Posts Tagged ‘California’

We took total advantage of the beautiful state we life in this weekend. The first reason for that was my parents being in town. The second was that I needed to get back in the sun so bad. I haven’t seen a lot of sun lately, because I’ve been sick and the weather hadn’t been at it’s best behaviour lately.

So this weekend we decided to get out and enjoy the weather and beautiful California. I bought myself a bike this week, so our plan for Saturday was doing a little bike tour down at the beach. We rented bikes for my parents and rode them from Huntington Beach to Newport Beach. The weather was amazing, the beach was crowded but super nice and we strolled through Huntington a bit after our bike ride.

Today we had some bigger plans. We had bought Whale Watching tickets for this Sunday and so drove all the way down to Dana Point to watch some sealife live! We made a little stop in Laguna first and showed my parents our secret spot in the Laguna Hills, which offers you an amazing view down to the coast. Afterwards we drove to Dana Point, got on the cruise ship and spend a good two hours out on the sea. We sadly didn’t get to see any whales, but hundreds of dolphins that put on quite a show for our ship which made the trip more than worth the money!

It always amazes me like hell to discover the beauty of California all over again and I already have thousands of activities planned for this summer!

Everyone who reads this blog regularly knows that Flo and I were really lucky in the US so far and didn’t have any serious problems during our 4th months in California. But still, even if anything seems perfect, living in a new country still has some hard sides to it. Even if you know what awaits you when you move to a new country, it sometimes hits you hard to have to cope with situations you didn’t have to cope with back in your home country.

For us right now the hardest thing is that we just aren’t american and we just don’t act like americans. That mostly shows when it comes to making new friends and finding people to hang out with at your work. Flo and I both had people starting nearly the same day we did at both our companies. And guess what: All these people by now are totally integrated and have friends. And we both still sit there alone and just don’t belong in. I don’t want this to sound wrong, it’s not that we feel like hated or anything. But you still feel that you are not american. And that people treat you like that.

We still enjoy life over here, wanna stay and now that we just have to deal with this for the next weeks, maybe months. But that is what it’s like when you decide to move somewhere new. It is hard, it had it’s downsides and you have to be strong. I don’t write this to scare anyone. And I still would tell everyone that has the chance to move somewhere new to do it. But please be aware that there are some hard times ahead of you. Be strong, endure it. And maybe (hopefully) you will be rewarded for it pretty soon.

I’ve been sick for a little over a week now and I can tell you being sick in this city sucks as hell. For me as a german being sick in California feels like being sick in the summer. In Germany you are normally (due to the cold weather) sick in winter, so this feels so off. Everyone at work runs around in tiny summer dresses and hot pants while I am sitting there in long pants, sweaters and even with a scarf.

But what even sucks more: This city has so much to offer that I always feel like I am missing out on something. Every day I am sick feels like a day I missed. It’s like when you are on vacation. You wanna make the most out of every day to make it count. I already feel like home over here and we began to life a normal life, but these days make me realize that sometimes it still feels like a vacation. A vacation you’ve got to make the most of.

Today I didn’t leave the house for one single minute. I didn’t even go to the balcony for the second. And that sucks. Especially because the weather finally is better and the sun is shining. But I swear: Next weekend I will do everything I missed this weekend. And I will be healthy and enjoy living in this beautiful city again.