Hey all!

Last week was sooo busy! We all had lots of tests and projects and papers due. Our professors treated this past week like it was finals week. At least I had a whole week off to be excited for, and right now I’m writing this from Kenny’s grandparents’ house in Port St. Lucie, Florida (about 2 hours south of Daytona). I’m having a blast here because this is my first spring break in three years!! (Since I went to college the last two years of high school, my college spring breaks were never at the same time as my high school spring breaks).

We have been here since Friday after school, and we have just been relaxing and going to the beach most days. His family is awesome, and he has the cutest little cousins. The picture of us on the left was taken a few minutes ago when he was just dorking around haha.

Have a great break!

~Sara

So, once again, my journal entry is LATE. I thought I’d sent one in, guess I didn’t. Oh well!! Anyway, things have been REALLY rough, lately. I’ve been homesick a LOT more than previously.. and I have no motiviation to go to classes and do homework. Luckily, I’m not doing too bad, as of yet. I really need to get back on the ball, though.

This week is Big/Lil week for the sorority. I’m taking a LiL!! She’s super awesome, but I can’t say anymore until after Big/Lil revealing on Saturday. We’re going to Islands of Adventure in Orlando.. should be LOADS of fun.

Also, the PowerHouse Gym is reopening (it caught on fire!!) on Monday. So, thank God for that :o) I really need the money.. granted it’ll only be a week until I leave for the cruise, but.. one week is better than no weeks.

I’ve been sick, a lot, lately. So, my working out every day has ceased.. and my bad eating habits have kicked back in. So much for looking good for this cruise!! Hopefully one week at the gym will do something.. even if it’s a little bit. I could really use it.. plus, the free tanning is NEEDED!! I’m getting whiter by the second.

I have a speech due,tomorrow, that I’ve yet to write. I’d usually be stressing, but I’m so not in the mood to do it, yet. I guess I should get started on that after I send this in, though.

I gave up ice cream for Lent.. my favorite food EVER. It’s been so tough and I’m totally craving some, right now. One of my good friends is having a rough day.. so, I went to Einstein’s (downstairs) to buy him a pint of chocolate chip cookie dough.. and I would give anything to eat it. Now, all I need is a car, and for him to go back to his place, so I can give it to him :o) I hope he cheers up!!

Umm.. that’s about it for now. I hope everyone is getting their applications in and such. This is about the time, last year, that I started turning mine in!! Good luck with everything.. let me know if you have ANY questions at all :o)

Hey all!

Tons of things have changed these past few weeks. It turns out that I will be staying here for spring break after all. I made the decision to change my plane ticket and get my money back for several reasons. First of all, I will have several major projects to work on, and I really don’t want to waste my time at home working on them. Also, the weather is getting much nicer down here lately, and most of my friends are staying here over break. (It is Daytona Beach!!) Plus, I will be home in just over a month anyway, and I’m really not as homesick as I was last semester.

My classes are going really well. The only two classes I don’t have an A in are physics and engineering drawing, but that doesn’t bother me right now because no one really does.

As for relationships, Doug just simply didn’t work out. The reasons are complicated and too personal for an online journal, but things were just getting worse and worse all the time. Then, to add a little more drama, (haha) I have a new boyfriend! His name is Kenny and he is 22 years old, and he goes to school here at Embry-Riddle. (The picture on the right is him.) It may seem like it’s too soon for all this, but Kenny is just too good of a match to pass up. He is the most perfect gentleman, he can cook like no other, and we have so many things in common it’s scary. Most importantly, we share the exact same beliefs as far as religion. Right now, I am just following my heart. I just hope it all works out for the best.

Have a great day!!

~Sara

Hi there, journal readers! Hope everything is going great for all you guys and gals out there on my side of the spectrum, things are looking good but not as good as I had hoped. Frankly, I can’t wait for spring break, just two short weeks away and then I can kick back and unwind for a little while. I think I’ve been working too long, and the stress of having four jobs, school work, ROTC and all the little things that come with being on your own have been getting to me. A little vacation would do me good and then I would be fresh and ready to go at life again.

This semester it seems like I can do no right at ROTC, which sucks. I’ve been getting counseling after counseling for little stuff like wearing a braided belt instead of a plain one, and for missing a spot of stubble under my lip, which is fine, I know it’s to be expected; I just wish I could stop making it happen so often! Anyway, I’m well over the limit of three counselings in a semester. This week I had a meeting with the CW/IG, the head of the Inspector General’s Staff, and next week I have to meet with the Vice Wing Commander because I’ve been getting that many counselings. Then I got stuck in the terrible bike week traffic and missed an appointment with my APAS which is a huge no-no, so I had to reschedule for today, and I’m pretty sure I have another counseling in the works for missing that appointment.

Also, over the weekend, one of the senior cadets was killed in a motorbike accident. Traffic here is absolutely terrible right now. The worst part is that I work down at Cold Stone Creamery’s, which is just by the beach. The beach is where traffic is the absolute worst, so there’s no question of me simply not using my car on Bike Week. Biketoberfest had about 200,000 bikers come to Daytona and for Bike Week, it looks like its going to be close on half a million. It takes me half an hour to get anywhere, and you always have to watch out for the bikers, they just don’t care!

Also, just last night, I dealt my first game of blackjack! It was at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa in Orlando. The good thing was, I found a bunch of guys going to the same event, and we all drove down together. I didn’t even know they were going until I walked into one guy’s room to borrow a pair of cufflinks and found out he was going to the same place as I was! That was good, because I had some experienced dealers with me, to clue me in. But I needn’t have worried and it all went great and I’m pretty pleased with the check in my pocket!

Just had a Calc III exam, and got pretty heated up at myself about that, because I expected to score 100%, but I overthought a problem, thought I saw a trick question, and answered it a bit too cleverly. Turns out the straightforward answer was the right one, and I lost points on it. Damn, that annoyed me (after all my devious thinking!). My COM class is starting to annoy me too, we recently had to write out a detailed instruction manual on how to assemble a Lego all in words, no pictures. Try it, why don’t you. You’d chuck the damn things at the wall in five minutes.

Anyway, I can’t wait for spring break. Time to unwind. Relax. Ahhhh. I’m going to break this off on that happy thought, and bid you guys adieu.

MOTTO FOR THE FORTNIGHT: You might be an engineer if you think Spring Break is a metal fatigue failure.

Hello journal readers,

The past couple weeks have just been the craziest couple of weeks down here. So much fun!! I got on a baseball team!! Daytona Beach Pirates!! Really good team, the kind of team who messes around at practice but still beats the crap out of EVERYONE! This Journal is going to be quite random because I am in a hurry to get out and have some more fun, it’s about 80 something out right now and all I hear is bikes roaring the streets of Daytona! The house deal isn’t quite working out too well, but we are looking for apartments for the summer, I will probably end up staying for the summer to finish up my flight.

Bike week thus far has just been PURE fun, seeing chicks dancing on tables outside of bars on Main St, sexy ladies wearing chaps, crazy bikes, it’s just fun to take a stroll around the city for the fun of it because there is SO much action going on. Just last Saturday, one of the clubs here at Embry-Riddle had a big party at the marina, I heard the cops showed up. I didn’t go, it was mayhem, too many people, I like the smaller parties, group of like 20 or so. There were hundreds of people at this party.

My grades are decent, slippin’ in speech tho. I have this thing about talking in front of an audience, I think it’s because when I was a kid, I would read readings and psalms in church, and words from the bible can be ridiculously hard sometimes and it meant so much to read in church, so that pressure pretty much destroyed me for public speaking. I rearranged my room the other night, we bunked the beds, put dressers together with the TV on top, catty-cornered the fridge in the corner, have a surf board hanging from the ceiling, and HUGE black light. It’s a pretty legit set up, YEAH! I’m hoping on getting a futon here pretty quick, that would be nice for guests and movies and stuff.

Although it’s been fun down here, and I mean CRAZY fun, I still get LOADED with work and studies.. my advice to everyone, don’t slack the SLIGHTEST bit! It’ll catch up to ya. I’ve been doing pretty good considering how bad I procrastinated in high school, you have to stay on the ball in college. This week I have 3 tests, 2 papers and a speech due, and this weekend is the last weekend for bike week so you KNOW I’m celebrating all my hard work!! It’s the BEST feeling knowing you worked and got things done!

Well, speaking of work, I better get back to working on my studies ‘n’ things. peace out everyone!

PS… spring break is coming up baby!!! YOU, YEAH. . … YOU!!!! YEAH YOU!! YOU SHOULD COME DOWN TO DAYTONA BEACH AND CHECK OUT EMBRY-RIDDLE !!!!! NO DOUBT!!! It’ll be a WONDERFUL preview!!!

Hey everybody! Hope you all are doing well. I can’t believe my freshman year of college is already 75% behind me! And I still haven’t even turned 18 yet! I had loads and loads of stress building up these past few weeks, what with finals coming up and a lot of bad things seemed to fall in as well. On Wednesday of this last week, I had my finals so all my classes I’ve been having are done with. FOREVER. Luckily I passed everything so I don’t have to retake any courses.

Starting Monday I’m going to have all new classes. Supposedly, they should be easier than the ones I just finished taking, so I guess that’s good news. I have to prepare a briefing for my Air Force class on Thursday, and even though I don’t really mind public speaking, I’m honestly not too stoked about it. I’m doing current Air Force-related events, but other possible topics were aviation history and Air Force aircraft.

Since I had my finals on Wednesday, that means I get to have a 4-day weekend this weekend. Yesterday I did some shopping with my friend, which was extremely relaxing. I’m not a shopaholic or anything, but it definitely made it seem like everything had returned to normal. Somewhat anyway. Now that I’m making a little more money than before doing the Annual Fund, I can relax a little bit more, but I still have to keep in mind that I’m trying to save my money so I can get a car in the next few months which I really need. I should be living on campus next fall, so it isn’t completely vital, but it would really help me out in a lot of ways.

In other news, the motorcycles are pouring in by the hundreds for Bike Week and everything is getting pretty loud. Daytona also seems twice as crowded everywhere, with people coming in from all over. It’s starting to warm up too, which is exciting. I love warm weather, and I’ve definitely gotten adjusted to the Florida climate. Whenever it drops below like 65 here I get pretty unhappy, whereas at home that would mean that summer was coming (or that it already was summer). I know when it is summer and I’m in my classes, lab time is going to suck. It gets so hot here in summer and the labs have no A/C, just one fan that’s supposed to cool the entire class off.

Anyway, I gotta be off to prepare my briefing and maybe take a little nap. Any questions you can post on the discussion board. Later!

Hi!

Two more weeks until Spring break, I’m sure everyone is excited. This weekend was just as the same as every other, except that we went to probably the biggest party at Embry-Riddle. There were about 3,000 people but it sure didn’t seem like there was. This was all on Friday night hosted by the Sailing Club at a yacht, or some kind of dock.

However not much has changed since my last entry. I just have an exam today (Monday) and I’m hoping it should be easy. Classes are going good and easy, nothing is actually hard as it was last semester. Our Spring Break starts here on March 20th and lasts a whole week, which I cannot wait for. I will be going back home to St. Petersburg, FL and enjoying my time with my family. I really miss home cooked food from my mom and especially Bosnian food. I will tell her to make my favorite food when I arrive. The drive from St. Petersburg to Daytona Beach is about 2.5 hrs and is not bad at all, you just have to have energy to drive and I really don’t have that. Spring Break is pretty much the only break we have until the end of this semester, so I will be looking forward to that.

This Saturday I was really tired because of Friday night, I came back to my room around 10 a.m. It was just CRAZY. I had to relax all Saturday so I can be fine for the next day, a hangover I guess is what you call it. The weather has also been really nice, getting really really warm these days but at times chilly too. Last week for some reason many people were sick, I guess due to the weather. Last time it rained must have been last week, but that was like for the second time this year.

I really have to go shopping this weekend and by myself some new shoes. The shoes I have right now are in excellent shape but I only paid $20 for them and they are not good looking LOL! Life here is fun, you usually have a lot of friends that just come to your room and hang out which makes it fun right there. You don’t have to always go out and drink to have fun, just relaxing with your friends in your room is a lot of fun too. Because I currently have no roommate, I have the whole room by myself and I don’t have to worry about anyone telling me to shut up besides my suitemates, but they are cool.

Please post any questions or AIM SN : Mafia6663

Hey Readers!

I am currently sitting in my friend’s car, back in Tampa. We’re in parking lot traffic, for we just saw the most amazing concert put on by Coldplay. The downside to this is that I have an 8AM class and then a test at 9:15AM. It is currently 11:35PM and Tampa is 2 hours away from campus on a good day. This is probably not the best example I could set for others, but the concert was so good. I am grateful for the opportunity to see them live. It is back to school now, and in a series of never ending events in Daytona, Bike Week is next!

Some really cool bikes are in town right now, and more are yet to come. There was a motocross race tonight in Daytona, so there should be a lot of cool things going on in Daytona, and it will be up to you to weigh the benefits of dealing with the traffic in order to have fun.

On the Resident Advisor front, everything in RA Training is going great!!! I am learning so much while having fun. I have laughed a lot in the 3 weeks I have been in the class. I have a presentation due this week, and homework (yes, we get homework) but it is going really, really well.

Task Force One is also going well. We wrote our constitution over the past week and hopefully it will be ratified tomorrow. This is another step towards being included in the Student Government Association Constitution. Also, the weekend I spent at the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida (ICUF) Student Alliance Spring Conference (I know, long name) was amazing. I learned so much about the other schools in the organization and the way their student governments are structured. Embry-Riddle’s is quite unique, when in comes to our budget, which is astounding compared to others, our structure, which is totally different in that we have a Student Representative Board, where students are represented by college, i.e. College of Business, Aviation, Engineering. We then have a Student Finance Board which makes decisions about how much money clubs receive, and a Student Court, which deals with traffic violations, some university rule infractions, and interpretation of the Student Government Constitution. It gets better; the SGA also has three divisions; The Avion newspaper, EaglesFM, our radio station and Touch-N-Go productions, our entertainment division. We are unparalleled in these assets to our student government. The one thing we do lack is first year student representation, and we hope Task Force One helps solve that problem. This issue is being taken on by the current government because elections are only weeks away. So hopefully, I will be able to give you some great news in the next entry.

Classes are starting to hit the midpoint, which means lots of tests. I have a couple this week and a couple next week. So this time is going to be full of studying and getting prepared for the rest of the semester. Wish me luck and I will talk to you guys and gals in a couple weeks. Post questions on the discussion board and email me @ willicdb@erau.edu!

Talk to you soon

Carlos

Hello again everyone!!!…WOW!!!, what an AMAZING two weeks it’s been since my last entry, it seems like so many great things have happened, so much fun, studying, meeting new incredible people. The past two weeks here in Daytona Beach, FL at Embry-Riddle have been nothing but incredible. Well.. almost, my g/f got ridda me. HER loss huh ladies!?!? Just as long as she’s happy I guess.. : ).

The first week of my last two weeks (which is about 2 weeks ago! haha ) I had an excellent school week, not much homework. But THREE first tests that I did fairly well on, I could have done better of course. I did better than I thought I would on all of them so that made me feel good, like a LOT was lifted off of my shoulders after I took those tests. My ground professor for AS133 gave us a HUGE break from class. We had off a Wednesday for anyone who finished the practice written test, (I did) so I didn’t have to go Wednesday. And he had a JetBlue seminar in Orlando last Friday, so we didn’t have class then, PLUS Presidents day!! It was a nice break from ground school, but it also felt quite good to get things rollin’ again. Hmm.. can’t really think of anything else deadline with school other than the baseball team is kickin’ butt like usual.

OUTSIDE of school/studies, things can only get better!! RACE WEEK was all last week, EVERYNIGHT I was over at the track meeting INCREDIBLE people!! I met the guys who sang the National anthem for the truck races, they cooked breakfast a bunch of times but me and my buds never went! ha.. Will Ferrell was there, Will Smith, President Bush (whoopty doo) and tons of other people. My roommate and I met a really great guy who hooked us up big time for the Daytona 500. I’ll get into that later tho. The races during race week were unbelievable, although I was in the infield most of the time, when I DID get into the grandstand for the Hershey race it was the BEST experience ever. I never even THOUGHT that those stands could hold that many people, I sat at Petty tower, which is way up in the checkered seat section. I like it up there so I can actually see the whole race. I was so used to being so close and only seeing the race as the cars flew by where ever we were, but sitting in the stands was a WHOLE new experience. Now about that guy that hooked up my friends and I with a BEAUTIFUL infield spot for the Daytona 500. He had a HUGE layer platform RIGHT at turn 4. It was the sweetest day ever!! THAT was just race week, there is still bike week to come and SPRING BREAK!!! Although I’m not quite sure what to do for spring break yet, I have a LOT of friends who want to come down, so maybe that’s what I’ll do. Which leads me to my next wonderful chunk of news.

One of my wing mate’s dad BOUGHT him a house here in Daytona just 2.1 miles from the school. Just so happens that RIGHT across the street in the wonderful community, there is ANOTHER gorgeous house for sale, not quite sure about the info yet, but I think it’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, kitch, living, dining room, remote garage. It’s just a beautiful home in a wonderful neighborhood SO close to the school. So my roommate and I and our buddy plan on BUYING it. It’s SUCH a nice house. It has a big back yard and a screened in back patio/porch. It’s got a couple big trees outside for shade and it’s right on the corner! Moving in there would be like pleasantville heaven!! haha. There are SO many advantages to this also… we’re practically buying it, getting mortgage to help pay for it, we’re all getting credit cards to pay for it with frequent flyer miles, if we DON’T decide to stay, we can just sell the house again, for MORE, just in the past while the house went up SEVEN GRAND!! You don’t even wanna know how much it is!! Let’s just say it’s over a quarter of a MILLION dollars. And also, it could be used for a later crash pad once we’re all PILOTS!! And it would be a SWEET summer house,.. I seriously feel like I’m livin’ it up down here!

Well everyone, I’m about to head out to get some errands done, I’m sure you’re all sick of reading by now anyway.. I feel like I have more to write about but I’m having a huge brain fart right now so I’ll save it for later or if any of you talk to me by email or AIM. And Mrs. Bevan, if you’re reading this, I wouldn’t worry about Tom, we’re all takin’ real good care of him down here!

So overall, things are definitely brightening up !! Thats a PLUS in my book. But like I said, I have to run.. so .. I’ll talk to some of you whenever and I do my best to reply to EVERYONES email, they have been pouring in like crazy lately, ..some of you have gotten detailed e-mails back from me that I hope were helpful, peace out everyone!!

ps, spring break IS coming up soon and DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA IS THE PLACE TO BE. I KID YOU NOT!!!!!!

Justin B
gibso2j
“ByE”

Hey Readers!

Right now, I am on location to report about the Daytona 500 in Tampa, Florida. Haha, I left town for the three day weekend. Although I was really into the hoopla that is Speedweeks in Daytona, I couldn’t turn down an opportunity to see some of my high school friends that go to school here in Tampa. So this weekend is going great so far, but we should catch up on the last two weeks, which have been really, really long.

First and foremost, I had my third RA interview and was accepted into the RA class, which for the most part guarantees me a spot as an RA next year. So if I get placed in a dorm for first year students, I will be an RA for some of you! I am excited, and the road to becoming an RA is well on track, learning about issues that may arise as an RA of ERAU. The class lasts eight weeks, which is plenty of time to squeeze in about four or five journal entries about it. Thus far, I have truly enjoyed the things I have learned about how to make a wing a successful community. I look forward to giving you guys a sense of community here at ERAU.

On the Task Force One home front, we have begun the process of getting included in the SGA constitution, and it is coming along really well. The SGA has had some great feedback on our ideas. I am going to a conference in Orlando this weekend of Student Governments in the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida (ICUF). It should be amazing and hopefully I will learn a lot about other schools and how they work with first year students in their respective student governments. I will be sure to give you the rundown of my experience in the next journal.

Classes here are going great (I hope). Getting motivated for my 8am class is an issue, but it’s working out kinda well. As the semester starts its final two months, I will be sure to get up for it every time.

Well, it is back to hanging out with my new friends and old friend and the University of Tampa. Talk to you all soon.

Carlos