Happy Halloween
I promised you some pictures of american halloween-decorated yards. Here are some ghosts in the tree. It might be hard to see, but they are in the middle of the picture.
Spiderwick and a gravestone, also a monster or something on the door.
A yard as a cemetery with a lot of gravestones. Also a big spider in the porch.
Pumpkins, mummies and a giant bat (not on the picture), skeletons all over the grass and one in the air.
Pumpkins that looks like airballoons!
Hope I will take some more pictures later today, but who knows :)
Tuesday's steak
Since the kids were off school both Monday and Tuesday Julia and I felt that we needed to get out of the house for a moment. We decided to take the T somewhere for some Real dinner. Neither of us eat real food anymore - I don't see sandwhiches and burgers as real food even though I try to make them more healthy.
We had to go by shuttlebus since the train didn't work because of Sandy. It was so crowded (but it was free!!) and we went to Kenmore which was the last stop. We found this restaurant another time and I really wanted to go in there, but we hadn't time then. So now was a good time.
Really cozy!
I saw a man put up loudspeakers - great, livemusic was my thought, but no. Suddenly he walked around and asked people if they wanted to join on a quiz. Oh..... That could have been fun, but Julia and I had so much to talk about, so we didn't join them.
My food. It was woooooonderful!
Julia's food. Good, but not as good as mine!
A place we definitely will to go more times!
Then we wanted some desert!
It was a really american frozen yoghurt on the second floor with a nice view of kenmore.
It's as Sweet Tarts, grab a cup and take whatever you want - here they had many flavors! I took pink lemon and New York-cheesecake. The last one was definitely a hit!!
As topping I had candycorn, watermelon candy, peanutbutter chips, caramer-something, hot caramel sauce and cookie dough (love them!!).
We sat on bar-chairs next to the window, the best seats.
Then we walked to our shuttle-buses which was really close. As soon as we were under the roof it started to rain badly. And when I say badly, I mean BADLY! I can't believe that I'm so lucky all the time, it was a real thunder with a lot of lightning, and pouring rain but we didn't even get wet and I find it cozy with thunder.
Heavy rain...
As soon as I got off the bus at home the rain stopped, magic!
Hurricane Sandy, damage
I took some pictures after Sandy.
There are small branches all over the streets, leaves everywhere and fallen trees here and there.
Today Arno had new converse to school and he jumped on clean spots on the ground so he's shoes wouldn't get dirty. (He totally copied my idea about buying converse for the halloween-costume!) haha.
Pegboards & beads
We did pegboards, this is my smile-face.
This is Arno's.
And I also did a rainbow.
Nice weather!
Did I mention that Arno loves rain?
"Hey, it's almost not raining at all!" he said.
"Well, you have your hand under the roof, silly..."
This is what the weather looked like today (usually there are leaves all over our yard, but Sandy did a good job), and when I asked Arno what to do he said that he would like to do something that he knew that I didn't want to do. My comment: "Oh, please, don't say you would like to go outside in the rain?!"
He just nodded and laughed.
He said "It looks like snow except it's wet and not snow" - smart kid!
Hurricane Sandy
Unusual Monday - Hurricane Sandy is here which means that
The school was closed, Lori didn't go to work, we had do buy some milk and bread as just-in-case-food, Charlie cancelled his flight to London, Lori put all the important food in the refridgerator in the basement which nobody were allowed to open, Charlie drove the cars into the garage, the kids had to take showers yesterday, we bought gas for the generator, uplighted the house with candles, had Charlies italian co-worker to stay at our house (don't know why, but guess that it was so she wouldn't have to cancel her flight too) and yeah, I guess that was it. Puh. Everybody in Newton and around are crazy about the hurricane!
Since the kids were home the whole day we had many hours to entertain ourselves.
Mirea was upstairs in the attic sewing on her halloween-costume. So fascinating that she's so good at sewing!
While she sewed I looked at all their children's books. I found BABAR - smile! Also Alfie Atkins (Alfons Åberg)and Petson & Findus.
I mean, you can obviously tell that she's eleven years old, but she still did a very good job for that age!
It looks like she sewed her arm, but in reality she just sewed so fast that I didn't get time to take the picture before her arm was there... She didn't finish the cape today but I will take a picture when she's dressed up. I hope!
Someone borrowed my camera to take some pictures of me when I'm reading in the attic.
We had a good time!
Origami
Arno made these as birthdaypresents for Lori, soooo well done for a 9 year old kid! It's a guy and a kayak for those who don't see that...
It's fun that here you actually bring gifts and stuff to the restaurant we went to (chineese, we had dumplings which the whole family thought was kind of odd that I haven't had before). We brought the marzipan and and I made Lori a card, Mirea gave he the high hill shoe she made at Plaster Fun Time and Arno gave her this piece of origami. We also ate chicken wings, ribs, chicken nudles with vegetables, beef, shrimps etc. We chosed some dishes and then all of us shared it - it was good. It's so good here that you can take your leftovers with you home - smart!
Face on the pumpkins
Yesterday we went to Wellesley so the kids could buy pumpkins. It was one of these big fields with pumpkins only, have you seen them on tv? It's really common here in the US. Maybe I'll have time to take a picture of it before halloween.. Anyway, the kids bought one reeeeally big pumpkin each and two small each.
Here is Arno drawing a face on the pumpkins since they are to small to carve.
And here are the big ones on the diner table.
Soo cute! He was so happy about them!
Halloween Party CC
Native American, yes!
(and new shooooooes)
At Cultural Cares Halloweenparty in Natick. Sandra Superwoman & Sofia Batman-something?
Evelina Cat (Emelies sister) and Emelie Viking!
They had done so much decoration - really fun, but other than that the party was lame.
But look in the background of this picture - look at the gingerbread!!! I laugh until I cry..
That costume was totally awesume!
It was really fun to see all the costumes - all was dressed! Unicorns, aliens, Snowwhite, zebras - all kind of stuff!
Every table had a jack o'lantern pumpkin in the middle, some candy and snacks.
It was like a buffé with fruits, chips, wraps, cheeses and much more. Watermelon in my heart!
We stayed at the party for less than one hour and went right back home as we had planned.
Emelie's friend had kindly bought us some wine and we planned to go into harvard square for some party with real american college students!
This is the last picture, at the t-station before we went to Boston.
On the train we met two guys that were on their way home from a performance - one a singer and the other one played the bass. Here in America people are friendly and social, it's so easy to talk with strangers!
We changed T for the red line and it felt like forever before we were at Harvard and then we just met some guys who studied at the school and they showed us a partyplace. It was really late, so the real party was over but there were still people left so I guess it was kind of an afterparty. It was in a "backyard", don't know what to call it, maybe alley?
There were a lot of people there, drinking in red plastic cups from these giant bear containers that they always have in american movies. We totally have to do this again when were a little bit earlier, cause this was so cool!
Hilawi was the guy that showed us the place, he was so nice :) all americans are so nice!
It got really late, Sandra and Sofia went home and Hilawi helped us to catch a cab. The taxidriver was also really nice, I talked with him nonstop the whole way back to Newton.
Summary: really good night, but I have some bad conscience (I didn't even think I had a conscience!?) about inviting people in to my house drinking without my parents knew about it. That won't happen again! But the rest of the night truely will happen again, sooooon I hope!
Pictures
Honeymoonstage is over and I have kind of gotten used to everything here, I feel so bad that I don't take as much pictures of everything anymore. Well, before, during my first weeks here I kind of had my camera in my hand all the time but now.. yeah, you get it. It's heavy and I usually forget to take pictures. Like when we were at Starbucks saying goodbye to Ellen who's moving to Chicago I totally forgot to take some pictures (I had fever then so that might also be an answer to why). And this friday I met Ebba again. My camera was out of battery when Julia and I ate the cupcakes that Lori bought for us (did I tell you that Lori came home with cupcakes and said that there were two more for me and Julia?!). I forgot to take pictures of the rest of the things I bought in Boston when I bought my wintershoes. I did not take pictures when we bought pumpkins today and not when we ate out on a chineese restaurant. And, I didn't even take pictures at the party in Boston on harvard square(!).
I will try to get better on photographing, even though I won't take pics of just regular things. But I think it's fun to look at after awhile, so for now - enjoy what I have :)
Massbay Community College
This was the last saturday we had school and we got to play a game, fun!
The classes have been soooo boring, the hours felt like days and sometimes it was just hard to keep your eyes open (Julia fell asleep twice during the lessons). But this time I knew the password to the computers so I loged in and searched for youtube clips instead. Happiness when I found both Badliv and Sällskapsresan, as whole movies!! I'm also happy that I have met Julia, who also lives sällskapsresan and that kind of dorky movies.
And at the end of this lesson we watched a movie about Witch trials in salem. Cool, since I've been there, but the movie was so boring..
No more massbay!
Dance costume
This last Thursday Mirea had to dress up in some kind of dance-costume on her dance-lesson.
She had this blue dress from an act of a play she did either this or last summer :)
Friday night
Cozy wine-night at my house with these pretty girls last night.
Had some food and ice cream, Julia bought me raspberry licorice - heaven!
Tonight there's a halloweenparty in Natick, fun!, and we'll see what happends after that...
Pippi in the attic
The kids had gotten 10 things and it was time for our next award. First Mirea thought we should go to sweet tarts for some frozen yoghurt but then Lori said that she had some cupcakes with her home from work. (She bought two extra for me and Julia, who's comming for a sleepover this weekend! How kind of her!).
Then the kids wanted to see Pippi Longstocking in the attic. It's so wonderful that they like my ideas and I'm so thankful that they remember the things I come up with. They fill in their duties and they talk about the next things we have as awards. Sooo, we brought some blankets and I had found an animated Pippi-movie on youtube. As a snack we had chips (multigrain ofc) and then Arno wanted som frozen raspberries - so cute!
They really seemed to like it and I'm glad. I enjoyed it too, even if it was the animated one.
I also showed them parts of the real, swedish one and then they started to immitate the swedish words. That sounds so much fun to me. Can't stop laugh! My kids are soo cute!
Wintershoes
This Wednesday Julia and I went to Boston to buy me a pair of wintershoes.
We passed The Boston Public Library which I talked about that I wanted to go in to for a long time, so we went in to take a look. And... not worth it. It was really old and unfresh. Not like Sävsjös ;) But now we've been there so now we know that..
Boston is a city full of these beautiful houses!
... and many of them have bikes in the yard, like this!
Halloween gets closer. Some day I will walk around and take pictures of the halloween-decorations in peoples yards. Some have so much stuff!!
What would a Boston-trip be without Starbucks?
The birds liked it too.
A typical american truck!
We bought some stuff at forever21 and then we went to H&M - heeeeaven!
When you experience so much american things every day a store that we have in sweden too suddenly feels like home again. I love it, I will go there shopping everything I need the next time, when I have more money!
Then we went to Panera's bread for some lunch.
Chicken noodle soup!
And ofcourse - I bought these new lovers of mine. $47, about 330 swedish kr. So cheap for a pair of converse, these would have been so expensive in Sweden! And they also have extra comfortable rubber sole of fabric to walk on. I guess that will be better for my knees! I really like them!!
Marzipan
The kids got marzipan as an award this time. We were going to make something to give to Lori who has her birthday this weekend. Arno made this cute little pig.
Mirea's wrapped present in progress..
I did a giraff. In progress. Arno: "What is it with you and all the progress-pictures???"
Hahah.
Focused boy. They totally enjoyed it!
He also made a ghost and something else. Don't know what that was...
Our fingers were nice and colorful afterwards.
My giraff. Mirea helped me at the end, they always want to do the things I do..
Now the gifts are in the freezer, waiting until sunday when were eating dinner!
A really good award, we had so much fun!
Redecoration
This Monday night I got so much inspiration to re-decorate my room. This is a picture of before.
This is after. It doesn't look very good, but I assure you that it's better in real life.
I like this chest of drawer best of the furnitures so I thought this was the best spot for it.
Now I have this cozy little corner where the hangers are.
I switched place on the chest of drawers (which I also put the TV on) and the bed.
I moved the desk to the other wall and I put the armchair next to the chest of drawers.
I also bought two new paintings:
The one with the knife: a 5 dollar-sale object that I bought for fun.
This one I thought was a good match for me, it felt like wise words to look at every day.
Waban Kitchen
A new restaurant is comming to Waban!
I have to go there some time when they open :)
Dinner at North End
The Sunday when we got home from Andover I had nothing to do so I texted Emelie.
Some of the girls were in Boston so I went there too.
Since my family made a brunch at 10am and nothing more I was pretty hungry, so we went to North End for some dinner. I had chicken and pasta with white wine/lemon sauce, it was sooo good!
Sofia and Ellen. Sandra and Emelie were there too, but they sat next to me so I couldn't take pictures..
We have to enjoy our last days with Ellen, she'll move to Chicago next week!
It is so worth it just to get out of the house for a couple of hours, everything feels so good then. See how the friends are doing and just talk about regular stuff with people who knows what you're going through. I like them!
Morning sunshine!
Some beautiful pictures from this morning.
We had a really good weekend. It feels like you're getting closer to the family when you spend two whole days with them. Arno's so cute - we went by car by 8pm the friday night and the minivan has 6 seats (i didn't know, but could have guessed) so he sat at the back of the car. I sat in front of him. Suddenly I felt fingers on my shoulder. He wanted to hold my hand :)
And we went to bed the saturdaynight he crept up next to me in my bed and just lied there for like 15 minutes. To get more tired, and then he gave me a kiss on my cheek and went back to his own bed.
I though I would miss all those cute things since my kids are older, but I guess not. They are the best.
Now they started to call me Vickis too. The english version sounds kind of awkward, but it's still cute.
And I am so happy when they collect both the milk-caps and toilet paper rolls for our next awards even though I don't remind them. They really want to do it!
I can sit here write the whole day about things they said or did. Like, when we sat at the dinner table yesterday (we ate duck and potatoes in the oven!!!!! love!) Charlie talked about some food competition when you were going to make an art project of some food on his office or something. Charlie said that he had helped some of the persons that were supposed to do the art work and they were so thankful. He said that most of his co-workers were younger than him. Arno: So you are like an old, wise grandpa at your work?
He always says things like that!
Well, the weekend was really good, hope you had a great weekend too!
Reading time
Calvin & Hobbes!
He's so good at reading, I can't believe it! Then he asked me if I could read some while he played with something else. Sure. When I found a work difficult or hard to spell he always knew the whole sentence even though he didn't look at the book. He had definitely read that book before...
Nature Fun
We collected hats from the acorns.
And found some cones we planned to do something fun with.
Why not make a stage of moss and then make actors and a director?
Director's chair made of rocks and moss, a movie camera made of sticks and a rock.
Photograpgher: Arno!
Andover and sand-drawing
Here are some pictures of the view from the house/from the yard.
Arno borrowed my camera and we went on a walk to take som pictures.
But first, ugly faces! We had so much fun!!
He is so cute!
I collected some ears for our leaf-wolfs that I plan to be an award.
Fireplace for the summernights.
The front of the house!
The neighbours friend.
Sand-drawings.
Flush-drawingproject
Some pictures from our weekend in Andover, New Hampshire!
Mirea wanted a nice drawing in the bunkbed, under Arno's mattress, so she woke up to something nice every day.
I showed them this technique how to make something bigger piece by piece.
Do you see the fish?
This is the bookcover we copied.
Arno worked on a drawing to my binder. He likes to draw dargons!
Then he helped us with Flush!
Instead of "The New York Times Bestseller" we wrote "Victoria Brogård Bestseller"
(Arno wondered why the A in Brogård was an angel with a halo/crown. Sooo cute!)
We wrote Mirea instead of the authors name and Arno instead of the title, and we colored it different to make it more "us".
Gangnam Style
This Wednesday when I picked Mirea up at dance I went inside to look at her dancing.
That day it was modern dance or something and at the end they did the "Gangnam style-dance".
Mirea loves that song and she had a smile on her face all the time!
The next day Arno asked me if we could listen to it on youtube when we got home from school, sure. Then he was dacing to it while he looked at the screen too. He is so cute!!
Award Boards
Arno liked my new stamps!
Look, what Mirea did while I cooked dinner! So creative! She wrote "Awards Board" in the leafs.
(She skipped dance today, and I think that was my fault, cause she thought this would be more fun)
And Arno cut out letters in paper.
The basement is now full of things, but I'm glad they like my ideas!
I was going to make one too, but I had text Julia to ask her if she wanted to go out for a walk.
When we sat at the dinnertable they asked me if I was comming down with them to the basement and I said that I was going out for a walk. Arno asked if he could come too - so cute. I told him that I was going with Julia and said that he could come too if he wanted, and he wanted that.
So out we went! Me, Julia and Arno - walked around talking about how our days were. Julia seems to have a rough time with her kids and I feel sorry for her. Because today I had a really good day with mine!
Arno told Julia everything we'd done. He's not shy at all!
Earlier this day, when Lori got home, Arno asked me if I was still on duty. "Yes, why?" I asked.
"Great, then we can work on our awardsystems with you in the basement!".
He always says cute things like that, and yesterday he called for me and said he needed to kiss me!
Later, also this day, I talked a little about how I was going to make my own award board. I wanted to make smiley faces when I had done something good. Then Arno came with this brilliant idea to place a piece of lined paper from a speical notepad and write the things down from week to week. I was so proud of him and told him several times, I could see how proud he was of himself! Days like this are awesume!
Outdoor Fun
Today I told the kids that we were going to have an award system. Arno thinks it's really boring to do this tasks like emptying the dishwasher so I thought it could be a good idea. Mirea got so excited!! Arno was kind of hard, he never wants to do anything when he first hear it, but later on it usually turns out to be fun!
The first award they could get when they had finished 10 hard/difficult things was to make an award board. Mirea wanted hers to have a fall-theme so she collected leafs.
Arno showed us some tricks he learned at gymnastics!
Then Mirea wanted to walk on her hands too!
An helicopter!
After a long time of play outside!
Winterjackets
Lori ordered new winterclothes for the kids and Mirea is so excited. She's getting purple snowboots (she loooooves purple) and a purple jacket. Arno alreday had a jacket and when we were really busy he wanted to show me. (A great excuse to run away from unpack lunchbag and do homework). But he was soo cute so I couldn't get mad at him!
This was an extraordinary jacket with an inner jacket that you could use by itself and you could also take away the arms to make it a vest. Really cool! And he also had this skiijacket he was so happy about. It had a big spider on the front!
TJmaxx
Here's the stuff I bought at TJmaxx! Clearstamps with halloween/thanksgiving theme.
And a notebook :)
Ebba at Starbucks
This Wednesday I met Ebba, a swedish girl, at Starbucks in Newton Upperfalls.
She lives in Needham and we have the same LCC (but I didn't know). A supernice girl I hope I will meet soon again, we started talk about canoeing and she lives next to Charles River. So hopefully we can do that soon!
Giftcard
Today Lori gave me this giftcard.
I didn't understand anything, but she told me it was $25 for me to buy new scrapbookingthings since the kids used so much. I didn't expect it and it was a really nice surprise!
Today I went to TJmaxx and bought some halloween clearstamps :) Happy girl!
Earthquake & famous people
Yesterday was a regular day. I worked out in the morning, washed the kids sheets (and my own), Arno got off school early as every tuesday. We went by car to his Pottery-class, I dropped him and went home. Usually I go grocery-shopping but me and Julia did that together yesterday. I'm glad I went home, because when I headed back to pick him up there were policecars, policemen and everything in the intersection at Whole Foods, the small store where I sometimes go shopping.
I wondered what was going on, we had to wait for a really long time. Suddenly one policeman waved to a policecar that they could drive - they came from nowhere, drove on the wrong lane etc. After them 5 or 6 limosines came, and some more fancy cars after that, and a policecar at the end. I couldn't see who it was, but it must have been someone really important! I could see the guards and people in fancy cloths in the cars. Arno said later that it could have been Obama, but I guess he was just kidding.
The street was blocked by the policemen for a few minutes and then we could drive again. So cool!
Later this night I went to bed pretty early. "The social Network" the movie about Facebook was on TV, so I put my pyjamas on and sat with my back against the wall. Suddenly the wall started to move. I thought the kids were doing something in Charlie's office (right above me, and you can hear it very well), but it was strange that the whole wall was moving. Not much, but still. Later today I saw on facebook that my friend Ellen wrote about an earthquake, that happend about that time. It must have been it!
This was my first earthquake, even though it was not very shaky it was still cool!
Starwars Lego
Arno got this lego from one of his friends.
He wanted me to be his "piece finder"... Ofcourse, every professional lego-builder needs their own piece finder!
I made this one too.
This was also one of my rough days since I overslept this morning. I felt so bad, but I had forgotten to reset my alarm from the wake up-time since college this saturday. So instead of 6.45 it was set on 7.45. I checked it the night before, but I didn't even noticed that. So I woke up when someone was knocking on the floor in Charlie's office (Mirea), then I heard someone on the way down to the basement. I looked at my clock 7.25, and I start at 7 in the mornings. Those seconds - to get up from bed and get dressed were 5 red seconds and I was just running out of my room even before Lori even knocked at my door. Haha!
The family was okey with what happened, but I still feel pretty bad. I'm not that kind of person that oversleep.
Anyway, later that day I got a long textmessage from Julia, saying with big letters that she smashed one of the sidemirrors on her car. Puh, I was not the only one having a bad day.
Later, that night we decided to have a movienight to forget about our mistakes, then Emelie joined us and told us that she'd lost her phone at the gym today. And she also told us she was in a car accident on her second week here (she drove in to another car and smashed the front lights). We didn't even know about it.
Suddenly, a little oversleep felt like a drop in the ocean.
We watched Änglagård - the first movie that my family have on swedish, and had a good end of the day atleast!
Starbucks
Mirea wanted to go to Starbucks before dance this Monday.
She's the best!!
These costume-people are always standing outside the halloween store to try to make people come there.
They have different costumes every time and are waving arms and hold up signs about the halloween store. So much fun to watch!
Mirea: "that must be the most lame job ever....."
Boston with Michaela
After the birthday party I went to Boston to meet Michaela before she goes to California.
It was nice to meet someone you recognize!
The weather was wonderful! It was about 23 degrees I think. And the day before it had been so cold so I brought my winterjacket and gloves. Totally useless!
We took a long walk on the harbourstreets.
Then we ended up at Panera's Bread for some soup. I've heard that the broccoli-soup here should be really good, and it was - thumbs up!
And before we knew it it was dark outside. Later that night I went to Chestnut Hill Movie Theatre to go to "Pitch Perfect! with Emelie and Ellen. Ellen is in rematch now and I feel so sorry for her... She had a rich but crazy family. I remember sitting next to her at the flight here to New York. I was so jealous of her since her hostdad worked with twitter/apple and they seemed so rich. But now I know - never go to a rich family, they're always insane in some way...
Arno's birthdayparty
This sunday Arno had his birthdayparty for his friends.
It was holloween-themed.
Put the face on the pumkin!
Decorating cupcakes!
Tablecloth and plates orange and black.
Mirea made a cupcake for me.
Then we went down to the basement to decorate t-shirts, also in halloween-theme.
Mirea did a good job!
They also went outside to play with the smokemachine.
They seemed to have a good time, even though the party only lasted for two hours.
But it was fun to see!
Birthdaypresent
Arno got this "thing" as a birthdaypresent.
He couldn't wait to show me when I got home from Natic Mall, he had worked on it all day.
"Oh, look! It's almost as tall as I am"
Massbay
This saturday, before the mall, we went to Wellesley to study for 6 hours. This is the second of three classes!
We love to study?
We learned about Janne Kennedy. And had a lot of fun about it.
American Girl
Also at Natic Mall. This is a huge doll store. Also like a museum.
You buy one basic doll and then you buy clothes and belongings for her. It's really expensive... One dress can be like 30 dollar!
Both me and Julia died a little when we saw this hairsalon for the dolls. It's crazy!
Lego
We also went to this Lego-store at the mall.
They had so many different things. And they had built things that you could watch trough a window. Like a small museum.
Big Ben and the white house etc.
Here's a cool thing. This is just pieces of lego that you buy like candy. Pay for weight and grab whatever you like!
A rugby ball and a pumpkin.
Sumo wrestlers!
Karate kid...
Sheeps.
And this big thing in the window of the store. It was huge!
Natic Mall
This saturday night we went to Natic Mall. Here are some cute clothes for kids!
We went to Macy's. By the way, this mall is HUGE!!
An interior design shop!
Treat Cupcake bar, but we didn't decorate any cupcakes this time.
Felt like home again! The Body Shop!
I bought pink grapefruit showergel & scrub.
A paper/gift shop.
Julia bought a winterjacket at Macy's. She got 60% off!
This was a shop that looked like a house in the mall. You went through a door that had a porch on the frontside.
The mall is very big!
A piano store.
As I said - very big!
We decided to try sushi! This seemed like a cool restaurant.
The food moved around like a train on a rail and you could just grab a plate - which one you wanted.
The plates had different colors. The yellow was the cheapest, then orange, red, blue and purple.
I didn't like it, my food was sooooo spicy! I drank my water in like two seconds!
But it was good that you could take many different. So you could try a lot!
Crabfish and rice was my favorite dish.
She's my favorite too!
They had made one as an caterpillar!
The coolest popcorn-machine ever!
They had popcorn with different taste - like cinnamon, caramel etc. Cool, but I don't think it is good.
A cool store I liked, but we never went in there.
Ice cream! But we didn't buy anything..
Couldn't resist...
They had organized the candy in colors!
Then we bought frozen yoghurt at Red Mango, which Mirea told me to try. I don't remember the flavor, but it was really good.
Pottery Barn - a kid's store. So cute!! They had halloween costumes - look at the pumkin to the left! Adorable!
They had made it like real rooms in the store, sometimes pink can be cute! (Oh, did I really say that?)
These were really princess-like.
And ofcourse the christmas-trees are already up!
North End & Movienight
North End, Boston.
Friday night, me and Julia decided to go in to Boston for some spontanious hang.
What a beautiful night. Boston is such an amazing city in darkness.
We went to North End which is a very cozy place with a lot of restaurants and lots of people. Charlie told me, later, that it is pretty europeean - and I think he's right.
America's version of Big Ben!
Bike-taxi like they have in Asia.
I couldn't resist to take a picture of this love-couple on a balcony over a restaurant. It must be their special spot!
I love these fire-stairs they have on the houses. It's so charming!
We went to St. Leonard's Peace Garden.
Uplighted statues in a garden. Really cozy, but christian..
I thought this felt very brittish, but Julia said it just looked trashy...
A firetruck came and ofcourse we thought something had happened. But then we realised that the car lived there -.-
I laughed for 15 minutes! How can you name a restaurant (or whatever it is) like this? So funny!
Between two close houses they had decorated halloween/christian. So cozy!
Pictures/icons on the walls.
Baseball plan/court next to the coastal road.
We walked all the way around. It was pretty cold, but the view was fantastic!
Cambridge.
Coastal walk.
A bad picture, but it was so beautiful!
Suddenly, when we were walking, this fencing blocked our way. The road was really bad and unsafe, but we had walked a long way, it was cold and it would take a really long time to go the same way back.
So we crept through the little hole in the right corner, laughing all the time. We don't have any sense at all, I know.
Ooops. We had the water under us!
Truly unsafe! We could hear the bricks creak from above.
Some climbing!
But we made it!! And we had a lot of fun!
Our fingeres were really cold so we went to our lifesaver - Starbucks, for some hot chocolate!
Then we suddenly stood outside the movietheatre, and went inside. Impulse is the shit!
This one was HUGE! two stairs escalator!
We bought tickets for "Argo", salon 14. We had no idea what it was about!
Lifesaver!
The movie was not such a hit. For the first time in my life I fell asleep during the film. But I woke up constant, and it didn't seem like I had missed a thing.
When the movie was finished the clock was 12.30 at night. We got so stressed (cause the movie had been 15 minutes late) and we wasn't sure what time the last train went home.
But the train arrived at 12.45, probably the last one. We were so thankful, and still are. Otherwise we would have had to take a cab home, and that would have been soooo expensive!
After all - a great day!
Halloween Spirit
While waiting for Mirea's dance Arno and I went to another halloween-store. These are cups.
This one was more scary since they had built it almost like a ghost-tour. You could press buttons and the monster sounded or started moving or whatever it could do.
Frankenstein.
Bloody hands...
This store was definitely more scary than the other one. Scary, almost disgusting-scary.
They all moved and made creepy noises.
My monkeyman!
God, I totally hate these maskes. They are realistic, but sooo creepy.
It was a mummie inside the box!
Starbucks
Mirea enjoys her frappuccino at Starbucks after dance!
(She brought her own cup, so smart!)
Surprise for Julia turning 19
Today is Julia's birthday!
Julia asked me last week if we could go to cabot's for some ice cream, but I planned to surprise her too. So I talked to some of the other girls to meet up at cabot's and give her some special fancy birthday ice cream.
(not this one though, this was Ellen's)
This one was called "dentist disaster" and it was 4 different flavors (normal sizes) of ice cream. Ellen was kind of full after awhile.. But it was really good though.
Sandra & Sofia brought a "Happy Birthday"-balloon
Sofia, Sandra, Miriam (an austrian girl), Julia, Ellen & Emelie.
Sandra's ice cream!
Sofia & Sandra.
She was really surprised, but I could see she liked it and that make me happy. Mission complete!
My ice cream! Flavors of raspberry sorbet and orange - especially the raspberry was wonderful!!!
And here's Julias gift from me too. It was the little angel from Plaster Fun Time..
I think she had a great day, it seemed like it :)
Newton Library
Yesterday Arno and I went to Newton Free Library.
Arno like comicbooks a lot so we went to the comic-corner at the child's section.
I immedeately started to look for books for him, since he can be kind of indecisive and uncertain about what to borrow. I found one he started to read while standing there, then I continued looking - for myself. It's easy to read comics when we're sitting in the kitchen eating snack. It doesn't matter if someone interupts you. Then I found Tintin! So happy!
I kept looking for Arno, thought he might wanted some more but he said no to every of my suggestions. Then he saw Tintin in my hand. "Oh, I love Tintin! May I take your book?"
Oh no... The only book I wanted -.-
Then we went to the lady who worked there and asked for some more comics, since Arno suddenly was really into Tintin.
Then we went to the Audiobooks and cd:s. Here I borrowed Peter Pan and Pippi Longstocking on cd. I like the childrens section!
We ended up with 5 Tintin comics and one book, 3 audiobooks and Superman (which I also wanted), and now we have reading-time all time! Superfun!
Breakfast
Today I went to the service for the car. When I was there they said it would take about three hours!
So I began to walk while waiting. I had expect it to take a while, but not that long. I called Emelie and asked if she wanted to hang out with me in Newtonville (where I was) so she came and met me up.
We decided to go to Cabot's for some breakfast since she didn't had any yet (it was still 9 o'clock and she started late today).
This was my Cinnamon Hot Chocolate - it was even better than it looked!
Emelie while ordering.
I took Wild Blueberry Pancakes, so yummi!
American (fat), but very good! (Now I need some more exercise today..)
Thank god for this lifesaver, I wouldn't stand 3 hours by myself in the rainy Newtonville!
After Emelie went (she had a skypingtime), Lori came and picked me up since the car was going to be even more late. It was something wrong with it, so she drove me home instead. We'll see what happends today without no car..
Salem
Yesterday we (the girls) went to Salem - city of halloween. Since almost everybody were off or finished early we thought we had time to go :) It was me, Ellen, Emelie, Sandra and Julia.
A bookstore. I guess they had no bookshelfs... To me it feels New York.
The streets were full or halloween stores with scary & creepy stuff.
These masks were all over!
And they also had signs like this about ghost hunting, waxmuseums etc etc etc...
This one moved all the time. So creepy!
A regular diner, but with halloween theme. We got there pretty late so many of the stores were closing.
They had decorated the streets with hay, pumpkins, lights and a lot more.
Ellen, Emelie and Sandra went to the Hunted House.
But to me it seemed like a waste since I hate when people scare me.
It all went superfast, and after about 10 minutes it was done, so I think they thought it was a waste too..
A place where you could take pictures in costumes.
The Harry Potter-store!
On our way back we were hungry and stopped by a restarurant called "Five guys".
They had these giant bags of potatoes, I don't know why, but it was cool.
Typical american with junkfood, white & red.
Seriously?
Julia bought fries. They were heaven - made on real potatoes!! (Guess they made it of the potatoes in the bags..)
These coke-machines were old fashion but still new, and you could choose between different cokes. Sandra took Coke-lime.
Julia, Ellen, Sandra & Emelie.
I bought a small cheeseburger (turned out to be regular size anyway ofc).
We had a fun trip, and definitely want to go there again, when everything is open!
Hotel Transylvania
Then we went to the movie theatre in Chestnut Hill.
Hotel Transylvania.
Lori had promised the kids unlimited popcorn - so they were really happy about their medium sizes (which are big as you can see!)
Arno was this happy!
After a while an adult couple came in at the theatre and took seats. I said to the kids that it was wierd that two grown ups went to a kids movie, cause they didn't have any children with them. Arno's answer was:
"maybe their kids were too old"
...or this.
But at the end of the film he whispered in my ear: "you can have the rest of my popcorn" and gave me the half full bag. He's so cute!
Plaster Fun Time
Then we went to Plaster Fun Time (we decided to do that the last time we were here & they've been soo excited!)
Arno finally got his five ghosts and Mirea picked a high hill-shoe til Lori's birthday.
I did a magnet with an angel this time.
She wrote Prada inside, really cool!
Arno's ghosts.
Columbus Day
Vespa was snoring in her crate.
Today it was Columbus Day, and the kids were off school. Yes, that have happened a lot lately.
So in the noon we did some art & craft. Cardboard, scrapbooking and robots.
I guess the robot kit I gave him wasn't that bad!
He named him Kevin. But then he changed his mind and named him Justin instead.
Starbucks
After IKEA, this sunday, some of us hang out at starbucks. Here we met an american man who offered to take a picture of us. Then he didn't stop talking about where we were from, that he'd been in Sweden several times and how it is to be an aupair. It's nice with polite and friendly people, but I also think it can be too much sometimes. Not this time though, he was really nice - but everybody here are sooo freaking nice all the time... haha!
As you can see, I do not have a lot of problems right now.
Eve & Michael's Hair Salon
This Friday I drove the kids to a hair salon to get their haircuts.
The hairdresser were really gay, but friendly. He asked Arno what age Arno thought he was and Arno answered 45. Michael started to laugh and called for the woman who worked in the reception.
I guess he was older than 45...
Mirea was so happy about her new haircut!
Decoration
Happiness after IKEA!
Since my roof here are a disaster I thought it could be nice with a canopy (i always wanted one) - and, IKEA in my heart, ofcourse they had the same one as they have at home. A simple, cheap one that was perfect for me!
Before...
...after!
Check my windows on the picture "before". They are much more "me" now..
Yes, the canopy might look a bit cheap, but I don't care. I love it!
My next goal is to buy a frill to my bed (as the one I have at home) that cover the bottom-mattress, to the floor.
It's hard to explain, but I guess you know what I mean, and if you don't - I don't care...
This bedside table is not really my style, but I can't do much about it. But atleast I could do something...
Not much difference, but I like the small parts..
I couldn't resist this one - I've wanted it so bad for a long, long time! Now it's finally mine!
A new scrapbooking-thing for my wall. I bought two kit's at IKEA, so much fun!
My closet. Before...
The hangers were different colors, sizes etc. Plastic, cheap...
IKEA have my back.
Happiness!
I love them, now my closet feels more "me".
I would like to change the curtains (they're yellow), but I don't want to pay that with my own money, so we'll see about that.
For now I am superhappy with my room and that's all that matters.
IKEA
Feels like comming home again.
Swedish flag!!
They have Småland here too!
Everything is so familiar. Look at the lamp (my favorite) it's called "Maskros" here too!
Table designed by Asshoff & Brogård. IKEA in my veins!
She found something she liked.
Both Emelie and I had those lamps with hearts when we were younger. We laughed a lot about that. The decoration in your room back then was... nice?
LOVE!
Guess what?! I bought brown paper here!!!
Ellen is tempted..
This was the best (no the second best) part of the trip. Every label were written in swedish. If felt so much home!
But I do think it's odd, since the americans don't have a clue what it says. I mean, ofcourse the nutritionfacts are in english but still..
I plan to go back here when I'm homesick and buy some swedish pancakes!
The american IKEA-workwear, striped shirt.
Lovisa, Ellen, Sofia & Sandra.
Emelie.
It feels almost like home. The food here was a bit different (swedish meatballs with MASHEDpotatoes instead of boiled), crepes and fries.. They had made it a little bit more american.
Yummy!!
All the girls - we had an awesume day!!
Target
This sunday we went to IKEA, and after that we went to Target (a really big shoppingmarket were you can find pretty much everything - clothes, food, electronics, cookingthings etc).
It it like mini-ullared, exept the price is normal.
Movienight - Taken 2
The saturdaynight at home never happened - we went to Framingham to see Taken 2 instead!
What a cinema, so big!
Sandra, Ellen, Sofia & Emelie
Mine and Ellen's tickets.
It was funny - they offered hotdogs and chickenfingers where you bought popcorn. Who brings food into the movie?!
I brought riesen and my own water (I always bring my own waterbottle, it's such a waste to always buy a new one) and I can say that it was really smart, cause the others had to pay a lot for nothing, almost 9 dollars for a lemonade and a candybag with air - Emelie was not glad. But I was totally happy with my candy! Sometimes it's good so come from Snåland...
The small size here is... huge.
Melted butter to pour over the popcorn. I think it was gross, but the girls liked it.
Sofie - you & me. I'm counting the days!
The lemonade I'm holding is Emelie's and it is the SMALL size! (totally ugly pic by the way, but who cares, we had fun?!)
Me & Emelie
We choosed the best seats with a rod of metal we could rest our feets on!
Taken 2 was totally great, it was so thrilling! I definitly liked the first one, and this one was as good as the first one. We had a great night!
Chicken wok
This is life!!
Wellesley College
First day of class today. We were not very excited...
Julia really liked the seats that included a small "desk" to write on.
In the computer room, watching a movie about amish-people.
This shows how boring it was..........
A billboard in one of the corridors.
The cafeteria, where Julia bought some lunch. I packed a lunchbag, it's better than this junkfood, but I couldn't resist to buy some fries...
The cafeteria
In the classroom again. Here we did a presentation about culture etc.
Me and Julia talked about Jewish religion, but we're still not sure we did it correct.
However, now it's done and no one complained!
This one reminds me of Tyler in Step Up when he's cleaning the school!
I do not look forward to spend two more saturdays here...... but, on the other hand - it's just two left!
The school from one side.
The front.
When I move to my own house, I would like one of these in my yard. It's beautiful!
After our rough day we decided to go to Wellesley to look around.
We went to Linden Square.
...and bought some frozen yoghurt as a reward!
Mango flavor with raspberries, watermelon, strawberries and chocolate/hazelnut wafle-something. Deli!!!
Happy girl!
Me tooo!
Then we went to a kid's shop!
Now I've worked out on the same time as I watched "oskyldigt dömd". It was really hard and intense, so now I'm proud of myself. Tonight I'm home alone and soon I will make some chicken wok - love!
See you guys!
Sunny day
Yesterday it was a really nice day here, about 25 degrees. It was sunny and a beautiful fall-day!
I took a walk around in the neighbourhood to take pictures of some houses etc..
A squirrel on the tree!
This reminds me of Harry Potter, the house where all the orange-haired, the family, live.
They start to decorate for halloween now!
This is one of my favorites, it gives me so much inspiration!
Sweet Tart
Yesterday I hang out with Emelie. We went to Newton Center for some frozen yoghurt.
I said to Emelie: "It feels wrong to eat all these unhealthy things since I've worked out every day this week, it feels like a waste.."
Her answer was: "Well, you actually do work out so you can eat all these unhealthy stuff with good conscience"
Positive girl!!
This place is so special since you grab your cup and take whatever you want - the frozen yoghurt flavor, the toppings, candy etc. Then you pay for the weight. So much fun!
Mine and Emelie's.
Since I wanted to try many different things it looks kind of akward, but I promise - it was wonderful!
Later on Ellen and a new girl, Lovisa joined us too.
Newton
There's 13 villages of Newton.
So far I've been in Waban (where I live), Newton Highlands, Newton Center, Newtonville, Newton Upperfalls, West Newton och Chestnut Hill.
Each village has a small city with some stores, maybe starbucks etc.
Boston Sweatshirt
The last purchase, in Red Sox colors!
Angier school
This is the area around Arno's school.
This is what it looks like every day I pick him up from school. All parents, nannys etc stand here waiting for their kids. The kids have to stand in their group until they got picked up, the teacher has to see the person who picks the child up. They are really strict about that, serious about the children.
Whiteboard
My whiteboard is popular! Monster was the theme this time (last time it was dragons)
Halloween Extreme
Arno and I went to a halloween-store.
It was insane, there were tons of things!
Some of them were really scary...
... some of them were really funny!
The walls, from the floor til the roof, totally covered with costumes!
Arno's birthday
He got another bow tie from Mirea in the morning, but they couldn't tie it, so he ended up with a regular tie to school anyway.
Mirea made him these pumpkins, so cute! She had thought everything through and planned it well.
Here is her bag with the bow tie to Arno.
When I had dropped Arno off at school (there were no more celebration in the morning) I got home and started making this treasure hunt for him. I wasn't sure if he had this hunt Mirea made him, so I thought he'd like one (or one more). I took post-it notes and stamped with my birthday-stamps on the front..
...and wrote a short text on the back. Where to go etc.
Since the kids had early release today, they had lunch at home. I made their favorite - grilled cheese. But today I made it even more special as you can see! That was a hit - thumbs up!
Then we started the treasure hunt. They were SO excited!!
On one note I wrote "go outside and run around the house before you continue", they were totally up for it! Ready, set, go!
One note in the refridgerator!
Arno didn't even finish reading until Mirea was gone - as you can see on her hair!
I wrapped a note that said "merry x-mas". I though they might think it was ridiculous, but they couldn't stop laugh! On the backside I wrote "Merry christmas! Oops, just kidding" and then I wrote the next place where to look for the next note. An estimated joke! And you should see Arno's eyes when he found the present in a shoe at the attic - totally excited!!
More notes in the basement! (here my good camera died, so you'll have to live with the bad quality)
Notes in Arno's bed! Finally, after a long time, with many notes they found the birthday-card that I'd made for him!
Then it was baking-time! Swedish chocolate balls was one the menu!
They had these faboluos aprons and baker's hats!!
How cute aren't they?!
I thought chocolate balls were boring, so we decided to do something more creative - we made "hallowaclate" as Arno came up with. Figures with halloween-theme. Mirea made this witch-hat.
I did a ghost with powdered sugar and chocolate chips as eyes (but I took them away and ate them instead)
Mirea's hat and pumpkin.
Arno's pumkin and "candy bar" (to me it looks like a box?)
Here's the presents - a crafty robot kit & a mustache pillbox (the stamp i bought for myself, to use on the presents)
The wrapped version.
And the birthday-card.
Have I told you that Arno wants to keep everything? It took him sooo long time to untie and unwrap everything because he didn't want to undo it...
He opened all the presents when Lori and Charlie got home from work, and I think mine were the only ones that were wrapped (lycky, otherwise we'd been sitting there all night). He got a keyboard and other shipped things that were in cartons already. But Lori said they usually don't wrap much since they don't have time or energy for it. They just put it in nice bags or something instead.
I think he had a good birthday! To me they didn't celebrate very much, we did homemade pizza which Arno had decided, he got some gifts and we ate desert, but that's it. I think birthdays are more celebrated in Sweden. But he was happy and that's all that matters ( or, by the way - he got an apple-ipod this morning, but he told me later on the way to school that he thought that was unnecessary since he already has one. Which I kind of agree, but I don't know why they gave it to him. It was brand new with headphones and everything, probably an expensive one).
Well, well. I think he had a good time after all. He totally liked the treasure-hunt, it might have been the best thing on the whole day. Happy!
Tomorrow!
Tomorrow is Arno's 9th brithday, he has been so excited!
So far I don't think they do anything really special on their birthdays. For example - they don't sing in the morning. So I will give him my gifts on the afternoon. Mirea is making him some kind of treasure hunt, so cute!
The kids have early release from school tomorrow too, so while waiting for the parents to get home I promised Arno we could bake something to desert to the dinner (homemade pizza made by Arno etc). We will make swedish chocolateballs, since he said he really liked them, and if we have energy we will make them look like ghosts or something funny instead of just balls. We'll see what happends!
He has got so many cartons and boxes sent to him but he aren't allowed to open them - it doesn't matter which name is on the address (some of them are for Lori). But he just can't leave the boxes alone, he must touch them, just a little. To feel if it is another bow tie or a keyboard in there...
Well, he definitely doesn't know what he's going to get from me! Surprise!!
Christmas in Boston
Me and Julia also went to this Christmas-store. It is christmas things here all seasons.
It was a pretty big store, you could go upstairs too, and they had these different decorations for the christmas tree all over! You could find everything!
Boston with Julia
Today Julia and I hang out in Boston.
We went to Boston Common, to see it in more detail. She hadn't been there before at all.
It's a very big park with this tortuous ways in it, so cozy!
The weather was kind of creepy, as you can see - foggy on the top of the skyscraper.
But we didn't mind, the fall is still beautiful here!
This will be a skatingrink for iceskating in wintertime.
We went to Quincy Market - restaurants with food from all over the world!!
It was fun just to walk around and look at everything!
Many of them showed what food the served. Here are hamburgers lined up.
Here were some places to eat the food.
We sat up here!
Julia's salad. I ate baked potatoe with chicken BBQ (happy girl!!!) but the picture got blurred.
In the afternoon it began to rain, just tiny, tiny drops but they'll make you really wet. But we didn't mind.
Partly hiding from the rain, partly looking for BOSTON-sweaters.
For the first time here I bought pieces of candy in a bag. They don't have as much as we do in sweden, but some of it is really good.
Some things in Quincy Market...
A store with sportsweaters.
A shop outside Quincy Market with really cute things. Julia's comment:
"I don't really understand you, you like rough things like criminal-tv and boy-clothes, then you suddenly want to go in to this supercute store girly stuff"
Ofcourse I didn't want to go in to this store because of the stupied hairbrushes - I saw these interior design-things from outside the window... they are the best decorative things I've found so far (how bad is that?!) IKEA doesn't count...
Post Office Square Park
Puzzle
Today we're making a 1000 piece-puzzle down in the basement!
Starbucks & dinner
My new frappuccino-favorite - vanilla bean!
Here with Julia at Starbucks in Waban, with pumpkin bread.
Since I have worked out 40 minutes each day on our crosstrainer the last three days I think I was worth this!
This have been a pretty healthy week so far, today me and Arno ate fullkorn wraps with ham, tomatoes and lettuce for lunch and then pasta gratin as dinner. I only buy plain yoghurt for breakfast and I only eat the cereals with low sugar. Now I only have to eat less bread in the mornings, then I'm all set! (don't know what happened to me, but i've been really healthy with small exceptions the last time, every day when I wake up i make some situps etc)
5 weeks
I'm so happy that I update as often as I do, this is my diary that I want to look back to later on.
But even though I think I write a lot, there are so much stuff I haven't written about!
Yesterday I had been in the US for 5 weeks. That is totally crazy! 5 WEEKS! When I think back of the first day here it feels like forever ago. The family is now my family.
When I think back I remember some things I noticed by then. Like that each person in this family have their own smell - it can be a perfume or the clothes, but I remember I thought of it and sometimes I still do. Lori smell of her hairspray I think.
I remember the first time I saw Arno's lunchbags - in metal with different parts for different food. I had imagined a brown bag or something... Now I'm used to it, and the daily question is what to have in it..
I didn't find their brush for handwashing the dishes, but then I saw this blue sponge that they use. Now that is like the most normal thing for me.
They have a gas stove here, which felt pretty odd in the beginning, but now I use it like an regular stove.
Fahrenheit can be a little wierd sometimes (we have a thermometer with both), but a couple days ago Mirea said that she thought celsius make more sense to her since freezing point is 0, and -32 or something in Fahrenheit. I totally agree! But I still try to learn some degrees in F. 74 is 20- something?
The first week here I almost went crazy about my room. My roof, the different furnitures (2000-style which I'm not a huge fan of), the BLUE wall and the blinds. Ofcourse I still think it's ugly, but now when I'm used to it I don't really care anymore. It is one of my biggest interest to decorate so I will do what I can, but I won't pay a fortune for it. I plan to buy a cheap canopy at IKEA, and I will also print some pictures from my time here to decorate the blue wall. As it is now i'm decorating the walls with clothes to make it more cozy ;)
The food was a whole new world to me. They have a list of the most usual things they buy and I remember how I struggled with finding the things. Ofcourse it's still hard when it is new things, but now I know the regular things and I try new things by myself. Today I bought greek yoghurt, thousands islands-dressing and sweet chili-sauce. It feels good to add things I like and I do like to try new recipes as long as I do it my way.
I still haven't found creme fraishe though... but Emelie said she'd seen it, so I guess I will have to keep looking!
The americans order a lot of things directly to their homes. There's almost always things outside the door, big cartons. Today there were 5 in different sizes I think. Julia says her mother order lot of things too, so I guess that's very common here.
At first I thought the cars were huge, but now I'm kind of used to it. I still think it's a waste of gas and irresponsible for earth, but now I don't react when I see those cars anymore. By the way - one gallon is about 4 dollars here, ca 28 kr in Sweden. Don't really know how much a gallon is but maybe you do.
It feels kind of bad saying it, but I don't think of home at all. I haven't been homesick a bit. Ofcourse I'm aware that you people aren't with me, and once I got a small wave when I thought of "elljusspåret" at home, but I can happily tell you that I am doing fine so far. Still, this is only the first & the best month, but I like to enjoy the happiness! And you should be happy that I am happy here!
I am also happy about all the things that are the same as home. Like the tv for example - criminal minds, cold case, MTV, disney, how I met your mother and movies. I haven't really thought about it before, but now I'm thankful for the programs I usually watch, it feels good to relax and "go away" (gosh, how I make everything swedish/english!) in a show that you know from before. I watched Teen Mom a while ago!
The same with the music - now I'm listening to Dolly Parton, old music I haven't listen to since I don't know when.. It's amazing that you can listen to the same music! And it feels so good to sit in the car and turn the radio on, and they're playing my favorite song for right now - don't wake me up, chris brown. That is fabulous!
Or, when they played Aviici. The volume was on the highest!
In my first time here I got sooo frustrated with all these polite phrases they used every day!
You can't go in to a store without having the cashier ask you "how are you?". So, if you have been to five stores that gets kind of annoying.. But now i'm used to it, always answer "good, how are you?" without even thinking.
The parents in the family are also very polite, always say "good morning, how are you?". First I wondered how I was supposed to survive this, but now I don't feel that way anymore. I am not very polite, even though Lori says I'm always in a good mood (feels so good to hear!) and I don't think I ever will be polite, but I can always answer nice.
That was a little about how my time here developed from then until now!
Paulette's Ballet Studio
One of the cheerleaders here are the teacher's daughter! That's pretty cool, she has been a professional dancer.
Yesterday I went inside to watch Mirea dance at the studio. Usually I just pick her up, waiting in the car outside, but now she said I could go in if I wanted to. I told her some weeks before that I really wanted to see her dance but then she was kind of uncertain. She said she was embarrassed when Isabel and Arno went in there to watch some times. But now she seemed ready and it was so fun to see!
The teacher, Paulette, praised Mirea so many times (not the other girls) and I can totally see why! She is so much better than the other, she really knows how to catch up the music-beat. I am so proud of her, and she got so happy when I told her :)
Halloweencostume
Arno's halloween-costume came in the mailbox today, happy boy!
Norbert
I have my own personal artist/drawer in the house.
He is a dragon with glasses.
Adelina
Idag träffade jag Adelina över en pumpkin latte på starbucks.
Sen åkte vi hem till mig och satt och pratade ett tag. Himla trevlig tjej!
Astrid Lindgren
Sometimes it's nice just to relax to an Astrid Lindgren- movie. Since we read Emil i Lönneberga, i really in a "Emil-mood"
Sofie, can you download "Föräldrafällan" with Lindsay Lohan for me, please? That would be awesume!!
Pinkberry
Then, ofcourse, we had to buy some frozen yoghurt today too!
Passionfruit flavor, with rasp-, straw- and blueberries. Plus some chocolate crisp-thing. Sooo delicious!!
Ellen dropped the german girl off, so it was just us!
These girls are just great :)
Paper Source
This is heaven!
We went here to buy some birthdaypresents. Emelie's kid has his birthday on saturday and Arno on thursday.
It's too bad it's so expensive though, otherwise I would have bought soooo many things here! but one stamp can be like 10 dollars - ca 70 SEK, which make it hard so buy many -.-
I found a crafty-kit with robots to give him. Hope he'll be happy for it!
Pet shop
After Cabot's we wandered around in Newtonville for awhile. Then we saw a pet shop!
We were excited to see how an american pet shop looked like, but I can tell you we got kind of sad when we realised how bad it was - for some of the pets. Here's a snake. But I don't care about snakes and reptiles.
But in small squares of cages made of glass they had puppies!!
Everyone of them were sleeping - ofcourse, they had nothing else to do! Poor little things...
But I have to admit that they were really cute.
Cabot's brunch
A german girl, Ellen, me, Emelie & Julia at Cabot's today for brunch.
Fried eggs, bacon, waffle and bagel (with butter, cream cheese & syrup) - sooo american!
No frozen yoghurt at Cabot's today, but here's the list of flavors.
I wonder if I ever published a picture of dollars? For you who haven't seen them - here they are!
My man!
Yesterday I got a visit from this little man!
He'd got this jacket from Mireas friends brother, obviously 3 sizes too big, but he still liked it.
He came down to the basement to tell me that "we are leaving to andover in about ten minutes" and he still didn't know that i wasn't comming. Poor little kid, he got soo sad :( But when they came back today he came down to me to talk. He sat on my bed for like one hour just talking about instruments and what kind of dog he would like. He's sooo cute! When he finished he was quiet for a while, then he asked: "don't you want to talk about something now?"
Mustaches
Finally, Arno's mustaches for his halloweencostume arrived!!
The one on Monday totally matches his hair, so it looks so real ;)
...Oh, he's going to be Sherlock Holmes friend by the way!
