Review: Divergent Series

If you haven't heard yet Divergent is out in theatres NOW!! Check out the Official Movie Trailer below.

I thought I'd do the series review since I just saw the movie. I am currently obsessing over this series, it's amazing!! 

The plot of the story is about this 16 year old girl Beatrice Prior trying to figure out who she is and what is going on. It's a great story with a lot of action and some love scenes!

The movie stayed really close to the book which is always a good thing and I absolutely loved it. Being a really big fan of the books the movie did not disappoint.

The Main Actors of the movie are Shailene Woodley and Theo James. They did a fantastic job of playing the parts! They both were exactly what I had in mind and they definitely exceeded my expectations! Of course all the other actors were amazing as well. The whole movie was just perfect!

I am currently reading the last book in the series called Allegiant and so far it's been amazing. The whole series really blew me away and it's one of the best books I've read in a long time. (It may be sitting next to the shelf of Harry Potter and Hunger Games books! You know it has to be pretty good now right)

I totally underestimated the amazingness of the series continuously pushing back when I was going to read them but I truly and pleasantly surprised. I'm going to be so sad when I finish reading them. I'm at the point where I want to finish but at the same time I want to just slowly go through it.

Veronica Roth (writer of the series) totally hit the jackpot with this idea and Neil Burger (director of film) executed the story perfectly. Looking forward to the Insurgent and Allegiant Films! (Fingers Crossed)

Rating: A++

International Baccalaureate (IB) Program

I thought I'd give a very brief overview of a really cool program that my school offers. It's called the International Baccalaureate Program or IB for short.

The program focuses on getting an international perspective of learning and broadening your mind to different cultures. This program gives it's own diploma that is recognized worldwide which is perfect for me since I have international aspirations.

IB is very comparable to AP classes. The only real difference in them is that IB is not designed to grant college credits to students, though credit may be granted based on IB test scores. IB is also an international program (as I mentioned before).

The Components of the program include CAS, the Extended Essay, and TOK.

• CAS stands for Creativity, Action, and Service- IB wants each of their students to be well rounded.
• The Extended Essay gives each student a chance to write a paper on a topic that interests the individual student, a once in a lifetime opportunity- you get a year and a half to write the paper.
• TOK stands for Theory of Knowledge- IB wants everyone to be a critical thinker.

The IB program is really unique- they offer programs for different age groups.

The program was first intended for people who moved a lot so that education didn't vary every time families moved. Basically, the curriculum in IB is the same all over the world. I'm extremely excited to be participating in this program as it will give me a feel of what international education is like.

This poster describes some characteristics that students in IB should possess.

If you'd like to learn more about the program click here.

There are IB programs everywhere- find the IB in your region! If you don't have an IB school in your region, you can take online courses, find out more with the link above.

*I took the image off of the IB site

Review: Oticon Alta Hearing Aid

I don't know if I've mentioned this on my blog, but if you follow me on twitter (@theanxiousme) then you'd know that I got a new hearing aid, that it's practically invisible, and I absolutely love it!!

I figured I should do a review since I've had the hearing aid for about 2 weeks now so I think I'm qualified for an in-depth review on it. The hearing aid I have is the Oticon Alta and it's in the color beige.

I've never done a hearing aid review before so let's see how this works

This is what the hearing aid looks like:

Sleek and high tech right! Sometimes I feel like a spy agent with my little earpiece..

Psst, I'm part of the Secret Service- only don't tell anyone, it's kind of classified information

*You can still use a mold for the hearing aid, especially helpful for little kids since it's much easier to put on by yourself*

Anyways this is what my old hearing aid looked like..

Very blue I know- but to be honest that was the fun part of having a hearing aid, getting to decide what color you wanted it to be.

Now the two of them compared:

You can tell I really needed a new hearing aid(!!!)

Whenever I need to get my hearing reset it's always extremely confusing because I don't know how loud it needs to be or what it should sound like. When I first got this (new) one it wasn't loud enough and I couldn't hear anything, I had to go back and they put in a stronger processor on my hearing aid because I'm just that deaf..
*the processor is the part of the hearing aid that brings sound to my ears

Since then I haven't had any problems with my hearing aid which is great.

Time for the actual review:

Pros:

• The sound quality of the hearing aid is amazing and I love it, it's a lot easier to understand people.
• It has settings on it that help you when you are in a noisy environment, the lunch table is a lot easier and I don't have to say "What?" as often.
• I love the way it looks, it's so small and it's extremely invisible, it's not frumpy looking and no-one can tell I'm wearing a hearing aid, before I had a blue mold in my ear that everybody could see. (not that I cared but still- the new technology is cool)

Cons:

• Very expensive
• It takes a while to start, once you turn it on the sound just builds up which is different from my last hearing aid (Oticon Adapto) which just turned on right away.
• It's difficult to figure out how far in the hearing aid should go in your ear.
• When I take my hearing aid out everyone can hear it since the only way to turn it off is by taking out the battery.

I definitely would recommend this hearing aid to a friend, it's amazing. The pros totally outnumber the cons. Remember that the most important thing to look for in a hearing aid is sound quality and this totally checks off the boxes.

Rating: A++

To read my entire hearing loss story click here.

Knee Update

Hey guys! I'm going to start with an apology.

I'm Sorry!!! I've been neglecting my blog. I know I said I would post every week at least but that obviously has not been happening. I will not make any promises anymore because I keep breaking them..

Anyways, to keep up with my blog when I do post, just put your email address in the bar on the right which says "Follow By Email" so that the posts will be emailed to you. I also have a bloglovin' page so if you have an account follow me on that. It just makes everything easier instead of having to constantly check back, though of course you can do that.

If you read the title of this post you already know what I'm going to talk about today! Just so you know this post isn't one of those annoying "I'm hurt, look at me, pictures of me being sad with my injured body part" type of post, they bother me so much.

This post is more about preventing the issue, symptoms, and ways of strengthening your knee again and where I am at in the healing process.

First things first, I have patellofemoral issues which is when your kneecap is not aligned properly. I don't have a really cool "I was charging at this guy when.." story that caused this. I got this from kneeling a lot, sitting on the back of my knees, putting one knee over the other when I stand, and sleeping with my knees facing each other. (Weird right?!?!)

Surprisingly I only have the issue in my left knee.

This is more common in girls 13-18 since we have weak hips. It doesn't help that I have horrible posture either.

I first started noticing pain on and off for about 2-3 weeks and just kind of let it go because it didn't hurt that bad. Then one day the pain was so unbearable that I couldn't walk and so I took a lot of pain medicine. My mom asked me if it was swollen and I said it wasn't. She took a look at it and of course I was wrong, it was extremely swollen and I just didn't want to believe it.

Here comes the "What do I do now?" part.

First I iced on and off for a good 2 weeks.

Then I bandaged my knee for another 2 weeks while still icing on and off.

After that I went to see a doctor, the swelling was completely gone at this point, and I found out what the problem was (kneecap issues). Right away I went to see my trainer and she told me that in order to help the problem I had to strengthen my hips and all the muscles around my knee so that they would put the kneecap back into place.

I was given workouts such as:

• stretching leg as far as it will go
• lifting legs with weights
• standing on one leg (much harder than it sounds)
• biking
• squatting sideways with an elastic band around your knees
• squatting (first with 2 legs than with one leg)
• elliptical (only when trainer or doctor says you are ready)

Slowly but surely, I'm beginning to run again. Right now I've been running up to a mile and I've even got some sprints in too which is really good. The hard part is concentrating on not letting your knees bend inwards. If you go to your athletic trainer have him/her put tape on your knee because it puts your kneecap back in place and makes it easier to run. Unfortunately the tape is not a long term solution because you need the muscles to be able to put the kneecap in place naturally.

Today I was able to run a mile and a lap!! I would have run more but I forgot to use my inhaler and I didn't want to get an asthma attack- it's seriously not fun. If you want to read about that click here.

Some other helpful tips are to drink milk every day as milk helps build more muscle. I personally don't like milk so I've just been trying to drink a glass of chocolate milk once a day as soon after exercise as possible.

The day I'm really looking forward to is friday because I'm going back to the doctor to see how my knee is doing. I'm hoping I can hurdle soon because to be honest I really don't like running- hurdling is my one and true love <3

The other reason I can't hurdle quite yet is because the knee I injured is the knee I land on, which puts a lot of pressure on it.

If your knee problems continue to persist try a different sport, running is legit the worst one. If the problem persists with my knee I won't be able to continue hurdling/running :(

Knee friendly sports include swimming and ice skating.

Sorry for not posting in a while and breaking all my promises- just keep checking back for more posts.

I also apologize for not putting any pictures in this post. I really didn't want any pictures of my knee on the blog.

I'm a Rebel

So before I go into my entire rebel story I wanted to share with you what I have been doing during the time that I haven't been blogging.

I've been at Art Club for the past couple of weeks making an IPhone for my schools "Guy Beauty Pageant" (it's really funny and the guys just do stupid things for the school title- similar to a beauty pageant where they answer questions, perform a talent, etc.)

I'm working on it with 3 other people and it's so much fun, I've been making so many custom colors and have really just been having a blast with it.

Another thing that has been keeping me busy is all the snow we have recently been getting- It's so crazy. Two weeks ago I had no school monday, a 2-hour delay on tuesday, no school wednesday and thursday, and then school again friday. Then last week I had school until wednesday, no school thursday or friday, a day off this monday, and a 2-hour delay tuesday. 

As you can see, I've been pretty busy between Art Club and the snow days and we're still expecting more snow. I can't say I'm tired of it though, it reminds me of a Chicago winter which makes me happy. :)

Now for the part that makes me a rebel...

*Drum Roll Please*

*Whispers* I went snowboarding...

This is something I ordinarily would never have done but I have a bit of a knee injury and my mom told me that skiing would not be an option since I'm a risky skier and skiing puts pressure on your knees. She told me the only thing I could do was snowboard since I would be a beginner and therefore not likely to injure myself, or do nothing at all.

Being a person who enjoys to be active of course I decided..

What the heck, try it right?

I ended up having SO MUCH MORE FUN THAN I THOUGHT I WOULD!!!!

I'm actually really surprised though, my family is pretty die hard into skiing (except for my younger brother who is also a rebel) so I was really surprised to know that I actually enjoyed it. 

Could I compare it to skiing- ABSOLUTELY NO WAY!!

Would I snowboard again?- HECK YEAH!!!

Anyways, I fell on my butt a lot and I also realized that even though I built up muscles in my thigh from skiing, none of those muscles were used in snowboarding, so I had to really push through it and I ended up getting a much different workout than from skiing which was a nice change.

So, pics or it didn't happen right? Well here they are:

I also have a picture of me taking a break and eating an apple on the slopes which was pretty awesome and funny but I couldn't find it :( And yes, I did the hang ten- I'm just that weird.

So yeah, turns out that snowboarding was still not so good for my knee but it's okay. Gotta go see a doctor about that.. Otherwise I will be posting pretty infrequently for a while seeing as though spring track and field is going to be starting soon (If I can still do it) but I am going to try and post once a week because I love and miss it.

I'm Back- Here's What I've Been Up To!!!

Hi Guys! I've been MIA for the past month as I've had so much stuff going on since Christmas. I thought I would start by catching up about everything that I have been doing for the past month.

Let's start with Christmas! I had a great Christmas because I went to Colorado and got to go skiing which is my favorite sport on the planet!!!

Our ski trip looked something like this...

 

Yes, I took a picture of the plane on the way there. The suspense is the best part! And meet Fluffy, my pillow pet (he's the dog one) and I love him so much, it's awesome just the squeeze and cuddle with him. He's also my perfect travel buddy :)

We took the first day off as we were getting acclimated to the high altitude. The amount of snow was absolutely incredible!

On the slope with my bros!

This was Christmas dinner, a great, traditional, Croatian meal!

Learning how become ambidextrous since I thought it would be fun, honestly hard work though, my hand got so tired after 15 minutes.

The best thing EVER! Quadruple stuffed golden oreos!

Are my brothers not the cutest?! Big/Little!

After an exhausting day skiing its nice to just sit by the fire and enjoy yourself! (Don't forget the fuzzy socks, it's the best part!)

Soon it was sadly time to go, however we had fun driving through the mountains and we even stopped for fresh air. My dad- what a stud, sorry ladies he's married. (haha!!)

I may have had fun driving but actually leaving was horrible, Colorado was my haven, I didn't have to worry about anything except being a ski bum all day. I was not looking forward to the everyday hustle and bustle again. :(

At the airport my flight was delayed and we spent 3 hours at the airport. (Not really that long, I've been at airports from up to 6 or 7 hours before on International flights.) And then it was time to unpack- something that really makes the whole vacation officially over.

Good thing for me New Years was right around the corner and I needed one last fun thing before school started again. I went to Manhattan and rang in 2014 with my Croatian friends!!

My mom, some say we look like twins. (I guess I see it..)

New Years was the perfect way to end my break!!

Last weekend I also went to Chicago to celebrate my Grandparents 50th Anniversary! It was very exciting and I was so happy to be there. I got to read some of the petitions in mass with my cousins (in Croatian) and it was just a great time. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the actual event  (slap on the wrist- bad blogger) but I took pictures of the events leading up to it!

My grandma knows how to cook a meal!!

Gotta play some good 'ol fashion chess at your grandparents. (Remember- no WiFi here!!)

My grandfather with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for their anniversary!

I went to my friends house and we got a little carried away.. Mines the smaller one.. yea I'm kinda a loser- she went all out and I just didn't...

So a big round of applause and congrats to my grandparents for being together for 50 years- something that I hope I can do if I someday get married.

Lastly, the reason I haven't been blogging is because over the holiday I wanted to sort of get away from everything and I kind of neglected it. I also had midterm exams (which I finally finished today!!) and I I've been so preoccupied with studying for that. It might take a while for me to get back into a routine given that I have soooo many other things school- related going on so bear with me. It's good to back though!!

Snow Days!

The first snowfall finally came!! We actually got a day off from school because of it! It was so much fun and I loved it.

I woke up, ran to my window, started screaming like a little girl, and sprinted down the stairs when I saw the snow. I annoyed my Mom and brothers so much by doing that but I honestly didn't care! Winter is probably my favorite season because you get stay all warm, drink tea, hot chocolate, and spend quality time with your family which beats everything really.

So after I was done getting excited like a little kindergartener I went and listened to music for a good 2 hours. Then I ate lunch and shoveled the snow. When we finished shoveling we had a snowball fight which ended with a nice cup of hot chocolate!

Then I did my homework like a good girl, made some Christmas cookies and went to bed. It was a very satisfying day. Sometimes you need days like those once in a while.

This was the snow after Church on Sunday

At the end of the day on Tuesday. The scenery looked so beautiful from my backyard I had to take a picture. This still doesn't show how pretty it looked. I honestly stood there for 5 minutes just staring.

My brothers, I guess I love them... :)