californiabylagesson

I went to the postoffice today and had a letter mailed to "Lindex" (my old work). They mailed me before and asked if I wanted to work this summer, I wrote back and told them I'm not going to be home until the beginning of septemer but if there's need for help this fall on weekends I'm def. interested!

Tomorrow it's fridayI also  and so far we haven't made any plans for the weekend. If the weather gets better I guess we'll go to the city. Next weekend Svenjas family are going away skiing so we'll probably spend the weekend at her house. The weekend after next weekend Staffan is here. Baba wooohhm!

Catch you on the flip side!

TGIF, we started the weekend renting a couple of movies, ”Almost Famous” – awesome feel good movie, and “G-force” because my mum told me one of the guinea pigs looked just like Nintendo, was charming but a kid movie.

Saturday we thought it was time to go to the city, was a couple of weekends since we went there. First we had no ideas where and what to do but we quickly figured out we hadn’t walked to Brooklyn bridge yet.

   So we took the subway from Pennstation to the first stop in Brooklyn. It was nice and sunny and just a perfect day to walk the Brooklyn bridge! We saw both the Empire state building and the Statue of liberty while walking and we took a lot of nice pictures. I’m sure this is not the last time I’ll walk the bridge!

  

 
The flip side


Brooklyn Brigde


Svenja


Empire on my shoulder








When we got over to the Manhattan side we walked to China town where we found a random small little restaurant where we had some lunch. Half an hour later we walked over to Broadway (I wanted to find ‘Topshop’ and see all their new stuff). On the way we stopped by a guy on the street selling leather bracelets and I just had to buy two! Last time I bought something on the “street” it was a necklace whit charms which I’ve been wearing a lot, and the best thing is no one else has the same one (well not a lot of people at least).

  After a quick visit in the Topshop store we walked of from Broadway and took 7^th Av to Pennstation. Before we left Broadway I was sure I saw a guy I met at Starbucks in November last year, when Svenjas brother was here on visit. I met him at Starbucks actually, waiting in line for the bathroom. He was in town for the Yankee parade and as spontaneous he was asking for my number as spontaneous I was giving it to him, thinking it wouldn’t hurt hanging out whit some Americans for a chance.

   Since November we’ve been texting and talking about getting together and do something but never really make it work out. So this Saturday walking on B-way I passed this guy looking just like him, so I took up my phone and texted him asking if he was on B-way at this very moment, Yes he was… So meanwhile we were trying to get to Pennstation in time for the train, we both were texting and it ended up us taking the subway back from Pennstation downtown to Tribecka. After a couple of calls we found his apartment building, -on 36^th floor and I’m telling you the view is always great in Manhattan!

   We hung out for while before we went down to a small little restaurant a block or so away. His roommate was also joining us. It was really nice and I hope we’ll hang out whit both of them again soon, kind of perfect they live in the city!

So back home around 11 pm and this night I was sleeping home. Sunday morning I slept till noon and then had Svenja picked me up around 2 pm. Within 1 ½ hour I had had one portion of oatmeal, cereals, tacos, Oreos and two glass of juice… sometimes I wonder why I choice to go to America! –And of course I got tired and went downstairs and watched a movie with Svenja for the next coming 2 hours.

   After watching the movie we finally took the decision to go to the gym! We got there around 7.30 pm but after about 30 min (we had the time though to do all the gym stuff, whatever it’s called when you lift weights) they said they were closing… Typical!

So we figure out we were hungry again and went over to Panera but of course they were closed too. Back home at my place we had some egg and tuna sandwiches before Svenja went home again and left me alone in my basement.

  Tomorrow is a new week and Maaaaybe, maybe we can try to have a healthy week or two, you see there’s something I forgot to tell you. Friday night we (finally) booked our trip to MEXICO!!! So it’s time to think about who we want to look as on all those white sand beaches pictures ;)

  8^th of May we’re leaving for a week in paradise! All of the hotel were fully booked but we found a nice one (four stars) who had a room left just for the two of us ;)

So there’s going to be A LOT of people the week we’re going, and it’s just going to be awesome!

Omni hotel in cancun where we're staying, looks kinda sweet right?


 
Can't wait to lay here all day long!

Now it’s only about 3 weeks until Staffan is coming to visit me too! It’s going to be so much fun! I hope he can bring some Swedish stuff for me like “Makrill”, “Neverstop” and so on. Some stuff you just can’t live without. I’ll see if I can have him to bring some (a lot) of my stuff home as well.

Today I was talking to an American friend asking how much it would cost to drive 1000 miles and he said it would be about $ 120. So a trip to Toronto in Canada (+ a visit to “Niagara falls”, it’s kind of on the boarder between USA and Canada) would be about $30 per person if we’re 4 people. Then we have to put some money on a motel and stuff too but I really don’t mind, I do have the money right now! It would be really awesome. He was in for the idea too so hopefully it’s a road trip we’ll actually do!

   We only have to send our passport to our au pair organizations (I think that’s where we need to send them) before we can go outside USA. I just hope its okay we go to both Canada and Mexico without having to send our passports away twice.


Toronto, Canada


Niagara falls









Catch you on the flip side!

First thing I do when I start my laptop is to put up a playlist on youtube with José González. Is there any better music to just listen to when you need to focus on other things?! Except for "Heartbeats" I really like "Crosses" and "Send someone away", but all of his songs are in worldclass according to me.

So this morning i had invited some au pair friends over for breakfast. Since our cleaning lady comes on Thursdays, I told the girls to show up around noon (also a good reason to get some more sleep after dropping the kids of for school).
  Svenja was the first to arrive, then came Thea and Ana too. I didn´t knew if we were going to be 4 or 7 persons so I set the table for 5 (?).
  We made fruitsallad, eggs, pancakes, put cerials, bread, "knäckebröd" and so on on the table until we couldn´t fit anything more...

I´m telling you guys, after 2 eggs, fruitsallad, pancakes, sandwitches and hot choclate I was Kinda full! Greak breakfast! We had plans to go in to the hot tub too but didn´t really have the time so we´ll just gonna do it next time.

This afternoon I picked up Brian from school, went home for just a second and then took him to his friends where they had plans to skii in his backyard...
  Annie is babysitting this afternoon so I´m all by myself, but still I´m in the basement for some reason.

Tonight I hope me and Svenja can make up our minds about a hotel in cancun so we can book our whole trip.

Time to put in some pictures from the weekend as I promised (+ the wounderful breakfast pic. I took this morning and + the "semla" I did -and ate).

Another weekend has past by and another visit to Rutgers have been made. Saturday I felt my cold coming back, the whole night my throat was itching and I didn’t fell asleep until maybe 6am. The whole night I was awake while Svenja was trying to get some sleep. I watched “Scrubs”, “Emil I lönneberga” (YouTube) and “Johan Glans” (YouTube) trying to have something to do all those hours. I did fell asleep Once, it lasted for like 30 min then I woke up having a nightmare (yes I woke up screaming again). I had Svenja to go upstairs whit me and make me a cup of tea then it was back to bed and back to youtube again!

  In the morning (noon) I woke up and Svenjas was gone…and her phone was laying next to the bed so I had nothing else to do but wait for her to come downstairs (she told me no one knew I’d slept over so I found it kind of awkward to just walk up from the basement at noon asking where Svenjas was…). The rest of the day we didn’t do much, went over to my place to take a shower and get some new clothes.

   Just before 6pm we went back to Svenja again and from there we got a ride by Jason (host dad) to Westfield Station were we took the train to New Brunswick and were Eddie picked us up. I wonder what they think of us at Rutgers haha… every weekend since 3 w ago we’ve been there now. But I can’t say anything else than I have a great time every time. Actually it reminds me a lot about High School. Living away from home whit friend’s without rules and no annoying parents, staying up till 4 in the morning and sleeping the whole day without feeling guilty. And most of all to hang out with guys! As all of you probably know I don’t have many girlfriends, guys are just so much easier to be around so I´m glad I met these guys.

 Anyway, so another weekend spend at the Collage (and good food at the dining hall haha). Sunday we didn’t do much more than take a nap and then go to Panera.

Monday .. ah nothing special, in the evening we went to get a thing somewhere.. haha mysterious. And on the way home we both got cravings for donuts,... And then cheeseburgers too… damn!

Tuesday… Well as all the Swedish people know it’s the “Fättisdagen” today – another word for eating cake the whole day without feeling guilty. I was thinking a long time to make them myself but finally gave up since I couldn’t find all the stuff in the store. I bough buns and almond paste and whipped cream. First we had dinner that I also made, Salmon whit mashed potatoes n sour cream (they think I´m kind of weird eating sour cream to all our meals, is it very Swedish?).

  I did get good grades in both the cooking and from the buns. I made one for Svenja too, so if she just can get her ass over here I´ll have a Swedish surprise for her!

Tomorrow we´re gonna go to Jersey garden mall during the day, both me and Svenja have to return stuff and I guess her old au pair who´s visiting is coming whit us too. I still don´t feel healthy enough to go to the gym so I´ll wait some days before it´s time to go back to the Y. Until then I´ll spend my evenings home or at Svenjas. I accually have about 15-20 more pages left in the book “The girl whit the dragon tattoo” (Män som hatar kvinnor) wich I have been reading In English (but for some reason never finished) maybe it´s time now?! Curt wants to read the book too.

All the pictures from Saturday ended up on Svenjas camera and I haven’t got them on my laptop jet so I´ll just put them up as soon as I get them, promise!

I still feel the cold hanging over me. It´s been about a week now, but I don´t feel sick sick, you know when you can´t get out of bed and so on. But sick not going to the gym, sick. Ahhh it´s really time to lose some America weight before Mexiko! – And maybe time to book the trip too…!!

Okey, I hope you´re satisfied now Andre´, me writing in proper English..?!

Catch you on the flip side!

Well actually I had enough of snow now! I’d like it to be summer right NOW!!!

  Tuesday night it started to snow… n it´t kept snowing for about 24 h! We got like half a meter of snow now; hopefully it will melt away soon. Lookn forward to spring and summer, when it´s all green n sunny outside!

   Because of the snow, schools were close Wednesday n Thursday and couse of President Weekend schools in Scotch Plains r closed Friday n Monday (too). That means I´m free a lot.. Though I was feeling a bit sick yesterday n today so I´ve been just workn on feelin better again. Tomorrow my whole family will be gone, Brian n Curt r goin skiin n Annie n Janis r gonna go visit some Collage (Annie ´s applyn next y I think it is). So tomorrow I´ll be without car, hopefully Svenja is allowed to take hers so we can do something during the day.

  The plans for tomorrow night might be to go to a party on Mountainside. I met Mikey at Rock n Joe´s tonight n he invited us to go with him… He said it´s a mardi grass theme :P

Otherwise I dono what´s up the rest of the weekend, we were thinking about goin to the city but if we´ll go out tomorrow I think we wont go there Sat anyway. N hopefulle Eddie´s not sick of us n we can come to Rutgers again… It´s so much fun just to hang out whit the guys over there n just to get out of here!

Got a package from Sweden today (mum). A magazine, choclate, Mushroom soup (yes I do miss crazy things :P) n some more stuff. (THANKS!! J)

Dono what more to say, this week havn´t been much fun n exciting… Gonna put up some pics I took today n yesterday on the all the snow!

 
Brian out in the garden building a snowboard ramp, starting from the stairs..

 
Curt is shoveling the driveway for the.. 4th time I think it was...



Thursday morning outside our house.








Catch you on the flip side!

Eddies Friend Svenja n Eddie. They picked us up at the trainstation,
why they´re wearing jacket n tie, They had a formal dinner whit their futurnity(?spelling?)..



Me n the tie-guys.





Some of Eddies roommates, look closer at the white tshirt dudes arm...




Dan, girl, Eddie n Svenja.



Eddie, Dan, Svenja, Me n white tshirt dude.." Go Sverige"




Mamma mia! Braodway.. We were not allowed to take pics of course.



Mamma mia!

First day at collage today!! Yesterday I finally got a hold on Prof. Nicoli and had him sign me in to his class. The fee for just takig this class (I´m taking fine art , "Appreciation of Art") is $518 !! crazy, back home we would pay... nothing?
  Anyway the Au pair program says u can study for $ 500 so I guess I´m just gonna pay the diffrence or so.
Since I was kinda late to sign up, they allreday had once or twice lecture before, butI think I can make this work :). Since I´m not gonna get a grade I don´t have to do the assigment, witch is to write a 50 pages discution about an artist and his painting. I´m just gonna do the same but smaller, n I don´t have to hand it in if I  don´t want to but I think I will :). The class is twice a week, Tuesdays n Thursdays 11.00-12.05 pm, so I think I´ll survive:P

The weeks pass by so fast now, n it´s good couse I really don´t like the first months of the year. I need spring and summer all year long!!
  On Sunday it´s time to go see "Mamma Mia" on Broadway in the city, I´m giving my second ticket to... hmmm... Guess one time.. SVEDKA!!. It´s gonna be really fun :D. Otherwise it´s Superbowl on Sunday too, have to do something then for sure.

Yesterday we went to the gym after dinner. We don´t go THAT often anymore (suprise, surprise), but we try to go 3 times a week at least.

Yesterday they also got the Hot tub back working!! Finally, I really have to go there soon, it´s soo nice! Maybe tomorrow morning haha..



(I know I made a few spelling misstakes but I have to pick up Annie now so that´s my excuse not to correct em :P )


Catch you on the flip side!

I´ve been thinkin alot n came up with following...

I have it fukn awesome over here, it´s better than I could ever imagine n right now you would have to force me to come back to Sweden! Dono if there´s anything I really can complain about over here... N when summer comes... PAWWWOO, AWESOMENESS!!

From a bad year before I left to a can´t-belive-it-great year over here...

Might catch you on the flip side!

Lördags kväll befann vi oss åter på Rutgers collage. Vi landade där runt 8pm och hänge lite i allrummet med Eddies roommates. 10.25pm började "Avatar" 3D på en bia i närheten, vi laddade upp med våra 3D glasögon i foaljén.



Jesse, Jag, Dan, Svedka & Eddie.



I said Give it to me!!!! Jesse, Dan n Eddie.


Filmen, ja den var väl sådär. Vet inte om de berodde på att man hade no space at all för benen och satt helt snett och fint ont i ryggen, eller om historien bara var lite kass. Däremot var själva filmen cool, alla effekter osv. För er som inte vet så är "Avatar" en Science fiction film som handlar om ett folkslag (fatta aldrig om det var på en annan planet eller ej) som bor i en natur liknande värld 2154. De är blåa, har svans, en lång fläta med ngn viktig pryl i den, är dubbel size än människor och har ett allmänt kattliknade utseende.
  Hur som helst lever de i naturen och inser hur viktigt det är att ta hand om natur och djur (dinusarier?). Det börjar först som ett experiment att se förflytta en människohjärna (tänk matrix, ganska exakt) in i en Avatars kropp  (blåa kattmänniskan) som de byggt upp av DNA osv. Såklart slutar det med att männsikorna (en typisk amerikan med för myk muskler och makt) att försöra hela världen, OCH såklart så vinner Avatarerna. The End!

Efter filmen drog vi oss tillbaka och hängde i deras corridor ( deras lägenheter som ligger i korridorer kallas "Suits" och där bor ca 6 pers i dem, varav 2 i varje rum). Klockan 3.30am kom jag på att jag var hungrig så vi drog bort till Quick check för att vi i oss lite mat. Dock lämnade jag Svenja hemma för att sova, hon va helt död. Så här jag kom hem var sängen varm vi skulle sova i ( 90cm säng, men de gick bra ). För er som inte vet var det helt sjuuuuukt kallt denne helgen!!


Söndag morgon blev det avfärd 8.30am ( Gäääsp!!) eftersom jag lovat o komma och kolla på Annies gymnastik tävling som börja 9am. I 4 h satt vi och kolla på massa överviga gymnasttjejer som svingade hit och dit på bom, matta, bars och balansbom... galet. Har alltid tyckt det ser coolt ut men vi fick inte toppenplatser så satt inte så bra.
  Efter tävlingen (vilket hennes team tog hem segern i) åkte vi vidare till Svenjas hostkid, Nathans simtävling... Shit va myk ljud och skrik och visselpipor det befann sig där.. Fick en lätt hjärnstörning troligen. Han simmade runda 14, 48 och 60... det var JÄTTEKUL att vänta där i mellan kan ni tro. Dock åkte vi hem i mellan en av gångerna.


Måndags blev en slapp dag, dock klämde vi in gymmet på kvällen tack o lov. Idag är det Jersey garden mall som gäller. Ska strax köra över till Svenja och plocka upp henne. Hon lämnar sista barnet vid 9am så jag har haft en timme nu på mig att göra mig i ordning, käka och uppdatera.
  I eftermiddag kommer en kille och ska fixa vårt hot tub där ute... äntligen. Var ett bra tag sen de pajade så ska bli hur skönt som helst att kunna använda de igen.







Catch you on the flip side!