Hello readers, I hope that studying for finals is not depressing you too much, I know for one of the boys it all became a bit too much, I don’t want to go into details, but it’ll be alright Weirdo. I am late writing this entry, as it has been hectic trying to get all of my presentations finished and getting some study done. All is well now though, I got everything handed in and I only have three finals left that I am not too worried about.

Anyway, I had a great time in France the week before last. The wedding was great; it was in a small village outside of Nice called Pellion. I fear that I might not do it any justice trying to describe it, so try and use your imagination. It was on the side of a mountain; very picturesque and quaint, just what you imagine a small village in France to look like, but nicer. The ceremony itself was great, very tasteful, and the champagne all day wasn’t bad either. The partying didn’t stop until the following morning at 6:30am, just as it should be. Coming back after that was possibly worse than returning after Christmas, you know what it is like when you have been looking forward to something for a long time and then it is over and all I had to look forward to now was finals. Devastating.

I am at present sorting out accommodation for next semester. Luckily one of the lad’s parents is buying a house and I have managed to bag a room. It’ll be fantastic to have my own room, not to have to worry about a roommate and being able to cook my own food in my own kitchen. I would love to be able to get a car next semester too; I hate having to rely on people to get around. I say that now but I am pretty lazy and I’ll probably manage not to bother going for my driving test. Good intentions, I’m full of them.

I am just a week from getting home for two and a bit month. I cannot wait. An old cliche I know, but this year has flown by, a whole year of the dorms, the village, essays, and tests, all over. And before I forget I would like to say that the staff in the village is a great bunch of people who can’t do enough to help you, and whatever they get paid is not enough. Also I would like to put a shout out to the boys on the team and in the dorms that have put up with me all semester and made this experience a bit more bearable. After all my complaining throughout the year I have to say that I have made some great friends and I have some great memories to take home for the summer.

It’s all come to an end. I wish I had something poetic to say but I don’t, so all I have to say is that I have enjoyed writing these articles and thank you to any of you that have taken the time to read them. I know it must have been painful for you especially with some of my writing. Thanks Hugh Davey.

Hello readers, I’m a bit more tired than usual this morning because some smart ass decided to set of the fire alarm in the dorms off at three o’clock this morning. That is the second time it has happened since I have got here and it still hasn’t gotten any funnier. I don’t mind a bit of banter but I hate having my sleep interrupted.

The soccer club had their alumni game this weekend, and I am glad to say that the current team won it for the first time. A lot of the alumni seemed to be nursing a hangover, which didn’t help their performance but I am not sure how much of an effect this had on the outcome. We won a comfortable five zero and I even managed to get myself on the score sheet. It was a thirty-yard rasper. It was good to see the players that went before us at Riddle. We had a bit of a social on Saturday night after the game, a great day in fairness.

I am off to Nice in the south of France tomorrow for a wedding. It’ll be great, not just to see everyone from home but this will be my first wedding and, I am sure, a great party. I will be flying on Tuesday morning and not arriving until Wednesday, almost a full day of traveling, even with the time change. Well worth it though. I am very sad to say that I will have to miss a few days of college, but needless to say I think I will get over it. I will be thinking of all of you here at college working away, when I am living it up in the south of France. I suppose it is close to finals but all my classes are going well and I wouldn’t miss this wedding for the sake of a few days in college.

When I get back from Nice, I think that we have only got about two or three weeks left before we are heading home for the summer, and that is the end of my second Freshman year in college. And believe it or not, contrary to popular belief, especially with all my moaning on this journal it has been a good year where I have met a lot of new and good friends. I am very glad that I got the opportunity to write this journal as I now have something that I can look back on, and reminisce about the year that has gone. You know how it is sometimes, you never really appreciate what you have until it is gone. For instance, the dorms, very boring at times, but I would definitely recommend staying there for the first year of college at least. I mean if nothing else it is a great place to meet people who are usually on the same boat as your self, their first year in college and their first time away from home.

Anyway I have to go to work and I have a lot to do today, with going away tomorrow and that, I have some washing to do. Take it easy. Hugh.

Hello readers, Happy Easter everybody, I’m right in the middle of spring break and the weather hasn’t picked up yet, but I have been told that I do too much complaining in my articles, so I am not going to talk about the bad things. On a brighter note, before my girlfriend went home yesterday we went to St. Augustine for a couple of days, because a few people told us that it was worthwhile going to visit.

The first day we went there was the only good day for the whole two weeks that she was in America. It was lucky, because we had planned on going to the beach, which was a lot nicer and quieter than Daytona Beach. Then we went into the city itself, which feels like a small town somewhere in Europe. Everything is small and quaint and it didn’t feel like anywhere else that I have been in the U.S. (as of yet). It’s hard for me to say that, as it is where Flagler University hales from, but still it was a nice way to end her visit. The two weeks she was here seemed to fly by, just the same as this semester. Not long left now, just finals to get over. For the past two weeks, I’ve been staying at one of the boy’s apartment, which was class (cheers Besty). I’m back in the dorms now, and feeling thoroughly depressed about it. It was great to have a bit of freedom, and a car to drive. I think I will enjoy next semester a lot more, I will be moving into a house or apartment, and I’ll be getting myself a car.

I’ve started making my plans for this summer; Elisabeth and myself are going away to Cuba for three weeks. As much as I love Razzles, bikers with mullets, and pilots, it will be great to get away for awhile and just relax. I heard that it isn’t the safest place for you Americans to travel to. I have a few months of hard labor to do before I can afford this, but it will be worth it when I get to take it easy for a few weeks. I think that I will probably fly straight back here after the holiday. I can’t wait to get home for the summer, all this talk of finals and projects has killed my good form, and now the summer is the only thing that I have to look forward to. Oh, actually I am turning 21 this Thursday, so I have the weekend to look forward to. It should be a mad one.

Anyway that is the extent of my spring break, but hopefully by my next entry I should have a few good stories from my first weekend as a twenty-one year old. Take it easy.

Hello readers,hope all is well. I am tired today, considering that I had a very quiet weekend. Apart from two soccer games yesterday, I didn’t do anything too strenuous. I am happy to say my girlfriend flew into Orlando on Thursday. We have taken it relatively easy thus far. Our weekend never got much more exciting than a meal in Carrabas on Friday night and to the flicks to see Hitch on Saturday, which was great. We have just been trying to spend as much time together as possible, but that is proving to be hard with classes and soccer training keeping me at Riddle until 5:30pm each evening. I also went to get my driving license on Friday at the DMV but, of course, nothing is ever as easy as it seems. Before I can do my test I have to sit through some drug and alcohol awareness class for four hours. Nightmare!

I am looking forward to the start of Spring break, which will give us a lot of free time to do stuff that couples do. We are planning on going to St. Augustine for the weekend so if anyone knows of anything worthwhile to do there let me know. Cheers! As well as that, it is St. Patrick’s Day on Thursday so we will have to celebrate that with a few pints of Guinness in an Irish bar somewhere. I hear that Savannah is meant to be great for Paddy’s day, but ultimately I would love to go to New York.

I had my first flip it Tuesday experience last week, which was pretty good, got my first 6 drinks on the house. Luck of the Irish! So one of the boys (Coisty) asked me to go up and get his round but, of course, the luck ran out, and he had to pay for every one of his five drinks.

Anyway, we had two soccer games yesterday and we managed to win one and lose one, which is not great. We lost 2-1 to Jacksonville University and we beat University of North Florida on penalties. The heat yesterday was a real killer; it is a horrible feeling breathing in warm air. I was struggling just to run in the second game, but I will be in a lot better shape come the start of the fall season. I hope!

I was just thinking, after Spring break there is only four weeks left of classes. This semester has been, or has felt, really short, even though it has been boring. I remember this time last semester I was looking forward to the spring and, now that its here, it is not all that it was cracked up to be. At the same time I think that the fall is going to be great, because we are hosting nationals. I am looking forward to playing some competitive games again.

That’s all for now, so take it easy and try and let me know if you know of anything to do in St. Augustine. Thanks.

Hello readers, hope all is well. I’ve had a busy couple of weeks since the last entry. First, there was the Daytona 500, then there was the soccer clinic which I set up, and just yesterday, we had our first two games of the spring semester.

To start, the 500 was an early five o’clock start on Saturday morning and it was a long day. By the time the race started we decided just to head on back to the dorms. We got to work on the infield, which was a new edition this year. It is a new area by the pits which holds about 50,000 people and allows the spectators to view the pits and walk on the track before the race. This seemed to go down well with all the hard core race fans that have been going to the 500 for years. It seemed that every club and fraternity associated with Riddle were working the races. It was pretty good money for pretty easy work, and it allowed us to earn some money for our soccer program. There were even a few stars at it, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore where there as well as some Red Sox baseball player whose name I don’t know. I have to say that I have never seen so many people in the one place at the same time, and I don’t think I ever will again. I’m not sure of the exact figure but I think it was about 400,000. It was a good thing to see, although I regret not staying for some of the race but at the time I was wrecked and just wanted to get back into the pit.

Then last Monday, president’s day, I ran a soccer clinic on the intramural field. I was a bit worried about whether or not I would get a good turn out. I spent the previous Thursday night handing out flyers at the Ormond Soccer fields, and then I emailed coaches to invite their teams etc. So I was hoping that I would get at least fifty kids which would have been about a twenty percent return. I never realized there was as much stress in setting something like this up, having to organize facilities, coaches, flyers, emails, and of course getting the kids in. After going over to set everything up at seven for the nine start, I was pleasantly surprised by the turn out of ninety kids. Although this was a free clinic, a lot of the parents made very generous donations which went to the soccer program; overall it was a good day and something that I will definitely think about doing again. Oh and I would like to thank the boys off the team for helping with the clinic and the parents for their donations.

Yesterday we went over to Stetson to play our first two soccer games of the spring semester. We played against Florida Southern and Eckerd, and won both games comfortably enough. We went up with only thirteen players, which is the bare bones because usually a soccer squad will travel with about eighteen players. So by the end of it we were all tired, but this didn’t stop us going out on a team bonding session at a local Oyster Bar.

Anyway I am in two of the boy’s room writing this, and its 12:30am so they are kicking me out, so I will say goodbye for now.

Alright readers, hope all is well. As I expected, I am finding this semester a lot harder than the last one, purely because I have a lot more free time than I did in the fall. So instead of doing anything constructive, I do all the small things to avoid doing some actual college work. I will sit for an hour and organize my notes and then not even bother to read them. Or I will say to myself that I will start reading them in at 10:00 p.m., but end up asleep at 9:30 p.m.. Anything to avoid a bit of hard work. I have the Humanities 140 class this semester, which is about Greek literature and that sort of stuff. I am sure it isn’t bad if you are in to that sort of thing. But me personally, it’s just not my thing. I am a bad reader and can’t stand having to sit for six hours a week and read page after page of names and dates of stuff that happened more than 2,000 years ago. I’m sure that somewhere down the line that this may benefit me in some way, but I can’t think of anything. Other than if I get on to “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and a question about Sophocles gets me $250,000. I can’t imagine that I will need to know this in a managerial position or whatever job I hope to get when I leave Riddle. And another thing, a mandatory attendance at the three Theban plays on Tuesday night in the IC, that is an absolute disaster, two or three hours of pure boredom. Apart from that, the rest of my classes are not too bad.

Enough about college for now. Although the old social life has been a bit quiet recently, spring semester is not living up to expectation by all accounts. I am hopeful though, that it will pick up by the beginning of March, as my girlfriend is coming over for two weeks and then a few of my mates are coming over for Spring Break. Apparently, the Daytona 500 and Bike Week will bring in huge crowds, so that should be good. I worked with the soccer team over the weekend at the speedway during the qualifiers. There was a bit of a crowd, but I am told that it is nowhere near what will be like here this weekend. I’ve never seen so many long haired men with cowboy boots and coolers full of Bud in my life. They started to come in at about 9:30 in the morning, and the racing didn’t even start until 1:00 p.m. For some reason, you are not allowed to bring ruck sacks or hard coolers into the Daytona 500, and it was our job this weekend to check. Of course, there were a good few people who didn’t know this. They complained that they had just walked about a mile and a half from their car, carrying both hard sided coolers and ruck sacks, paid $125 for a basic ticket, been looking forward to it all year, and then to be told “I’m sorry you can’t get in with that!” There were a few unhappy race fans, seriously. This was all made worse by the fact that I was nursing a hangover from the night before. But in all fairness to the crowd that did show up, they were more restrained than I would have been. Some of the rules at that place are ridiculous, and of course the main administrators were retired pensioners who wanted to feel important, so they were getting us to stop everyone and wouldn’t let any minor infringement slide. But generally a great experience to have, I have to say that I am looking forward to seeing the 500.

Glad to see that the weather has finally started to warm up, and yet the pool is still not opened, strange. Anyway that is pretty much all I have to say for now so take it ham and cheesy.

Hello everyone, thought I would start this one off with a joke. A blind man walks into a store with his seeing-eye dog. All of a sudden, he picks up the leash and begins swinging the dog over his head. The manager runs up to the man and asks, “What are you doing?” The blind man replies, “Just looking around.”

Everything has been quiet since I got back from Orlando. I’ve just been settling into classes again and trying to sort out my depleted financial situation after a long Christmas. I applied for my social security number after only 6 months of living here. Not too bad for me! I might be able to get paid for my on-campus job that I have had since the start of last semester. I was working out how much I should get in my first pay check from E.R.A.U. that has been building up since September of last year. My expectations of a substantial amount where sorely disappointed, because contrary to popular belief on-campus jobs don’t pay that well. The fact that I am an international means I can’t work off campus. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful because I would be a lot worse off if I had no job at all, and to be honest it is not the hardest work in the world, actually enjoyable most of the time. The professor that I work for is a good laugh and has no problem helping me with any of my classes. I am just bitter that I could be earning more money than I am, and as a student I always have to have something to complain about.

The soccer team are back training now, so that is a good thing because my evenings where getting depressing for the past two weeks. I know I have said this before, but our spring season is a lot more relaxed than our fall season, which is our main focus. We only have a few exhibitions and an alumni game, but in the fall we are officially hosting nationals. That is the reason that the soccer field looks like the beach at the minute, renovations. There are big plans for renovations of the soccer field, intramural field (that will now be outside of Adams hall), and a new softball field that will no doubt bring up the percentage of female students at Riddle. I know that this will make a few of the lads on the team happy, as well as the majority of the male student body.

I had my first flying experience in a Cessna 172 on Friday night, as a passenger only, but it was good none the less. It’s hard not to get caught up in the whole flying thing, being a student at Riddle. To be honest I didn’t even know that much about Riddle before I came here and didn’t care much for planes or flight. However, I am now thinking about doing a minor in Air Traffic Control, it depends on whether or not I can use it when I go back home. Nobody I have talked to can seem to give me a straight answer, so if anyone knows if the regulations for ATC are the same in Europe as they are in the U.S. could you log on the discussion board. Cheers.

I’m looking forward to my first Super Bowl experience, I know I’ll only be watching it on T.V. but there has been that much hope about it that it had better be good. I’d say that it’ll be the same atmosphere as was in Ireland for the World Cup finals in Japan. But not as good, and by the way that is proper football i.e. no hands. What is the craic with the weather? I didn’t move here from Ireland for this, I am sure that this place is meant to be hot. I mean I got here in August 04 and there were hurricanes for a month and now the weather is freezing.

Another thing, is that the pool on campus is closed until March for some reason, does anyone know why that is? Anyway I am finished complaining now so I will head on. All the best.

Alright everyone, hope you all had a good Christmas break. I am at home in Ireland at the minute. The weather is terrible, but that only makes it feel more like home. It is great to be back and to have all of my exams over so I can relax and take it easy for the month.

Since getting home on the 18th, I can safely say that I have been on the beer more than a few times. Went to my first ever concert during the week in the RDS, which is a big concert venue in Dublin. My girlfriend took me to see the Scissor Sisters, who are a pretty well known band here although not many Americans I have talked to have heard of them, which I find strange enough considering they are an American band.

I have also had a few nights out with my mates who have all been asking if college in the states is like American Pie. I told them that it may be in some colleges, but it’s definitely not at Riddle. I have realized how much smaller things are back here at home compared to America, cars, roads, shopping centers, houses, everything is a lot smaller. Not necessarily any worse but just smaller. Anyway, I am heading out again tonight to club 92, but I am off down to the local for a few pints of Guinness before then, so I will get back to this later. Sorry, (I am back in Florida) I meant to get back sooner but it was pretty hectic at home. I had a lot of visiting and partying to do. I thought when I got home that quite a lot might have changed but everything was just as it was before I left. All except that the family pub had been sold. It had been in the Davey name for the past 53 years. It was weird to see it and to think that it did not belong to my uncle anymore.

I just got back on Tuesday night before college and got through the week unscathed. It was not the toughest week at Riddle, most of the classes just gave out schedules and a brief class description. A few of my mates from back home have come over to stay in Kissimmee, just on the other side of Orlando, so I am down there at the minute. It is pretty nice down here but a bit quiet, more like a retirement spot. It’s a great house that they are staying in, it has everything, pool, table tennis, pool table, Jacuzzi, etc., so we have had loads to keep us occupied!

I’m not looking forward to next week at college because I have a feeling that it will be harder than last, and I am well used to doing nothing by this stage. I got a handy MWF this semester; I don’t start until 11:45am, which is a welcome change from 8:00am starts five days a week last semester, four classes on Tuesday and Thursday though. I took the one credit PE class that was being offered, so I am hoping that it will split my Tuesday and Thursday classes up and the days will not seem as long.

Hello Readers, hope things are going well. This has been, by far, my laziest two weeks at Embry Riddle since I got here, four months ago. I don’t know what it can be; it seems like the more I sleep the more tired I get. I have not done a tap of work in a fortnight. I thought that after the soccer season finished I would have an abundance of energy to carry me through my finals. It has turned out to be the opposite. I have absolutely no desire to do anything but sleep.

I think that the more pressure I am under, the better I work. Knowing that I have not got training after classes every day, I assume I have an age to every task set by a lecturer, and then I leave it until the last minute. Where as, when I had only a couple of hours to spare per night for homework and stuff, and I had been working all day I did not mind putting in another few hours of high quality work. I suppose it has a lot to do with the frame of mind you are in. For instance I sat in front of the computer last week for seriously, three hours, and I managed a mere paragraph. Partially it had to do with some time spent on emails, of course the compulsory food and drinks breaks, time spent sorting out the most trivial things, and then there is always someone to talk to, but mostly it was down to pure unadulterated laziness. As long as I get through these next few weeks and I can keep the grades that I have at the minute I will go home to Ireland at Christmas a happy man.

I went out on Friday to Coyote’s for the free drink from nine to ten but didn’t hang about for long, went on to Mai Tai’s after that. A quiet enough night by all accounts but I have a feeling that there are a few big nights coming up, to celebrate the end of the semester. A lot of lads off the team are heading home to do internships next semester so it might be the best part of a year before we see them again, so it is a worthy reason for a few beers.

I haven’t been on a night out where we have ventured further than Mai Tai’s, Coyote’s, or Razzles’ (which I vowed never to go back to again) and would appreciate if someone could tell me if there is any good spots to frequent in the Daytona area. A few lads went to Orlando on Saturday night past and apparently had their best night of the year, which I feel proves my point about the lack of night life in Daytona Beach. I find this very surprising as it is not at all what I expected, as a foreigner here for the first time. I am not mad about going clubbing or anything like that, but all I want is a nice bar to have a few drinks in a nice atmosphere. I don’t think that this is too much to ask, from a place which has a worldwide reputation for good night life, or so I thought.

I think that this is my penultimate entry and I hope that for the last one that I will have some eventful nights to tell you all about, but until then, good bye for now.

P.S. If I could just say hello to Elisabeth, Ursula, Big Phil and E.D.

Hello, I’ve just had another mixed couple of weeks. Last weekend we won the regional tournament held here at Riddle. It all started last Friday night (11/12) when we beat St. Thomas 3-0 in the semi-final and then we went on to beat Northwood in the finals on Saturday. This victory was sweetened by the fact that they were the only team to beat us in the conference during the season; and sweetened further more because they are the only team in the Conference without any sportsmanship what so ever. In the three games we played against them throughout the season, they had a man sent off in every game, including three sent off in the final.

So it was off to Kansas for Nationals, Olathe, to be more exact. It has never been one of my life long dreams to go to Kansas, and I found out why this week. It is in the middle of nowhere, it is freezing, and more importantly it is very boring. I hope I am not offending anyone, that’s not my intention. But if you are from Olathe, I am sure that you are aware of this already. And if you aren’t, you are kidding no one but yourself. I suppose that this is not a bad place to hold the national finals as there are sure to be no distractions for the athletes as the night life in Kansas seems to be non- existent, as well as any sort of crowd at the games. I think I am just bitter because I am back so soon. And the reason that I am back so soon is because we got beat in our first game. I won’t bore you with the in’s and out’s of the game but I will give you a brief outline of how our season came to an abrupt end on Wednesday.

We started off brightly, and were in a commanding position at the half time interval, yet the score board did not reflect this fact, as it was still 0-0. When we came out for the second half, we conceded an early goal just 5 minutes after the break. A bad decision by the referee, but I am getting used to bad referees over here as it is the norm. Then, deservedly so, we equalized with about twenty minutes to go and were in the ascendancy, and I felt we would go on to win the game from here. But football being the cruel game it is, it wasn’t to be. We conceded a goal, not for the first time, with a mere 10 minutes to go. We did not stop battling right up until the last whistle, all in vain none the less, and just like that our season was ended. A hard one to swallow, purely because of the fact that they were not a good side by any stretch of the imagination, and 9 times out of ten we would have beaten them. Knock out tournaments are funny like that.

Anyway, still tired from a long days traveling yesterday, I had my first day back in class today. The disappointment of losing was worsened when I was informed of how much work I have to catch up on for Monday. Overall it has not been a bad season, I mean we won the conference pretty comfortably and we came through the Regional as well. You cannot rest on your laurels, and I think that we have established ourselves as a very good team over the past few seasons. I say this because of the reputation that I heard about before I came here, but I think that next season we will take that next step and win a national title. It would be great to win it next year, especially as they are going to be held at Riddle next year.

It is going to be a grim month now without any football. I have finals to look forward, but then it is home for Christmas, thank God. To finish this entry I would like to wish our seniors the best of luck with whatever they decide to do and say thanks to them for a good season. They are a good bunch of lads, Justin Crawford (JCA), Phil Murray (Muz), Clifton Phillips W, and last, but definitely not least, Christian (In The Lead) Masson.