Hey everyone!

Well, another 2 weeks has passed here in sunny, breezy, beautiful Daytona Beach, Florida. I must admit, I have settled down considerably within the last few days since I now have a WHOLE lot of work to do..imagine college being easy? Think again!..and again..and again!!! It’s a non-stop flight of homework and studying that does not cease! Yet, I digress.

I manage to work it out and get over it and have time to have fun with my friends.

Well, last week was a lot..flight kept me very occupied, there are so much stuff that had to be learned out of books! But, it’s really cool when you actually do the maneuvers in the air for real!

So, totally drifting from flight stuff, business class hasn’t been treating me well lately. I had another mid-term test accompanied with a few take-home tests and projects. Thank God that’s over with! Although, I’m not so sure how well I did..hmm..I should look into that soon. Oh well.

Once again diverting to another subject, physics is…physics is..physics is..well, physics, it just is! It’s just there lagging along mainly because I’ve done the course so many times in secondary school and physics doesn’t appeal to me a lot but, it’s mandatory for AS degree, so..oh, and mid-term for that is coming up soon!! (yay me..*says sarcastically*)

OK, so now to the fun part of this journal entry, the weekend! What you’ve all been waiting to hear about what I did this past weekend.

Friday night was just chill. Went to the beach at like 11pm and hung out around the town for a while. It was mm..a bit scary!..but fun with friends none-the-less. Saturday night, movie night at my friend Dan’s room down my hall, yeah, we watched 2 horror movies (Hostel and Saw which were soo funny!) late at night then the girls couldn’t sleep (cause they were scared!), so we all went to Wal-mart like around 3 am and just messed around for a while.

Then, the next day, we went to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in Orlando. Did all the roller coasters, then we headed to Halloween Horror Nights in the other theme park. Wow, THAT was awesome! The girls who were with us screamed their lungs off while us the guys laughed so hard at them, it was hilarious. All in all, we all lost our voices and got home at 3 am Monday morning..yep..just in time for physics at 8am! Haha..that’s college for ya!

Overall, life’s been good so far, oh, and this weekend, the biggest most funnest (ok, so my English isn’t perfect!) Hindu festival is coming up! DIVALI! Sad thing is that it’s not celebrated here in the US and I won’t be going back home to Trinidad to celebrate it. So, for everyone out there..Happy Divali!..

I hope all of you enjoyed this little piece today and now, I am off to math112.

Take care everyone, and keep safe

Till next time,

Vick

(quote of the week: “I sh*t you not!”)

Well here it is in mid-October and I’m already nearly half way through the year. As more time goes by, the more I get into a routine and the more normal college feels. The first couple of weeks went by and it was somewhat surreal. Everything just felt weird, but now I am getting use to it and I definitely think that it is a positive change. College is certainly a fun experience, at least so far.

I guess I’ll start with my classes as usual:

Speech- I am finished with my 3rd speech which is an “informative speech.” It is about skydiving, and I can’t wait to present it. A lot of people’s speeches are usually serious and not very exciting. But I can’t do that. No matter what I do, I always try to incorporate some sort of humor in it. I don’t like to be monotone and boring; I like to be funny and exciting. For my first speech I made fun of myself for 3 minutes and for my second I read a couple pages of George Carlin’s book. As more time goes by, I tend to open up and be my usual goofy self. So I can’t wait for my next speech.

Physics- I did good on my first exam, but my second exam that is coming up is getting me kinda worried. So I’m going to make sure that I study extra hard to keep my A in the class.

Business- The hardest part of this class is to convince people in my group to show up to every class. I have yet to miss a class, but some of my group only shows up about half the time. So that can be a pain sometimes, but hopefully my group will get that worked out.

Basic Aeronautics- This class is still one of my favorites because it’s all about planes. Being a flight student at Embry-Riddle, planes fascinate me. I never knew that so much work went into designing and operating a plane. I definitely have a lot of respect for the pilots who make it seem so easy.

College Success- Nothing new in this class really. I took a mid-term a couple of days ago. 100/100. Yep.

Meteorology- My professor is definitely pretty crazy. I enjoy his corny jokes and totally random comments. This class keeps me entertained to say the least.

Flight- I now have over 12 hours as a pilot, so I’m pretty much official. If I were on a 747 and the pilot fell asleep, I would so be able to navigate and land safely. Well almost. Actually, I wouldn’t want to put myself in that situation yet. Maybe when I break 25 hours. I flew on Friday the 13th which was pretty exciting, but I didn’t go far. I am currently learning traffic patterns, so I just flew in and out of the airport. I did a total of about 6 or 7 landings and take-offs. Not the most fun thing to do in a plane, but I like the fact that I can see myself progressing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not anywhere near the best, but I am getting better. So that’s pretty exciting.

So as far as school goes, that’s pretty much it. I find myself with very little free time, but I’m staying busy and having fun.

Just recently I drove down to Tampa with my girlfriend and two friends to see the Tampa Bay Lightning, and it was awesome! They played the Florida Panthers and won 4-1. Like I said before, I’m not a real big sports guy, but being in that arena and watching Vincent Lecavalier score the first goal 5 minutes into the game is incredible! I was so pumped all through the game and I was so glad to see them win. I’ll post some pictures up on the website so be sure to check those out soon.

Speaking of sports, my intramural volleyball team is off to a rocky start. So far we are 0-2 with only 2 more games before playoffs. I know that our team isn’t the best in terms of winning, but we definitely have the most fun. We constantly make our own players and other teams laugh because we have such a good time. Other teams tend to yell at their players but we just laugh and have a good time. We may not be the champions at the end of the season, but I can guarantee we have the most fun, and that’s all that matters (aside from winning).

Other than that, I haven’t really done anything else too exciting this past 2 weeks. I have been keeping myself very busy though, but the load is getting lighter so I will hopefully be doing some more fun things soon. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted if anything happens over the next 2 weeks. Until then, hopefully this weather is going to get a little colder in Florida and hope all is going well with all of you out there. If you enjoy reading this, let me know, and if you don’t, make sure you keep that to yourself! Later

-Blake
email: wasteofsoap@yahoo.com
aim: wasteofsoap

I drove with Adrianna to the annual SAE’s camping trip at Ginnie Springs. I had a great time. I met a couple of new people. We went floating down the river which is something I had always wanted to know and never got a chance to do.

Adrianna had told me that she had gotten a two person tent and she said that I didn’t need to bring a tent. Well when Peter helped us build the tent (actually I think we were useless), the tent was very small. It could barely fit one person. It was a 5×6 Junior Tent. It was funny to see the tent because it was surrounded by huge tents around it. Of course people were making fun of it because of its size.

I ended sleeping in Izzy’s truck because there was no way I could have fit in the tent with her. I am glad I did because it got really cold at night and I wasn’t that prepared.

I would recommend this trip to anyone that comes next year. I met so many people in this trip. Also Big/Lil week is this week which means I start getting presents from my Big tomorrow. I am excited to find out who it is.

Oh yeah if you have e-mailed me I will apologize if I have not responded to you. I am currently trying to find the answers to your questions. Have a great night and if you have any questions feel free to e-mail.

I had a lot of sorority stuff to do this week. I also had a psychology test to study for. One of my professors assigned a last minute homework assignment. I was furious getting it at 10 at night when I have the class at 11 the next day. I wrote him an e-mail and asked him if he can give the homework a little bit earlier. He did give an extension but I could have worked on the homework on Sunday night. My study hours for my psychology test were just cut short because I had to do this homework assignment.

I went to the International Society of Air Safety Investigators (ISASI) meeting. They have a couple of events, but I don’t think I can go to any of them. Their homecoming theme is Jimmy Buffet(?).

I also went to a Creating Resumes/Cover Letters presentation. I learned a couple of pointers on how to improve my resume. We have a two day career fair coming up during Homecoming week. There is a list of companies coming on the ERAU careers website. I am planning on attending to see what kind of careers I may have with my Safety Science major. Also I would to see if any of them would offer internships for the summer.

On Friday, all my professors gave me a study day. A break is what I have been wanting for the last couple of weeks. I definitely picked up my room and unpacked three huge boxes. Also I did a little bit of homework and researched some of the companies that were on the career website. I also did a DVD work out video which my roommate (Amy) took to her friend’s sleepover. Cheese and I were supposed to go to the Hockey Game but he took too long (he says it was because he thought I was going to take long (they are always blaming the girls), so we just decided to drop by my friend, Adrien’s house who was having people over because her best friend was visiting her.

Hey Readers,

Surprisingly, I’m back! I was so excited when I found out I would be back for yet another year as a journal writer. So much has happened since the last time I wrote an entry, such as summer, RA training, and the first month of school. I’ll just jump right into it.

Summer was full of old friends, my own apartment in Harlem, working at a restaurant, and just having a huge vacation. It was a great experience, and I needed a break from college stresses, so although some of you may be tempted to take classes in the summer, it has its benefits (reduced rate per credit hour) but nothing beats going home after 9 months away from home.

I was back in Daytona on August 12th, the earliest I have ever been in a school setting. I had come back this early for Resident Advisor (RA) training. I was here for two weeks preparing for the arrival of all our residents, new and returning. It was a really good week and a half, filled with ups and downs. Getting to interact with the full RA and RD staff really built a sense of community, and we became a really big, slightly dysfunctional, but loving family. The culmination of this was RA Camp up in Ocala National Forest, where we spent 3 days playing games, getting to know each other further, canoeing, competing and overall team building.

RA life has been good to me thus far. I live in O’Connor Hall, a hall comprised mostly of upperclassmen, but surprised as I was, 10 first-year students were assigned to my wing this year. RA’s at this school are not the stereotypical RAs you see in movies, as we are not out to get you. We’re there for a lot more educational and social development purposes, but in order to get to that, safety is the primary concern. This campus is one of the safest in Florida, so we do not have too many issues with that.

The next aspect of coming back was interviewing to be on the Student Representative Board in our Student Government Association. Well, the interview must have gone pretty well, because I was named the newest Student Rep for the College Of Business. It has been an amazing experience so far, and I’m doing so much. I sit on the Progress Committee and the Environmental Awareness Committee. On both, we are accomplishing many things and I look forward to telling you about them all year.

One of the projects I am currently working on is EagleBay (temporary name). It would be an EBay type website for the Daytona Campus. I am currently trying to work out all the business aspects of it, such as finding a partner to accept payments and getting it up and running through the school’s system, so our student money accounts (Eagle Dollars) may be accepted. This is very much in its beginning stages, so you’ll be along for the ride all year long.

I shall now get to the reason we are all here. Classes this year have been so amazing, because now I get to learning things that are more specific to my major, Aviation Business Administration and my newly declared minor, Aviation Safety. My classes this semester are Organizational Behavior (BA 317), Corporate Finance (BA 332), Business Communication (COM 222), Decision Math (MA 320) and Intro to Aviation Safety (SF 210). My favorite class is by far Corporate Finance. My instructor is amazing in taking what could be a relatively boring subject and captivating us all, and really making us think about money in a new light, especially for the students who are looking to get into upper management of a corporation. Intro to Aviation Safety is my most interesting class. Learning the beginnings of how safety is evaluated, regulated and preserved is quite fun and I really like the things I am learning.

Finally, for this first entry, I want to tell you about our open house this year. It is October 27th, during Homecoming weekend. It will be a really fun time with tours, information and speeches. One of those speakers will be me, but that shouldn’t be the only reason you come. I hope to see you all here in a couple weeks, and keep your grades up!

Until Next Time,

Carlos

On Friday, Dave (Cheese) and I just watched the movie Munich. I wanted to catch up on sleep and unpack for a bit but what can I do, I am a slacker.

On Saturday, we left to Vero Beach to hang out with some of my friends who live there. I hadn’t seen them since May. Mikey and Rachael took us to Captain Hiram’s which is a restaurant and a Sand Bar.

We then went back to their house and watched Chappelle’s Show while we waited for the rest of the people to be ready to go to West Palm Beach. While we were waiting we decided to go to the Cheesecake Factory and then we were going to go bar hopping.

West Palm Beach is a different experience from Daytona Beach. Most of the cars we saw were BMWs, Jaguars, Porsches, limos, and classic cars to name a few. It’s a high end area. We walked around while we waited for our table at Cheesecake Factory to be ready. There was a concert in the middle of the area. The town was full of people. After we ate, we proceeded to go to the bars.

The bars were empty. I don’t know where the people were. Apparently, there is usually a cover charge and a dress code but they weren’t enforcing it that night in any of the bars. I am not sure what the age requirement is to get in. We were all over the age of 21. The drinks were very expensive. Advise: If you ever go to West Palm Beach make sure you were nice clothes/ dress to impress (no flip flops or tennis shoes) and bring tons of money if you want to drink and eat.

We left Sunday afternoon. I did some homework and read for my psychology test on Wednesday. I also hung out with some of the sisters and had Cheese Fondue and watched TV.

I finally got my parking pass. Woohoo!!! They were nice enough to give me one. My registration card is still in process but I finally had proof that I had one. The girls that were helping me were actually really nice.

Also I got a card from Vicki. I was surprised to receive mail. It was so nice of her to send me a card. She has been very helpful in trying to make sure I am calm and not freaking out about my tests. It is very hard for me to be going through this by myself. I am in a place where I don’t know anyone and everything is new to me. I don’t have close friends yet that I talk to every day. (Hence, the reason why I highly encourage people to live on campus.) Her letter made my day because even though I may not know her well, she is willing to help me out in any way she can. I find strength in people’s willingness to help me.

I am finally free!!! I actually don’t have anything due tomorrow. My next test is on Wednesday. I am happy to know that I can breathe and take some time to relax. I went to the Alpha Phi Omega meeting and then went to Uno’s and hung out with the APO brothers for a bit. We played Trivia games and ate food. They have half priced appetizers at night. It is good that I finally get to talk to someone other than myself.

I hope everyone has a great night.

Hey everyone!..

I have returned to grace you with a recent portion of my life here at Embry Riddle.

Well, there is one word that sums up the past two weeks— TIRING! I have had no more than 5 hours sleep each night within the last few days. With homework, classes, social events, club meetings and so many other things that needed to be done, I haven’t found any time for myself just yet. But the surprising thing about it all is that I don’t mind it. I mean, the workload from classes increased significantly but at the same time, so did the fun and excitement with my friends here. I have met a ton of new people and still counting. Everyone here is very social and open to anyone and anything, so it’s all real. All in all, it’s getting better and worse simultaneously!

It’s amazing that 4 weeks have already gone by so quickly, I can barely remember everything that happened—everything but the fact that I had tests for all my classes already! I mean, I haven’t gotten a chance to settle down properly in classes yet, but the professors are already giving tests! However, I wouldn’t complain too much considering that I got all A’s so far (emphasis on “so far”).

Ah, one thing that I am soooo glad about is that I have finally been assigned to my flight instructor. He is really a cool, down-to-earth guy and he makes the stuff easy, so I’m pretty happy about flying.

This past weekend was the best weekend ever since I got here. It all started from Friday night when I went to see a play with members from the “Riddle Players” club. Yes, I am in “Riddle Players” and for most of you who don’t know what that is, it is the school’s acting club. Yes, I am in the school play and I have yet to memorize my lines (don’t worry, I’ll get around it soon). After that, ERAU ice hockey team had a game on against USF in the local ice skating rink. Let me me tell ya, you have seen NO school spirit like Embry-Riddle’s until you have gone to an ice hockey or soccer game. I mean, we had sooo much fun and the place was packed with Riddle students AND teachers! Even though we lost, we still fought hard and had fun until 1:30am at the rink.

The next day, my friends and I decided that we wanted to go TRY ice skating too. Ya know, see if we can join the ice hockey team. Well, let’s just say we can’t no matter how much we tried. Well, at least I can’t! I have NEVER gone ice skating before, and I fell down SOOO many times, it’s unbelievable! (isn’t that right, angelica?!) But as sore and hurt as I was, that was one of the most fun things I have ever done and most likely we will be doing it again this weekend. After that, a fraternity hosted a party at a local restaurant, so, of course, all of Embry-Riddle was there having blast!

One thing after the next, it was amazing!

Then “Sunday, bloody Sunday” came around when sleep was needed and homework was to be done. As a Riddle student, you’re automatically installed with a program where you can actually sleep and do homework at the same time! (don’t worry, the cost of for that is included in the tuition and fees…haha). So, Sunday was relaxing and recuperating day and then later on, a couple of us headed out just to chill somewhere for a little bit, then back to the Adams 5th floor where no one sleeps!

Ok, so I think that basically wraps up my past two-week life here at ERAU..

I hope everyone enjoys reading my entries and if there’s anything you would like to know, just shoot me an e-mail, and I’ll see what I can do.

Till next time, Vick

(quote of the week: “huh?! I didn’t know lipstick could do that!”)

I presented my speech today. I was so nervous at first that all that was coming out of my mouth was “ummm ummm.” One of my classmates that was sitting in front of me whispered “Wow! She’s nervous.” I just grabbed my outline and just started giving an informative speech about the St. Louis Arch. Towards the end of my speech, I was feeling a little bit more comfortable and I think the ending was great. I just need to focus on the beginning of the speech.

I also went to Orlando last minute to pick up a dresser I bought from craigslist. I had a lot of meetings to go to but I need this dresser so I can finally unpack my boxes. I realized that I have more clothes than what I actually thought and there was no way I was going to unpack it. My room is messy as it is right now. I am working on it. The reason why I didn’t go to Walmart or Target to buy one is because I didn’t want to have to build it. I just want to get an already made one. This dresser is real wood and it’s really nice too. I personally believe I got a good deal out of it.

I unfortunately missed all my meetings. The trip was longer than I thought and Cheese’s truck doesn’t really go that fast. Also the area where we (Amy and I) went to pick it up was called Avalon Park. I thought I was in Lala Land. The houses were gorgeous and some of them had Halloween decorations put up. Actually the person I bought the dresser from went to one of the Embry-Riddle Extended Campus somewhere in Europe. It gave me hope that someday I’ll have a beautiful house.

Amy and I finally got home. She actually had to leave for a night flight. Cheese and I unloaded the dresser from the car and put it in the living room. I had meteorology homework to do and school gets priority over the dresser.

Well here it is a month into school and already it feels like I have been here forever. Not in a bad way of course. I have pretty much got a routine down and have been keeping busy. I seem to have my hands full but I’m pushing through. The classes aren’t too bad, but I have 17 credits worth of them. The usual is 12-16 but I guess they thought I really love school so they gave me more. But it’s all workin out. On Mon. Wed. Fri. I have Speech and Physics and on Tues. Thur. I have Business, Basic Aeronautics, College Success, and Meteorology. Overall, they aren’t too bad. They are just like high school when it comes to good days and bad days. Some are great and some just really suck. I guess I’ll tell you a little about them so far.

Speech- Already did a 3 minute personal speech and a 6 minute dramatic reading and I’m working on my informative speech now. The class is pretty easy and you watch a lot of presentations by other students. At first I was kinda scared to talk in front of 60 people that I didn’t know, but I found out there was only 20 or so and everyone has to do it, so it’s not too bad.

Physics- Let me tell you right now that I am definitely a math person so that might explain some things. We had our first test and I got a 104, so calculus in high school really helped, but if you don’t have it, no big deal because most of my friends did pretty good. Any of you guys out there who are taking physics right now, that definitely helps because I know someone who took it in high school and he is way ahead of the rest of us. But once again, not a big deal if you have never had physics before.

Business- This class is interesting to say the least, but it’s at 8:15 in the morning which is very early in college, so I’m pretty sure they are trying to keep that stuff a secret (any Lewis Black fans? I stole that from him ;). So far we have talked about mousetraps, marshmallows, and systems. I’m a little lost in the class, but he says things will start to fall in place soon. And best thing about the class, no tests!

Basic Aeronautics- This class is pretty cool because its all about planes. I like planes, so I like the class. My professor is pretty cool and really funny. He is very energetic and always livens up the classroom. We have taken one test so far and I got an 83. Not what I wanted but not bad to say the least. So I’m really gonna hit the books for our next one to make that an A.

College Success (University 101)- This class is mandatory for all freshmen. The class varies from professor to professor, but covers the same material: How to succeed in college. I can tell that a lot of you are asking yourselves, how do you succeed in college, and this class answers it. By studying, time management, and hard work. I personally already knew this, but nonetheless, I’m still in the class. This class was pretty fun during the first couple of weeks, but now it is getting a little dry. It’s not my favorite class, but it is informative, so all in all, not too bad.

Meteorology- So far only one test and I got an 88. I was pretty surprised at this, but I guess I knew more than I thought I did. I’m pretty sure our professor has ADD, but that can be good at times. I never know what interesting stories he will tell us on any particular day.

Flight- I have flown 5 times and been in 4 sims and I am pretty psyched about attending this university. It just blows me away that someday I will be flying for a living. Just to wake up in the morning and walk to the flight line, hop in a Cessna and fly to Ormond, New Smyrna, or Cocoa Beach. Some of my friends already have their private so they are planning out cross-countries to Miami or Gainesville. I love being able to get up in a plane and just fly around and learn all the procedures. It’s a lot of work, but its well worth it.

So those are my classes. Now I’ll tell you what goes on in my free time. Just recently, I have started training to become certified to skydive on my own. I have done 4 out of the 7 jumps of the AFF program and I hope to do the last 3 sometime soon. It is pretty exciting jumping out of a plane, but even more so when there is no one strapped to your back! I have learned a lot and I’m already having a lot of fun. I can’t wait until I have my license and I can just wake up on any given morning and decide to pay $18 to go 13,500 feet in the air and jump out and freefall for 60 seconds then pull my chute and enjoy the beautiful view all around me. I definitely recommend that you try skydiving if you get the chance. Its only $135 to do a tandem (with an instructor on your back) which is a pretty good price compared to others.

Other than skydiving, I have been doing other things like playing on an intramural volleyball team. Our captain is one of my friends that was captain of his varsity volleyball in high school and he is pretty good. Me, not so much. But we have fun and that’s all that matters. Our team name is the BAMFs (any Dane Cook fans? He’s my hero).

On top of that stuff, I have decided to pledge the Sigma Chi fraternity. Once you get to Riddle, although it is a long time away, I recommend coming out to some of the stuff the fraternities offer because I can already tell it is one of the best decisions that I have made to pledge Sigma Chi. I hope to become a brother some time in November, but right now I’m pledging. Even if you think Greek life isn’t for you, you should go around and check out all the fraternities next year. And if all goes to plan, stop by Sigma Chi’s booth and say hi. I don’t want to go too into detail about pledging, but I already have made memories that I am never going to forget. Like late night stops by Denny’s, semi tires in the middle of the road on I-95, and some crazy things about people that I am just getting to know, but I can already tell I will know these guys for the rest of my life. It’s a pretty cool experience.

Also, hanging with friends on my floor and laughing as hard as I have ever laughed. Some quotes which will make no sense to you make me laugh so hard. Like:

“10 foot is a lot of foot”
“I’m gonna put gas”
“Smoke break”
“I think I broke the rule”

I am actually still laughing as I type this. 10 foot is a lot of foot for those of you who didn’t know that. (Sorry Adam, I think it’s hilarious).

Last week we took my friend’s 2-wheel drive Explorer off-roading and had to pull it out with my other friend’s Xtera. I’ll put some pictures up on my album. That was one of the funniest things to have happened so far. I can’t wait until our next off-roading adventure.

I know that more has happened and I can’t remember it, but if I remember it, I’ll post it next time. Also, if you are ever in the Daytona Beach area and feel like dropping by, feel free to contact me and I can show you around. If you want an unofficial campus tour and find out what its like first hand, just let me know. I don’t know how the university would feel if I had someone follow me around in my classes, but I can try to find out if any one is interested. The way I see it, it’s the least they could do. If you guys are gonna cough up 30-40k for tuition, you should get to at least see some classes first hand. But anyway, if you are around feel free to give me a call whenever.

Until next time, any questions post them on the discussion board and I’ll try to answer them. So far, I have been having an awesome time and can’t wait until I see what this next few weeks brings in. Hope all of you are having as good a time as I am, and if you aren’t, don’t worry. It’s a lot of hard work to get here, but once you get here it is well worth it.