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.
1 comment:
Your Uncle Mats is also reweiwing your blogg, just so you know
By the way
Merry x-mas
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