Missed my drop deadline

So today I found out the last day to drop a class was two Fridays ago :( I haven't been doing well in one of my classes, so I contemplated dropping it (and having it shown up as Withdrawn on my transcript) because it was just going to kill my GPA. But now I'm stuck with it. I turned in a paper last week, and after turning it in, I realized how off-topic I went with it, so I'm anticipating a sucky grade, just hoping it won't drag down my average lower than it already is. I have to depend on my final exam to save my grade as much as it can, but it's only worth like 30%, which isn't too much. Bleh. 

I'm finally done with all my exams, aside from finals, so I'm happy. I have some projects and a paper to write though, but nothing too bad. Thanksgiving is also coming up, so I'm looking forward to the week-long break ^__^

Haven't had much interesting going on in my life, so there was nothing to update on. Errm. I started playing rank for League of Legends a few days before the season ended and got placed into Silver 4. It was disappointing, and made me regret not starting it sooner, but whatever. Not a big deal. 

Well, not much left so say, so until next time!

China Glaze: Scattered and Tattered over Naked

Haven't had a nail post in so long! I wanted to do a red mani, but the only red I had around was China Glaze's Scattered and Tattered from their Glitz Bitz 'n Pieces collection, which I picked up at Sally's not too long ago. 

Deciding on a base coat was challenging, but I decided to go with a pink, China Glaze's Naked which I got as a set for Breast Cancer Awareness. 

Scattered and Tattered (1 coat) over Naked (3 coats)

Naked

Application: The formula was on the thinner side, but easy to work with. It took three coats before I was satisfied. Two coats still had a bit of visible nail line.

Color: It's a hot pink with very fine shimmers. 

Overall: I'm happy with it. But it started chipping/wearing really quickly. I took the photo a day after I applied it.

Scattered and Tattered

Application: Nothing wrong with it. I used one coat and it was pretty dense, so I was satisfied.

Color: It's black and red glitters of all shapes and sizes (stringy, hexagon, circle); clear base

Overall: It's a fun polish to play with, but since it's red, I have no idea what to pair it with.

Columbus Weekend: CollegeFest 2013

Friday night I went home and I spent Saturday shopping at Urban Outfitters (50% off clearance) and Forever21. More damage to the existing hole in my wallet. Was super tired so didn't do anything else for the night, but ended up staying up til like 5:00AM anyways and reorganized my nail polish by brand. 

This year CollegeFest was hosted at Hynes Convention Center on October 12 and 13. They were passing out free tickets on campus but I didn't know about it T_T I decided to go on Sunday and it was my first time going, so I didn't really know what to expect. It started at 12 and I got there around 12:45. It was basically just companies setting up booths and advertising themselves. A lot of it were raffles (that I didn't win), plinko, or pong. 

I think it was an okay experience. Definitely get your money's worth of goodies and time passed by quickly. We had to go around 3..so it was only 2 hours but still felt like forever. I think I'd go again next year though. One thing I don't understand is HOW people end up getting loads and loads of goodies.

Went over to my friend's for the night and the next day had dinner there as well. It's only been three days but it feels so long :o Tomorrow I don't have classes either, so I'm happy :D But my TF wants us to go to her other discussion because ours is canceled due to the holiday. 

Going Blonde v2

The last time I dyed my hair was in April and May, where I bleached it three times (two were full coverage, and one time was just the top of my head because it was really uneven) and you can read about it [here].

Here are the end results:

So the night of coming back from Brazil I bleached my hair. Normally you should wait 1-2 days after you washed your hair to do it, but I washed my hair twice the day before. >< It's not a good thing, but I didn't have time to wait.

I mixed Ion Color Brilliance Powder Lightener with an Ion 30 vol developer in a 1:2 ratio. I started timing AFTER everything is applied.

I applied it to the hair that was already blonde for 25 minutes before proceeding to the some of the black regrowth and lastly my roots. I left it in for a total of 55 minutes. The packaging says up to 50, but I had to leave it in a bit longer because it hasn't processed my roots much yet so I had to wait for it.

The hair that was black is noticable a lot more orange. I think I should've applied it to the black hair (minus maybe an inch of roots) at the same time as the ends of my hair, but I was hoping it would still be considered my roots and lighten quickly. I can't tell if the rest of my hair has much of a difference aside from sections which reached a pale blonde (almost white.)

My hair was retaining a bit of water at this point because it didn't dry until 12 hours later. This includes minimal blow drying because it was still soaking wet when I went to bed.

The next night I bleached my hair again. This time I applied it everywhere minus about an inch of my roots. I left it in for about 40 minutes.

The color is still uneven because of how it was previously, but not too noticeable. My regrowth is also more yellow than the rest of my hair, but unless you're really close or staring at it, it's not noticeable.

After the second bleaching session, my hair became super porous and would absorb the shampoo, making it hard to wash out. The first time as it was drying, my hair started to harden wtf. So I washed it again and the same thing happened and I used more shampoo thinking maybe it was just the bleach not washing out. I think it's shampoo because the water I squeezed out is still slightly bubbly :( So I washed it again the third time in the morning without soap, but I conditioned it and it took forever to dry because my roots would retain water.

I ended up toning my hair about a week or two later. At first I was HORRIFIED because parts of my hair came out silvery because I have a bit of hair that's a lot lighter than the rest. But after a few days it faded to a more platinum sort of color. It's still noticeably lighter than the rest of my hair though.

My hair is definitely two-toned, but I like it from the front. Can't say the same about the back though.

 Outdoors.

 Natural lighting (by the windows)

Here's the back..where you can see the middle section is noticeably lighter :( I kind of just dealt with it.

To summarize, I basically bleached my hair twice and toned it. My hair came out a lot more uneven (to me) after toning though. My hair still feels healthy, maybe the flyaway hair is more noticeable, so it does look a bit damaged, but it soft to me, so idk. My hair was only porous in the beginning and went back to normal after a few washes. Overall, I like this color a lot better than the previous :D

Disappointed, but Whatever

Friday I had an speed interview with an organization I wanted to join. There were definitely places I could've improved on but I hoped for the best and tried not to think about it until the result came out. I actually ended up playing games the entire day because of a bet so I didn't even think about it. 

But unfortunately I didn't make it :(( It's disappointing because I started thinking more positively about the results, just to have it be a letdown. I'm not as upset as I thought I'd be though. While I am disappointed, overall I have a whatever attitude. 

I'll definitely try again next semester. I was hesitant because next semester I have my core classes, so it'll be really busy with my team project and I don't want to be that member who can never attend meetings. But I'm hoping it'll work out because.. otherwise I won't get to do it since I want to study abroad next fall. And if I'm really committed in joining..then I should definitely try harder to balance the team project with it. 

School has quite busy lately, but I'm alive. I usually start my day off at 8:00AM (class) and get back around 10:00PM or so..and by then I'm super exhausted and can't focus on my work so I am a bit behind on all my readings.

But yeah, nothing else exciting. So until next time!

Brazil: The Way Back

We ended up leaving the house a bit later than expected, at 2:45AM, but that's okay. I forgot if I mentioned this before, but we had to drive to the GRU Airport because we couldn't book a local flight there. We ended up arriving around 6:30AM, so it was a lot shorter ride than expected. I slept the whole way lol. 

Airplane food..not the best, but it will suffice.

The first flight was the most annoying one ever. I'm not sure if this is how it is with all international flights, but there's three rows of seating as opposed to two normally (one on each side of the plane) and we ended up being seated at the very front row of the middle section. I sat on the left edge of the section, and the whole ~10 hour ride I had people brushing against me every time they walked by. It became like such a pet peeve whenever anyone walked by because I had to put up with it for hours. As if that wasn't enough, since we were in the first row, it was also the intermediary between the left and right section of the plane so people just kept walking through and stepping/kicking me in the process T_T And this entire plane ride I never got a single apology for any of this ughhh. I slept most of the ride, but I think every time I woke up it was because of either of it. 

When we got off we had to go through customs and we ended up getting taxed for the cigarettes we bought fml. The person at the shop told us we could each buy one (which was a pack of three cartons), but the truth is you can only have one carton per person without being taxed. >:(((( So the mother wasn't very happy about it T_T;

Anyways, we waited about 2 hours for the next flight and the ride wasn't that bad either because I was asleep a majority of the time. Our flight landed and we got our stuff and went home. So that was it :))

Overall, I think it was a worthwhile trip. I'm happy with the things I bought :))) And it was nice to reconnect with some family members. It's also good to learn about new cultures..sadly that might come with feeling excluded if you don't understand the language. 

Brazil: The Last Day; Haircut

Day 15: August 28

Today's my last day in Brazil :( I got woken up at 10:00AM to go out for lunch at Tokyo Restaurante. It's a Japanese and Chinese buffet, and you pay by weight. I think R$46/kg. 

The food looked really delicious, but upon eating it it was pretty bland. It wasn't bad but I didn't have much of an appetite to finish everything. 

I went to Ramavi Cosméticos to pick up some last minute cosmetic needs and ended up with a few more nail polishes (not that many, I swear, like around 5), a nail buffer, and some Vult cosmetics.

Not long after I went home, my cousin told me to get ready to go and I asked her where and she never told me lol. We ended up going to Desejo & Sabor with my other cousin's girlfriend for coffee and gelato.

Tiramisu Gelato

When we left, we went across the street to a beauty parlor called DN&K. O_O There they inquired about coloring my hair and a haircut even though I insisted I'll get it done at home >_< We opted for just a haircut in the end because the coloring would cost R$700-800... I ended up chopping it off to past my chest , so around 10 inches in total :X I wanted longer..but they kept pressuring me to do more T_T; And I was also hesitant because I was planning on killing my ends more first before it goes chop chop.

Anyways, here's some before and afters:

For dinner we went to Coxilha dos Pampas again. I was hoping to be able to eat more but got full really quickly again :(

Came home and packed up the rest of the things because we were planning on leaving at 2:00AM, so I took a short nap before that.

I have one more Brazil post after this, so until next time!

Brazil: More Shoes... & Lots of Food

Day 14: August 28

Today I woke up around 11:30AM or so on my own again :0 I stayed home for a while and then headed out with my mom to exchange a pair of boots she ended up getting my brother's girlfriend -.-;; The same pair as the ones I got, but for some reason one boot had spots all over it that wouldn't wipe off o_O 

While we were there, I remembered a pair from a store (Humantarian) we visited yesterday that we didn't go back to get, so we went there and ended up looking around and I ended up getting more shoes :X

The left one is for my brother's girlfriend lol. It was only R$40, so not too bad :o I bought a pair of pumps because I thought they were cute :c and they fit soo yeah. I already have something similar though..but it's kinda tight. When I was trying them on the 36 was too big, but the 35 was way too small -.- I ended up finding a 36 that fit correctly..so I dunno..inconsistent manufacturing I guess. But the left side is a tad big and would slip off if I'm not careful. It was R$90 and the pair on the right was the one I went back for. It was R$55 :c

That makes 6 pairs of shoes that I bought in the past few days. I think I spent the total of..a bit under R$500 on shoes, which isn't too bad if you average it out and plus it's hard to find shoes that fit me in the US, so gotta stock up while I can. I hope they last though.

For dinner we went to the same place we went on the first night. We ordered the same things and I got pictures this time :D I don't know if it was because I was hungry (since it was like 10:00PM) or what but I felt like I had more of an appetite/thought it tasted better.   

 I ate sooo much that I had a stomach cramp T_T;; It took like two hours for it to finally go away.

Since I promised to go get dessert with my cousin's girlfriend we ended up going to Joyce Crossanterie. It was hard finding a place to go since it was 11:00PM.

Don't really know what these are, but the small ones have a cold, caramel filling. The big one is sorta like bread but harder and it has a layer of crispiness and chocolate filling and covering. 

Went to the market to pick up celery and then came home. 

Tomorrow's my last day (or technically today), so it'll probably be filled with packing and whatnot. We couldn't book a flight to the GRU Airport so my cousin has to drive us there in the middle of the night because our flight's in the morning.. It's like a 5 hour drive :T 

Anyways, going to sleep now, so until next time!!

Brazil: Angry Day

Day 13: August 27

Woke up a little before noon on my own again yay! In the afternoon I went out with my aunt and mom to look around and buy some things. I ended up getting a pair of boots for R$100 and it fits my calves snugly :3

But this day is kind of pissing me off. For the past few days my mom keeps insisting on buying my brother's girlfriend a pair of shoes. She already says she doesn't want any, and I know that could be courteous and all but she's been insisting no. Not to mention, she might not even like it because clothing/shoes are tricky things, you either like it or you don't. And what if it doesn't fit?

Today my mom and I have been bickering because after I paid for the boots, she said to get another pair for the girlfriend. I told her, I don't know whether she even wears that stuff and she already insisted no, so stop being so pushy about it. In the end she called me selfish and that I'm jealous that she's buying shoes for her. And that just pissed me the fuck off like a fuse being blown. Like what part of she doesn't fucken want it do you not get. And I'm offended that she turned it on me, calling me selfish and jealous. Like fuck off. You're bothering me about, so I don't understand why I have to take that shit.

Note that I typed the above paragraphs very shortly after it occurred so yes, I was super angry but have definitely calmed down since. :c

After dinner I went out to Lyon for some coffee because we wanted to find something do to.

Strawberry-chocolate pie, some sort of strawberry thing, & cappuccino

They weight the pies and cakes to get the cost :o The cappuccino was a bit on the thicker side..or maybe just because I was kinda too full from the pie. 

Brazil: A Dozen Pair of Shoes...Literally

Day 12: August 26

The trip is almost coming to an end!! I woke up by myself today around 11:30AM. When it was time to eat lunch, everyone was surprised that I was awake and on time for once lool. 

In the afternoon I went shopping with my aunt and mom. We were mainly looking at shoes because my mom likes the pair that my aunt has :c So we went and we got a lot since my mom was helping friends/coworkers get them too, but my aunt didn't have her ID so she couldn't sign up for the store card for the discount. :c So we left it to get later.

 

Wanted fries but my aunt ordered me a McFlurry lol

LOLOLOL Told you it was a lot -_-;;;;

These are my picks :c The wedges in the middle were a tad expensive...but why not. 

After dinner, my cousin and I went back to get the shoes and and sign up for the card and the process took forever.. like over an hour -_-;;;;

We finally got it and when we got back it was time for pizza :X They ordered four boxes, I think.. so much D: Two of them had like cream cheese which I didn't really like. 

Brazil: Food & Pacific Rim

Day 11: August 26

Last night I slept in the living room because my cousin's nose was stuffed from being sick so she was snoring really loudly, and I couldn't fall asleep. Some time after she left for work, I went back into the room to sleep for a bit before getting up around 10:40AM to go bike riding. But it turns out that nobody woke up in time for it >;o so we didn't get to do it. So the cycle has been broken (for now) where I woke up early(ish) for once!! 

I ate half of some sort of sandwich for breakfast and hung around until it was time to go eat. We went to Ribeirao Shopping to go eat at Outback Steakhouse, and we waited for maybe an hour because there was a long wait. We waited and browsed around for a bit, but in the end we chose to just leave it and go somewhere else, since estimated wait time was two hours. 

We went to somewhere else in the mall called The Fifties, which was like a burger joint. They also had hot dogs, salads, wraps, etc. We all opted for a burger and I got myself a 150g Pic Americano. This one was the smaller one and I couldn’t finish it.. imagine if I had gotten the 250g one.. :T I did finish most of the burger itself, and half of it was like the bun. It was yummy though because the burger was kinda different than most places in America. Imagine..less ground meat sorta. I also liked how it was overflowing with cheddar cheese. 

We all parted after eating and I went home to take a nap. I woke up a few times because it was so hot!! I had to get up eventually because it was time for dinner. After dinner I played around with this baby, but he cried when I held him :’( Whenever I see him, he’s ALWAYS sleeping..and when he’s awake he never cries.. but when I held him. T_T;;;;

Not long afterwards, we went out to the movies. We watched Pacific Rim in 3D. It was in English lol with Portuguese subtitles. Originally we were supposed to watch it in New York at night, but nobody was really interested so we didn’t. Overall, I thought it was a good movie. In a way, I guess the ending was like Iron Man 3 o_O 

Got back around 12:45AM, and I went to bed not long after taking a shower. Slept early for once. 

Brazil: Ice Cream & Brazilian BBQ

Day 10: August 24

Same morning/noon of being woken up for lunch. I spent most of the afternoon indoors before going out for errands and then getting ice cream at Vanesa's Sorveteria Gourmet. I told my cousin the night before that I wanted ice cream so that was probably why. :)

Vanesa's is a self-serve ice cream parlor and you pay by weight. They have little spoons for you to grab samples too, but the downside of that is that some people reuse their sample spoons on another ice cream aka get their nasty germs on it. I saw a guy do that. T_T

I got three flavors: some sort of white chocolate (?), Strawberry, & Zambayone w/Almonds

My favorite was the white chocolate one. The strawberry was kinda weird and had an icy texture. I tried my cousin's girlfriend's strawberry yogurt one and that tasted better. :T As for the Zambayone...I think it's made with wine or something. My cousin's girlfriend said it's her favorite so I just got it but I didn't expect it to taste like that. But if it really does have alcohol...then what if kids eat it o_O it was three smallish scoops with hardened chocolate and whipped cream.. And that was almost R$9.00.

Went home for a bit before going out for dinner around 10:00PM or so. They kept urging me to change out of my shorts and tube top and I cheekily asked what kind of restaurant is it that I have to change, since they never answered after I asked why I had to several times. Even then I never got an answer. I admit I regret asking like a beat that last time, but too late now.

We went to a Brazilian BBQ place called Coxilha dos Pampas. I admit, after getting there I can see why I should've changed. It's a bit high-end so you ought to look presentable and not too casual (but not formal.) Though I'm not sure if they told me to because it'll be cold or because of this.The restaurant is quite big..it fits a lot of people, not to mention it was pretty packed.

Turns out it was another gathering because I recognized people from the birthday celebration. So we ate dinner. Servers came around with food, where they cut you a slice if its meat or uhm shove it down the blade thing if it's uh stabbed in that way (for a lack of a better way to describe it.)

This place is supposed to be better than the one from the birthday celebration (also a BBQ place) because there's more selection of meat, but I didn't know how to ask for the food, especially if it involved choosing how cooked I wanted it, since I don't eat rare meat.

Salad/sushi bar. AREN'T THE ROSE DECORATIONS AMAZING? Arg so pretty! They had it on most dishes. My mom took better photos, but it's too much work to get them from her ^^;;

Before (stuff from the salad bar)

After (with some of the meats brought over)

Either way I didn't have much of an appetite, so I definitely didn't eat close to my money's worth. At one point I asked for fish and holy crap the server gave me such a huge piece T_T this was when I was already quite full. I didn't know how to ask for just a little, and even then I didn't expect to get such a large piece. The salmon was super yummy though, it was nice and tender mmm...

Funny experience here is that there's a large TV screen in the corner and it kept replaying these black and white scenes. It reminded me of home videos back in the day and I couldn't figure out why they were showing that. It wasn't until much later that I found out it was the surveillance video of the playroom for parents to watch over their kids as they enjoy their meal. 

Another thing was almost everyone was on their phones...and by the end of the night most people aren't anymore because it died so they just sat there LOLL and in my corner we all still had battery >:)  Survival of the fittest.

Anyways, that was about it. I think we left around midnight or so...and just retired for the night. 

Brazil: Nothing Exciting

Day 9: August 23

Today wasn't that eventful. I was home most of the time except out for a bit to run some small errands. I slept pretty late last night (5:00AM) so it was hard for me to get out of bed. Funny thing was, I think I had a dream where my mom made me angry so when she came to wake me up around noon, I ignored her because I guess I was still mad from the dream so I didn't want to respond to her.. rofl.

I went to Meseu da Gula, which is a small market with foods from all over the place and half of it was alcohol. A bag of Milano cookies were R$18 or so O_O;

Afterwards, we went to another supermarket just to browse around while we waited to go pick up some relatives.

I tried something called empada..it's a baked good with chicken inside. It reminded me of chicken pot pie minus being wet. The crust was also kinda drying so I didn't like it so much.

Came home, ate dinner, and that was about it for the night.

Brazil: Dessert Overload

Day 8: August 22

The past few posts have all started the same..and this one isn't any different either. I woke up yet again at noon to eat. My plan for the day was to hang out with my cousin's girlfriend, so I killed some time before it was our set time..and I ended up falling asleep. I think she got here at 4:20PM or so..because that's when she texted me, but I didn't wake up until 4:45PM because that's when the calls from my aunt woke me up T_T;; She was with her grandmother too, who had to wait as well T____T;;;;

Our first stop was dropping off her grandmother home..then going out for candy.

We went to a place called Desejo & Sabor, which is a popular place for wedding favors. On one side of the boutique are the displays of chocolate for customers and the other side of the wall is like a display of some of their stuff, which was super duper cute.

Chocolate!!! 

Bombom de Morango: It's a chocolate covered strawberry. Yummy, but wasn't particularly memorable.

Brigadeiro de Nutella: I was expecting it to be yummy because of the Nutella, but it tasted nothing like Nutella..and it was kinda bad tbh. The flavor just wasn't my thing.

Casadinho: Probably my favorite of all of these. It's half milk chocolate and half white chocolate..and has a very soft texture, not like a truffle. Soft where's it's mushy but not so much where it'll get messy when you hold it. 

Bombom de Uva: Chocolate covered grape. I didn't get to eat it but my mom did and she said it was good.

Also got macarons as well because...I like getting macarons. Pretty fluffy..only got to eat the orange one.

The two of us couldn't finish everything T_T I took the grape one home and we each only got to eat one macaron before we decided it was too much.

Next stop..Ribeirão Shopping!

It's a super big mall, much larger than Shopping Santa Úrsula and it's very clean inside with a zillion different stores. There's even an arcade, but we didn't play there. We just browsed around and didn't buy anything. Parking costs R$3.50..so it's one of those malls that charge for that >:|

Not long after getting home, it was time for dinner and I was able to eat a lot already T_T;; And not long after that we went out for açaí. I think originally we were going to get it yesterday, but somehow ended up getting ice cream.

We went to Porto Açaí. 

I've never eaten açaí before, but I'm sure I've tasted the flavor before. I was a bit hesitant when it came out..because it was like an almost black blob. After trying it, I still couldn't decide what I thought of it. It's like.. an icier texture of smoothie and the taste was very distinct. I have no idea if I like it or not either.. because I don't think I like it, but I don't mind it. 

Mole Crepe..yummy! The crepe was a bit on the harder side but not too dry. I think the inside was mostly caramel of some sort? It was warm and didn't harden like caramel though. I couldn't tell what was inside exactly, but I knew caramel was in it, and it was a familiar taste, but I wouldn't say of just caramel... 

Also got a sandwich, and it was mainly chicken and cheese inside, but so good! I also tried a cashew juice...as weird as it sounds, it was good and it reminds me of a milder version of passion fruit. Not sure if it really does, but that's what I was reminded of lol. The sad thing of all is, I think I could still eat after everything T_T

Got back home around midnight. Played a few games, showered, and blogged. 

I'm up to date with my trip now, so until next time!

Brazil: I Scream for Ice Cream

Day 7: August 21

It seems like I only get woken up nowadays to eat lunch. Originally the plan was to go out to eat, but lunch was already made, so we didn't go out. Played a few games of LoL before going out for a drive to look at some places. Along the way I finally passed level 147 in Candy Crush!!! I've been stuck on this level since before finals.

After we came back, we were trying to look for socks because my dad's an idiot and only packed like 3 pairs, bar soap, and a trash bin because I think I broke it :'( I ended up getting some snacks, mostly instant noodles lol.

Justin at the supermarket

Came back and it was time to eat..and I got tired so I took a ~20 minute nap. I woke up to go eat ice cream at a place called Ice by Nice at Fiusa. It's right next to a MousseCake. Since it was nighttime (~10:00PM) I couldn't get a clearer shot of the place.

 Mousse de Morango

 Morango, Chocolate, & Cia

It was R$16.50-$17.00 each..so not too expensive not too cheap. I ordered the Mousse de Morango. Lots of whipped cream though and the strawberries weren't that sweat. There was also something else in it, but no idea what... it reminded me of Greek yogurt but not mixed that well.

On my way back to the car, I saw these cotton looking things all over the ground. Any idea what it is? O_O It's not actual cotton though, I think it fell from the trees or something maybe?

Doesn't it look a bit like snow from afar?

Came back home and that was it for the night.

Anyways, until next time! :)