Week 10: I dislike teenagers and bras

This week has been an interesting one, especially on Wednesday. But before that... I have been dealing with school, of course. But I have been going to a deli in Clarksville/ Columbia area that is owned by the parents of one of my sorority sisters. It is called, Ruthie's Deli & Cafe.

It is a small deli with wifi in the store and the nicest ladies making the sandwiches. I went there twice about two weeks ago since it was 5-15 minutes away from the elementary schools I went to for Brickz for Kids. 

This is the Ruthie Panini, which has corned beef, cole slaw, swiss cheese with Russian dressing on rye bread

This is the Bulgogi Sandwich, which has Korean style marinated beef with provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, and banana peppers. 

Out of the two of them, I liked the Bulgogi Sandwich the best. I think that the meat was sweet and delicious with a nice tartness from the banana peppers and a little heat. It was delicious. You can add fresh fruit instead of chips for an extra $1.50? I think, but I feel like it is worth it since I felt so much healthier after eating the fruit. Plus, I am in love with fruit. 

Anyways... back to my story... This Wednesday, I went to a new elementary school to work with these two teenagers (Jake and Sam) since I will be taking over their class next week. They are going to be leaving for spring sports. I was talking to Jake about this senior year of high school and he was complaining to me about how hard it was. Here was the convo:

Jake: Senior year is really tough. It is the hardest year of high school. 

Me: Well, after AP exams you can coast and not show up to school basically. 

Jake: I can't. I am already in hot water, I can't get into any more trouble. 

Me: What did you do?

Jake: (after like 10 minutes of asking) I got suspended... I got turnt at school. I got turnt on a water bottle and a half of Grey Goose. I threw up in the hallway. If I made it to the bathroom, I would have never gotten caught. 

I was silent after this for a while, I could not believe that this happened. So I started to leave the building to go home. 

Me: Well, I don't feel bad for you since I believe you deserve to get caught. But good luck with your senior year and college. 

Jake: What?! Are we never going to see each other again?

Me: No. You are leaving next week, and yeah. 

Jake: What?

Me: When are we ever going to see each other again?

Jake: When we party together

Me: I am 25, I am not going to party with you. 

Sam: Does that mean you can buy us drinks?

Yeah... I hate teenagers. They have no idea how hard life is going to be when you get suspended from school because you were drinking? 

Later that night I went to the mall with my housemate, Young, to get her boobs measured. I have gotten this done since I was 12. But back in the day, the Victoria Secret worker measured me in the middle of the store over my hoodie and jacket. On this night, Young and the sales associate walked to the dressing rooms and went into a room. Young started taking off her jacket and sweater. Internally, I was freaking out. I kept thinking, "Why are we in here? Am I going to have to go topless?" So, I asked, "How far do I need to go?" as I was taking off my jacket. Young told me to about my shirt would be fine since the sales associate can measure through my clothing. 

After she measured the both of us, I moved to a different fitting room. The sales associate gave me a bra in my size and told me to try it on. Once I put it on she told me, "I need to see it on." So I threw on my t-shirt, and walked out. She gave me a crazy look implying that I need to take my shirt off for her to see. She gave me a push up bra instead because... I have no boobs. She came in after I put on the push up. She instructed me to pull on the middle part of the bra. She asked, "Do you mind?" and gestured to my boobs. I said, "No." She started to re-adjust my boobs in this bra for me. I went to second base with this woman and I had no idea what her name was. 

I found out about an hour later what her actual name was. Life lesson: I am apparently easy and let people just touch my boobs. I need a push up. Always. 

Week 8: Valentine's Means I Eat All The Chocolate

Wow, the weeks and time that I am living here has been going by so quickly. Soon it will be that I have lived here for two months. Last Friday, I was going to blog, but I ended up doing homework and going to Pub Dog in Fed Hill with some of my friends. Jimin is one of my friends is starting a blog too. Here is the link, I will say that her blog makes my mouth water. I love looking at her blog and pretending to be there. Wow... writing that down makes me seem like a loser. We also ended up going to Pitango Gelato and getting gelato. It was tons of fun to see them and eat delicious food. Our friend Gina came back from California for her birthday weekend, so we hung out with her. It was awesome.

Graduate school is already kicking my butt, I feel like I am constantly behind and not really informed about what is going on. But I am slowly making friends, a group of girls added me to their WhatsApp chat about the class. They seem really nice and on top of their own assignments. They also seem really close, which makes me feel a little left out.

On top of the stress, I got sick this week. I have been staying at home. I didn't get to go to my field placement because I woke up yesterday not being able to talk. I have been practicing, "I'm Batman" randomly when I am by myself. I have also been trying out my Bane voice too, "Take back your city Gotham!" I look super crazy a lot.

As a roommate bonding activity, Young, Hyman, and I have been playing Heads Up, which is a game that has been made famous by Ellen. It is great. Awesome investment and great amount of entertainment for just a cellphone game. Here are our videos:

This is the Super Heroes category, which I was holding the phone. 

This is Act It Out category. Hyman was holding the phone. 

Yesterday night, Young and I were just hanging out since I spent the whole day at home by myself not talking. I just needed to converse with people! I also started to make chocolate covered strawberries because Valentine's week to me isn't complete without chocolate or strawberries. I wanted to make it for my housemates as well. 

It was super easy to make it since I use microwaveable chocolate and dipped the strawberries right in. It is super important to wash the strawberries and dry them really well or the chocolate will start to harden. Young mentioned to me about how she thought chocolate-covered strawberries were usually only half covered and didn't really like them. She thought it was funny how mine were a 1:1 ratio. Towards the end, the chocolate started to harden from cooling and running out. Young and I crushed about half of them before Hyman came home. We need to finish them tonight. 

If I had a Valentine, I would be making like a zillion of these babies. Actually, let's be honest, if I had more money, I would make a zillion for myself. 

With school and my field placement going on, I haven't been cooking as much or taking pictures of it. I have been missing it. I think I need to start finding a balance in my life. I need to start making time for blogging, e-buddies, volunteering, and my life.

How do people handle it so well?

Week 6: First Week of Graduate School

Sorry that I have to change the title of my posts because since school started I have barely had time to cook let alone blog about my life. My weeks are crammed with studying and various school related activities on top of my sorority stuff.

But, what I will say is that so far I really like school. I am in a cohort with 25 other ladies and they are all really nice. I am the only East Asian student in the cohort and there is another South Asian student. We do not have any dudes in our group, but that is okay. Most of the ladies are working with children or just working. There is a good mixture of undergraduates and graduate students.

First day of school was officially the 26th, but I don't have classes on Mondays and Wednesdays only Tuesday and Thursdays. Monday and Wednesday of this week was for orientation for the Early Childhood Education (ECE) program. I met some of the girls that will be doing the same schedule as well. They even suggested that we take a multiple intelligence test for homework.  I put in a link if you wanted to see what your strengths are and what you need to improve on. We also made a pie chart representing our areas of strengths and needing improvement.

I clearly need to work on my spacing because 5% looks getting than my 10%s. 

Starting school has been me want to get myself into gear, so I made like a weekly assignment doc. I hope that this will help me keep organized and on top of the various assignments that I will have to do. 

This doc took me about 2 days to complete since I was waiting for my syllabi from my professors. 

I already got my field placement which is apparently similar to a preschool that I went to when I was 4-5 years old. When I told my mom about it she mentioned that to me. I don't remember preschool other than that this girl kept calling me a liar and didn't want to be friends with me. 

What I learned about this week? I need to plan better with food. I would come home and have to made a whole meal and do homework. Or I would be running out of the door with little to no food because I didn't time my morning correctly. I decided since Fridays are my off days minus work, I will do laundry, clean, errands, and blog. It will be my catch up day, plus the weekends depending if I am traveling or going home to my parents' house or no. I am planning on leaving early afternoon on Sunday to come back here to Severn since there is snow and I need to cook food for the week. 

Day 25: I got this! Not...

Today is my travel day to Georgia, so last night I laid out all my outfits and accessories for the weekend. I rolled them all into a large packing cube that I have. It left so much room in my suitcase for my toiletries and make up. I guess I can bring home souvenirs? I never really buy them.... I think I am a terrible friend actually. 

This morning I woke up knowing that I only needed to pack my backpack and switch my wallet which wouldn't take very long. So I took my time this morning with making my breakfast and cooking sweet potatoes. I waited until about 1PM to start my yoga workout, which was so much more painful than I thought it would be. Jillian Michaels is an intense instructor, I totally get why she was a coah on the Biggest Loser. After 30 minutes of that, I got distracted by Natalie Tran of Community Channel and her hilariously awkward videos. I absolutely love her humor. 

I think Sunday night when I get to my laptop I will add links and the YouTube videos. The hotel we are currently at does not let me access internet for free. This makes Princess Kim very sad. 

Anyways back to my "I Got This!" moment, I had a 7:05 PM flight to Atlanta, GA today. I planned on driving myself to the airport and parking in the Daily Parking lot. I totally missed the lot when driving and left late. I got super cocky since I now live about 15 minutes from the airport.  So I left my house at 6 not accounting for the bus that needs to take me to the terminal. I was late checking in my bag, so it was going to be on the next flight to Atlanta leaving at 8:10 and arriving at 10:10. This is an hour after I land, I debated whether I should carry on and thought, "Meh this means I can wait for my friend, Diem and travel with her." My flight was boarding at 6:35, I was at security by 6:37. So I was late. Just so late because I was cocky and thought I could do things at my own time. Life lesson: Always arrive at the airport at least 15-30 minutes before the flight boards & always check when your flight is going to board. 

I got priority check in for Southwest meaning that I got A section boarding, but since I was late... I was after C section boarding. The last few people in the plane. 

I feel awful for my friends I traveled with since two of them from NY waited an hour before I arrived. Their flight landed at 8PM and we didn't leave the airport until about 11PM since we waited for Diem who arrived at 9:55, and my bag didn't arrive to about 10:30. When we got there,  my bag wasn't on the carousel; I began to panick on the inside. I had to go to the baggage claim office to ask them about my luggage. They had it! I was so relieved!!! I have learned about when I need to leave for my next trip to Austin in about a month. I know that this won't happen again. 

Day 24: Snow Days Are For Baking

Today was a high chance of snow, do my boss at Brickz for Kids let me know yesterday that there was a high chance of my preschool class being canceled.

So this morning I had to be productive to make up for yesterday's just nothingness. I had to clean my bathroom and do my laundry. The laundry was most important since I am leaving for Georgia in a day and I like to pack early to make sure I have everything. Lists are the best for packing, I honestly think they are my salvation. They super help me keep organized. 

By the time I was done with cleaning my bathroom and starting my laundry, it was around 12. This is when I would start debating on working out and getting ready for work. Young and I made plans to work out at 5:30-ish, so I didn't have to think about that. Luckily I got a text from my boss saying that classes were canceled since it started to know at 10-11 AM. 

Since there  was no work and it was snowing, this meant that I could bake the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n' Fudge Brownie Bar. This I, of course, found on Pinterest, my pictures do not do it justice, but wow it is delicious. 

I actually didn't have enough Oreos since this week and last, Hyman and I have been eating them. So the original has so much more. 

I left this out to cool for about 3 hours before cutting it and it was still hot and fudgey in the middle. 

I had it as a dessert treat with vanilla ice cream and chocolate fudge on top. I will say that I do not do it justice like the website does. I am just not that artistic. 

Currently as I am writing this, I am in absolute pain from the work out Young and I did, plus no recovery from my work out yesterday. We did a 30 minute dance work out from PopSugar Fitness on Youtube. My thigh are just fatigued to the point of pain. I know that it is worth it and it is healthy, but wow. I am beat. Tomorrow I am doing yoga without a doubt or I might continue the pain depending on how much packing I get done to night.

I wish the music matched the moves we learned today and towards the end I was really dizzy and worried about my vertigo; but all in all it was a lot of fun. 

Young and I was laughing a lot during this. It didn't feel like it was too crazy of a work out. I think the best part of having a work out buddy is that you don't feel like you are working out you are having fun together. You are achieving a goal with someone, I think it is more fun. But I don't want to be solely dependent on Young. I was last year and when she moved I just stopped working out which was bad. I want to continue no matter what. That is what I would like to achieve. 

Day 23: Water Infusing & Sexy Dance Fighting

Today was supposed to be a productive day, it was not. I was supposed to do laundry, clean my bathroom, and meal prep. I totally forgot. So I will be doing all of this tomorrow in the morning and working out with Young in the evening. This is what happens when I do not make a To-Do List for the day. Lesson learned today, I am more productive when I know what I am supposed to be doing within the day.

I was prepping my fruit and veggies this week; I got strawberries and cucumbers so I cut them and placed them into storage containers. I got an awesome water infused from my graduation orientation, so I wanted to try a infuser recipe. I have seen a lot of strawberry, mint, and lemon or cucumber, mint, and lemon.

So after looking at this on Pinterest, I thought I would make it with cucumber, strawberry, lemon and mint. It turned out pretty well, I only let it seep for about 30 minutes before drinking it during my work out.

It is actually really refreshing and just kept refilling it with water through out the day, but it was not as pink at it was the first time. I made it again tonight, since I prepped three days of infusing ingredients into a sandwich bag in the fridge. 

I did a "30 Minutes to a Brazilian Body" work out today. This is Capoeira, which is Brazilian martial arts. I was interested in trying it mainly because of Bob's Burger's Season 1 Episode 3, "Sexy Dance Fighting" 

This is the actual video I did. 

This is how I feel like I looked. Like Tina. 

It was a very intense and a lot of low to the ground movements. I honestly get why Brazilians have a nice butt because this was mostly squats. I felt like a breakdancer, but not as coordinated. The GIF of Tina is an actual move, which is amazingly hilarious. Proudest moment of my day: doing capoeira like Tina. 

Day 21 & 22: Orientation & Making Friends

Thursday was an awesome day because of the fact that it was my Graduate School Orientation at UMBC. I was really excited to go and make friends. It started at 2PM, so I wanted to get there around 1:45-ish to make sure that I would make it in time so I can mingle and try to make friends. I really want to make friends at UMBC since everyone that I knew graduated. I know two people one is working full time and the other is in his own Ph.D program... so yeah. I am trying to make new friends especially with the people in the Education Program.

I got there around 1:45PM, I thought it started at 1:30... so I thought I was late, but I checked in and got my name tag, I got papers and a drawstring bag from the GSA. I waited for the campus tour, but no one wanted to talk to me. I also realized that my last name was not write on the name tag. It was "Truing" so I went to the check in and asked whether this was a permanent thing. They apologized and said that they copied it from what I wrote my registration sign up. So it was me. I wrote my own last name wrong. After 25 years of having the same name, I still can not manage to write my last name correctly. Life Lesson: Always proofread everything you type, especially your name.

The orientation was great, I needed up meeting a few people and wanting to be more involved with UMBC's GSA. I met a few people in the Education Program, which was great. I even gave someone I met there a ride home. It wasn't until we got to my car that I thought, "I don't know this person very well. They could murder me." So I brought my cell phone to the front just in case. I think have a stranger danger problem, the problem is that I don't have stranger danger. I believe in people and the good within them. Luckily, the person I took him was a nice guy nothing bad happened and he even friend requested me. I panicked a little over nothing. Am I the only one that does this though? I want to help people in need as much as I can. I have been trying to be as nice as possible and I feel like sometimes that is crazy hard.

Friday was a very fun and chill day. I started to get ready to go home for the weekend. I was able to work at Brickz for Kids that day too. We were teaching Robotics which was super cool. The kids made a claw and programmed the claw to open and close. It was really interesting. I was talking to one of the instructors (who is 17 years old) who told me that I need to get a hobby and stop working so much. I told him in order to get a hobby I needed money. He suggested instrument, cooking and streaming TV. I laughed at the last two since I need to cook to survive as I stream everything. I guess when you are 17, you don't understand the struggles of life and there is the cushion of your parents and of home. Oh yeah, he even asked me if I was going to go clubbing. I SUPER laughed at that one. Hilarious. I wish I was back to being 17, I miss it.

After work, I made plans to eat Bon Chon with a sorority sister from Dallas who was in town for a residency interview. She didn't have a car and was in Downtown Baltimore so I offered to pick her up before we got dinner. Young met us there and we ate a large combo of soy garlic and some spicy with two orders of fries and kimchi. It was delicious. I got a coke since I knew it was going to be a long night of driving. After we went to Shilla's Bakery to get some dessert, but we were all too full to eat it. So we just sat and chatted. It was nice.

Today, MLK day, I went grocery shopping with my cousin Vicky to get a reign on my spending. I am happy to day I only spent $30 on a weeks worth of food. I was really proud of myself. I think she did really help me and the fact that I am not spending that much time at the house this week since I will be going to Georgia over the weekend.