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 think I could get used to getting a pedicure once in a while. Not too expensive and it was so nice. I was at the salon with Malin and Ida for about two hours this afternoon, I was in a massage chair the whole time. And lower leg massage from the pedicurist was included in the pedicure, but I had tight jeans on, so I didn’t get it… But I did get lower arm massage when I got the manicure. Now I have french manicure on all my nails and I feel so pretty. After, we bought some coffee and when I picked up the kids from school I got there in flip-flops, new nails and a coffee in my hand. It felt really wrong… But still nice!

Other than that I didn’t do anything special today. The sky was blue, but it was still very windy and cold. I want summer (or the warmth at least)!

I got an email from UCSD Extension today that made me very happy. I asked about a Sustainability course that might be of equivalence with the Environment and Sustainable Development course I will take in my third year at Chalmers. They said that the course is an evening course, 6pm-9pm once a week during the summer (jun 24 – sep7). And when I asked my host dad if those hours were okay, he said yes! So now I am waiting for a response from my counselor at Chalmers if I can transfer that credit. If I can, that would make me super duper mega happy! The only thing is that the course is kind of expensive, $415. And I only get $500 from my host family and I have to take 3 more credits.

I have found two more courses that interest me: Advanced Pronunciation & Fluency (3 credits, $300) and Advanced Conversation Improvement (0 credits, $200). I think I can turn the hours into credit for the au pair program, but I think it might be too few hours anyway… it’s a one month course. It’s too bad, because that’s the one I really want. Both of them are evening classes as well.

It is a lot of money, so I think I will put it on my wish list for my birthday that is coming up pretty soon. Otherwise I think I want to pay for it anyway. Education is good! And I won’t get another chance at studying at an American University.

I feel so relieved that I probably have solved this study problem! 🙂

I was so happy when I saw that the sky was all blue when I woke up this morning. But I’ve learned these weeks that sun don’t always means warmth. It was really windy and cold, like 65F. But in March I’ve heard it will be warmer, and the only thing in the way is the short month of Febraury. Nice! I am looking forward to hanging out on the beach and playing beach volleyball again!

I had trouble sleeping yesterday, so I’ve been tired today. And the alarmclock, that was already here when I got here, started beeping at 6:15 on the highest volume. The same thing happened last week. Think I need to take a closer look on that clock and stop that torture.

My work out today went really well! I managed to do all of my exercises all by myself except for the deadlift. I asked a guy for help and he gave me a thourough explanation, showed how it was done, and gave me feedback when I tried. That was very nice of him. I don’t think that I would have gotten that service back at my gym in Sweden…
Everything today, included warm up, stretching and cool down took like 75min. That means that I have time for jacuzzi and sauna afterward!

The boy had a friend over in the afternoon, so me and the girl were hanging out. Didn’t do anything special, girl talk and some game playing on my phone.

Now it’s dinner!

Finally I’m done with my gym program. I think it is pretty good to be honest. But we won’t be sure until after some time.

This is what I came up with:

MONDAY: BACK (barbell deadlift, barbell bent-over row, and cable pulldown) and BICEPS (barbell curl and dumbbell Curl)

TUESDAY: CHEST (dumbbell bench press, dumbbell fly, and lever pec deck fly), TRICEPS (dumbbell one arm extension and barbell lying triceps extension), and LOWER ARM (dumbbell hammer curl)

THURSDAY: LEGS (barbell full squat (we’ll se how that works with my short calf muscles…), dumbbell lunge, lever seated leg curl, and lever lying leg curl) and CALVES (calf press (if I can do it…)

FRIDAY: SHOULDER (dumbbell shoulder press and dumbbell lateral raise) and CORE (weighted crunches, weighted twisted crunches, v-ups, and possibly my 5-series that I used to do when I did the athletics).

I was thinking 3 sets with 10 reps. If any weight lifting expert is reading this, and it sounds crazy, please tell me, so I don’t hurt myself :).

And I will try to run at least twice a week, when I have time, like Wednesdays and once in the weekend. And maybe do an alternative work out schedule so I don’t get bored with the same exercises week after week.

Other than putting this together and watching a lot of videos on the Internet on how to do all of these exercises I have been with Pia and the kids at Chuck E. Cheese’s. That is a big gaming hall for kids. So you buy tokens, play games and get tickets you can turn into gifts at the end of your visit. I have seen it on movies, but I didn’t think it was like that in real life. A fun experience!

After that we went to two home decoration stores. The girl accidently broke a lamp in one of them, got reallys ad. But the personnel were kind and said we didn’t have to pay for it.

Dinner was really good, chicken stew with broccoli and pasta. I love broccoli! But that means that I can’t do my broccoli and bacon thingy on Wednesday. Wonder what I will do instead then…

Tomorrow evening Malin gets here again. We have already decided to go to a nail salon on Tuesday. That will be fun!

Oh, I almost forgot! This evening I ordered a Sony eReader! I have like 1100 pages left in the book I brought, but I couldn’t resist anymore.

Now I have a date with my pillow. Good night!

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 spent my first money on clothes here in the US. It only took me about two weeks. It’s dangerous with all the low prices…

My day started with Hanna on Skype. It feels so weird not to be able to talk with her like all the time. There is so much going on right now. But it’s nice that things like Skype and Facebook exist. Otherwise this year would be rather tough I think.

After that I went to Encinitas to pick up Anna Maria. I drove us to Fashion Valley where we walked around for an hour before the other girls arrived. They got lost on the way.

When they showed up we went into two stores, like Abercrombie & Fitch (I don’t know if I hate or love that store..) and Forever 21. At Abercrombie I bought a hoodie because that is what you use as a jacket here and I only have one. At Forever 21 I bought a belt which means that the girl is going to be so happy tomorrow when I give here the one I don’t have to use anymore. I also bought a tank top and t-shirt at Q when it was just Anna Maria and me.

At 5:30, after waiting 50min for a table, we sat down at the Cheesecake Factory. Today I ordered teriyaki chicken, it was really good too. I think I will try a new dish everytime too. My cheesecake today was Adam’s Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple (Creamy Cheesecake Swirled with Caramel, Peanut Butter, Butterfingers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups). Really good! Next time I think I will try the carrotcake cheesecake.

After that we decided to go to San Diego. So I used my GPS again to find Little Italy. I think it was way too soon for me to drive in San Diego. It was very scary. So we decided to go home to one of the au pairs I met today, Monica. But when we got to her house it was so late so I went home instead. There was a thick fog, so my scary driving experience wasn’t over. And even though it was late (about 10pm) there were lika million cars on the freeway, so that was scary too… Everything went fine though and I am safe and sound at home again.

This whole day was really fun. I got to meet three au pairs who live close to San Diego (which is not that far from Carlsbad); Alejandra, Monica and Dina. Very nice girls!

Now it’s time to go to sleep! Good night (or good morning Sweden)!

My breakfasts are very healthy almost every day. Today I got an orange from the yard, it was really good!

Adam’s Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple at The Cheesecake Factory. Super delicous!

This was all I saw of San Diego today before I drove away to small and safe Carlsbad.

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 worse today. Yesterday it stopped raining in the afternoon and you thought that it would be sunny today. But no. Still not very cold, but I miss the sun and summer feeling it gave. When it is this kind of weather, it is chaos at school. Everyone drives the children to school and you can barely get to the parking lot. Horrible! Normally I feel comfortable behind the wheel, but not in the rain at the school… Hopefully it will be better next week.

I had some freetime before lunch today because the boy was ona playdate. So I went out in the rain driving around, and going to Target for the very first time. That store is loved by this family.

I picked up the boy from his playdate and went home and did some lunch. At school he got a number award in school today. He can count to 100. I stayed and watched the Flag Salute and then took the car out driving some more. This time to Vons, mostly to just check it out. Butt hen I remebered that my calves hurt and bought liniment. It feels good!

When it was time to pick the kids up again after school it was still raining and the chaos was there. I even got there late because of all the traffic… The girl was at play practice so I just picked up the boy and we played Wii Mario Kart until it was time for the girl to come home. And when she did we all three sat in my bed, playing on my tablet and hugging each other. The kids competed on who of them loves me the most!
The girl also did pedicure on me. It’s very pretty!

Tacos for dinner and now I don’t know what to do. Maybe I too should go to sleep.

Tomorrow is a big day! I wanted to meet some other au pairs at Fashion Valley and asked three, and all of them are bringing one more, so we are a bunch of girls going shopping tomorrow. I’ve never driven so far away from home before, so this will be a real challenge. I think I will have to use my GPS for the first 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.

Under these last two weeks I have experienced three out of four (maybe five) different kinds of weather; biting cold, normal warmth, and rain. The only thing missing is hot summer and maybe hail. That doesn’t happen often, but it can. I’ve heard that it only rains for ten days every year, let’s see if that is true.

This day was much like the other. It feels like I’ve started to get a routine already. I haven’t figured out yet when I will eat breakfast. There are three options; before the kids eat (which means that I have to get up like 6:40), at the same time I’m prepairing the kid’s breakfast and lunch boxes and emptying the dishwasher, or after at 9 am while doing A’s. homework. I’ve tried the last two options so I think I’m gonna try to get up earlier tomorrow and eat in peace and quiet.

In my afternoon I went to the gym with Lizzie. I ran on the treadmill even though my calves still hurt. They are hard like rocks now and are really sore. But I’m not doing as usual and give up. I will try and see if the pain eventually will fade if I just keep this up!

We focused on core and upper body today and it felt good to walk around looking like question marks together instead of alone. Many machines are the same as in Sweden, but it’s a little werid with pounds instead of kg. But I don’t think it will take long until I understand it!

After I picked up the kids I’ve been sitting in the couch with A watching DisneyChannel. I have had stomach pains like I don’t know this week and I hope it will go away soon, when I have adjusted to the bacterial flora or something. Maybe I’m allergic to something? Horrible thought… It wasn’t puring down, but it was definitely raining, and 70F (20C).

Wednesday means Starbucks with the kids after school. The weather today was really bad, only about 70F and you couldn’t even see the sun. So I took a warm coffee drink instead of a frappuccino. The kids were freezing while drinking theirs and cuddled up in my lap. Both of them at the same time! They are so cute!

After Starbucks we went to Stater Bros because I needed some ingredients for my cooking today. Wednesdays also means that I have to cook dinner. So I decided to try Flying Jakob (chicken, banana, cashew nuts in chili sauce with rice) and needed the nuts and chili sauce. I also bought gum and some hair conditioner. The smallest bottle was far bigger than the normal size in Sweden! I like walking around in American grocery stores, they have so much stuff! The candy section is not nice. I tried really hard not to buy anything and I actually suceeded. But I don’t know about the next time… Maybe I’ll just bring the kids with me everytime, I’m trying to be a good rolemodel for them!

The dinner was a disaster/success. The parents loved it (though it weren’t as good as when I do it in Sweden with my ingredients), and the kids kinda sort of hated it… But the dad just praised me and said that I should continue giving them good, Swedish food and that I don’t have to care what the kids think.

In the afternoon today I was planning on taking a long nap. But that didn’t happen. I skyped with friends, did some laundry and emailed with UCSD. I forwarded it to Chalmers and now I’m crossing my fingers that any of the courses they suggested is similiar to the ones I will study at Chalmers next year!

This evening my LCC came over and checked that everything was okay. It was!

Tomorrow I’m going to the gym with Lizzie. I don’t have the energy to come up with a program now, so I’m just gonna do what I feel like tomorrow. My serious training will start next week!

I saw a lot of clouds today, that was a first! It was still warm so t-shirt; nemas problemas! And it was the perfect weather for a run. In my free afternoon I changed into my work out clothes, plugged in the mp3 and started. I’ve never ran before, so I took it really easy. 3km in half an hour. Because of my hurting-like-ass calves I had to stop twice to stretch. But I’m not gonna give up. From now on I am going to be serious about getting this problem out of the world, so stretching every night and don’t stop running!

After I decided to do some strength exercises in my room. I feel so bad about yesterday and all that unhealthy things… I still feel bad, and if it weren’t for my short freetime tomorrow (the children’s school ends one hour earlier on Wednesdays) I definitely would have gone to the gym!

The kids were both really sweet today. Yesterday they were really grumpy and I had stomach ache from hell and it was a rough day… So I was really glad that the kids behaved today. T. who is older  (10) doesn’t want to give me many hugs in front of her friends when I drop here off at school. But A. (6) hugs me all the time and keep saying ”I love you more than you love me, and that is more than everything in the world combined!” T. is more like that at home! Both are really sweet and I am so glad that I got the oppurtunity to get to live with this family for a year!

More unhealthy stuff, that wasn’t even that good… Peanutbutter and jelly sandwich for lunch.

The kids had a day off from school, so it was a long day today. But we had fun and we were so unhealthy. For breakfast we had cupcakes, lunch: pancakes, and for snack in the afternoon mudcake that we baked, it was delicous!

We studied a little and went for a walk. Unfortunately the Ranch was closed, otherwise I would have seen peacocks. Another day! Oh, and speaking of exotic animals, today I saw two hummingsbirds in the yard!

After the dinner I went to Encinitas because one au pair from my LCC group got my number and wanted to meet me. That was really nice! We met at Starbucks and that ended my very unhealthy day. Tomorrow I must go out and run off some calories!