Spring Break is over!

Hey everyone!

Ralph Lauren, Camarillo

I am back in school again after a great and relaxed Spring Break and I feel really good about it! It's an amazing feeling because when I used to work back in Sweden and I had to go back to work after my vacation, I always had the worst anxiety many days ahead. Yesterday was like any other Sunday and I just thought it felt good to think about going back to school. Although it wasn't really like any other Sunday because I spent it with my mom! She has been here for 8 days now and she's leaving tomorrow.

Solvang

Solvang

swedish meatballs

We did so much fun stuff. We rented a car so we have been driving around the Santa Barbara area, and we went to Solvang one day (and had swedish meatballs, yum), Camarillo outlets one day and Montecito another. Other then that we have been spending a lot of time in the sun, by our hotel pool, and DT eating at a lot of great restaurants. Some of the ones we visited are: Something's Fishy, Eureka, Sojourner, Eladios. Enterprise Fish Co.. and tonight on her last night in Santa Barbara we're going to Toma which is one of my absolute favorite restaurants here. My dad and I went there when it was called Emilios back in October 2011 and we loved it. Then we went back there last summer and the food was still amazing and the atmosphere is so cozy! I'm really excited to bring my mom there.

Montecito

After a break like this and the knowledge that we only have 8 weeks left in school. it's easy to lose motivation. I try to look at it in the opposite way. There is no better feeling then doing your very best and really work hard and then allow yourself to relax when you are done. These are likely my last 8 weeks ever in school so I might as well enjoy it before I start working full time again! The student life really isn't that bad after all..

Montecito

Have a great week! Welcome back after Spring break!

summer feelings!

Santa Clause beach

Yes, I live in SB and compared to Sweden, this place is basically one long spring, then a long summer. But, now that the weather is so much warmer and you can hang out at the beach every day, have a drink in the sunlight downtown, and walk around in shorts all day, you get so much happier! I feel like a new person, and I am love this city even more when its this warm!

Chimichangas at Casa Blanca

We went to Santa Clause beach in Carpenteria on Saturday and it was beautiful. I loved it. We stayed there until about 3 pm, grabbed a backyard bowl on the way back home and then went DT to meet some people and have a few spritzers. Me and Louise ended by going to Union Ale, then got some food at Casa Blanca, wine at Fig mountain, Cadiz, and then eventually Tonic. It's been a long time since we did something just me and her so it was a lot of fun.

Santa Clause Beach

It is St Patricks Day today but a lot of people celebrated this weekend as well, so there was a big crown DT.

Me, Louise and Jenny went to get breakfast/brunch at El Torito yesterday, a mexican place down my the beach. Their brunch is amazing. I am so in love with their sweet corn pudding (which doesn't sound that appetizing but it's so good) so I had a lot of that, and waffles, another mascarpone filled thing, beef and so on.. That's the fun part about a buffe, there are so many different random things you can eat.
I went down to leadbetter and soaked up some sun after that before I went home and studied for my midterm.

I had the midterm in english 111 this morning and it went great, I felt really good about it so I'm happy about that. Although, I didn't get any sleep at all last night and I must have fallen asleep in a weird angle because my neck is killing me today, but it will pass.

I have a groupon for a massage so I guess there is no better time to use it then now!

Have a great Monday and a good week before Spring Break begins! Mine starts on Thursday at 4 pm.

New eyes.

Picture I took on my morning walk

I have decided to view things with new eyes! It's an expression we use in Sweden when you change your perception of things. That's actually all it takes to turn a bad situation into a better one.
Instead of seeing all the stress in school as a bad thing, I am going to see them as opportunities. I learn so much from every single assignment I get in my classes, so actually I'm blessed not stressed!

Visit The Shop this weekend and order the Tug Boat

This week the summer came to Santa Barbara. I spent 2 days at the beach last weekend and I loved every second of it! I missed it so much and I can't wait to get a great tan. We went to the movies last weekend too, and saw American Hustle. It was nominated for so many Oscars so I was excited to see it, and I didn't get disappointed. On sunday, we went to The Shop again on Milpas and I can't even describe their amazing food, you have to try it if you haven't! I am in heaven every time. I'm bringing my mom there when she gets here.



This weekend will definitely be spent at the beach as well, and a lot of studying need to be done since I have 3 midterms next week. But, on Thursday after work at 4 pm, Spring Break begins!! I am so happy, because I will be able to relax, and go to the beach all day every day for 10 days.

I realized today that I have like 10 weeks left in Santa Barbara, but I am fine with that. I know to 100% that when I leave SB in May, it will not be the last time I see this place. I will probably be back once a year, every summer, so I feel fine moving back to Sweden actually. And if I don't, then I might just go back! It's as simple as that.

Oh, and this weekend were celebrating St Patricks Day on Saturday since we have school on the actual day, March 17th. But we will dress in green and have a drink DT this Saturday instead.

Have a wonderful weekend!

The importance of de-stressing

We all stress to a certain point, and it's inner and outer stress. Stress made me ill last semester and it is doing something to me this semester too. I do everything in my power to de-stress, and I have that as my personal goal this semester.
I have started meditating as a part of this and even though it helps to to relax in that moment, I still stress a lot. There is a war in my mind constantly and as much as I would love to NOT live in the future all the time, that's exactly what I do.

This is what's going on in my mind right now at this very moment:
-Keep track of the bloggers,
-Get my midterm back in envs
-Do I have any food to cook tonight?
-Will I get any sleep tonight, since I have nightmares that wake me up every single night
-Will I be able to do my best at the gym tomorrow morning before my 11 am class
- Start writing my english essay
-Finish my PR homework for wednesday
-Finish the 150 pages of my english book
-Grocery shop, when?
-Will I have enough money to go to coachella?
-Will I get to work this summer in Sweden?
-When will I have time to get a tan?

Stupid isn't it? I know the tools, I know that I have to live in the present and focus on what is going on right NOW, and right now, I am comfortable at my desk, blogging.

Beautiful spot I pass before entering my gym

The thing is that before last semester that I got it on paper that stress made me very sick, I didn't think that it was that serious. What can a little stress do to you? Well, apparently a lot.
That is why it is so important to listen to your body. I am doing that right now, and I am going straight to the cafeteria now before class to get a big bottle of water and breathe, count to ten and then focus on getting the midterm back.

I love going to the gym too when I feel stressed, because you can let everything out, and when I run or do something else at the gym, that is all I can think about.

I have spring break and my moms visit to look forward to, and that helps me to get through the days! No stress when you are here mom :)

Have a great week!

Be your own hero

Ok, I'm going to be deep in this one! But I have to share something that we are talking about in my english 111 class with Brett Land. Ever since that class started we have been talking about 'a hero's journey' and how in every movie, book, myth about a hero, they all share the exact same path. There is the hero in his/her home environment in the beginning, then something happens, "a call to adventure",  as Joseph Campbell calls it, a detachment that sends the hero out on a journey. The second step is "initiation" when he/she goes through a series of rough obstacles during the adventure, before the hero eventually returns to the home, as a new reborn person.

This goes for every hero in fairytales, but it also happens to every single person in this world, if you listen to your "call to adventure". The stage that comes after that is always "the refusal of the call" and if you continue to refuse your call, you will never become the new much wiser version of you.

I keep thinking about my own journey as we go through Joseph Campbell's work in depth.
Back home in Sweden, when I had just turned 26, I was in a really bad place. I was negative, I didn't appreciate what I had and I certainly did not enjoy my life.
What happened to me was that I just got so sick of being this person that I decided to act. (I also got inspiration from a person that I hardly knew, that told me about his dreams and what I should do)
I knew that I had to do something that would challenge me more than anything I had ever done before.
What is more challenging than moving to the U.S without knowing a soul there?

My second day in SB, Jan 2012

Joseph Campbell says to; Follow your bliss. Follow what makes you happy. I had a childhood dream about living in California and here I am. I followed what I somehow knew would make me a happier, better and wiser human being. It has been HARD, I'll tell you that. I have been through some rough times here, both physically and mentally, probably most mentally but I am a new person today. I am not completely done here yet, but when I go back home, I know that it will be as if I have been reborn.

This is my journey, I am actually in this series of events right now and I am so happy. So happy to be a part of a time when humans are acknowledging what truly makes them happy. All the material things, the image of being rich, that job that you hate, the way too big house.. Ask yourself this: Do
   you need a lot of money and material things to make you a better person? Or do you need people around you that inspire you, that love you, that you love, that you have fun with?

I am on the verge of changing what I thought was my future carrier drastically. Because if I could choose to do one thing my entire life that would not feel like "work" to me, it would not be a 9-5 job at a desk.

I wish you all a great weekend.