Week #25: Week Full of A's! - (10/14/2013 - 10/20/2013)

On Monday I had a virtual tour about from the website I'm interested in taking the graphic design certificate, I liked it a lot and when I told my mom she told me that it was best for me to not take that one and instead work with Tia Marilu in December.. I've been asking her this whole weekend what to do and she never answered me.. and when I take the tour she says no.. WTF? It kind of makes sense because the program is kind of pricey but she was also the one who told me to get a certificate.. I was so mad a her. This past weekend felt so productive! I finish my chemistry homework and my 3 math assignments in which I got a 100 in each! Today I spent my hours before calculus at the library highlighting geography and I finished! I feel so proud of myself. Also, Alex told me she and Christian broke up :( I felt angry at first because I think they are a good couple.. but Alex says it's for the best so well.. My duty here is to be for her :) At 7:30 I went to this University Lecture Series with Dolvett Quince, one of the "The Biggest Loser" trainers, and it was really cool. Thanks to him I going on a run tomorrow morning :) Dolvett mention that a great help when getting healthier is to have an absolute, like me and soda right now. I plan on adding more absolutes as time goes by, maybe no more easy mac. That would be a good one, but I wanna first reach to one to three months without soda first, I don't wanna push myself so hard as I normally do.


On Tuesday morning I set my alarm at 8 am and went on a jog, I ran about 2 km in a little over 15 minutes, it's not a bad number but I used to do better; however, I did burned more calories running outside than in the gym so that's a good thing. For breakfast there were no french toasts again :( I had to eat eggs and a banana. I read two of my assign readings for American Studies before lunch and I feel so good about myself, I've been very productive these last few days and I intent to keep it that way. I feel I ate a little too much for lunch, I ate over 600 calories yet my calorie counter says I still have over a 1000 left .-. sometimes calorie counters make me eat more. After the foundations for engineer class I went to the Marshall Student Center to try to do my American Studies paper, and bought some Chick-Fil-A and a drink from the soda machine, I wanted iced tea and the machine gave me an orange soda! I almost felt into the temptation but regained my senses and paid another $1.50 for an iced tea. I am proud of myself :) I finished my American Studies paper due Monday! I can't believe I'm so far ahead!

On Wednesday I finally had french toasts for breakfast! :) Armando didn't show up at chemistry class today so the class was totally boring, I did had small talk with Marc though. Armando texted me that he over slept, the day we had 3 clicker questions haha. I went to the library before calculus so I could highlight me geography chapters for next week and there were no desks available so I ended up sitting in the floor in front of the window between the aisles. I feel I ate so much today! I was about to have a light Jamba Juice smoothie for dinner and ended up having Panda Express.. How the hell did that happened?! I feel so sad :( Food does have the power to make your day either better or worse.. actually it's your decision itself.

Thursday morning I was so tired! This thing of having chemistry lab in the morning is not good; however, the tiredness goes away after a three hour exciting lab. Today David was kind of an ass again, being a know-it-all. Victoria, Ricardo and I did a good job :) we were doing some research on the computer and I thought Victoria was done with scrolling down so I took the mouse and scrolled up a bit, and she got all sassy on me, I should have told her that I thought she was done with it, now I feel all bad. Next week we don't have a lab, we have a presentation so no stress next week.. kind of haha. At noon I went to the Metropolitan Ministries in bus to do some service hours, the ride didn't seem that long although it took about an hour to get there. I got sent to Metro Outfitters which is where homeless people can pick clothes for free, a limited amount of clothes of course. And I hung and distributed some of them, when I was at that I saw Perry Ellis, Coach, Pink, Hollister, Forever 21; even I wanted those clothes haha. After that I got sent to the Metro Market, which is where homeless people can get food which is awesome. At the market I met Michelle and Sara, they both go to USF and Sara gave me a ride back to campus! How sweet of she? She even installed her bike rack for her car just for me :)

On Friday I spend my chemistry class talking with Armando and Marc, we three are going to do the homework together this Sunday :) making more friends woohoo! In my American Studies class I got my first 3 (highest points in the discussion questions assignments) and I also scored a 95 in my American Studies first exam! I went for a jog in the afternoon and ran about 3.16 km, I feel I'm regaining my capacity, because in Panama I used to run over 4 km. Also my Forever 21 package arrived to the post office! I can't wait until they email me to pick it up :)

Week #18 (08/26/2013 - 09/01/2013) - First Week of Classes at USF

Monday was my first day of classes at USF! I woke up to the alarm of my roommate about 7 AM and I had to wake up at 9:30, it was okay. I had a banana for breakfast and walked all the way to ULH, where my Chemistry for Engineers class is at. I walked because my bike was still making that weird *clack* sound. After class, which was really what I expected, I went to buy lunch at Pollo Tropical which is just behind the building. I had it to go and ate at my room. After that I had my Intro to American Studies at the CMC Building and it was this huge auditorium, bigger than the ULH one. The sits were comfier and I had a place to rest my head on. The professor was really cool and he even showed us some videos from the 1950s. When class was over I headed back to my dorm but I picked up the mail (my Forever 21 package and my Bruno Mars t-shirt for the concert), then I got my bike and went to the Rec Center in search for the repair shop. It took the guy about 20 minutes to repair it but I was happy to wait. When I got back I picked up my bag and went to Calculus one at the CIS Building. A two hour math class in a very uncomfortable char, i. e. HELL. We got a substitute teacher because Mr. Matthew Fleeman is in a conference in Montreal, Canada. We went right ahead and started with Limits after the introduction to the syllabus. After a very exhausting day I came back to my room and started doing some reading I had to do.

On Tuesday I woke up at 9 AM to go to the gym. I really did not much, I ran about a kilometer and a half on the track and did some other stuff for a very little amount of time. After the few burned calories I went to Bull's Champions in front of the Rec Center. I had some lettuce with chicken and mashed potatoes. I also grabbed meatloaf but I didn't like it. After lunch I came back to my room and got showered. At 11:30 I went out and when I was out I realized I left about half an hour later than I should have, so I stopped by Jamba Juice and ordered Strawberry Wild, which I didn't like so much. Class was really entertaining. I took my laptop and took notes on it. My professor is from South Korea and he seems pretty cool. He likes to talk about Harry Potter, Big Bang Theory and that kinds of stuff. After that I came to my room to chill and went out again at 3 PM for my Foundations of Engineering class at the BSN. The business building was HUGE! It looked like an airport wing or something and the auditorium had about 300 to 400 students! Before the class started a guy sat next to my and I introduced myself. We ended up talking and being good friends. He invited me a Jamba Juice and helped me with some papers I had to print at the library. He seems pretty awesome and thoughtful. His name is Ahmad and he is from Jerusalem but was born in California. I really admire the person he has become, and I'm really glad I have a friend like him. I came back and ate dinner after that at my dorm, and finally finished the Chemistry chapter I had to read. Now I'm off to bed for another exciting day, NOT.

Wednesday was the concert day! However, I had classes to go. I had to read the first chapter before my Chemistry class which I did and the class was really easy because I had already read the whole material. Then I had my Intro to American Studies class, which I absolutely love. I like the professor, the topic and the classroom. The classroom is the big auditorium, and my favorite art is that I can rest my head haha. After AMS (Intro to American Studies) I had Calculus I, I decided to go walking and what was I thinking... When I came out I was on a rush because I had to go to the concert, and instead of walking I took the BullRunner because I was worn out from Math. Why did I do that? What happened was that I didn't know you had to pull a string if you wanted to get off somewhere so when the bus passed my stop I panicked. I realized what I had to do, way too late so I rode around through the off campus apartments for like 15 minutes extra. I decided to get off in MSC when we got back to campus and speed walked to my dorm. Changed clothes, got my ticket and headed out. You can read all about the concert here: Bruno Mars in Concert - Tampa 2013 and watch the video here: Youtube Video.

Thursday I had no classes so I decided to go with my mom to Busch Gardens to have some quality time before she left. As usual I got on my favorite roller coaster: Montu, Kumba, and Sheikra. I also got to ride in a new roller coaster called Cheetah Hunt. In my personal opinion it wasn't good, when the coaster rises it goes fast but by the fall it slows down. I also thought I had lost the factor of surprise and butterflies because of my last experience in Six Flags but I got to feel the butterflies this time and I was so happy. I also rode the wooden coaster. I have a soft spot for wooden coasters. They may seem not scary at all but I love them, the ensemble, the *clacks* it makes all the way, and the old/vintage style it has. After Busch Gardens I went to have some dinner with Ahmad, we had Pollo Tropical and it was fun. And finally after a long day I got to Skype with Momo. We started talking about 9 PM and I love when we talk for long periods of time.


On Friday I woke up Kaitlyn for one time. She always wakes me up because her schedule is earlier than mine but she has Fridays free so it was me who wake her up this time. Chemistry was okay, and Intro to American Studies too. We didn't have a lecture in the auditorium though. We were split up in little groups to have discussions. Our instructor is Viktoria, she is one of the Professor's grad student assistants, and she is pretty nice. The key factor to do well in AMS is participation which each day I'm feeling more comfortable with. For lunch I went to Panda Express with my mom, this would be the last time I saw her until December. Then we went to Target to buy some things I needed (Juice Boxes for when I'm thirsty) and for the first time I used my Target app and saved $1 :) At around 3 PM I handed in my FSU transcripts to transfer, which haven't been updated in my DegreeWorks and after that I went to the library to print my EGN lab homework, read some of the material of my Geography quiz next week and also print the material. I came back to the dorm and all three of my suitemates/roommates were getting ready for a sorority meeting, which is totally not my thing. They spend hours getting ready, omg haha. I had my first ramen for dinner and then I just chilled out on my first Friday night after classes started on campus.

Fun Fact about this week: I bought a Bruno Mars t-shirt at the concert and the next day I went to Busch Gardens with that t-shirt, me and my mom saw two other girls with a t-shirt from the concert too! #CRAZY