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 was a really nice day even though it was very short. I had to wake up at 9am to return the car. When I got home again my hostmum waws up and when I told her I was going back to bed she said it wasn’t a very good idea to drive home alone from LA in the middle of the night. She seemed mad actually and for the rest of the day, well tonight, she still seemed upset. I hope she isn’t because I had a really great time and nothing happened!

Anyway, it was really nice weather today and at first that annoyed me when I woke up at 1:30pm. I felt hungover and that is super weird because I didn’t drink anything last night. I still feel very weird and kinda sick… I had my leftovers from Famous Dave’s for breakfast (lunch) and then I sat in the backyard for about an hour reading. After that I took my car to the outlet mall here in Carlsbad to buy a pair of flip flops. The mall was really nice, I walked around for a few minutes but I had plans to go to the beach before it got too cold. So I just bought flip flops at Sun Diego. A guy working there came up to me and asked me if I saw Swedish House Mafia. I bought a tank top yesterday, “We came, we raved, we loved”. He was super jealous!

I also bought a ice tea at Starbucks because it was warm today. Not too warm, but about 70F. This week is gonna be really warm, up to 80F!

So, I switched shoes and drove to the beach here in Carlsbad. I went into the water and it wasn’t that cold. Too cold to swim in, but as it is March it was nice! And when I stood there while the sun was setting I saw something out in the waves. I didn’t think about it because I thought it was a surfer. But then it started to jump in the waves and I realized that it was dolphins playing in the waves! Don’t know how many, but at least two.

I sat on the beach and took a lot of photos. Haven’t looked at them yet but I hope I got some good photos of them!
It was amazing. I mean, I was sitting on the beach, listening to the ocean and watching the sunset and dolphins playing. It was so beautiful!!

It was kinda sad though, when I got home and was super happy and the family didn’t even care…

Carlsbad beach

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 don’t know where to begin. Last night was incredible!! It started very early because I had to pick up my rental car at 10am. I got really sad when I noticed what kind of car it was, a Toyota Yaris. I had one at the skidding course during my driving practice in Sweden and that car ruined everything that day. But I gave it a shot and it was pretty okay. The break tried to kill me though every time I stepped on it way too good compared to my Volvo’s…

I bought a chai latte at Starbucks and typed in Cecilia’s address in Santa Monica. Two hours later I was there and another five minutes later I had Sara, Cecilia’s friend, (who also happens to know Malin, the old au pair, they arrived in the US together Jan 2012 and now she extended her year with 12 months)  in my car too. We drove to 3^rd street where we walked along a really nice shopping street in Santa Monica. We had lunch and then drove to LA State Historic Park.

We found a parking very close to the concert area. On our way to the area we were really surprised to see all the girls half naked. They seriously looked like whores! I even saw girls with tiny tiny bottom pieces and star stickers on their nipples…
It was a lot of security things we had to go through but at the last one, where they scanned the tickets I was the only one who got in. Cecilia and Sara paid $160 each for their tickets. Don’t know which site they bought from, but they were fake. I didn’t want to miss it so I went inside without them and found one of Cecilia’s friends from here LCC group, Alexandra, and two of her Swedish friends. I was waiting for Elin, who I met at the au pair training school but when she got there, about 9:30pm she was really wasted and all that time I tried to find here was kinda wasted when she went directly to the beer tents instead.

But it was nice being with the three others. But when Swedish House Mafia started playing I wanted to get closer so I followed a guy I had been talking with and watched SHM with him. He was nice and followed me to my car afterwards. LA downtown in the middle of the night isn’t so nice I’ve heard.

I had Cecilia’s and Sara’s things in my car and had to drive to Santa Monica again to give them their bags. It was very late and I had to refuel the car and I had so much trouble with that, I couldn’t figure out how to open the lid to the tank!! At last I did, and I went to 7-eleven, bought a coffee and some candy to keep myself awake on the way home.

It was really nice driving home at 2am. There were cars on the road, but not so many and I was home about 5am. Last night apparently the clock was put forward one hour to summer time. Horrible going to bed at 5:30am…

I almost forgot!! Just when I got in I saw a celebrity! He had a hoodie and a cap but it definitely was him. Ryan Kwanten! Maybe more famous as Jason Stackhouse from True Blood!!

Oh, I didn’t write anything about the concert, haha! It was outside and it really felt like a festival. 10 bands/guys were performing and surprisingly many were Swedish. There were to stages, the Ballroom and the main stage. The whole night felt like a big nightclub outside and it was impossible to stand still. It was really cold though!

SHM were playing for two hours and the first wasn’t so special. They started with Greyhound and that was awesome! But the other songs I didn’t recognize. In the last 45minutes they played all their famous songs. I didn’t see so much because I’m not that tall, but I can imagine what it looked like when 105000 people were jumping and dancing while SHM  were playing Don’t You Worry Child!

The light show was so amazing! And with the smoke it sometimes looked like it was a roof over our heads. In the end of the show it was snowing too.

I really can’t put it in words, it was an amazing night! And I am so glad I went. It was really expensive, about $300. But if it’s true what they are saying, that this was their last tour, it was totally worth it!

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 totally forgot to write yesterday, I guess I was to tired and full of ribs when I got home from Famous Dave’s last night.

So I’m gonna do a quick post today before I drive off to LA. Yesterday was a big day for my driver license, I took the written test at DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles). It took about two hours before I was done but the test itself was only like 20 minutes and very easy. I only got one error out of 36. But it was a stupid error and if I just focused and thought about what they were asking I would have gotten 100%… Well well, at least I don’t have to study for that anymore.

When I got off work I went to pick up Anna in Encinitas and we drove to Vista where we met Laura, the new girl. Finally ! We three started to eat because we were starving and like 40min later Monica and Nasly showed up. We had a really nice evening eating ribs and stuff like that. I love Famous Dave’s! Especially the muffins they have, I think it’s food muffins, but I can’t tell what flavor they are. Haha!

Monica asked us if we wanted to come with her to Palm Springs on Sunday and since I have to be home to return my rental car at 10am I said yes. So she’s gonna pick me up around that time and then we are going to Palm Springs for the day! That will be nice :).

But now I have to focus on today. I have to get myself ready because in an hour I have to be on the freeway to Santa Monica to pick up Cecilia and her friend and then to LA State Historic Park to see Swedish House Mafia!! It’s gonna be legen… wait for it…

…DARY!!

The test and my temporary driver license! Weird I got that before I passed the behind-the-wheel test.

I’ve already been here for two months. It’s crazy! How can time just fly by so fast? I don’t feel that I’ve done anything special since I got here but when I think about it… I’ve been in New York, seen In Flames, been to LA twice, met a celebrity, been to San Diego many times, watched beautiful sunsets in southern California, worn a bikini in February, seen a lot of exotic animals, tried a lot of American things, shopped and more is coming! This time in two days I will see Swedish House Mafia in LA! On spring break I’m going to Texas for a week and on April 22^nd I will go to IKEA and eat easter food. This year will be over in no time at all.

Today I did the usual things with breakfast, homework with the boy, New Super Mario Bros Wii, lunch, work out and a nice long shower. It went a little chaos though when the girl asked me if she could go home with a friend on a hang-out-date. So I took the boy home, we played for a little while until he was supposed to go to a birthday party with his mom. She couldn’t make it so I had to take him to a place in San Marcos. It was a place with inflatable bouncy castles. I had to stay with the girl because I picked her up right before.

When the mum came and took over we went home and watched a little of How To Train Your Dragon and then we had enchiladas for dinner with the dad. It went okay actually. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal for him…

After dinner I continued studying for my test tomorrow. I’ve probably studied too much, but rather safe than sorry! Wish me luck!

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 spent two hours in the kitchen cooking dinner today. I set the table very pretty with napkins folded like stars. Yes, I tried to be extra nice today because two days ago everything around here changed. My host dad came up to me and gave me a very long lecture about how I am as a person. I was so surprised I wasn’t able to say anything in my defense to all the horrible things he said about me. I don’t want to write about specifics here, but I got really reallys ad and now the whole situation is super uncomfortable. I love the kids so I really don’t want to go in to a rematch or go home to Sweden, but I wish I could have some time off and go back to my normal life in Sweden for a short amount of time.

Anyway, two hours in the kitchen, making fish pudding, my favourite dish back home! I didn’t want to tell the kids what I was cooking because I thought I would get the same reaction I gave my mum many years ago when she told me we had fish pudding for dinner, disgust. I told them anyway and, yeah, it was not a positiv reaction. The girl was a little bit curious though. Sometimes she acts so much more mature and I love that. Unlike the boy that faked a gag when I told him…

After dinner they both said it was really good! Awesome! The parents liked it too.

Today I didn’t go to the gym and it was kinda nice. Instead I went to European Wax Center again. I really love to spoil myself, especially when I’m not feeling so well. And afterward I went to Extreme Frozen Yoghurt and bought 10oz of delicousness! The girl was on a hang-out-date (she doesn’t like it when I say playdate, obviously, she is ten ;)) so no Starbucks this week either.

In the afternoon me and the boy watched documentaries about dinosaurs and then I had to start with dinner.

Now I’m gonna continue to study for my driver license test and then try to sleep…

 I walked the boy to a friend for a playdate before lunch and one of the houses were overrun by peacocks! I think we counted them to 22. Peacock party!!

Yesterday my hostmum asked me if I wanted to write the driver license test this Friday. That means that I had 5 days to study. I’ve heard that it’s easy, but that doesn’t matter, I’m still nervous. So I started studying a little yesterday, a little mor today but there are still a lot of pages left in the handbook to read through…

But I think I’m gonna make it! It’s gonna be nice to have a Californian driver license, so I don’t have to get weird looks when people are looking at my Swedish one. If I’m gonna be honest, it’s actually pretty fun to study a little again!

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 weekend was the best weekend since I got here! It was so much fun. Hanna, from my class at Chalmers was coming down from San Luis Obispo with her roommate and the roommates friend from Germany. I got there at 9pm on Friday because I was at the girls showcase at her school. It was a musical about Dr Seuss, I think they were mixing Horton Hears a Who and the Grinch, but I’m not sure. It was really good, but I had a hard time understanding what they were saying/singing. Right after the show I drove to San Diego and met the three girls. Me and Hanna never spoke much in Sweden, but we found out we have much in common and I’m really glad I decided to spend the weekend with her. We decided that I’m gonna go with her to Texas on Spring Break. Some other class mates from Chalmers is visiting and I’m really looking forward to it!

FRIDAY

When I got to San Diego they were in a restaurant and had just eated dinner. I wasn’t so hungry so I just ordered a coke and then we went to the hostel. It was a really nice one in the middle of downtown on 5th Avenue. I’ve never been at a hostel before, but Hanna said it was a really good one and I was lucky to have that as my first. Two nights, $58 and that is pretty okay. So when I’m going to San Diego next time to party, if I don’t have anywhere to sleep, I’m gonna stay the night there. We shared room with two other girls and in the room next to ours there were to Swedish girls who had been backpacking mostly in Asia for some months.

In the room I changed clothes very quickly, and we went outside to find a nice place. First we went to a tequila bar. It looked funny from the outside, but was actually pretty nice inside. The drinks were good and cheap.

After the drinks the two German girls were too tired to go anyplace else. So it was just me and Hanna. We went to a bar called Analog and it was really cool inside. The music wasn’t the best and it was too loud, but it was really fun. Half an hour before it closed at 2am, two guys came up to us and started talking. They were funny to talk to but they wanted to keep on partying and we wanted to get some sleep. But first we went to IHOP, Hanna had never been there. It was an express restaurant, and the pancakes weren’t as good as at a real restaurant. But it was nice at 3am. Got to the room at 3:30 and I feel asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.

SATURDAY

We had big plans for Saturday so we woke up at 8am, had breakfast and went to San Diego Zoo. I bought a membership, a yearly pass so I can go there as many times as I like and that includes the Safari Park too. I paid $59 and one ticket for the day was $44. Pretty nice!

The zoo was huge and I don’t think we saw everything even though we were there for 4 hours. My feet hurt like hell after all that walking, but it was totally worth it! I saw the panda daddy, unfortunately not the baby because we got to the exhibit at 12:30pm and the baby was only available 9am-12am. Next time! I also saw giraffes for the first time in my life and it was really cool. They are super weird animals. Hummingbirds were everywhere and I actually got two really good pictures of one drinking nectar!

After the zoo we went to Balboa park for a short while. And I want to go back there. A lot of museums that seemed nice! Good thing I live so close to San Diego because there are a lot of things to do there.

After that we went to Vons, bought some food for the barbeque and then we went there. We got there soon after 4pm  and it was already a lot of people there. Anna, who invited me, told me her boyfriend (who was hosting the barbeque with his roommates – they are four guys sharing a house!) invited 300 guys. I’m guessing there were about 80 people maybe. It was a really nice barbeque, not too cold to be outside the whole evening and everyone wasn’t too drunk. It was very international, not many Americans. A lot of Germans, some Danish, Norwegian but no other Swedish than me and Hanna.

I didn’t drink so much but I had a really great time anyway! We left the party pretty early, about 9pm because we wanted to go to Coronado to se San Diego skyline. It was as bueatiful as last time I was there, but now it was warmer. It is still chilly in the evening and you have to wear a hoodie or jacket, but I’m guessing that’s gonna change soon :).

Back to the hostel and nine hours of sleep!

SUNDAY

Hanna, Martina and Helena didn’t want to get stuck in the traffic to LA so they wanted to go back to SLO pretty early. That meant that I was in Carlsbad again by 11am, in time for the T-mobile store to open. The guy inside cut my sim card but it didn’t want to work so he gave me a new one, even though he couldn’t do it because Bill wasn’t there with me. And it started working and I was so happy!! I can use my HTC again! The only thing is that my plan is the worst ever. 300 texts every month, 1500 minutes and no internet for $49. For the same price I could get unlimited texts every month, 500 minutes (I only use about 100) and 2GB of highspeed internet. I’m gonna ask Bill when he get home if we could change. It will be a new plan and locked for two years. But why wouldn’t he want to change? It’s way better for the same price!

Now the girl is performing her last show at the school. Pia and the boy is watching and I think I need to go to the gym, but I’m so tired. Or maybe I should go the the wax center. Or start studying for my driver license. Or maybe just sleep…

No, the gym it is! And photos from the weekend will be posted tonight!

When I left the boy at kindergarten at noon his teacher asked all the parents who had time to come inside for ten minutes. There were a veterinary and her son with four snakes. The son told the six-year olds about the different kinds of snake he brought. And afterward they could pet them. And when I was just about to leave his teacher asked: ”Doesn’t A’s nanny want to pet the snakes?” I’m not afraid of snakes so I did it, and oh my god, they were soft! Super cool!

In my freetime I was, once again, in bikini in the backyard reading. It was awesome. The girl was at soccer tryouts right after school and her dad drove her there so I åicked up only the boy today again. And today I walked to school to get him. It was so nice weather and it only took me about 10 minutes to get there. A little longer on the way home obviously.

In the afternoon I sat with the crazy-kid-next-doors mum on the sidewalk outside our houses and talked. It was nice! And then the kid came over on a playdate.

I can’t believe it’s only February. Since Saturday it has been awesome weather and the sun is burning when in lee (don’t know if that is how you write it…) . Today I spent 40 minutes of my freetime in the backyard in bikini with sunscreen on, music in my ears reading a book. I haven’t been able to do that in such a long time (okay, like once or twice last summer) and it felt so good! If it’s warm tomorrow, I will do the same again and work out after dinner. It’s a good thing it’s always windy here, otherwise I think the summer would have been unbearable.

Today I was mocked by the guy responsible for courses at my program at Chalmers. He asked me how I could think that 80h, 3 credits, here could be the same as 160 in Sweden, which is a 7,5hp course. I had no idea how many hours it was…. So it was totally unneccesery for him to write it the way he did, like I am stupid or something.

Anyway, that means that I can’t be credited for it. It’s a lot of extra money for something I probably won’t need. So we’ll see if I find something better.

Now I’m gonna have some carrot cake and watch a movie!

Over and out!