Today’s big thing was that I bought a ticket to Swedish House Mafia in LA on March 9th! $200, but I think it’s gonna be worth it! A Swedish au pair who arrived here with me and who’s living in San Fransisco is going and we are gonna meet there. I also think three Swedish au pairs from here are gonna go with me. It’s going to be amazing!!

It feels like I’m throwing money all around me. But I mean, you can’t do these things in Sweden and I am here to experience things so I think it’s okay! As long as I get to see Hawaii and Florida, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and everything here in California; like Six Flags, Los Angeles, San Fransisco, San Diego Zoo, Sea World and perhaps Disneyland. This is really going to be an eventful year! I really hope I can get a job when I get home, I have a feeling that I will be kinda broke…

I didn’t meet with the new au pair today, her H-parents asked her if she could work in the very last minute. So I went to the gym and when I got home I took my book and sat in the garden and read for one and a half hour. It was really warm today, about 80 F!

After that I didn’t do much, sat by the computer and cleaned my desk which has already become full of stuff. At 6pm my H-parents went to the movies to see the new Die Hard movie. So I had to work tonight, but I didn’t mind. We had a very nice evening together with fish tacos from Rubios and Despicable Me. I had to put hem to bed but that was no problem at all.

And now I’m gonna put myself to bed! Good night!

I enrolled at University of California San Diego Extension today! On April 3rd and every Wednesday for the next nine weeks I will be taking a class called Advanced Pronunciation & Fluency. I hope that will take away my Swedish accent. Oh, this is so exciting! The best part is that I don’t have to pay the $300 fee, because my H-parents will give me $500 for studies this year! Unfortunately my next course will cost about $400 and I have to pay the extra 200… But on the other hand, I learned today that I probably will be credited for that course at Chalmers next year. 3 credits is approximately 80 hours of work, including 27 inclass hours. I hope that equals to a 7,5hp course in Sweden! I won’t get answers from Chalmers until next week. But I’m crossing my fingers! It would be so awesome if I could skip the Environment and Sustainable Development course! I’ve heard it’s a pain in the butt…

It was President’s Holiday today so the kids were home from school. Or at least the boy, the girl was at play practice almost all day. As usual the boy tested me almost all day. He has two personalities, one before lunch and one after. I love the one after lunch when he is all cuddly and can’t stop telling me how much he loves me. But before he is just a stubborn six year old who really gets on my nerves. I don’t know what to do, but he refuses to listen to me and tells me I’m not his mum and can’t tell him what to do. And when I try to explain what I’m doing here he just doesn’t listen. It’s a good thing he changes in the afternoon!

The moon tonight was amazing! So big and high in the sky, like a big smiley mouth. A little cloudy too, so beautiful! I don’t understand the moon though. Two days ago it was barely across the rooftops at 8pm, yesterday I didn’t see it at all and today it was really high in the sky. Weird, but oh so pretty! When I went out to buy some ice cream for myself I stopped by the side of the road and just watched the moon. It’s beautiful in Sweden too, but you can see it clearer here since there are no city lights at night!

Now I’m gonna go to bed and watch The Avengers. Tomorrow I’m gonna work out (I just haven’t had any time this week and it feels horrible) and then meet a new au pair who arrived just a week ago!

Over and out!

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 is a huge day here in the US and that really sucks. Yes, I am single and I hate V-day… I realized today that this is the first Valentine’s since I was 15 that I’m single.

My day started with the kids coming down and giving me a Valentine’s gift from the whole family, a card and a box of chocolate. Really sweet of them! The kids got their cards from me after school and they were both really happy about it! ”I think I like it too much!” the boy said.

Both the kids got lots of V-day cards at school and parents wore shirts with hearts on them and the gates to the school were decorated and stuff. I saw one boy going to school this morning with a huge bouqet with balloon flowers. Ambitious!

It was an okay day though, wasn’t as tired as I was afraid I would be after getting home at midnight yesterday. The funniest thing today was when I opened the garage, from the inside, when I was going to school to pick the boy up. When I opened Star Wars music started playing (Darth Vader music). WTF?! Across the street were some kids playing music. That was so crazy!!

Now I’m gonna go to bed, have to catch up on some sleep!

My Valentine’s gift I got from the family!

Star Wars music from across the street. Wonder if they planned on starting playing when I opened the garage door. Haha!

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’ve been listening to In Flames since I was 14. They are one of my favorite bands of all time. They are from my hometown in Sweden and I’ve never seen them live. It was really about time!

The whole night was amazing. It would have been more fun if someone was there with me, but I am so glad I bought that ticket and pulled myself together and drove to San Diego downtown. I had to work until one of the parents got home which was at six. I didn’t leave until 20min later. I’ve never heard Battlecross or All Shall Perish so I didn’t mind missing them and I didn’t want to be rude and wait at the door as soon as they got home.

I find a good parking spot very close to House of Blues, just a block away. When I got there, around 7:30pm, All Shall Perish just started playing. They were pretty okay. And the singer looked like a small Hagrid from Harry Potter. So I thought the next band playing was Battlecross because concerts are always delayed. This is kind of embarrasing, but I’m gonna write it anyway. The first song was really good and I recognized the style of it. The next song I really really recognized and even could the lyrics to. ”Are Battlecross a cover band?” And then I realized it was Demon Hunter. So embarrasing… To my defense I haven’t listened at Demon Hunter’s latest album or In Flames’ two latest albums at all.

The best song was Collapsing. It was awesome even if Björn Strid from Soilwork didn’t sing it.

A long wait and then finally the headline, In Flames! It’s too bad it was a long time ago I listened to them. But I recognized most songs and it was so awesome! Last night made me feel proud to be Swedish. I don’t have any more words for it, it was a dream come true!

The only bad thing was that they didn’t play any of my favorite songs, Trigger or Free Fall.

Yesterday was awesome and a really good add to my USA-memory-box!

House of Blues San Diego.

All Shall Perish, aka “Mini-Hagrid”.

DEMON HUNTER!

IN FLAMES!!

Anders Fridén and Don with the tiny boner, even if he was a girl.

In the afternoon I thought I could drive to the nearest Donkin’ Donuts and buy some to the kids. I had my GPS but I couldn’t find it. I ended up at a military base north of here and talked with US Marines about how lost I was and that I was looking for Donkin’ Donuts. That was a crazy adventure. So instead we went to Extreme Frozen Yoghurt. My first time and definitely not the last. Oh my god how delicious! Before that I also ate a semla. I didn’t think you could get one of those here in the US. So now I  don’t have to bake tomorrow.

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 just got home from an awesome evening in San Diego downtown. I’ve finally seen In Flames live! But I’m way too tired to write about it tonight…

Godnatt!

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’s seriously not fun making dinner when the boy says straight out that he doesn’t like it. Today I thought my chicken and bacon stew was really good. I try to not care, but it’s not fun doing something that isn’t appreciated by the persons you spend all your days with. The parents like it, but it kind of doesn’t matter for me.

After dinner my host dad said that maybe I should find some au pairs nearby to hang out with. I don’t mind being on my own in my room after dinner but they are afraid that I’m showing signs of homesickness I guess. But that’s not it. I just don’t have the energy to do something special everyday! But it would have been fun to have some friends closer.

I went to the gym because I didn’t have time in the afternoon when I went Valentine card shopping for the kids. I think I found two cute ones. There were so many cards! So I picked the first two best and then went home sleeping the rest of the afternoon. I don’t understand why I’m so tired all the time. I haven’t had any sleeping problems the last week.

This wasn’t a fun post… But those days exist too (tomorrow won’t be one of them!). So I’m gonna end with something nice and then go to sleep! When I drove to the gym at 8pm I saw the most amazing moon I’ve ever seen! It was new moon, it was all orange-red, hung really low in the sky and was so big! It’s to bad my camera sucks.

Desert after lunch. It’s nice to be able to eat berries all year round. These strawberries were delicious!

A red new moon. It’s fun that it’s upside down!

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 just paid for a ticket to In Flames/Demon Hunter in San Diego this Wednesday! Oh my god!! I can’t believe it took me like 7 years to finally see In Flames live. And they are from the same city as me… It’s gonna be so amazing, I can’t wait!

The only problem is that the concert starts at 6pm, and I don’t get off work until 6:30 normally. But I think I can get off a little earlier and I’ve already changed my dinner evening till tomorrow instead. Don’t know what to do though…

There are two more bands playing and I really hope they get on before Demon Hunter and In Flames. Concerts are always delayed, but I want to make sure that I get to see two of my favorite bands! And I can’t believe it only costs me $35!

I will get my ticket at the event, and I hope I will still get it even if I’m gonna be late, I will cross my fingers!

Another upcoming event of mine is probably Coachella! Yesterday I learned that Lizzie has a ticket with a car camping spot that she can’t use. A friend from Chalmers is going that same week so I asked my host parents this evening if I could go. They said yes! The only thing is that I have to work on Friday and Monday, and the festival is Friday April 19th to Sunday April 21th. Sunday, no problem, I will just get home in the middle of the night, and get up to work as usual and then sleep in the day. But on Friday it’s a little bit more difficult. They said that maybe I could get off work at 4pm instead of 6pm. I will probably miss one of the bands I really want to see, Of Monsters and Men. But what the heck. It will be awesome anyway!

I’ve never been to a camping festival before so this will definitely be a new experience. It’s one thing I didn’t have on my bucket list before, but now I’m so excited!

$300 for the whole thing and about $60 for a rental car. I think it’s okay!

I forgot to write about three things yesterday! First, I saw coyotes when we were going to the Griffith Observatory. It looked like they were posing when we took photos of them. Second, I’ve started a new registration plate game. I’m gonna write down every different state plate I see here in Cali. So far (since Saturday), I’ve seen 15 including California! I’ve even seen Alaska!! Third, when we just had parked in LA downtown yesterday we ran into four young people, two of them I recognized from au pair training school. How big are the odds of running into other au pairs in the middle of Los Angeles?!

This morning I was super tired and lately the boy has been very cranky in the mornings and I hate it. That’s the only thing I hate about my job right now. He refuses to listen to me, he gets angry with me for no reason almost every morning… It’s horrible. But when I was making lunch he was in a much better mood and said that he was a very forgiving person. Maybe that was not the word. Bu the easily change his mind anyway.

In the afternoon he is the cuddliest kid ever. He is like a new person. Today we wrote a wish list for them both on Dunkin’ Donuts. I’m going there on Wednesday to bring something back for them. I have to take the freeway to get there and I’m not allowed to have the kids in the car while I’m on the freeway so.

When the boy came down to say good night he gave me two drawings. He’s so cute (almost always)!

This is me and the boy. I am the one saying love and wearing big earrings. He is the one thinking about Lego Star Wars! Haha!

This is a gorilla. And he is super angry because someone stole all his bananas!

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 accidently uploaded the pictures in the wrong order. So if you want to see them from the beginning, scroll down and then scroll upwards!
We started out at the Hollywood sign, then to Hollywood Boulevard; Walk of Fame, Hard Rock Cafe and Madame Tussauds.
After that we drove to LA downtown and Staples Center where the Grammy’s were held.

I have a lot more photos that I will upload on Facebook eventually!

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 a super long day today and now I’m so exhausted I just want to go to bed. I almost thought about skipping the blog tonight. But naah, it’s funnier to write when it’s still fresh in your head!

So I got up really early to fix everything. Me, Anna and Lizzie were planning to go 8 am. But we didn’t start our journey until 9:30. It sucked but when Lizzie told me she couldn’t get inside her friends house here in Carlsbad she drove to LA to sleep in her cousins house. So she drove south this morning just to pick us up, then north again and lastly south again. I don’t understand how she manages.

So it only took us about 1,5h to get there and we started with the Hollywood sign. We didn’t do the 2h hiking trip up to the sign. We were happy and satisfied with the Griffith Observatory. You could see the sign really well but I’m not sure if the photos is good. My camera sucks and pushes the motives further away. But we’ll se when I take a look at them. Not tonight though… I’m way to tired to watch through 350 pictures… So no photos today, but tomorrow I will make a post with just photos from today!

You had a fantastic view over Los Angeles too and the city reached as far as you could see. It’s hard for me to understand how big everything here is! I’m from the second biggest city in Sweden, but it’s nothing compared to this. I love it!

After that we went to Hollywood Boulevard and the Walk of Fame. I was not particularly impressed to be honest. I understand why they have to embellish it. It was still cool though!

When we got hungry I had a suggestion, Hard Rock Cafe. I had not thought about that at all before going there, but when I saw the gigantic sign on Hollywood Blvd I just knew I had to eat there! We have a Hard Rock Cafe in Gothenburg too, but embarrasing enough I’ve never been there… It was so nice inside and the Californian hamburger I ordered was delicous! I had a virgin drink, instead of the normal coke, and I got to keep the glass. A cool souvenir!

When we were so full we almost rolled out of Hard Rock Cafe we went to Madame Tussauds and unfortunately those wax dolls were the only celebrities we saw today. Oh my god, we were fooling around so much, laughing, and taking crazy pictures. It was so much fun!

I can’t believe how much I’ve used that camera today. The battery almost died so I had to use my phone when we got to downtown. Today was the 55th Annual Grammy Awards in Staples Center. Everything was blocked and full och policemen. The awards had begun when we got there so didn’t see any celebrities. But we got to see Staples Center. It was way to cold to take a trip around downtown so we didn’t see anything more than that and the skyskrapes from afar. That’s another days adventure!

Now I’m home again, super tired. And tomorrow starts a new week of work. This one is longer because the children are free from school on Friday because of some president. But I think this week will be pretty nice anyway. I’ve started to feel much better so I’m gonna try the gym tomorrow. I will probably hang out with Lizzie this week because its her last. And on Saturday a visit to the San Diego Zoo might happen!! So much going on all the time :).

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 definitely going back to The Broken Yolk. They had so much on the menu and everything seemed so good. I tried the french toast with strawberry sauce and it was so good that I ate it all and was so full afterward I hardly could walk. Haha! I was there with Anna and Lizzie. The later told us a really sad story about her host family. I knew she was having troubles with the lack of respect from the mum, the constantly angry teenager and all the chores she had to do that’s not included in our program. Like making dinner for the whole family every day of the week, doing all the grocery shopping, cleaning that’s not related to the kids, doing the whole families laundry and no thank you’s. But apperantly Lizzie has reached a point now when she can’t stand it anymore. She’s going through with a rematch. It’s sad, but I understand her. I hope she gets a family closeby. Otherwise she’s going back to Mexico, and that kind of sucks. But she told us we are more than welcome to visit her in Mexico City!

We went to Westfield Plaza Camino Real shopping center and I think I’m gonna visit that place again. Too many stores for one day! My mission for the day was to buy jeans, hoodie, panties and change sim card and add internet to my cell plan. I couldn’t get a new sim card or add internet because the plan is in my host dads name. So either he has to go with me to do it or he has to give me authorization to do it. I found my seamless panties at Victoria’s Secret. I couldn’t find a hoodie, maybe I’ll just order one online. But I did find jeans! Hollister had a huge sale on all their jeans and I got two pair for $70. That’s crazy!! The girl who was helping me with the crazy US sizes asked me about my accent and said that she loved it and didn’t understand when I said that I wanted it gone. What is it about Americans and accents??

After our shopping adventure Anna and Lizzie went to San Diego for the Mardi Gras Masquerade. I wanted to feel good tomorrow so I didn’t join them but went to TGI Friday’s with Victoria, Karin and Michaela. That was nice!

After that I went home and now I think it’s time to go to sleep. Because tomorrow at 8 am Lizzie and Anna are picking me up for our day in Los Angeles!!

The brunch at The Broken Yolk was amazing!

The entrance to Westfield Plaza Camino Real Shoppingtown. When we got out it was pitch dark…

The inside of a comicbook store.