Hello all! It has been an insanely busy (but interesting nevertheless) few weeks! The life of an engineer is really getting to some people. It is not easy to make it through it. I’ve already lost on hours and days of sleep, but it will all be worth it (I hope). So much has happened over these last two weeks it’s unbelievable to think that it’s only been one month since I was home!
On Tuesday the 18th, the Student Activities organization held the Activities Fair. If you recall from last semester, we had a similar one to the one in September. My picture was once again featured in the Avion (the school’s newspaper) once again! I decided to try out a few new clubs, like the Catholic Student’s Association, while still maintaining membership in old ones like SWE. I felt a little sad that the Hispanic Student’s Association wasn’t present…or at least I didn’t find it. I went to talk to my advisor, Mr. Stickney, who is in charge of the club. He told me it was dying out because of lack of participation. I’ll try contacting the current president and see how that goes…Wish me luck!
That same weekend, the Indian Student’s Association he
ld their annual kite-flying event/picnic. Because my roommate is part of the club, she invited me to tag along. I must admit I’m not a big fan of Indian food, but I made some great new friends while still bonding with old ones. It really put our aerodynamics lessons to work! I learned the hard way. After having punched a hole through my kite, I ended up attacking people with my new weapon—it kept spinning in circles out of control!!
This past Thursday (I believe…), we held our welcome back dinner for the FIRST mentor program (Female Initiative Reaching Success Together), hosted by the Women’s center. The program pairs up upperclassmen with freshman students. It’s especially great, since our mentors can advise us who not to take as a professor (but shh….nobody needs to know that). Cindy Oakley-Paulik, the director of the Diversity Center, filled us into this semester’s activities, which includes a trip to the Space Center for an up-close tour of the facilities! Oh, and did I mention that the person who attends the most events and has the highest GPA gets a $1,200 scholarship…?
The end of this last week was kind of bad, though…living in Daytona certainly has its downs during this time of year. Yes, yes, racing season is just rolling into town. The speedway hosted its first big event—the Rolex 24. For us students living on campus: a 24-hour, nonstop, LOUD race that will drive you crazy. For those racing fans: well you might just be in heaven. Although I didn’t go, I did hear a lot of good things from people who did. Racing fans, of course—so I attached a pictured of that for you to see.
However, things did end on a high note! Girl’s weekend on Sunday! My roommate, and 3 of my other friends (Sam, Mary and Jess) went shopping in Orlando. We even saw a Justin Bieber look-alike (we think), and got lost on the way to the mall because we were trying to follow him. A lot of silly fun, but it’s what we do best! It was a very nice change from the constant testosterone overdose we receive at Riddle…
Well, that about does it for me today! I’m off to do a million and one pages of drafting homework, math problems…and well you get the idea. Until next time! Watch Alex’s videos!
It’s the last week of the semester, and you know what that means…FINAL EXAMS! Thanksgiving break was not so much a break; it was a huge homework and study session. While most of my friends went back home for Thanksgiving dinner, I stayed here on campus. It wasn’t too bad, just a little quieter than I needed it to be. I really missed family and friends from back home, and it made completing my assignments harder than they were. I also got a chance to take advantage of flying here while everyone else is gone. That way I get to fly with fewer restrictions on time, and also have more airplanes available so I could pretty much fly whenever I wanted to. But today we all came back from the break and had to wake up early for classes…YAY. Including today, we’ve only got 4 more days of classes, Study day, then finals start on Saturday. And as we all know, the end of the semester means term papers are also due and the last assignments of the year are due. This is the make or break period of the semester, and if you slip up, that’s it. So far it’s going pretty smooth.
I am also happy to say that I may be done with my private by Christmas! I am so excited. It took a lot of work and dedication to get to where I am now. It wasn’t easy balancing flight with my academic courses, especially seeing that I doubled flight activities almost every day this semester. However, I was able to through it all and still do well. I completed my dual cross countries and am going to take my solo check ride this week so I can do all my solos all at one time. My instructor is so proud of the progress I have made so far, and I am too. It feels good to go up and fly and each day I learn new things. It’s an awesome experience.
Clubs right now are basically done. This is the last week of the semester and most clubs had their last meetings last week. There may be a few clubs that meetings this week but I doubt it. For First Gen, two weeks ago we got the chance to go to the President of the University’s house for dinner. It was an awesome experience. We got to meet a few of the board members of our school along with the president and his wife and a few of the faculty and staff at ERAU. It was a chilly night but it was worth going. TFO had a BBQ that same week and I wasn’t able to attend because I had my night cross country. From what I heard it was a huge success.
Everything here is pretty much wrapping up now and coming to a close for the semester. The biggest thing right now is getting ready for finals and FAA written and practical exams to take place in the upcoming week. Basically… campus is dead! I can’t wait to go home for Christmas so I can see my family and friends.