Latest shopping
Swedish
Karjalan piirakkoja and Old fashioned rollerskating
Also Emma came by while I was making them and we decided to order som Indian food for pick-up. As sweet as Emma is she went and picked it up while I was working on the pirouges. (Just a little input. S, the oldest girl has her springbreak this week so I drove her to her swimming practice in between and filled the car with gas, the gas price is now approximately 1 dollar/litre...expensive here - cheap home)
The same night I was up to an exciting au-pair meeting. Old fashioned rollerskating. First when we got the e-mail about it I was like. What - can you really do it? Then, that must be a piece of cake. Big skates with four wheels on each. Was it easy? No way. I felt like Bambi on slippery ice. It was so much fun though and a good exercise since I was cramping all of my leg and my ass. Feel like the au-pair meetings are getting more enjoyable and more people are attending. I really like my group now and I'm already looking forward for the next two meetings. The April one is by my wishes. Thai food at Bangkok Café just talking (once in a while) and the May one is an "all au-pair families" picnic :-)
Afterwards Tammy and I went to In-n'-out burger where I ate my very first hamburger in US (first one in almost one year) and my first milkshake in about two years. Not to forget, I got such a cute Lindt chocolate Easter bunny from Emma. So delicious - gold worth :-) I'm looking so much forward to Tijuana and Gand canyon - of course also Hawaii!
A photograph says more than thousand words
See what I found in my cameras internal memory
Pix-mix
Hot hot hot
Isn't it crazy that I've been away from home for almost eight months? It will be very interesting, fun and hard to come home. Everything at the same time! I'm lucky that I have Hanna close by at least. We can meet up and dream back to sunny, lovely California...
News concerning H&M
1. They've bought Cheap Monday
2. They will launch a cooperation with Marimekko (worldwide release April 10)
The first one is for me just an announcement. Other hand the second one has an importance for me then I'm both Swedish and Finnish citizen. Something I will buy for sure - I promise :-) Like TeliaSonera... Give me more Swe-Fin mixes!
LACMA
Hanna and I slept in today and spent a way more calm day on Los Angeles County Museaum of Art. We listened to a lecture, followed a guide, discussed the art with each other and wandered among Japanese art, German, Southern Asian, Islamistic and contemporary art. Must say the last mentioned was my favorite for the day - mostly because the atmosphere. I will for sure go back there - it's a great place full of great spectacular arts including famous artists like Picasso and Monet.
We ended up the day with some salad from Whole foods watching all the Mexicans celebrating Easter on the grass in Pan Pacific.
Evelina, Irene, Pad Thai, Robertson, Surpriseparty & Naan
Altough our weakness we went to Robertson (then all mentioning from the Living LA team about it) we had to check it out. It was really cute and they had a become-happy-just-by-looking store called Kitson all over the street. I wanted to buy a whole bounch of stuff like an gigantic calculator (how cool wouldn't it be to bring that around), a to-go-menu organizer (one of my biggest hobbies here) or different kinds of checklists. My purchase came out to be a never-ending soup book I think I can have use of. Another thing we particularly saw was the Dalahorse in the WESC store (I can't tell how much I like when Swedish companies proudly give out that they're Swedish, can't understand why H&M are so anonymous about it).
Anyways, after coming home totally dizzy, we helped out with the preparings for Sarah's b-party and folded the three loads of laundry I had in a enormous pile on my bed, saw Sarah's totally surprised face and realized that we had to leave the house. We were just too absent to feel comfortable in the party so to avoid awkwardness we spent the night at Electric Karma (an Indian restaurant), came home to a loud house, went to bed and slept soundly the whole night through, even though the volume was so turned up...
Natural History Museum, JOOM Bangkok Café & Little Ethiopia
When I recieved the information from Hanna that she was late I decided to spend some time at the Thai restaurant ,where I'm a regular now, chatting with the owner, the staff, the owner for Deano's at Farmers market and having a ginger chicken with jasmine tea. I really love to go to that place and the food is excellent.
After coming home again, Hanna comes after a while and I pull her straight out from the house and we ride the bicycles to Little Ethiopia for a special dinner. Because I've tried it before without a good impression I tried to warn Hanna and also try to be positive. After comparing the places offered we picked the first one in the row, sat down on our "horses/camels" and ordered a combination plate to our special colorful basket/hat-like tables. The food was overall okey but the consistency and taste of the pancake like "picking-up the food thing" called Injera wasn't really our favorite. Then we didn't have any cutlery we were stranded to eat with it. The positive thing is that it's iron-rich (about 2-3 times more than wheat and barley) and has both other minerals and calcium. So you guys back home can, if you're curious, try Abyssina on Ringvägen - it's pretty similiar and I've tried it before. You won't die.
Afterwards we went on Wilshire and I got some more ideas of restaurants to try (an Indian and another eastern African) until we decided to share a "not-to-rich" cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory. So we went there, got to wait for a table and then enjoyed our cake on the balcony the lovely, warm night...
Griffith Observatory and a Tunisian experience
Okey, so then it was time to celebrate Sarah's 16th Birthday (her real one was on Monday). After a few different reservations the place came out to be a Tunisian restaurant. So we (her family, grandpa, her best friends and I) got to start with washing our hand under water the waitress poured from a pitcher. Next we got a great experience of eating all together from the same plate, all different kind of things (with just our hands) by flipping, pinching and dipping. While eating we also got entertained by a belly-dancer (it's amazing how they can control different parts of their body). Very interesting - you guys should try. Just remember that it is a lot more fun if you are a pretty big group and want to spend lots of time then the pace is distinguish for Tunisian dining.
MI concert
After "feeding" D Wednesday night I brought my bicycle on the bus to Hollywood for meeting up Ari @ Ce fiora Italian Frozen Yoghurt (such nice staff). Then her hostmum messed up and couldn't get there on time I had my Chocolate one all by myself (or the guy who was working there gave me some company). Anyways afterwards (when Ari still hadn't show up) I decided to go to the Musicians Institute (MI) where I was invited for a artist development concert hosted by for bands belonged to MI. First up was Sofia Draco, a Swedish girl who introduced me to Jamie Meyer (who also showed up this night, back from Sweden) and brought me to his concerts. She did great and the following bands too. Maybe they will be the real artists one day :-) They're at least in the right city right now. Somewhere around the beginning of all the plays Ari finally got there.
So afterwards we chatted some more with a nice Mexican guy I'd talked to when I first arrived to MI and he pushed us in to this "meeting" where some record company members/managers gave critism (Idol like). Pretty cool to observe. It's a really tough bransch though. Around tenish' we decided to leave and I got my bus ride for free (a marijuana smoking man gave me a day pass) and I got home... (something which is frequent on the buses is that I get to hear how beautiful I am and the question if I can be the person who's asking's nanny, I get all kind of business cards and get the question if I'm a model or an actress - tons of compliments)...
The Huntington Gardens
Okey so this is how we got there:
At my very first au-pair meeting I met Tammy (a German girl) and I felt that, she's a girl I want to hang out with. Then she lives in Pasadena we never really got a chance to do it. Anyways au-pair meetings passed and we always said that we have to get together til she called me about the Death Valley thing and we finally could hook up. At that time we found out that our host girls are the same age and should get together some day. So now when they had their springbreaks at the same week I was anxious about carrying it out. My plan came out to be The Huntington gardens. Then my hostdad earlier had suggested me going there, I decided to give it a try. After a suspicious mum, complexity about if Tammy was working and shyness between the two girls (when we finally got to their house) the ice broke. I drove us all in the big van and we spent about four hours over there.The day with Tammy, all her three host kids (the girl and her brother, 3 and brother, 9) and D, we all had such a terrific day. I guess Tammy and I didn't even have time to talk to each other then we were amazed of how stimulated the kids were. They were running and laughing all day and like I can say soo many times IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! Like another world. There was both a Children's garden, a "Green house", Japanese garden, Chinese garden, Jungle, Desert and much, much more - really worth a visit.
Afterwards D and I had a very nice discussion in the car and some of the things she said was.
S: I think these kids had an even more special time than you - because they don't as much activities as you and don't have so many friends they can have playdates with. You are so lucky D.
D: I know, but it was special for me to. It was the best play date in the whole wide world. I don't want to go home. Sofia, this is why I never want to go to places - I like it so badly that I don't want to go home.
Such an interesting comment from a six-year old which made my heart so warm - she appreciates everything so much compared to so many American kids which are raised differently. This playdate was also special for her then she got friends her mum doesn't know about, who are Christian and has special memories with.
D: I want to be the German au-pair
S: Says hmm, why, how come?
D: It's just that I want to be other people like mum, Sarah, you....and she lists up some more
S: Yeah, and sometimes I want to be you (and really mean it and I feel that she knows what I mean)
D: (Here my confirmation comes) I know. I know that I'm lucky, I have a lot many other don't have (and with a careful and thinkful voice she lists up) I'm talented, I have an easy time at school etc etc and she says everything so wise. Not like I have a doll and parents.
Oh I love this girl!
LACMA
Then LACMA (Los Angeles County Art Museum) has a gallery for kids (Boones/Construction) I thought that would be a great place to have a playdate. So on Tuesday D and I went there for meeting up a two sisters and their mum. Such a great place - it's for free and has all these stuff you need when doing arts and crafts. Pipe cleaners, stickers, construction paper, paste, pensels, crayons, markers, glitter, beads, yarn - you name it. They also had an area where you could do your own architecture. All au-pairs! Bring your kids there! After that the day was gone and I went to Arianna's house from where we went to LA Fitness for some boxing and mat pilates :-)
Busy busy week
Then D is the most wonderful mix between thousands of talents and wisedom she can also come up with feelings which is more typical for a thirty-year old than a six-year old. In these circumstances we're talking about rest. She always makes it clear that she does Not want to do anything when she is having her weekend/time off. That means No playdates, No Birthday parties and especially she doesn't want to leave the house. Kind of true but isn't it also the time you have The time to do things like that? Shouln't you as a child become restless by not having activities?
We (My hostmum and I) understands her feelings and try to respect them but sometimes we also just have to ignore her. That's because her social skills are such great that she always enjoys the activities once she leaves the door. So anyways I started the week with a day which was a pleasure for both of us. She played independently all Monday while I was doing other meaningful stuff. I did also spend a couple of hours sitting with her playing "Mathblaster" when I helped her to understand the easiest way to count the elementary additions and substractions. I also introduced this little kindergardener to multiplikation and by trying my best pedagogically she understood the basics. Some extra points for me! :-) She has to skip first grade - there's not enough stimulations for her there. Would be such a waste with her capacity.
...you'll see the rest of my week in next upcoming posts.
Some dreams really come true
When I was little travelling was something abstract - I couldn't feel it, it was like on another planet. Places like America, Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Hawaii was just places which existed in books, movies and posters.
Like you guys know I'm there, I'm here, Right NOW - in those illusions. That I now booked and payed a trip to Hawaii reminds me, once again, that travel dreams can come true. Even though I've seen so many places it's just a tiny percentage of the world. I guess I've been addicted to this hobby just like Annika. Now I want to explore the whole planet. I want to see all these places, cities, countries in South America, Canada, a little bit of all US with my darling (Linn) in August when we are going all around, I want to see Australia and New Zealand, I can't wait until January next year when I'm going to Asia (Thailand and the countries close by), I want to see Japan, Korea and China. Go hiking and see the different kind of living in Northern Asia (all those countries I know plenty of my friends never even heard the name of), try all the Indian food in India, go to middle east to get my own view of the circumstances, see the rest of Europe and help out in Africa.
It's no longer a possibility - it's something I will do but I just don't now in what way, when, where, with who or what order.
Peace - and Please God, make my life last forever
Death Valley pix
My heart is beating
The new Mexican girl and plans
New plans - Tijuana April 4-6, Malibu & three days alone in the house April 10-13, Grand Canyon (eventually even Las Vegas) April 18-20 and Hawaii probably in the middle of May...coming home most likely September first or second.
Love you all!
Hiking
Downtown
Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Chio & Emma, view of the buildings - I forgot to take pics of the Mexican street where Chio showed us all the yammie sweets :-)
Pictures from OC
The food @ the b-day party, Swedish meatballs in cream sauce, a gift from Sweden, Hanna's bed & Hanna
Long time, no seen
Anyways I got the problem with my Internet fixed (clever as I am) but for right now my wireless connection in the house is out of range to my room so I'm sitting @ Fairfax library.
Birthday party/"Barnkalas"
What's home then? Strawberries, blueberries, lax, fiskedamm, barefoot, blond people, meatballs, macaronies, cream sauce, princesscake, lingonberry jam, crispbread :) etc etc
OC
Internet problems
I will publish pics from both Death Valley, Down town and some more as soon as Internet works on my computer =-)
(The positive thing with no Internet is that I'm a lot more active - almost never home... so it's not like I'm dead or so.
Have a good one
- and all of you e-mail me!!!
Mail from home
Weekend in Death Valley
We left LA about 7am Saturday morning and arrived in Death Valley National Park somewhere around noon. Then the German girls know how to drive fast we didn't need to sit in the car more than necessary. Always at least 80 miles/hour (almost 140 km/h) and they told me that they had driven faster than 200 km/h back home. That's soo fast!
In the national park got to see all kinds of fields full of salt, beautiful landscapes of all the mountains (covered with snow, colorful, dry, shiny), we visited the lowest elevation in the whole US (far below the sea level), tops of mountains and small villages. Everywhere we went we were amazed of the silence. We got to experience the climate changes. From 11 degrees Celsius to 29 and to 5. From wind still to super windy. We enjoyed a natural heated giant pool and slept in the car (the tent was fallen down when we came back to the camp site in the dark) pretty nice anyways. Our Cruiser (PT) was our best friend during the journey I guess. One of the last things we did was visiting a ghost city. Kind of strange with a random, kind of weird host. The restroom for visitors there was disgusting with spider webs and yeah uh the place was a kind of strange overall. So deserted.
My company for the weekend was great, Thank you Germans - you have inspired me to learn German. Soo easy (like a mix between English, Swedish and Finnish.) We have also made some plans about going to Grand Canyon, Tijuana and Las Vegas together. We'll have lots of fun!
I will publish some pics in short.
Short summary of the day
So tomorrow morning I'm leaving and won't come back until Sunday - so the ones who has missed previous entries do now have the time to catch up ;-)
