missfrifri

In the morning I went through the normal routine that I do before I'm about to do something, well, scary. I prepare my notes for 30- 60 mins, have a light breakfast, go for a long run. Do push-ups, squats, jumps- I feel like it's the best way to get rid of the adrenaline. It sounds silly, but I imagine that if my body gets physically tired, it will be too tired to get "nervous." The endorphins will help my mind to calm down, I will feel confident.

It is great when you get to the point where you cannot be more prepared. In addition to this you have a massive support from your family, your man, your friends... Still, today I couldn't quite shake the seriousness of the situation, I couldn't find that zone where I feel.... well, where I feel as badass as Nicole Scherzinger when she's wearing that catsuit.

As I got into the taxi, my taxi driver laughed at me.
- Hey, are you a little crazy?
- Sorry?
- You just checked your door 4 times. Why?
- Oh... Ehh I have a bit of an OCD sometimes.
- Ahh.. So you ARE crazy??
- No, no! I...
- Where you going crazy lady?
- Central please.
- You look very smart, yes? Suit and everything?
- Thank you, I'm going to a job interview.
- WHAT? Why? Here? Where you from?
- I'm Swedish, I...
- [Shaking head] Then WHY are you here? Why you wanna work here? You have issues?
- Well, I suppose I moved to the UK for my education and my career...
- You know, I'm from Egypt. I have friends in Sweden, they say it's lovely! Amazing amazing life you know, beautiful country, beautiful people... why ever leave? What's wrong with you?
- Trust me, Sweden's amazing in many ways but we have our issues as well.
- No no you're crazy, see I'm getting out of here. Horrible this country, all work, no rest, everyone depressed. I'm going to Greece in two days, to live, I used to live there before, good life.
- Well I bet, but look how that turned out...
- Haha you make me laugh! You know what lady, I want to LIVE. It's important to understand, in the end, you want to remember your life, not your desk. Yes? You don't worry about anything. What will happen will happen. Yes? These silly British people, they forget what's important sometimes.

So the taxi driver makes me laugh. As I get out of the car...

- Listen, crazy lady: if this is what you want, fine. You're ready, you know. I can tell. Maybe I see you in Greece some time, ok? But then, you'll be all fancy lawyer. Perhaps even nicer suit!
- Haha well, who knows?!

A week later, I got my first legal job.

I guess that sometimes you need a stranger to tell you what others have been telling you all along: "it's not the end of the world." When in need, we should all have a fabulous taxi driver that comes to the rescue.

It's rare that all the components for the perfect weekend come together during the same one. These pictures say it all.

 

Sometimes I have moments when I realise that I have turned into my mum. The latest example is this Saturday when I was so obsessed with having coffee in the sun that I dragged a kitchen chair into the garden and forced the McCutcheon siblings to follow. (It didn't quite work out as I planned; first they took pictures of me from the window, then they came out and stood around me and didn't at all understand what was so amazing.) Considering that it's the first spring in years that I'm not trapped in a London apartment I'm gonna make the most of it. Funnily enough when I called my mum later on she said that her and dad had their afternoon coffee in the forest, even though it's 0 degrees at home. "It's sunny and it's lovely with fresh air! People don't understand what lovely moments they miss hiding in their livingrooms." Maybe it's a Swedish thing. Maybe it's a Mummy Eva thing.

 

 

While Alex is at his grandma's putting up some shelves I told him that I have to work on some stuff. Really I'm making the most of my night off by having coffee, sweets and watching lots of episodes of Sex and the City.

There are so many SATC quotes that are completely spot-on. Here are two of my favourites.

"Honey, these bitches need to be put in their places."

"Maybe some women aren't meant to be tamed. Maybe they need to run free until they can find someone just as wild to run with."

 

As I have about 1000 things to do I'm trying to multitask as much as possible. So while making a light lunch I thought I'd call grandma to see what she's up to.

- Oh how lovely to hear from you! You guys never have time to call me.
- Grandma I called you two days ago, and you were at mum and dad's yesterday all afternoon?
- Yes but that's only because you HAVE to. I know you don't WANT to. I'm old and boring!
- Fine grandma, what are you up to?
- You know. The usual, I got up at five this morning.
- Why? You're crazy!
- You don't understand how busy I am! Me and the cat just went for a walk. But it's really embarrassing because now you can really see it's a boy, sometimes when he walks you can see his balls! What will the neighbours think??
- Grandma I'm sure that no one cares about Mirre's balls.
- So what are you doing today darling? Those applications again? I cannot understand that you want to continue in education, your mum told me.
- Of course I am, I told you I need to go through these courses!
- But how will you have time?
- What do you mean time? I'll just have to do it!
- Well, I'm just saying... When will you have children? That must be planned into the equation to you know!
- [Trying to chop peppers and hold the phone in- between ear and shoulder while frying onions with the other hand] Grandma children aren't on the agenda at the moment.
- But children always have to be on the agenda!
- Grandma calm down, I'm just saying that first of all I can't just assume that I CAN have children. It would be great having children but there wouldn't be any room for that at least for the next 7 years anyway. Why would I just stop doing what I've always wanted to do in case I might have children in a decade?
- Fine, I'm just saying. The biological clock doesn't care about careers. It just keeps going, and going, and going...
- Well I do grandma! [Can't help to push grandma a little bit...] Maybe I'll just get a surrogate mum or something? That's becoming really trendy in Hollywood at the moment!
- [GASP]
- Ok Grandma calm down I'm just joking. I really need to go now, this food isn't turning out so well...
- That's fine darling, you've never been very practical. I've always wondered how you're gonna be able to run a household, especially when you get children...
- Byyyyye grandma love you!

Result of multitask: Dry omelettes and a stressed out boyfriend who now understands some Swedish and overheard babytalk. Thanks Grandma!

Ps. Emma's dog Nicki just went for a haircut and got a new outfit. It says "Mummy's little tough guy." Oh dear. Is that a fringe I see?

Before my evening shift on Saturday I went to London in the early hours for a cheeky daytrip. As much as I'm loving living in a smaller town it was quite the treat to drag in the unclean air into my now clean lungs. A customer was telling me how much he hates London the other day, and "what's so special about that place anyway?" The answer is simple- EVERYTHING is special about it. Sometimes I need a London quick-fix. The best way then is to go to the busiest road I can find and then I cross it where there isn't an actual crossing and get excited if a driver angrily shouts at me. Suddenly it's as if you're on Oxford Street all over again. You can take the girl out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the girl!

Here are some pictures from a nice girly day before Christmas. Saturday was spent having breakfast, lunch and coffee with my favourite girls in central London, can't think of a better way! =)

Since Sunday is my day off it automatically becomes Fun-Day. The only problem when you only have one Fun-Day is that all the Fun needs to be crammed into, well, one day which can make it a bit stressful. Luckily I'm starting to get a bit better with the whole balancing thing, because sometimes you need Sunday to just be quiet.

After some extra sleep in the morning (required after working late on Saturday night- I'm not 17 anymore after all...) a nice brunch with the boyfriend is lovely. A bit of morningwork (with what you ask? It's a secret!) we invited Mr and Mrs M over for lunch. I introduced them to tacopie (the Swedish twist of making tacos in... a pie. And yes, our pies are "open", and there's nothing weird or horrible with that at all!) and a chocolate fudgecake that they make at one of my favourite cafés in Jönköping.


I'm realising now that in the picture the pie looks a bit... like puke, but you're simply gonna have to trust me on this one. The M's had seconds and they're a tough crowd!


I don't think Mrs M believed me when I said that this photo might pop up on the blog. Well, it did! I think she secretly wants it to. If she doesn't I'll be in trouble. Hmm. I'm not sure if Mr M is completely aware of my blog. If he is he probably thinks it's "bloody stupid." Just as he thinks of our Swedish Filippa K mugs from Rörstrand that have no handles. Swedish people aren't very practical he says. Plus we're always on holiday or maternity leave. Can't really say anything about that, it's true...! I think he wants me to be deported but he puts up with me for now. Alex was getting them to make funny faces but I think they got more confused by his directions.

On Fun-Days you're allowed to work with wine in the evening, which is lovely. However the best part of this Fun-Day will be to watch Jersey Shore in the evening with the boyfriend, it's my guilty pleasure. Snooki makes me feel smart and I like it. Plus I enjoy judging and analysing people a little and it's better to do that with tv- characters. Plus there are leftovers from the chocolate cake. Fun-Day decadence!

Although I've blogged before about how many strange things that can appear from my handbag, also known as "The Cave", even I was surprised and slightly confused when I found a couple of potatoes in my handbag the other day. Then I realised that I'd chucked them in there a couple of days ago when me and Alex were having dinner at a restaurant and we had to leave in a hurry. My attempt to save money has now come to a point where I probably thought something along the lines of "I've paid for this meal, I can do whatever I want with my potatoes. I'm not leaving those babies here, I can have them for lunch tomorrow!" For me, this shows how the financial crisis is affecting me. And it isn't pretty.

After a few nights of sleeping unwell and constantly waking up (made even more annoying by the fact that the boyfriend has been sound asleep and bouncing out of bed in the morning ready for a new day) I thought I'd try to calm myself a bit more before bed. So I took out this new SPA kit that I got from Mrs M for Christmas.


Mrs M is very good at finding little SPA treats, and after some digging I found some Lavendel products that she's got me earlier. We're talking lavendel bath essence, bath salt, flower petals, bubbles, babyoil... the works. Let the serenity and calm begin!

I pour myself a nice bath and jump into it, GRAZIA Magazine in hand. Only to scream and throw myself up again. It turns out that the boiler has been switched off and the bath is ice cold. As you know I'm a very practical woman who deals with any issues that I encounter logically and hands- on. So I limp downstairs, rose petals and bubblebath-fluff falling off me as I walk, and shout to the boyfriend that I want to calm myself and now EVERYTHING IS RUINED, and MY NERVES, I DON'T FEEL SERENE AND CALM AT ALL, and WHAT AM I GOING TO DOOOO???

Alex suggests I switch on the boiler and wait for about half an hour. After 15 minutes I'm bored of waiting so I go into the bath anyway, let some of the water out and put sort-of-warm-but-not-quite-warm water in. After a few minutes of attempting to relax I'm realising I'm not relaxed at all. I'm freezing. So I shout "HEEEEELP!!! HEEEELP!!!" Until Alex comes running upstairs because he thinks I have injured myself. Instead he finds a stranded hippo floating around in rose petals.
"I can't relax Alex! I'm SO STRESSED! It's so cold! Do something! My muscles are all TENSE!!!"
"Frida, I told you to wait for half an hour!"
"But I want to have a bath NOW!"
"Right. I know you're very delicate and everything but there are people who are starving and have nowhere to live..."
"Why do people always keep saying that to me? I KNOW that, but I still need to de- stress! I can't deal with human rights issues and starvation and all that stuff if I'm not serene and calm!"

Finally Alex realises that there's only one way to fix the problem. He puts on the kettle and pours boiling water into the ice water, then leaves as quickly as he can. About the same time as I'm realising the water's finally hot I have to take a shower to warm myself up from the cold bath. I slept well though, probably from exhaustion. My poor nerves...

I had a trauma the other day. (Yes, again!) I tried on my suit that I need for a work experience that I'm doing next week, and realised that it absolutely doesn't fit. The poor boyfriend then became the witness to (and drawn into) a MissFriFri tantrum.

"How can this happen?" "I exercise!" "I actually DO eat well!" "Have I changed my bodyshape?" "Maybe it's just my bone structure?"

Suddenly you have the cruel boyfriend- mirror that tells you just as it is. "Well, I mean, we did bake quite a lot during Christmas. And we did eat pretty bad sometimes, plus with your workhours sometimes you eat quite a lot right before you go to bed late at night." "No I don't!" "Yes you do!"

We all have to learn that there are moments when you have to look at pictures, compare, try clothes on and realise that it is NOT your bone structure. It's the chocolate that you're eating on a random Tuesday or Thursday that's the problem. Or simply eating too much (which is a lot easier during the winter).
"Babe, it's not as if it's that bad! You'll be fine in just a few weeks..."
(Dramatic MissFriFri) "I don't DESERVE to be 'babed' at my current state!"
(Alex grins) "I was thinking of Babe the piglet... You know, in the movie??? He's probably grown into a proper pig now *disappears into his own thoughts*

Right. So we're de- chocolating at the moment gang! Babe the Piglet isn't a good look. And by the way, I've just got the ultimate smug feeling. As a Swedish gal I love the cold, and feel like there can be nothing but an amazing day awaiting after a 30 min powerwalk followed by running uphill intervals while watching the sun go up in -4 degrees. Ahhh!

As I've just started working a few shifts at one of the local pubs my life pattern has changed dramatically from the previous "gym sessions at 6.30, bed at 10, regular meals" to, well, no real pattern or routine at all. Ironically I've realised that even though I always used to think that I'm a night person, it turns out that I'm in fact a morning person. Or maybe I'm just getting old...?

Luckily, as the new barmaid I feel that I've got hired plainly because of my skills. Or have I? After my first trial shift (that was filled with hilarious men shouting things about IKEA, playing ABBA on the jukebox and wanting to learn rude Swedish words) my manager (also a woman) said that I'd fit in perfectly on their team. Now, a few shifts in, I'm suddenly not Frida anymore- I'm "Lovely Frida From Sweden". My manager's introduction tends to be "Have you met Lovely Frida From Sweden? Play her some ABBA! Give Frida a wave boys!"

After a couple of incidents, such as a man the same age as my dad "accidentally" slapped my behind, I suddenly remembered the easiest way to fend off anyone who associates Sweden with anything else than ABBA, IKEA or Sven- Göran Eriksson. Here's the secret: if  you say that you're a feminist or a law graduate, that's enough for most men (apart from the good ones of course ;) In fact, it's one of the best ways to differ the fabulous from the hideous) to run miles in fear. From my own research I know that that's put most men off in the past. And apparently it still works! Ahh the fear in the alpha male's eyes..... It never fails to amuse me.

My darlings, better late than never! Here's a selection of Chicago's finest! ;)

I'm very scared of heights (and water, fire and a number of other things) while Alex isn't really bothered about anything. This can make things like going on the swings (the first time for me!) very very scary. Put on the Chicago Pier you're supposed to enjoy the nice view as you're being swung round and round for what seems like forever. Instead I kept screaming "I'm gonna diiiiiie", swear in Swedish and being laughed at by the 4- year old sitting next to me. And an amused Alex.

The ferris wheel was a bit more to my taste. At least when we were at the top and I realised that maybe it wasn't gonna collapse after all- so I had plenty of time to enjoy the gorgeous view! =D


We went to Oktoberfest, where they served bratwursts and there were tons of people in läderhosen. Just like in the movies!


We prepared for a 9 pm boattrip to watch the fireworks over the skyline. Apparently here you don't just buy take- away coffee, you buy take- away mojitos. Together with a churro. I'm not complaining.


We went to Baskin and Robbins. Peanutbutter cup chocolate Sunday. No further comment is needed.

The Aquarium was amaaazing! And I felt so cool because I was wearing jeans for the first time in about 1 year. Phobia beaten!


The Sears tower was a must. Unfortunately they have a ledge at the top of it now, like a little cage made entirely of glass. And I thought that the swings were bad.... Eventually we were in a situation where Alex was pushing me onto it and I was holding on to the wall with both hands. At the same time three kids that were about 3- 6 years old were JUMPING up and down on the glass. I was literally sweating.

Hello gang! <3 I'm sorry that I've been updated you so badly in the past week, but as soon as we come home I'll sit down and shower you with gorgeous pictures from Chicago. I thought I should give my poor boyfriend a bit of holiday too- since I've lost the charger for my camera the poor man has to e- mail me the pictures that he takes with his phone. Since I want about 150 pictures not even I feel evil enough to do that to him...

Me and Alex are doing our final packing at the moment. Or rather, we're trying to. (I'm sitting on my bag and Alex is trying to close it...) I'm nervous when it comes to flying and have been torturing Alex for the past 24 hours about questions about plane crashes, life vests and even more important: what if my checked in bag with all my new purchases DISAPPEARS??? Alex says that never happens. (Which means that I'm absolutely certain that it will happen to me.) I tried to pack everything in my carry- on bag first but gave up pretty quickly since, well, that's  impossible since it can barely fit in my checked in bag.

On a different note, I've started planning a few changes in mine and Alex' food plan for when we came home. It involves morning drinks made of spinach, apple, carrot, green beans and other yummy things. He doesn't seem as excited as me, but I'm trying to encourage him to see it as a morning party shot. After this month of sin I think there's a certain need for some detox. This isn't quite the look that I usually go for.

Me and Alex have arrived to Chicago! We're staying with friends of the McCutcheon family, and they're some of the nicest people I've ever met. After enjoying an American breakfast accompanied with honey walnut tea and cherry butter we're ready to take on the City: on today's agenda is architecture. Or at least that's what Alex thinks. I wanna look up Victoria's Secret since it should be massive here...!

I'd also like to say thanks to Debs for getting in touch so quickly and advising me on buying the vanilla- coconut scent rather than the vanilla scent from VS. And Gillian- thanks for trying to convince Alex that he should buy the Michael Kors handbag for me! (Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be working...)

I have a phobia for wearing jeans. (Since they're so tight they're very, eum, unforgiving.) In the past weeks I've decided that it might be convenient to have a pair that I like. I see that other people wear them quite often and that if you're out of outfit ideas they can be pretty convenient. Plus they can look really good on other people!

The last pair of jeans that I really liked I bought about 3,5 years ago at Urban Outfitters. So I went there and asked what size they thought I might be. They said I looked like a size 28.
"Absolutely not. I'd say maybe a 32?"
"I really don't think so."
Triumphant I grab 8 different jeans in size 32. I'll show them that I'm a lot bigger than they think.

Ok. So maybe these are a little too loose. But that's probably just because they're so stretchy.
"Miss, would you like me to get you the 28 now?"
I shh at the girl in the fitting room and whisper "you see, I can't really wear jeans."
"Why?"
"I'm really wide over my hips. That's where most of my fat is. Look!" *Grabs fat*
"Mhm..?"
"So it's probably better if you get me, say, a size 31?"
"But Miss...."
"Go go!"

After three different fitting sessions three days in a row both me and the Urban Outfitters girl give up. It really is just as I thought. My body's unsuitable for jeans.

Back in Grand Rapids me and Alex happen to walk past a shop where all jeans are 50% off. Doesn't hurt to take a look.
"You should try some!"
"I can't wear jeans, I'm too big."
Alex looks confused. "But the skirts you wear are always really tight...?"
*Whisper* "Yeah but they're stretchy so they don't show all the fat!!"
"Eh.. ok."

After grabbing x number of jeans that are about 4 sizes bigger than the shop assistant suggests, Alex makes me try on the suggested smaller size.
"See! You CAN wear jeans."
"Don't I look like one of those big people that pretends that they're skinny? My butt looks like a rectangle! Do I look shorter than usual? Now my butt kind of looks wide. Can I really go outside like this?"
As I see the confusion and exhaustion in my man's eyes I realise that I've sinned. Not only am I dragging him through an endless fitting session, but I'm also doing something I promised I'd never do. I've said "Do these jeans make me look fat?"

So, since I decide that my boyfriend would have no reason to lie (why would he instruct me to buy the jeans if they make my butt look like a rectangle? That's not exactly to his advantage! Plus he grabbed it on one occassion when i walked into the fitting rooms and that must mean that it looks perky...) I decide to buy the jeans. Three pairs in different colours.

And that's how I beat my jeans phobia. Say hello to my new friends: Lola the Jegging (yes I know using "Jeggings" is kind of cheating since they're almost like tights, but just ONE of the pairs is a jegging!), Bayla Skinny Light Blue and Bayla Skinny Dark Blue. Oh and in the end I compromised with a size 29.

I'm really taking the opportunity to enjoy the American Culture when I'm here. Which basically means that I'm eating like a pig, and alternating that by going to the hotel's gym and hitting the crosstrainer in panic, only to get out to try another cupcake. Or doughnut. Or pizza. A new favourite is Panda Express' fried prawns. That are covered with a honey and walnut sauce. Those devil prawns are going straight to my hips.



Luckily I can live in ignorant bliss since American dress sizes are bigger than European ones (for obvious reasons). Although Alex said it doesn't count if you wear S or XS in a big floaty cardigan since "you could fit a small elephant in there anyway."

This is btw the most shocking pizza I've ever had:
Right. I thought I had a picture of the pizza but I don't. Fail. So, imagine a 16- inch pizza ENTIRELY covered with cheese in two layers. And then you DOUBLE that. That's what it was. You'd think that is an actual four cheese pizza or something. But no. It's a pepperoni pizza. (Supposedly the pepperoni is somewhere under all those layers of cheese....) And to make things better, you get some parmesan cheese with it that you can, eh, sprinkle over the cheese. Which naturally makes a lot of sense....

This is from a more civilised lunch yesterday at a Thai restaurant. (In comparison to much else, this is super healthy!) I'm glad there's only a couple of weeks left, you can easily get pulled into this, eum, culture. The culture of fattiness.

Since I've gone into some kind of shopping frenzy while I'm here (made worse since I have, errm, limited funds, meaning that I can spend hours deciding what to buy and prioritise) I'm torturing Alex by talking about what bra styles I should get from VS, what skintype I really am (oily, combination, combination- dry, combination- oily?), cashmere prices, why italian merino wool is better than other wool..... And, naturally, by my talk about handbags. The other day I tried to convince Alex (and myself) that it'd make complete sense to buy the Michael Kors Hamilton bag for 345 dollars. Since if you split it out on cost per wear, it's really not that expensive (I'd use it every day!) and I've wanted it for like a year. Plus, it's like 100 pounds cheaper in the US compared to the UK. Alex took it all in before saying...

"Well, it's cheap if you HAVE 345 dollars...."
"I have 345 dollars!"
"Yes, but you're gonna want to buy other things too and THEN 345 dollars won't be so cheap anymore."
"Well now you're just negative! Why do you ALWAYS have to have such a boring attitude?"



After finding a Bumble and Bumble schampoo that smells like coconut, making Alex smell it, waving my hands in excitement and shouting "my hair can smell like coconut for just 27 dollars!" and him not getting what the big deal was I simply said, "Alex, sometimes I wish you were more like Deborah." Alex said maybe I should call her and tell her everything about the coconut scents. And while I was at it, ask her whether she thought the coconut & vanilla scent or the pure vanilla scent spray from Victoria's Secret was the best one. Apparently this was kind of out of his league. (Debs, Dags and Sissel: if you read this, prepare yourself for getting e- mails asking for advice very soon!) A pro with shopping with my girlfriends is that, as opposed to Alex, my girls have a very, eum, positive attitude when it comes to convincing you of what you need. ("Need" is after all such a relative concept.)

By the way, when I asked Alex about his skin type he said that his skin is so good that he doesn't need a daycream. Now, how annoying is that???

I felt that I might have come to a point where I'd seen most ways of men. (Obviously not, when I'm 40 I'm gonna laugh at my 23 year old self. But still.) Apparently I hadn't. The ways that men attempt to impress never get boring.

When I was out with my sister someone called... well let's call him Sam (not his real name) came up to me and Emma. He grabs Emma's drink (a Margarita in a massive Martini glass), puts on a seductive look and voice, and says to me "now I'll show you what my mouth is capable of." Right, this could be interesting.

Sam seductively leans his face over the drink. Then he starts drinking it like a dog drinks water from a bowl. (Clarification: he's literally behaving like a dog that's just come in from a long walk.) My jaw drops as I stare at the spectacle that never seems to end.

After a while of this visual torture (me thinking of germs, why he looks so much like a dog, is Emma gonna drink her Margarita now with all the bacteria in? That's disgusting!) I realise that Sam is indeed trying to imitate his... eumm... bedroom style. When he looks up at me with a proud look, all I can say is in shock that "wow... do you know that you just looked like a dog?" Sam looks even more proud. "Yeah, because I'm a diiirrrty dooog." I start laughing, waiting for him to laugh himself and say 'heeey, you totally bought it! You really thought I wasn't doing that dog thing on purpose?!' Instead he looks totally happy with himself. He's like, weei, I totally nailed it. Realising that he's gonna keep making it worse, eventually I can't help but saying "well Sam, margaritas don't have olives but if they did you sure as hell wouldn't have found it." Sam didn't understand what I meant, naturally.

Right, so you gals and guys that are more out and about than I've been in the past months- is this dog- drinking thing a one- time thing or is it some kind of new trend? The most mysterious things have the capacity to become trends, like the "guy comes up and licks your face to get your attention"- trend. Also that trend has a strong resemblance to dogs.

The most curious thing is when I see gals validating the dog- behaviour. (I noticed that the drink like a dog- trick in fact got him a girl later on in the evening.) What you see is what you get- if you date a dog you get a dog. Don't we have a certain responsibility as women to demand more to get more? Otherwise we justify the dog- behaviour. Hmm. Just a thought. On a positive note, seeing another guy drink like a dog makes you appreciate your own boyfriend so much more. (Thank you Alex!)

Oh- and a tip for the single boys and girls out there. A simple "Wow, you're gorgeous. Can I buy you a drink? Tell me about yourself!" is often a very effective and unfortunately underestimated tactic.

... you've had beer from a keg. (Yes! I drank BEER! From a KEG! And I actually quite liked it.)
... you get called "the European". And the person who calls you "the European" thinks that Europe is a country where everyone speaks one language- "European."
... your haircolour is considered "exotic."
... you've watched an American Football college game. (Where you're offered beer from a beer keg.)

... your sister's friend's car is as big as an actual truck.
... the police stops you when you're carrying a bag of alcohol to check your I.D to make sure that you're 21. And they're angry with you before they've even seen it.
... you can get a manicure AND pedicure for $35.
... you realise that in the US most people still seem to think that most Swedish people are pornstars.
... you order a burrito. You take the leftovers home and it's enough for FOUR meals.
... people think that I, of all people, have a BRITISH accent. And absolutely no twang at all. And they ask if I can teach them the British accent.
... numerous people try to convince you that Obama is in fact an evil communist.
... there's plenty of advertising for different guns. Often emphasising how easy it is to get one, and with relaxing and happy music in the background.
... people ask you why you're not wearing flipflops when you're at the club. Since it's so much more comfortable.
... you consider buying a baseball cap since it seems "so convenient" to just put on when you leave your house. (Until Emma stares at you in horror and tell you off...)

... You're told by a dietist that coke isn't bad for you. Although you might have had too much if you get a stomackache.

After spending 24 hours on flights and airports, MissFriFri has officially arrived to the land of Victoria's Secret and Sex and the City- I am officially on US soil, gang!

While Alex has been at work today I've explored the surroundings- aka the shopping centres. I just bought a pair of Nine West ballerina shoes for seven dollars! God bless America!

I've also explored the American food culture- aka fast food. Although I think that I'm good in the fastfood department (my mum often asks herself what she did wrong...) this was just too much. WAAAYY too much. After receiving some kind of Italian fast food with meatballs the size of my head that didn't taste of meat, spaghetti for three (very hungry) people in one plate, 3 massive garlic bread things and a "small" coke that was the size of my upper body I decided to go for a fruit cup instead. Can't even handle it! The US has officially put me off food. (It probably had something to do with the fact that we got burgers for breakfast at the hotel. Not that these tasted of meat either... I wonder what they actually put in their meats? Although I really don't think I want to know...!)

Another thing I've got confirmed is that this is not a very pedestrian- friendly country. Although I walked for at least 1 hr yesterday to different stores and shopping centres, I never saw one other person who was walking or biking. Which is understandable, because if you wanna cross here- even when there's a green man- you have to RUN. If you run, you make it half way through the street before it turns red again. (I don't mean a light jog. I mean a proper run.) Plus, it seems that just because you have a green man that doesn't mean that the cars necessarily stop. It's more like, "this seems like a good time- good luck to ya! *Conditions apply. Pedestrians cross at their own risk.*"

Some pictures are coming soon.

Alex thinks it just makes me look Russian. So in addition to me loving it, it could possibly annoy him which makes wearing it more fun! (Kind of like leopard print, which he doesn't like either. Shocking!)