Thanksgiving Break 2023

Posted on November 28, 2023 by Carly

I love doing mostly nothing for a week.

Thanksgiving Break has come and, unfortunately, gone. I spent most of my time doing absolutely nothing which was pretty relaxing. My last class was on Monday, meaning that I got Tuesday off in addition to the rest of the week.

I did have homework due on Tuesday night, but I had already done most of it and then turned it in. After that, I was free to do what I wanted when I wanted. That meant going down to Vero Beach to see my best friend Chris, and riding the train from West Palm Beach to Orlando and back. We didn’t have anything better to, we were that bored, and it was a new experience, so we figured why not? Chris also had Thanksgiving off from his job, since the flight school he works at was closed for the holiday.

The train station was pretty small- nothing like Union Station in DC or Grand Central Station in New York City. I was pretty surprised, but then I found out that there’s only two trains that pass through, which makes a lot more sense. It was very modern and had an overlook of where the trains came in.

As for the train itself, it was still pretty cool. There was much more legroom than an airplane, free internet (although it didn’t work for me) and a huge bathroom. The train went up the coast and then inward towards Orlando, but it was too far inland for me to see many ocean views. I liked how much you could walk around the train. Where the cars connected, they would have a few windows so you could watch what was happening.

The train pulled into the Orlando airport. I’d seen a lot of people with suitcases, but me and Chris had just brought our backpacks. It pulled into the Terminal C, which I think is much more fancy than A and B. The main food court was over by the TSA lines in Terminals A and B, so we had to take the train over… and of course, spotted a couple of planes on the way.

We got lunch and then headed back to the train. I ended up sleeping for most of the way back, which I definitely needed after this semester. After that, Chris and I got Thanksgiving dinner at an iHOP, and my week continued on as normal.

I also ended up going over to a friend’s house and got to meet his two orange cats! They aren’t siblings, but they do get along well. It was his birthday, so of course we celebrated. At the end of the night, I went back home, went to bed, and prepared for a normal Sunday of doing homework.

I had a project due the Monday we got back which I was mostly done with, but I needed to finish it. The project is for AE 434, Spacecraft Controls, and aims to continuously point a satellite at the Earth. The class was working on part 2 of 3, creating block diagrams and adding a disturbance to the system. A disturbance is exactly what it sounds like- anything that disturbs the system from the state that it’s in. It’s a class I definitly find interesting, but it’s also a lot of work! If you come for Preview Day in April, I think you can observe classes. Although I’ll be finished with the class, I’ll still be on campus. I hope to see you there!

Travels & Thanksgiving

Posted on December 3, 2019 by Merrick

Greetings and salutations folks! I am currently blogging from Charleston, South Carolina at the airport en route back to Riddle in all my post Thanksgiving glory.

I started my break migrating north from Daytona Beach to Norfolk, Virginia where the November weather was blissfully crisp for about 5 seconds before I got cold and realized that my Florida wardrobe was not prepared for 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Once back in VA my family packed up and road tripped it to Charleston, South Carolina where I spent the remainder of my holiday.

In Charleston, my family and I ran a 5k in the historical district on Thanksgiving morning, followed by heading back to our hotel to get ready then driving a few hours to our cousin’s house where we spent the remainder of the afternoon eating and napping.

My family and I at the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot wearing matching shirts (not pictured are our matching socks).

We spent the rest of the break exploring the outdoor city market in downtown Charleston, stopping at local eateries and coffee shops, as well as sight seeing and of course making a stop at the beach.

Folly Beach, South Carolina!

I wish the Thanksgiving break had lasted longer, but because of how late the holiday fell in the month of November this year, upon getting back to school we only have one more week until finals!

I wish I spent my break relaxing and sleeping a lot, but honestly I stayed up late doing homework in hotel lobbies, came to the airport early to knock out assignments before my flight, and hid out in multiple coffee shops during the trip trying to catch up on assignments. I came back from break a day early to do homework and work on projects before class on Monday too. It’s super difficult relaxing knowing I have a bunch of deadlines and final exams looming around the corner. On the bright side though, I suppose there is only a few weeks until the semester is over, and I plan to sleep a lot over winter break!

Strolling around the streets of Charleston post Thanksgiving with my backpack full of homework – en route to a coffee shop.

I hope all of you find your post Thanksgiving Break groove and proceed full speed ahead to finals season! Will report back soon. Winter break is around the corner, keep on keeping on!

Recharging & Responsibilities

Posted on October 30, 2019 by Merrick

Happy October folks! I’m classically blogging from Daytona Beach, currently camped out at the ROTC building on a Sunday afternoon doing homework. Fall break was this past week and it was definitely well needed. I stayed local for the break hitting up coffee shops, catching up on sleep, and doing large quantities of homework.

As midterm time is among us, I had most of my tests before fall break, but midterms also mean RA deadlines! This means new hall door decorations, new bulletin boards, and more biweekly hall traditions! This also means time for the Fitness Assessment in AFROTC which consists of one minute of push-ups, one minute of sit-ups, and a 1.5 mile run for time.

At a local coffee shop close to campus drinking lavender chamomile tea and doing incompressible aerodynamics homework.

Something surprising that I realized over the break was… that I miss my friends! I know, this may not seem like an out of ordinary thing, but I almost don’t realize how inter-connected my everyday life is with the people around me. Now, if we zoom out a bit and look at the big picture four days is not a lot of time, but when you consider that I see my friends multiple times a day in different settings it feels off when they’re not around.

To put it in perspective: I wake up early and go to PT or to Leadership Laboratory (LLAB) with my AFROTC family, go to class until about 2pm, usually find myself back at the ROTC building a few more times for various meetings, paperwork, or presentations, then I workout with my ROTC friends, typically have an RA duty shift in the evenings or a staff meeting, then I go to sleep and copy paste and repeat Monday-Friday.

I tend to not view myself as a very social person, because of how much I value my alone time to rest and recharge by doing yoga, meditating, or sleeping, but in reality I spend the majority of my days being social. The main point I’m getting out of this, is that I’m pretty much an introverted extrovert. Once I’m recharged after a day or two I thrive in the busy hustle of everyday life hopping between my friends from AFROTC, O team, RA, classes, etc.

Before the break I had a math test, a compressible aerodynamics test, and an incompressible test, a technical report document due, in addition to arabic homework and other meetings, presentations, and responsibilities. When I study, unless I’m doing practice problems in a group, I typically prefer to be in my room or reserve a study room in the library.

But in particular, when studying for my compressible aerodynamics test recently I found myself outgrowing my desk with my spread of papers so I migrated to my floor to go over material. After a few hours when I finished I got up and realized that my creative learning process may be a little unconventional, but it works…

My post studying floor space before my compressible aerodynamics test.

I hope everyone bounces back to find your post Fall Break groove and keep pushing until Thanksgiving Break and finals. Will report back soon. Keep on keeping on!

Winter Break

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Jack

It’s almost time for the Spring 2016 semester to begin which means that the end of Winter Break is near. It has been nice to be off for a few weeks, but I am looking forward to classes beginning.

After my last final on Wednesday, December 9, I worked the rest of the week in Career Services which was actually a lot of fun as I was able to help out a lot with all of the internship paperwork. Plus, it is a unique experience being on campus when most of the students are away, and even the squirrels disappear. Although, I couldn’t wait to go home that Saturday, but unfortunately, some weather impacted my flight which caused me to have to stay until Sunday morning.

With my extra afternoon in Daytona Beach, I wanted to make the most of it. I hopped in my car and drove out to Ponce Inlet and visited the Light House. It was a nice sunny and warm afternoon, and I was treated to some spectacular views. I am glad that I had some extra time in Daytona Beach as who knows when I would have made it out to the light house or explored Ponce Inlet.

Finally, Sunday morning came around, and I was able to fly back home. There, I spent about a week running errands and hanging out with my friends, but then it was back to South Florida for a week for a family vacation.

After returning home, I enjoyed about a week-and-a-half at home, spending most of it with friends, but then in what seemed like a blink of an eye, I was boarding my flight to return back to Daytona Beach.

I hope everybody had a very Happy Holidays and has a great 2016! Stay tuned!

November & An Update or Two

Posted on November 12, 2015 by Skye

Hello hello everyone! It is finally November! Sorry I have not written anything in a while. It has been crazy busy on my side! School has been coming along. We are almost done with the semester. We have a little bit less than a month left. This is when all your final projects and final assignments are due. I finally figured out what my MATLAB final project is going to be, a NASA database! I got the idea from a friend, Julia. She knows how much I like NASA so one day we were sitting in class and she happened to mention the idea. I sat down and did some planning with my professor and he loved the idea. I must have been in his office for about 2 and a half hours just planning. He gave me some really good ideas and we brainstormed the project. I am really happy with what we came up with so now I just have to execute it and I have a month to do it!

For my CATIA project it is moving along! We are going to measure and model 10 parts tomorrow since my caliper that I ordered finally came in! I am really excited to get working on that because like I said before, I am doing a space shuttle pullback toy. Yes, NASA again!

November is going to be full of schoolwork, schoolwork, and more schoolwork. But there is still a break for Veterans Day coming up on Wednesday and Thanksgiving Break later on in the month. I will also be going to Kennedy Space Center later in the month. It has been too long! I miss my second home!

I almost forgot! Besides the craziness of school, during one of the Society 4 S.P.A.C.E. meetings, we had a guest speaker, Ronald Caswell, who worked on the ISS and Shuttle. He spoke for about an hour and a half about the Colombia and Challenger disaster. Let me tell you, being a space nerd myself, I knew a lot of information about the two disasters but I learned a whole lot more! It was a pleasure hearing him speak about his work. I loved how passionate he was. It was like nothing was stopping him from doing what he loved. It was truly a great experience to hear him talk.

Life has been flying by really fast lately. Final projects and last semester as a freshman. I have even started looking for a place for next semester. Time has flown by since the Fall Semester started. I cannot believe it is almost over. With all the craziness of school, I have taken time to relax and have fun. I have hung out with some friends and had a Netflix day where I sat and watched Netflix all day. Yes, it was a nice break from all the school craziness and stress. With a little less than one month left, it is time for the big push. One more month and the craziness of fall is all over!

Hold on Riddle kids! We are almost at the end! Have a great Monday everyone!

Fall Break & The Martian

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Skye

Hello all! Hope your Monday wasn’t too bad. Yeah, we all hate Mondays! I actually kind of like my Mondays. I only have on class: MA241 from 1:00p-1:50p. Now that I have a car, 🙂 it was nice to sleep in a little and relax before class and then head home right after and go back to watching Netflix. Now I know we all love Netflix! Then I do have to go back at 5:30p-8:00p for meetings, but it is not so bad.

Fall break was full of studying, packing, and yes, again, Netflix. Thursday night a few friends and I went bowling at Bellair Lanes down on A1A for 25 cent night. Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday Bellair Lanes has a special. It is an $11 cover fee then its 25 cent games, hotdogs, sodas, and shoes are included. It’s pretty sweet! Between the 10 people that were there we ordered 30 hotdogs and played about 8-10 rounds of bowling. For the 4 rounds and 3 hotdogs I ate, plus the soda, it only cost $2.00 for all of that! It was a super fun and cheap night. After that on Friday, my boyfriend and I packed up the kitchen (moving this coming weekend) and then watched Netflix for the rest of the day. Not very eventful. On Saturday we had a BBQ with one of our friends and cooked Hamburgers and stuffed jalapeños. I don’t like jalapeños so I passed on those! Then, the night ended with Avatar Golf and guitar playing. Sunday was the most tedious day. From 9:00a-9:00p it was all homework and studying. Not very fun but us College Students are great and putting off homework on breaks!

— The Martian —

On another note, I forgot to write a blog about this when it happened, but like they say, better late than never! On October 1st, I went to go see “The Martian.” Yes, I am a space nerd, I want to be an astronaut, and I plan on being the first person to step foot on Mars, so yes, “The Martian.” Holy moly! It was the best movie of life! I am not a big reader but I read “The Martian” and I could not put the book down! It was thrilling, funny, and full of action. Best book I have ever read! The movie did have to cut some parts out that I should have been in there, but after it is Hollywood. They can only fit so much into a 2 hour time span.

The way they cast “The Martian” was absolutely perfect! They could not have cast it any better. Matt Damon had Mark Watney down pat! And Jessica Chastain, she did a phenomenal job! The movie had a perfect mix of comedy, action, drama, and potatoes. A lot of potatoes! Out of the space trilogy, “Gravity (2013),” “Interstellar (2014),” and “The Martian (2015),” “The Martian” is definitely my number one! As you can see I was a little obsessed with the poster. I wanted to take it home. On my social media accounts, I even changed my profile picture and I became “The Martian.” Yes, I am in love with the movie, the concept, and the execution.

My boyfriend Josh and I, had the first showing! We saw it Thursday October 1st at 8:00p! Both of us being excited, but obviously I was a little more excited because we got to the theater 2 hours early. Yep! There was no one in the theater for a good hour. It was nice listening to music and talking about the book. The movie was a nice treat after reading the book. Even though I already knew what was going to happen, I still was on the edge of my seat! What can I say, I love space!

I haven’t gone to the movies in a while. I have seen a lot of movies good and bad. However, “The Martian” is like no movie I have ever seen. It had the right balance, the right cast, and the perfect story. There was enough emotion, heart, and soul put into this movie and you can tell. It puts the idea of going to Mars into perspective. Things can go wrong, risks are taken, and lives are at stake. But for those who seek adventure and exploration it can become a reality.

Give Thanks

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Lindsey

The last few weeks have been pretty stressful for me. Between classes, homework, tests, interviews, club meetings, and a social life, I haven’t had much time to relax at all. Thankfully, Thanksgiving break came just at the right time and was a much needed break from all of the busyness that school brings. Although I did not have the privilege of going home for the five day break, I was able to spend time in Orlando.

My Thanksgiving break was not full of home cooked meals, family time, cold weather, or relaxation; instead it was filled with theme park food, driving, sunshine, and a lack of sleep, although I wouldn’t have changed it. I was able to spend the break at the Disney World Parks, at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, as well as in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Orlando.

Although I did not travel to my home in Washington State, I still felt like I was on the go a lot. The first day of break I went to Tampa and St. Petersburg just to explore the cities, since I had never been there before. It was a really awesome experience because I got to drive across central Florida and along the west coast for awhile. One of my favorite things to do is to go on adventures to places I have never been before, and because of this passion, I made it my goal to explore the whole state of Florida while I am at Embry-Riddle for four years. This Thanksgiving break seemed like the perfect opportunity to start on the path to my goal, so I did.

The next few days of break were filled with Disney magic. I had never been to Disney World while the Christmas decorations were up, so I took full advantage of every minute I had to enjoy the holiday festivities. I was so excited to see the full size gingerbread house inside the Grand Floridian Resort, as well as the Osborne Lights at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. (The Osborne Light Show is a light show that is synced with holiday music and is truly amazing to see in person. It is put on each year during the holiday season.) Each morning I woke up early so that I could make it to one of the parks right when it opened, and then I would jump between parks, Downtown Disney, and the Disney resorts throughout the day. Anytime you spend a day at Disney you are sure to have a great experience, but also end the day absolutely exhausted. I was there so much that my Thanksgiving dinner was a famous Disney turkey leg that I bought in the Hollywood Studios park!

Christmas tree at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort

Gingerbread house that is entirely edible at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort

Being funny and eating a famous Disney turkey leg for Thanksgiving dinner!

The Osborne Lights at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

In addition to my fun-filled days at Disney World, I also spent a day at the Universal theme parks. I had never been to Universal in Orlando before, so I was excited to get to experience rides that were new to me. I started the day off early at the Islands of Adventure park where I decided to ride the Hulk first. I never realized how intense the roller coasters are at Universal until I got on the Hulk, but being the adrenaline junkie that I am, I absolutely loved it! The rest of the day was spent visiting Harry Potter World, sipping on the famous Butterbeer (it’s non-alcoholic, of course), and riding more rides in the Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios parks.

Hogwarts at Universal’s Islands of Adventure Park

Delicious frozen Butterbeer

Suess Landing in Universal’s Islands of Adventures Park

Although it felt like my entire Thanksgiving break was go, go, go, and I did not get to spend it with my family, I am still so thankful for the opportunities I had to experience new things while I was here in Florida over break. My advice to you is to always be thankful for the people in your life, no matter if they are near or far, the life you are living, even if it does seem to be go, go, go all the time, and the opportunities you are given.

Until next time,

Lindsey

My Life @ Riddle

Daytona Beach Edition

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