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.

Hey everyone! Oh love is in the air…well it was at least for Valentine’s Day. All I had on my mind was spending time with Mike on this “Day of Love!” You see it was my first time ever celebrating Valentine’s Day and having a boyfriend to celebrate with, so maybe I was a little more excited than most people on campus, but you know! Well needless to say it was a nice evening, short due to the fact that I still had some humanities homework to finish and such.

Well, I still hate programming…My goodness I cannot comprehend that class to save my life. I have gotten some help from Professor Kindy, but I still feel lost. No one seems to know what is going on in that class…Well we have a test coming up and a program due on Friday so I’ll have to probably meet with him again before it’s due. I really want to do well in this class; it honestly does look like fun,yet there is so much new lingo and such that I really do not understand…Anyways…I finally feel like I’m actually helping people in the PS 101 chemsitry lab that I help assist with Professor Coslow! I am so glad now that I am in there, because at first it was still new and I didn’t know what was going on. Now that I am in the swing of things it is all good!

Oh and to help keep me on track, my friend Rowena (an Engineering Physics Freshman) and I are going to meet 3 times a week to get our homework done (to stay away from the boyfriends that tend to distract us so much!)!!!! So far that has been going well and we hope that it continues to work!

All other classes seem to be going well. I am catching up on Physics, while the lab for that class is not too bad right now. Humanities is my favorite class, which is funny since it has nothing to do with math or science! Professor Barbie really makes you think and I mean I cannot wait to go to her class! Especially now that we have been talking about slavery and the Civil Rights Movement and such, I feel more connected with the class! Yeah that class is totally awesome!

Well that is basically it for now…You all take care and I’ll update you all very soon! Bye Bye!

*~Terryel~*

Well, as luck may have it, I have, since my last journal, mustered up enough money in my effort to complete my Private Pilot License. Though I now know I will not be able to start my Multi-Engine Rating course, I will at least finish off flying to get my Private License. Flight has been going pretty well around here lately; minus the long wait for an airplane and a few issues with proper procedures, I feel confident that I will be able to pass my test soon. I just went on 3 back-to-back cross country flights: one to just north of Jacksonville, one down into Central Florida, and lastly, one to Melbourne, Florida. All of my flights have been quite fun lately because it isn’t filled with the bickering of an instructor by your side, nor the review of proper procedures for a certain maneuver. I just fly to a destination, arrive there safely, and find my way home. It has been fun, and I can honestly say that flying is truly my passion. I love to fly and know that when I one day make it my career, I will truly enjoy flying as a job and for fun.

On the other hand, we got ‘school.’ School has been laid back this semester for me because of my convenient schedule. I was smart in avoiding early classes and I loaded up my Tuesdays and Thursdays with most of my classes (4 of the 6). This allows me some free time on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for doing some personal chores. From trying to fix my laptop which I think might have spyware (who doesn’t nowadays), to catching up on some reading. So for all of you incoming freshmen, you won’t have a choice as to what you receive ‘schedule wise’, but you will have a chance to make your own schedule once your second semester rolls around. Make sure to notice what it is that works for you and in which classes you are most awake. Surprisingly, I haven’t felt that sleepy in most of my classes this semester. First, I am not waking up at 4-5 AM to go flying at 6-7 AM. Also, I don’t start my earliest class all week until 11:15 AM. It has been beneficial to both my grades and me, so make sure you make wise decisions when it comes to scheduling, it really does make a difference.

As for other business, it has been quite busy around Daytona lately. With the ‘Speed-weeks’ now leading into the main event, the Daytona 500, more and more people are flooding into the city (even the airspace is full). The traffic I saw this weekend after the ‘Bud Shootout’ reminded me of traffic back home. It was funny to see it here because, for once, I wasn’t a part of it. Traffic in L.A. is as bad as most say it is, trust me, it could be 2 PM or 2 AM, but if you are on the freeways, there is no difference. Traffic is a daily part of life. It’s a good day when you only encounter traffic on two of the three freeways you get on. Anyways, unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get to any of the races. I was there during a few practice sessions, but haven’t seen an official race yet. I wish I had a car; I could go out and about as I pleased. Unfortunately, car equals need for money, and right now, even without the car, I am in need of money.

Well, as all the racing events down at the speedway wind down to an end, Spring Break is next to hit Daytona. That is bound to be an experience. I think my next journal won’t have much about it, but the one after should. Well, I’ll catch all of you later in my next journal. For any of you that may have questions about the school or specifically flight, go ahead and add a message on our message board. I’ll reply ASAP. Til next time, Laters!

Sergio M.

Hey everyone…I must tell you that I am not in the best of moods…It seems like there is never enough time to get anything done. We have been back to school now for almost 3 weeks I think and, I mean, I feel like I am so behind. School has never been so hard before in my life! Yeah, I know college is supposed to be hard, but it seems like it is draining the life outta me!

Now that I am a Chem lab assistant, I have more responsibility. I love the hands-on experience that I get since I am behind the scenes. I finally get to help people and put my knowledge to practical use! I like mixing the chemicals the best since I feel like a real scientist or something. I mean not all of my days are bad…I still love coming here, I just feel like not doing anything anymore…

I hate EGR 115! I don’t hate my professor, I just hate the class! I hate computers and I am only using them because I have to. I mean I think I just hate the class because I don’t understand how to do anything. This is, in turn, putting my spirits down…I just get confused and everything and I plan on going to my professor’s office hours tomorrow when I have a lighter day…

Personal time is small nowadays…I decided that I will probably try out for cheerleading so that I may keep in shape! I need to do something that can take my mind off of school and homework for a while! Besides, I miss doing gymnastics and I think I could add some spirit and tumbling to the team! GO EAGLES!

Well that is all that I have for now…I need to go take a nap since I am about to fall over now! Talk to you all very soon! Take care! Adios!

*~Terryel~*

All right everyone get ready for a ride!!

Last night we went to watch the movie Hide and Seek, this is to everyone; WATCH IT!! Dakota Fanning, the little girl looks scary and spooky and her dad De Niro was superb. The movie was extremely scary but I noticed a very different behavior from audience, during every scary scene people would laugh to hide their fear, to hide it from the person sitting next. I did the same, lol. Go and watch the movie in the theater to check it out.

Earlier this week on Monday I almost missed my C programming class which is at eight in the morning. Even though I knew that, I was up late and guess what happened, I woke up at eight thirteen and I decided to go to sleep as my next class was at ten thirty but a thought of guilt ran through my brain and I jumped out of my bed and ran straight to my class. And I thank myself for that.

On Wednesday we had students Activity Fair, and that was what I was precisely waiting for. I joined Badminton Club, Indian student Association, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Avion Newspaper and the Task Force a part of Student Government. Yes there are a lot of fraternities here but I am not a fan of it. We also had a demonstration of skydiving, the members of skydiving club had taken off from Atlanta, GA and they dived on campus where the fair was taking place and I think that was amazing. A week before Riddle was tranquil but now suddenly everything is moving at fast pace. A lot of homework, club meetings, research papers, sports and sleeping are taking all my time up now.

It snowed 12 inches in New Jersey last week and I really miss it. I miss the part where I have to shovel snow three times a day. I still remember my sister and me playing in snow last year and the year before that. I felt like flying back to Jersey for a weekend but it was not possible.

I ordered a new dell notebook this week, completely customized by me and I got it for a great price. I saved around three hundred dollars because Riddle has an affiliation with dell. This is how it works; while you order give them Riddle’s member number, and you get instant members discount because you are a student at Riddle.

So this was it for now, the time is 11:34 pm. Goodnight, and until next time.

OVER AND OUT!!

Hey Everyone!! How is the rest of the world out there? I’m doing pretty good here. It’s getting colder now that it’s deeper into winter time. It’s getting down to like mid 40’s at night and mid 60’s to 70’s in the daytime. Well what else has been going on you may ask? Not a whole lot. This past weekend did a little shopping, and all. Also this past week I did a little maintenance on my car. New brakes/tires/all that good stuff. I always love workin’ on the car. It’s always fun to put so much work into something and then see how it pays off in the end with performance and such.

I’ve been programming a lot lately. CS225 has a lot of programs to do. We do at least one per homework, sometimes more. The rest of you CS majors will never have to take CS125 and CS225. They are getting rid of them and calling it engineering something or another. I don’t know why. They’re apparently taking java 1 and java 2 and cramming it all into a 1 semester class. Physics is a lot of studying too. Along with every other class, haha. Anyways, I’ve not done a whole lot lately. Just kinda hung out and chilled in front of the TV. It’s always something good to do when there is nothing else to. We’ve had a little bit more rain lately too. It’s been like 2 weeks or so since it’s rained last, but it only sprinkled a little bit so that’s no big deal. Anyways, I don’t know much else, but I’ll talk to yall later.

Hope you all are all doing well. Seems like January has flown by, granted we were only in school for half of it. Classes are getting harder and the weather has been cold, but we just have to make it through the spring break..and I think we’ve got another 3 day weekend coming up in February, wooh! I don’t think we’ll be lucky enough to get another hurricane break this semester.

I had a bit of fun over Christmas break…went to visit my friends in Jersey and then took a cruise to the Bahamas with my friend Katie. I had an awesome time but my debit card isn’t very pleased with me. So it seems I’ll be stuck with school food for awhile. ): I’m glad to be back though..I’m settling into a routine again, which always helps. Some people decided to transfer this semester. I knew the drop-out/transfer rate was part of the whole college scene, but I didn’t really have any major problems first semester so it’s a little baffling. Guess it’s all subjective..

I had Special Ops tryouts again Jan 30th. You have to try out every semester to be on team and be on for at least 2 semesters before you can apply to be on staff. Going from 8:45 AM to 5:30 PM covered in water, sand, and mud definitely motivated me to try and step it up a notch this semester so I can make staff and never have to go through it again. ‘Twas definitely an experience though.. I thought the watered-down tryouts last semester were hard but this time around, tryouts kicked my ass! Definitely the most physically demanding thing I have ever done in my life. I woke up the next day all bruised, scraped, and unable to move, so I just laid in bed for half the day. The only things I could reach without having to get up or roll over were my cell phone and my water bottle so I just made phone calls all day and whined a bit. And this is what ROTC kids call fun…?! Hrmm.. But it’s so worth it.

I started work again..taking on a few more hours this semester (still in the Career Services office). I fixed my Tues/Thurs schedule so that my first class isn’t until 2:15. This works nicely, because I can roll out of bed late, go to work at 11…and take it easy before heading off to class in the afternoon. I guess it’s a personal preference but using trial and error, I’ve found that anything before 10:30 and anything after 3:30 just doesn’t work well for me. Lucky for me I’ve got a 9:15-10:15 and a 3:30-4:30 on M/W/F and I go til 5 on Tues/Thurs. Freshmen register last so hopefully I’ll get some of my first choices next semester. I’m also hoping to do summer abroad for the 2nd half of the summer in Paris/London. If that works out, I’ll get 6 credits for the price of 3..not to mention knocking out some Physical Science credits and getting to travel Europe. If all goes well, I’ll have 48 credits when I start my sophomore year (between classes, AP credits, and study abroad). Then I’ll be able to take a light schedule next spring when I’m going through field training prep (FTP) for AFROTC.

Later guys..any questions, you know the drill. Melanie

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.

Finally, I am a student journal writer. Hurray!! Until today I was just reading these journals, but now I will be writing too. And it happened in a great fashion. She (supervisor) wrote me in the morning and asked a few question. I replied back with all the answer, not really expecting to get in. By the way, the name of my supervisor is Jill Meridith, a lovely lady with warm personality. I had some chore to be taken care of at undergraduate admissions office and I was waiting there for my turn when a lady asked me if she can help me. Her name was Jill Meridith; I saw that on her name tag. Later I realized that she was Jill Meridith, the lady who I was supposed to see for journal writing thing. So I went to see her in her office and that’s it. Everything happened so fast that I didn’t realize and now that I have it feels great.

My name is Manan Vyas. I am from Clifton, New Jersey but originally, I am from India. As we all know Embry-Riddle is ranked #1 for its Aerospace Engineering program, so that’s how I ended by being here. I turned in my application in September last year, got accepted and was ready to (impatient) move down to Daytona Beach.

Day-1

I arrived to Daytona Beach on 10th of this month; I had never before visited here, so things were very new to me. But it all came good. Everyone on campus is very friendly and specially the administrative staff. I attended the student orientation and I recommend it for every incoming student. It was simply great. We went back to our dorms at around 6:00 pm after which I organized my room. Later that evening I made a lot of friends in my dorm and not to my surprise we went to sleep at 2:00 in the morning.

Day-2

I went for Air force ROTC meeting, as I am interested in serving Air Force after I graduate but due to some technicalities I will have to wait till next fall to join ROTC. Later that day we were helped to pick our classes by academic advisors and the process went smooth. I am taking EGR 115 (programming class), EGR 120 (graphical representation class), ES 201 (statics), COM 221 (technical writing), and SS 325 (studies of Eastern Europe). Then later that day I made other new friends and we all went to eat together.

Day-3 and afterwards

Things are getting better every day. Now I know quite a lot people around here and in this short period we went out to eat at Hooters, Olive Gardens, a pizza place, went to mall, and went to Orlando. And believe me or not we have a group of 14 people now and we always hang out together. Its pure fun!!

A week and a half has passed since the school started so there is not much covered in class, but things are catching up fast. Professors are really good and always ready to help. So this was it for now and I will keep you all posted with future development. If you have questions, mail it to vyas85a@erau.edu.

CATCH YOU LATER,
OVER AND OUT!!!

Hello everybody!! How’s it going? It’s pretty good on this side. School’s starting again. BOOO, haha. Seriously, school starting is always good. They made some minor aesthetic improvements to campus. They’ve been working on putting some trees and bushes in around the place to spruce it up a bit. They apparently re-did the cafeteria, but I haven’t seen it yet so I don’t know what all was done for sure.

Well, let me tell you what all I did during my break. Not much, just a good ole time here and there. The day after finals last semester I packed up my stuff and I took a week off back home in Tennessee. One problem, it was WAY cold, and it started to SNOW!!! Snow is no vacation, but I got to see the family and hang out with my friends, so it was all good.

Then I came back down to Daytona for Christmas and everything. That was fun. It was the first time I’ve ever worn shorts and a t-shirt on Christmas Day! Gotta love Florida.

Then just the other day I took a little short vacation to Manhattan. It was my first time to NYC, so it was an experience, let me tell ya. One of the best times ever, it’s so much fun around New York. Lastly I came back to Daytona once again and started class just a couple days ago.

Daytona doesn’t have much going on right now, but one of my favorite races is coming to the speedway; The Rolex 24 at Daytona. It’s a 24-hour endurance race with some of the greatest drivers in the world for those who don’t know. This isn’t NASCAR; these guys actually make turns. Anyways, you can hear them testing at the track from campus. Two days ago it sounded like either the Corvette C5-R’s or the Saleen S7-R’s out running. Whatever it was, it had a V-8. Today it sounded like a prototype car, maybe the Championship Team Audi or Bentley or something like it. Anyways, that’s coming in early February, so I’m going to that for SURE! Catch ya’ll later.

-Darryl