Well two weeks have past and I know you all have been anxiously waiting for journal number five. Well lucky you, because today is your lucky day! I have a pretty good past two weeks and I know the fun will continue for the next couple weeks. By next journal, I will have gone to a concert with Slightly Stoopid (my favorite band) and seen Dane Cook (my favorite comedian). So I am definitely looking forward to that! This past week I got the chance to visit my sister at her college, which is actually in New York City! So that was a blast. I’ll tell you all about that right after I give you the 411 on my classes.
TTH 8:15am-9:30am – Aviation Weather – We took test two the other day and I got a 94! After I finished I wasn’t feeling too good because there were a lot of questions that I wasn’t sure about, but as it turns out, I got most of them right! Our teacher gave us a study guide and I didn’t start working on it until the night before. He gave it to us on Friday, but I was in New York from Friday to late late Monday night, and the test was Tuesday. So I was up till about 5:00am finishing the guide and studying, then I got a good two hours of sleep and took the test. It ended up working out pretty good, but next time I’ll try to manage my time a little better so I can actually get some sleep.
TTH 9:45am-11:00am – Business Communications – Well, my group and I are finally making progress for our huge writing assignment. We had to turn in a summary the other day, and so we had to organize how we would structure the report. So I feel much better because at least we have a general direction we’re going in now. But there is a lot of work that still needs to be done. It gets kind of scary just thinking about all of it. Oh well, welcome to college.
TTH 12:45pm-2:00pm – Intermediate Aeronautics – We finished up talking about all the approach, departure, arrival, and holding procedures and then we took the test. I ended up getting a 90, which I’m happy with. I studied a lot, and I’m glad I did because it was a pretty tough test. For the next couple of weeks we’ll be talking about cross-countries (flying to airports far away) and weather.
TTH 2:15pm-3:30pm – Air Traffic Management II – We took our third test and this time I only got an 87%. I’m not complaining about an 87, but there is a little competition brewing with my friend Aaron. He’s an AT major and we have the same class together and we always compete. The first test we took, I got a 98 and he got a 100. The second test, he got a 98 and I got a 94. Now he took the third test and he got a 96 and I got an 87. So now I’m determined to beat him at least once. We have two tests coming up, so I gotta get on my game. We’ll see how it goes.
TTHS 5:30pm-8:30pm – Flight – Well as I was saying before, the way it has been going lately is that I learn something in my Intermediate Aeronautical class and then I practice it with my instructor. This is still true because now we are practicing approaches and let me tell you what, there are a 1000 things going on at once. When you are going for your private pilot’s license, you think there is so much going on at once. Well once you start your instrument training, there is everything that you learned in your private course plus three times more. I have only just started with the approaches and I have to admit, it’s already very difficult. I have gotten overwhelmed numerous times and have forgotten basic things that I never forget. I am trying to practice as much as I can on my own so I can try to get use to the high work load. I think I’ll be doing better in a couple of weeks when I get some more practice.
Well, that’s the classes. In other news, the BAMFs are officially practicing for next season, partly due to losing two more games and being eliminated from the playoffs. I have to admit, this year we should have won several games and when we did lose, it was only by two or three points. So that means next year we will win a lot. So get ready for that.
Well as I mentioned above, I got the chance to go to New York City the other weekend. I left on Friday morning and got back late Monday night. My sister goes to the Fashion Institute of Technology and that is located right in Manhattan. I flew into Newark on Friday and took a cab into the city. Currently, I’m 19 and I have done a lot traveling by myself, but I have never traveled into New York City all alone. It was pretty intense. I rode in the cab for 45 silent minutes, and got dropped off at 27th and 7th. I got out and met my sister and put all my bags in her room, but then she had to go to class. So I just started walking around randomly. I ended up walking around for three hours aimlessly until my sister was done with her class. When she got back we met up with her friends and went to a nice little Cuban restaurant and had dinner. On Saturday we woke up and took the Subway downtown and walked around for a while. We saw the Statue of Liberty (from a distance) and then walked over to Ground Zero where the Twin Towers use to be. I can remember seeing the twin towers years and years ago with my dad when I was little, and it was pretty intense seeing the huge site with nothing there now. After that, we walked over to Wall Street and then down to Canal Street (China Town). We walked around China Town for a while and let me tell you what, that is an interesting place. I definitely have a couple stories that I could tell, but it might be best if I just keep those to myself.
After walking around some more, my sister and I met up with my uncle who lives in the City, and we went out to dinner. We went to this awesome place, but I can’t remember the name. Basically, you sit down and you have a coaster with a red side and a green side. If the red side is up, you just sit there, but as soon as you flip it over to green, there are 50 people walking around with various foods that seemed to be on Samurai swords. They walk over to your seat and tell you what they have, and you say yes or no. They had anything you could imagine and they keep bringing it until you flip the coaster to red. I will tell you this, if you are on a diet, you should stay far away from this place. You could sit there for hours if you wanted. After dinner, we walked over to Times Square and were tourists for a little while and took pictures. The next day we took the subway to a bus stop, hopped on the bus and went to Staten Island. I didn’t tell my sister the real reason we were going because I wanted to surprise her. I’m not sure if any of you are familiar with a place called Moe’s, but if you aren’t I suggest you do so immediately. Moe’s is a Mexican-type restaurant that makes delicious food fast. Check them out here: http://www.moes.com/ Anyway, my mom got my sister and I addicted to Moe’s. There is a Moe’s about 5 minutes from my apartment, so I can get it anytime I want. However, my sister isn’t so lucky. She thought that there wasn’t a Moe’s anywhere near her, so I found the closest one and we went there. I told her that I wanted to go to Staten Island and go look around and she just went with it. When we got off the bus, I made her close her eyes and we walked into Moe’s. One more thing about Moe’s, when ever you walk in, they yell “WELCOME TO MOE’S!!!” so when we walked in that’s the first thing she heard and opened her eyes and was so surprised. It was a lot of fun. After Moe’s, we went back to the City and then went over to the Empire State Building. We went up to the 87th floor and looked out on the city, and I have to say that it was incredible. You could walk around to get a 360 view of the city, and I couldn’t believe how windy it was. It literally felt like I was skydiving. People were constantly losing their balance and everyone’s hair was in disarray. We went up at the perfect time too. The sun was just about to set, so we got some good sunset pictures. After that, we grabbed some dinner and went to bed. Then on Monday I flew back to Florida. All in all I had a blast and I can’t wait until I can go back up. It was very nice to see my sister and I look forward to seeing her again at Thanksgiving.
Well that was the highlight of my week, and not too much else happened. I did see a good movie though. American Gangster just came out with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe and I thought it was an awesome movie. It is definitely intense, and long, but very good.
Well I guess that’ll wrap it up for this journal. I will be posting the pictures from New York on the web within the next few days, so stay tuned for those. I am definitely looking forward to the next couple of weeks! School is going well, my flying is coming along nicely, and I am finding entertaining things to do, so life I going well! If anyone has any ?s or comments, feel free to shoot me an email! Until next time . . .
-Blake
email: wasteofsoap@yahoo.com
pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wasteofsoap/
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