Tag Archives: beach

Crazy birthday weekend

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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.

Wow, I haven’t updated my blog in more than a week. I’m sorry blog. So much happening all the time, and mostly homework. The workload is approximately the same as last quarter, maybe even more.

Last week wasn’t very interesting, I spontaneously went downtown on Thursday, on Friday I hung out with some friends and Saturday was my birthday. I started my 24th birthday with skyping with mom and opening her gift. I got teary-eyed. It was a beautiful silver ring and silver infinity sign bracelet. And in the card she said that the bracelet was the first thing she made in that silver smithy class she is taking. So sweet of her!!

Then I spent the rest of the day with Lauren. First we went for breakfast at Slodoco and then to Pismo Beach. We were only there for 2 minutes, it was so windy. My dad called me while we got there and wished me a happy birthday. That was nice of him to call all the way to California!

So we went to the pool in PCV instead. Not too bad that either. We were there for like an hour before we needed to go back and prepare for dinner and downtown. Rachel, Lauren, Cody, Aiden, Pelle, Ciara, and I went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. From Lauren and Rachel I got a tiara to wear so everyone downtown would know it was my birthday, I also got a sweet card and nailpolish. Lately I’ve been very focused on painting my nails. I wonder where that came from? From Cody I got a cute seahorse decoration thing and a princess wand to match my tiara, haha. Also a very sweet card. These guys are the best!!

So, our night started at SLO Brew and then we went to Motav. People kept buying me drinks, even random people who just wished me a happy birthday. People here really like birthdays. I didn’t have to pay any cover fees and the music was good at Motav for once. The first song played was The Nights by Avicii. I wasn’t feeling too drunk until after midnight. It went from nothing to everything very fast. I honestly can’t remember anything from after midnight. That never happened before, it is scary, and I will never ever get that drunk again. Yesterday I only left bed to shower. I was still hungover today. It got pretty okay at like 6pm. And now I can eat normally. I feel kinda done with alcohol now, and besides, I am old, haha!

This morning I skipped the beach volleyball lesson and TRX, because I was still hungover. German class was fine, it was a recap of the last two quarters. Then I went back home to study. So much homework… Free pizza in the courtyard and I don’t feel bad anymore. I would have needed that pizza yesterday, haha!

I did one quiz in Digital Cities today, I finished most of my German homework (but I can’t focus, so I will save the last two assignments for tomorrow). I should do more, but my brain is all mushy and I am tired. I have another day tomorrow too!

Swedish Easter egg The Swedish Easter bunny found its way to SLO.Birthday cookies Rachel baked my favorite cookies (oatmeal raisin) and left a chunk of dough on my fridge shelf. Isn’t she the sweetest?!Windy Pismo Beach Pismo Beach on Saturday was ridiculously windy. Way way away from where I stood there were a ton of kitesurfers. Maybe you can see them if clicking on the picture to zoom in?Birthday bouquet I got flowers from the people.Mom's jewlery The jewelry I got from mom ❤Birthday gangCody, me, Rachel, Lauren, Ciara, Pelle, and Aiden. Thanks guys for an awesome birthday!!

Ponto Beach/Pacific Beach/La Jolla/sunset surfing

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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.

Wow, the last two days were so eventful and I am tired out of my mind right now. If you feel like you need a vacation after your vacation, you did the right thing on your vacation! I have had an amazing time in San Diego and I can’t wait to go back, which I will hopefully do at least one more time before I go back to Sweden. I know I didn’t take San Diego for granted a single day when I lived there, but it still feels like I did, because every time I go here I fall more and more in love with it.

The past two days has been full of San Diego adventures. Friday was all about hanging out on Ponto Beach with Pelle (Swedish exchange student at Cal Poly). It was a very nice day, no pelican poop, 86F on land, 62F in the water, not a single cloud during the whole day. No dolphins unfortunately. Later in the afternoon a few people from the beach volleyball group at Ponto came and set up nets and played. I didn’t join because I had to go home and get myself ready for going out in PB with Helena in the evening. I ran into Chad there, first time I saw him since we said goodbye at the SD airport more than a year ago. It was nice to see him again.

Ponto BeachPonto Beach for the first time since January 2014! ❤ It is not a very special beach to most people, but to me this is the most special beach in all of San Diego. This is where I played beach volleyball, and met a lot of fun people, this is the beach where I always spotted dolphins, and it was always empty.Sunset over CarlsbadFriday’s sunset over Carlsbad! I think everyone following my blog knows by now that I love sunset!

I left the beach at like 5:30pm, back home I showered and packed for the night and today and picked up Helena for dinner at 8. We met up with another German girl at In N Out, first time for both of them. Delicious as always! We then bought drink ingredients at Vons and made a Solero drink at home before taking an Uber to PB (Pacific Beach, the party area of San Diego). We first went to Tavern, a place I really liked because they played good music. We then moved on to Duck Dive which was Helena’s favorite place. The music and people there were weirder. The people might have been because it was later in the night and they were more drunk. But I wasn’t very drunk at all and didn’t enjoy it as much as I probably could have. I can definitely see myself having fun there though, more fun than in downtown SD. The people in PB are young. But on the other hand, I am not much of a party person anymore. I have realized that I would much rather wake up not hungover the day after and do stuff, like surfing. It was still a fun evening and I am glad I finally went out in PB, what everyone kept talking about all the time last year.

We got a ride from some random creepy guys, but we used them and just said goodbye when they dropped us off. But it took a while for them to go away and stop ringing the doorbell. Creepy. But I fell asleep as soon as my head it the pillow. Helena’s house is by the way incredible! It’s humungous and so nicely decorated inside. Helena’s bathroom was ridiculous, she even has radio in her shower, which is also a tub with jets. Only a little bit jealous, haha.

This morning Helena made breakfast for both of us (the third girl didn’t drink and drove home late last night) and that was so sweet of her. Avocado/scrambled eggs bagels. Yummy!

We drove to La Jolla Shores and I am so thankful she knows an old German family right there on the beach so we could park in their driveway. It is a pain in the butt to find parking there. I think you have to go there at like 7-8am to get a pretty decent spot. It’s so stupid. I hate parking here (one of very few bad things about SD). We lay down close to the surf tent and I read a little bit, finished a 100-page cross-over story between Percy Jackson and Carter Kane and then started the second short cross-over story and after that one (which I will probably be done with tonight) I will start reading Artemis Fowl.

Before Johanna came we just lay on the beach, I read some, took some naps, and went in the water with just our feet once. It was cold and with the cloudy sky I would not warm up enough to go all the way in. Fortunately it cleared up later in the day and the day ended in a very beautiful way. Johanna came at 2pm and soon thereafter we put on wetsuits (I had my own with me this time) and went out in the water. It was Helena and Jessica’s (the German girl from last night) first time surfing and they got tired pretty fast and went up after not even an hour. I stayed the longest, more than two hours. It was not the best conditions for surfing today, the current were extreme and it was hard to just be in the water. But I managed to stand up several times and I would say that it went almost as good this time as last time.

The waves got better in the evening and Johanna and I decided to go out one more time, during the sunset. It was so amazing! The waves were better so we both did much better than earlier in the afternoon. And the sunset was sooo pretty! I wish I had had my GoPro with me for that. Watching the sunset from the water was something I had never done before (not that I can remember anyway), and it was incredible. Definitely not the last time I did that, but next time I will bring my GoPro.

La Jolla Shores Resting between surf sessions.Sunset surfing on La Jolla ShoresPre sunset surfing.La Jolla Shores Post sunset surfing. Johanna and I posing in front of a sunset that was much more beautiful in real life. The person who invents a camera that can capture exactly what we see is gonna be the richest man on Earth!La Jolla Shores La Jolla Shores I love sunsets!La Jolla Shores

On my way home I picked up Panda Express and then watched an episode of Arrow while eating a very late dinner. It was a nice evening. I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. Surfing is energy consuming.

I think I will pack everything now, so I can sleep a little bit longer in the morning. Or I can sleep in the car, we have a few hours to kill there, haha!

 

This first and last spring break of mine has been the best! Especially the last part. San Diego will always be my second home ❤

Beach volleyball practice

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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 can’t believe I woke up before sunrise for the second time in a week. This morning I watched the sunset while I was driving to the beach and played in the rising sun. Not as much playing as practice, but I enjoyed it. I can’t remember the last time I went to a beach volleyball practice. The guy I met here in SD last time know the coach so he made sure that I could join. Chris didn’t come until later, at like 8 (we started at 7 on Mission Beach), and when he was done (after I had done a workout in the sand with one of the girls, and then went in the ocean, which by the way was so much warmer than SLO and actually very nice today) we went for brunch in Pacific Beach at a place called Kono’s. It was a popular place and really good and cheap.

We then went to his nice apartment complex in PB where we hung out by the pool. Not too much hanging out, he was working, so I read, and got burned. I pretty much ran out of sunscreen so on the way back home I stopped at Target to buy a new one. I hate being burned! Even if it is not too bad. It feels irresponsible.

I probably read about 10 chapters in my book today (Homecoming by Kass Morgan, the third The 100 triology) and only have 6 more until I am done. It is a very good series, but I am not sure this will be the last one. Unless she crams a lot of stuff in those last 60 pages.

It is only 8pm, but I am ready to go to bed. It’s been a long day, and the sun makes you tired. It was over 90F today and it will be this beautiful the rest of the weekend too. Yay!

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Last couple of days in SF

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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 harder than I anticipated to update my blog while couchsurfing, even with a good wifi. I will try to remember what we did all the days.

MONDAY

Monday started in a very good way with breakfast in the sun with a view over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a perfect start of the day. Right after that we took an uber to the Cable Car museum and I was surprised at what I learned there. It is not just a museum, but the place which runs the whole cable car system. I don’t know why I thought it was called a “cable car”, but clearly the logic didn’t hit me. So under the city there are cables pulling the cable cars and they are being powered in this cable car museum. Pretty cool!

The rest of the day we went shopping at Union Square. I didn’t buy much, but necessary thing. We went to Nordstrom Rack for the first time ever and I bought two pair of underwear and a bra. I also bought a pair of jeans at Gap. They fit like a glove and I didn’t even need to think about it. They were perfect!

In the evening Julianne and three other girls from SLO came into the city from north and we had dinner together close to where Helena and I was staying. We had crepes and it was so good. I have been so unhealthy in San Francisco and that needs to stop now! My stomach’s been hurting real bad.

IMG_20150323_115138 We saw the bridge every single day!IMG_20150323_125321 There was a big group of surfers in the bay, but no waves so they just paddled back and forth.IMG_20150323_133014 IMG_20150323_133151 Here are the cables that run the whole SF cable car system.IMG_20150323_140709 We walked through Chinatown.IMG_20150323_141333

TUESDAY

Yesterday morning Helena, Patrick and I went for brunch and then to Sutro Baths. In the late 19th century it was the world’s biggest  private indoor swimming pool but it was too expensive to run, it was closed and while being demolished in 1966 an arsonist burned it to the ground. Now there are only some concrete walls left. It was a cool spot.

Then we drove (luxury not to be limited to ubers, but have a driver) to Castro District and walked around there for a bit. Went through Mission Dolores Park and sat down for a fika. Oh, right, the Castro is the gay district in San Francisco.

Patrick then dropped us off at Jacob’s place and we said goodbye. Helena and I were craving sushi and found a place with good ratings on Yelp called Akiko. We went there and it was the tiniest place ever, but we came before everyone else and managed to get a spot by the “bar”. We ordered so much sushi and it was so delicious! I love sushi.

It was still early when we got out, so we found a bar and sat there until midnight. I had four drinks and I haven’t had that much to drink since beginning of January. I was pretty buzzed, haha! We went to a bar called Sugar Café and I really liked it. The bartenders didn’t check our ID’s and we had tabs and I felt so like a grown up!

On our way home we stopped for pizza slices and then took an uberpool back. I think the driver and the guy with us thought we were crazy Europeans for getting drunk on a Tuesday, haha! They were laughing the whole ride. It was the most fun uber ride I have had so far.

IMG_20150324_132209 PANO_20150324_134334 IMG_20150324_132632 IMG_20150324_132718 IMG_20150324_132900 IMG_20150324_133107 IMG_20150324_133727 IMG_20150324_134129 IMG_20150324_135520 IMG_20150324_135707 IMG_20150324_140651 IMG_20150324_140936 IMG_20150324_162521 Castro District.IMG_20150324_152133 Limited edition gay Absolut Vodka.IMG_20150324_150415 IMG_20150324_153503 Mission Dolores Park was full of hippies of all kinds. It was a weird place.PANO_20150324_145002 Pretty view over SF.IMG_20150324_204033Helena at Sugar Cafe.

WEDNESDAY

Today we didn’t do much more than getting breakfast and then started the long traveling down to San Diego. First we took an uber to the closest BART station, then took the BART to the airport where we missed the first train going around the terminals and I almost got cut in half by the doors, then flew down to San Diego, and then I had a long uber ride up to SLO.

I was excited to ride the BART for the first time. It is the subway-whatever system they have in SF and we have talked about it a lot in my classes at Cal Poly. It was okay, but very loud…

The flight was 1.5 hour long but very nice. The flight attendants were friendly and the pilot was funny sometimes. I saw SLO when we flew over it, that was cool.

It was hard finding an uber at the airport, but I finally got one, and he drove me to SDSU where I looked at an amazing apartment if I get an internship here in San Diego. It was a big room in an apartment and in the complex was a pool, a gym, a movie theatre and close to trolleys. It was the perfect place. Everything was included in the rent and it was only $840. Too good to be true! Let’s just hope I get the internship now :).

The uber driver waited for me and then drove me all the way up to San Diego. All of this for only $67. Super awesome!!

I got to the house at 8pm, hung out with the kids a little bit, but not too much since they still had homework to do.

I should really go to bed now if I am to get up at 5:30 so I will be down in Mission Beach at 7am for beach volleyball practice! What will one don’t do for love?! (love for beach volleyball)

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St. Patrick’s Day

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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 don’t really get the hype with this St. Patrick. Someone told me today that St Patrick was part of getting Christianity to Ireland. Why is that something to celebrate? And get shitfaced over? At 6 in the morning? I don’t get it. So I slept until 11 am today, had a final at 1pm, worked on a project after that, Target, and then a beach bonfire. It was a nice day. I was done with the final after 40 minutes and it went pretty well. Not as well as the last one. But this time it felt like the multiple choice questions were easier, but the short answer ones were not. I definitely passed it though and will get a good grade in the class. The project in Public Transportation is not quite done yet, we are gonna put together the last parts tomorrow after my German final. Tomorrow evening is gonna be so awesome when I am done with all of this horrible quarter. I guess it hasn’t been too bad, just a lot of work, and a lot of stuff going on outside of school. I correct myself, it will be nice to put the last ten weeks behind me and start over new for my last quarter ever in school (until I decide to get my master of science degree). The thought hit me today, that if I go back to Sweden, I could get my master, spend two years in school in Sweden and wait out the 2-year rule and then try to move to San Diego and earn A LOT LOT LOT of money! And also live close to the beach and have a year-long tan.

Kelsey and her friends decided to have a bonfire at the beach today, but Rachel, Lauren, Ciara, Cody, and I only stayed for an hour. I’m glad, because now I don’t smell as bad as I would have if I stayed the whole time. And I had time to watch some episodes of Welcome to Sweden and then work on the project. That TV show is by the way very funny. It is about a guy who moves to Sweden from New York to live there with his girlfriend (who is Swedish), and it is so stereotypical Swedish it’s hilarious. I love that show.

At Target I did something bad, I bought a bag of white chocolate M&M’s (it’s Easter soon). As long as this doesn’t turn into a habit, I am good. I never promised myself to not eat any candy at all. But every now and then I feel like I need it. Like now. I needed it.

Now it is past 2 am and I should probably go to bed. Last day of the finals week for me tomorrow, whoop whoop!

Oceano dunesWe went to Oceano Dunes which is just south of Pismo.

Pirate’s Cove

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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.

Sorry blog for being so lazy on updating lately. I’ve been busy with sorting through all my digital books since I found this amazing program called Calibre where you easily can change the metadata, convert epub to/from pdf without any struggles and also change the context in the file, so freaking cool! I’ve been really into this the last few nights, but now I am done with it all and can get back to my normal life again.

This week has actually been pretty bad. Surprisingly many symptoms of my mono in form of one of the worst headaches I’ve ever had, fever, and more fatigue than ever before during this sickness. Today and yesterday I’ve been fine though. I actually went to the health center yesterday, and after talking to the doctor for a while about everything that’s been going on, she came to the conclusion that I am under a lot of stress right now (not from school, but from life), and my sleep is getting affected by this. So without any hesitation she prescribed sleeping pills that I can pick up on Monday. I’ve been thinking a lot about my future lately, should I go back home, should I stay? What will happen to my apartment back home in Sweden if I stay? What will happen if I stay and then have to go back home during the process of the HB-1 visa? I am thinking way too much, I’ve realized that too. And I have come to the realization that it doesn’t matter. Everything will work out in the end the way it was supposed to. I have applied for two jobs down in San Diego, I have an apartment that I will most likely get, a car as well. If it doesn’t work out with the jobs, I will be totally fine with going back home, move back in with mom, work the whole summer, save up some money for the first time ever, and then take whatever happens after that.

Right now I have to live in the now. (Which is what I have been doing up until a month ago)

 

So to make myself not think about all of this I’ve spent this whole day at the beach. It’s been really warm today, 80F. The water only 57F, but that didn’t stop me from going in the water several times. Very refreshing. First time at Pirate’s Cove beach today, which is also a nude beach, and I have to say that I was more uncomfortable that I thought I would be. But it was a small beach, right under cliffs, and very pretty. And when I focused on my book it wasn’t that bad.

We then “hiked” up to the actual cave and sat down for almost an hour, waiting for the sunset. It set behind the Avila hill, but it was still beautiful, and warm, and otters where swimming in the water below. This is definitely one of the reasons (maybe the biggest?) that I really want to stay in California.

Pirate's Cove nude beach Pirate's Cove To the left on the big rock is Pirate’s Cove.Pirate's Cove Pirate's Cove Pirate's Cove Other side of the cave. Avila in the distance. Pirate's Cove Pirate's Cove sunset Normal photo of the sunset.Pirate's Cove HDR photo of the sunset.California sunsetWhen the sun was down the whole Avila hill was glowing!

Shell Beach sunsetHere’s a photo from last night’s sunset at Shell Beach. The sunsets and the beaches make me so calm and relaxed. I wish I could have spent more time at the beach this year.

Montaña de Oro

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Another eventful weekend is over and I can’t really say that I am ready for this week to start. It will be a busy week again, with the Public Transportation project, tests at the Health Center, maybe more hikes and a party.

Today I went on a second hike in Montana de Oro which is a little north of here. The beach area was beautiful, rocky, sandy, and cool cliff formations. A seal was lying there, and we saw one starfish and lots of anemones. I thought it was gonna be cold since it rained this morning, but it was actually pretty nice out there with the sky turning more and more blue. Then we ended up on the Nose Trail hike which was 3.6miles, I was not really prepared for that in my boots and I got a big blister that popped right away. It hurts, but it was worth it, it was a pretty hike! And it felt better to eat the big burger at Sylvester’s afterwards, haha!

I actually didn’t take any pictures, but I will probably go back and take pictures on a more beautiful day.

When I came home I took a long nap, and then I have been chilling. Met the new Swedish guy in the building for the first time which was cool.

Now I think I will head to bed and watch Interstellar. Then up early tomorrow for the B12 tests. Goodnight!

Late night beach volleyball

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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 have missed this sport so much and I will try to play as much as possible from now on. Yesterday on the beach I ran into a guy who was really really good at beach volleyball. We peppered some, exchanged numbers and set up an evening session tonight with two of his friends in the backyard of Qualcomm. No wind, but it was a bit chilly but it was easy to get warm. We played for 3.5 hours without any breaks. I have never played that much before in a row. And the only thing that got worse was my right arm from all that serving and spiking. It was very close on all the games and I think we played 8 games to 21. I loved every second of it!

There is something very funny about this guy, Chris. After we became friends on FB, I saw that he had some pictures of Chad from San Diego on there. They were both in Mexico last summer playing a random-tournament, where you are partnered up with a random person and they were partnered up. So without knowing, I have had pictures of this guy (since Chad sent me pictures of both of them) on my phone since last July, and then I ran into him. The world is so small!

I am a little bit sad about going back to SLO tomorrow. I love San Diego and it was so nice to get away from reality for a weekend and live the life I did a year and a half ago. I miss it. Not that SLO is bad, I love SLO too, but it has been tough lately.

Today, before the volleyball (we played from 7pm to 10:30pm, I am impressed by myself) I was in my old room studying all day long. I got a lot of stuff done on the project, but I still have more to do. Probably a late night at the library tomorrow…

Yesterday I went with the Swedish girls to Del Mar Beach. The guys with the surfboards never got back to us so no surfing. We decided to go to a closer beach. I had actually never been there. It wasn’t the best of beaches, but it was a nice day. Until 4:30pm when out of nowhere a big fog cloud came in. It seriously went from clear blue sky to foggy in 30 seconds. Super weird. So I didn’t get my SoCal sunset this weekend. But I am planning on coming down for the second half of spring break.

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San Diego <3

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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 am sorry readers, I will get better at updating this thing again. I promise I will try at least!

This weekend is a long weekend (President’s Day on Monday) and I decided it was long overdue to go down to Carlsbad and visit my former hostfamily. As soon as I got here I realized I needed this getaway very badly. I got so happy when I started to recognize everything, and when I came to the house, saw my old room looking exactly like it did when I lived there, my hostmom, and the day after the kids. I am happy here and I am so glad I came down this weekend!

 

San Diego Zoo Safari Park

Yesterday I woke up at 8am to have breakfast with my hostmom and the kids (my host dad was on a business trip up until today) and then went to San Diego Zoo Safari Park. I never went when I was here in 2013 (which was stupid when I had a membership). But I got 50% off, so it was not big deal. And it was a very nice day with the family. The weather was amazing, probably 85F, it was still a little bit breezy and we saw a lot of animals. Seeing animals make me happy. We saw a baby rhino that was born on November 27th last year, it weighed 159lbs then. It was super cute. We saw a lot of other “safari” animals like cute lemurs, all the savannah animals, one of the last five White Rhino’s in the world, tigers, and bats. And of course a lot of other animals too. It was a great day! Too bad the boy rolled in some kind of nettles and got rashes all over his body. Poor kid, but he was a champ and didn’t complain at all. He got a cream and it made it all go away very fast.

When we came home I took a nap for a couple of hours while they went to a beach party for one of the girl’s friends’ birthday. Then the plan was to study, but I just couldn’t find the motivation.

 

Beach and surf and sun

Today was all about the beach and an old au pair friend from my year here in Carlsbad. We met up at La Jolla Shores Beach, so many people, so it was hard to find parking. My old car (my silver Volvo V70) was here and for me to use this weekend. Very nice of my hostparents to let me use it. SD is bigger than SLO, and without a car here you can’t do anything. I met three of Johanna’s Swedish friends and they were all very nice and we had a nice day together at the beach.  We went in the water pretty early on, it couldn’t have been much more than 60F, but with the 90F (or something) in the air it was not hard at all going all the way in. It was refreshing. I love the ocean! And it is February! I love California! I love the sun! In the afternoon four of us put on wetsuits and went out to surf for a while with one of the guys in charge of the tent renting out wetsuits and surfboards for free and giving free lessons. It was the best surf session I have ever had. I caught almost every wave I try to catch and even if I didn’t stand up every time I still feel very satisfied and proud of myself. A few times I actually managed to stand up all the way in to the shore, which has never happened before! I don’t think I have ever stood up for more than 3 seconds before and today I did so much better than that almost every time I stood up. I am pretty sure I stood up more today in the hour I was out than in my whole life up until this point. So exhilarating! The last wave of the day was the best one and I drove home smiling like never before. In my old car, good music on the radio, singing, smiling, with the sunset in the west. It was a good, normal day (I don’t like Valentine’s Day, and it has nothing to do with relationship status, it is just a stupid commercial holiday when companies want to earn money, I learned today that Bulgarians celebrate wine on this particular day, I will start doing that too, wine is good).

 

Au-pairing again

My hostparents went out on a date tonight while I stayed in with the kids. Just like old times and I really enjoyed it! We started the evening with watching a movie called Step Dogs, the girl braided my hair in a very cool way, she also baked chocolate chip cookies (some kind of dessert on this “special” day felt needed), the boy played with the 7 month old Portugese Waterdog puppy they have. Then the three of us played the game I got them for Christmas, Totally Gross. It was a fun game where kids learn fun and interesting science facts. And when you earned points you stretched your slime clump from your characters nose, haha! The kids loved the booger/slime.

It is after 1am and I still haven’t started studying. I suck so bad! I am embarrassed by myself for being this bad at studying. But it is hard to find motivation when you are not sure what it is you have to do. Tomorrow evening! I will turn off all my social media devices and just study when the kids have gone to bed!!

If I will be able to wake up at 8 tomorrow I should probably go to bed now. I am not catching up on sleep at all this weekend, haha! Goodnight! And I promise to start this spiderweb of a blog up again!

IMG_20150211_152548 After my infection/cold or whatever it was, my left wrist got filled with liquid and started hurting like never before in the beginning of this week. When it was at its worse I couldn’t move it the tiniest bit. The doctor told me to rest it and that it could take up to 2 months for it to go away. But luckily it is almost 100% restored today, four-five days later. It still hurts when I flex it to the max, but I could surf today without any problems. I have to go back in two weeks for a check up though. Hope it is all good then!IMG_20150211_193005 On Wednesday I went out to the restaurant on Avila Pier with Jason and after dinner we watched the big fat sea lions under the pier. They are way bigger than they appear to be. This one was withing touching limit and probably as big as a three seat couch. A little bit scary. There were also normal grey seals and an otter swimming in the water. A starry night at the ocean was very nice.IMG_20150213_115220 IMG_20150213_120359 Baby rhino!IMG_20150213_122207 Bats are actually kinda cute.IMG_20150213_131743 Lemurs are adorably cute!IMG_20150213_132950 IMG_20150213_134853 One of the five last White Rhino’s in the world. One was at another zoo somewhere and the last three in a reserve in Africa and have armed guards 24/7. So sad! And all except one are too old to reproduce. This one was 40 years old.IMG_20150213_143212 Baby rhino again! (rhinosaurus)IMG_20150213_145537 We timed the feeding of one of the tigers perfectly. These animals are so beautiful and majesticIMG_20150213_145713 IMG_20150213_145840 IMG_20150213_150149 A cool waterfall on the Tiger Trail. Pretty good camera my phone has, which can capture the drips in a waterfall.IMG_20150214_104500 I did get my share of Valentine Day chocolate. From one of my roommates and my wonderful hostfamily. My not-eating-candy rule this year has a few exception days :). I haven’t had any candy in more than two months and this was divine today!IMG_20150214_120244 I have missed southern California’s beaches so much!! This is La Jolla Shores where I actually only went one time last year, and that was to take a surf class. It was a packed beach on this wonderful summer day in February, but I loved every second of it. This is where I belong, on a sunny beach!PANO_20150214_162304 Snapchat-1987100777812013018 I definitely got color today, yay! Nothing burned, just a pretty tan :).IMG_20150214_214531 This is what the girl did to my hair. I hope it will survive the night so I can showoff on the beach tomorrow!PANO_20150213_003105My room looks exactly the same. I was so happy when I saw this on Thursday late night. I really needed this weekend to get away from everything up in SLO for a bit to get perspective on life again!

Beach and banana bread

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It is January, isn’t it? Today it definitely didn’t feel like it. The afternoon was spent at Avila Beach with Matt and his friends and it was like any other Swedish summer days. Maybe a little bit colder, but not much. We played a lot of beach volleyball, Kan Jam (which is a Frisbee game, actually pretty fun), and then ended the day by going in the water. I still find it incredible that it is even possible to be at the beach in January, and go in the water even! I can’t say that it was warm, but after a while of just standing there, watching the sun get lower and lower in the sky, it didn’t feel cold anymore and I jumped in. According to internet it was 60F (15.5C), which is cold. But definitely not too cold. Maybe I am embracing my Swedish Viking heritage more when I am away from home?

We stayed until the sun set and on our way back the whole sky was the most amazing pink color I have ever seen a sunset be. It was so beautiful!

It was a very fun day anyway. I spent two hours at Matt house trying to get warm, he cooked dinner for me and then drove me home. The plan tonight was to hit downtown, but no one wanted to except me and Toby, so we will do it tomorrow instead and try to recruit more people.

So instead of going downtown I spent a lot of my time awake baking. First I baked white chocolate macadamia nut cookies for Rachel (and I got two) so she could pay with that instead of money to the line dancing thing. And then I baked banana bread for the very first time, and also from scratch. It turned out delicious! Why haven’t I ever baked that before?

I made my sweet cravings go down, now I am very super full and totally ready to go to bed and watch an episode of The 100. It is Saturday, 11pm, and there is nothing wrong with that even for a college student!