What's Up Weekly Synopsis

 

 

 

My endeared friend's affirmation that I am indeed fabulous totally made my day.

Yes, I bought a 15 oz coffee cup from the bookstore - that's a grande in Starbucks lingo.

 

 

Care package from my family when I was suffering from the worst cold ever - stuffy nose, fatigue, cough, congestion - yes, I know you are dying to read all of the snotty details, but I will refrain. 

 

 

The ever intimidating mid-race face of death.

 

23:54. Disappointed.

 

My best friends - foam rollers and sphere-shaped objects that roll out all the knots in my quads, calves, glutes, back....

 

 

Snapshot of life as a College Freshman

 My day usually begins with my cell phone alarm going off around 6 AM. After that, it is pretty much a blur of cross country work-outs, consuming caffeine, studying, listening/trying not to doze off during class, and accepting my 20 new friend requests on Facebook (slight hyperbole). This post is a simple snapshot of my university life, sprinkled with subtle hints for those of you dying to send me care packages. :)

 

  

My dorm habitat - I am totally into aqua blues and lime greens, not to mention hot pink. The plan is to eventually install a fridge under the microwave.

 

What do I snack on? Green tea, coffee, popcorn, dark chocolate, unsalted almonds/peanuts and Clif bars. Not to mention brown sugar.
Before going to college I could not nap, I had too much energy or would start thinking about my marathon-long list of things to do. Not anymore. At about any time of day, especially after hard cross-country work-outs, I can slide into my bed and pass out for a 20 or 30 minute power nap.

 I chill with the ice tub about four times a week.

 Collegiate sports definitely take a toll on the body, but I don't plan on being sidelined for the season because I wasn't keeping up with injury prevention. My left calf has been driving me CRAZY, so I have been icing every day, elevating my legs when I read or before I go to bed, and I finally ordered a pair of hot pink compression socks for recovery. The last thing I want is shinsplints. Hopefully I can hitch a ride to Walmart soon so I can pick up a foam roller. If you don't know what I am talking about, a foam roller is a wonderful device that loosens up your muscles and rolls out all the knots in your leg muscles. Google it :)

Sometimes I bring the ice with me. Accessorizing like a runner girl. 

 

Now that I have rambled about my running life, time for the next most important element of my existence: eating. I have been devouring fruit, veggies, salad, soup, and wraps like there is no tomorrow, not to mention the amount of water, coffee, and tea that I chug drink everyday. The above pic is an example of what I eat for lunch. The salad bar also has either quinoa, barley, bulgur, or wild rice everyday that I like to mix with my soup or salads.

 

 

Proof that I don't wear running shorts and hoodies to every class. Only to some classes...

 

 I happen to live off of hot pink and light blue post-its notes - they are like pieces of my mind that I can post all over my planner and laptop so I don't forget any of the million events/essays/assignments/social gatherings that come my way. I just dislike the yellow and orange post-its....they come off as so demanding.

For those of you nerds/creepers wondering what classes & activities I am involved in, here is a quick run-down:

I am currently taking a 15 credit course load and was able to knock out 30 credits worth of general education requirements thanks to the AP classes that I slaved under in high school.

My classes include: Intro to Mass Communications, Liberal Arts Math I (the easiest math course available), Intro to Radio, Intro to Psychology, and my Honors course (Christ Culture & University).

I am currently working on an article for my university's newspaper profiling the stellar cross country team, and hope to become involved with the television program. My mornings and/or afternoons are pretty much devoted to running.

 

 

 

SEU Preview

SEU hosted a late night event called Our City, and I saw their advertising sign as an excuse to take a cute/cheesy campus-visit photo.

Me with Roxanne, the advisor for RAW tv.  I practically ran over to the journalism department when they began the faculty meet & greet. Afterwards I power walked right on over to the history department. Nerd for life.

Please excuse the granny pants

Signs never cease to amuse me

After staying up past 1 AM on Thursday night/Friday morning,  I needed a caramel macchiato. However, the Starbucks on campus wasn't open in the morning, so I walked to the cafe, where I paid for a white chocolate caramel latte. Not too bad at all. (This picture is from Thursday afternoon, where I happily squandered my two free free drink tickets at Starbucks. Maybe that's why I was able to stay up until 1 in the morning).

Tina and her coconut mango smoothie

College Visit and Four Miler

PBA's library, with a Einstein Bros. Bagels in the lobby

 As usual, my visit to a college made me totally eager to begin classes right then and there. PBA has a nice campus, and is exactly one mile away from the beach. I was creating running routes in my head during most of the visit. When my parents and I first arrived at the admissions office, we chilled in the lobby while waiting for the other prospective students to arrive and watched a video highlighting some of PBA's features.
After taking a general tour of the campus, we ate lunch in the cafe. I was extremely overwhelmed by all of the milling students and meal options in the area, so I just picked up a bowl of chicken and rice soup, which was pretty good. My parents then told me to get more food, so I went over to what I guessed was the healthier station and ordered beef strips stir fried with green peppers and an egg roll.
I didn't lift my eyes off of my food until the cafe emptied a little bit. I was experiencing my own version of an anxiety attack. Again. I had forgotten what it felt like - the nervousness, not meeting anyone in the eye, terrified of the prospect of anyone talking to me. The last time I had felt like this was during my Sophomore year of highschool, when I entered a crowded public school for the first time since elementary school.
These attacks always come when I am in crowded areas and feel isolated because I don't know anyone. They come during concerts, youth group gatherings, and situations like this. I felt the first stage coming during chapel. I was surrounded by people who knew each other and who seemed very outgoing. This is when I stopped smiling and began slipping into my introverted cave. My dad later said that it looked like if a cave appeared under my chair, I would have eagerly crawled into it. In the second stage of this attack, I can only think about my weight, and how I wish I could disappear or simultaneously drop 15 pounds, which explains my loss of appetite in the cafe. I usually feel very cast down during this stage, and am prone to mentally attack everything about myself- how I look, what I am wearing, etc.
The way that I crawl back into sanity is usually by finding a cup of coffee and praying, especially thanking God for all of the blessings he has given me. Bolting into a bathroom to cry never helps, but only pushes me further into a slough of despondency. I remember once, during a concert, I felt excluded from the group I was with, which was made up of my mom, sister, cousin, and a group of 20-somethings we knew from church. I slipped to the back and couldn't stop crying. My mom and sister couldn't understand what was wrong with me, and I couldn't tell them.
I have found that going for a run helps me regain my control over my emotions, helping erase my feelings of anxiety and sadness. I also am able to subconciously pray and really tell God what my mind is going through when I run. I come back feeling cleansed and like I have a sense of purpose.

Anyways, back to my visit. I was able to find a cappuccino machine in the cafe and take a walk with my parents, reviving my sense of enthusiasm and allowing me to smile again.  One really awesome thing that happened was that the admissions director arranged a tour of the Journalism building for me and another girl, Mackenzie. We had the opportunity to meet four faculty members, and observed the television broadcasting studio, the switch room, the editing room, the newspaper and yearbook center, and the equipment room. I have yet to experience that in any other college I have visited. Quite frankly, I believe that the opportunity to meet actual professors in human form and talk to them while visiting their habitats increased my favor of the school by 50%. It made it a tad easier to swallow the price tag of the university, which came out to $33,500 per year (including room and board).

Delicious. I keep my energy bars amidst my jeans so that my family doesn't mistake them for a snack. But really, it's pretty sad when you are looking for an energy bar to pack for before track practice only to realize that someone has been feasting upon your energy food. Once, I wanted to bake dark chocolate brownies, but in order to save the chocolate from consumption I had to hide the bag inside my oatmeal box. Apparently old-fashioned oatmeal is like a force shield.

Once we arrived back home I began my afternoon run after snacking on an orange and cinnamon graham crackers. Thanks to the 10 mph winds, it wasn't too hot. I had to stop and walk a few times when I could feel my lunch trying to crawl back out, which reinforces my suspicion that no matter how long I wait, I cannot run after eating red meat without it attempting to re-emerge into the daylight.

TOTAL WORK OUT: 4.03 miles, 48 minutes

Q&A

What is your favorite energy bar?

Right now, Clif, but I am dying to try Picky Bars (created by pro runner Lauren Fleshman)

Do you prefer your coffee hot or cold?

Hot. There is something about a warm cup of coffee, with the wisps of steam floating upwards, that feels very soothing. 

Urban Recap

We arrived in Downtown around 9 AM, giving me ample time to realize that I was underdressed for 30 degree weather + the windy city's chill factor.  Hailing a taxi, Tia Sarah and I stopped by The North Face store to purchase a pair of gloves and another sweater. I wasted no time putting on these items once they were paid for, slipping them on as the cashier took the tags off. He asked if I wanted to keep the tags in case I wanted to return anything, but there was zero chance of that happening.

(Columbia Story to be written once my shoulder cramp goes away)

By 2 PM we were famished, so Tia Sarah brought me to Elephant and Castle for lunch. What I love about this city is how different the exterior of buildings are from the interior. The outside of E&C looked like a normal brick building, but upon stepping inside we were greeted by a scene resembling a quaint and polished English pub. If I decide to come to Chicago for college, I will have to get over my habit of judging "a book by it's cover." As for what we ordered for lunch, a picture is worth a thousand words. Two cliches in a single paragraph. I need to stop.

 Roasted turkey, bacon, and lettuce tomato tortilla wrap with onion rings

Chicken pot pie with vegetables

Absolutely delicious sweet potato fries

I fell asleep around 8:30 PM after watching an episode of Psych.

My new blue North Face sweater (Thank you Tia Sarah!) and free Columbia water bottle

Chicagoland

My plane landed in Chicago 20 minutes earlier than scheduled this morning,  :D which means that I have 20 more minutes to enjoy my weekend in Chi-town. I am totally grateful that my parents were able to buy me a roundtrip plane ticket to visit my dream college in Chicago.  Now that I think about it, if I do end up attending Columbia College I would probably have to take a major road trip in order to haul all of my stuff. The main problem is that my father and I loathe long drives....so we could decide to either 1) drive up with my stuff, leave me with the car while my dad books a flight back home, or 2) just pay for a one-way ticket and a ton of baggage.

I have nothing to do but dream big dreams while waiting for answers from my scholarship applications to arrive. :) Well, that and keep up my G.P.A.

I am trusting in God to guide me to the right university and grant me the scholarships I need for the school He wants me to attend. I can't wait to experience His plan for me beyond highschool!

Once Tia Sara picked me up from the airport, she drove me to this sweet place called Snax Cafe. I absolutely loved the warm atmosphere (especially since it was 35 degrees outside).

Tropical green tea with honey and lemon slices

Oatmeal waffles with cinnamon apple slices at Snax


After saying hello to Tia Alicia at the Family Bridges office and completing some grunt work for them, Tia Sarah took me to Trader Joes, a market stocked with a ton of organic food. I have heard about this store from other runner blogs, and it was as fantastic as I imagined it to be.

$10 Tips - Starbucks coffee ain't cheap.

Of course, Tia Sarah would have this on her office desk. ^ Love it! 

my coffee machine is malfunctioning :/

After I inhaled the rich aroma of the coffee grinds, placed them in the filter, and poured in the water, I pressed the "brew now" button on my coffee machine. I waited a few moments for the comforting sounds of brewing coffee. Silence.  I turned off the machine and replugged it before pressing the power button again. Nothing.
After reading a few articles on the internet, I came to the conclusion that our $30 coffee machine is officially broken. It lived for less than a year.  Guess I can start pleading my case for a latte machine....

Comfort Coffee

I don't just drink coffee for the caffeine. I drink it for the steam that rises toward your face as you lift up the thermos for a sip. The warmth when you wrap your fingers around the mug. The focus that it can bring when you have a pile of work to accomplish (as I do now).
Right now I am perched on my comforter with my dad's laptop (which I hijacked for my own use during this Christmas break). A green ceramic cup sitting on my nightstand holds my Colombia Supremo.
After reading my Bible and brewing my coffee this morning, my mind wandered, leading me to wonder where the Starbucks logo originated. Some of my friends have mused that she is a mermaid, while others have claimed that she represents a goddess from an ancient culture.
Well, I did some research, and it turns out that the zen-like green nymph is actually a siren. The same creature who sung sailors to their doom now reaches into the wallets of weary travelers on the highway, caffeine dependent students, and patrons of malls and shopping plazas.

http://gourmet-coffee-zone.com/starbucks-logo.html

loca for my marble mocha

I finally visited Max at Starbucks to

1. Take his picture for the yearbook divider
2. Order a tall marble mocha

Just in case you are not much of a mocha maven, a marble mocha is a sweet elixir of half white chocolate and half regular chocolate coffee served in a crisp cup bearing the international symbol of amity.  (:

Crunching on a Kashi mocha almond bar (to be honest, about 3 bars) I went to Marshalls with my mom and Tina in the search for black heels to wear with my purple dress. Like all other shops, Marshalls sometimes  has wonderful apparel and accesories, while other times they have less than desirable designs. Marshall's prices, however, set it far apart from other stores. Why would I plop down $45 dollars for a shirt at the mall when I can find the same shirt at Marshalls or TJ Maxx for $15? In the end, we found an adorable and affordable pair of black pumps.

As I was surfing through the internet like the savvy nerd that I am, I came across a nonprofit organization called Girls on the Run. Coaches train girls from 3rd through 8th grade, helping them develop the self-esteem that they will need as they face "weight and food issues, stress, culture and peer pressure, and deceptive media/Internet imagery". Building a rampart against self-destructive behavior, Girls on the Run helps prevent the mutiliation of dignity and integrity that our society encourages among women.

Java Joy

After a tiring day of skipping school to work on scholarships, college applications, and the laundry, my mom drove Tina, Erin, Abuelo, & I to the Chocolada Cafe in downtown Hollywood. The Mocha Latte I ordered was absolutely divine, with chocolate syrup artistically forming a flower on top of the latte's foam. I also ordered home-made pancakes with berry sauce. The portions were a tad small, with only three square pancakes served on a modern plate. I was so ravenous that I forgot to snap a picture before devouring the delicous little squares.  I am hoping that economic support for small businesses will increase; as it is, my latte cost $3.75 while the three pancakes were $4.75.  Adding the 6% sales tax, that brings the total cost to about $9.01; Not too bad.

Burnt Tap

How do you know when your parents have been economically savvy by choosing a cheaper hotel? When the coffee tastes like burnt tap water. First, I attempted to make coffee in the hotel room's Sunbeam machine. Failed. Then, I descended down into the lobby for coffee. Same bland result. In a final, desperate attempt I walked to the minivan for the packets of Folgers that I keep in the trunk for emergencies such as this. Once I reached the hotel lobby, I ceremonially poured the hot water from the spiget into my styrofoam cup. As the steam rose from the cup, I carefully tore open my coffee packet; pulling out the coffee bag, I inhaled the rich aroma before placing it into the boiling-hot water. After allowing the coffee to brew for few minutes, I took a tentative sip. It was then that I realized that even Folgers could not salvage a good cup of coffee from tap water.