One visit!

Would you believe that we only have had one visit tonight?? So now we are sitting here with one giant bag of sweets..booooooooo

Halloween

Happy halloween everyone! Finally got around to carve the pumpkins last night, phew. The stomach flu came inbetween on Sunday. Wasn´t as bad as I thought, they are kind of hollow and it did not turn out to be the slaughter I expected;) I had to go to Target last night to get a battery for the pumpkin light and  the sale had already started. Folks, you can get anything here. Halloween socks, spatches, outfits for dogs, ANYTHING. Spend till you drop, LOL.

                                                                        The tools...

                                                                 
                                                                        My pumpkin

                                                                      Gavin´s pumpkin, not bad huh

                                                                                 Mine..

Still think pre carved ones would be nice, it wasn´t THAT much fun. Took a walk around the neighbour hood the other day to look at the decorations. Since we live in a predominantly Asian City, you can imagine that we don´t live in Halloween city, haha. Kind of had to search for these houses....

 

         
                       And our own little lady bird:)

Most of our neighbours are Asian so we are not sure if we will get any visitors tonight, but we have bought ONE big bag of sweets just in case. No left overs I hope. Last year we had no one so we ended up throwing it alla way, but that was at the old house.

Stomach flu

Just recovered from a very nasty stomach flu. It popped out of nowhere last week Friday, then slowly wiped the whole family Clarke out. At least we are up today, not quite up and about butup and standing. These things suckwhen you have no family around. And what a stomach flu. I usuallu say the US is a country of extremes, well this was certainly a very extreme stomachflu. Never seen anything like it before. Phew!

Talking about illness. I think it is quite interesting when you think about each countrie´s national diseases. Let´s take Sweden e.g., during the winter the stomach flu (vinterkräksjukan) is something you read in the paper about a lot, everyone seems to be expecting it. Many young people are diagnosed with ADHD. And burn-outs and feeling stressed are very common among adults. Kind of ironic, Sweden is not known for long hours and short holidays.

In Germany, every second person seems to have diarrhoea (durchfall), no one is shy to talk about it. Most other people would probably say they have a bad stomach. Many adults seem to have ligament injuries. I had never heard of this before. When I had a cold in Germany people used to tell me all the time to go to the doctor. Why, is he going to make me feel better? Not sure if this is because I was brought up in Sweden where you can´t even go to the ER without phoning up the nearest health centre first but I don´t see the point in going to the doctor just because of a cold. But in Germany they do. And you´ll get a sick note. Always thought that was funny when people said they were written off sick for a week. How do you know you´re going to sick for that long?

So what is the national disease in the US? Not sure. I do know flu shots are big business here. Many shops (most grocery stores have a chemist) offer a discount if you get your shot there, something like "10% off your next shopping". Crazy!! In general I also think people are crazy about vitamins and remedies.

To a complete different subject. I stumbled upon this article the other week. It is in Swedish, and aout the conservatives in Orange County. Felt absolutely disgusted reading it. Do we actually live among these people?

http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/har-ar-man-overtygad-om-att-obama-vill-krossa-amerikanska-drommen/

Dinner, Swedish School

Friday night it was time for a fundraising dinner for the Swedish school, ladies only:). There were five chefs and I had volunteered to sort out the potatoes. You know, the Swedish potatisgratäng. Folks, don´t ever volunteer to peel potatoes for 18 people. That turned out to be my Friday. Since our potato peeler is kind of aggressive, it turned out to be a painful experience too. Menu of the evening was; Champagne; salami and mozzarella, starters; crostinis main: prime rib, oven baked potatoes, salad, horse radish, gravy, afters; white chocolate mousse with marinated strawberries. If I dare say so, it was very nice.

And what a house - THE perfect party house. The dinners are always hosted by someone at the school, this time it was at Anna´s in Newport Beach. People pay $ 40 for the dinner (last night we were 18) and some guests volunteer to cook. It is a really good opportunity to meet people and these dinners are alwyas very nice. Had a mini panic at the beginning, I left all the spuds at home so hubby had to come to rescue and bring them. Phew. Also, Anna´s rat had escaped so we had to keep an eye out for it. Just imagine it would have ran across someone´s foot during dinner. Oh oh oh.

Saw some raccoons outside

                                   A real party house! Lots of space and open planned.

Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend one of the residents here in Northpark organised a pumpkin patch. Him and his wife do it every year apparently.  And what a pumpkin patch. I wasn´t quite sure what to expect. Small, busy, quiet? All I can say is wow wow. That someone is prepared to throw such a party for the whole neighbourhood. There were free pumpkins (I grabbed two, since the last fiasco with the first one turning green I figured I needed two, just in case I mess the first one up, carving it), live band playing country music (yaay),free hot dogs, water, popcorn, candy floss, face painint for the kids, games for the kids, raffles, etc etc. Well impressed. Very nice afternoon. Pumpkin patches are something I definitely didn´t know about before moving here. Currently they are everywhere, many parks, malls, etc have a small/big little pumpkin event going on.

                                                        Never seen this outside the US

                                             My first candy floss since a grown up,  hihi

Living in OC

So, today it has been a year since I hopped on to that flight to LAX, 34 weeks pregnant and all. What a year it has been.

A summary;

• We have seen a lot. Numerous visits to San Diego and LA. Long weekend in Palm Springs. Joshua Tree National park. All the beach cities in Orange county. This is one of the best things about living here. SO MUCH to see!

• The whole ob/gyn concept here was a shock.  It all turned out great in the end but geez, I had one culture shock after the other. I still prefer going to the doctor in Germany. All kind of doctors.

• First christmas in OC; Emily was 2 weeks old and we kind of skipped christmas. The weather didn´t help. Let´s face it. Christmas in hot weather sucks. Big time.

• We have never spent so much on food as we have here. Very very expensive. Nice supermarkets, great choice. But our monthly bill for food shopping is more than 3 times as high as in Germany. We do love all the organic choice there is, all the vegetables and fresh fruit. And Costo and Wholefoods, of course.

• Customer service. Where you are eating out, shopping or at the bank. Most times it is great. Constantly getting ask if you need help, if you have any questions..or act as a spoilt child asking for lots of substituitions when ordering food.

• Americans know small talk. Anytime any where, they can chit chat about anything. We are catching up.

• The earthquakes - we could have made without them.

• People are very friendly and polite. But we have learnt people can also be extremely rude and ignorant. And stuck up. It all depends where you are.

• You can survive without great Indian food. It is called Mexican. All those Mexican restaurants, fastfood or not, yum yum yum.

• I didn´t mind dark brown furniture until we moved here. Complete overkill. Give me white and bright.

• Irvine must be the cleanest city in the US. I do wonder, if I throw something on the ground, will an elf or a gnome jump out to pick it up?

• We miss news. News other than  just politics, hollywood and dui. I love politics but it is like listening to parrots sometimes. The same over and over again.

• Tell me again, why are towels and bed linen so expensive?

• Living here is like back in the future sometimes. Men and women are stereotyped from birth. I am shocked. Girls are dressed in pink or as princesses. Children´s clothing is VERY different compared to Sweden.

• Money is everything here. I have realised that if you don´t have it here this place sucks. And what sucks even more; pople who have it like to show off. The bigger the better, the more bling the better. There is a huge difference between wealthy people here and in Europe (I dare compare with Europe as a whole). They dress differently, they spend differently, they behave differently. Not all. But many. Stuck up people - you suck big time! 

• Plastic fantastic. Not much is real around here. Big boobs, botox, blond. 

• Hot hot hot. I miss rain. The good thing here about rain is that you know the sun is just around the corner. This week the sun is back. To hot again.

• Bad bad drivers. What is it with people, they always seem to chew on something, text or drink when driving. And if not that, they seem to be half asleep at the traffic lights. 

• Coupons coupons. I still feel ripped off every time I buy something without having a coupon with me, because if you do search long enough, you will find a coupon somewhere. 

All in all, a very good year, lots of culture clashes where we have been wondering why why why. But also many good good good. Right now we are looking forward to Halloween- my first active one, two pumkins are waiting to be carved!

SWEA Regional Meeting

It has been a long weekend, I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. It all started Thursday night. Board meeting for the Swedish school. Home just before midnight.

Then Friday. Gymboree at lunch time; say good bye to teacher Tiffany who is having a baby soon, catch up with Dana and Zac. Afternoon: drive some SWEOR (SWEA stands for Swedish Womens´ Educational Association) to Maria Montazami for high tea. Hung around in the kitchen while the star struck Swedeish girls chatted and took some pictures. Secretely changes a nappy in the guest room. Emily was going wild in the kitchen, SO MUCH to play with, i.e. bottles on the wine rack, ornaments, tassels, you name it. Played with the dogs for a bitbefore we gave some girls a lift back to Marriott in Newport Beach.
Emily was content; a lot of attention and people playing with her feet, singing to her, she had a blast.

                                                          The neighbour stopped off to say hi

 

Lots of starstrucked Swedes

Friday night; cocktail party on Balboa Island. What a house. Balboa Island is my favourite and I´ll tell you why. Many houses around here are big and as they are getting bigger, they don´t necessarily look nicer. Lots of plastic around in Orange county. Bling bling kind of thing. Balboa Island may be one of the most expensive places in the US but there are no super mansions. Many are made of wood, nice big front porches, and the little village centre is super cute and gives you a kind of "old style" impression. Very nice!

Saturday..well, day time was the usual Saturday running around. Getting the car serviced, hubby getting a hair cut, grabbing some lunch. Normal drill. Night time; SWEA gala dinner at the Elk´s Lodge on the Lido Island. Lots of Swedish women had flown into this gathering.

                                                                               Best barber

                                                                    Dinner at the Elk´s lodge