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 now finished all my compulsory 6 credits. I am really glad that it was part of the cultural exchange program. It was a nice change of scene in my normally amazing everyday. I’ve been very satisfied with both my classes I took (Advanced Pronunciation and Fluency was the first one). And this last motivated me to want to continue with German. I wanna be able to speak a third language well and it would be such a good thing to have on my resume. I hope I have time to continue with it when I go back to Sweden. I had my final tonight and it went really well I would guess. I was done after 15 minutes, had a lot of time to look everything through and after handing it in I sat with my phone for a long while. We also got our tests from last week back. And I got another 100%!! I’m afraid I won’t get an A+ anyway, because I’ve had a lot of tiny stupid errors on my homeworks. And I know for sure that I misspelled Abendessen tonight. I added the Swedish S AbendSessen. But maybe I won’t get a minus for it, the teacher was really nice. I hope I will get an A at least as my grade.

This morning I spent in bed, studying for my final, reading and sleeping. When I went to pick up the kids from school I saw two packages outside the door and both were for me!! I didn’t even have to read who it was from, I recognized my mom’s handwriting. The contents according to the note on the packages were Christmas Gifts and Candy. After my German class I opened them. I was so happy when I opened and saw what she had sent me. First of all, Swedish Christmas Candy like Juleskum and tiny chocolate Santa Clauses. She also sent me gingerbread Gifflar from Pågen and saffron gifflar from Skogaholm. So yummy!  She also sent me real Swedish Fishes, and I guess she did that because I wrote about the American Swedish Fish, haha :). She also sent super cute santa clauses decorations for my hostfamily and a tiny glass angle for me. So very sweet of her! And last but not least, the chocolate advent calendars. One for each child in this household :). I was afraid that this year would be the first year ever without one of those, but now I have one and the best part is that I have to eat all the nine pieces that’s already been! Homesickness welled up after opening and I really miss mom now. But in just 8 weeks I will see her again!! Well, eight weeks and a couple of hours.

I thought I had my last au pair meeting today but my LCC changed it from Jan 19th to the 5th so I have one more meeting. Not that I have to attend that one, because I’ve had all my 12 now, but it can still be fun. Today at the meeting we were in Bueno Vista Park, we took a tiny walk and then played the Christmas gift game White Elephant. I didn’t get my gift, I could’ve but I was to curious so instead of stealing it, I decided to open the last gift and end the game. That was a bad move on my part. I ended up with a super blue longsleeved top from H&M. That kind of blue is not my color and I don’t want any more clothes. My suitcases are already full!

I spent the afternoon at Chad’s reading with two chihuahuas in my lap. Those two dogs love me and I have no idea why, maybe I have a hidden dog magnet inside of me somewhere. Chad was studying next to me while watching football. After 11 months I’m still clueless when it comes to the rules of that game.

The evening was spent in the guestroom reading some more. Then the whole family had a very good dinner. Potato gratin, roast beef and salad. For dessert we had chocolate pudding with whipped cream. Sunday luxury!

Seriously?! 11 months down, one to go? I find that very hard to believe. I don’t feel ready for Sweden. I do however feel ready for Hawaii, which happens in just 39 days!!

My eleventh montheversary has been spent studying for my finals on Monday, a little bit of reading and dinner at Stacked with Lovisa, Cati and the new Swedish au pair Johanna. We had a very nice evening and even if I know that my stomach doesn’t like ice cream I couldn’t resist having an ice cream sandwich with one White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie and one Snickerdoodle cookie and pumpkin ice cream in between. So darn delicious! Why don’t we eat pumpkin in Sweden?

For dinner I had my usual when I go to Stacked, a salad with grilled chicken breast, dried cranberries, bleu cheese, caramelized pecans, avocado, red bellpeppers and a cranberry/walnut dressing. Yummy! Probably not healthy at all.

Now I’m heading over to Chad’s, we are gonna watch The Smurfs 2 and tomorrow I have my last LCC meeting. I wrapped my gift and with the wrapping paper I bought it became very pretty though simple. We are gonna do a Christmas gift game called White Elephant and I really like the contents in mine so I might try to get it myself.

It is only two weeks until Winter Breaks begin. The kids are tired of school after one week and can’t wait until Christmas. They are a bit sad though that they can’t have a Christmas Tree as early as they usually have because of the floor changing. But I’ve been told that the first floor will be done in the middle of next week. We have Christmas decorations outside of the house but non inside yet.

Today the floor in my room was laid. But I can’t move in there yet because they have to put up the baseboards. It will be very pretty when it’s done.

I finished Clockwork Prince today and started on the third and last book in The Infernal Devices triology, Clockwork Princess. It is a very good series!

It’s still very cold so today I actually started wearing a jacket over my sweater. Much better! But it’s still cold in the house, well, the guest room where I’m sleeping.

This day was a very happy and important day for my weight loss. In a month I’ve lost 11lbs which is 5kg!! And with my new 132lbs I’ve officially dropped below 60kg again. I’m so happy! I don’t have a specific goal, but 10-15 lbs more would be nice.

This weekend I have a lot of plans. Tomorrow I will play my last beach volleyball tournament (if it’s not raining) and after that go to Winter Nights at Balboa Park. I’m not sure exactly what to expect there, but I’m sure it will be nice.

On Sunday I have my last LCC meeting. That will be sad…

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 the guys made a lot of progress. Half the hall and half the living room has new hardwood floors! It’s a dark color but I like it, it’s very pretty. It feels like it will take more than two weeks though. It will be nice when I have my own room again, even if it only will be for a few weeks.

I’ve been feeling a bit down lately. I’m really sad about leaving and saying goodbye to everyone and everything. My eyes burn as soon as I think about it (which is a little bit too often). It’s not even six weeks until I leave for Hawaii (It’s crazy that I can make that sounds like a bad thing!) and 60 days until Sweden. And at this point I don’t know where I’m gonna live. It’s leaning towards my own apartment if I can just get some extra money for a few months. As soon as the summer starts I will have money from my summerjob. I really hope it will be at Liseberg, I just sent in my application. Otherwise I think I will be back at SCA for one last summer. I emailed my old boss and she was really glad to hear that I would love to come back. And she said that if I just sent in the application in February she would try to get me hired. So very nice of her!

So it feels better now. I will apply for a weekend/evening job during the semester too, just in case.

It’s getting really cold now and I’m freezing in to my bones. In the mornings it’s not more than 50F (10C)! And at the warmest today it was only 60F (15C). It’s cold… But in six weeks I will be in the warmth again!

Americans are funny. Click the image to see clearer what’s funny about it!
(This is btw the car line in and out of the schools pick-up line. It’s chaos every single day, worse on rainy days!)

No big change on the situation in the house. There was one man here today I think, who did something, but I can’t see what it was. Well, except that he took away a part of the carpet from my room and that half the garage is now full of boxes full of hardwood floors. I’ve heard they are gonna start putting them in tomorrow. Exciting!

I have a feeling my room won’t be available until next week though.

It’s not often nowadays that I remember the dreams I have during the night. But this morning I did, and I still do. It was a rather pleasant dream which gives me hope! I dreamt that I was back in Sweden and I was really happy about it. In my dream though I was only there for a week, which is a little bit odd since I’m going home for good in less than 9 weeks.

Except that our house is a bit of a mess it was a very normal day with homework, playdates and some reading on my part. I think I made a promise to the girl that I have to finish all the Divergent books before I leave in six weeks. That means that I first have to finish the Infernal Devices series (1.5 book left) and then those three thick books. It is a lot of pages! If I don’t finish them before leaving the girl said she would spoil the ending, haha!

I guess I have to stop writing and start reading now then.

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 super chaotic too, there was a time during the day when it was really hard getting in and out of the house because of all the plastic everywhere. It’s a very good thing there is stone floor that we are gonna keep. But the floor and tiny stair right inside the front door is now gone and so is the floor in the dining room. Concrete everywhere and it so reminds me of my internship at the City Library last year. I almost missed it a little bit.

Since pretty much the whole first floor was off limits we couldn’t eat breakfast as usual so we had breakfast at Starbucks. I had my usual, a tall non fat chai latte. Yummy! I only ordered it because it was freezing today, ugh!

I spent my morning at home, skyping with mom for a long time. I am worried about where I’m gonna live when I come back. My dad said that he could clean out the small bedroom in his apartment and that is very nice of him. But what I miss most about Sweden is to have my own place, and it wouldn’t feel like my own place with all of his stuff still there. I can’t stay at mom’s because Felix lives there now. Why did he have to break up with his girlfriend in the beginning of the year? It totally ruined my plans to live with mom next year… My last resort is my own apartment, which I love and miss and really want to move back into in March. But then there’s the money problem. How will I afford to pay rent? My grandma was really nice and offered to lend me some money and it wouldn’t be so much because I will get 75% study loans, and just four like three, four tops, months. I am seriously considering it. So if I just get some help in the spring and I find myself a job for the summer, then I won’t have any problems with the rent. I didn’t last fall when I was working full time. And I would probably be able to save some, I can’t really say that I want to shop when I go back to expensive Sweden. And that money would be well needed if I were to move to San Luis Obispo in August. I would save way more if I would live in my dad’s apartment. But I really want my apartment. I can’t decide what to do. It would be nice with money and it would just be for six months, because then I will either move across the Atlantic Ocean again or I will have enough money to move back into my awesome apartment. Or I can continue to live like a poor person and be happy in my own apartment again. Stupid decisions! If anyone has comments about this issue, please help me!

My afternoon was pretty lazy, the girl didn’t want to be in the house so she had a playdate. The boy and me did some homework, then a friend came over and I cooked dinner. They removed the plastic so we can use the kitchen again. My dinner tonight was probably the best one I did this year. Baconwrapped chicken with pasta and a warm and creamy avocado sauce. So incredibly delicious! I have to make that avocado sauce more often, so easy and so good!

I forgot to write a super cute thing yesterday. When I picked up the boy from school it was just him and me and I could tell that when he said “Alexandra?” I knew he was gonna say something that was hard for him telling. He continued “I don’t know how to say this, and it is kinda embarrassing but sometimes my peepee goes through the hole on the side of my underwear and it feels weird.”  He also stuttered like he was nervous and that was so cute. I said it’s totally normal and that he could just go to the bathroom and make everything right. Then he said: “But when I’m at home I don’t have to go to the bathroom to do it!” and sounded really happy. Haha, cutie!

My room…

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.

These next upcoming weeks (hopefully just two!) will be seriously chaotic. One day is over and it’s a complete mess. Almost the whole first floor has no floor any longer, it’s just concrete except in the hall where we have stone floor and the dining room which they will take later I guess.

My freetime was spent at IKEA with Lovisa and we bought tickets for the Julbord on December 13^th. It’s me, her, Cati and Chad who are going. That will be very nice and it will be so good with a little bit of Sweden in times like these (Christmas) when you kinda, a little miss home. We walked around and felt at home for a while before having lunch. Not meatballs, because today is one of my 500-days. So I had half a Chicken Waldorf Wrap again. It is too good!

When I came home it was a total mess. Plastic was covering the kitchen door and the opening by the stairs. So if you’re flexible enough you could carefully climb past it and go upstairs. Since we didn’t have access to the kitchen I had to go to Starbucks with the boy after I dropped the girl off at home to wait for her friend, so I could drive them to soccer practice. They had their snacks outside because it was so loud indoor.

I drove them to the practice and then to my German class where a test awaited me. I was really early so I wrote a new draft for my Liseberg application, this time short and mostly about why I’m perfect for the job. I sent the file to my brother, I hope he can give me some advice. I really want that job!!

I studied a little before class started, but that was unnecessary because the teacher had a wuick review before the test. She is too nice. It was an easy test except for the second last exercise. I hope I did it correctly, otherwise it will be many errors… I didn’t like class today, my head just wasn’t in it. And we did grammar with nominative and accusative. I don’t even remember what that means! I think it pretty much means that “der” becomes “den” and “ein” “einen” or something like that. German grammar is so complicated! But if I just don’t stop learning it, it will become easier. I already don’t have any troubles at all with the verb endings (to do: ich mache, du machst, er/sie/es macht, wir machen, ihr macht, sie machen). Unfortunately I see myself having troubles with time when I’m back in Sweden. I will write my thesis, hopefully start working at Liseberg at the end of April on the weekends, and play beach volleyball if I can afford it. Evening classes with German might be too much, but we’ll see. I don’t wanna give up now.

When I came home from class the plastic was gone and I could see the rest of the house. It’s empty. I hope I will get my room back soon. But until then I’m sleeping in the guestroom like a princess on two mattresses in the couch. I have it pretty good up here. It’s not gonna be as pleasant for the rest of the family when they all have to live in the guestroom when I have my room back…

We are not gonna be able to have breakfast in the house tomorrow, so I think my hostmom will take the kids somewhere and buy them prepared lunchboxes. I don’t remember if we will be able to use the kitchen in the evening.

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.

December is already here and I find that very hard to believe. It’s still sunny and warm outside but I think my body is tuned to the winter in Sweden because I’m always cold and my feet are like two ice cubes.

I didn’t see very much of the nice weather today, I had so much to do. First I went to Victoria’s Secret to change some panties I bought on Friday, they were too big!! Hello Small again :). Then I went to Target and bought some more Candy Cane gum and a very pretty christmas paper wrapping.

Back home where I was told that my room has to be completely empty tomorrow by 8:30 am. So I started testpacking and decided what bags/suitcases to bring where and I still haven’t really figured it out. But I packed all my clothes and stuff in my two suitcases and one carry-on. Everything was filled to the limit and I was so afraid that it would weigh too much. I started with the smaller suitcase and it was only 37.5 lbs! The big one was 53lbs. The only thing I didn’t put in the suitcases where a few smaller bags, two pair of shoes and my toiletries. And I didn’t put anything in my personal item, which will be a really big “purse”. In that I will put all my papers and some things that didn’t fit in the suitcases.

I am so relieved. I will get everything home! It’s not many lbs to spare, but still, I will get everything home!!

Yeah, right. The reason I HAD to pack all my stuff and clean out my room is because during the next two weeks all the floors and carpets in the house will be replaced with new hardwood floors. I don’t know what color they finally decided on so it will be a nice surprise. It won’t be too nice living in a big project like this though for at least two whole weeks… It seems like they are doing the first floor the first week and the second floor the second week. That means they are starting with my room. So I will stay in the guestroom the upcoming week. But I’ve done that twice before so I will be fine. It feels a little bit unnecessary to pack everything and a week later unpack it all, just so I can pack it all again like four weeks later.

At dinner tonight I sat there with the family, eating turkey soup, just looking at them. I can’t believe I have to say goodbye to them in just nine weeks. It feels so unreal! I have six more weeks to spend with them and that makes me sad.

So, today it’s the First Sunday in December which is a kinda important day in Sweden. It’s the day when everyone lights the first candle in the special candle thingy. Christmas decorations are up everywhere and have been up since Thanksgiving (some even earlier). I see cars with Christmas trees on the roofs all the time and everyone is so hyped about Christmas. I don’t have any Christmas feeling at all. But it is a little hard when it’s 75F and sunny. Today I just had a pair of shorts and a tanktop. I’m definitely not complaining! And when I think back, I actually haven’t had any Christmas feelings for years. Maybe it’s because I’m getting so old. The Christmas magic kinda disappears after a while. It is still very nice with Christmas though and I look forward to spend it with my hostfamily.

Now, before I go to bed, I have to study. I have a test tomorrow for which I almost haven’t studied at all…

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.

Last night I went with Chad, his brother and friend to a place called the Belly Up in Solana Beach. It was a very nice place but I was too tired and had my head somewhere else to enjoy the night. First on stage was a reggae/Hawaiian band that weren’t too bad. Then came Groundation and it was awful. I like a lot when it comes to music (except rap and hiphop) but this… I don’t even know what to call it. I got the feeling of those extreme church thingies where everyone goes crazy with a crazy choir in the background. It was just creepy, and the lead singers voice was pitched and it really wasn’t my type of music.

I was tired and stressed out about so many different things but now I feel much better. I spent the afternoon at home doing some work. First I sent a thesis application to NCC. Then I took down my big suitcase and put in my room. I wanted to try-pack today, but didn’t have time so I’m gonna have to do it tomorrow or next week. Then I started on my application for Liseberg next summer. I wrote a letter but my brother said it was too long so I wrote a shorter one. He’s gonna ask his employer tomorrow how long it should be and also ask them if I could go directly to interview number two. He is so nice!

And that’s pretty much everything I did today. I studied a little for the German test on Monday. No beach volleyball, even if the weather was awesome. I was so tired and slept until 10 am.

I might do some packing now, but I think it would be smarter to do it after they change the floor in my room. On Monday and two weeks forward all the floors in the house are gonna be changed. Out with the carpets and in with new hardwood floor. The old hardwood is gonna be changed too. They are gonna start in my room and I really hope it doesn’t take too long. It would be uncomfortable not having my own room for several days.