Miss Euro Blogger - Bursting the Bubble

California has more to offer than sandy beaches. A little glimpse into the 'other' California....

2015 came to a close and 2016 is only few days old. Did you think about your New Year's resolutions in the hours before the ball dropped? Were they the same as the year before? Are you gonna stick to them this time? If you are like me then you probably have the same type of resolutions every year including working out more and eating healthier. So this year, I decided to be more specific with my resolutions. Here we go: 1) I plan on losing 6 pounds and about 1 inch around the waist by the time I have my first bridal gown fitting in the spring. 2) I want to hang on to the lost weight and inches until I acutally get married. :) 3) I want to publish my first book before the summer! 4) I want to eat less chocolate. I can't get really specific about this goal. Anything less than the current amount is a success. 5) I want to focus on the present and worry less about the future or the past. 6) I will not get dragged down by the people who don't have my best interest a...

While Los Angeles had lots to offer throughout the year, it was absolutely boring when it came to New Year's Eve celebrations. Sure, there were the usual parties in Hollywood but they were no different from any Saturday night or Halloween party. There were no big fireworks around town or in the city. There was also no outdoor area where people came together to ring in the New Year like they do in New York's Time Square. I did attend a New Year's eve party once at Paramount Studios that was a nice effort by the organizers. They tried to emulate Time Square in their studio lot and it was a lot of fun. And then came midnight. The famous band that was supposed to play was running late, so New Year's Eve was celebrated with a boring countdown over the mic by someone on stage that nobody knew and nobody could see because it was so crowded. All the excitement that was built up climaxed in boredom. And the party never recovered from that. In the years following, I decided t...

Growing up in a very small village in the Austrian countryside, going to a concert was a logistical challenge. Even more so because I didn't have a car. And I lived a 45-minute walk away from the next train station. And the buses stopped running at 6 PM. Just listing all obstacles is exhausting... I saw REM in Vienna when I was about 17-years old and my friends and I spent the night hiding out in a train carriage waiting for our 6 AM train to go back home. We thought we were so adventurous and such outlaws! Living in LA opened a lot of concert opportunities. In fact, it was hard to keep up. EVERY band played in LA. Some bands never even came to Austria but in LA it seemed like they were competing over venues. I was so excited to go to my first big concert, which was U2. They played in Anaheim, which was over an hour away but I was sure it was going to be worth it. My concert experience up until then had been crowded venues with lots of drunk people and me trying to dodge elbows a...

Ah, the holidays are coming. Some people love the seasons, others get stress-pimples just by the mere thought of Christmas approaching. Growing up, Christmas involved a real tree (stolen from the woods behind our house) with real candles (with the appropriate distance away from the curtains), homemade cookies and if we were lucky - snow. We sat around the house for days to just eat, drink, watch TV, try not to get into fights because we are so bored and cooped up at home. In Los Angeles, it was a whole different ball game. The season started the minute Thanksgiving ended. Every store looked like Santa and Rudolf puked all over it. It was red-green insanity.  I could never really tell by the weather that the season was approaching but only by the stores and the endless loops of Christmas songs. Came December 15th, I wanted to crawl into the radio and take George Michael by the throat to let him know, that we got it: 'Last Christmas' she cheated on you. She's a bitch! Get ov...

I experienced Thanksgiving in Los Angeles as being the most important holiday for Americans. It seemed even more important than Christmas. Friends booked flights to go home across the country months in advance in anticipation of the long weekend. Friends staying in town invited others over to make sure, no one is alone on this day. As someone who wasn't born in the US, I did not grow up with this holiday. People look forward and fear it all year at the same time. They are happy to go back home to see family although they know that they will also get into a fight with at least one person at the dinner table. As a vegetarian, Thanksgiving was not my kind of holiday. It was a 'eat meat stuffed with meat' kinda day. One year, I skipped Thanksgiving all together and went down to New Orleans for the long weekend with a friend. That was my favorite Thanksgiving of all time! Very relaxed! With Thanksgiving coming up this week, the question of 'What are you thankful for?...