TWO MONTHS SOBER from soda

In two days I will have lasted two months without having any sip of soda which is awesome! A couple of months ago I would have never believed I would be able to do this, let alone to last two whole months! I'm at that stage where I don't crave it anymore, and the simple thought of drinking some doesn't make my stomach happy. It's just like McDonald's, I stopped eating McDonald's without realizing for a little bit over a couple of months and next thing I know, it gives me stomach ache. I tried a second time and it gave me stomach ache again. 

So I hope I keep going the way I am, specially this Thanksgiving weekend that my mom is coming and I'm going to Disney and Universal. Even if I get to drink soda I feel very good about this huge achievement. 

Week #30: Rocking Combat Boots (11.18.13 - 11.24.13)

So I posted my iPad 2 for sell on EBAY since I don't use it and I got a buyer! I got to sell it at $230, and in Amazon it's at $250 so it was a good deal. The buyer sent the money through PayPal but I haven't gotten the notification of the payment so that worries me. I also asked Armando if he could give me a lift to the airport the Saturday I'm going back to Panama and he said yes! :) Something less to worry about. Yesterday, Sunday, Nick, Chad and I met up to film the commercial for the Foundations Lab and here's the video:

On Monday I also received my Forever 21 package and the Mickey Mouse sweater I was waiting for was not what I expected :( and I can't exchange it because it was on sale! I also have been applying to Penn State, Rutgers and U-Mich since I can reapply to the Senacyt scholarship, I can feel the stress all over again! Today was also Rod's birthday and he went out with the guys to Friday's :) I wish I'd been there I miss the guys so much! 

On Tuesday right after waking up I went to the post office to mail the iPad! I received the notification of the payment yesterday, it was in the junk folder oops. The next day delivery was around $40.00 and the buyer gave me $50 for the shipping so if she doesn't notice might have gained $10 extra :) I had green juice for lunch and let's hope I don't get hungry. My group and I gave the speech of Foundations of Engineering Lab and everybody laughed at the commercial we made, I also went to Publix to buy more pineapple and bananas for the rest of the week and I finished my chemistry report in one sitting! I got in a fight with Rod because I spent the majority of his money in a PS3 game when I told him to buy some weights to do some lifting and he ended with not enough money for the weights and I got super mad because he keeps telling me he wants to lose weight so bad yet it seems like it's not his priority. We kind of made up, I'm not mad a him but I did told him I was frustrated and it made me sad whenever I saw him in pictures.

On Wednesday I was planning on wearing my brand new boots from Forever 21, but as always I backed down last minute... I gotta get some new confidence on me. In one week I'll see my mom! Woohoo! I'm so happy and excited :) I also weighted myself which was really worthless because I have nothing to compare it to since I always weight at different times, but usually I'm between 113 and 115; however, today I weighted myself and I'm 112.5 :) I'm also acquiring taste for The Beatles, which may sound lame but I'm beginning to like them, I like that old vibe they have.

Wednesday night, or Thursday early morning was hard on me... It was 2 o'clock in the morning and my roommate was snoring! I couldn't fall asleep, I tried putting on headphones, putting pillows in my ears and nothing! It wasn't until she rolled over that the snoring stop, my theory is that she snores when she's sleeping flat on the bed because once she turned sideways I felt asleep. Lab this morning was normal, we only stayed for an hour and graded each other's lab reports; also I got a couple of compliments on my new leggins! I also used my new boots which weren't very comfy after a long walk but I'm guessing that's because they are still new. An issue happened with the transaction for the iPad, the thing was that the buyer had a minimum amount for transactions which is $500 and the iPad was $280 so I had to transact $220 back to her, so I'll be receiving my money by next week /: I went to the library at 5:30 and spend the next two and a half hours studying chemistry! I don't feel a 100% prepared but considering I've not payed attention to any lecture nor done my homework consciously, a 90% it's a good number. Also, today's also Armando birthday :)

On Friday I had my chemistry exam and I feel I did better than the second one so let's hope for the best. Yesterday Missy and Bryan from Daily Bumps asked us to send them pictures doing the thing with our tongues where you kind of separate into three parts and I sent them my picture, and I got mentioned in today's vlog! Bryan was scrolling in his TL and he stopped at my photo, only mine, and said "Oh that's a really good one too, good job Stace"! Haha, that was awesome because he only mentioned mine :)

First Days with Raw Diet (RAW #2)

So I've been eating at least one raw meal since Friday and it's been going good. 

Meals from this week:

Friday:

• Breakfast: Lucky Charms
• Lunch: Strawberries with Whip Cream
• Dinner: Apples, Pears and a Turkey and Cheese Sandwich

Saturday:

• Lunch: Peperoni Pizza
• Dinner: Green Juice

• 

Sunday:

• Lunch: Pizza and Hamburger
• Dinner: Pineapple and Green Juice

• 

Monday:

• Breakfast: Eggs and French Toasts
• Lunch: Carrots with Peanut Butter and Bread
• Dinner: Green Juice and Nuts

• 

What I like the most of the Raw Diet is the green juice, because they always taste good and it takes away the hunger. I'm going to keep having green juice for dinner, and recently I ordered a mini fridge so I could stock up on more fruits and veggies without disturbing my roommate since I store all my stuff I have in her mini fridge. 

I STARTED A RAW DIET (Raw #1)

As you read in this week's post I decided to sail into the raw food world, I don't plan on being a full time raw vegetarian but I do intend to have at least one raw meal a day.
This week I went to the super market and bought a bunch of fruits, nuts and veggies, and also whip cream and peanut butter since I don't like the veggies and fruits alone (which is going to be a real struggle since this is a raw diet). I also bought a blender in Target for jut $20! It's one of those personal blenders that the blending cup is also the drinking cup, it's called Bella.
I plan to drink at least one smoothie per day as a meal, and I'll try to put as many veggies as I can. And some of the ingredients for the smoothie I'll get them from the dining halls for free hehe.

All this raw diet inspiration came from a Youtube channel called FullyRawKristina, where she explains what to expect, how to start, recipes, and what to buy. That channel helped me a lot! I'm basically doing this diet based on that channel.

Here are some videos from Fully Raw Kristina:

This one was essential for me since it talks about how to be fully raw while in college. I'm not going to be fully raw so it doesn't apply in its totality for me but it still inspired me.

This video has tips on how to start a fully raw diet, this was the first video I saw from Fully Raw Kristina and from there it was like a snowball watching all of her videos. 

Week #29: Beach on a Monday (11/11/2013 - 11/17/2013)

Monday was Veteran's day so we got the day off. Armando invited me to the beach with his friends from Castor, Kiley took Armando, her boyfriend and I to Treasure Island where we met with her roommate Adrianna and her boyfriend Alberto. It was the kind of day to lay down in the sun so that's what we did for the first half hour or so. Armando was in the ocean so I stood up and went over there to cool off but the water was as Armando says "cold as my ex wife" in his scale of 1 to ex wife. Armando and I played some Frisbee and let me tell you I improved with practice. It felt weird being in there because it was two couples plus me and Armando and I definitely felt like a third wheeler, plus the fact that my shyness and being new to the group made me even more introvert. I kind of wanted to leave at some point, when Armando fell asleep and it was just me and the two couples but I just took it like a big girl. I really enjoy being with Armando, but it's really hard for me to make new relationships, like REALLY hard. Today Rod started his new workout routine, which I basically arranged for him and I'm gonna remind him every night to do his workout.

I have a lot of things in my bucket list, and one of them is to write a book. A couple of days ago I started writing this book about a name girl Elise, and this is the longest I've kept writing a book. For now is seven pages long and about to start the third chapter. I wrote the second chapter on Tuesday after having lunch. After class I went to the library and finished my chemistry homework, as a reward I went to Starbucks because I was craving a Cinnamon Toast Crunch Frappe, but they don't sell it anymore! :( So I had to deal with a Double Chocolate Chip Frappe, which was so-so. At 5 PM I met with my Foundations for Engineering Lab group and we just built the slinky iPhone holder in about 5 minutes, we'll get together again on Friday to make the video commercial.

On Wednesday the weather was super cold, not a lot but still, it was around 17 C but it was very windy. It was also a bad choice to just wear a cardigan and leggins. Today was just another common day, the highlight of my day was honestly being the last in line to get French Toasts. The server served about 6 french toast sticks to the guy in front of me! So I got what was left which was one whole stick and like 6 nuggets of toasts. The night was so chilly I opted to go back to my dorm in the BullRunner. I also skyped with Alex today! I guess that could be the second highlight of my day, she asked her mom if she could come for spring break and her mom says that that is a good idea! I'm so excited! :)

On Thursday Sara and I went to the Metropolitan Ministries for volunteering and we got assigned in the kitchen today. I saw Juan, the guy kind of in charge of the kitchen and he remembered me! I remembered I'm from Panama :) We made sandwiches and cleaned the kitchen. Today was also out last chemistry lab! We finished an hour and a half before time and our TA, Justin, didn't let us out until it was time so we just hung out watching vines and stuff. I learned about something called Raw Diet, which is eating like a vegan, but like food that is not processed either so like not cooked vegetables; and let me tell you, I'm kind of interested in that. For this week I'm gonna be a full vegan, eating raw. This weekend I'll go out and buy some fruits and veggies from Sweetbay and a blender from Target. I want to change, and I'm inspired because I weighted myself today after two and half months and I'm over 3 pounds heavier! I wanted to become skinnier in college not thicker, although I do see myself skinnier which can be the muscle adding pounds, but still there's a lot lo loose.

It's Friday and the USF Study Abroad Office finally uploaded the 2014 course list for next summer! I'm so excited, I saw a fine arts course that I really liked it's a Collage Workshop, and I also want to enroll in the Breads of Italy and Italian for Beginners courses. So all those courses are on Session A which is from May 18 to June 28. I also decided to begin my raw diet today so I went to Sweetbay after chemistry and bought 5 apples, 4 peaches, two pouches of cashews, some bananas, strawberries with whip cream, baby carrots and celery. I had the strawberries and whip cream for lunch and I am full! For dinner I kept going with my raw food diet and had an apple and a peach, but I was getting tired of the flavor so I dipped them in whip cream. It's going to be hard to heat fruits and veggies without whip cream :( I was supposed to meet up with Chad and Nick to do our Foundation of Engineering project but Nick is out of town so I'm just chilling in my dorm. At the end of the day I consumed less than 1500 calories and I feel kind of full so I guess it was a good day. I also drank nothing but water today!

Also a couple of weeks ago I sent a package to Alex in Panama with a bunch of little presents because her birthday is this Sunday. I sent it to my grandpa's address and got Brandon to give it to her at FSU. She got it Thursday and it felt awesome :) I also sent Rod a couple of t-shirts for his birthday since his birthday is one day after Alex's. Among Alex's gift I bough a USF t-shirt, 3 pairs of thighs, whoppers, an EOS lip balm, a poster for her dorm that says "keep exploring" or something like that, and a bunch of other silly gifts.

BEST SMOSH VIDEO

This has been the funniest Smosh video I've ever seen, I laughed the whole video with no spaces of no-laughter longer than 5 seconds in between.
Tom Hiddleston (Loki) was super funny and such a good sport, those three had perfect chemistry.

Being a Good Person is Directly Proportional to Having a Strong Conscience

Today I realized that good people have a very strong conscience. I have noticed throughout my whole high school that irresponsible people don't give a damn about the outcomes in whatever situation you are stressed about. A difference of them and me is that I agonize with my conscience for weeks, even months, and I can surely say years; when I do something wrong. 
Irresponsible people, and bad people seem to hide their guilt very well, if they have a conscience at all; but good people struggle with it every day until they do something good about it. And that's me. 
The thing about me is that I can't get myself together to do the right thing, or what socially and ethically seems to be the right thing, and if I do it always comes in a very awkwardly way. 
I despise my strong conscience, but at the same time I'm grateful for it because it let's me be humble and keep both of my feet on earth. 
To all those bad people out there, there's no shame in hiding your guilt, once you uncover it you'll change for the better. 

Week #28: Thor: The Dark World (11/04/13-11/11/13)

On Monday I woke up at 7:45 am to register for classes for Spring 2014! It's weird that I can register from November 4th when I'm not in the Honors College because the only ones that can register this early for classes are the ones in athletics and Honors College. I think I'm able to register this early because of the number of credits I enrolled with and my current GPA. Chemistry was really a drag, every class makes me realize even more how little I'll use chemistry when I grow up. I had an American Studies test today and I think I did pretty well. I met up with Courtney before calculus to finish our calculus homework and we finished! Well, I finished. Well, actually I did a little bit over 90% but I'm really ok with that. At 7:30 I went to the Engineers Without Borders meeting to talk about the color run and met someone from Honduras, and we bonded a bit, her name's Rina. She noticed I was latino when I rolled my tongue for the R in her name.


On Tuesday we had to hand in our midterm report for project #2 for Foundations of Engineering lab and we didn't know, lucky us our professor is awesome any gave us until this Friday to hand it in. I went to the library to do my chemistry homework and did a great amount without getting distracted or buying Starbucks! Today I had my last class of foundations of engineering! I'll have more relaxing weeks now ahead, after foundations I met up with Ricardo and Victoria to discuss what we were going to do for the chemistry lab and we are totally lost. I began watching Grey's Anatomy in mid September and now am in the 9th season, this is the last season Netflix has and I'm kind of sad :( Grey's Anatomy has been so intense! I definitely love this series.

On Wednesday I had good ol' french toasts for breakfast :D chemistry was boring as usual as well as american studies. At noon I went to a leadership lunchtime, which should be my last if I did my math right and the spokesman told us something that really made me think hard, he told us to work or in this case learn for a challenge not for passion, he says that if you are good in something you should keep doing it because being good will make you wanna love it. He does makes sense and that makes me more secure with my major choice actually. After calculus I met up with Chad and Nick and we did a pretty good job, we decided to do my idea for project #2. For project #2 we have to design either a household tool or a children's toy and my idea was a slinky hanging from the ceiling with your phone stick to it, that way if you wanna text someone in the middle of the night you don't have to reach to your nightstand or find your phone through your sheets.

Thursday, this is the real day I look up to every Monday because these are my easy days. We successfully finished the lab knowing exactly what to do, I feel bad though because I feel Victoria is the one doing all the smart stuff (calculations and graphs), Ricardo is the good one with the Spectrometer's software, and I'm just writing the data down. I feel so useless, then again, I'm bad a chemistry so I've always been useless. After lab Victoria and I stop by the Samsung kiosk that's been on campus the whole week giving cellphones, tablets, gift cards and accessories. I feel like I went for nothing because all I got was a speaker, what I really wanted was the gift cards.

On Friday I had Jamba Juice for lunch, I like having smoothies for lunch but Jamba Juice is so freaking expensive! a $6.90 smoothie are you serious? Might as well buy 3 orders of chicken nuggets at Chick-Fil-A! One of the reasons I wanna got to Panama so bad is to finally try out my brand new bullet blender that's been waiting for me since August. At 2:30 I met up with Courtney and went to the movies at AMC! We saw Thor and it was so fun! We didn't have one single awkward moment, I love her :) The movie was awesome too, it was so unexpected; omg I just love Loki. We got lost a couple of times haha but it was a fun evening :)

Courtney as a Mickey in her car! It's
so cute!

ENOUGH WITH THIS BIPOLAR WEATHER!

Florida has it pros of being a warm state, unlike New York or Washington. However, being here as really upset my feelings about being "lucky". 
The thing about the Florida weather is that is so bipolar! The sun has a lot to do with the weather actually, in fall the mornings are pretty chilly, and in five minutes it can raise literally 10 degrees! That's what I don't like about this weather. Also the rain, Florida gets affected by the hurricane season, but I get that; what I don't get is how can a pouring thunderstorm change to a sunny day in minutes?! 

Dear Florida, 

I really appreciate that it's not snowing, or as hot as Panama; but you gotta get some help, because these bipolar issue will never get better. 

Stacy Kam

P.S. This is the weather I like:

I MISS MOMO :(

I miss Rod :( that's all I wanted to say really. I miss him because he's the only other person who I can be myself with and not feel alone. Not feel alone more than ever since I'm here and I kind of know what alone truly means, it's not that I'm a loner but I just miss having that one person you can just trust and be yourself with. 

I miss you Momo :)

Week #27: Happy Halloween! (10/28/2013 - 11/03/2013)

On Monday I had my first job interview ever, in the Office of Housing of USF. I was interviewed at 2 while they were also looking at my portfolio and they asked me some common questions, how did I get into photography? Did I had any experience? Was I comfortable talking to other people? I think I did really well but I'm not that positive because I'm certain there are a lot of more talented people than I am on campus. I wore my new blue dress from Forever 21 and a long sleeve USF sweater along with beige flats. I hate flats! My feet are so weird, no shoe fits well. Well, they fit but I get blisters and stuff. After calculus I bought me some Pollo Tropical, I love their pork Tropichop and went back to my dorm and watched KUWTK. I seriously need to stop buying Whoppers, whenever I have them I can't stop eating them and whenever I don't have some I can't stop craving them!

While I was studying on Tuesday for calculus I had the
best frapuccino I've had from Starbucks:
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Frap :)

On Tuesday I kind of skyped with Alex, my connection was super low so we had to postponed our convo for another day, I missed foundation of engineering because I am allowed to miss one and this one was the last before Mechanical so this was my last chance and what a coincidence that it's the day before me calculus test. I've been in the library since 4 pm and it's now 9 pm, I'm having a light headache and I can't really keep going. I feel like I'm going to fail so bad :( I still don't understand some basic stuff which is really bad and I don't have the will power nor the energy to keep going. I want to make my mom proud and this isn't helping :(

On Wednesday I woke up stressed about the calculus test, and I still am. It's 12:30 and the test is at 4, so it's a long way to go. Also Alex texted me about something I wrote weeks ago about her relationship, her ex-other half wanted me to take out what I wrote, but this blog is my safe haven and I write what I feel like writing. I have learned throughout the years that you shouldn't be what others want you to or expect you to be, however I will stop writing about her life, one because it's not mine although she is part of mine, and two because well.. I don't want to upset her or anything. Before my calculus test I met up with Victoria and Ricardo to discuss what we were going to do for tomorrow's lab and we finished early so Victoria and I went to Mr. Fleeman's office hours to review before the test. At first the test felt kind of easy but has I turned the pages it turned harder and harder. I hope I didn't messed up but I have a very bad feeling about this test.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Although I didn't dress up, collected candy or go to any parties, I just don't believe in Halloween.
Thursday I had chemistry lab and we did fine once we figured out exactly what to do, apparently David hasn't dropped the class according to Justin, but he did tell us he had drop it, so what it's going on? Anyway, after lab I had some Panda Express for lunch and then went to Metropolitan Ministries to do some volunteering work. Sara gave me a ride along with a friend of hers and Sara and I worked at Outreach Outfitters and Outreach Market, I really prefer Outreach Market so next time I'm gonna try getting that place. So I have a hold for an advisor appointment that I did went to, and the hold states the contrary so I have emailed and called my advisor and NOTHING! I just emailed the Dean of Undergraduates because my registration date is this Monday and I need that hold taken! I'm stressing so much over that! The Croc's package also came in today, another package to store until mom comes, I also got the Disney tickets in the mail! I'm so excited! I haven't gone to Disney in ages.

On Friday I had a pretty normal day, I got two 3s on my past week's weekly assignment for AMS, a B on the draft and well... This day was simply plain. I feel fatter :( Maybe it was yesterday's Panda Express, I feel so bad I'll have a cleansing weekend :) Kaitlyn went back home for the weekend which is nice to have some days the room to yourself. I spent the rest of my day watching Grey's Anatomy and trying to do my math homework but it's simply very hard! I'm kind of waiting for that beast mode moment to hit me and sincerely I'm getting worried it's too late. Oh my mom also told me that there's going to be a Forever 21 in Panama and it's opening this November 9th! It's kind of exciting because I could have pretty clothes whenever I wanted but it takes the magic out of shopping in the US.