Hello again readers. I’m back to keep you updated on the jive down here in Daytona Beach. Let me tell you. This semester is really starting to roll. September is long gone and Halloween is fast approaching. My second set of exams are coming up toward the end of this month, which means the semester is just about half over. There has not been much going on in my life except for a few big events so I will talk about the general week and then talk about those events.
The past two weeks have been pretty ordinary as far as school goes. The weeks become really routine after a while and you kind of get set on autopilot. I have to remind myself to stay focused all the time just so that I won’t slack off. That doesn’t mean the classes are boring because I really like all my classes. Repetition can just get boring sometimes. I have not been working as much lately either. It has been a nice break from having to go from work to class, back to work and then class one final time. I actually get to have a rest period between classes where I can sleep or get some homework done. The other nice thing about not having work everyday means I have time go to the beach before or between classes which, believe me, is the coolest thing ever.
As far as the evenings go, I have found my little group of friends that I really connect with and we hang out all the time. We are now all big fans of LOST (Watch it, I swear you wont regret it), and we watch Heroes, which is turning out to be an awesome show. Other nights we rent movies and watch those together. We also go out to dinner all the time and that is always fun because it is not Sodexho food. We have our home base at Outback Steakhouse, but we have been branching out to Mexican food at El Azteca and Italian food at Buca di Beppo. Oh yea, and Touch N’ Go productions put on the movie Thank You For Smoking which was an awesome movie.
Now for the bigger and not so ordinary events. The first, and the one that I thought was the most fun, was the Eagles hockey game. The game I went to was versus Tulane. To start out, the game seemed slightly awkward because we had at least 4 lines on the ice and the other team barely had 2. They were a little out numbered which eventually would lead to their defeat. However, we learned later that part of their team was injured in a car accident during their trip down to the match. Hopefully they are okay and I wish them the very best. Going back to the game, when you get here you have to go to sporting events. In high school, sports are fun and entertaining, but in college it is just insane. There is constant cheering and yelling and everybody is united in the fight for your team to win the game. You will see that everyone participates and there are cheers for every different event that happens at the hockey games. To top it off, I was so proud at the beginning of the game. I was not expecting what happened at the start of the match. Usually you go to a professional game and some random celebrity gets up and sings the National Anthem. At our small college games, we can’t get the celebrities for the obvious reasons. So, we make it work ourselves. The pep band starts playing the anthem and EVERY SINGLE PERSON sings. A big percentage of students attending Riddle are ROTC students and it shows when everybody shows their pride for country during the anthem. It really solidified to me that I am definitely at the right school. To top off the night, we won the game and were greeted outside with a terrible, yet terrific surprise. It was pouring rain outside. Big deal you may say. Who cares because you are driving home, not walking? Well my friends, we arrived at the game with something like 7 people riding in the bed of a truck. After contemplating what to do we said to hell with it and a couple of us ran to the truck to bring it back to pick up the others. That was the most fun I have had in a long time. We got soaking wet and everybody was laughing the entire way. A couple of lessons for you future Riddle students: First, wet cigarettes don’t light at high speeds as my friend Carl found out. Second, small rain drops moving past your head and hands at high speeds are going to feel like needles against your skin. That was definitely a great night.
We also went to the range with my rifle this past week. I took one guy that had come with me before and three guys who had never fired with me before. It was a lot of fun even though one guy almost jammed up my rifle by loading too many rounds in the chamber. We had a great time together and it really relieves a lot of stress to just squeeze off a few rounds. We made the trip to the range a little more interesting by placing a wager on the last rounds. Each person took one shot at the same target to see who could get closer to center from 50 yards out. The person who was closest to the center received dinner for free and the person who was farthest from the target had to pay for that free dinner. I went last and made a stupid choice. The range master blew his whistle and called for a cold line. I hesitated and then rushed to take my shot anyway. I was way off to say the least and ended up losing the wager. I would just like to add I was the only one the whole day that had any bullseyes and should have won that game.
Anyway, the last main event of the past week happened just this past weekend. As you may or may not know, I am a member of ERRSA, the student governing board of the Residence Halls. We went on a retreat this past weekend and it was a blast. I had so much fun and learned a lot about all my fellow members. We spent the first night doing a team builder by exploring and sharing with everybody a little bit about ourselves. It was awesome to see that I shared a lot of morals and qualities with everybody in the room. Following the team builders we broke down into some fun. We played mafia, which is one of the most fun mind games to play with a group. If you want to know how to play then e-mail me. The night ended with the majority of people just hanging out and talking to get to know each other. The next day was filled with tons of team building and games. It was more fun than I initially thought it would be and I have come out with a lot more friends that I’m glad I got to know.
Sorry, but I have no pictures this time. I haven’t had the time to upload my most recent photos from my camera. Hopefully I will be able to get those on for my next journal. Also, stay tuned for a possible housing change. I received a letter that I might be moved from one location to another due to a ìdetripleî process. Unfortunately, I do not want to be moved from my current location. I love my hall mates and my room. I am going to try and work something out with housing. If you have any questions or want to know anything particular about my daily life or schedule, feel free to e-mail me at vonkr497@erau.edu. I really enjoy reading and responding to your e-mail and appreciate that people are actually reading my journals.
Until next time, may the force be with you and Godspeed . . . Sorry, the SciFi dork in my had to come out eventually.
