Thanksgiving Break in Daytona Beach

Posted on November 30, 2021 by Carly

…We stay hungry, we devour our Thanksgiving dinner!

After my pre-Thanksgiving weekend and the two days of class, Thanksgiving break has finally arrived. Last year, due to COVID-19, finals were virtual and Thanksgiving and Christmas break were merged into one long two-month break. I went home then, so I’ve never experienced Embry-Riddle during break time.

I did miss my family. To me, Thanksgiving break was a little too short and a little too late for me to want to go home- I’d be seeing my family in two weeks, and I saw them when they came to see me at the SWE conference earlier this year. The only family members I hadn’t seen were my cats, but I got plenty of pictures of them over the break, including this one, where my cat is curled up in my windowsill.

It was also really quiet here, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I did a lot of homework on Wednesday and Thursday, and also made a trip to Walmart on Wednesday. It was, as I predicted, pretty packed. I ended up getting my groceries (hopefully through winter break?), including my favorite holiday treat: eggnog. I know that “Is Eggnog Good?” is a hefty debate topic, but I’m on the side of eggnog being good.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. One of my other friends had also stayed for the break, so we decided to go to dinner at IHOP. For those on campus without access to a car, the Boundless All-You-Can-Eat dining location also does a Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving Day, and from what I’ve heard, this year’s was really good. At IHOP, I ended up trying the new Winter Wonderland pancakes with blue marble-looking frosting, and they were delicious.

After IHOP, we checked FlightRadar24 and found out that a Delta flight was on final approach. So the two of us jumped in the car and tried to get to the airport’s cell phone lot to watch it come in, but we got held up by several red lights. We did end up seeing it come in as we were waiting, and it wasn’t the worst spot ever, but we couldn’t hear it well, unfortunately.

*Delta flight (last flight of the day) on Thanksgiving on final approach.*

Friday was pretty uneventful too. I ended up going to Steak n Shake for a very late 9 PM dinner with the same friend, getting a chocolate milkshake. We ended up driving around Daytona for a little bit, and then around campus. It was like a ghost town- everyone was gone, and even though it was 10 PM, there were NO cars in the student union parking lot. Usually, on a weeknight, people are still doing their late-night studying, so you’d see at least a few.

We parked facing the runway, and the most unusual thing about the break was the lack of flight training going on. We were there for a decent amount of time and barely saw anyone going in and out. The flight department was officially shut down on Thanksgiving, but flight training continued on Friday. It was unusual to see maybe one ERAU plane in the entire amount of time we were sitting there.

Saturday and Sunday were also quiet. On Saturday, people started coming back from break, but the bulk of people arrived on Sunday night. By then, the halls were lively again, and I’d see people as I passed by instead of standing in a seemingly-abandoned ERAU.

Did I miss my family? Yes. Was I glad that I stayed for break? Also yes. I got caught up on a lot of my homework, and I had plenty of time to do it so I wasn’t stressed about doing it all during one short time period. I had two thermodynamics homework assignments, an essay draft, physics, and math homework to do which I all successfully did over the break.

It was also very nice to sleep in until 11 or 12 each morning and not have to worry about attending or missing classes. The break was definitely needed before the push to final exams, which are in about two weeks. The last day of finals is December 15, and I, unfortunately, have one during the last time period of the day. It’s fine, though- I’ll be studying hard over the next few weeks.

I’ll see you in the next post… and hopefully at Riddle! (We’re having a preview day and family weekend in the spring semester, so I might see you there!)

I Got the COVID-19 Booster Shot

Posted on November 30, 2021 by Carly

Side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine? Making blog posts!

So, I ended up getting the COVID-19 booster shot (aka the third dose) on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I’d been planning to stay in Daytona anyway and I didn’t really know how I’d react to the third dose of the COVID vaccine. The first dose gave me zero side effects and the second dose knocked me out for a few days.

Since boosters were available at ERAU’S Health Services, I decided to go over there before class started. They were also free like the original first and second dose I got at Walgreens last semester.

I had two classes after that, Calculus 3 and Physics 2. Since a lot of people were traveling, my Calc 3 professor decided to do the lecture on Zoom and post it to Canvas where we could refer to it at any time. That’s one thing that I really like about online lectures- they’re always there on the Canvas page so I can go back and watch the professor explain in case my notes aren’t sufficient.

We began Chapter 34 in physics, which was talking about energy and light. By that time, my arm had a slight bit of soreness, but nothing too major, noticeable, or bad. I ended up going to the student to get Chick-fil-A from a friend, and the student union was busy. Everyone who was leaving for Thanksgiving was cashing out their meal plans. When you have 14, 17, 19, or even 21 meal plans per week, and you’re only on campus to use them for 1-3 days, it’s hard to know what to do with them, so a few friends offered them to me since I was staying for the break.

*Post-booster Starbucks! It’s an iced caramel macchiato.*

On Wednesday, my arm was decently sore, but I could still raise it and move it around. Thursday was Thanksgiving, and my arm had stopped hurting, but my armpit was kind of sore. I ended up Googling it and that’s a normal side effect. On Friday, the effects weren’t noticeable anymore, and it was business as usual over the weekend.

So for anyone who’s eligible to get their booster and considering doing so during the school year: I think you’d be fine, but I’m not a doctor. I personally didn’t experience anything too bad, but taking a test with your arm hurting is not an ideal condition.

I’ve heard the news about new variants of concern, and I’m glad I got the booster when I did. I’ve personally been wearing my mask indoors (my own choice, not ERAU policy), and combined with the vaccine, I think that’s how I avoided getting a severe COVID case. I’ll see you in the next post and hopefully at Riddle!

Pre-Thanksgiving Weekend

Posted on November 23, 2021 by Carly

It’s that time of the year again… it’s about drive, it’s about power…

So, it’s that time of the year again, when it’s almost but not quite yet time for finals. It’s the time of the year where professors decide that they want you to have a nice Thanksgiving break so they schedule their major assignments to be due before the break. I’m glad for that since I won’t be doing much homework over break, but it’s a stressful time of the year.

That being said, it’s important to have a balance between your academic life and your social life/free time. If you never have any free time and are always doing academic activities, you’ll end up stressed, but if you never do any academic activities, you may not do as well in your classes as you’d like.

On Friday night, I went over to a friend’s dorm where we watched Black Panther. I also stayed the night with her, since she has extra space in her room. Sometimes when you’re supposed to have a roommate, you don’t get one, and that happened to her. You’re able to buy out the other half of the room at a reduced price, but if you don’t want to do that, it’s fine too. You just need to be prepared for the housing department to assign you a roommate.

I learned how to play a few chords on her spare ukelele, and I also got a sneak peek at the new dragons she’s making. She’s got a knack for clay crafts and started selling her dragon models online. You can find them online! I have one that she made, which is also one of the pictures on her website:

After that, I went back to my dorm and did most of my homework. I have a statics test on Monday the 22nd, so I studied for that and did my physics homework for the rest of the week. I’m in physics 2, which I’m really liking. We’re just starting the optics unit, which is the final unit before the class ends.

For dinner on Saturday, I ended up going to Steak n’ Shake and splitting half of a Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup milkshake with one of my other friends. On Sunday, I ended up driving by the airport and spotting a C-17. They don’t come in and out of DAB often, but they’re not exactly rare either. There were also some F-18s flying around this morning- I watched them take off around 11 AM, and one of them did an aileron roll, which was fun to watch.

After that, I attended a review session that my statics professor held before going back to my dorm and studying for a bit. At 6 PM, I ended up meeting a few friends and doing a group study/hangout. We’re all different majors- I’m aerospace engineering, and my friends are aeronautical science, homeland security, and mechanical engineering, respectively. We started off doing homework but then ended up playing Kerbal Space Program and watching Interstellar in a study room.

In my opinion, that was a really nice end to a stressful weekend. I’m looking forward to the break, where I’ll be working ahead on my homework and catching up on sleep. I’m not going home this year, so I’ll see what campus events Embry-Riddle is hosting. Whatever they are, I’m sure they’ll be fun! I’ll see you in the next post… and hopefully at Riddle events!

Crew-3 and Study Weekend

Posted on November 15, 2021 by Carly

Am I obsessed with writing about rocket launches? Yes. Will I ever not be obsessed with rocket launches? No.

So, this past Wednesday (November 10) the Crew-3 mission began with the launch out of Cape Canaveral. Since Thursday was Veterans Day and was a day off, I decided to go down and watch. One of my friends has a Discord server put together for the space enthusiasts of Embry-Riddle so that we can coordinate carpooling and discuss space news, and it’s super helpful.

So on Wednesday night, a large group of us drove down to the viewing spot. It’s funny- a year ago, on November 15, Crew-1 launched and we were watching from the exact same spot. I even rode down then with some of the same people as I rode down with this time. It’s interesting how some people who you barely knew a year ago can become some of your best friends now, bonding over shared activities and love of launches.

The viewing spot that we use for crewed launches is called Haulover Canal Bridge, and it’s got a little manatee observation deck hidden off to the side. It’s perfect for watching the launch: the pad is right across from the observation deck, and you can watch the launch curve off to the left.

We all got there about half an hour early, but it’s always better to be early than late. In the meantime, we watched the live stream and hung out. A few of us ended up getting our feet into a circle, yielding this photo:

The launch went off right on time, and it was just as beautiful as ever, even through the clouds.

After the launch, since there was a large group of us, we decided to get dinner afterward. So we all drove back to Daytona Beach and 12 of us showed up to the iHOP, where we discussed the launch, previous launches, Embry-Riddle, what to order, and a bunch of other things.

That’s one thing that I love about Embry-Riddle. While most of us didn’t know each other before the launch, we ended up as friends in the end. When we finally got done at iHOP, it was nearly midnight, and some people decided that they wanted to watch Star Wars. I was a little too tired for that, so I ended up going back to my dorm and sleeping in, which felt nice after a long week.

The rest of the week and the weekend were pretty quiet. I did a lot of homework, studied, and made sure to hang out with some friends to have an appropriate school-life balance. As for the next launch with a launch time set, according to the Discord server, is STP-3, launching on Saturday, December 4th, at 4:04 a.m. EST. I plan on going to that one too- why not? I’ve attended a 5 AM launch, so what’s one hour earlier?

I’ll see you in the next post… and hopefully at Riddle! (And maybe even at a future launch!)

Life Updates & Lab

Posted on November 8, 2021 by Merrick

Happy November everyone! I’m currently blogging from Daytona Beach, Florida, the weather is getting colder, Thanksgiving is approaching, and finals are about a month away! To say the least, I’ve been BUSY! School, work, working out, and life in general has been jam packed lately. With Thanksgiving around the corner I’ve been having a lot of tests lately, and a lot of upcoming project deadlines before the late November break is here. Right before Thanksgiving I also have my Fitness Assessment for Air Force ROTC! I’m excited and very much ready to fast forward to spending time with my family and eating all the nostalgic cozy comfort foods that Thanksgiving has to offer. Bring me all the pie!

One of my favorite aspects of the weather getting colder is that running outside is so pleasant, especially during the transition period from hot to cold with temperatures of about 60 degrees. The humidity is low, and on good days when there’s not a lot of wind running is perfect. It’s also officially hoodie season! I recently had my birthday and got to spend a few hours at the beach which was so much fun and very relaxing.

My current To-Do list for this weekend includes a lab report for my Aerospace Structures and Instrumentation Lab on vibration testing of beams and aircraft structural components of choice (my group chose a front spar of the leading edge portion of a wing from a Boeing 777 airliner to test and observe). This particular lab was one of my favorites thus far, as it investigated the phenomenon of flutter and looked at how forcing vibrations to excite frequencies near resonance can be dangerous in real world scenarios, and thus needs to be understood and prepared for. Our lab group also recently investigated some Nondestructive Evaluation techniques in lab, including thermography which uses thermal heat differentials to display an image with warmer areas displaying brighter and cooler areas displaying darker colors.

Thermal imagery is a useful technique commonly implemented in the aerospace industry to inspect planes and ensure that there is no structural damage. Inspections usually happen about once a year where planes are observed shortly after landing with a thermal detecting camera. The heat detecting technology shows areas that water may have infiltrated cracks in the structure as the water will be a cooler temperature than that of the aircraft’s body.

Thermal image of myself and my lab group!

We only have about three more lab sessions left until the end of the semester and I am looking forward to being done with writing lab reports during finals and over Winter break! Keep on keeping on folks, will report back soon!

My Life @ Riddle

Daytona Beach Edition

Monthly Archives: November 2021