Well, the great glorious spring break is over. I officially did not do one single bit of homework while I was off. It was wonderful, haha. So what else did I do you might ask? I sat in front of the TV, worked some here and there, and just chilled too. After working so hard so far this semester I just needed to relax for a little while. Plus, it either rained a bunch or it was just generally overcast most of Spring Break in Daytona. This past Sunday was the only day that was actually warm and sunny. I went out in the garage and worked on my car a little bit. Went out and washed it, then it rained later that day. Oh well, it happens.

Of course, this past week went by so fast it didn’t even feel like it was a week off. Soon school will totally be out and then summer will be filled with working and relaxing. I’m hoping I can work this summer enough to pay some on my mounting student debt, or just use the money to pay some of the tuition for next semester. I think I could work for a year and never make enough money to pay for all of tuition, haha. Anyways, that’s what happens when you go to a good school I guess.

So, this semester is about half or so over, but it feels like it’s almost totally over. I’m ready for it to be, that’s for sure. Our official last day of classes is in about a month. YEAH! I’m so excited. Thank goodness it’s almost here. This summer will be fun, it has to be. Last summer working at Disney was a blast. This summer has to top that. I don’t know how it can though, working at Disney was the most fun place to work EVER!

Well, I’ll have to stew about where to work this summer and for now do some homework while I’m at it. I’ll talk to yall later.

-Darryl

Hello to all you journal readers. I am writing this journal after quite an eventful day that took me from Los Angeles to Daytona Beach in a span of 12 hours (a mixture of cancelled and delayed flights). Spring Break was a well deserved break for many of us and as I previously stated, I went against what most would have done —  stayed here — and opted to go home instead for Spring Break. I was given the opportunity to see my family and friends. After being away from home for a while, it was a welcome sight for sore eyes.

Well, as I write this journal, I find myself stuck in a situation which most of us hate to be in. I have a lot of homework and would rather pretend that such a thing doesn’t exist. Lucky for us, we have about 5 full weeks of school remaining until we all are given the opportunity to go home for the summer.

I did not have the time to finish flying and get my private before I left to go back home, but with 5 weeks remaining, I have more than enough time to complete my last 2 flights. Once I complete the last two flights, I will then go up for my Oral and Checkride. I have been studying for that oral and somehow many details are still slipping my mind at times.

When I went home a friend of mine who still happens to be in high school asked me how college truly is. Well, as I told her and will tell all of you, it is all about knowing how to read, understand, and comprehend books of different subject matter. One thing that has always been a weakness of mine is my inability to comprehend what it is I read. I will find myself sitting there asking myself what it is that I have just finished reading. To my dismay, I seldom remember what it is I read even after just browsing over it.

I strongly recommend for those of you going to any college next year to really learn how to read well. I wish someone could have stressed how important reading truly is in a college education. Don’t get me wrong, I still pass my classes with a weakness in reading, but I tend to learn well from lectures and notes, so I am still able to learn what is taught.

Spring Break back home was fun but most of you are probably interested in what Daytona Beach has to offer. From what I have seen and heard, the beaches have had some great turnouts and there are events all along the beach that allow for spring breakers to relax and have some fun. Hopefully other journal writers can offer a perspective as to how it was last week.

Well, off I go to finish homework and get ready to restart classes ( I already missed a day). Keep the questions coming on the message board. I, as well as the other journal writers, will be more than willing to offer you our assistance.

The time has finally come for mid-semester reflection and refreshment. Mid-term examinations are done and over with after an intense final two weeks of studies. After chalking off the first few weeks to a significant drop in energy and drive, things have finally picked back up and are well on their way to mimicking things last semester. Not a moment too soon at that; the success of those exams helped me to solidify that I am likely able to bring all my grades back from borderline to acceptable with the few weeks remaining.

Some of you have expressed a solid interest in the Navy ROTC program, how it is structured and what it’s all about in recent weeks, so I felt that this would be an excellent opportunity to help spell things out as best I can in the hopes that many questions can be answered outright. It should be added that if there are any other questions or concerns, I am still more than happy to address them or forward you to someone who’s better suited for the job in question.

The Navy ROTC scholarship covers all tuition, $300 for books per semester, your monthly stipend ($250 – $400 per month, depending on class), and flight so long as it is a part of your major. This also includes approved extra credit hours (the university charges for more than 16 credit hours per semester). Housing is not covered, but ERAU provides some sort of incentive scholarship for housing – $3000 for the year is currently under review.

Life in the Unit basically consists of three mandatory PT sessions per week (four morning and one afternoon are offered, Thursday mornings mandatory for all). If you take things low-key, then there’s not much else but uniform day on Tuesday, plus Drill that afternoon, the Naval Science classes, and any other extra activities you may perform with the Unit – anything from Color Guard to lunches with the Navy League to helping volunteer for certain events.

The more you can do to be active, the better off you’ll be in the long run. There’s a club for each of the warfare communities (Aviation, Submarine, Surface, and Special Warfare), as well as Color Guard and Drill Team, a budding Rifle and Pistol Team to name a few.

Furthermore, should anyone have more questions or merely an interest in reviewing the Unit’s Web site, I recommend looking towards http://embryriddlenavymarinesrotc.org/ where you’ll find photos, a wealth of information, as well as our semiannual newsletter, Eagles and Anchors, for your pleasure and review.

Onward + Upward

Hey guys- I can count the days left until spring break on one hand, and that excites me to no end. It looks like I’m headed back to Jersey, once again. My best friend Katie and I are going to hang out a bit and hopefully get up to NYC for a few days since our trip didn’t work out over Christmas break. We hoped to go to California over break, but we procrastinated too much and we’ll just go over summer. I’ve been a little stressed lately and I’m in need of a few days off. I was sick all last week with the flu. I didn’t even get out of bed for a few days, so I get to play catch-up this week in all my classes which isn’t fun when I’m still feeling a bit under the weather. I’m not all that thrilled that my parents decided to move so close, but it was nice when my mom drove out here to bring me soup and medicine…

ROTC has been a little hectic lately. We had another beach run last Friday. They’re a little early but a nice change of pace to regular PT. Usually, SO goes into the water afterwards for some static PT, but I think we’re going to wait until the second one. That works for me because the water was freezing and I was sick anyway. Monday’s LLAB was what we call “big week”. It happens every year before spring break..all the sophomores find out who is going to field training and all the juniors find out who gets pilot/nav/abm slots. Congrats to all those who got good news! Freshmen were supposed ot find out about PDTs, which are various summer programs that we can get selected for. I applied for a couple different options and my class ranking is pretty good, so I’m hoping that works out. The catch is, that we don’t get to pick when or where we go..and if we get selected, we have to attend. I got in to the summer abroad program for summer B in London/Paris, so I’m hoping I find out about PDTs soon and hoping it doesn’t conflict with Europe. I also passed my PFT this morning and improved upon all my scores, which means I get to activate my scholarship in the fall 🙂 I was a little worried about it.. I passed last fall, but they changed the tests and it screwed me up a bit, but all is good now.

As for Special Operations, we have once again earned the right to be called “team”, and we went through a lot to get there so it feels pretty good to have it back. If there’s any kind of miracle to be had, I’ll make staff next semester and won’t ever have to do this again, but I’ve got to get my act together and work harder if I want to have any sort of chance at that.

If you’re coming here in the fall [or summer], get on the discussion boards and meet some people before you get here. I felt a lot better coming here when I was able to put names and faces to “all the new people I’m going to meet”. You’ll also find out that everyone is in the same position as you and eager/anxious all at the same time.

Lunch time. Take it easy.

Melanie

Hello everyone, I hope you all are doing great! So, where should I start…uummm?

Alright, last night (3/13) I went to a concert at the House of Blues, Orlando. It was my friends and I and let me tell you we had a blast. It was Strata, Future Leaders of World, Crossfade, Helmet and Chevelle. They all were good but Crossfade was one of the best and Chevelle was simply amazing. To give you all the basic idea; at the end of the concert I was soaking wet from head to toe, just think about the kind of fun we had.

Since I don’t have a car we hired one from those cheap rental places and we were on road at around three. We got there in approximately one hour and after a long wait in the line the show started at around six, by the time we got out it was midnight. Chevelle was the last one to play and he rocked the place.

The day before (3/12), I went skydiving with the club called AIAA, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, usually it costs $ 169 but because I was a member of AIAA it cost me $ 90. This is for everyone, try it, it is very addicting. The feeling of falling 110 miles/hour is amazing. We jumped from 13,000 feet and we were down on the ground in less than six minutes; the free fall for first minute was just breathtaking. Even though I was really nervous about the whole thing, I think I will do the course and get my license.

And the day before (3/11, the Friday of the bike week), my friends and I went to check out bikes. The atmosphere in the downtown was simply amazing; bikes were lined up on the both curbs, open bars, clubs were packed. It was girls and bikes everywhere. Bikers came from all over the country and they put on a good show.

On the school front I have three tests this week, one on Thursday (EGR 120) and two on Friday (ES 201 & SS 325). It is rough but in a way it is nice, I will be able to enjoy the spring break to its full content. Although I am doing really well in all my class, the EGR 115, C programming class is giving me some trouble but I know that if I spent some time reading then I will get it surely.

EGR 120 class is getting really interesting as we are learning more new techniques to make our engineering drawings precise. The key to that class is a skill of visualizing objects in a definitive manner. In yesterday’s class our teacher had brought in a blue print of a rocket and I was amazed with the precise graphical design (blue print); it was scaled to fit on one sheet but every single detail was taken in account while making that blue print.

The spring break starts at the end of this week, most of my friends are going out but some of us are staying back. I can’t comprehend the fact that people come to Daytona Beach from all over the country for spring break and some ‘Riddleians’ leave Daytona for spring break. I just can’t get it. But before the break starts I have to make sure that I do well in my three exams…so with that hope. I will write back later; you all have a wonderful spring break.

OVER & OUT!!!

Hey! It’s journal time again, hehe. Well, let’s see what all has happened around here the past few days. First of all, BIKE WEEK! Ahhhh (That’s all I can say). Loud motorcycles zooming all over the place all crazy like. Thankfully it’s over now, but man they were insane this past week or so. I don’t mind the fact that they are motorcycles; it’s just that they are so DANG LOUD. Never mind trying to go anywhere north or east of Riddle. You pretty much are confined by traffic to South Daytona or Port Orange to actually get anything done. Riddle seemed to be the borderline between the motorcycles and the rest of the world. So that all happened, plus my parents came down for a couple days. We went to check out the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. Let me tell ya. If anyone tries to get you to go up that blasted lighthouse, FORGET IT! 200+ spiraling steps that go 175 feet up I think. It’s not the height or anything that’s the problem. It’s the fact that the steps go nearly straight up, which is a pain in the butt when you try to go back down. Better start working out if you ever plan on going up that thing.

It’s starting to warm up again and get all up in the 80’s. But, it’s almost spring so it had better get warmer. Other than that, there’s not much going on this week. Spring Break is pretty close, can’t wait. It’s gonna be nothing but sitting around here watching tv. Loads of fun. Anyways, I’ll check yall later.

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 again all you journal readers. It’s been a long time coming, but one more week remains until all of us go off to different locations for spring break. Some people I know are going to remain here in Daytona and welcome their friends, while others like me, will be returning home to meet up with old friends and loved ones. I look forward to spending a lot of time with my family, girlfriend, and friends.

School here is the same as usual. I am somewhat pleased with how this semester has been going for me thus far. My professors are excellent, my classes are nicely planned out, and my flying has not interfered with my academics. I will soon be planning out my classes for the upcoming Fall 2005 semester. I am hoping to go home and attain 6 credits for my general education requirements so that when I come back for the fall semester, I could be in junior standing. What has been keeping me from going crazy this semester is that I have not yet had one big project as I did last semester. Maybe I have, I just didn’t notice it or didn’t think it was that big. I am really enjoying the Aeronautical Science courses because I know that for once, I am learning about something I will most likely be using in real-life. I know that when I was in high school, I asked myself when in life I would be applying what I had learned in that class to a real-life scenario. Well, luckily, I am doing something where I don’t have to ask that question anymore. I also decided to stay and live on campus because of the lack of a car. I would definitely love to have my own apartment or share one with a friend, but without a car, I am not sure how I would get to school for a 6 AM flight, 8AM class, etc. I am still talking to my parents about a car, but I’m almost certain that the final answer will be a no.

As Daytona’s Speedweeks ended, Bike Week began. It was a crazy week with many Bikes all across Daytona. It was quite noisy, compared to the quiet Daytona that I was used to, but it was a welcome sign. I remember seeing many different types of Motorcycles from Harley’s to Honda’s. It was also very interesting to watch some of the bikers with some amazing looking bikes. Some of them were designed to look like a car, of course a smaller version of one, while others were made to look like they came out of the 50s. Motorcycles have never interested me much, but some of the ones that I saw around were pretty nice.

Spring Break! Well, Daytona has seen a fluctuation of people come in for the upcoming spring break season. I have noticed many people not only in the area, but even on campus. Since we are located here in Daytona, many friends come to visit those who attend Riddle. I will hopefully be able to check out all the events before the spring break season here in Daytona is over.

Well, if you have any questions/comments/suggestions regarding anything I can assist you with, leave a message on the message board. Until next time, laters!

Hey everyone! My goodness I just feel so unorganized…school, I swear hates me…I just cannot wait for Spring Break next week! I get to meet Mike’s parents in Connecticut. I am so excited to meet them and to have time away from school.

C-programming is just out to get me it seems…I look so lost in that class. Math on the other hand, I thought I got the material, yet I still did terrible on my last test, worse than the first one! Physics, one of these days I believe that I’ll have it…Sometimes I feel more discouraged than other days…I NEED THE BREAK!!!!!!!

Ok, so the chem lab has been going great…I finally understand what’s going on and I like being in there mixing the chemicals. I feel important, plus I learn more about chemistry with a little more hands on experience…

Ok everyone…I hope to have a more exciting update for next time! Take care and I will talk to you all very very soon! Bye-bye!

*~Terryel~*

Hey everyone! Ok, well I mean life just cannot seem to get any crazier for me! I mean when you are trying to balance life that is going on back at home and then life here at school, you know it really starts to get hard. I had 2 exams this week in both Physics 1 and EGR 115 and I swear that I didn’t do too well on either of them. I am stressed out because I have seemed to forgotten what my goals are lately, or if they are even worth me going through the maybe next 4 years of schooling to get there. I know in my heart that I want to become an astronaut still, there just seems to be the fact that life is going on, besides the fact that I am striving for my dream. So in order to attack all of the self-doubt and whatnot, I joined the newly-developed Kendo club at the school.

Kendo is a form of Japanese sword fighting that uses a shinai(bamboo sword) to fight with. I am currently sore from the amount of swinging that we did in practice the other day, but I am so pumped to do well! Ever since I was younger I have wanted to take a form of martial arts (I mean, hey I was a BIG fan of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers so yeah, I had to learn something)! And now that this is a new club and I finally got enough courage to go, I did! Mike is in the club too, but he has more experience in sword fighting than I do, but maybe one day we’ll both be able to challenge one another to a fight!
I really hope that all goes well with Kendo. I knew that I would go absolutely crazy if I didn’t join a club that was very athletic-based because I needed to let my frustrations out. I am going to try to rank and get better so that I can compete in competitions next year! But now I am left with the dilemma of trying out for cheerleading or no….so we’ll have to wait and see….

Ok everyone, I honestly hope to have some better news for you all next time…you all take care and I will talk to you very soon!

*~Terryel~*