Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is always on the 3rd Thursday of November. That automatically turns the following Friday into a holiday as well which gives us a four day weekend. I extended my weekend and started on Wednesday instead. I decided not to go to school because I had a dentist appointment at 11.00 am and it was a short day in school, so I didn’t feel it crucial to go to school. Instead I went with Mary Sue to the Farmer’s Market in Santa Monica to purchase all the greens and vegetables that she needed for the big Thanksgiving dinner.

When I got to the dentist he looked at my teeth and he established, after a couple of X-ray’s, that I have a fracture in one tooth in my lower jaw. It happened at a soccer game last Sunday. The doctor claimed that he normally doesn’t treat anything like my injury, but advised me to be careful when I eat and cut everything in very small pieces and chew on the other side, if possible. As soon as I came home and had lunch and forgot his advise and hurt myself again, but I don’t care if the fraction breaks and my tooth chips, because I don’t want to feel old and handicapped by the age of 17.

My host family has a tradition when it comes to Christmas cards, which certainly seems weird to some people – it did to me at first. Every year, since my older host brother was little, they’ve made Christmas cards with themselves in it, all naked but with something to cover their private parts. The point of traditions is to keep them alive, so the same thing was to take place this year. On Thanksgiving Day, when everyone in the family was home, it was time for this year’s photo to be taken, and I would be in it! It was entirely my choice to participate, and I’m glad I did it. I felt nervous and awkward before, just by the thought of it, but it wasn’t that big of a deal since they were all used to it. A friend of my host parents who’s a photographer took pictures, and I’m looking forward to see how they turned out. The rest of the day I spent playing guitar and working on my own, hand made, Christmas cards.

The guests for dinner became to show up at 4.00 pm and we were totally 17 persons how ate of the delicious creations that Mary Sue and her chef friend Bob had made (with a little bit of assistance from the rest of us). There were turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce etc. One of my favorites was the green salad with lettuce, pomegranates, walnuts, shelled oranges with a dressing. For desert there were three different kinds of pies, of which my favorite was the pecan pie with ice cream.

After dinner I went back with Julie and Jack to their house in Palmdale, about an hour and 15 minutes with car from Culver City. Palmdale is small village with about 1500 inhabitants. The scenery is impressive, mountainous and dramatic. It reminds me of the geology in The Sims, a computer game that I played a lot with my friend Ebba when we were younger. Julie and Jack’s back yard is huge, a previous ranch. They have a dog, Daisy, which is really sweet and she got a lot of my attention, since I miss my own dogs from Sweden she consoled that empty place.

The following Friday after Thanksgiving Thursday is called Black Friday because it’s a holiday, everyone is off from school and takes the opportunity to go shopping for Christmas. The stores start their sales early in the morning and people are just crazy. Julie and I went shopping in Antelope Valley, where the Mall opened at 4.00 am! We were there before 7.00 am and it was already crowded. Almost the entire parking lot was filled so we had to park far away from the entrances and walk. Despite the throng in every store I found gifts for each and every family member and because my family (mom and dad at least) are the most devoted of my blog followers I wont reveal what it was here. Later that day when we watched the news the news caster had some terrible news as a result of the egocentric people that were eager to make the best bargains. An employee at Wal-Mart was trampled to death by a stampede of customers who rushed into the store as soon as the doors opened in the middle of the night.

After a couple of hours of shopping, we were done at noon and went to have lunch at a “cowboy-western” diner. I had a Buffalo Burger which is typically American. Tired after the shopping and the early wake-up we spent the rest of the day watching movies, firstly Moulin Rouge, secondly Smilla’s Sense of Snow and thirdly Superman Returns.

Saturday morning Julie and I went on a walk in the mountains, something I want to do when my family gets here as well. It’s very beautiful view and a refreshing activity. After that we went in their sauna and hot tub which made me really tired whereupon I took a power nap before it was time for me to go back to LA, with the train. Saturday afternoon I had soccer practice since our coach made clear that we would not be able to have a four day break from soccer AND eat loads of food for Thanksgiving at the same time.

On Sunday I had to finish a lot of homework that I had been putting off as long as possible, which is typical for me and my scheduling. I didn’t let it be as overwhelming as it can be sometimes though, and I decreased my ambition a little bit and sent in an essay that wasn’t perfect. I felt like I could have done much better by putting more effort in it, but I’m totally fine with that. It might reflect my grade, but so what? I spent my time doing other, more fun things. And after all, that’s the main reason I’m here, to have a lot of fun. Instead of spending more time than necessary doing the homework, I and Kieran went to the Westside Pavilion looking for things to put on our Christmas lists. Meanwhile, Mary Sue and Josh went to the movies and we met up later on.

- Julia Sorel

If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances.

New York Tuesday

Tuesday was Veteran’s Day. It's a holiday meant to honor the war veterans from all the wars that the USA have fought – as well as the one they’re fighting right now. An imposing parade, (which reminded me of the Euro Pride Parade last summer, only that it was veterans instead of gays) took place on Manhattan, from Central Park south on 5th Avenue. For security reasons some parts of the town was closed which led to extended traffic chaos. Fortunately we were walking…

Having explored this part of town in the last few days we now knew where we were going. Firstly we headed for a shoe store, aiming for a pair of shoes matching my homecoming dress and a pair that I could eventually wear the same night at the charity dinner. I found a pair for $7! They might not be the best quality, but for one or two occasions they were more then good. Secondly we passed a vintage store and I tried on a white leather jacket, I loved it but since it was a tiny bit too small I didn’t buy it. The advantage with shopping in vintage stores is that you can find something that is totally unique, but in contrast, the disadvantage that comes with it is that there is a limited range of seizes. I guess I’ll just keep looking! Thirdly, we went to an Indian boutique to get some accessories for my homecoming dance since the theme was “Bollywood”. We bought shiny bracelets, a tattoo, earrings and one of those spots for the forehead, which “Idol-Kishti” used to wear.

With a cultural interest in mind we chose the Empire State Building as our next pastime. In the long line to the elevators that would take us up to the 87th floor we met 4 gorgeous Australian boys in the age of 23-29 years old. They just arrived the the previous day to NYC and had me guess their age, which I always hate because of the risk to be offending or insulting. I guessed 19 on the 24-year old, he looked like an identical copy of my friend Sebastian, but older. Really handsome...

From the top of the Empire State Building there was an incredible view. You could see the entire city from up above, how NYC is built on islands, like Stockholm.

You could see the Statue of Liberty, all the beautiful bridges and you realize how big Central Park is and how dense and compact the city is.

When we kept on going north and reached the richer and more expensive area, we past shop windows that had already started with the Christmas decorations which made me think of how fast the time here has past. I’ve been here for almost three months.

The main event, the charity dinner, later that evening took place at Caroline’s Comedy Club, right on Time Square. We were entertained by a number of famous comedians and I had a great time. When it ended we went to an after party and went to bed at about 3.00 am to be ready for the flight the morning after!

New York Monday

The main reason we went to New York right now, was the charity dinner that Mary Sue was going to cook for. The dinner would take place on Tuesday night but Mary Sue had to work on Monday too, preparing for the 400 guests. Julie and I took the advantage to go shopping, since Mary Sue is not a huge fan of that. We walked down 5th Avenue and stopped in any interesting store every now and then. Julie got me a vintage purse from Urban Outfitters made out of leather, dark blue and brown – perfect seize. We kept going south, down to ground zero, where the World Trade Center used to be until the terrorist attack of 9/11. Standing there, I could feel the intense essence in the atmosphere. After some momentous minutes we lighted up the serious mood by entering “Century 21”, a huge store with four floors similar to NK or Åhléns in Stockholm with clothes sorted by brands in different divisions such as “every day clothes”, dresses, sports and athletics, skincare, shoes and jewelry. I got a couple of underwear, 2 bras, socks, and a homecoming dress (!). I haven’t been shopping that much in a long time! It made me feel excellent!
Julie and I then took of together to Chinatown and the area called Little Italy. It consisted of a couple of blocks and where two of the streets crossed each other there were four Italian restaurants in each corner. Not knowing anything about the menus or of the food quality we decided to go to the one we thought of as best appearance, but our decision turned out to be insignificant because we were “drawn into” another one by a waiter, probably a result of their competition.

On our way home we walked uptown again and we past shop after shop in block after block with jewelries, followed by shop after shop in block after block with lighting and the same thing with stores selling restaurant supplies (there are more that 13000 restaurants in NYC)! It is unbelievable how many stores can endure with such competition! That is New York!

Monday night I spent working on my comparison and contrast essay that was due the same day, while Mary Sue, Declan and his friend Nick had dinner on The Spotted Pig. Julie met a couple of friends of hers, had oysters in a bar and helped me finish my essay later on.

New York Sunday

We all slept in for a while on Sunday morning. All these time changes and flights make one tired. I slept on the couch, which was way too soft, probably old and “worn out”. It took a while for my body to soften up after becoming stiff during the night. We did that by walking. New York is a city perfect suited for walking, in general you move faster as a pedestrian that the vehicles.

Mary Sue and I started of walking thought a very pretty, pleasant park, Madison Square Park. A little bit farter away we stopped in a sample sale store, we were hoping to make some bargains. We found clothes, mainly from Calvin Klein, on discount. We tried on everything worth trying and at last I left with two shirts, that Julie gave me. She said: “You’re not allowed to pay for anything! I promised your parents that I would take you out shopping, so here we go!” Really generous of her, not to mention Mary Sue who has bought me everything I needed when I came here with only one suitcase.

We ate Korean food for lunch, a good deal of different kinds of fish, tofu, soups, greens and vegetables. All three of us were stuffed when we walked all the way to Time Square and the Broadway show; we had tickets to the play “August Osage County”, a tragic/comedy. First of all; the view of time square was incredible. For the first time my image of the New York City that I had had before was confirmed; a dense city with skyscrapers covered with enormous signs and neon boards. Even when we later walked there in the middle of the night at 2.00 am it felt like daytime because of all the lights. Second of all; the show was really entertaining. The story was about a family drama, taking place in Oklahoma, characterizing a typical American family in the Midwest that was full of complicated relationships and troubles.

New York Saturday

On Union Square, a couple of blocks from our apartment there was a street market on Saturday morning. We started our day with a visit there and bought eggs, bacon, bread, granola, milk etc. everything we needed to make a complete breakfast. A couple of friends of Mary Sue and Julie come over to join us. In time for going back out again it started raining. Luckily, we were prepared better this time (comparing to in Washington D.C) for the colder climate, with umbrellas and rain coats. And considering the weather we decided that it was a perfect day for a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They had an exhibition of Modern Art which I liked very much. Until now, I’ve never been especially interested in museums, but I saw a lot of beautiful work. There was one collection in particular that caught my eye, among the pintings; "Black Iris", of the artist Georgia O’Keeffe.
The Met is located on the east side of the Central Park, so later, we walked across the park. Central Park is a huge park, in the middle of Manhattan. Now in the fall the trees are colorful and the view is idyllic.

A while ago when we were going to Washington D.C. Mary Sue was searching on the Internet for restaurants we could visit. She found one named “The Obelisk” and she became curios about what an Obelisk really was. As it’s easy to do, she was stuck on the internet for another hour trying to find information about an “Obelisk”. Later she told us that an obelisk is a monument, originally from Egypt, and there is only one in America – in Central Park. We went past it and then walked by the “Swedish cottage”. I had no idea that there was one here in New York. With a proud Swedish flag on top of the house it reminded me of those log cabins we usually rent up north in the Swedish mountains.

A picture of Central Park on a rainy day.

We took the subway home, which was not too bad. It was kind of similar to the Swedish subway but not as clean nor inviting. A more popular way of transportation is eventually the typical yellow cabs which are really cheap and convenient.
At this time we hadn’t heard anything from Declan yet (Mary Sue’s oldest son that goes to college in New York) since about a day before we left LA. It turned out that he had been sleeping until about 4.00 pm. which was why he hadn’t answered any calls. He and Mary Sue had talked earlier about him making up plans for us two while Mare Sue and Julie would go to dinner at their friends house in Bronxville, about 40 minutes outside the city by train. But because of the confusing situation all four of us went out to Bronxville. Mary Sue helped to cook the dinner and it all tasted very good. Declan and I had a chance to talk, for the first time since we met last time, in Stockholm in the end of last summer. The two of us went back to Manhattan earlier, right after the main course, because we were planning on going to a party with Declan’s friends. Unfortunately it turned out that nothing he knew of was going on, so I took a cab home from his dorm to our apartment, alone… It was probably a stupid thing to do because I felt scared as I sat there all by myself. My imagination started to flow and I thought of everything that could have happened, in a completely foreign city, in which I had been in for less than 24 hours, knowing nothing about the area and barely my address (Declan had told the cab driver before we left).

New York Friday

I rode my bike to school and attended 1st and 2nd period, ceramics and usually guitar, but I had to take a Physiology test since the midterm grade was due the next following Wednesday.

To leave school earlier I had to give the attendance office a note from my guardian that approved that. I’ve noticed how much stricter the attendance is here that it would be back home. Everyone just comes and leaves as they want to, pretty much. Here the teachers are required to take roll as soon as the bell rings in the beginning of every class. Even if you come only one minute late you are marked as tardy, no exceptions. Tardy to the 1st period results in a detention, after a certain number of tardiness’s you have Saturday school.

However, I got home to finish my packing. Julie arrived soon later. She is Mary Sue’s sister and lives outside LA and hosted my brother Fabian for a year. She, Mary Sue and I were going to New York together. Josh made us one BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich) each while we watched Barack Obama’s first press conference as President-elect! “Finally a president that is intelligent and can pronounce words correctly!” I heard someone say. Josh gave us a ride to the airport and we bordered the airplane as soon as we got there.

Washington D.C and New York are both on the east coast, NY is a bit farther away, but the flight felt endless. I watched the movie “21”, which was quite mediocre, somewhat similar to the Ocean eleven movies.

Finally arriving at JFK outside NY we got in a cab. Because of the time difference it was already 10.30 pm, dark and misty outside. We got to the apartment that we were renting, about half an hour later. It was situated on 31 East 20th which is in the middle of Manhattan. With food as a common passion we went out to a very nice restaurant on the opposite side of the street called Gramercy Tavern. The food got my blessing but the experience wasn’t great because I felt sick after the flight. With refilled stomachs, we went to bed, exhausted.

Elections 2008

Soon is the time we’ve all been waiting for. In less than 24 hours we might know the results of the Presidential elections of 2008. According to the recent polls the democrat Barack Obama is leading (touch wood) before the republican John McCain. As far as I’m concerned, the majority will vote democrat here in California. My host family is as much democrat as one can be. By organizing a big Obama fundraising dinner, which contributed to his campaign with $ 20,000, they’ve done as much as they can to help.

As a democrat, Obama has got more liberal opinions on many of the issues of current interest than McCain, who as a republican is more conservative. Maybe a little bit influenced by my host family and the people they associate with, but also based on my own thoughts and opinions I’m hoping for a democratic victory – I’m hoping for a change. After following the debates every now and then and listening to where each candidate stand on each issue there are some that are more distinct than others.

Whether gay couples should be able to adopt children is one controversial question. McCain opposes this while Obama supports it. Some people claim that a child is given a better adolescence with one dad and one mom, but you can’t take that for granted. A child’s childhood doesn’t depend upon the gender of its parents, nor their sexuality, but on the love it’s given during that period of time. McCain is a but head when suggesting that gays should be denied an adoption.

Personally, I’m against death penalty. I think it’s unfair to sentence someone to death, when there is even a minimum chance that this person’s verdict is incorrect or mistaken. I also believe in improvement of the human being. Even though you’ve committed a crime, you deserve a second chance. I’m not sure if this agrees with every case; imagine that they would catch Bin Ladin and give him a second chance without further notice. Might not be the best idea. However, Obama supports death penalty, but only for certain crimes. McCain, on the contrary, wants to expand the federal death penalty, which I think is scary.

Obama also supports restrictions on gun ownership while McCain completely opposes gun control. Only last week I heard about a boy who committed suicide by shooting himself in the bathroom in his school after being bullied by his friends. This happened in Los Angeles. How did he get hold of that gun? It’s not too hard in today’s society when a lot of Americans have a gun in their home for “self defense”. Why do they have to protect themselves from? There are too many irresponsible persons that can buy guns which constitute a threat to the society…

I doubt that I will be able to concentrate on anything else but the elections tomorrow. I will return with more information tomorrow, after the final result has been revealed. I hope it will be good news!

Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat?!?

Last Friday was Halloween. It’s a tradition given as much attention here as Easter and almost Christmas are in Sweden. The students dressed up for school. They wore anything or everything, the only restriction was that no masks were allowed (the school made an exception with the hat policy for once) and for girls, the dresses could not be too short, whether anyone checked if this was complied with or not is another question. I choose to not wear my costume to school because I thought it was too short, but I’m sure I could have done it if I wanted to consider what everyone else was wearing. Andy, a friend of mine, asked me why I didn’t dress up. I told him about my tiny dress, but he said it wasn’t an accepted excuse for NOT wearing it, the smaller dress the bigger reason to wear it. He said that in general, everyone consider Halloween as their big opportunity to dress slutty and dirty. I was really surprised he said that, as if that’s everyone’s goal in life? The answer of my question was later confirmed when the “catwalk” started and anyone could show their costumes. The most extreme example was one boy, dressed only in a bathrobe and slippers, who walked up the catwalk, posing in front of all the students in school, supposed to be a pimp. Then these two girls, looking like playboy bunnies, came up to him and kissed him, one on each cheek.

The classes were also a little bit different that day, the schedule was changed. The two first periods were shortened, in ceramics we watched the beginning of The Nightmare Before Christmas (everything is made out of clay) and in Guitar we got cupcakes and red vines and watched Edward Scissor hand. After that it was time for the Catwalk out on campus, at the same time it was this event called “Club Luau” where every club had a chance to earn money by selling snacks, foods or drinks. I bought two delicious croissants from the French club for $3 each. This whole event lasted for 70 minutes and after that it was lunch for 30 minutes so the remaining four periods were also shorter than usually, but not as fun as the first two. No more movies or cupcakes, just ordinary classes.

After school I had soccer practice. The varsity team usually practice separately from the JV (Junior Varsity) but because of Halloween there were a lot of players missing (maybe they couldn’t get out of their tight costumes) so we practiced together.

At night it was time for me to put on my costume. A sailor costume I had got from a friend on my soccer team a while ago. I went to my friend Sarah’s house and had dinner with her, her boyfriend, her boyfriend’s best friend and Amanda. During dinner we were frequently interrupted by the door bell ringing. A lot of the younger kids start as soon as it’s getting dark to go out trick or treat. Sometimes their parents are making them company. Once when I opened the door a two years old Pirate said “trick or treat”, he was adorable. Anyone who wants irrespective of age can go out trick or treating. We went out after dinner and it turned out to be a success.

I remember me and my siblings going out on Trick or Treat in Sweden, once or twice, without such a triumph. First of all, my neighborhood isn’t the most optimal (my dad had to drives us from one house to another) and second of all, the families don’t expect anyone so they don’t have any candy to hand out. Here, the majority of all houses have decorated the front yard with spider web, big corpses, and lighted pumpkins and so on, and parents are sitting in the entrance prepared to give the kids candy (because there are so many that it’s a better idea to sit outside the entire time than opening the door each and every second). Sometimes there were so many kids at one house at the same time that a long line was formed.

After walking around in the neighborhood for more that an hour we were all tired and had got enough candy for a whole year forward. Josh came and picked me up; telling me they had ran out of candy at 8.30 p.m. which I thought was a bit amazing considering the great amount of candy they had bought. In families living in a poor neighborhood the parents often drives their kids to a wealthier or richer neighborhood where the chance for getting more candy is better, so Mary Sue and Josh (dressed like a shady Indiana Jones) had had a lot to do.

This is a fun tradition that I would like to “bring back” to Sweden. Even if it’s already introduced at home I want it to be as extensive as it is here. I’ve decided that next year at Halloween I will have a costume party for anyone interested. We’ll carve pumpkins, eat candy, watch a scary Halloween movie and have a good time. Remind me of this if I forget!

My Pumpkin!

Knotts Scary Farm

Last Friday I went to Knotts Scary Farm. http://www.knotts.com/. It’s an amusement park arranging their annual Halloween Park. It’s transformed to something similar to the ghost houses and mazes in the Swedish amusement parks.

Jade, my friend from my Physiology and my History class brought up the idea of going there a couple of weeks ago, and since a club in school sold tickets ($50), we decided to go. It was opened between 7.00 p.m. and 2.00 a.m. Leaving my house at 7.30 p.m. it took us over an hour to get there because of the maddening and annoying traffic in Los Angeles.

The whole place was turned into a raw and chilly area with revived corpses, wicked clowns and evil monsters emerging suddenly when you least expected it. When they were not visible around us I was shivering because of the fact that I felt like they were watching us.

Because of the special event and the fact that it was Friday night, it was unusually crowded. The lines to each ride were at least 45 minutes long, up to one and a half hour. And I kind of questioned the situation if it was really worth it, when the ride by itself isn’t more that one minute. However, it was definitely a fun experience to visit one of the biggest American amusement parks. I’m not exaggerating when I call it huge.

Washington D.C. Monday

As predicted, today was a pretty busy day, starting of fancy, with breakfast in bed. Kieran and I filled in the ordering forms last night but they were a little bit unclear, and since none of us had done it before we were not totally sure of what we ended up ordering. 7.30 am we’re woken up by someone knocking on our door. Into the room comes Kieran’s American breakfast on a big tray. It was filled with scrambled eggs, bacon, grated potatoes, toast, fresh orange juice and decaffeinated coffee. It seemed to be only one of our orders, which was kind of weird because we thought we ordered two. Anyway I felt relieved, because I was not that hungry and it would be a waste of money (and food) to not eat the breakfast since it was very expensive. To my “disappointment” my breakfast soon arrived on another tray. It was fun though, an unusual experience…

Chris, Dick, Kieran, Mary Sue and I went to the Senate Office building for a private tour of the Capitol. On our way there a funny but sullen incident happened. As we got out of the cab we were standing on the sidewalk, on the opposite side of the street but we waited with crossing since another cab was coming towards us, and we didn’t want to get hit. As it slows down Mary Sue is waving as to show that we don’t need a cab. I guess we looked a little bit confused, like tourists, and it stops near us. To us, the cab looks empty, and now we’re all gesticulating to make clear that we’re NOT getting in the cab! Despite our attempt to make that clear, the cabdriver pushes a button that opens the back door. Getting both more confused, and frustrated about this mess, we suddenly see two legs appear under the back door. We realize that there is a little dwarf coming out of the cab! Embarrassed, blushing and very uncomfortable with the situation we all turn around and cross the road quickly and enters the Hart Senate Office. Everyone but the little person is laughing as soon as we’re out of sight.

All the senators, including Obama and McCain have their offices in this building. We went to one of California’s senators, Dianne Feinstein’s, office to wait for our tour. The guide took us to the underground path that connects the Senate Office with the Capitol.

The paintings, the architecture, and the sculptures - everything in the Capitol is magnificent, imposing and extra-ordinary. We went into the old Senate Chamber, the old and the current House of Representatives chamber. All of it feels very real and significant to me as I’m reading about this in my American history class.

After we ended the tour of the Capitol we went back to the hotel and picked up our bags quickly and now headed for NASA, the space centre. Both Sarah and Jack work there so they guided us around. First we looked in their studio where they make movies, send news reports etc. then we went to see a satellite that is going to be launched next year. It was really hard to imagine that it was actually going to be sent up in space, the universe… pretty awesome, huh?

After saying good bye to Sarah and Jack we were going to the airport again, to leave the wonderful, stunning Washington D.C. I’ve had a great stay here, and we spent the time in a good way, even though I wish it would have been a longer vacation because there is an endless list of things to do, museums to visit etc.

Washington D.C. Sunday

Today we got the chance to sleep in for a while. MS had an early appointment, preparing for tonight’s award dinner. She is the one giving the speeches and awards at the “Share our strength” event tonight.
Later on, about 12.00 we went out in the lovely weather. We walked to Teaism, and had breakfast. With lots of good options I had some granola and a cup of Chai tea, which is my special favorite since I tried it at Espresso House in Stockholm. Altogether, we visited two museums, one sculpture garden, a couple of shoe stores, and some cloth stores today, everything to learn about the American culture. The only thing worth mentioning is that Chris was very sweet and bought me a t-shirt from the Spy-museum, and caring about my eyes in the bright and intense sunlight, a pair of sun glasses. Usually I have a hard time to find some that I like, and that fits me, but not today!

Washington D.C. Saturday

This morning we went out for a walk. We passed The White House, a big, majestic building. Of some reason I felt bad for the President who has to live in such a big, old and beautiful house. Imagine how lonely and scary it would be, with a lot of unused space, probably many empty rooms, all containing ancient narratives and legends of ghosts…

Today’s weather was very cold and in particular windy but sunny. Unlike in LA we had to dress warm, so I wore a scarf, long pants and a sweater. That turned out to be way to little, so I borrowed a wind jacket, gloves and a fleece head warmer from a native, Sarah, Kieran’s cousin, who had predicted that we would all dress too “optimistic”. Mary Sue, Kieran, Chris (MS’s sister), Dick (Chris’s husband), Sarah, Jack (Sarah’s boyfriend) and I went on a bike ride together. We figured out that it would be the best way, and fastest, to cover the city. We went down to the mall, which is the area with all the monuments and memorials, starting of with the amazing Washington monument (my favorite – so plain and simple but still remarkably impressive, surrounded by a number of stars and stripes). We continued with the World War 2 memorial, also really pretty with the water in the fountain sparkling in the sunlight. 3rd of all we walked into the Lincoln Memorial. Just by entering the area you could feel the olden history that is buried there. Lincoln was a wise, powerful President during the Civil War, and his words to the people about the brave warriors are written on the wall on the inside of the building. First and foremost though, I thought of Martin Luther King Jr. when we were there. Standing now where he stood about 45 years ago telling America that “I have a dream” made me feel important.




After a time it was time for brunch so we rode our bikes around town, passed a bridge and were suddenly in Virginia (which I checked on my “state-visit-list”) but soon returned to the District again heading for Georgetown and ended up at a restaurant next to the Swedish embassy. It was unfortunately closed. After reloading our batteries we continued biking into Maryland (also checked on that same list). All the way we followed an adorable bike path enclosed by colorful frees and bushes. We stopped for a while in Maryland, had ice cream and then turned back. The entire distance was possibly about 15 miles, pretty long, but I really enjoyed it!

Chris and Dick are both born at the same year, on the same day. The following Monday would be their birthday so we went out together to a nice, quite classy Belgian restaurant. I had oysters and snails for the first time in my life and I liked it! The rest of the food, the main course and the dessert were delectable. Exhausted after a day full of adventures we all fell deep asleep as soon as we went to bed.

Washington D.C. Friday

After waiting about an hour extra at the airport because of our delayed flight we finally boarded the plane. I realized how big the LAX airport is, which I missed when I first arrived from Sweden.

Anyway, the airplane had everything you can imagine. Each seat had its own 9” touch screen and control for TV-games. You could choose between watching TV, movies, listen to music (anything from Mozart to Paris Hilton) or radio, and as mentioned before; a variety of games, a chat room, and instead of ordering food and other products that you’d like to buy from a magazine it was all available on you screen. This advanced technology was something new to me and it made the time pass very quickly. Even if it was a domestic flight, it took about four hours to cross from the west to the east coast of this big country.

Now, it’s 9.30 am Saturday, and I woke up in this super-ultra comfy double bed at the Capital Hilton Hotel, where we’ll be staying for the weekend. I felt that my tummy was still filled with food since last night’s visit at a Chinese restaurant so I figured out that breakfast can wait.

Another weekend

So, another weekend has passed by. Yesterday was very windy and at our game it was hard to play when we didn’t keep the ball on the ground, but the weather conditions were the same for both of the teams and we tied, 2-2. I played forward, which I usually like, but it’s not quite as fun if you don’t get any passes because the other team owns the ball most of the time. Anyway, right after kick off, of midfielders kicked the ball far away, I ran to the ball and got to it before the keeper and I lobbed it over her and In the goal. It was a very pretty goal, I must say. The rest of the game was very tiring, with a lot of running for passes that didn’t have any address. I played for 90 minutes and afterwards I was really tired. Later on I was lying on the couch with a hot cup of tea feeling sick. Today, I forced myself to go to Bill Bots Field to take the annual photographs of the team. Even though I didn’t feel very well I couldn’t miss that opportunity. I’ll bring my photos (with me faking the smiles) with me home and remember all the wonderful players I have on my team. The rest of the day I’ve spent matching Casino Royale and sleeping on the sofa.

By the time we were done with the photos, I felt a bit better, and I’m sure that I could have played the game without collapsing, but I had my reasons. First of all, since the tryouts for the school team are every afternoon this week, I don’t want to get worse, and second of all I’m going to see Washington D.C. next weekend, leaving on Friday so I want to feel well.

After a number of different cures (who knows what they’re actually made of, but there are a million different options, each supposed to be better than the other one) containing a lot of vitamins etc. - I’ll probably feel better tomorrow already.

Happy Birthday!

« Ja må du leva, ja må du leva,
ja må du leva uti hundrade år.
Javisst ska du leva, javisst ska du leva,
Javisst ska du leva uti hundrade år. »

Yesterday was Danielle’s 17th birthday. She is one of my absolutely best friends ever, and it makes me sad that I couldn’t be there with her and celebrate. I was thinking about her, and I hope that she had a great day.

I talked to my mom and dad though, and they said they had been over and given her my present, which was something I made this summer with the purpose that she wont forget me. And if you read this, Dannielle, make sure you install Skype on your computer soon because the lack of real conversation with you makes me crazy.

Felt lilke I had to publish this picture too, because it shows one of our incredible and extra ordinary times together!

My American life

My family consists of one little brother named Kieran, one older brother named Declan, a mother and a father – Mary Sue and Josh. They’re fantastic!
Kieran is 10 years old and goes to the elementary school called El Marino Language School, which means that he has been studying Japanese since kindergarten. That is impressive in that age, in my opinion.

One of Kieran’s biggest interests is skateboarding and he is the lucky owner of about 8 different skateboards, the majority inherited from Declan or any of his friends. Kieran is musical talented, plays the piano and sings very well but one thing he is not as fond of as music is school and his homework. I don’t think it is unusual for kids here to not have motivation when it comes to doing homework because all students, especially in elementary and middle school get more homework than I’ve ever got in Sweden. They have to spend at least about two hours a day sitting by their desk and reading and counting and writing, at HOME! When you get loads of homework every day, more than you can handle, you loose you self-confidence and start to question yourself. Later on you get a blockade in your brain telling you that it’s too hard for you and you come up with reasons to delay the work that has to be done, and it becomes a vicious circle.

Declan is 18 years old and goes to a college in New York. He’ll come home for Thanksgiving, which is November 25th. I can’t wait to see him!

Mary Sue is a chef and Josh is an architect, so I’m served delicious food and I live in a beautiful, modern home. Could I be more fortunate? They are both very kind, helpful, supportive and just brilliant.

Mary Sue is playing soccer and they have practice three times a week, in the morning, before work, to which she usually goes after dropping me of at school. She is the owner of three restaurants, two in Los Angeles and one in Las Vegas. She is also a part of a organization called “Share our strength” where they give support and cook food to poor families and homeless people.

Josh loves tennis; he is playing himself a couple of times a week and enjoys watching it on TV as well. He is very interested in art and is painting and sculptures a lot out in his studio.
They are both going out together about one night a week, which I think more parents should do. I stay home with Kieran while they go out to the movies and eating dinner out on a restaurant and spend time with only each other.

We have a garden in our backyard where we grow tomatoes, beans, lettuce, egg plants, pepper and other vegetables. We’ve got chickens, so we get fresh eggs, and we’ve raspberries growing there too. In the front there are banana trees, so guess what, we have “own-grown” bananas every now and then.

Tonight we’re having a big Obama fundraising dinner at our house and at our neighbor Hans’ house. Hans is also a very well-known chef and owner of couples of restaurants so they’ll both be cooking tonight. According to all estimates they’ll get about $ 20 000 to Senate Obama’s campaign.

My job tonight is to babysit Kieran, Nolan and Casey at our neighbor’s house. Right now the kids are watching one of the Star Wars movies, which I thought I liked, but this is an old movie and I think I prefer the new version. Anyway, they’ll soon be asleep because the time is almost 9.00 pm.

Clubs in school

After what I’ve heard from former EF students, to join any of the clubs in school is a good opportunity to make new friends and improve your English even more. Last Wednesday it was “Club Fair” during lunch which means that all of the clubs had a table out on campus, where representatives from each club tried to promote it and draw new members. The majority of the clubs has a meeting once a week during lunch, hence you can’t join two clubs that has a meeting on the same day of the week. I ended up with joining three clubs: Multicultural cooking, Junior Class Council and HOPE; Help Our Planet Earth. In the Multicultural cooking club there’s a schedule that says who’s going to cook and bring food each week. So, hopefully I’ll have one day each week when I don’t have to bring my own lunch. In Junior Class Council we’ll plan the events that take place during the year such as prom and homecoming. And, as always, I'm concerned about doing as much as I can to help and prevent the climate changes, which I'll try to do in the HOPE club.

I’m planning to go to each club’s first meeting and afterwards decide whether I want to stay in all three of them.

Girl & soccer weekend

Josh and Kieran were on a Scout Camp this weekend and left Mary Sue and me to have a couple of days by ourselves to spend time with one of our biggest interests in common – soccer. It was intensively filled with our own soccer games, practices and a MSL game Saturday night. After my practice Friday afternoon, which by the may wasn’t very hard because our coach didn’t want us to be too tired, considering the majority of us would have two games the following days, Mary Sue and I went to Border Grill in Santa Monica and had dinner. It was the first time I was there since three years ago when we visited Fabian here in LA. We brought the desserts home to watch a movie, but it didn’t take long until I fell asleep.

Anyway, my team won the both games this weekend, the one on Saturday with 4-0 (and believe it or not, but I scored all of the goals!) and the one on Sunday with 4-1 (I made a hat trick). Mary Sue also played a game on Sunday, but unfortunately the score doesn’t always reflect the game…

Saturday night, Mary Sue, her dear friend Theresa and I went to see Chivas USA vs. Kansas City Wizards. I was really looking forward to it and it was my first time watching a MSL game, next time it’ll be Colorado Rapids vs. LA Galaxy. However, MS had made a reservation in the restaurant, so we watched the first half while eating a gorgeous buffet. During the second half we had a couple of very nice seats that she had got from her friend Martin, that couldn’t use his season tickets for some reason. So: Thank You Martin!

After my game on Saturday Mary Sue and I also visited the “Hammer” museum and went to an exhibition about John Lautner, an architect with a lot of impressing ideas and buildings.

All this happened during the weekend, so no surprise is that we were all tired early Sunday night. After a bowl of ice cream at about 8.00 pm we fell asleep quite soon. All together, it was a nice but exhausting weekend, with very little time over for feeling homesick! ;)

It's different

Completely everything, from clothing and food habits to architecture and hobbies, is different here comparing to in Sweden. If it's in a good or a bad way, I haven’t decided yet. But still, I like being here!

The 1st month in America

WOW! When I realized I’ve been here for a month allready I got scared. The weeks have past very quickly. A month is equivalent to about 10% of my time here. If the rest goes as fast as this, I’ll be home before you have time to blink (a Swedish way of describing it). It’s not that I’m not feeling homesick or anything, because I do. I'm just thinking there are better ways of spending my time than grumbling over homesickness, because I know I would regret that when it's time for me to return home. So I’ll try to spend my time in the best possible way. As a consequence of all the things I experience here I found it significant to create a blog. Not only for other people to read, but also for my own sake, to reflect what I’ve been doing and write my thoughts down to make room for new ones in my head.