Tag Archives: books

Luquillo Beach (Balnaerio La Monserrate)

Posted on by
Reply

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 love it when the weather people are wrong in the right way. According to Google the weather is supposed to be bad this week, starting today with a lot of rain showers and only clouds. But this was not the case, today was glorious! There were clouds, but more inland and not by the coast. Since I thought it was gonna be pretty bad today, I didn’t leave bed until 9am. I skipped breakfast and unpacked in my new room upstairs. I talked for a bit with my two roommates and then decided that I would take the car to Luquillo Beach, a Blue Flag beach an hour west of here. It was hard to find, but eventually I got there. It was a pretty beach, I have to admit, but nothing like the beaches I saw on Dominican Republic. The beaches there were whiter, the water was clearer and turquoise. But I still enjoyed it. It was a very hot day and I could only manage to read a chapter before I needed to go in the water again. The water was calm and pretty warm. I think I could have stayed in there all day without being cold at all. But I really wanted to finish my book so I decided it was more worth it to run in and out of the water countless times. It really was a burning heat today, the sea breeze was pretty much zero.

I had leftovers for lunch and then finished the third Maze Runner book. I didn’t like the end. It was like it was just written because the author wanted to be done with the book. The story is good, and I was hoping the ending would match it. Now I started reading the prequel The Kill Order. And after that I don’t know what I should read. Maybe A Series of Unfortunate Events?

I stayed and watched the sunset and then drove back to San Juan where I had dinner plans at the Ben & Jerry’s place close by. I couldn’t find it so I decided to be very comfortable and just go to a Starbucks and have a wrap or ciabatta or something. But that was easier said than done. I chose the closest Starbucks, but because of all the stupid road constructions, freeways, ramps, and millions of cars I drove wrong countless times. After an hour of still not finding a Starbucks I was really hungry and upset. How hard can it be to build easily understood road systems?? Upsetting. I hope I don’t have to drive through the city too much tomorrow. I am going to Ocean Park Beach, which is very close to here, but I don’t wanna walk here. Except for this horrible driving experience I have to say that it is very similar to California. On my way to the beach was easy peasy. Haha, one cool thing happened, the first time I’ve ever experienced anything like it. I almost ran over a meter long (3 feet) iguana. I realized too late to take a picture..

Luquillo beach Luquillo Beach.Luquillo sunset I got to see my first real nice Caribic sunset.Luquillo sunset

Last day in DR

Posted on by
Reply

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.

My last day in Dominican Republic is over and I am a little sad about it. I love this place, but I guess I am also ready to move on and try something else. Leave this comfort at an all inclusive hotel and switch to a hostel in a big city. Puerto Rico is gonna be so different than Dominican Republic. I am not gonna have the beach one minute from my room, I won’t have free drinks and food. I will have to start to take care of myself again. But I am also very excited, driving around, seeing different beaches, and lots of other things. It will be fun! And so different from this.

The morning today was cloudy so I stayed in bed until 10 am. Had breakfast and then stayed at the pool all day. It was nice actually. Cloudy most of the day, but at 1 or 2 pm the sun came out and it got really hot. The pool was cold and awesome. I had a couple of drinks, finished half The Death Cure (3rd Maze Runner), took a few naps, and texted with Matt. I miss him.

At 4pm, out of nowhere, it started raining A LOT. The sun was out and all, it was strange. After ten minutes of hiding in the bar, it was over and the sun was out again. I left the pool at 6 when the sun was just going behind the buildings.

I had my last long and warm shower, my last nice dinner, and then packed everything so I can spend as much time as possible at the beach tomorrow before checkout at noon. My flight leaves at 3:30 a and only takes 55 minutes. I think I will have to plan the week tonight. It will not just be waking up, putting on a bikini and going to the beach. This will need planning.

Pool sunsetThis pool is really great. The jacuzzi is part of the pool between the palm trees.

Sun, sun, and sun

Posted on by
Reply

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

The storm has finally passed and today was the perfect day. The sun was up when my alarm went off at 7:30 which meant no snoozing. I had breakfast and went straight for the beach. It was already a nice temperature because of the ocean breeze. Without it, it would be unbearable being directly in the sun. I used a lot of sunscreen but still managed to get a tiny burn on my chest, left underarm and upper back. But it is not bad at all, will probably be gone tomorrow after some aloe aftersun lotion.

So, today I was just lying on a sunbed, reading, drinking a couple of drinks and just enjoying life.  I can also cross something of my bucket list, today I had a coconut drink on the beach. It was really good!

Last night I finished reading on page 170 (of 390), and now I only have 20 pages left. I am gonna finish The Scorch  Trials in two days, I wonder if that will be a record for me, a book in two days?

After the sun set behind the palm trees I decided to go for a walk along the beach to check out what was beyond the huge Barcelo hotel complex. I walked for 40 minutes until I reached the end of the peninsula we can see from this beach (it is tiny and very far away). I saw a white big bird, a heron maybe? Not sure.  I found a nice spot to sit down and decided to stay and watch the sunset. I sat down on the beach and started reading. After 20 minutes a man comes up to me on his motorcycle and starts talking to me in Spanish. I told him I didn’t understand “no hablo espanol”, but he kept going in Spanish anyway. It’s funny how these people think tourists understand when they just repeat whatever they are saying twelve times. Eventually I understood when he said cinco and pointed at his clock. I pointed at me and then at the resort with a questioning face. He said si, and I understood that I couldn’t be there after 5 pm. I missed the sunset with 20 or 30 minutes. That sucked. I hope I get to see some really nice Caribic sunsets on the other islands.

When I came back I took a shower and then I got so tired I got stuck in front of the TV watching Ice Age 2 and the beginning of Horton Hears a Who. I couldn’t stand my growling stomach anymore so I went to grab a quick dinner.

Now I am back and was hoping to watch The Maze Runner that my mom uploaded to Dropbox, but I forgot that I also have to download it to my computer from Dropbox which takes forever and ever! I guess I will either have to watch The Lorax on TV or finish my book. Or maybe I should just go to bed, I am going on a tour to a beautiful island tomorrow and the bus is picking me up at 7am.

Oh, right, I got my third final grade today! Architecture history B+, yes! Sustainable Environments A- and Fundamentals of Transportation Engineering Lab A-. Now I am just waiting for Fundamentals of Transportation Engineering.

Sun and The Scorch Trials This pretty much sums up my whole day!Coco Loco drink Coco Loco drink in a coconut, white rum, coconut water, coconut cream. Surprisingly good!Beach beyond Barcelo The “peninsula” beyond the Barceló hotel complex. The sand wasn’t as nice, the water was all brown, the sand was not as fine and there were a lot of rocks and corals. It looks pretty from afar, but close up, not so much.White birdThe white bird.

Last day of the storm?

Posted on by
Reply

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

The storm is hopefully over now. The sky has cloudy right now, but the wind has decreased a lot and no rain. I have high hopes for tomorrow (according to Google weather). Last night the storm was at its worst. I woke up at 2:30 am, probably because the bed is hard, or my mosquito bites were itchy, or because the rain just poured down like crazy. All above made it impossible to go back to sleep, so I stayed up until 5am and finished my book. I loved it! So much I had to start the second one The Scorch Trials right away. And today I actually finished a third of the book. I think I will watch the movie now before I go to bed.

I tried going to the beach at 10 am (I decided to sleep in since I didn’t get much sleep last night), but I could only last 20 minutes before I gave up. Way too windy. I went home, read until I fell asleep and woke up again at 2:30pm. I decided to give the beach another try, and it was warmer, a little less wind so I stayed until 4:30 when I headed back to shower and read some more. I love that I can just spend hours and hours reading now without worrying about anything else. At 6:30 I had dinner at the buffet, went back home, read some more, and fell asleep again for my second nap of the day. At 10 the Tropicalissimo show started, which was just a dance show with lightly dressed women and some men. It was okay, I had a couch all to myself and a strawberry daiquiri in my hand.

I am crossing my fingers and toes for a sunny day tomorrow, I have gotten some color, but I wanna start working on my tan for real now. I can’t come back home and still be pale.

Now it’s movietime!

IMG_20141216_101247 My breakfast this morning was delicious. Today they had both pineapple, mango and passion fruit!IMG_20141216_104251 IMG_20141216_225800

Hard Rock Cafe Punta Cana

Posted on by
2

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 pretty sure this was my 13th visit to a Hard Rock Cafe, my second one alone. I really don’t mind eating by myself and I had a nice time there by myself. I had a pulled pork chicken sandwhich and a cosmopolitan drink. I learned later that I could get free refills, so I ordered a pomegranate martini too. The last one was really good! I couldn’t do more after that, Hard Rock Café is very generous when it comes to alcohol in their drinks. And there was something else that I really liked about this HRC visit. A waitress walked around with an iPad where the guests could request music. I didn’t need to think that through, Three Days Grace of course! That was new since a month and I hope all the restaurants worldwide does that. It was great!

Before that I hung out at the beach for a few hours. Only since noon though since it was really bad weather in the morning and I decided to take a nap until the dark rain clouds cleared. They did eventually, but it was still cloudy all day. But when the sun was out I truly enjoyed it. I think I even might have gotten a little bit of color. Especially in my face. No burn!

I can’t really say that it was all just pleasantries at the beach today. There was a guy a little bit away from me and I saw that he was staring. Eventually he came closer and sat down on the sand 3m (10feet) away from me. After maybe ten minutes he came up to me and told me I was beautiful and that he was going to the bar, and wondered if I wanted something. I said I could take Piña Colada and I was hoping he would be gone after he gave it to me. Why did I even think that? I should have said no. Anyway, he came back and sat down, very very close to me, and started telling me several times again that I was very beautiful, that I was sent here by god, that he thought my eReader was a mirror and that I was admiring myself in it, AND that he loved me. I know that it is a cultural thing for men here to approach women and be straight up honest with them about their looks, but if they (this was a Dominican guy, but he lives in Cancun normally and was here on vacation) are at an international resort he should know that he can’t act like that. It was the creepiest thing ever! And clearly he didn’t get that I was uncomfortable and just wanted to be alone. I told him I had a boyfriend (and he answered that he just wanted to be friends, but seriously, who says stuff like the things he said and “just wanna be friends”??) and that I was here to relax after a tough quarter, but he didn’t understand. Even the family close to us saw it and gave me sympathetic looks. And I had no idea what to say, I am so bad at telling people to leave me alone. If I am not brave enough tomorrow I will just stay at the pool, in a different bikini (oh yeah, the creepiest thing was that he told me that he had kept his eyes on me since yesterday morning!), with my hair in a bun. I just wanna be alone and relax, that’s why I am here.  I don’t wanna be bothered by guys who thinks I am beautiful just because I have blond hair and fair skin. Guys here seriously stop in the middle of the street, stare at me, and tell me that I am beautiful. Oh, and at the bar today a guy totally checked me up from head to toe several times while I was ordering a drink. What’s wrong with people here? I am not that beautiful!

Anyway, now that I have that out of my system, it was a good day except for that creepy dude. I read a lot (only 30 pages left now in The Maze Runner), and I got to be on a gorgeous beach in 28C. It was windy, but it just made it bearable. The sun here is really hot. But I am hoping for a cloudless day tomorrow. With today’s weather it’s too cold to go in the water (the water is fine, but it’s cold in the air).

Dark clouds Just look at the contrasts between the dark sky and the turquoise ocean.Strange ship Hard Rock Cafe Punta Cana Hard Rock Cafe Punta Cana inside a shopping mall.Hard Rock Cafe drinks Free refills on drinks, yay! I know I have free drinks at the hotel, but these were so much better.HRC Three Days GraceThree Days Grace – Break! ❤

Studying and more studying

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Ugh, I am getting tired of this, can’t this week be over already? It’s not too long left now though. My first final tomorrow evening, and the next one the morning after, and after that I will be on my way. One more day of studying and I am done!

The test tomorrow will not be too bad. If I get more than 75% on the test I will still get an A as a final grade. But it is still stressful to go to a classroom and now that there will be a test waiting for me. So that’s what I’ve been doing today, I studied for that test, I also finished my Architecture History summary and finished the extra credit assignment for Fundamentals of Transportation Engineering. It felt so good to submit it and after that was crossed off my list I now only have two things left, yay!

I should probably go to bed now and read in my new book. I finished Revenge of Seven last night and started reading The Maze Runner. Goodnight!

Kelsey's Christmas giftKelsey got her Christmas gift from the British boys today, a golden egret and a pair of British socks.The egret is placed on our counter now and just looks glorious!

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Posted on by
Reply

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 home again after a fun few days in Glendora. I have to say that the five hours on the train home went by very quickly. I had a big comfortable seat, a lot of space in front of me so I could have my legs straight out, the seat was adjustable, and the view of the ocean was stunning. I read the whole time and actually finished half a book. But as soon as the water was close I just couldn’t read. I just sat there, watching the glittery water, the surfers, and the dolphins. It made me realize that I wanna end up in California one day. This is where I am at my happiest, where I love myself the most, where I am the best version of me. I have no idea how it will happen, it will probably take time, but one day I wanna make California my real home. The ocean is a great therapist.

Mondos Beach up ahead Mondos Beach where we surfed the other week.Beautiful view from the trainThe view was like this a big part of the way and it was incredible! Sometimes the train was so close to the shore that you just saw water down below.

So, yesterday was Thanksgiving, my favorite American holiday. I love food! We went to one of Lori’s friends and spent a few hours there. It wasn’t the close family and then us, but different groups of people so we all fit in which was great. The food was amazing! And one of their cats loved me and he was beautiful and I just wanted to take him home with me. But I don’t think anyone would believe that I am depressed or anything else and need a cat for medical reasons…

After we were done eating my stomach hurt a lot so we just sat in the backyard talking for a while in the amazing warmth of Los Angeles winter. It was 90F yesterday, crazy, haha.

Today we had to leave the house early so I could make it to the Union Station and go home. 5.5 hours later I was back in SLO, and it was really warm here too. I waited in the sun for the bus for 45 minutes and read. Revenge of Seven is really good, but it is the second to last book in the Lorien Legacies series which is sad. It is a very good story. I came home, unpacked, and started Black Friday (online) shop. Today was the day to buy stuff from everywhere so now I have all my Christmas gifts figured out and I also spoiled myself with some clothes from Hollister and Abercrombie. I need more tops because I use the same all the time. And it was 50%, even 70% on some things, so I don’t feel bad. I kinda feel that I wanna buy a new suitcase as well. I am starting to have second thoughts when it comes to my challenge of packing 23 days in a carry-on bag and a backpack. I won’t need much clothes, so it might work. But Kohl’s as this crazy-ass sale on Samsonite luggage this time of year and I know for sure that I will need another suitcase when I leave, so I might as well buy it now, when it is $160 instead of $320. And if I buy it online it will be an extra 20% off. It might be worth it! I will think about it and consult with my mom first, she is smart and always gives me good advice.

I was planning on going to bed early, but that is always easier said than done. I will now though, and then continue to read. I so look forward to Winter Break when I will be able to read as much as I possibly can. Can’t wait! 13 days left. How did that happen? Where did the days go?? Am I really going to paradise for more than three weeks, in less than two? UNREAL!

Bishop Mountain from campus On my way home to my village. I live very far away from campus (1mile), but it is still on campus. This view is ahead of me every day when I am walking to my classes. Bishop’s Peak. I am gonna hike that one day!Poly Canyon VillagePoly Canyon Village (PCV); home sweet home!

Midterm week #2

Posted on by
Reply

It’s that time of the quarter again. Midterm week (which is different for everyone depending on when the teacher schedule the tests, and I still don’t know why it is called midterms when they’re not occurring at the middle of the quarter, but randomly throughout it).

I went to the library at 9:30, studied non-stop until 3pm. Had a cookie for snack, went home at 4:30pm, took a nap, made Swedish lasagnette for dinner and then studied some more.

I’ve been feeling really crappy today, like all feverish. I noticed the other day that I actually brought a thermometer here and I do have a bit fever even after taking ibuprofen. It’s only half a degree too high, but it is still more than I usually have.

I hate that I’ve been sick on and off for the past five or four weeks now. It sucks pretty bad but I don’t know what to do about it. I think my immune system’s not used to this tempo and it can’t keep up. I hope Thanksgiving break will help me get better, otherwise the Caribbean trip will definitely do that.

Now I will go to bed and read Heir of Fire. I only have 100 pages left now. I wonder what I should read after that?!

Cold Canyon Waste Landfill

Posted on by
Reply

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

This morning was the first of my field trips in the Sustainable Environments class. We have too few in-class hours so we have to go to 10 hours of field trips to get all the units for the class. This morning we met up at 7am to go to the biggest waste landfill in the county. It was interesting, but it wasn’t very fun waking up after only 3 hours of sleep. I thought that going out last night was a good idea. It was, I had a great time with Lauren, Cody and Toby.

The fieldtrip was interesting. It smelled bad but not as bad as I was expecting.The most interesting thing about it was the fact that they used falconry to keep away gulls.

I borrowed Lauren’s car and gave it back to her at 10:30, before she got up. And I went to bed and slept until 2pm or something. I felt like crap so I made a small breakfast and started watching The Golden Compass. A big mistake. I’ve read the books and they are three of the best books I’ve ever read, but the movie doesn’t give it justice on any level. I totally understand why they didn’t make sequels. I probably should reread the books to take this bad movie out of my head.

I got tired and paused the movie and fell asleep and didn’t wake up until 8:30pm. I still felt pretty bad so I ate dinner and started watching Lilo & Stitch. Such a cute movie. I am gonna watch the sequel now and then sleep. I hate being sick. It’s the worst. It sucks that I am sick and stuck in bed when I have the whole weekend completely off for once. But I guess it would be worse if I had a ton of studying to do.

Cold Canyon Waste LandfillThis place used to be a canyon. Now it looks like a mountain. Falconry at the landfill Recycle CenterThe recycle center. This is something I didn’t understand. All the recyclables her are put in one bin because people are too lazy to sort better. So they drop everything off on the floor from the truck and then sort it by hand. Why not just sort it by yourself in your home? It was upsetting to be honest. In Sweden we are very good at recycling and we don’t complain about how hard it is to separate into 5 bins instead of one.Recycle center

Another day of fixing

Posted on by
Reply

I am starting to really enjoy being free like this. I have so much energy to do those tiny things I didn’t do before. Like tonight I sat for several hours making small funny signs for everything I will offer my guests on Sunday. That was a fun little arts and crafts project. I have also started to transfer movies and tv-shows from my big external hard drives and putting it temporary on my computer so I have something to watch next year (and don’t have to carry heavy ext. HDD).

I also went grocery shopping with mom. I bought alcohol and snacks for Sunday. And before that I scanned my German book and class notes from last years German I course in San Diego. I will need to go through it all before German II after this Christmas. And I don’t wanna bring extra books to Cali.

Around lunch today I had an interview with a girl for Cultural Care and then I guess not so much more than watching Glee and eating tomato soup with feta cheese.

It was a nice day, and the beautiful weather made it better. It has been pretty cold lately, but today it was warm, like really warm. I hope it will stay like this until I leave.

Tomorrow I will go up early to put the big chunk of beef I bought the other day in the oven and let it cook for five hours until Felix and Sara comes over to take a look at the apartment and share a lunch with me. And after that I don’t have any plans, I think I will read. Just sit down for a few hours and read! The third Throne of Glass book was released today, but I need to finish the prequel before I start reading this new one. I don’t think I could handle reading several books at the same time. Or maybe I could, but if I started reading a couple of books, then that would probably escalate to more and more books at the same time and that would most definitely not work.