Change of plans

I just have to start off by saying: I feel so much better.

I found it very helpful to just talk about how I felt about everything that I have on my plate right now. My teachers, my roommates, my parents and my supervisors now all know about the stress that I am dealing with and that feels so good. I am glad that no one reacted and thought that I was making excuses, everyone is so understanding and that makes me so grateful!

So this weekend, I was supposed to go to Coachella. But I didn't. I sold my ticket because I feel like I need to hold on to the money I've got before I move back home. I will not start working in Sweden until August 1st so it was a necessary decision that I made, but I am really sad that I will miss Lana del Rey! She is one of my favorite artists of all time, I absolutely love her (check out her latest song: http://youtu.be/o3SqUUoJjW8)

But tomorrow me and Kirstine are going to the annual Food Fare that SBCC Ambassadors are hosting at Antioch between 4-6 pm. After that we are probably going to ArchRock for their happy hour, and then to DNA for my good friend Sean Blake's art show. I am so excited about that! He is so incredibly talented. And on Saturday it's my roommate Jenny's birthday! So it will be a good weekend even though it won't be Coachella!

I did go last year, so I've already had the experience and it was so amazing. I miss my friend Elvira who I went with all the time. She is probably the one that I've met here that I miss the most!

And now it's only 6 weeks left until I move back home. It's super scary, exciting, awful and wonderful all at the same time. I am really stressing about HOW I am going to pack all my stuff into 2 bags a 20 kg each... What is good though, is that I am flying out with Norweigian and they are flying nonstop to Stockholm! That is awesome, because my flight time will be like 11 hours instead of 18 that it usually takes when I have to make a stop. 

Have a great weekend!

You are the most important person in your life

our beautiful harbor

I have been thinking a lot today. I woke up and felt sick because I was so dizzy I couldn't move, nor get out of bed. I called both my mom and dad because I was really scared, I have never felt like that before.
After some slow moving, I got out of bed after like 45 minutes and got some oatmeal. I felt better but this entire day have been a blur.

What I realized today is that what I immediately thought of was "I can't be sick, I have to get my tax forms in, I have a review for the midterm in my class, I have work.." And that bothers me. If I was completely in charge of my life, I would have stayed in bed the entire day with tons of tea. But I did all those things I had to, and now I feel completely numb. My heart is beating super fast and I am mad at myself for not listening to my body, which is the most important thing in my life, it IS my life. All the "I have to do's" took over today.

Another thing I thought about is that feeling I always get when I tell someone that I am feeling sick, that feeling of "they don't really believe me".  The feeling that they all believe I am so weak and dramatic that I just imagine all these symptoms. But I am not imagining this. Stress has once again taken over and I am standing here without a clue how to handle it.

When I was 20, I could work 50 hours a week and be out partying on the weekends, sleep 5 hours a night, always on top. But something happened. I changed. (And I got older) I'm not going into detail, but I have a past that has taught me a lot, and that is why my thoughts today has been bothering me.. I know better. I need to get rid of stress, eliminate some stuff. And I can't do everything 100%. No one can. it's about prioritizing.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that YOU are the most important person in your life. Take care of yourself because your life is happening right now. Not when you get a job, not when you meet the love of your life, not when you have your first baby etc..It Is Happening Right Now. This is it.

Oh, and Easter is coming up. Give me an easter egg filled with Marabou chocolate and you will make my life a little bit easier.

Have a great week, and promise me to think twice before all those musts take over your day!

10.000 pageviews

Hey!

Santa Barbara pier

I just reached 10.000 page views which I think is pretty fun! And I am getting comments: different opinions and what readers want me to blog about. One person thought I should show more pictures of where I live and SB in general, and another one wondered about the marketing program at SBCC. So I will dedicate this blogpost to you guys.

Shoreline park which is a 2 minute walk from my house

First of all, the place where I live now is my third apartment since I moved here in Jan 2012. I actually lived on the same street my very first semester, then DT at Anapamu street before I ended up back on Oceano again. I literally have SBCC as my neighbor, takes me about 1 minute to walk to my desk in the BC building, so this location is awesome. Plus, I see the ocean from our front door.
Santa Barbara really is a beautiful place. The views still takes my breath away! And all the restaurants, cafes, shops, Paseo Nuevo (an "outdoor mall") and the entire State Street DT is so pretty! I like DT Santa Barbara because it's so cute. It's really cozy.

State Street

Now to studying marketing at SBCC. I have really enjoyed taking marketing here! I have taken every single marketing class that this college offers. (even though that is not required for the marketing certificate or the AA) I did it because I wanted to. Go to this link: http://www.sbcc.edu/apply/files/cert/mkt.pdf to find out what classes you need for the certificate, and this link http://www.sbcc.edu/apply/files/aa_as/mkt.pdf  to know what classes you need for the AA degree.

our campus

What is both good and bad, is that when you take a lot of different marketing classes, some of the content will be similar to other classes you take, although they are completely different.

the bridge between east and west campus

I like that marketing is such a broad major. I will continue my career in sales and I have learned so much about it it for example in Marketing 120, Relationship Selling, MKT 125 Customer Service and in MKT 205, Consumer selling strategies. If you are into PR, I am taking a great PR class right now, and if you are into marketing strategies and "commercials" I loved the class MKT 203 Marketing Communications. So there are a lot of ways you can make a career in marketing! And the classes provided at SBCC are really good, I have learned a lot.
A good thing is always to have good relationships with your teachers, look at me: I got recommended by one of my teachers for this internship!



 Tomorrow is our annual Spring preview day, so I will be working with my new marketing partner Gabe at the event, taking pictures. I hope the weather will be good! We have a weird fog for a few days, but hopefully it's gone tomorrow. Happy Thursday everyone!

The countdown has begun

Hello Monday and week 10 (I think?) of spring semester! I am certainly back in to my old routines after spring break and I studied a lot this weekend. Although on Thursday, I went to LA and stayed at Le Montrose Suite Hotel in West Hollywood and it was really great. They had a rooftop pool and a tennis court, and the room was really big and had a fireplace.

not the best pic, but view from the rooftop

I will try to focus on school now though, and just enjoy my last weeks in Santa Barbara. I love it so much, but at the same time I feel like I am ready to leave. I look forward to a new phase in my life and I am ready for it. So the countdown has begun, I'm coming HOME in 8 weeks! But I will certainly look for a small house or apartment in or around SB as a vacation home in the future!

I didn't get sick this entire winter but my time came now.. I've been feeling pain in my chest while running, and it has only been getting worse. So this morning i woke up and had a sore throat, chest pain and just really tired. I am in school and at work though, so I'm fine, but I just hope it'll go away so I can workout again.

the room

I turned in my essay in english 111 this morning, that I worked really hard on. It was about the hero's journey that I wrote about before. And morning was a special morning in that class too, since we made a big circle of all of our desks so we could all se each other instead of just sitting in lines. I like that because you feel like you interact more with everyone, and honestly, I saw faces of people in my class today that I have never seen! I always, always sit in the very front of all my classes, so I never even see the people behind me. That is so sad to me. All the classrooms should have a big circle of desks!

Anyways, time for a blog meeting now. Have a wonderful week everyone!

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!