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.

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.

My cold hasn’t gone away yet, even though I’m taking it easy and drinking tea and keeping myself warm. Or at least trying. It’s horribly cold here and my frostbite injury popped up again today when I picked up the kids from school. And it got four new friends. Great, that five of my ten fingers now get white and hurts when it’s cold… It was just 50 F (10C) and it has been raining almost all day. The info I got with 10 days of rain per year proved itself to be bullpoop.

I spent all of my freetime today at the Social Security Administration to get my social security number. It took me almost three hours just to leave a piece of paper and answering some questions. I will get my number, eventually. There were some complications because of my long name, Hanna Alexandra Camilla Bemm. The name box in the form allowed only 16 characters and that name must be exactly the same as the one on my visa. So they have to talk with the immigration so I don’t think I will get my number for a while. But that means I have plenty of time to study for my driver license!

Another thing about my middle names and the order of them, is that everyone here (who have all of my names) calls me Hanna. When I was at the au pair training school my teacher called me Hanna, because that’s what it said on the class list. My name is complicated here… Maybe I’ll just start to introduce myself as Hanna. That would have been fun and confusing, haha!

In the afternoon the boy had a playdate with the crazy boy next door. They were at our house, and he wasn’t as crazy as he usually is! But I learned something funny about him from my host mum today. It happens that he clogs the toilet when he is here so she told me to keep an eye on him, haha! Crazy boy!

The girl was preparing herself for the father/daughter dance. She had this cute dress on and were posing like crazy when her mum took photos of here before they went to the dance. The only thing she’s been talking about these last few days are the table of sweets that’s gonna be there. I’m jealous of her. I too want to eat as many cupcakes as I can…

The boy and my host mum went out tonight so I’m in this big house all by myself. I took the car to Bressi Village and ordered takeout at Rubios. First time ever I tried a Fish Taco, it was pretty good! I was thinking of buying some ice cream and watch a movie tonight. But then I remembered why that wasn’t a good idea, beacause my room is freezing and I’ve been cold all day. Another day!

I both hate and love pancake Friday. It’s sooo yummie and I’m on a good way of becoming a master at making them. But oh so unhealthy…. I can’t understand how a six-year-old boy can eat 10 when I’m full after 7…
I also found out today why I didn’t get twice as many pancakes when I realized that ~15 wasn’t enough. I just doubled some ingredients, like the eggs and sugar. Haha! Not the important ones like flour and milk. But now I’m aware of it and the next time there will be leftovers for the rest of the family!

Fish Tacos from Rubios. It was pretty good.

It’s tough to work with kids when you are not feeling okay. My head has felt like a very heavy and swollen ball of snot all day. I’m sneezing like all the time and I think I have a fever that comes and goes during the day… I’ve tried to tell the kids that I’m not feeling well and really want them to cooperate. The girl understands and feel sorry for me. But the boy is stubborn as usual. Today he got mad at me after school when he asked for a playdate with the crazy kid next door. I knew we only had 30min until we had to get back to school again to pick up the girl after play practice. I said that to him and he said that we sat in the sofa watching Disneychannel for two hours. When I said it was 30min, he said no and refused to come with me and buried his face in the pillows instead.

When we got home again he stopped being mad at me. That’s kind of a good thing about six year olds, their mood can change very fast.

In my freetime today I went to Stater Bros and bought some Ben & Jerry’s. I just bought a small package. But I think it will be a big one next time. I don’t think the kids open the freezer in the garage that often so I think it’s safe to put it in there. Haha! Anyway, I was amazed by the prize. In Sweden one of those big packages are $8. Here it’s $3. That’s sick!

I’ve gained a little weight I noticed today. But that can either be new muscle mass or just this day. I’ve learner that your weight can shift from day to day.

I said to myself that I would go to bed early tonight, but I’m still sitting here. I suck! But know I’ve planned my Saturday with Lizzie and Anna Maria. I really need to do some shopping, my jeans are kinda falling apart…

Today it’s a month ago I left home. Now it’s just 12 more months and then I’ll be home in Sweden again. Eleven in this family and one out traveling!

Today was really amazing. The kids were so cute and treated me like their best friend. The girl was so talkative and sweet all day (except in the morning, she hates mornings and going to school…). We talked about everything between heaven and earth and she explained a little about how it feels to get a new nanny every year. She said it wasn’t easy and that she didn’t mean anything yesterday. I am glad both of them are becoming so attached to me so fast and not talking about their old au pair. I think that when you have been through this your whole life, you know how to handle the situation, even though you’re just ten and six years old.

In my freetime today I was thinking about trying to find the mall here in Carlsbad. But I felt too bad and went home instead. Bought some candy on the way, watched TV series on the computer and talked with my mum. I have caught a cold (as everyone else in this house). I’ve felt feverish, been soo tired and been sneezing all day. I hope it doesn’t get worse because then it’s gonna be hard working with the energetic kids all day. Especially in the morning when they don’t want to go to school and you have to tell them like 15 times to put their shoes on.

But in the afternoon I felt a little better. Maybe because we went to Starbucks. I tried a White Chocolate Mocha. It was good but didn’t taste white chocolate. The boy wanted a Vanilla Bean frappuccino as usual. I waited a long time and when I asked for it the guy helping we were so embarrased and apologized like he did something horrible and gave me a piece of paper that said that I could have a free beverage whenever I wanted because of the inconvenience. I like Americans!

Dinner was kind of a success! I made pork chops (that’s what it said on the package, but according to my dictionary it’s smoke-cured loin of pork) with mashed potatoes. Since I discovered that you can add broccoli and cauliflower I’ve never had regular mashed potatoes. Today I added broccoli and the kids ate it all withouth almost any nagging. Success!

The Proactiv experiment is going well so far. My skin is already so soft! I have no idea how long it will take until you can see a difference, but I will give it time.