Picnic in the city

I met two friends in the city yesterday. The two first hours I hanged out with M. and then Hanna nr. 2 came to join us. We were at a park, sitting on a blanket on the grass. It felt so nice to be in the nature, but at the same time in the middle of the city. M. and I took many photos, not only of ourselves, but also in a more artistic way, like the ice cream we ate and the strawberrys. It was a perfect day.

In the evening I met Hanna nr. 2 & nr. 3. We had a snack-and-talk-night. It was also fun. I tested two ciders; one without alcohol and one with. Suprisingly they tasted nearly the same! Sadly I have no photos from the night.

Here's some artistic pics from the picnic! (Click on them and see as bigger)

Day 9: Something you crave for a lot

This is easy, everybody crave for something! And I crave a lot for graduation :D and good scores in my final exams. But I know I have to work hard for those things to happen. I actually started reading in one of my psychology books two days ago. I have only two final exams left; Psychology and Spanish. The exams are set in September.

When I was a little girl my greatest wish was to get a dog, but I'm more realistic nowadays. I buy or adopt a dog when I'm truly ready to take care of it all by myself. It might be in a couple of years or longer, but it doesn't mean "when I'm moving out" as my motto was for many years.

Somehow I also crave for the half year of "freedom" after I've graduated. I'm not going to do whatever I want. I just want to feel the freedom from school. I've made plans to work (at kindergartens) a half year and probably take my driving license. It feels nice to take a break from school and do something else instead. Next spring I'll apply to a few Universities and then I crave a lot for an opportunity to start my studies in one of them.

Work + sleepover

I've taken a break from my blog again... Sorry. A couple of months ago I thought I would have so much time to write when having summer holiday, but no, there's so much other happenings at summer. Last week was awesome! So much I had to do, but it was pleasant.

Monday I went to a new kindergarten, one I didn't know from before. I worked in a group of 1-3 year old children for five days; Monday to Friday. It was a very nice kindergarten, with other great nannies helping me with doing the right things. My work started every day at 8.10 a.m. and ended 3.49 p.m. For me that felt like a long day. I had to wake up 6.30 a.m. every morning to catch the bus in time, that's earlier wakeup than days when I'm going to school. My dad is also working, but the rest of my family has holiday. Some mornings I had company by him at the breakfast table.

This is not from the kindergarten, just a random pic from Internet.

After work I was always very tired and wanted only to entertain myself by watching tv or doing something else at home. Only after the first workday I was able to convince myself to go to the gym with my friend. After that day, I didn't do much after work. Until Friday, of course.

Friday evening I went with bus to my friend S. and met her and Hanna nr. 2 there. I had packed with me some cookies, a sleeping bag and changing clothes. It was ment to be a sleepover. I forgot my camera, but my friends had their cameras, so the night was not going to be forgettable. While waiting for Hanna nr. 3 to come, we went to a beach nearby and watched the sunset from the jetty (=bryggan). It was very beautiful out there, only negative thing was that I got cold, it wasn't that warm in the evening. When Hanna nr. 3 came, we went back to S's place.

This is about how we looked like with the masks :)

We clinked glasses and drank a toast of sparkling wine and juice. By using facial clay and peeling masks we made the evening more feminine and funny. At 2 a.m. we started watching a movie called "Game Plan" (2007). It was okay, but not the best movie ever. I almost fell asleep during those two hours. But I had a reason; I (and Hanna nr. 2) had been up for over 22h, without any sleep. That's why we were so fatigued. I fell asleep at the bed couch after a couple of minutes.

I think this is the first time I've been up so late, until 4.30 a.m., if I don't count New Years Eve. We slept about 6h and the next day we all went home again. It was a memorable sleepover. Although we didn't sleep much. Thanks guys <3




http://www.luckykids.us/4-5_year_olds.htm 
http://vitaleblog.org/education/facts-about-clay-masks-not-drying-but-drawing/attachment/clay-mask-2

Day 8: What makes you different from everyone else?

Yesterday morning I woke up by a sudden tought; I haven't continued writing my 30-day challenge!! :O Ooops... hehe :-P I just checked it was about four weeks ago I wrote day nr. 7. Well, it's time to prove that I'll continue answering questions and I'm not giving up. Here's nr. 8:

This question is far too tricky to know the exact answer, but this is my interpretation;

1. My eyes have a strange color; a mixture of blue, grey and green. What kind of color is that?

2. I have two crooked fingers (my little fingers). Funny? Some people think so.

3. I have been in a room that caught fire when I was in it (and it was not my fault!)

4. I didn't like English classes about 10 years ago, but now I nearly love them! People change ;)

5. I like the tv-serie "Everwood" (four seasons from 2002 to 2006)

6. I still cry when I watch "Lassie" (1994) for (perhaps) the hundredth time.

7. Sometimes I want to travel back in time.

8. I say sorry and I mean it. Some people don't.

9. I've participated in a research to help a woman find out for ex. why young people feel better after talking to a therapist/crisis worker. It felt nice to be helpful.

10. I have three friends named Hanna :D

11. I've been nearly addicted to fb over a year ago, but nowadays I only check it a few times a week.

12. I've played the recorder (a flute) for over 9 years.

13. I've been depressed. But I'm not anymore :)

14. I've twice tested lifting kettlebells at my gym. My friend kinda made me do it, but it turned up to feel great to lift those kettlebells! :)

15.When I was seven years old I started collecting Pokémon cards with my brother. Cute, huh?

16. I speak/study four languages.

17. I'm emotional. I cry often and sometimes I don't even hide it.

18. I'm a fighter. I won't give up.

19. I want to be different from others ;)

My journey to Spain

Hey! Now I'm home again and it's been some time since I wrote last time. I wanted to write about my happenings in the sunny, warm and lovely country, but I had no access to Internet. So now, FINALLY, I can tell you how good it felt to be there.

As you should know, we arrived to Malaga on Thursday (7.6.2012) and stayed there at a hotel a couple of days. We walked in the city and ate out at restaurants, we even had time to visit some cultural places, as the Picasso museum, the Alcazaba fortress (castle) and the Cathedral. We didn't hire a car, so we walked everywhere, mostly in the old part of the town. I got a nice view of Malaga, but it was a little too warm when we were there (30-35 °C), othervise I recommend it.

The view from Alcazaba.

We took local trains to Cádiz on Saturday. It was a nice 4,5 hour trip to the southwest part of Spain. Both of the trains were modern and very fast (up to 160km/h). We hopped off the first train in a little town named Dos Hermanas (=Two Sisters), near Sevilla, and changed to another train to Cádiz. I played cards with my little brother, read a book and watched the countryside pass by when waiting to arrive. It was a pleasant way to travel to Cádiz.

We saw this "house" from the train.

When we arrived in Cádiz in afternoon, we came directly to the apartment and met some of the apartment owners. They showed us around, and I remember my first thought was; "I'm going to get lost in this apartment!", haha :D It wasn't that big, about as big as our apartment at home, but here was a narrow aisle and several rooms with many doors to choose of. It took a while to remember where all the rooms were situated.

This is one of the bedrooms.

I slept in three different rooms (and beds) this week, because no one really wanted to sleep in a particular room near the balcony to the street. It was so noisy in the street at night, so it felt hard to get any sleep. We had to take turns. My excuse to get a better room was that I have to be alert in school ;) But still I had to sleep twice in the room with the balcony. Othervise the apartment was great! It was modern and we had a TV to watch the football games.

Playa de la Caleta. (We swam here once)

Sunday we didn't do much. We walked to my school to see where it's situated and afterwards we went to the beach. My little brother, dad and I swam for nearly an hour in the Atlantic Ocean. There were many big waves, which we loved to swim in.

Monday my Spanish course started! I was very nervous when I stepped inside the school. I had to take a test, to show my abilities in Spanish, and then my first class started at 10 am. I met two girls from USA and one from Lithuania. They're all really nice and friendly. We chatted in English a while before the Spanish teatcher came. Then it was all in Spanish! Yes, I mean it!

The classroom and my stuff.

It felt difficult in the beginning to only speak in Spanish and D. (one of the teachers) said I shouldn't give up too easy. If I didn't understand it was only to ask, in English or Spanish. We (four girls) had two teachers; one in grammar; D, and one for speaking classes; L. Both of them teached by speaking Spanish (rarely in English) and using gestures. It felt weird at first but I got used to it. Sometimes it was really funny to guess what the teacher tried to explain with the gestures :D Both teachers were nice, amusing and guapo. Thanks to you I can speak better Spanish! :)

Since the first day at school I was glad to get to know the American girls. It was nice to practise my English skills by talking spontaneously with them. It felt difficult at first, because they talked so fast and I didn't recognise all the words. But this five-day-course helped me in both Spanish and English. Most in Spanish of course :) I felt really good to be with the American girls J. and N. It was nice to talk about our different cultures and about other things too. Hopefully we can keep in touch through facebook.

Playa de la Caleta & San Sebastián in the background (a castle which we visited).

The Cathedral of Cádiz. We lived near it.

Parque Genovés. Nice trees ;)

I was in school 3,5 hours every day (Mon-Fri) and that's why I didn't have time to visit so many attractions. My family saw much more of the town than I did, but they didn't learn Spanish as much as I and they didn't meet these wonderful people. But now I have a good reason to travel here again; to see more of Cádiz.

And one very surprising thing is that I didn't shop that much! I only found one t-shirt, a wallet and a bracelet. We didn't find the shop streets... And I hadn't time for searching. Doing homework, swimming in the sea and spending time with my family (after school) was priority nr. 1.

I didn't miss home much. Mostly I missed the gym :-P and my friends.
But I always have the "home sweet home"-feeling when stepping in to my room.

Nearly all my wishes for the journey came true. I didn't shop much there, but now I can shop the rest of summer here instead ;) I got tan, although I didn't lay on the beach. I even burned my skin one day, but it's looking good now. I met new, lovely people and I definitely want to go on an exchange language course again!! :D

Hopefully you didn't fall asleep when reading this ("mega") long story about my ten-day-long-journey in Spain. It's okay if you didn't read all of it but now it's officially over. Now you can sleep ;)

Hasta luego! :)

It's time to travel again!

Malaga

It's only two months since I was on a journey to Mallorca and here I come again! This time I will be in Malaga and in Cádiz :) But there's a difference; I'll be with my family and not with my friends. Next week I'm going to be in "school"; I'll participate in a Spanish language course. It's sooo exciting! I've never been at an exchange language course before!

Our journey starts tomorrow, when we take a flight in the afternoon. I've been packing for a while and I'm having trouble to remember everything I want to have with me...

First we fly to Malaga and stay there a couple of days in a hotel. Then we have to travel somehow (with local train or bus) to Cádiz. I'll live with my family in an apartment, pretty near the school in the city Cádiz.

In Swedish I would say; "Jag har resfeber!!" :D I was about to translate it directly to "travel fever" but I checked the Swedish word in an dictionary and it's not that! It just means that I'm so excited about the trip that I'm tingly :-P

I have troubles to choose right Spanish books to take with me, I have to decide tonight! I need to have a dictionary and some other books to help me with the studying. I hope I'll get opportunities to write on the blog abroad, but we'll see! Have a good time! :)

This is Cádiz, where I'll be a week.

Here's some things I wish from the journey;

1. I have fun

2. I can enjoy (life)

3. I get tan

4. The weather is fine

5. I learn new things (especially in Spanish)

6. I meet new people (at the course)

7. I get new happy memories

8. I find something to shop

9. I miss home (and the gym) at least a bit :P

10. Feeling so good I'm thinking; I LOVE LIFE!!! <3

http://images.placesonline.com/photos/8960_malaga_spiaggia_playa_de_la_malagueta.jpg
http://bestvacationplace.info/wp-content/uploads/C%C3%A1diz-Spain.jpg

The graduation parties!

 Yesterday morning I woke up to the rain pattering my window. I groaned when I realized my muscles were sore from the gym training the day before. It felt hard to get out of bed...

After eating breakfast I got my nails done with some nail polish and stickers with; "LOVE", "hope", "faith" and smileys and hearts. I found them in a store this week and I wanted to have them! The stickers are so cute! :)

"hope", "faith" and hearts. (click to see it bigger)

In the afternoon I begun with "The graduation-parties-round", which meant 5 parties in about 6 hours. Luckily my mom helped me a little; she gave me a ride to some places, but mostly I was on my own taking buses everywhere. The parties were very nice and I was so happy to meet my graduated friends! I had a rose and an envelope to each one of them. In return I was happy to taste some of their delicious salty meals and cakes/sweets.

I was tired when I came home around 20.30 p.m. The whole round took me 7,5h, but I know the graduated students didn't have an easy day either. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, so I have zero photos of me and the students :( but I did end up on other cameras, so I was there! ;)

"4ever", "hope", :) and "LOVE"