Baby come Back

Have you guys been singing this song, waiting for me to post again??? Well if anyone is out there still holding out hope for my blog posts I guess it's about time to share what's been going on since I last posted. 

• I got back from Italy
• I started my last semester of college
• I started working again at ISA Kentucky office
• I've applied for numerous other jobs
• I had an interview at the Gap

My semester is going extremely well.  I am pretty happy with all my classes, with the exception of my yoga class that I did end up dropping.  I am taking 5 classes, human sexuality, American literature, Spanish short story, a class on Dante's Inferno and beginning guitar.

And now for the big news! I have officially been invited to join a Peace Corps program and I have officially accepted my position.  I will be teaching English (anything from beginning English as a Foreign Language to literature to creative writing) to university level students in China!!!! I don't know exactly where I will be in China but I do know that I will be there from the end of June, 2014 until the middle of August, 2016.  China is one of the last places I expected to be sent but the more it sinks in, the more excited I get.  I can't wait to start learning about the culture and the history.  I've been looking up everything from Chinese tea to popular Chinese music.  I know it's going to be a little more difficult to adjust to the Chinese culture than it was to adjust to the Spanish or Italian culture but I am so excited from this chance!

Home Sweet Homestay

My room

Now that the 2 week homestay is over and I’ve moved on to my apartment I think it’s about time I show you some pictures of where I’ve been living.  For the first two weeks of my time in Italy I stayed with a great lady named Daniela in her beautiful home with on American roommate, Brittany.  Brittany and I were extremely lucky and got our own rooms.  Both of our rooms were brightly colored and filled with art work done by Daniela’s father in law.

Our favorite parts of Daniela’s house were all her balconies (she has 3!!!).  And they were all packed with flowers and fruit plants.  She is particularly proud of her lemons.  She even makes limoncello out of them.  These balconies were our favorite place to do homework.

Daniela was such a great cook too.  I forgot to take pictures of her cooking because I was always so excited just to eat what she made.  One of my favorite meals she made was Piadina, a flat bread that is traditional to the region of Italy where she was born, with sausage.   On the last night we were with Daniela, she threw a big potluck party for everyone in our program.

It was bittersweet moving out of Daniela’s house and into our apartment but Daniela is the owner of our apartment and she has been inviting us over for dinner once a week so we will still be seeing her every once in a while.

Brittany and me

Withdrawl

A few weeks ago now I moved from my home stay to an apartment and one of the few accommodations that was no longer available to me was Internet access so my only means of getting online was a few minutes between classes.  Until tonight, when I found an open network available! I have a lot of catching up to do and I definitely plan on doing that, but tonight I have an assignment that needs to get done. Hopefully this network will still be here tomorrow!

Italian Food: So much more than pasta and pizza

I use to think that I would never meet a better cook than my Spanish host mom, Carmen. And then I met Daniela.  One of the first things Daniela asked me was "what are you willing to eat?" That is a pretty intimidating question.  I really don't I would want to eat any sort of traditional Italian horse testicle soup (if there is such a thing) but I told her that I would eat anything she wants to cook for me.  I can't even tell you how happy that made her.  Apparently the girls that lived with her last year only ate pizza and pasta and according to her that is not "really Italian cooking".   My favorite meal that she has cooked for us has been Piadina.  It's a flat bread that is typical of the region where Daniela was born (Emilia-Romagna) and it can be served with just about anything.  I wish I had a picture of it but it was so good we ate it all before even thinking about picking up a camera. 

This past Tuesday, we got to take a cooking class with an Italian chef.  The chef who taught the class is currently a 3 star chef and throughout his career he's cooked for people like Madonna and the Pope.  For this class we learned how to make three different types of pasta (gnocchi, ravioli and tagliatelle).  It was a lot easier to make pasta than I expected it to be and the ingredients are really simple.

Our cooking stations

Don't worry, I wore an apron

In the process

Finished pastas

 

Venezia, La citta su acqua

This past weekend I went to Venice with a group of 8 fellow students from my program.  We left Arezzo on a train around noon Saturday, got to Venice around 3:30pm and left at 6:30 the next day to get back to Arezzo for school the next day.

 

photo from a friends Facebook page 

 

Venice is on of the few cities I've been to where it's beautiful as soon as you step out of the train station.

 

 

Our first mission, after we got off the train was to find some lunch, which was a lot hard than it sounds because many places were closed for the afternoon but we ended up finding a nice place to have some pizza. We didn't try this "American" pizza with eggs and bacon but the pepperoni pizza I had was very good.

 

 

After lunch we made our way to Piazza San Marco. It was a pretty long walk but there was so much to see along the way, it wasn't too bad.

 

Rialto Bridge

Carnivale masks in progress

 

Piazza San Marco is a huge plaza with many important things all clumped together. There is the San Marco Basilica.  Unfortunately we never got to go in due to our timing.

 

 

One of my favorite sites of the trip was the Piazza San Marco clock tower.  It has balls that move to show the phases of the moon and it is rung by mechanical statues.

 

 

While at Piazza San Marco, we took an elevator to the top of another tower to get some great views of the city.

 

 

Right around the corner was the Bridge of Sighs which use to be used to transport prisoners from the prison to the execution spot.

 

After that we walked back to the train station to catch a shuttle bus to our hostel. The next day we took a water taxi to the island of Murano.  They have been blowing glass on this island for over 700 years.  I did buy some of the glass but most of what I bought was gifts so I won't show you much.  I'll will show you this bracelet I bought though.

 

The owner of the store I went to made everything himself. We walked through this island for most of the day.  It was much more relaxing than Venice because not many tourist were there.

Friends Facebook photo

 

 

After we got done at Murano we tried to go back to San Marco to go inside but there was a really long line of people waiting to get in and no one really wanted to wait so we walked back to the train station and had lunch on the Grand Canal.

 

 

It was a great trip.  Our next trip is with the school.  We are heading to Florence this Saturday.

 

 

 

 

 



Italy: Week 1

Sunday June 2nd:  I got to Arezzo!!!! Then immediately went on a tour of the city with the group and then we all went out to dinner.  We had some really great pizza. I didn't take many pictures because I was so tired from traveling that I totally forgot to take my camera out. I'll remember to take some later.  After dinner, we went home and I finally meet my host mom!  I am staying in a really nice apartment with a woman named Daniella.  Her husband is a sailor and he's in Greece right now and her children are all married and living on their own so it's just us and my roommate, Brittany.  I told her that any weekend she wanted to go visit her husband, I would be happy to go with her.

Monday June 3rd:  Classes started.  My class load is pretty light.  I am taking an Italian culture class that everyone in my program is taking and I am taking an Italian independent study class.  For that I have to keep a blog for the trip.  I can write about anything I want, it just has to be in Italian and I will be given a word limit I have to reach.  If anyone wants to see that you can find it here.

Wednesday June 5th:  We went to a wine tasting.  The vineyard we went to is called La Striscia and we got a tour of the vineyard and tried three different types of wine.  We learned all about the wine making process and how to the alcohol content or type of grape by looking at the color and if it leaves legs on the glass.  I also learned that wine companies sometimes like to make dry wines because it dries out the back of your throat and you want to drink more.  My favorite was the Chianti so I bought a bottle.  I'm hoping to get this bottle back the the States but I might need to drink it before then.

Saturday June 8th:  8 out of the eleven of us decided to go to Venice for the weekend! It was a beautiful city but it deserves it's own post so I'll talk about that later.  I will say we all had a really good time and it was great getting to know the group a little bit better.

Delayed

Right now I am suppose to be on a flight to Rome on my way to study abroad in a nice little Tuscan town called Arezzo.  Where am I? Sitting in the Cleveland Airport Sheraton.  I was suppose to be flying from Cleveland to Montreal and from Montreal to Rome.  I don't know what's going on in Montreal but apparently they did not want my flight from Cleveland to land there.  So after two hours of standing in the customer service line I learned there was absolutely no way I could get to Rome by the time I was suppose to be there.  Instead I am now going to arrive in Rome a day later than planned. 

 

I'm kind of bummed that I'm going to be missing the welcome dinner tomorrow night and probably the tour of the city on Sunday afternoon, but I can think of worse situations to be in right now.  Standing behind me in the customer service line was a group going to Sierra Leone on a mission trip.  Turns out they were originally planning on leaving Monday and then decided to leave today so they could get started earlier. Now they aren't going to arrive in Sierra Leone until....you guessed it, Monday.

 

Because I am arriving late, I am going to miss the nice chartered bus the program got for us from the Rome airport to Arezzo, so now I am responsible for my own transportation from Rome to Arezzo.  I figure if this is going to happen to anyone, it might as well be me.  I am comfortable enough with my experience traveling and my Italian language skills that I am positive that I can get myself to Arezzo. I just wish I didn't have to 

 

Maybe you can imagine that I'm not in the best of moods right now, so I'm going to write a list of things to be happy about:

 

1. I am going to Italy.  I might be getting there late, but I'm still going to get there.

 

2.  I am going to get there before my classes start,  I don't have to worry about having to catch up with everyone else.

 

3.  I am only missing a dinner and a city tour.  There will be many other dinners and plenty of time to learn about Arezzo.  It's not like I'm missing a tour of Rome or the day trip to Florence.  I am not missing anything that I would be truly upset about missing.

 

4.  This is a great way to jump right into using my Italian.  If I was traveling to Arezzo with the program I would not have to speak Italian until I was left alone with my host family.

 

5.  This is a pretty sweet hotel they've hooked me up with.

 

6.  I had a sandwich and glass of wine for dinner that would have cost me $20 and I didn't have to pay a cent.

 

7. I have my suitcase with me, so I don't have to wear the same thing for 3 straight days.

 

8. My flight out of Cleveland tomorrow isn't until noon so I don't have to wake up early.

 

9. I have a 3 hour layover until my flight to Rome so, unless my flight out of Cleveland is delayed, I won't have to rush.

 

I'm sure there are many more things I could be happy about, but these nine things are already making me feel a lot better and I'm too tired to think of any more. I'm going to go decide which big, fluffy bed to sleep in tonight.

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

Emphasis on the crazy.  

 

This morning I had my last final exam of the semester at 8am.  I was done by 8:30.  And so began my summer!!!!   I have some pretty crazy plans for this summer, mainly, going to Italy.  I'm leaving on May 31st (that's this month!!!) and I will be gone until July 16th.  In the mean time, I've been making plans for what else I want to do, particularly what I want to read and what I want to knit.

I want to finish all of these books plus On the Road, Old Man and the Sea, La Sombra del Viento and maybe an Italian novel.  Nine Hills to Nambonkaha, Festival for Three Thousand Maidens,
The Village of Waiting and Mango Elephants in the Sun are all memoirs written by return Peace Corps volunteers and To Touch the World is a collection of essays about the Peace Corps experience.  I have a list of about 10 more books about the Peace Corps that I want to read at some point but I think I should read the book I have first. It might be a little unrealistic for me to get through all of these books this summer.  It's a good thing I don't usually get too disappointed in myself for not meeting my goals.

I was going to make a list of all the things I want to knit this summer but that would probably end up being even more ridiculously long and impossible than my reading list.  I do know that I want to knit The Old Man and the Sea cardigan by Mel of Single Handed Knits and I would like to knit through as much of the yarn that I already have as possible.

It also sounds like the ISA office on campus will be open for the summer so I will hopefully be working there a bit before and after I go to Italy.

This summer is just going to be full of fun things for me!

Peace Corps Update

So I think I mentioned awhile ago that I applied for the Peace Corps and then I kind of just stopped talking about it.  I'm kind of afraid that if I talk too much about what's going on with the Peace Corps and really let on how excited I am about this possibility that I'm going to jinks myself or something like that and I'm not going to get in.  But I thought I should just give a little update about where I am in the Peace Corps application process. 

Over my spring break, I had an interview and shortly after that I received a nomination for the education program.  A nomination isn't a guarantee that I'll get in, but it's a pretty good sign.  So what's going on now is that the medical people with the Peace Corps are looking over my health history form to see if they need anymore information from me and I've sent in a couple of copies of my fingerprints for a background check.  Seeing as my health history is a couple of broken bones and a pair of dental implants, I'm not really expecting that they'll need much more information from me.  The background checks can take between two and six weeks to finish and then after that and my health history have been cleared, all my information will go to the head administrative team and they will look through it, maybe contact me and ask me a few questions and then they will make the final decision. 

I'm not expecting to hear from the Peace Corps for at least another month or two, but I'll keep you posted!

Featherweight: The Remake

In the past couple of months my Featherweight cardigan has gone from this

 

to this

 

 

and ended up like this.

 

 

I should say that I am ten to fifteen lbs lighter that I was the first time I finished this sweater so it did look a little different on me when I took it apart, than it did in that first oh so lovely picture.  It was pretty large, especially around the arms but then the bind off on the bottom and the neck band where too tight so it kind of clung to me in those areas.  I also knit this for the first time when I was at a point in my knitting where I felt the need to knit everything exactly as the pattern says.  So I knit the body of the sweater for exactly as long as the pattern said, when I would have felt more comfortable with a longer sweater. Basically, I felt uncomfortable in this sweater so I never wore it.

 

Anyway, I reknit the sweater and made it exactly how I want it and it looks awesome and I love it.

 

Next up is....finals week and papers due. I don't have time for knitting.   

KWLA Festival

Friday, during my Spanish American Civilizations class, the professor passed around a piece of paper to get volunteers for the KWLA Festival (I'm pretty sure that stands for Kentucky World Language Association and it's basically a festival for any student (high school or lower) of any language to come and practice and show off what they know).  The Festival was today, from 8am to 2pm so I really was not all that interested in volunteering, but when the paper got me ( I was the last person to get it) there wasn't a single name on the list and I felt bad that no one else wanted to volunteer so I went ahead and put my name down.  So today, I got to lead 4 rounds of Spanish Jeopardy, 2 beginning level rounds and 2 intermidiate rounds.  It was a pretty fun day but I'm pretty sure I don't want to be a high school Spanish teacher.  I don't think I have the patience to work with some of these students.

 

Although it was an early day, this gig did come with some pretty sweet perks.  I got free lunch and $20 worth of gift cards! I think my professor is also giving me some extra credit for helping out.

Keep on the Sunny Side

Cloudy Side:  It's really cold! Definitely not Spring weather.

 

Sunny Side:  I can still wear my hand knit sweaters!

 

 

Tuesday I wore my just finished Hoaloha

 

 

I got more compliments on this sweater than I think I've ever gotten on a sweater.

 

Then yesterday I got to wear my Aidez. 

 

 

I'm glad I got to wear my sweaters again but to tell you the truth I wouldn't mind if it was too warm to wear them again.



Some times your natural hair color is your best hair color

Before anyone freaks out, this isn't some horror story about how I tried to dye my hair and it turned out bright orange or pitch black or anything terrifying like that. 

 

 

 

On my 21st birthday, I decide I was going to do something crazy, partly because I was all excited to be 21 and wanted to do something exciting and partly because I was really early for my tutoring session. So I stopped by the Walgreens and took a look at the hair dye.  I didn't want to go too dark because I have really light sick and I didn't want to look like a witch.  I didn't want to go too light because I have really dark eyebrows and I didn't want it to be totally obvious I dyed my hair.  So I picked up a box labeled medium brown. 

 

 

I was so excited to go home and dye my hair,  I even took before and after pictures.   

 

 

 

 

Can you tell which one is which?  Because I can't.  That's right, I dyed my hair pretty much the exact same color as my natural hair color.  Morals of the story:  1) My idea of "crazy"  is really not that crazy and 2) Sometimes it's best to just not mess with your natural hair color.

Sweaters

This past week was Spring Break for me.  I was packing to go home for the week and I came across two sweaters, one that I knit about 2 years ago and one that I knit this past summer.  I've never really like the way these sweaters looked or fit on me. 

 

 

 

 

 

 Since I've knit them I've just kept them around, tried them on every once in a while and hoped that one day I'll put them on and love them.  But that has never happened.  So I did something crazy.  I ripped them out.

 

 

 

I decided that it was better for me to rip out the sweaters and re-knit them into sweaters I will actually wear.  I'm starting with the purple sweater and I'm actually knitting the same pattern...sort of.  I am going to change a few things to add just a little more shape to it.  I also managed to get another skein of the yarn at a pretty good price so I can make it longer.

 

 

I've also just recently finished another sweater.

 

 

This is my Hoaloha sweater.  It was a mystery knit along run by Mel of the Single Handed Knits podcast.  Mystery knit along means that I really had no idea what this sweater looked like when I started it.   I was a little nervous about it at first but I figured that if I didn't like it, I could always rip back and knit a different sweater.  But I did end up really liking this sweater. I do need to add buttons to it and then I'll post some pictures of what it looks like on me !



Oil Pulling aka The Grossest Thing I've Ever Done, Ever

I thought about writing a post about how I have so much to do this week and how I wish it was spring break so I could go to Louisville and see my cat and do nothing but knit all day long.  Luckily, I thought about it and realized that nobody really cares about that.  I barely even care.  So I'm just going to talk about my oil pulling experience instead.

 

 

Before anyone gets too excited, let me just say that this had absolutely no effect on me what so ever.  I look the same, I feel the same and I weigh the same.  I did only do this for a week, but according to what I read about it, a week should be enough to see differences.  So let it just be known that there is no benefit to sitting around for twenty minutes with a mouth full of olive oil.

 

 

Now, I am dedicating the rest of this post to talking about how disgusting oil pulling is.  In fact, if there weren't certain family member who I know read this blog, I would use some pretty nasty words to describe it.  It's not the taste I had a problem with.  I really like the taste of olive oil.  On pasta, bread, salad...that's good.  But sitting around with a tablespoon of it in your mouth takes it from "That's a flavor I really enjoy" to "Oh my God, my mouth is so greasy and slimy. I don't even care what it tastes like, it's nasty." I totally understand why it is suggested to do this first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.  If you have any sort of gag reflex and you decide to try oil pulling right after a meal...good luck to you.

 

 

So a) no effect and b) so gross it's beyond gross...I think it's safe to say that I am never going to try oil pulling again.  I also would not recommend anyone try it, but hey, I'm just one person.  What does nothing for me might work wonders on someone else.  The only way to know if something works for you is to give it a try.

The Year of Try: Oil Pulling

Oil pulling is an old Ayurveda healing treatment that is basically sitting around for 20 minutes with a spoonful of oil in your mouth.  I have heard some pretty crazy claims about the benefits of oil pulling like it can cause a  5 lb weight loss in one week and it apparently cures everything from tooth pain to malignant tumors.  I don't have any malignant tumors to try it out on so the validity of that claim will have to stay a mystery, but from everything I've read about oil pulling, if I do this once a day for one week, I should be feeling and looking better than I do right now.  So, let's find out if it's true!

Yay! It's done!!

The 8hr diet officially ended yesterday.  Official weigh in :151 lbs for a totally weight loss (for the six weeks I've been doing this stupid thing) of 2.5 lbs. I'm not even going to waste the time taking my other measurements because losing 2.5 lbs (without really exercising) is not enough to make significant difference in my measurements. How underwhelming is that?  But at the same time hahaha I was right.  I love it when I'm right. 

 

 

My opinion on weight loss (which is based on no actually research and only on my personal experience) is that what you eat is the most important factor.  Exercise is important too but if you're eating junk all day your workout is not going to have that big of an effect.  Having this diet plan tell me that what I eat isn't as important as when I eat made me feel like it was ok to eat much more junk than I normally would have.  I ordered take out more than I usually do, I bought low quality, overly processed food,  I bought ice cream for the first time since I moved into my apartment 6 months ago.  If someone losses a significant amount of weight on this diet I can almost guarantee that it is because of what they are eating instead of the fact that they are only eating during an 8 hour period.

 

 

Now that this is over, I'm looking for some new crazy things to try.   I think next up will be oil pulling.  But I will need some new ideas soon enough.  So, if you have anything you would like to see me try, let me know.  It can be a new food, recipe, activity, weight loss program...anything.  As long as it is safe and can fit into my budget, I'll be willing to give it a go.

 

8 hour diet update: weeks 4 and 5

I have still been following the 8 hour diet.  I haven't lost any weight since the last update.  I can pretty confidently tell you that this diet is completely bogus but I'll keep going for one more week just in case there is some sort of miracle on the last day. 

In other Grace related news, I still love my job with ISA.  Currently I am working on a safety report for San Jose Costa Rica.  My school is currently not sending students to San Jose because a couple of people who went, didn't feel safe while they were there.  So it is my job to find statistics about crime there compared to US cities, come up with tips for avoiding being a victim of crime and hopefully making people feel more comfortable with traveling to San Jose.

Also, I've been working on my Peace Corps application.  I'm not planning on leaving for at least a year but from what I hear, it takes about a year from the time you apply to the time you start you service so I'm trying to get the application done pretty soon.  I have just a couple more things and I will be all done!

And last but not least,  my birthday is tomorrow!!!!! It's a big one: 21 years old.  I don't really have any plans for tomorrow night.  My current plan is to stop by Trader Joe's sometime tomorrow and pick up a bottle of wine and some cupcakes.  I'll spend the night watching Grey's Anatomy and doing homework.  If that's not the best way to celebrate your birthday, I don't know what is.

Where are all the snow shovels?

I get it.  School should not be cancelled for this little amount of snow.  I mean, it doesn't even completely cover the grass.  The 2 hr delay was probably unnecessary (though appreciated).  But if you're going to make us come to class, please learn how to properly clean the sidewalks and get that done before classes start.  This is what appears to be the method here at UK:

• Wait until students and faculty walk all over campus which not only makes a huge sloppy,wet mess in the hallways of building from snow melting off shoes, but also turns what was nice, light, easily shoveled snow into an icy, slippery mess that's almost impossible to get off the sidewalks.
• Then toss some salt on 2 or 3 of the major walkways of campus while completely ignoring any other sidewalks and the stairs to buildings.

 

I'm not mad that I had to go to class today.  I'm not even mad that I slipped and fell and now have a nice, big bruise on my butt.  I just think it would be easier for everyone if someone just shoveled the snow before the university opens for the day.

8 Hour Diet Week 3 update

I lost another lb this week for a total weight loss of 3lbs. I'm really unimpressed with this plan so far.  Nothing else major changed this week so I'm not going to bore anyone with pointless details.

King Lear

The first thing I had to read for my Literature class was Shakespeare's  King Lear ( the class is focused on literary depictions of insanity).  Unlike the majority of the students in my class ( and probably the majority of the people in this world) I consider myself a Shakespeare person and King Lear, although it is  dark and depressing and has a terrible ending, is one of my favorites. I know most people don't really enjoy reading Shakespeare so I won't recommend it to you (unless you like that sort of thing), but I will recommend the Shakespeare in the Park version on youtube.  It stars James Earl Jones as King Lear.  You should also check out the movie Ran.  It's a Kurosawa film and it's a re-telling of King Lear that takes place in Japan. 

Rejoining the online world

At the beginning of the month I shared with you that I had logged off of the majority of my social media websites and had no plans to log back on.  When I first started this I couldn't see it lasting for more than a week. Yet, here we are at the 25th of January and I am just now logging on to Facebook for the first time this month and honestly, I could see myself going the rest of my life without social media.  But here's the deal.  I got this really great gig as an International Studies Abroad Global Ambassador (intern) and a lot of the communication with other ambassadors and the guy in charge of all of us is through Facebook so the boycott had to come to an end.

 

I'm hoping that I'm going to be able to use Facebook just for ISA stuff and crossing my fingers that I won't get sucked back into the habit of creeping on people I'm not really friends with.

 

In ISA related news, this coming week is #blueabroad week here at UK so I should have plenty of cool education abroad activities to keep me entertained.

The Sun Also Rises...eventually

Before I left for Spain (about a year and a half ago) I started reading The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.  It must have been on some recommended reading list.  I think I probably read about 10 pages before I left and then didn't pick it up again until I was home for winter break.  After restarting at least 3 times I finally finished that darn book.  My opinion of it: ehhhh. 

 

It was interesting just to see how different Hemingway's writing style is from today's authors.  It also had some pretty good information about bull fights.  But really, it was one of the dullest books I've read.  I can't understand how Hemingway wrote this love story between Lady Ashley and Jake but really the only things that happen in the book are they go to bar, drink and watch bull fights. 

 

I'm watching the movie version tonight.  A little fun fact courtesy of IMDb trivia, the film received bad reviews because of the slow pace.

8 hour diet: Week 2 Update

This week, following the lack of success of week one, I decided to change things up this week.  I did still pretty much stick to the whole eat whatever you want in the quantities you want, but I did try eat more fruits and veggies (mangos where 10 for $10 at the Kroger this week!!!). The biggest thing I changed was that instead of restricting my eating to 8hrs a day for only 3 days a week, I did that for everyday of the week.  I also got more exercise this week.  So here are the results.

 

Weight: 151 lbs (Starting Weight: 153.5 lbs)

Waist:  30 ins (Starting: 31 ins)

Bust: 38 ins (Starting: 38 ins)

Hips: 37.5 ins( Starting: 38 ins)

 

 

8 Hour Diet: 1 Week update

I have been on the 8 hour diet for 1 whole week now and this morning I weighed in at....153.5lbs.  That's right, I weigh exactly the same thing I weighed a week ago.  As much as I would love to say I told you so,  I just can't do it, at least not yet.  Honestly, I think I took the whole eat what ever you want thing a little too far.  I ate foods like potato chips and ice cream that I would not have normally eaten. It really is a miracle that I didn't gain weight. 

 

So, this week, I'm sticking to the whole 8 hrs thing but I'm going to try to stick to things that are a little more normal in my diet and see if that makes a difference.

New Semester

Today was the first day of the spring semester.  After having to change a couple classes around my classes this spring are Spanish cinema, Italian language through film, Art History (medieval-modern), Spanish American Civilizations and Introduction to Literature.  At first I thought this was going to be an easier semester, but after going to class today I think I was probably wrong about that.  I will be doing a lot of reading and writing this semester.  It's going to be a tough semester but it is nice to say that I am really interested in every single class I'm taking.  I mean, films, books, art.  What more could I ask for?  Oh yeah, learning foreign languages and cultures!!! I cannot wait to get started watching films and reading.  In fact, the first movie for my Spanish class is on it's way to me through Netflix. I am sure I will be sharing more about what I'm watching and reading very soon.

The Year of Try: The Eight Hour Diet

So, earlier today, I wrote I nice long blog post about  The Eight Hour Diet and how I think it stupid but I going to try it because I think it's stupid and I want to see for myself whether it works or not and then I accidentally deleted that post. Because I have other things going on and I don't want to waste my time, I'm not going to rewrite that whole post so here is the general idea:

 

You eat what you want, how much you want, how often you want during an 8 hour time frame and then you don't eat at all during the other 16 hours of the day.  You are allowed water, coffee and tea (you can use small amounts of milk and sugar) during the sixteen hours that you're not eating.  Exercise is optional, except for 8 minutes of any activity in the morning, and you only have to follow this plan for 3 days a week. Follow this plan 3 days a week for 6 weeks and apparently you could lose up to 20lbs. 

 

Does this sound like hokum to you? Because it sounds like hokum to me.  Do you remember about a week ago when I said that my word of the year was "try"?  Do you remember when I said that if I catch myself saying that something is ridiculous and won't work, that I was going to try it?  Well...I'm starting this plan tomorrow. Here are my starting measurements and a couple of starting pictures:

 

Weight: 153.5 lbs

Waist: 31 inches

Hips: 38 inches

Bust: 38.5 inches

 

 

Most of the examples from the book of people who lost 20lbs in 6 weeks are people who were about 300lbs to begin with.  Seeing as I weigh half of that (and assuming the diet works) I cannot expect to have the same result.  With that said, if I lose 7lbs or more, I will proclaim to the world (or at least the people who read my blog) that I was wrong and that the Eight Hour Diet is not hokum.

 

The Year of Try: Salmon Jerky

I always seem to find something new and interesting at Trader Joes.  Today I stumbled upon Trader Joes Wild Salmon Jerky and I decided I had to try it.

 



Not surprisingly it is nothing like beef jerky, but still very tasty.  It is very fishy and sweet and it still has that flaky fish texture.  Give it a try some time!

Earning my Sleep

So I got back to Lexington early Wednesday afternoon and then spent the next few days getting 10 hrs of sleep a night only to wake up and sit on my butt, watching tv shows that I've seen a hundred times.  I have not unpacked. I have not cleaned my apartment. I have not left my apartment for any other reason but to get my mail.  I have not taken down my Christmas decorations.  I have been sitting around in my pjs all day because honestly, those are the only clean cloths I have and I'm too lazy to get up and do my laundry. 

 

I've been telling myself that this is an "unusual" situation because it's the last week before classes start and I want to relax so I'm well rested for the new semester.  Truth is, this is not unusual at all.  In fact, this is pretty much what every weekend looks like for me.  Even during the school week, I go to class, come home and do as little as I possibly can.  I never do anything unless it is absolutely necessary.

 

It's time to change that.  I'm sick of going to bed at night, fusing with the sheets and blankets because I didn't make the bed that morning, and laying there thinking that I've done nothing to earn my sleep and feeling like my biggest accomplishment of the day was watching the entire first season of the Big Bang Theory. 

 

My goal for this year is to do at least one thing EVERY day that makes me feel like I've accomplished something.  This could be anything from cleaning my fish bowl to making a great dinner to starting an assignment the day it is assigned instead of the day it is due.  Just one little thing, that is not something I have to do like go to class or buy groceries,  that leaves me fully satisfied with my day.

 

What are your goals for 2013?

New Year, New Crazy

I just did something crazy ya'll.  I just signed off all (or at least the majority) of all my social media sites, deleted them from my favorites bar and my phone and I have no intention of signing on to any other for a long while.  So what brought this on?  Well, for a while now I've felt like social media was losing it's original purpose and gaining a whole new (not so great) purpose.  Here are my real feelings about social media sites, get ready for some ranting.

 

Facebook: Ok, Facebook started out great for me.  I used it to actually talk to people and I reconnected with some old friends from South Carolina.  But I don't use it like that anymore.  When I get on Facebook, I'm not expecting to see a new message from a friend or  notifications.  I'm getting on only to see whats going on in the lives of people I haven't actually talked to in over 4 years. First of all, that's creepy.  Looking in on the lives of people who are not even my friends or relatives is not right. And, of course, if you're doing that to other people, you can pretty much guarantee other people are using Facebook to creep on you.  My second issue with Facebook is that the majority of the stuff people post there are random things that have no significance.  Why do I care who ate a chicken sandwich for lunch or who has a runny nose?  I really don't, but you wouldn't know that by how much time I spend on Facebook everyday. One last thing before I end my rant on Facebook.  Even if someone does actually post some major life moment on Facebook, don't you think that if they really wanted me to know, they would contact me.  I am willing to give my phone number, email address, actual address to anyone who asks for it (as long as I actually know the person).  That way they can send me a text and say "Hey, Bob just asked me to marry him!" and I can respond saying "Wow, that's great! Congrats to you and Bob." Even texting is better than communicating through a change in relationship status. Ok, seriously last thing: people will say "But I use Facebook when I have group work for school and I have to contact the people in my group."  Never once, during high school or college, have I used Facebook to contact group members for school work.

 

Twitter: Ok, Twitter is better than Facebook.  I do follow some news programs so at least every once in a while I'll hear some actual news.  Also, following celebrities is pretty cool too because sometimes bands announce up coming tours on Twitter and it's always fun to witness a celebrity Twitter meltdown.  But for the most part Twitter is even more mundane than Facebook. Twitter is where we read all about what Kim Kardashian had for lunch and how much people drank the night before. I am guilty of boring tweets and every time I tweet something I think to myself "who on earth would be interested in this?" Truth: not many people are.

 

Pinterest:  Pinterest has gone from my favorite to my least favorite social media in a very short amount of time.  I would love Pinterest if the only things on there where recipes, crafts and diy home decor.  The funny pictures can stay too. But people just can't stop at that, can they?  Nothing makes me more mad than the pictures that people pin of women with so much muscle and so little fat that, if they weren't wearing such a small amount of clothing, it would be hard to tell whether they were women or men. And they always say something ridiculous like "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" or "Won't stop until I'm perfect".  And then they call it "Pinsperation".  They only thing that inspires me to do is get off Pinterest faster.  I know you can just follow the boards you're interested and that brings me to my second point on Pinterest. It's a huge time suck.  If I only followed boards I liked I would be able to waste entire days on that website.  I keep the crazy things around so I have some motivation to stop pinning.  Even with the things I don't like, I've managed to waste hours at a time pinning recipes and knitting patterns that I've never made. When I think about how much time I've wasted since I first got on Pinterest, I'm seriously mad about it. I could have done so many other things with that time, like knit some socks or read a book, but no, I was too busy looking at pictures of Grumpy Cat.

 

There are a couple social networks I am keeping around.  I'll still use Ravelry because it's a great place to find knitting patterns and talk about knitting and for the most part, that's all people use it for.  I'm also keeping my Instagram because, let's face it, my pictures look better through a filter.  This no social networking thing might not last forever, but for know, I'm done with it.