Oh, nothing much, just watching the product of my future career, right? Heck yeah!

It’s been an exciting week here in Daytona!

If you’re following space news, you’d see that the Inspiration 4 launch was a success. If you’re following Embry-Riddle news, you’d see that there are two Embry-Riddle alumni involved with the Inspiration 4 launch.

Being a space enthusiast myself, I decided that I’d like to see the launch up close. While you can see launches from the Embry-Riddle campus (and even hear the slight roar of the rocket!), there’s no reason why I shouldn’t go down since it’s only an hour’s drive or so. My roommate from last year and I ended up hitching a ride with one of our other friends who was going anyway with a few other people.

Five of us piled into one car, and we ended up doing a bit of carpool karaoke on the way down to the launch. We found a spot pretty close to the launch site in a boat launching area. The launch window opened at 8:02 PM, and we made sure to get there early.

There were a lot of bugs outside, but thankfully, we’d brought some bug spray. A few other people had found the same spot we had and many had professional-looking cameras. I’m not super good at photography, but I love looking at other people’s pictures.

When the rocket ignited, the whole sky lit up. (Side note: if you ever get a chance to watch a rocket launch live, do it. If you’re not busy, watch a live stream- a few of my friends and I watched the Firefly Alpha launch a little while back.) Here’s what my phone got:

It took a few moments for the rumble to reach us, and by that time, the rocket was shooting across the sky and through the clouds. A few minutes later, we saw this:

We were lucky enough to be in a spot so that the rocket appeared to curve across the sky. After the rocket disappeared, the five of us got back into the car and went back to Daytona and to our dorms. And that was my Wednesday night: no homework, just rocket science.

Thursday through Sunday was Panhellenic (sorority) recruitment, which was super fun, and I’m excited to see the Panhellenic community grow! Another one of my other favorite events this week was Star Trek trivia, which I’d hosted with one of my favorite professors, Dr. Lear.

I’d made a deal with her that if I showed up in a Star Trek uniform, that she’d get me a pink drink from Starbucks. As I have a slight addiction to Starbucks, I showed up in this:

True to her word, Dr. Lear did end up buying me a Starbucks before trivia started. There were plenty of people there, including several of my friends. The trivia event was during another event called the Skyline Social, which had food and drink for purchase along with activities to do.

Trivia had three rounds, and Dr. Lear and I took turns reading the questions. We did an intermission poster giveaway in between the first and second rounds, and in between the second and third, we had a drawing contest. One of my friends wasn’t playing, so we ended up roping him into judging the drawing contest.

He had up to 20 points that he could distribute as he pleased. He decided to be nice and ended up giving everyone points. The final question was probably a little too hard since nobody got the correct answer, but trivia was really fun.

Riddle hosts Star Wars trivia in the spring, and Dr. Lear thinks that the next trivia event is going to be Harry Potter. I enjoyed co-hosting, so maybe I’ll be able to do it again! Last year, Dr. Lear hosted Star Wars trivia and over 200 people came out to play. (Even though I’m not a Star Wars fan, I was there too since I got extra credit for coming.)

If you’re at Embry-Riddle, I highly suggest going to Skyline Social trivia nights. I’ll see you in the next post, and hopefully at Riddle (and trivia night)!