From the beginning on I’ve been very honest with you about what I find hard about moving to a new country. My biggest fear and indeed one of my biggest struggles here in the US has been finding friends from the beginning on. I know that it is mostly my fault, because I might not be the most outgoing and easy person. But I didn’t expect it to be that hard to find some nice people over here.

Now – nearly 18 months after we first moved the US – we found some nice friends and have a good circle of close people. But it for sure isn’t the same as back home. We hung out with one of Flo’s new co workers and his girlfriend yesterday. I met them before and absolutely love them, but for the first time I really got to talk to them yesterday. When I talked to the girl alone, she told me how hard even she as an American has it to find friends in LA. She is from the East Coast and told me that she considers the West Cast as somewhat of a bad place to actually make friends.

When you move here you have to learn the difference of an actual friendship and a superficial nice gesture very fast. No, I don’t want to say Americans are superficial. I really don’t think that. They are nice and open – and Europeans might often misunderstand that. But you have to learn to not mistake a nice move as a friendship. And I guess that is what happened to me when we first moved here and often left me a little confused.

I guess the best tip I can give everyone who plans on moving here or just did so is take your time. Don’t think everything has to work out perfectly in the first years. Maybe you will be lucky and find friends super fast. But maybe you won’t – and that’s absolutely okay. Because you are building a whole new life for yourself – and you have to do that one step at a time.

This week we had visitors in our new guest room for the first time. Well, actually it is more an office, but we also use it as a guest room if needed. One of Flo’s ex-co workers and her boyfriend came to stay with us for a week after taking a roadtrip down the West Coast from Seattle, where they landed three weeks ago. Sadly we didn’t have that much time to spend with our friends, since we both had to work as usual. But we still had a bit of time to show them some nice things.

We took them to one of our favorite Sushi restaurants down here on Sunday – their first night here, called Waki Sushi in Seal Beach. During the week we mostly stayed in at night, had dinner, talked or watched movies, but during the day our friends enjoyed the sun, beach and a few other sights in the OC. We drove to Anaheim to watch the Disneyland Fireworks on Friday. I think I gave this tip before, but if you haven’t read it yet: If you don’t wanna go to the actual Disneyland Park, but still want to see the pretty Fireworks, you actually can for free. Go to Downtown Disney (you can park there for free for the first three hours) and go to the area between the actual park entrances to Disneyland and California Adventure. From here you have a pretty good view and can enjoy the cute Downtown Disney area for free before or afterwards.

On Saturday, we went to Los Angeles with two more of our friends, got lunch and afterwards hiked to the Hollywood Sign. Many people think this hike is illegal, but it actually isn’t. So if you have a few hours and are in the mood to hike, you should try this one. Not only to get as close to the Hollywood Sign as you can get, but also to have amazing views of huge parts of Los Angeles including the pretty Hollywood Reservoir, Downtown, the Griffith Observatory and if you are lucky you can even spot the beach.

I always love having friends in town, because it gives me a little feeling of home and also makes me see the LA gems that I normally don’t visit!

We moved to the OC 1 week ago and the only thing I can say about our new home so far is: I love it! Here are my (so far) Top Five of what makes Huntington Beach way more home to me than Los Angeles ever could:

1. Stars
There are a lot of Stars and Starlets in Hollywood (and yes, we saw a few in the last two years), but actually seeing the stars in the sky at night is priceless. I guess the smog over LA just makes that impossible!

2. Breathe
This is kinda obvious, since we lived in the middle of a big city, but the air down here is just soooo much nicer. I really feel able to breathe fresh air down here and that feels amazing.

3. Relax
This will probably change soon, but right now I feel like I am on vacation. Smelling the ocean when you walk outside, having a huge pool in front of our apartment and being able to walk to the beach – this lets me forget all the work stress instantly when I come home.

4. Water
It might actually not be the shortest way to take, but every morning and night I drive down Pacific Coast Highway and say hello to the ocean. I can’t really grasp the idea that I live here yet, but it makes me incredibly happy to see the ocean every day.

5. No Traffic
Yes, I have to drive 30 miles to Downtown LA every morning and there sure is a lot of traffic, but down here it’s just so nice. In Hollywood we basically would drive out of our garage into the next long line of cars. But here we need to drive a few miles to actually get stuck in traffic.

I will most likely find many more pros (and a few cons) living down here. But I am already sure this step was more than right. And brought us a little closer to a few more dreams coming true.