The hotel has been super buy this whole week and I am very tired now. I just got home from work, and I am eating my Icelandic Lakkrís Páskaegg frá Góu and drinking milk with it. Wish I had Icelandic milk. Well guess you can't have it all...

I am off for the next two days. So tonight it is Set with me boys... Javier is visiting form Spain. Then tomorrow, relax the whole day, I might go to the gym. I think it would be good considering the amount of candy my mother sent me (2.8kg) and it is sooooo difficult not to eat it, when it is right there in front of my nose. Specially when you come tired home from work. So my dinner have been consisting of chocolate for the past few nights. Yesterday for example I had strawberry yogurt with Nóa Kropp...  mmmmm delicious.  

Pictures will be up soon on facebook.

D

Yesterday was very nice. I went cruising down Ocean Drive in a nice Mustang convertible and then to the beach. Finally the weather is hot enough for the beach. So I am sorry for all you guys out there in the cold weather. There is even snow in Barcelona, this is crazy. 

Weather: Not as hot as I wanted to be

I bought a new bed yesterday. A queen size bed. It was delivered today. Can't wait to sleep in it. I feel like I have not had a real good night sleep in months. Until now I have been sleeping on a sofa bed, and it was so bad. 

So now I have space available for those who want to come and visit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfYmMt92Otg

The second link is from an Icelandic newspaper article. Sorry for you that do not speak Icelandic.

http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/erlent/2010/02/23/espersen_fyrsta_konan_i_

embaetti_utanrikisradherra_/

Veit því miður ekki hvort að þessi kona sé eitthvað skild mér, vegna þess að það er ekki til nein islendigabok.is í Danmörku eða danmarkbog.dk væri það víst kallað.

Peace out...

Time: 21.00

Quote of the day: Don't know what you got till it's gone.

Finally I am getting some work, and not only days off. I only had one day off this week. The hotel was very busy last weekend. Reason. Super Bowl. This week there is a boat show in town, and of course Valentine's Day. 

I have been in Miami for five weeks now. I am learning more and more about my job, and therefore I am getting more and more responsibility, which is good. 

I do not have a romantic date for Valentine's Day, but I have a date with two girls from work. We are going to the movies to see the movie "Valentine's Day" and have a burger at Five Guys. They server the best burgers I have ever tasted in my life. It is just a simple burger joint, but the burgers are AMAZING.... Can't wait to take my dad there when ever my parents come for a visit.

The weather is still f**ked up here. Windy and rain, so even though the occupancy is good at the hotel for the moment, we are not having too many people coming to the pool.

Wish you all a happy Valentine's Day.

Ps. A reward for the person who can tell me how many times I wrote the words Valentine's Day in this article :-)

I was off yesterday (Sunday) and then since it was raining today the pool was closed so I was off today as well. Since it was raining like crazy and we could not go to the beach, Boris and I decided to go to the movies. First we saw "When in Rome" and since it was still raining we decided to see another movie: "Legion" with Paul Bettany. Very different but good movies. 

There has not much been going on lately just work and watching movies. Went out on Saturday to a club called Liv. 

I am getting my paycheck next Thursday. I can't wait so finally I can start enjoying Miami to the fullest. Even though most of it goes to pay my rent.

Weather: 24°C partly cloudy

The heat is finally back to Miami. Boris and I were off today, so we spent the day on the beach. The sea is still too cold, so we walked all the way from our building which is on 34th and down to 8th street. There we stopped at a nice Café and had an Apperol Spritz in the heat and looked at nice cars driving by on Ocean Drive. We took the boardwalk on the way back. 

We had Mexican food for dinner and then we went to see Avatar in 3D. A very nice movie, very cool. Normally I do not like these kind of movies (future and adventure), but this one I liked. Those of you who still have not seen it, I recommend to see it in the movies, because not to see it in 3D is just not the same experience. 

Well after two lovely days off, it is time to go back to work tomorrow.

Weather: 23°C

Quote of the day: 

I have been in Miami now for 11 days and I love it...

I am working at the Pool and Beach Bar & Restaurant so I should be able to get some tan working there Still my uniform consists of long pants and a white shirt so when the heat goes up, I probably will be boiling. I really like my team, they are all very nice. The servers are all from Bali, Thailand or Burma. My manager is from Mexico, and the two other girls that are assistant managers along with me are from Thailand and Switzerland. When I arrived the weather was soooo cold. It has never been this cold in Miami, or at least not for many many years. Thus, there was no business at the pool, so unfortunately I cannot tell you a lot about my job since I have only worked for three days. But so far so good. 

I have been living a week now in my new apartment. It is about 15 min walk to work, right on the beach, and just across the hall from Boris. It is a studio and I got it furnished, but still I had to buy a lot of stuff, so I went both to Target and Sam's Club to buy some stuff. So my money are running low now, so I am really hoping for some more work, because I am on hourly salary.... But once the weather gets better the business should pick up.

When it comes to party... There are no words, it has to be experienced. I have not gone out a lot, but those times I have been out I really liked it. I will tell you more about the party later. 

In general Miami is very different from all other US cities I've been to, or at least Miami Beach, I have not spend much time in the city itself.

I am leaving Iceland on the 5th and I fly directly to Orlando.....

Hope to see you in Miami!!!!

Weather: Hotter than China.... amazing

I am back home now. So nice to be back home and have some good food, and just chill. I really needed that. I am basically just spending time with my family, watching TV and eating good food. I am also going through the whole visa process for the US. There are a lot of papers that needs to be filled out and signed. 

Other than that nothing special.....

Hope you all are good.

 

Yesterday I woke up at 8, had breakfast at the hotel, and then the guide and the driver came and pick me up at 9. We drove just over an hour to the Badaling section of the great wall. The great wall is over 3000 km, and I climbed around 1,6 km.  We reached 800 m altitude, by walking the very steep steps. When I came back down my legs where shaking, and when I woke up this morning I had a massive muscle pain. 

The great wall is amazing, really impressive. It really is one of the must sees in the world. 

After climbing down again, we stopped at a Jade museum. Jade is a stone that can be found here in China, and they use it to carve jewelry, Buddah statues, and other nick nacks.

Before heading back to Beijing, we visited the Summer Palace. This was where the emperors and empresses spend the summer months. There is beautiful lake there, and a nice garden. I am kind of here in the wrong season. Because it would have been beautiful to have seen either in spring or summer with all the trees blooming, or the fall colors, or even when everything would be covered in snow. But I should not complain, there were less tourists around, and the weather was actually very nice.

Once back in town, I enjoyed Peking duck in pancakes. After that I went to a traditional Chinese tea house, and tasted some good, but very expensive tea. 

Today, my last day in Beijing I did not do much. I went to a market and did some shopping, and then I went back to check out of the hotel, and now I am at the airport. 

I am working long hours for the next two weeks, and then I am flying home on the 14th..... So do not expect much update in the next days.

Peace out. And wish me luck packing and getting home with my all my luggage. As much as I love traveling, I had the packing part. I ALWAYS have too much luggage.  

After eating Peking duck for lunch, I headed to Tian´an men Square (Gate of heavenly peace) and the Forbidden City. Tian´an men Square is the big famous square, where the big portrait of Mao Zedong hangs. 

When I was outside the gate of Forbidden City looking for the ticket booth, a Chinese guy approached me  and asked me if he could be my personal guide and show me around the Forbidden City since it was only one and a half hour until the "city" would close. I decided to take him on the offer. I was very happy that I did that. He spoke good English and was very knowledgeable. He told me all about the two emperor dynasties that lived there from the middle of the 15th century till the beginning of the 20th century.  If it would not have been for him, I would just have seen this huge rectangular city  (almost 1 km long, and 750 m wide) filled with palaces. 

After the tour, he took me to the shopping street, where I went to an market, and had something to eat.

Tomorrow, he is going to take me to the Great Wall, and the Summer Palace.

Beijing is a very interesting city. Totally different from Shanghai. More Chinese, not all these skyscrapers like in Shanghai. However, I figured out something about myself today. I like living in a city, but when I go on holiday I am more fascinated by a beautiful beach, and the nature, than palaces and museums in a city. I just do not get that impressed by buildings. But that is just me!!!!

I´ll tell you about the Great Wall tomorrow.