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.

Not completely healthy yet. Feeling better than yesterday though but my head has been a little weird. Can’t tell if it feels like it’s hollow or extremely heavy. It’s annoying and because of this I thought it was best to stay away from spinning this morning. So I spent the whole morning in bed sleeping. It was awesome!

So the day went by very fast. It felt like I was dropping off the kids and then right after picked them up again. Both of the kids had soccer practice so we had to hurry with snacks and then I had an hour waiting for the boy. So I sat in the sun reading my awesome book. After seeing the movie last Friday I realized what a good book series this is. More things made sense and I had real faces on the characters.

The girl got driven home by her friend’s mom so I only had to stay and wait for the boy. When we got home we did some homework, he took a shower, I prepared the kids’ lunchboxes and then the boy played some math game on the iPad until his parents came home and started with dinner. We had a chicken pie of some sort and it was delicious! I remember having it once in the beginning of the year. We had leftovers which will be perfect as tomorrow’s lunch for me.

Now I think I will have some ice cream and watch a movie on HBOGO.

Once again, the mornings here in SoCal are foggy. This morning after I dropped off the girl at her school and was driving to the boy’s school I saw this floating house in the fog. (It’s in the middle of the picture, below the right light signal)

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.

WHAT AN AWESOME WEEKEND!

Saturday : beachvolley, shopping and bonfire

It was chilly on Saturday, almost the whole time I was at the beach. It was cloudy, foggy and below 70F, just like a winter/spring morning. I thought the summer was already over… but it was the perfect weather for some beachvolley playing! Almost no wind at all and no sun to disturb until like 11am. I played three flawless and winning games with Chad and I was in an awesome mood the whole day after that. It doesn’t take much to make me happy.

Sarah came to the beach later this morning. We talked for a while while we were waiting for Christin. As soon as she got there we took my car to Westfield North County mall. I’ve never been there but it was an awesome mall, they had like all of my favorite stores and all of them had huuuuge sales! I don’t want to know how much money I spent this weekend… We were there for four hours and in four stores. First we went into a store called Windsor and I love that store. Never been there before, but I probably should have. It’s a store full of pretty dresses and party clothes. I asked Christin to show me something to wear at a nightclub since I’m not used to going to them (I thought it was better with almost-free-beer in the basement of my university). I tried it on and it looked really good, but I’m not used to using those kinds of clothes, so I tried on a dress also and that fit like a glove so there was no question about it. It was cheap also, $30.
The next stop was Charlotte Russe where I bought some extremely cheap (and probably very bad quality) accessories. After that we spent some time in Victoria’s Secret and lastly Hollister. We were in there for more than an hour I would guess. Their sale was awesome and all of us bought a lot of stuff. I bought mostly $6 tank tops, but also a pair of jeans, patterned leggings and a pair of sweat shorts.

Time flew by so we didn’t have time for more stores before we had to go to Ponto for our small bonfire at Ponto Beach. We got a little late so Chad had already had time to start up the fire, very nice of him. Soon after we three girls arrived Kristel came too and then the two lifeguards friends of Sarah and then the two German friends of Christin. They weren’t very social, they spoke only in German which was kinda rude and boring… The lifeguards got a call and had to run away to some emergency pretty early and Kristel had to work early the enxt day so she left pretty early too. Me and Chad stayed until eleven and all the Germans stayed until 1am. There were a lot of people at the beach last night and one of the groups were of older men and women and they had like a party. They were dancing to bad music and it was just so weird and kinda embarrassing. But it was a perfect evening. No clouds so you could see all the stars, it wasn’t cold and the s’mores (smurfs as Christin called them xD) were delicious.

Sunday : shopping and home cooked dinner

This morning I was feeling awful. I slept for two extra hours while Chad was studying. I watched a little of the Chargers game on TV after breakfast and was cuddling with the two dogs. Until I sneezed and they got scared and ran away.

I drove home, took a shower and some aspirin so I was feeling a little bit better when I was driving to Sarah’s. I’m so glad I decided to go with them today instead of resting alone at home. We had a great time at the same shopping mall and we bought a lot of stuff today as well. I think I bought most, but that’s because I haven’t been shopping in like three months. Today we started in Abercrombie where they also had a big sale. Instead of $6 tanks they had $15 tanks and t-shirts. Abercrombie is more expensive than Hollister, but it’s still cheaper than brand clothes in Sweden, so I bought some… I feel like I’m wearing the same tank tops all the time so I felt that I needed new ones!

The next store was Sun Diego where I bought a tank top from Billabong with the text “Life is better in San Diego” on it. And then we headed for Macy’s where I finally bought more of those super awesome tanks I have when I work out. Clothes you workout in will be worn out sooner than normal clothes. The second last store was Hollister again because Sarah wanted to buy sweatshirts for her sister. I didn’t see those the last time, so I bought one today, $20. Then I also found a really cute knitted pullover with buttons. It’s perfect over a pair of leggings, which is a piece of clothes I’ve really started to like since I moved here.

The last store was American Eagle Outfitters. I’ve always been told that they have really good jeans. So I tried a pair, and they fit perfectly and were on sale. I also found a pair of cheap black leggings with a zipper by the ankle.

And that was it today. I don’t feel bad for spending money, I feel happy, I love buying new clothes!! 😀

After our shopping we went to Sarah’s house where we cooked a dinner together. Pasta with a ham stew with bell peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes and mushrooms. Really yummy!

Now in the evening Sarah came with me to my house. I’m transferring some movies to her external harddrive so she has something to watch (except her hostkids) in San Francisco next week. We played a little The Sims 3 and we will continue next weekend, when she is back. It’s such a bad timing with this San Francisco trip. She gave me some very sad news yesterday, she is leaving for Germany on October 1^st… So we only have a little more than two weeks left together. So we said that we are gonna hangout as much as possible when she gets back from SF. I’m really really sad that she is leaving, but it’s not gonna be a permanent goodbye. We are planning on going to Mallorca together next summer and she said she might be interested in coming back to go to Hawaii with me in January! That’s nice, but it’s not nice that she will go back to Germany so soon. She had to do like an internship before she started her studies which is starting next fall. So stupid…

Oh, yeah, right. I went to the movies all by myself on Friday and that wasn’t weird at all. I enjoyed it and might do it again something if there is a movie just I want to see. The movie was really good by the way, I hope they will continue and make the other books into movies too.

It was a really nice weekend even with Sarah’s sad news. So now I will head to bed and hope I will be able to go to spinning tomorrow. I probably shouldn’t because of my cold, but we’ll see how I’m feeling tomorrow.

No bad things happened to me so far today except that I woke up after a horrible nightmare. It was February 4^th 2014 and I was back in Sweden. It was cold and snowy and I wasn’t feeling particularly good just leaving California. No one cared that I was back home and the worst thing was that I realized that I forgot to go to Hawaii. Time had just flown by so fast so I didn’t have time to remember to book the vacation I had been waiting for so long. It doesn’t sound so bad now that I write about it, but it wasn’t nice at all!

But after that my day turned out to be pretty okay. I started my morning as usual with making breakfast for the kids. I had already prepared to lunchboxes last night so I could focus on the kids eating breakfast fast. They come down late nowadays and if I don’t remind them all the time that we are in a hurry they eat super slow. Today we almost got to the girl’s school late actually.

After I dropped off the boy at his school I drove to the gym for a spinning class. It was the same as I went to last Friday so it was tough. Tougher than the class on Wednesdays. In Sweden it’s easy to keep track of how hard you are working, but without the pulse watch it’s hard. But today the instructor told us almost all the time where our RPM’s should be and I was always in those ranges so I felt really good about myself!

When I got back home and wanted nothing more than to take a shower, the cleaning lady was cleaning my bathroom… So I had to had a little earlier lunch than I usually have and then I took a shower right before I left to pick up the kids. It turned out okay. But next time I know she will be cleaning the house I will probably take a shower at the gym, even if I don’t feel like I get clean there. I hate public showers…

In the afternoon I took the kids to Froyo. I just love it and it’s not as unhealthy as ice cream so I thought it was okay to have it two days in a row for me. Back home the boy went over to a friend’s house, the girl is upstairs reading so I don’t really have anything to do now. I will read I guess and when I get off work I will head to the movie theatre and see The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. By myself. No one wants to see that one and I want to try to go to the movies by myself here so I might as well try it on a night I don’t have any plans.

Oh right, in the morning, when I was still driving in the neighborhood to drop off the girl, there was a peacock running straight in front of my car!! I had to stomp on the break really hard to avoid running it over. Stupid suicidal peacock!

This day went fast. My morning was spent with Sarah in San Elijo teaching her some volleyball again. She is learning fast and told me that she would try to play this Saturday at Ponto. When we were done peppering in the wet and very slippery grass we went to a froyo place close by. It was a long time ago I had it. And this place was the best one I’ve been to so far.

After that I drove to the Hertz office to validate my driver license so I could start renting a car with their thing called 24/7. But when I got there it turned out my online account didn’t come through, so now I’ve tried again at home and will go back tomorrow and try to make the car reservation for Las Vegas on Oct 11^th. I’m really excited about that trip!!

In the afternoon I took the kids to Swedish School like every Thursday. I didn’t have anyone to talk to today since the Swedish Sarah was helping out in one of the classes so I sat there reading for a while. That was very nice too!

I cooked dinner for the kids because the parents were at back to school night at the girl’s school. And after their showers we watched the rest of the Food Boy movie we started last Saturday.

Now I’m so exhausted and tired I probably only have enough energy to keep my eyes open for two pages… Goodnight!

I’ve never tried anything with pumpkin before, but now I understand why the pumpkins are so dear to Americans, it’s delicious! Well, the latte from Starbucks was good, but I think I prefer my non fat chai latte. I tried a pumpkin scone too (it was my lunch today). It didn’t taste much, but the girl’s pumpkin bread was really yummy. It tasted like soft gingerbread cake we eat at Christmas in Sweden. I can’t wait for Thanksgiving to try pumpkin pie.

In my freetime I went to the gym for a spinning class. I don’t know why, but today wasn’t tough at all, even if I had more resistance and really tried to push myself further. But I was exhausted after and I was soaked with sweat. You just gotta love a hard workout!

The girl didn’t have her soccer practice today, instead the whole team with families went to Pizza Port. Crowded but the pizza was good as usual!

Today I finally finished the second Mortal Instruments book. It took me nine days! Unbelievable. I will try to finish the next one faster, but it has 100 more pages so maybe not…

I’m sad. I don’t want to go home. I have a second family and kids I love so much. I’m so incredibly lucky I got this opportunity. It’s still five more months and as my hostdad told me today, it will not be a permanent goodbye, we will meet again. But it’s sad and I’m dreading the day, someday between Feb 3^rd and 6^th. I requested my flight home today after talking to my hostparents about it. They told me I should request a flight as late as possible, even if there will be a new au pair here. That’s very nice of them! So now I just have to wait for my flight itinerary, but I know for sure I will be home some day in the first week of February next year.

I told my hostparents about my travel month plans and that I don’t have anyone to go with yet. I’m not as stressed anymore though. But I still have to find someone to go with me to Hawaii pretty soon. I also started to look more into Cancun in November and since I really wanna spend Thanksgiving with my hostfamily, maybe just Friday through Wednesday will be enough. I talked a little about it with Christin and Sarah today so maybe they will go with me. I have to ask my hostparents about that week though, if I’m off or not.

But first I will go to Las Vegas on Oct 11^th to 13^th. I asked if that weekend was okay to go, and they said yes. So now I just have to book everything and then I’m ready to go. I’m so excited!! I have to convince Sarah to come with us first also. Christin is coming so I don’t think she needs too much convincing, haha!

I spent the morning with those two and we had a really nice time at Moonlight Beach again. I made it a little more advanced for them at the beachvolleyball court and they did really good. It’s a difficult sport but if they just have the right spirit they will do great in no time at all. They just have to start believing in themselves first.

The dinner I cooked tonight was awesome! Super simple but really really good. Smoked pork chops (sv: kassler) with mashed potatoes/broccoli and creamsauce (sv: gräddsås) that I made for the first time ever. Leftovers for lunch tomorrow, awesome!

Not much happened today. As soon as I got home this morning I lay down in my bed and slept for three hours. That was so nice! But I’ve been tired this whole day anyway and I have no idea what I’m still doing up. I was thinking about going to bed right after dinner. One reason might have been that I talked to Louise about our upcoming trip to Las Vegas. I am so excited it’s ridiculous. I haven’t talked with my hostparents yet though, but I don’t think it will be a problem going away for a weekend in October. I’m gonna talk to them tomorrow so we can book the hotel, Bally’s, and I can book the car.

Both of the kids had soccer practice today so we didn’t really have time for anything else than snacks, changing of clothes and a little lunch preparation for tomorrow.

I don’t have anything more to do now, so I guess it’s time for bed and some reading. (Why don’t I want to go to bed early anymore?!)

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 a great Sunday at SeaWorld today with Sarah, Jessica and Marie. Marie is also French (like Jessica) and this was supposed to be the first time I met her. But when I saw her I got the feeling that I had met her before but I really can’t remember where or when. I told her this when we said goodbye and she said she had the same feeling. I really wonder where I met her before. She was really nice anyway and we all four girls had a very great day watching cute animals perform and going on rides.

The first thing we did was go on the rollercoaster Journey to Atlantis. It was fun and we got wet. The cars went into the water a few times. It was nice being wet in the hot day. Then we walked around, looked at the polar bears, beluga whales and walruses before we went to the first show, Blue Horizon with bottlenose dolphins, pilot whales and birds. It wasn’t the same show I saw in June with mom so that was fun. We didn’t sit in the soaking zone because we had purses with sensitive stuff in them, like phones and cameras. The next show was the killer whale show One Ocean. Last time I was there the killer whale baby was too young to be on the show so he was swimming in a pool next to the show pool with his mom. But today he was in the show and that was just too adorable! He didn’t to particularly much, I mean he is like 7 months old. But he did two big jumps with his mom and tried to soak the audience, without success unfortunately, but it was so cute! The rest of the show was like the last time, completely awesome. My two favorite animals: polar bears and killer whales for sure!

Hamburgers for lunch, then we watched the Sea Lion and Otter show. That was exactly the same as last time but it was still funny. The show is called “SeaLions Live: Join our comedy duo Clyde and Seamore, OP Otter and their stagehand, Biff, as they perform their own wacky versions of some of today’s pop culture.” Survivor, dancing with the stars, CSI and a music performance; Gangnam Style.

We went on the Manta rollercoaster which is pretty much the same as Kanonen (the cannon) at Liseberg in Gothenburg. The type of it is exactly the same and you get shot out. But this one was a little less scary, no loops or corkscrews. But I still got a little nauseous. Maybe it’s a bad idea going to Six Flags if I got sick after this “lame” rollercoaster. We’ll see.
Speaking of amusement parks, we decided to go to Aquatica here in San Diego in two weeks. It’s a water park with slides and pools and stuff. That will be so much fun!

Last time I tried to pet the bat rays but couldn’t because they were swimming at the bottom of the pool and far away from the edges. But today they were super friendly and came up to us so we could pet them how much we wanted. It wasn’t at all as I expected. I thought it was gonna feel like a cat’s tongue. But it was so slimy! Still cool though, and the water was cold so it was awesome having half the arms in the water for a while.

In the end of the day I bought a new strandbag. I really love the one I already have from Abercrombie, but it is kinda small and it’s completely open so I always get a lot of sand in it. This one has a zipper. I will try it on Tuesday. Those bags were only sold for $15 if you bought something else for $25. I asked a cashier about this and when I told him I only wanted the bag he sold it to me for $15 without buying anything else, awesome!

I had a really nice day and it ended with a nap, dinner and a movie at Chad’s. I’ve finally seen Transformers (just the first one so far). It was good. Now it’s late but that’s fine, as soon as I get home tomorrow after dropping off the kids at school I will go back to bed. One could have a way worse job than I do ;).

Marie, Sarah and Jessica at the dolphin show. Such a magnificent animal. The shark tunnel.

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.

Another month just disappeared right in front of me. Time has its own course of flowing here on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I miss home, but lately I’ve realized how wonderful I have it here and I am dreading the day I have to leave way more than I long for it. My hostfamily is amazing, the kids are the best ever, I get to play beachvolley at the beach instead of indoor, I have new friends for life, I have a really nice guy. And I live in San Diego, California!! Life couldn’t possibly be better! And I can’t believe I only have four more months of work before I have to go back to cold winter Sweden…

Anyway (shoo away, sad thoughts), I just put the kids to sleep. My hostparents were on a date tonight so I worked for a few hours. Me and the kids had a really nice evening together. First they told me about their day. Both of them played soccer games, all games lost unfortunately and after that the girl went to the pool with a friend. For dinner we had scones, they didn’t turn out nearly as pretty as my hostmom’s, but they tasted good and that’s what matters. For dessert we had Baked S’mores and, oh my god, they were delicious!! I can’t really say they tasted like a normal s’more, but they were really really yummy! The recipe’s in the post before this one.

After that we watched half of a movie, The Adventures of Food Boy, a very strange movie about a high school guy who could make food appear in his hands. The boy laughed so much in the beginning before the guy in the movie could control his hands. He was shooting food all over the place. Actually kinda funny.

My day before that was perfect! Finally, after three months, there was another beachvolley tournament. I was paired up with a guy named Garth. But unfortunately we ended up in the best of four groups. We had all the awesome players… The first game we won big time though, there was one new guy, visiting from Germany, who wasn’t so good. But the rest of the games we lost by as much as we won in the first game, like 15-5… We played really good against the team that came in second place in the whole tournament though, two really good guys. After the pool play we lost the first game and were out. I think we could have won it, but the sand was so darn hot it was hard to move when you had dug your feet under the hot surface. They used watering cans, later during the day, to wet the sand, but it only helped for a short while. Some players used sand socks. It’s funny that they use those here to avoid the hot sand, but in Sweden we use them because the sand is too cold and wet. When I was done playing I grabbed a grilled chicken burrito and sat in the shade under an beach umbrella rest of the day.

I went into the water many times too. Surprisingly cold, but that might have been because you’re kinda cooked after playing beachvolley in like 85F.

Last night at Stacked was really nice. The only thing that wasn’t, was that the 14 of us were divided into two tables. I had the same type of salad I had last time, the one with chicken, caramelized pecans, dried cranberries, bleu cheese and a sweet dressing on top. I also added avocado and red bell peppers. So good! What I really wanted was a burger and I probably would have taken it if it weren’t for the restaurants lack of pineapple… Why wasn’t pineapple an option to have on a burger? So I took a salad because I wanted to have dessert even if I really tried to convince myself yesterday that I didn’t want one. Me and Kristel shared an ice cream sundae with marshmallows and caramel sauce.

Tomorrow I will go to SeaWorld again. I’m really excited! And now I’m so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open, so it’s time for some sleep now…

Endless Summer Salad with avocado and sweet potato fries on the side at Stacked.

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.

Also called cycle here in America. I don’t remember it being so darn tough. I was taking it easy with little resistance but I still almost got cramps in my legs. Horrible! And the seats were so hard that I’m having a hard time sitting down now because of the pain in my butt. I guess that’s what I get from avoiding it for 8 months… I prefer doing it at my gym in Sweden though, it’s way easier knowing how hard one should push oneself with the pulse watch and percentage of maximum pulse. But I will bit my tongue and try to do this at least once a week. I will also try to do yoga at least twice a week, and the rest of the times do a normal workout. I’m also gonna try the class called Body Works Plus Abs next week and see if that is similar to Body Pump.

I’m so exhausted now and I didn’t have time for a real nap today either. But I had an awesome lunch and a long and nice shower.

When I had picked up the kids from school we baked Baked S’mores. Haven’t tried them yet, they have to cool before we can cut them into pieces. But I think it will be really yummy. Here’s the recipe for it if anyone’s interested. A review of it will be uploaded later.

Ingredients
* 1 cup melted butter
* 1/3 cup white sugar
* 3 cups graham cracker crumbs (9 sheets HoneyMaid Graham Crackers)
* 2 cups chocolate chips
* 3 cups mini marshmallows

Directions
* Preheat oven to 350F and butter a 9×13 inches baking pan. After doing it I can recommend a smaller pan, maybe even half that size.
* In a medium bowl, combine butter, sugar, and graham cracker crumbs until well coated. Press half of crumb mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Top with chocolate chips, then the marshmallows. Sprinkle the remaining graham cracker mixture over the marshmallows and press down with spatula.
* Bake in preheated oven 10 minutes until marshmallows are melted. Cool completely before cutting into 24 squares.

I’m excited! It smells delicious!

Now I’m just waiting for the clock to turn 7pm so I can go and pick up Kristel and Sarah so we can drive down to Mission Valley and the restaurant Stacked for Jessica’s goodbye dinner. I really like that restaurant. Kinda stupid I’ve only been there once. The restaurant’s thing is that you make your own dinner. So you choose ingredients on your pizza, hamburger or in your salad. For dessert you can make your own ice cream sundae. But no dessert for me today, I feel so good about myself after the spinning so I will save that for another time.

Until I have to go I guess I will move over to my bed and read for a while, maybe take a nap.