pm. The Cheesecake Factory! I wanted the lemon-roasted herb chicken, but they didn’t have it so I got a Hawaiian pizza instead. It didn’t taste like the normal American pizza, but it was still really good! For dessert I had Dulce De Leche Caramel Cheesecake. Just ate half as usual. It was super delicous!

After dinner we drove to Albertsons and I followed Victoria to the gated community where she lives. Their house was seriously crazy! It was HUUUGE! With pool and jacuzzi and everything! Victoria had her own bathroom and walk-in-closet.

Anyway, we got dressed and Laura was the dedicated driver for the evening. We picked up three more girls and went to Fluxx, San Diego’s best nightclub accordning to them. We were on the guest list and got in about 10pm. Not so many people yet but it got crowded pretty fast. Good music was playing but a little bit expensive. Everything was $12. Didn’t matter if it was just a beer, a cooler, a shot or a drink.

I had my new heels on and was dancing in them the whole evening. Three hours in 8cm (12 if you count the plateau) hurts! So bad! But they are pretty and I’m sure it’s good for my butt and thighs to dance.

I slept at Victoria’s place and at 11:30am I remembered that I had a skypedate with my cousins at noon. I got dressed really quickly and drove home.

We talked for almost an hour and right after I skyped with my mum and brother. Mum has already started to look at flights for the summer. I can’t wait for her to get here :).

After those two calls I changed into Bikini, put on sunscreen, packed a towel and my book, and drove to Carlsbad Beach. I was afraid that it would be foggy and cloudy, but it wasn’t. I had two really awesome hours in the sun reading A Dance with Dragons while listening to the waves hitting the beach. Didn’t see any dolphins today but I did see a lot of kids playing in the ocean, wonder how cold it is. There were also a lot of surfers.

Two weeks ago a new girl arrived here and she lives in the same neighborhood as me! So I picked her up and we went to Panda Express where I had dinner. She was really nice, Vasoula’s her name and she is from Germany.

Time to go to bed now, good night!

My third cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, Dulce de Leche Caramel Cheesecake. Caramel cheesecake topped with caramel mousse on a vanilla crust.

Summer feeling! 🙂

I’m still surprised over how fast time goes by in USA. It has to be at least three times faster than in Sweden. I’ve already been in this family for nine weeks! It isn’t so much though, compared to what it will be, in no time at all.

I really enjoy my stay here, my family is great and I am so thankful for them letting me be part of their family. But it is hard to start a new life in a family you’ve never met before. Especially when I’m sick and don’t have the energy to keep up a smile all day. Or during those days I miss home or something not-so-good happens here. I’m still very new to California and everything and I know that it takes time to make adjustments this big. But I’m trying and if I just could keep away from these darn colds it would be so much easier… But I guess life would be kind of boring if everything was easy. But,I am having a great time here! Both with the kids and everything that happens outside the house in my freetime.

Since I didn’t have my car for the first half of the day, my H-mum drove the kids to school. We picked up my car in my freetime and when I didn’t do that I was in my bed half asleep, half watching movies. I still feel really crappy but I hope it will be better tomorrow, I’m invited to celebrate another au pairs 21st birthday in San Diego. So I hink I will go and make myself a cup of tea now and then get a good night of sleep and hope it will be better when I wake up!

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 sun changed overnight from nice to mean. Yesterday I was outside in the backyard with sunscreen on. The same today, the same amount of time and sunscreen. The difference was that I got sunburned today and yesterday not. It’s not as bad as May last year when my thigh turned purple and bubbly. This time my face and lower arms are just a normal shade of red. But I think I have to find something else to do tomorrow in my freetime… And I can’t go anywhere because my car is at the car service. One of the bulbs went black today and the oil needs to be changed. I guess three hours in bed watching a movie won’t be so bad.

My cold is worse today. Don’t feel anything in my throat though and that’s a good thing. It’s just my nose that’s kinda like a slowrunning waterfall. I feel feverish, and I think I would have done that even if I didn’t get a burn today. Felt really crappy this morning.

So this morning with the boy was really slow but really nice. We painted with water colors and we managed to do a lot of drawings in one hour! Well, he did at least. I just did two, one of a sunset that the girl fell in love with and put up in her room and one of the solar system that the boy wanted in his room. Both of them wondered why I didn’t become an artist instead, haha. Sweet kids! 🙂

Apparently it is Pi-day today. The girl was sad because her class was the only one that didn’t get pie at school because her teacher didn’t send out an email until very late last night to remind the parents to bring pies to school today. So in the afternoon, while she was doing her homework I made a strawberry crumble pie. It was delicious!! Super crunchy and sweet. Both the kids loved it. The best pie they ever had!

Now I’m gonna go to bed and hope that I feel better tomorrow!

I told the girl that I made one of these to my mum when she got home from USA last summer. She hardly let me finish my sentence before she said that she wanted one when she gets home from Sweden this summer!

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.

I can’t believe I caught a cold again! And without the kids being sick… It sucks and I know how hard these next days are gonna be. I can only cross my fingers and wish for it to go away!

The spring is here (as I probably have written before – but I’m getting closer to my 22^nd birthday and my memory just isn’t what it used to be…) and it is so amazing! This weekend we turned the clocks one hour forward (which now means 8h of time difference from Sweden?) which means that once again, when I wake up at 6:30 the sun is not up yet. And it is sooo cold when I’m dropping off the girl at school at 9. This week I’ve changed clothes around noon just because the temperature changes so much! But I’m guessing in a few weeks it will be warm in the morning too.

When I dropped the girl off at school me and the boy drove to a community park my H-mum showed me yesterday. We went to the baseball field and played a type of “brännboll” (Burned Balls – In Sweden we have a game called “Burned balls. First you hit the balls and then you run like hell while the others try to burn you! Haha). We threw the ball to ourselves and hit the ball, ran as long as we could on the course before the other one got the ball (burned the other one). That we kept doing for several laps. One of us hitting the ball for one lap. When we were done and had to go home to make lunch a guy who was cutting the grass started to speak with us. “I’ve been working here for three years and this is the first time I’ve ever seen a mum playing baseball with her son here!” Do I look that old?

In my short freetime today I wanted to be out in the sun reading. But after about 40 minutes I heard a brumming noise. The gardener wanted to cut the grass. So on this beautiful afternoon I was inside watching Terra Nova… Think I’m gonna skip the gym tomorrow (because I’m sick) and give it another shot in the backyard.

After the girls first competitive soccer practice I drove home and made dinner. I didn’t have much time so I did creamed macaronis and meatballs. Very appreciated :). Next week I’m thinking about doing homemade pizza!

Now I think I’m gonna grab the rest of my Ben & Jerry’s and go to bed. It’s hard trying to be healthy when you’re feeling bad…

This morning there was this crazy and super thick fog! It was scary and according to the kids it can get worse were you can’t even see 5 feet ahead of you…

Today I survived my very first earthquake. Without even noticing it… But it was a medium one and a lot of peeps here felt it. It was a 5.2 and happened about 10am. I think I am glad I didn’t notice it and I hope I never will feel one either! I like it better when the ground is solid underneath my feet.

The weather is pretty nice again and this week is gonna be really nice! So I will try to spend as much time as possible outside with the boy. My hostmum actually came to me because she had noticed that I had some troubles finding things to do with the boy and helped me with a lot of things he likes to do, but doesn’t tell me because all he wants to do is watch TV and play on the Wii. But that’s about to change! I love being outside, but it’s so hard when he is refusing to listen to me just because he doesn’t get his will through. But I got a really nice boost from my hostmum today and things will change around here. I wish myself good luck. I have a feeling he might be a little difficult when I tell him to do other things than playing video games. Challenge accepted!

After school the boy was on a playdate at the neighbors. So me and the girl played grass volleyball in the backyard. And when the boy got home I played with  him, throwing a mini football. That is hard!! Probably I will figure it out eventually but until then the boy just have to live with the fact that I throw like a girl and he has to throw himself at the ball every time!

This night no one’s home. H-mum and the kids are at a team meeting for the girls soccer. H-dad, I have no idea, maybe working late. So I drove to Encinitas (everything is in Encinitas) and Pizza Hut. Super unhealthy but oh so good!

I also booked flights to Houston on spring break! $460 (3000kr) for a roundtrip, that’s not bad at all! On Sunday March 24^th I will go to Houston with Hanna, four of our friends from Chalmers and some other girls. We will go to New Orleans and they have planned so many fun things. I can’t wait!

Now I’m sitting here watching Terra Nova and am really happy. This day was really nice and now, once again, I feel that this year will be really nice!