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.

The day of the cinnamon bun. If it weren’t for all my Swedish Facebook friends I wouldn’t have know it was today. I bought some buns at Albertsons and even though they are good they’re not Swedish. The kids really loved it for snacks though. And I think this day comes from Sweden?

In my freetime I did some homework, still haven’t figured the second exercise out yet. And then I sent some emails to UCSD asking if I could talk to a counselor about applying there for next fall. She said in the answer that they didn’t have a building and civil engineering program but a structural engineering major. Maybe they are similar. I will also send an email tomorrow to Chalmers asking for help if I want to do this whole thing on my own, so I hope I will get some good answers. But to be honest I think I’ve taken on too much and I’ll probably end up with the exchange program from Chalmers up in San Luis Obispo. I mean it’s still California, not SoCal, but still. I’m not giving up yet though!

I got off work pretty early, right after I got home with the boy from his soccer clinic at 5:15pm, that was nice.

An hour later I drove down to Fashion Valley for a Swedish dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with Moa, Sarah and Paulina. It was nice, but would have been nicer if my head didn’t try to bang itself into a thousand pieces. My eleventh cheesecake was the Pumpkin Cheesecake. It was simple and good and tasted like soft gingerbread. Now I saw on the website they had something called Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake which sounded even better. Next time!

I drove straight home and now I will go to bed and probably skip beachvolley tomorrow and stay in bed all morning. I haven’t had a real sleep in in sooo long so I might not even sleep that long, we’ll see. It will be nice anyway! And in the evening I will go to Maroon 5 with Chad, I’m really excited!

#11, Pumpkin Cheesecake

Hawaii is happening, for sure, it is real, not a dream anymore. I can’t believe I bought flight tickets to Hawaii today! And I can’t believe it’s just a little more than three months until I’m there! I am so excited it’s ridiculous. But at the same time that trip means that I will be back in Sweden right after it and I don’t like that thought. Not at all. I will have at least one day in California before going back home so I won’t go directly from paradise to coldness. I can cross my fingers and hope for a cold first week in February here in California, so it won’t be such a shock.

Now in the evening me and Caroline booked the flights between the islands together so all the flights are booked now.

San Diego – Honolulu, Jan 15^th
Honolulu – Maui, Jan 20^th
Maui – Kona (Big Island), Jan 28^th
Kona – San Diego, Feb 2^nd

And all that for $730. That’s not too bad. We decided to book the hostels next week, save some excitement, haha! I really hope Sarah can come with us, that would make it the best trip ever!

Today was really chilly, the first day of fall. I still have my Swedish instincts, September and October should be cold so I’ve been wearing sweaters and leggings, and since that’s been way too warm I decided to have shorts and a tank top today. And of course the weather changed and I was cold instead.

I haven’t been feeling too well either. My stomach has been bothering me nonstop since Saturday and today I also felt very dizzy and almost feverish. Maybe it’s a good thing to go get a flu shot with the family. I never had one before and I’ve never had the flu, but now when I’m around kids, maybe that’s for the best.

I tried doing some homework today but I don’t know if I’m too tired, but I didn’t understand what who says to who. Like if a woman addresses another woman, does she say “du”, “Sie”, or “ihr”. Okay, that one was easy, but not everyone is. And I know the rule, you say “du” when it’s friends, family or kids, “Sie” when it’s someone you don’t know or just want to be respectful to like a teacher or something. And “ihr” is the plural. But what says a student to another student? And what is a Sekretärin? I think I have to spend my freetime tomorrow reading in my textbook instead of sleeping. Bummer!

Today was a normal day, just like all the others. I drove the kids to school, skyped with mom, I took a nap, picked up the kids, we went to Starbucks, I helped them with homework, and then cooked dinner. I feel like such a housewives sometimes. But I really like that!

Dinner today was a success. I made spaghetti with meatsauce and tried to copy how I usually do it in Sweden, it tasted nothing like it… but it turned out really good anyway. I had bacon and feta cheese in it as usual, cream and garlic too. I added some ketchup today because I thought I used to use tomato purée in Sweden, but I’m not sure anymore. It was very good anyway and the boy said he LOVED it and he finished before me and my hostmom. That made me so happy!

When I skyped with mom I asked her if she could transfer some money I have saved in Sweden because I’m gonna book my flights to Hawaii tomorrow!! I’m hoping they will come like now so I can do it already, but I guess I have to wait until tomorrow… I’m so excited though and I find it so hard to believe that I’m going there after New Years! My travel partner Caroline booked her flights to Honolulu and home from Kona (Big Island) tonight and tomorrow we will book the flights between the islands together. It’s awesome also that it’s so cheap. It will be in total like $650 for all the flights. And then of course there will be all the hostels and maybe cars, and food. But I am sure it will be worth every single penny!

So much going on and I’m so excited all the time. It’s hard to focus on just one thing. So I’m just happy and excited in general right now, haha.

Maroon 5: 3 days
Las Vegas: 9 days
Avicii: 38 days
Hawaii: 105 days
Halloween: 29 days
Thanksgiving: 57 days
Christmas: 83 days

I’m really looking forward to Halloween and Thanksgiving. We don’t really celebrate Halloween in Sweden and here everyone apparently decorates their houses a lot. And I really look forward to go trick or treating with my hostfamily! And then there’s Thanksgiving which we Sweds hardly don’t even know what it is all about. So that will be fun, and the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday which also will be a really fun experience!

I have a feeling these last months will fly away even faster than the previous 9 months…

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.

Yesterday was an eventful day. In the morning I went shopping with Sarah and her adorable baby. Her leaving also means I’m never gonna see him again so I said goodbye to him, but he wasn’t in a good mood so no smiles, too bad. I wasn’t planning on buying anything but I had two Victoria’s secret coupons, one giving me a free pair of my favorite seamless panties, and one giving me $10 off of a bra. I’ve been looking for a normal black t-shirt bra and found one that fit really well. Then I found a pair of grey leggings. It would be boring to only have black ones. And then I found a nice long sleeved t-shirt at Abercrombie. We couldn’t stay for too long so I had time to take a shower when I got home.

The kids had soccer practice as usual on Mondays, and as usual it was super stressful. And yesterday the kids forgot EVERYTHING so they had to run into the house several times before we could drive away. Sometimes I wonder if they would remember to bring their heads if it wasn’t stuck to their shoulders…

At 6:30 pm my first German class took place at UCSD. The teacher is French, lived in Germany for four years, worked as a German teacher and then moved to USA and now she teaches both French and German. She is nice, but she gives us homework every day and we are gonna have three tests in ten weeks. But I recognized everything yesterday so I don’t think this will be too hard for me. I’m not gonna move up a level, I want to learn the basics again. I don’t remember it, but I recognize it so I guess this will be good for me. I’m glad I decided to take this class!

Right after I drove to Sarah’s house and there were a lot of people, her hostmom, Moa, Kristel, Christin, and the two German Daniel’s. After Moa and Kristel left and the hostmom went to bed it was just me and the rest German’s so I was a little left out, but I understood some things they were saying when I was concentrating. I also tried to tell them what I learned in class, and Sarah just told me that it was so cute when I tried to speak German, haha! When they left an hour later it was just me and Sarah.  We ate s’mores and she didn’t buy the normal Hershey milk chocolate but cookie’s and cream and I have to say, that was really good! We talked, lay in chairs and looked up in the sky. No clouds at all so we could see all the stars. And there were a lot of shooting stars! I know for sure I saw two but then I thought I saw some in the corner of my eye. It was such an amazing evening! And the time didn’t want to work properly so before we knew it, it was already 1:30, so we cleaned up in the backyard, I give her a goodbye card I made and then we said goodbye. It didn’t feel like a permanent goodbye (which I know it wasn’t) but it wasn’t so bad. But when I left at 2am and started the car the tears welled up and I cried all the way home. I have had such a great time with her and I really thought I would have had at least three-four months more with her, but this came so sudden… but she is seriously considering going to Hawaii which means that I will see her again in about 100 days. And then there is Mallorca next summer.

I slept for 3 hours and I was like a zombie this whole day. My head hurt like crazy and I find it hard to believe that Sarah is on the flight back to Germany right now.

Another thing that’s hard to believe is that it is already October! The temperature is 80F during the day still, which is awesome! I wonder how long this warmth will last, I hope at least the whole of October :).

In the afternoon I went with the kids to a park south of here with Swedish School. They played typical Swedish games while I was watching them. There were hot dogs and they sold Swedish candy. As the sweet tooth I am (and when I’m sad I tend to eat candy) I bought some for me. So delicious!!

I will head to bed now, even with my three hour nap today I’m still very tired…

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 so far this year! Everything was just perfect and I wish so bad I could have more of this, but unfortunately this was the last weekend that was possible…

The day started with me picking up Sarah at her house and drove us both to my ninth LCC meeting – Oceanside’s Harbor Day. For once it was actually a pretty nice meeting. I like my LCC but I think it is boring that she leaves as soon as she talked a little with each and every one of us. I asked her if she knew about getting a new J1 visa right after the one I have expire. Someone told me I might not be able to get a new visa for studying until like 1-2 years has past and if that is true than that would really suck monkeyballs. I’ve just decided that I want to come back and study and now I found out that that might not be possible… I will cross my fingers!

Normally after our LCC leaves all the au pairs scatters and leaves too, but today I think all of stayed and our group has grown from three people per meeting this summer to more than 10 today. Most of them I’ve never seen before. We walked around in Oceanside Harbor (where I’ve never been before and I seriously wonder why, it was so nice there!), had lunch and talked. I overheard some Germans talking about Las Vegas so I asked them if they had been there and if they might want to go with me in two weeks. They were really interested in going with me. So instead of three people we are now six (probably). I’m so excited and it will be so much fun!!

After two hours there me and Sarah continued our day and drove down to Mission Beach. I’ve never been there before and I really wonder why, it was a really nice beach with a boardwalk, rollercoaster and nice stores. Before we lie down on the sand we bought smoothies and then we spent the rest of the day at that beach. Christin joined us later and we watched the sunset together. We had dinner at a restaurant/bar called WaveHouse. It was a really cool place. It was outside, sand as floor, and the most cool thing was the surf wave they had. It is a real wave were guys surfed. Unfortunately someone got hurt so they had to turn off the water. It was something serious, the ambulance was there and carried the guy away on a stretcher.

I drove Sarah home and stayed at her house for a while, while we exchanged photos from yesterday and today. We took a lot of pictures today because it was her last day at the beach. I find it very hard to believe that she is leaving on Tuesday… I guess it will be more real when we say goodbye for real tomorrow night!

I drove home and now it’s time for some sleep.

The Oceanside police were there showing off their trained dogs. That dog was better trained than those animal actors yesterday at Universal Studios. Two old people performing to Gangnam Style. Hilarious!

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 had such an amazing day at Universal Studios with Sarah and Christin today. It was hard getting up to start going at 7am, but with a breakfast from Starbucks on the road it turned pretty fast. Christin had vacation this week and spent it in San Francisco and then two nights in LA where me and Sarah picked her up. We parked by the Universal Citywalk at maybe 10:30 and then got stuck in stores and lines into the park so we didn’t get in until like noon. But that was fine. First we took the Studio Tour which was different from when I was there last time. They showed different things which was nice, but King Kong 360 3D was still the same and still as amazing. I don’t like the fact that I get nauseous so easily nowadays. I got a little sick from that ride…

Then we went down to the place where almost all the rides are. I didn’t even go down there the last time but I’m glad we did it this time. First we went on the Jurassic Park ride which was like Flume Ride at Liseberg, but a bigger boat and with a lot of dinosaurs squirting water and scaring us. It was a nice ride.

Next ride was the Revenge of the Mummy rollercoaster. I wasn’t too excited because I knew how easily I get sick, but it was a short rollercoaster and no steep falls which I think is the main reason for my disorderly stomach. The most funny thing about that ride was the photo! All three of us were laughing so hard when we were looking at it. All of us had different faces and we looked so ridiculous! We should have bought that photo, we really should have!

Then we went on the Simpsons ride because there was a one hour line for the Transformers ride. I’ve heard that one is really nice, so I was a little disappointed I couldn’t go on it. But I have my yearly pass so I guess I could go back again. The Simpsons ride was as fun as last time but oh my god I felt sick after. And poor Christin was even worse. My nausea went away after I drank some Coke and ate a cinnamon roll. Our stomachs settled while we were watching the Animal Actors show and then me and Christin went into the House of Horror. I don’t like that kind of stuff anymore and I was screaming like a little girl the last time. But this time I was prepared, hold Christin’s hand really tight and my other hand covering my sight so I couldn’t see the people jumping out at me. It wasn’t as bad as the first time because this time we were walking right behind a couple so they were the ones getting the most scared.

After that we did some shopping and had dinner at Wolfgang Puck at the Citywalk. We three are ridiculous when it comes to shopping. First of all I finally found California Republic clothes so I bought a hoodie and a tank top. I also found some souvenirs for my cousins. And new sunglasses. About time! They were cheap too, $4 each, so I bought two, couldn’t decide what color.

We also spent a lot of time in a store called Angl. I’ve been in it once before, on the Walk of Fame and bought a very cute top there. This time I found an awesome top again that I was hoping I could wear for my second night out in Las Vegas, but they didn’t have my size. So I will look on their webpage and see if they have it there. They have so many cute clothes there. But I didn’t buy anything else than a necklaces and matching earrings. I decided to wear the black Diesel dress I Bought in Houston, in Vegas and needed a necklace. I think that was all my shopping today.

We stayed outside in the middle of the CItywalk for a while in the evening. I was surprised it was so warm, it was like 77F or maybe even warmer. Down here in San Diego it’s just above 60F… I wish we had that evening warmth down here, if we did it would be perfect here!

First we drove Christin home and that was an experience, for sure! I knew she was living in a gated community but I had no idea you had to cross THREE gates to get to her house! And her hostfamily’s property was ridiculously big. They had three houses, the main and HUGE house where the family lives, the guesthouse and Christin’s house (I think it was on top of like four of her eight garages). They had their own private tennis court and they are building a pool and Jacuzzi right now, and you can’t have a pool without a pool house so one of those will be built too. I didn’t see the inside of the main house but I hope I can do that someday.

Then Sarah drove me home and now I’m so tired. I think I will just throw everything from my bed down on the floor, get to bed and deal with the mess another day, probably after Sarah’s gone and I won’t have anything to do during the days… I’m gonna miss her so much!! But first we have the whole day tomorrow, full of plans, Monday morning shopping/hanging out at the mall, and her goodbye dinner after my class.

Goodnight!

They closed the park at 6pm and then opened again at 7pm for HHN, Halloween Horror Night which they have some days now until Halloween in a month. There were a long line to get in already at 5pm! And when we left at 9pm there were millions of car trying to find a parking spot in the huge parking house right next to the Citywalk. These horror nights goes on until 2am and I’m not completely sure what it means more than there are a lot of scary “actors” running around in the park. They had also set up metal detectors in front of the entrance for the evening, wonder why.

Friday again, another week gone, and another fun weekend lies ahead of me. The end of this week I spent at the boy’s school for a talent show and ice cream social. It’s pretty much eating ice cream while watching elementary school kids do stuff. It was a nice experience but I’m so glad we left after two hours (half the show). There was one guy in the beginning who was awesome at the drums and one girl in the middle who sang a song while her dad was playing the guitar, and she was so good. Other than that I think I’ve heard Katy Perry’s Roar like five times…

My day was nice, I spent the whole morning at Ponto beach with Sarah and her 16 month year old hostboy. I love that kid, he is sooo adorable! And for the first time he actually paid attention to me and wasn’t afraid of me. Today he threw a ball at me and he caught it when I threw it back. And then he started smiling with his whole body when I said “good job” and clapped my hands.

Before Sarah had to go we did some beachvolleyball peppering and she did really good and told me she is gonna join a volleyball team back in Germany.

I drove directly from there to the girl’s school to pick her up. Then left her at home with her mom so she would have time for a shower and to buy a birthdaygift to her friend. The party started at 4pm! Odd time for a birthday party. So I picked up the boy and after snacks he had a playdate with the neighbor and then we drove to the ice cream social.

I started reading the fifth Mortal Instruments book today, I finally finished the fourth last night. They are so good, but I kinda hate this one. This author is really mean to the love couple. First they fell in love, then they thought they were brother and sister while they couldn’t forget their feelings for each other. Then they found out they weren’t brother and sister and now the guy has become super evil. The worst thing is that there will be a sixth and final book, but it won’t come out until like May next year!! Stupid books…

Tomorrow I will go to Universal Studios with Sarah and Christin, I hope the weather will be nice as it was today (it was low 80s after the morning cold (55F) was gone). But I will pack both leggings and shorts so I’m sure the day will be awesome anyway :).

I’ve been so excited this whole day. It started with me spending $265 on concert tickets for me and five friends. We are gonna go to LA in November and see Avicii at Hollywood Bowl!! That’s gonna be so amazing and I can’t wait.

The second big thing that happened today was that the girl got off from school at noon today which meant I had a 10h working day today. I’m tired but I’m totally ready for some yoga with Sarah in an hour. So she didn’t have lunch at school so just she and me went to Panera Bread and had lunch. It was very nice. I had a baked potato soup, it was good.

After we picked up the boy we drove to Swedish school from which I just got home. And now I’m waiting for Sarah and then we’ll have a nice evening together with yoga and hot tub again!

I had a really nice day, even though I didn’t feel so good. I don’t know if it’s because I slept bad or what. But I’ve been very tired and felt like I’ve been radiating heat this whole day. I also had a pretty bad headache. But as I said, I had a pretty good day anyway.

It started as usual and then I spent almost two and a half hour with Moa, Sarah and Paulina at a restaurant called Snooze down in Del Mar. I had pineapple upside down pancakes. So delicious!

It was a dine-out today from the boy’s school. That means that if you save the receipt from the specific  restaurant 20% of the profit goes directly to their school. So me and the kids skipped Starbucks today and had an early dinner together at Rubios. I had a Salsa Verde Shrimp taco which was really good. Pretty much everything with avocado in it is! I didn’t eat more than that because I wanted to save some space for froyo with Sarah after work. I made it “healthy” this time with fruits and nuts instead of candy. Extra points for me. But this day kinda ruined my not-eating-too-much-and-unhealthy-week. But I’m not giving up, I will continue tomorrow and forget about this day!

While we were eating froyo and Sarah drinking her smoothie we were also sitting in her community hot tub. We were talking for a long time and we had such a nice evening. I can’t believe she is going home on Tuesday… I will cross my fingers that she will join me on Hawaii next year.

Today I found out that Avicii is playing in LA in November and it’s not too expensive, $44 for a ticket. That’s nothing! The tickets are on presale until tomorrow so I guess I have to find someone to go with pretty soon if I don’t want history to repeat itself (Swedish House Mafia in March). It would be so awesome to see Sweden’s two biggest house artists perform here in America!

I did a lot of errands today. First I got my B12 shot, then I returned a pair of sweatpants to the Abercrombie store in Fashion Valley and my last stop was at the UCSD Bookstore where I spent a lot of money… I bought my two textbooks for my German class that starts next Monday. Almost $110 for those, and they weren’t big! Then I found a hairbrush that I also bought. Now that I have so long hair, the brush I’ve always used before doesn’t work anymore, needed something bigger. I also found really nice sweatpants there. Maybe I should buy a pair there instead of a pair from Abercrombie. I have to think about it!

When I got home I had lunch and read some. But I didn’t read many pages before I fell asleep and slept for an hour before I had to pick up the kids. I like my naps.

Didn’t do much more than give the kids snacks and helped the boy with his homeworks in the afternoon. And for dinner I cooked a lemon fish stew with pasta and steamed broccoli. It turned out really good!

I’m not gonna look into my Hawaii trip tonight, I want to get many hours of sleep so I will go to bed now, at 7pm… maybe I’ll finish my book before though ;).