What I’ll miss about California

My sejour here in California is starting to wind down and I began to realize there are a lot of things I will miss about CA and living in the US.
In no particular order:

  • The Berkeley Bowl- the best produce, cheese grocery store around
  • My SUV
  • Customer service
  • Cable TV and VOD
  • Clubbing until 4 am
  • Cheap alcohol and an myriad selection of it
  • Clubbing until 5am
  • Seeing the city skyline every time I cross the Bay Bridge
  • Going to Napa valley when I feel like it
  • Driving 300 miles and still being stuck in CA
  • Really cheap gas
  • Non toll highways
  • People smiling and chatting wherever you go
  • Dunkin Donuts
  • 24 hour stores
  • My SUV
  • The Kitchen Aid Mixer
  • Clubbing until 6am and watching the sunrise
  • Cheap, tasty Mexican food
  • Visiting Lake Tahoe and going snowboarding
  • Hiking in Marin Country and watching the sunrise
  • Yes, my SUV…having no wheels in Sweden may just kill me
  • Late night anything

…and all my friends whom I love dearly

February 5, 2008 | Tags: | 7 Comments »

A Swedish Alien finds the Lost Nomad

I received an amazing email today via flickr from a native Stockholmer who now lives in CA. She posted my Stockholm photos to her blog and was really thrilled to see the everyday parts of the city.

Tack så mycket Swedish Alien for posting! Here is the link:
Lovely Things You Can Find Online

November 21, 2007 | Tags: , | 2 Comments »

Man riskerar mycket vid en eventuell förlust

There I was, eating chocolate and loving it. Selling some too. I was getting paid to eat exquisite chocolate. You know, that chocolate that costs upwards of $70 a pound (okay some of them are $40…more reasonable). And I felt lovely.

Then I felt like someone was clipping my wings and I wanted to scream.

All this time I have been planning to leave California, stretch my wings, cut my ties, and start again. Stockholm was (is) the place. I fell in love with the city a month ago and wanted to move there. I still do. But I was presented with an opportunity this week to start in retail at a high end chocolate company and move up corporate ladder (i.e. maybe run my own store within a year).

And then there’s Stockholm…having family — haven’t been near any for 5 years, starting a new life, having the opportunity to get a great job and go to school, finding a love, meeting new friends, learning a new culture/language, living in Scandinavia, loving the snow, watching the ships in the harbors…

If I don’t go to Stockholm, what happens? I stay in CA, go a little crazy but work in the high end chocolate food industry, travel, eat delicious food, sell magnificent chocolate…

I could lead the life of a Stockholmer and my doppelganger could lead the life of the chocolate goddess.

Or if I have to choose: One risks a great deal if one eventually loses

The choice for me will present itself when the time is right; I presume.

October 25, 2007 | Tags: , , | 3 Comments »

In the pursuit of happiness

California is a great state but I have never been happy living here. I moved here seven years to begin college and somehow stuck around because the Bay Area was “the place to be.” But, it is not the place for me. For the past few months I have been toying with the idea of relocating back to the east coast…I came very close, nearly moved my stuff and left in September. I didn’t move, for the best I suppose.

Now I am still in California and feeling truly dazed and confused by this state. California may be the “greatest place to live” but I hate it and I do not see why I have to conform to the Cali is great philosophy. I am getting tired of defending my distaste of this area; it is after all my life and I have every right to seek my own pursuit of happiness in the best way I see fit.

What is that pursuit of happiness? Job? Career? Money? Savings? Love? Partner? Life? Tranquility? Fun? I still do not know but I am certain I will not find it in California. The time is right for me to pack up and move on and start a new chapter in my life.

I have to come to the point in my life where I am willing to risk everything I know in order to find something greater. And there it is, I should go back to Europe and live out the European dream that I have desperately missed. I may not have a job or a school to attend at this moment, but everything in me says going to Europe is the right thing to do. For me. And that is all that matters.

I have decided to ponder until All Hallows Eve (i.e. Halloween) on where/when/how/what of a possible move. At that point, I will make my decision and buy a ticket and not turn back.

Sometimes we have to let go of everything we are familiar with to find something we were always looking for.

October 20, 2007 | Tags: | 5 Comments »