NASA SPACE CENTER (Friday March 29th)

I love Houston! We didn’t do exactly as much as we wanted today, but it was still an awesome day! We got up pretty early, had an awful breakfast at the hotel and then we drove to Johnson Space Center. But first we took a detour downtown because we had to put some more air in one of the tires so we got a close look at the skyskrapers. I was so amazed! Sure, New York is big and all, but Houston had good-looking skyskrapers. Every house was unique and it was just so cool. I took lika a million photos from the car and totally fell in love with the city. Unfortunately we were to tired after dinner to walk around downtown but I really hope we will be able to do it tomorrow so I can get better pictures and see more of the city.

Anyway, we got to the Space Center at noon. Started with a short live presentation about how the astronauts live in the station up in space. That was interesting and I learned that there are so many more possibilities up there with no gravitation!

Then we had lunch and I had the best chicken sandwich ever. Walnuts and grapes in a honey wheat bread. Awesome! And after that we went in to the big gift shop. I found a really nice shot glass that I bought. I also bought a key chain in the shape of a Texas registration plate with my name on it. The space center name was also printed. I’m not sure that I should show it to Alex though, because it says Alex on it, Alexandra was out.

I bought two geodes for the kids. Not much on the outside, but when you break it there will be a lot of crystals in it. I hope they will like it :).

At 1pm we sneaked in to the big seminar room where a real astronaut talked about his latest trip up in space. Ken Cameron was his name and it was pretty interesting.

There were a lot of child things to do at the center, but as adults we had a really great time too. There were two tram tours you could take. We took the one that was about the simulation testing area here in Houston. We saw big rockets too. We saw the Saturn rocket and it was ridicoulusly big!

The last thing we did at the center was going to another live presentation where the woman on stage talked about the international space station and how they manage it from the ground and stuff like that. She also told us about where all the space shuttles could be seen (one is in LA, I think I actually want to go there some day) and about the current missions. For example they will get a thingy to Jupiter in May and in 2015 another thingy will reach Pluto. Space really fascinates me, too bad I chose building and civil engineering instead…

Back at the hotel I googled up a barbecue restaurant. We managed to talk with the other four Swedish (we can’t reach them withouth Internet because of our providers) and met them at the restaurant in North Houston. I found one called Barbecue Inn and it was Houstons’ best barbecue restaurant according to best10.com and it was really good. I had beef brisket and ribs. For dessert me and Lovisa shared a coconut pie.

We said goodbye to the Swedish who are going to San Fransisco tomorrow morning and then went to the hotel. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow and thought it better to go to bed early so we could go up early. We are going to the outlet mall first, then I think we will have lunch at Hard Rock Cafe and after that I hope we are going to downtown. It will be nice :).

Oh, I totally forgot to write one thing last night. When we drove to New Orleans on Monday we drove in the middle of the night and couldn’t see anything of the nature around us. But yesterday we saw everything and OH MY GOD! I’ve found my favorite freeway in the US, I-10 in Louisiana! First of all, it was a bridge, each direction on their own bridge. Underneath a huge swamp. It sounds weird maybe, but it was so amazing! And it wasn’t just for a mile or so, it was like that for like half an hour (or more)!!

I like America!

SEAFOOD AND JAZZ (Thursday March 28th)

The second part of this vacation has started. I’m in the hotel room at Venetia in Houston with Hanna, Lovisa and Alex. We have made big plans for these two days and it will be really nice. Tomorrow we will eat breakfast and then go to NASA space center. After that some walking around in downtown and dinner at a barbecue restaurant. Saturday we will go to an outlet mall and then eat at Hard Rock Cafe. I hope we have time to see the Bay area and maybe Galveston Island. Those places seem nice!

The weather here in Houston, TX is awesome! We arrived at 10pm and it wasn’t cold at all to walk around in shorts. It’s high humidity makes it feel like we are in some tropical place and that is awesome! In New Orleans it was really really cold except for today and mostly yesterday. We all walked around in t-shirts and tank tops and everyone except me and Martina got really sunburnt! I got a little red on my chest, but that went away today.

It was kinda too bad we were in New Orleans when it was super cold and left when it got warmer. But according to weather channels it’s gonna be like 26 C tomorrow and on Saturday, yay!

So, yesterday, after my first Spring Break update we went out for dinner. There were huge lines outside every resturant with seafood. The only one that didn’t have any lines that would take us like two hours were one called Bourbon House seafood. We figured out why when we saw the prices. But we thought it would be a nice experience to eat at a fancy seafood restaurant in New Orleans. I had Crab Crusted Fish which was served with mashed potatoes, a white sauce and steamed vegetables. Really good! I also shared a desert with all the other girls and in total, with tax and tips I paid $50 which is kind of like a normal dinner out in Sweden. It felt really fancy when three different guys were taking care of us. One talked about the courses, one served and one talked about drinks. A nice experience and totally worth it!

After that we went to a really small Jazz club on St. Peter St. Jazz isn’t my type of music but I’m glad I went. I think you have to go to a Jazz club if you are in New Orleans. The band we saw playing was Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

The last stop of the evening was at a bar. One of millions on Bourbon St. You got 3 drinks for 1, it sounded too good to be true and it was. A redbull/vodka cost $36 and P2 $24. But the drinks were HUGE! So 9 bucks for a  big-ass drink was really nice anyway.

Got to bed around 2am.

HOUSTON

This morning was really crazy. Check out at 11am and before that we had to pack up all of our stuff and eat breakfast. We went to IHOP again and I was prepared to have the oatmeal again, but they were out so I tried the crepes instead. Really good too!

After check out all the Swedish except for Alex and Lovisa went to Garden District. The houses were big and we walked around there for a bit. It was nice, but my calves started to hurt and now I’m afraid that they will hurt tomorrow too… Stupid calves!

The houses were really big and looked old and very special. Some of them looked like the mansions in True Blood but most were thin and long. Wonder how the rooms were placed inside.

After a while we noticed some changes in the houses. They weren’t so big anymore and they looked like they were falling apart. We got to the real burbs of New Orleans. It looked sad. I’m glad my burbs in San Diego is the way it is, big and rich :).

After that it was time to go to Houston. I got in the car with the other ones because of our different departure times. We have difficulty communicating with the ones who came from Sweden this week so I’m not sure I will meet them more on this trip. They are not coming to NASA space center tomorrow, so we’ll see what happens after.

The drive here was five hours and we made some stops on the way. When we got here, me and Hanna went out looking for food. It’s crazy how hungry I am all the time… We tried Church’s Chicken and it was spicy, but yummy.

Now it’s really time for me to go to bed, it’s 2am and I have to get up in 6 hours…

Three days of this spring break is already over. The days go by so fast! I thought that everything Hanna told me we would do, we would do this week in New Orleans and Houston. But I found out today that they are gonna do all that fun stuff in California when I have to get back to work. And that sucks so much. I won’t get the typical spring break but I get a week of vacation in the south.

The pictures from this week will be posted when I get back to San Diego on Sunday, can’t transfer them to the computer right now.

THE AIRPORT (Monday March 25th)

That day was really boring… I had to check out of the hotel room at 1pm which meant that I was at the Houston airport soon after. I got news from the Swedishs that their flight was delayed with about 1,5h which was reallys ad to hear. Two hours alone at the airport is managable, but almost four! I sat down, picked up my eReader and started reading. I continued on A Dance with Dragons on it, because the book was too big to bring. It was pretty okay to sit there, watching people arrive and at the same time read. The book is awesome and now I’m almost halfway though the 1100 pages thick book. Four hours at the airport wasn’t enough, because they had to go through all the security. In total I sat there for five hours.

When Martina, Malin, Jens and Henke finally arrived they looked really tired. We went to the car rental place a once but we had some troubles finding a car because our cards didn’t work. You had to have a real credit card to be able to rent a car. And in most of them you had to be over 25 which only two of us were. But after a while we found a minivan for a reasonable price.

We had dinner at McDonalds and at 10pm we were on our way to New Orleans. It was a five hour drive! I was prepared to drive, but since I’m only 21 I couldn’t drive. But that meant that I had to be the awake passenger the whole way. I was so tired! Fortunately I had my bag of swedish candy that kept me awake!

At 3:30 am we were in our hotel room in New Orleans. Five people in a room for four. But it works really well. We built a bed out of a lot of pillows.

ALLIGATORS (Tuesday March 26th)

The day after everyone except me and Martina went to a civil war museum at 10am. It was way too early for us, so we slept until 10 and then had brunch at IHOP. It’s so good! After that we went for a walk along Canal Street. Not much but I think it’s the biggest street here in French Quarters.

At 3pm we were out in a swamp by the Mississippi river. $25 for a two hour tour on the river with a guide. We saw three alligators. The first one was the biggest one, 13 feet. It was lying in the sun, very still… The next one was a very tiny one, about 2 feet. And the third about 6 feet. All of them were really still so I hope they weren’t stuffed or made of plastic! The guide was really nice though and told us a lot about the animals and many other things as well. For example he told us about the big hurricane some years ago. The houses here in Luisiana are built on pillars. I have no idea why and he didn’t tell us. But he said that after the hurricane one of the houses next to the river, where the pillars were about 3 metres high, had 4 feet of water inside the house!! That’s crazy. I can’t say that I’ve seen damages after the hurricane here because I don’t know what it looked like before. But it must have been really bad if the water was that high.

After the alligator tour we went to a beach by the Mexican Gulf. In Mississippi! The beach was really nice but it was so cold yesterday! I thought it was gonna be like in Cali but it’s way colder! I regret that I didn’t bringa ny jeans…

For dinner we went to Hard Rock Cafe. I’ve started to collect glasses, had a hurricane drink with my local legend burger with shrimps on it. I was really dissapointed in the burger because there were only two shrimps. I should have had the California burger with guacamole and ranch dressing on it… But now I have two glasses, Hollywood and New Orleans! Kinda fun (or something) that it says ”Hard Rock Cafe, Hurricane, New Orleans” on the glass.

After dinner we went back to our room talking for a while before we fell asleep.

NEW ORLEANS (Wednesday March 27th)

Today was a really nice day. The temperature was higher which meant that we could walk around in tank tops. It is very windy but it’s going in the right direction and I’ve heard that tomorrow is gonna be really warm! Maybe a day at the beach :).

Up at 9am and braeakfast at IHOP again, but this time something more healthier than scrambled eggs, bacon and hash brown, oatmeal. It was really good. But I had pancakes for dessert… Tomorrow I’m just gonna have oatmeal!

After our breakfast that took ages we went out in New Orleans to see the town. We got some ideas from a tourist information store, kinda hard to know what to do when you’re a tourist. So first we went to St. Louis Cemetery. It’s famous but I have no idea why. So when I get back to Carlsbad on Sunday I have to google it. The Internet at this hotel is so bad you can’t even connect to it.

Then we went to the river where the French Market were. It was okay to walk around there, but nothing extraordinary. We tried gator on a stick and beignets (French doughnuts). It was fried dough with A LOT of powder sugar. We ate them outside and watched a street show. It was really nice, four guys dancing, doing tricks and talking funny in between.

Back to the hotel. I took a shower, the other guys worked out in the gym. Soon we are going out to eat seafood. Apparently New Orleans is famous for its seafood. I’m starting to get hungry and I love seafood so this night will be awesome!

2013-03-27 18:12

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 finally here, Texas! But I’m not so impressed yet. So far it just felt that I’ve spent A LOT of money for nothing… I’m all alone in a double room which I payed for all by myself. The Swedish missed their flight in London but luckily they didn’t have to pay for the hotel for the night or the new tickets. They are gonna be here at 15:15 tomorrow instead. Check-out for me is at 12pm, but I told the hotel about my situation and they could add another hour. But at 1pm the shuttle is gonna take me back to the airport which means that I have to sit there and wait for more than two hours… Kinda sucks. But at least I have my eReader! Surprisingly easy to read on. I have read the whole way here and it’s better than the big, fat book! I love it!

The first flight was only 50 minutes and then I had to stay one hour in Phoenix, AZ. Then two and a half hour to Houston, TX. I don’t understand why there has to be stopvers all the time. Houston isn’t that far from San Diego, and a 50 minute flight, that’s kinda ridiculous. But there were no problems and it was actually pretty nice reading that whole time.

Breakfast is at 9 tomorrow and the next hours I think I will just be in my room, maybe take a warm bath, it was such a long time ago! Or maybe sleep some more.

Before I got here I was at my second LCC meeting. We were at Boomer’s Park in Vista where we played mini golf and laser tag. We bought three tickets but we didn’t have time for go kart. Waste of money…

I think it’s time to go to sleep now, Texas is two timezones away from California, so it’s 1:30am now…

  My au pair group!

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 so proud of myself! And of course of my hiking companions Anna and Vasoula! We did an eight mile hiking trip on a mountain today. Two hours up and one and a half on the way down. Four miles one way. We are dead now but so happy we did go through with it even though it was warm and our shoes were the worst ever! What we saw at the end of our trip was amazing! And the things we saw along the way. OMG!

The plan for today was to go to Julian, but the girls who was supposed to pick us up were three hours late so we got really bummed and made plans of our own instead. Anna really wanted to go to the famous potato chip rock and so we did. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, so we drove there with Vasoula’s hostmums car. We waited for so long for the other girls that her hostmum went and came back home to lend us the car (you really feel handicapped here if you don’t have a car here).

Happy in the car for 40 minutes with our Converse and sandals. When we got to the little shop by the lake in Poway we realized what we had ahead of us. A hiking trip in the moutain. An eight mile long hiking trip in the mountain just to see a rock that looked like a potatochip! But we decided to try and see how far we could manage to go and then turn around if it was too hard. The sun was shining like never before and it was really pleasant outside. I didn’t think it was too warm, it was ”lagom”. Anna on the other hand thought it was way too warm and wanted to give up all the time. But we pepped her and we got her to the top of the mountain!

After half the way up we asked some people on their way down how far we had left. They said 2 miles. Nice, we had already climbed 6! But they laughed and said that it was 4 miles up, and 4 miles down. That was such a relief! 8 miles uphill, no way! Soon after we got warned by a lot of people about a rattlesnake on the trail up ahead. Anna freaked out, but it would be worse when we actually saw it. Me and Vasoula could climb up on a mountain way past the BIG snake (everyone said it was a really big one, like three feet, so I trust them because I’ve never seen a rattlesnake). I thought it was pretty cool to see it and if you got too close to it, it rattled with its tail!

After two hours of climbing we finally reached the stone. It was super cool! We took a lot of photos and then started to go down. Our feet hurt like hell and so did my thighs. I had a jeans skirt on today and when my thighs were rubbing together with every step it eventually gave me a rash and now it hurts so bad…. Good thing I’m just gonna go to the LCC meeting tomorrow and then be on an airplane to Houston!

When we were almost at the car we found a couple playing with a snake. Me and Vasoula wanted to  do it too. We got the snake and took photos. It was awesome to hold that snake! I have no idea what kind of snake, but I hope it wasn’t poisonous :).

After our hiking trip we had dinner at Pizza Hut and when I got home I did those notes for the kids easter egg hunt. Last night I filled the eggs with candy and today I made the notes that eventually will lead them to the eggs. I hope they will enjoy it on Friday when they get home from Mammoth :).

Oh, when they went this morning the kids were so cute! Especially the girl. She said goodbye like a hundred times, a lot of hugs and kisses and ”I love you”s. I miss them. But it’s gonna be nice with a week off!

And speaking of spring break. There was a girl who was supposed to drive me to the airport tomorrow afternoon. But now, in the middle of the night the day before, she texts me and says that she can’t… I was so scared that I had to cancel my trip and the thought of being all alone this week without a car and knowing what I would miss made me sad. Fortunately I have some really nice friends here who will help me. I’m so happy I have them!!

Today was really awesome! It hurts, and I had to throw my Converse in the washing machine, but I am happy :).

Tomorrow I will be going to Houston and then New Orleans on Monday. I don’t think I will be able to update my blog as often as I would like, but I will if I have access to Internet! Otherwise there will be a big update when I get back to Carlsbad next Sunday ;).

Now I’m gonna finish packing and then get some well deserved hours of sleep, good night!

This is not a tan, it’s dirt…

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 many hours ago I stopped eating, but I’m still super full and my tummy hurts! Not a good idea to take the power-ultra skinny jeans to a buffe… My host-parents were super nice to let me quit a little earlier today so I could make it in time to IKEA in San Diego for the Swedish easter smörgåsbord. It took me about 1,5 hour to drive what normally takes about 40min. But I don’t mind driving in rush hour here. It’s way worse in Sweden with the standard shift.

The buffe was really good and it felt like home. Meatballs, potatoes, herring (sill), Janssons, lingonberries, brown sauce, ham, sausages. For the dessert there were Delicato balls, princess cake, and punch rolls, also known as vaccum cleaners. There also was Swedish easter drink (påskmust). It was an awesome evening of Swedish and afterward, when we walked around in the warehouse, it really felt as if I was at IKEA back home in Kållered! IKEA looked exactly the same as in Sweden and it looked funny with all the Swedish names on the things and weird with dollars instead of SEK.

At the Swedish Food Market I bought two jars of raspberry/blackberry, two Swedish easter eggs for the kids and a little candy to put in them. Tomorrow I’m going to hide the eggs and write notes to the kids that they have to find in the right order. My mum used to do that with me and my brother when we were kids and I loved it! I hope these kids will too. The dad thought it was a great idea!

Speaking of easter candy, when I got home some easter candy was on my desk. My host family is so sweet! Hope it is as good as the candy I got on V-day!

My last day of work before spring break was rather chaotic. When we got to school we realized that the girl didn’t have her glasses with her. So I drove back home, couldn’t find the glasses and hoped I just didn’t see them in her backpack. I had planned a morning in the park with the boy, playing basket, but the mum had to go to somewhere and wanted me to stay home with him because the cleaning lady was in the house. So we played with Bendaroo’s, sticks you can bend and stick together and build stuff. We built a bike and a spider.
We did some homework and then I made pancakes. My pancake-plate look really different now from what it looked like in the beginning. Before I could eat like eight pancakes but now I only eat three and fill my plate with strawberries, blueberries and banana.

It’s very late and I should really get to bed. Tomorrow I need to get up pretty early to say goodbye to my family, they are going to Mammoth. And right after they’ve gone I’m gonna go to Julian and eat apple pie. Goodnight!

I’m so exhausted right now! It’s been a really rough day starting with almost 2 hours of basket at the community park with the boy. It was really fun though and I think we will continue our game tomorrow for a short while!

After lunch I went to the gym. Thursday’s are leg and biceps. For some reason I hate legs, no idea why. But I have to exercise the whole body and I want better-looking thighs/ass.

When the kids werehome again from school I helped the girl with some baking. Today it was time for sponge cake. It’s nice that she likes to bake so much and the cake was amazing! But the batter is slightly better ;).
While she was baking I was outside playing football with the boy. It wasn’t much playing, just passing the ball. It’s harder than it looks to throw that damn ball!!

Unfortunately the boy got hurt and had to get inside and spend the rest of the afternoon in front of the TV. I didn’t mind, it’s really exhausting taking care of tiny energy packages. And I actually think my B12 count is sinking, was a while ago I got my last shot… Stupid Cultural Care who said I couldn’t get them here in USA. I wonder what will happen in like three months. (B12 defiency makes you tired and depressed among many other things)

I got off work at 5:30pm today because of the boy’s open house at kindergarten and the girl had to be at the schools book fair representing the girl scouts. So I was home alone and did some good! I got my cabin bag and everything fit in it. The only problem is that if I don’t check in my bag I can’t bringa ny liquids more than 100ml which means I have to leave my sunscreen and hairspray at home. Good thing you can buy new ones!

At 6:30 they came back to pick me up. Their school had a ”dine-out” at Rubios today. A dine-out is when everything you buy at that specific place give 20% back to the school. So we went there and I had a chicken burrito. I hate that fastfood is so good!

I have figured out what I want for my birthday in three weeks, surfing lessons!

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 found a new hobby of mine today, rock painting! Oh my god it’s funny. It started with the boy asking us to do that on Monday, bu the had playdates and so on, so we couldn’t do it until today. After we dropped off the girl at school we collected a lot of rocks an when we got home I washed them (must have been a sight, washing rocks like they were real dishes). We put them out in the sun for a few minutes, and then I set the table outside on the porch. The photo explains that.

It was really nice sitting out in the sun for a short while and painting rocks. I had to stop half an hour later though because I promised the boy I would make pancakes today also. He had a temper this morning and the since my patience isn’t as good as I would have hoped it would be by now, bribing is the only thing working. But I like pancakes and I make it healthier by decreasing the number of pancakes and adding a lot of fruits/berries, like strawberries, blueberries and banana. I also have yoghurt instead of whipped cream.

In my freetime I did some shopping. A birthday is coming up (in more than a month) :).

When both the kids were back home I decided we should do some more rock painting. The boy didn’t want to but me and the girl sat at the table and painting some more rocks. I have some in my window now that I’m pretty proud of. The best one is of a rainbow but the one the kids really love is the one that I tried to make look like a converse shoe. It wasn’t so good, but they want one of their own so I will make them one each some time.

Dinner today was kind of a success again. The dad and the girl said they liked it. The boy ate his piece super slowly so I guess he didn’t like this either… I think he makes up his mind before he even tries it… It makes me really sad everytime that happens!
But I thought it was really good! Oh, yeah, I made homemade tacopizza on scones bread. On the crust they put honey or jelly. Dinner, dessert and breakfast, all in one ;).

I am super tired and I think I actually am going to bed now… before the kids!

The rainbow one is super nice! Too bad the sun reflects too much…

I am super excited for next weekend which has resulted in a surprisingly early packing. I put everything I want to bring on the floor in my room and I actually think I can manage with my cabin bag which saves me $25. I also look very much forward to when I get my big bag of Swedish candy. My candy I brought ran out a while back…

So, for you who don’t know, I’m going to Houston on Sunday afternoon and on Monday to New Orleans with some Swedish friends from Chalmers. My first spring break and it’s gonna be so much fun!

My days here are starting to look the same. Tuesdays; dance practice, Wednesdays; soccer practice. There was something on Thursday’s that I don’t remember (or was it even something on Thursdays?) and soccer practice on Fridays too. All these new activites mean that Starbucks Wednesday disappeared. Which is probably for the best since I’m trying to stop eating so much!

The boy had two playdates today, so I didn’t have much to do actually and I think that was for the best. I slept very crappy last night. I remember having a bad dream, but don’t remember what it was about…

I just got home from the gym where I was showing the new girl, Vasoula, around. She is gonna sign up there tomorrow and for a better price than me, only $30 every month. That’s super nice!
We didn’t do a very hard workout and after we sat in the sauna for 30 min. That was awesome! Now it’s definitely time for bed, goodnight!

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 when I woke up my cold was more or less gone! Awesome! So it was no problem with the plans for the day. I drove down to Del Mar, parked at Albertsons and got picked up by Victoria and Laura. Both of them are au pairs in the same family. Two kids. Crazy.

We drove to Pacific Beach where Laura had left her big car the night before. Me and Victoria continued to Fashion Valley and Laura back home to meet us after dinner. At Fashion Valley we met Michaela and we did some shopping. I just bought a hand lotion from Hollister that smelled so good!

Dinnertime was at 5:30pm. The Cheesecake Factory! I wanted the lemon-roasted herb chicken, but they didn’t have it so I got a Hawaiian pizza instead. It didn’t taste like the normal American pizza, but it was still really good! For dessert I had Dulce De Leche Caramel Cheesecake. Just ate half as usual. It was super delicous!

After dinner we drove to Albertsons and I followed Victoria to the gated community where she lives. Their house was seriously crazy! It was HUUUGE! With pool and jacuzzi and everything! Victoria had her own bathroom and walk-in-closet.

Anyway, we got dressed and Laura was the dedicated driver for the evening. We picked up three more girls and went to Fluxx, San Diego’s best nightclub accordning to them. We were on the guest list and got in about 10pm. Not so many people yet but it got crowded pretty fast. Good music was playing but a little bit expensive. Everything was $12. Didn’t matter if it was just a beer, a cooler, a shot or a drink.

I had my new heels on and was dancing in them the whole evening. Three hours in 8cm (12 if you count the plateau) hurts! So bad! But they are pretty and I’m sure it’s good for my butt and thighs to dance.

I slept at Victoria’s place and at 11:30am I remembered that I had a skypedate with my cousins at noon. I got dressed really quickly and drove home.

We talked for almost an hour and right after I skyped with my mum and brother. Mum has already started to look at flights for the summer. I can’t wait for her to get here :).

After those two calls I changed into Bikini, put on sunscreen, packed a towel and my book, and drove to Carlsbad Beach. I was afraid that it would be foggy and cloudy, but it wasn’t. I had two really awesome hours in the sun reading A Dance with Dragons while listening to the waves hitting the beach. Didn’t see any dolphins today but I did see a lot of kids playing in the ocean, wonder how cold it is. There were also a lot of surfers.

Two weeks ago a new girl arrived here and she lives in the same neighborhood as me! So I picked her up and we went to Panda Express where I had dinner. She was really nice, Vasoula’s her name and she is from Germany.

Time to go to bed now, good night!

My third cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, Dulce de Leche Caramel Cheesecake. Caramel cheesecake topped with caramel mousse on a vanilla crust.

Summer feeling! 🙂