It’s been a bizarre couple of weeks for me with all of the changes. I feel as though I began a whole new semester or something! The weather has been warm and beautiful (except for a couple days when we had a huge storm and cold front come through. Lightning, hail, torrential downpour… you get the picture).

Working at the Daytona 500 was quite an experience! There was a truck race with a fiery crash during the first couple hours. It was nice getting to see a live race without seriously damaging my hearing! 🙂 My friend and I did pretty well until about 5am… then we started getting cranky, delusional, and bored beyond all belief. A huge fog settled in as well, so it got chilly. We ended up canceling our second all-night shift. It was just too much! Most of the 13 hours were spent chatting with random drunk people about all kinds of things. I don’t exactly approve of their lifestyle, but some of the people were very nice and even fed us or gave us free stuff. What a memory! If that wasn’t enough, we were excited by a surprise visit from our friend interning at NASA in Virginia this semester. He came down for the weekend. It was nice to sleep most of Saturday until worship practice before CFC. After the session, our visiting buddy suggested several of us go see Jumper at Ocean Walk. So, we did. I enjoyed just getting out and hanging with everyone. It was a little weird being the only girl, but at Riddle, you get used to it.

We all knew we were in for a letdown when the opening scene showed Hayden Christensen. Personally, I enjoyed the movie and thought his acting was infinitely better than Star Wars, but of course the guys did nothing but complain about it afterwards. I hate it when people do that. After all, it’s their own fault they didn’t research who was in the movie BEFORE they paid the seven bucks! Whatever, it was still a great time!

The next day was ridiculously busy yet again. It all started with navigating through the race traffic to stop at Starbucks before church (2 of us in the group were from Washington and 1 from Oregon, so… duh we need our Starbucks! The poor Ohio and Arizona guys just had to tag along.). Every business on International Speedway has a special parking pass for those who are actually going to the store and not wanting to pay for parking for the race. That day was the 50th anniversary after all, so it was crowded!! Still, we made it to church on time with our tasty breakfasts. If that wasn’t great enough, a bunch of the HS seniors and college kids went to Applebees. I really enjoyed getting to know other people my age from Sovereign Grace. Right after that was a Daytona party at a church member’s house. On the way after stopping at Wal-Mart for snacks, we saw the Thunderbirds at a stoplight. It was amazing!! We also caught a glimpse that morning from school. After a great day of novelty and fun, we closed with a visit to my favorite ice cream place, Ritter’s. Phew!! What a busy weekend!

After that, things got a little more normal as I settled into my new routine. I played tennis a couple of times with my talented friends. It was only my 2nd and 3rd time, but I improved a ton. Now I only sock one over the net every once in awhile. 🙂 I always treated the racket like I was playing badminton which I learned is a big mistake!

Bonding with people in Doolittle has also been a wonderful experience. My two friends (girls) from CFC who are just a floor up have come to visit a couple times. We even had a movie night watching Ever After. Fun times! I also enjoy hanging out with two guys on my floor. One is CFC’s worship team leader and the guy who takes us all to Sovereign Grace on Sundays and the other I met through him (Sorry for the terrible grammar, but I’m trying to not give people’s names unless I ask them permission! :)). It’s taking me awhile to figure out all of their inside jokes, but I’ll catch up eventually.

Ok, so I lied about normality I guess… the week continued to be nuts! Alex and I went to see Spamalot in Jacksonville. We had great seats and the whole thing was AMAZING! We even were able to find some good deals while shopping beforehand. I got a $10 dress and then after the play, got Spamalot shirt and shorts. As we walked out of the theater, we saw the beautiful lunar eclipse. I took a picture, but my zoom isn’t exactly the best for space objects… 🙂

From that day on, it was mostly all about studying and reviewing notes. I didn’t work at SPRL the last two weeks either because I got a bad cold. Napping in my room was all I wanted to do. Thankfully, by the end of the first week, I was feeling great and able to go to CFC. We stopped by a coffee shop. The live singing was fun and we laughed the night away with drinks and snacks. It was “Volcano” something or other. I dunno.

After a wonderful Sovereign Grace sermon, we all rocked Chili’s! I couldn’t decide what I wanted to save my life- it was so weird!! My favorite moment came when our waitress asked if we wanted separate checks. One of the guys said, “Well, we’re together,” pointing to another guy. Of course we all laughed at the completely untrue, joking implication you could pull out of that. Then she said, “OH… ok, and the rest of you are SINGLE, right?” The three of us left laughed and said “Yes, but did you have to remind us??” Funny times…

Let’s see… this is getting pretty long, but I’ve been doing a lot of exciting things, so sorry! My last comments would have to be that I started up exercising again which has been perfect now that I’m close to the sparkling new Fitness Center. Also, after my BIG CALC 2 TEST that I’ve been studying for 3 weeks for is done, I’m off to a Third Day concert in Orlando at the House of Blues. I’ll save the details of this weekend for the next journal entry…

Man, spring break and Washington DC with my mommy is SO close!! I can’t wait!

March is-a-comin’!

Love, Nat

spencern@erau.edu

www.virb.com/erauladyeagle

Busy, busy, busy. Basically that sums up my life. Life here in Daytona is getting crazy! With school, work, and living in a place where thousands and thousands of people travel to for various things, I am staying busy. With race week and the Daytona 500 winding down, I can’t help but think to the next couple of weeks with Bike Week and Spring Break. This is definitely a busy time of year for Daytona and its residents. I’ll tell you about some fun things that have been happening lately, but first we’ll go over some classes!

MWF 10:30am-11:30am – Air Traffic Management III – Well, we’ve just started our real labs, and it is pretty fun. I’m partners with my friend Aaron, so when one of us is the controller, the other person is the pilot. Both he and I have already been the controller and the pilot, and there were a lot of mistakes that we made. In the lab there are so many planes and it is at such a fast pace, so it can get overwhelming sometimes. We both have fun though, and we learn from each others mistakes, so it’s all good. I look forward to the labs we have coming up, because for the most part we all have a blast.

TTH 8:15am-9:30am – Aviation Legislation – Well this class has way more writing than is acceptable. The acceptable level is no writing, and this class exceeds that by a lot! I am in a group of 5 people and we are all writing a paper together, but on tests, there are essay questions! I haven’t had a test with essay questions since high school! Other than the whole writing part, the class is going pretty well though.
The subject is pretty interesting, so it’s not all bad.

TTH 9:45am-11:00am – Aerodynamics – I have a test coming up this Thursday and I’m not sure what to expect. We don’t have to memorize the formulas that we need to use, so that is good news. One thing that I like about this class is that the professor will relate the material to real-life applications as much as possible. Sometimes you’ll be in a class and you’ll wonder how this stuff relates to your job, but I don’t worry about that in this class.

TTH 11:15am-12:30pm – Commercial Pilot Ops. – So we just took our first test, and I got a 97! I did a lot better than I expected, and there was also some extra credit that boosted my grade. We were going over some aerodynamic stuff and our teacher said that if we made a paper airplane that could fly from one side of the room to the other, then we would get 5 points extra credit! A lot of people made planes that could, so she gave us extra credit for our test. Our next big subject is going to be weather and I think that weather is a weaker subject for me. We won’t be talking about the general weather like we did in our weather classes; rather, we’ll go into the different types of reports and maps that pilots use on a regular basis and how to decipher all the information that is on them. So I’m glad that we are going over some of that and hopefully I can learn more and understand it better.

TTH 3:45pm-5:00pm – Aircraft Engines – We took our first test in this class as well and I got an 89! The test was wicked hard but the questions that I didn’t know for sure, I just guessed and I guess I’m a good guesser! Haha. So now we are moving on to the next section and hopefully I can repeat these results for the next test, or get even better!

TTHS 7:45pm-12:00am – Flight – I have one more flight, then I am going up for a “pre-prog” sim and oral which means I go with another instructor and do the activities as if they were the final tests. Then that instructor tells me if I am ready for the actual test, and if I am, I sign up for a time to take it! I’m definitely getting more and more nervous as the time approaches, but I think that I am ready! One thing that I really love about Riddle is all the things that are offered to students to help them with their tests.
We have a flight tutor lab that is free of charge that allows students to go in and study any aspect of their course and practice with mini-sims. Also, since you are surrounded by people who are pilots, there is always someone at your current level or above so they can help you with anything you have questions about.
For example: My good friend Cris is a flight instructor and my roommate is multi-commercial rated so they can answer anything that I have questions about. Also, you can observe flights and orals to help you prepare. Just last week my roommate wanted to brush up on some instrument procedures so he hopped in the back of the plane when I had one of my flights.
And my other friend, Ken, is just a little bit ahead of me in the instrument course, so he is about to have his final oral exam and he said I could observe it to see what it is like. That means I could see an actual final oral exam that will be just like the one I will have soon. So basically, if I observe his and there is something I don’t understand or don’t know, the chances are they will ask me when I have my oral so I should go home and study that. That is huge! It’s like cheating almost, but it is encouraged and 100% allowed! I did that last year for my private and there was some stuff I didn’t know, so I went home and studied that and sure enough when it was my turn they asked the same thing! Every oral is different, but the material covered is usually pretty consistent. So definitely a big plus for going to Riddle!

Well, those are my classes. In other news, things with AOA (the Aeronautical Honor Society) have been going well. We have some fun things planned for the upcoming weeks and we’ve had an eventful past two weeks. We had a new member social where all the new members meet with the old members and try to get to know one another. We went bowling and everyone had a blast. I love to bowl, but I haven’t gone in such a long time. I’m by no means “good”, but I definitely have fun whenever I go.

Also, last week we had a date auction for charity. Basically, there were people being auctioned off for dates and all the money that was raised went to charity. We had an AOA member there to be auctioned off and when he came on stage he did this little dance thing and Snoop Dog was playing in the background. It was pretty funny. He ended up raising something like 60 bucks which was pretty good because some people barely got 10! So all in all, it was a success. After the date auction, I met up with some guys in AOA and we hung out at one of their apartments. Later on we went to an Embry-Riddle hockey game. I sometimes forget that we have a hockey team, which sucks because I really like hockey! It was the last game of the season, so the place was packed. It was so much fun yelling and chanting various chants. We played Florida State and, at one point, a fight broke out between a guy from each team. The refs broke it up and the guy from Riddle started skating back to the bench with no gloves or helmet on. The Florida State guy was skating behind him and tried to take a cheap shot when the Riddle guy wasn’t looking, but before he could the Ref tackled him! Just flat laid him out!
I’ve seen Refs stop fights and even prevent them to a certain extent, but I have never seen a ref rough tackle someone! It was hilarious. We had to leave early, so there was still 15 minutes left of the game, but the score was 10 to 2, Riddle winning. So needless to say, we won.

On Mondays, my friends and I have decided that it is dinner night. Basically, every Monday me, my roommate, or one of our other friends will cook dinner. My mom came over again and cooked for us and she made some delicious stuffed shells. Next week it is my friend Aaron’s turn. I wonder what he is gonna cook!

So as I mentioned last journal, I got the chance to go see my sister in New York, and I had a blast! I left on Friday and I was supposed to get back on Monday (I’ll explain later). Last time I went we did all the touristy stuff like roam around Times Square and go to the top of the Empire State Building, but this time we had a much more laid back, relaxing time. My cousin happened to be in town so we ended up hanging out with her a lot. I also saw my Uncle Cliff which was cool because I don’t get to see him that much. Other than that, we just did some exploring, ate some delicious New York pizza, and enjoyed the cold weather! I had so much fun and I was real glad I got to see my little sis.

I decided to go over this weekend because we had President’s day off, so I could have the most time there. Unfortunately I missed the Daytona 500 though. I’m not a real big NASCAR fan, but I definitely had a blast last year. But honestly, I was kind of glad to get out of Daytona. As much fun as it is, Daytona becomes a zoo with thousands and thousands of people.
So just being able to escape was nice.

Unfortunately, while the trip was fun, the traveling wasn’t! I was supposed to leave on Monday afternoon, but they canceled my flight. After two hours of trying to get in contact with anyone who worked for the airline, I finally managed to book a flight that left the next morning. So I had to travel back to the city, got to see my sister again, and then got in a cab at 4:30 in the morning. I ended up back in Daytona today (Tuesday) at 11:30 and got picked up by my friends then ran to my class. I missed two and a half classes, but I emailed my professors so I got all the make-up work that I needed. After that class, I had a meeting with my Aviation Legislation professor and my group, then I ran home, showered and went back to school for my last class. Then I had a flight followed by an AOA meeting which was followed by another meeting! So needless to say, I’m pretty wiped out. I had an energy drink earlier, but now that is wearing off. I predict that sleep is in the near forecast.

Well I think that’ll wrap it up for this edition of the BLAKE GUILES JOURNAL EXPERIENCE!!!!!! I’ve never called it that before, but it has a nice ring to it.
Anyway, I mentioned that I was excited about my upcoming plans for spring break. I think I’m going to tell you next journal though. I want your mind to be wondering “What is Blake doing for spring break?!?!?!”
Not that you really care or anything, but I’ll give you a hint: If you know anything about me, you know that this thing that I will be doing is one of my favorite things to do, but I can’t do it all the time.
Mainly because of stupid Florida. Anyway, by the time of next journal Bike Week will be just about to start!
Exciting! So stay tuned for that and other fun antidotes! Bye Bye!

-Blake
email: wasteofsoap@yahoo.com
pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wasteofsoap/
videos: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=blakeguiles

Happy late Valentine’s Day!  I can’t believe February is already halfway over!  School and various activities have been keeping me pretty busy, so when I looked at the calendar and saw that we only have nine weeks of school left I was shocked.  I do have great news to share—I am going to get to fly an airplane!  Through AFROTC, I was able to secure a spot on a flight to get flight time for free!  I have never taken over the controls and actually flown an airplane, so I am pretty excited!   I will let you all know how it goes in my next journal entry and I will be sure to take pictures.

On February 5th, Joe Galloway came and gave his talk.  I mentioned him in my last journal entry and how I was very excited to hear him come and talk.  Well, I wasn’t let down because he was a great speaker and by far my favorite one.  He talked about his experiences in the Vietnam War, current politics and veterans, and the process of writing his book We Were Soldiers Once – and Young.  At times during his speech, I got goose bumps on my arms because he was so passionate about his job and what he was doing that you could almost feel like you were there.

Air Force ROTC is going really well!  We have several big events happening soon including the Physical Fitness Assessment and Mid-Terms.  I have started running outside twice a week in the early morning in preparation for the fitness test and I hope that I can take a minute off my run time.  Mid-Terms consist of an inspection and a knowledge test, so I need to spend some time shining my shoes.  Also, in order to get a scholarship and commission you must have and pass a DoDMERB physical.  Some people come to school with them already done, but I didn’t and I am now going through the process.  You have to have your eyes examined and then a physical.  I had my eyes examined last week and received good news: I don’t need glasses.  My physical is this coming week and hopefully that will go just as smoothly.

As I am sure all of you already know, the Daytona 500 was this Sunday and I got to work at the racetrack for AFROTC.  My job this time was to check people’s bags to make sure they weren’t bringing in anything they weren’t supposed to.  You are not allowed to take a regular backpack into the racetrack, it must be clear.  I had several people get upset by this rule, but most people were cooperative.  Unfortunately, I got sunburned on my face and neck because we were standing out in the sun for so long.  I did get to go inside the racetrack and WOW!  We were able to get real close to the cars and the noise and speed is amazing.  I think I could definitely become a NASCAR fan!  The traffic around Daytona Beach has been horrible because of all the people in the area.  I heard the announcer at the Speedway say there was enough people in the racetrack to triple the size of Daytona Beach!   The Thunderbirds flew right over top at the beginning of the race and I love watching them because it’s amazing how they stay together!  Also, I got to hear Trisha Yearwood (a country star) sing the national anthem!  I am excited for next year’s race, but I can wait another year before it happens again.  As a part of Silver Wings, I helped sell Papa John’s Pizza outside of the racetrack.  All the people pouring out at once sure were a sight to see!  We sold out of pizza and I think we could have sold more because when we left there was still a ton of people waiting in line to get on buses to take them to their parking lots.  I believe we made quite a bit of money so that’s a good thing.

My classes are going alright but this semester my math class, Business Statistics, is a little harder.  I needed some help on my homework and the teacher’s office hours were when I had class, so I decided to get help from the peer tutor.  He was really helpfully and was able to give me some pointers on the class in general.  Lesson learned was take advantage of the tutors because they can help.  In my last entry, I mentioned how I was trying to work on my Microeconomics paper so that I wouldn’t have to work on it over Spring Break…I finished it and turned it in already!  I am really proud of myself because I usually procrastinate a lot when it comes to writing papers.

Check out my pictures because I posted some of the race!  If you have any questions you can e-mail me!

Until next time,
Kaleigh
e-mail: sidesk@erau.edu

Hey Everyone,

So these past two weeks have been pretty uneventful until this past weekend. School has been going very, very well. It’s been a lot of work and a lot of studying, but all in all it’s been going by pretty smoothly. I can’t believe we are already coming up on the end of February. This semester is just flying by, spring break is in like 3 weeks already and then midterms are even before that.  I must be super busy because I don’t think I’ve ever felt a semester go by this fast, but I’m not complaining at all!!!! I’ve decided in the past two weeks that I am going to stay at school for summer. I decided that I could go home and have fun all summer for four months, which really does sound awesome, or I can take classes so that I can just become that much closer to finishing. I’m going to miss being at home for the summer but I also realize that I’m doing it to better myself.

This past week in Daytona Beach has been INSANE. Not sure if everyone is aware of it, but the Daytona 500 was this past weekend and so Race Week events were all last week. There were so many people here that I could not believe it.  However, since Riddle is located so close to the track, the traffic was ridiculous around school. It wasn’t even worth going off campus because you would just be stuck in traffic and have to sit there anyways. The positive aspect of race week was all of the different aircraft that came into Daytona Beach. The airport closes down our North-South runway in order to provide parking for all of the private aircraft that come.  On race day, during the National Anthem, the Thunderbirds did their fly-over and I got some video of that, and I also got a shot of them lined up on the tarmac after the race. It was definitely a cool experience to be here for.

So this past weekend, I was able to attend another conference. We traveled to Tallahassee to Florida State University for FARH (Florida Association of Residence Halls). This was almost like the SAACURH conference that I attended, but instead of different states being there, it was just all of the Resident Student Association’s in Florida only. We attended a whole bunch of different programs in order to come up with ideas to bring back to our schools. There was also an amazing Keynote speaker, Ed Garahty who spoke on leadership.  So this has been a weekend that I have been looking forward to since before winter break, and of course what do I get?????? THE FLU… that’s right… Thursday morning I wake up with all of the symptoms and I go through the entire weekend feeling like death. But I made the best out of a bad situation and managed to still have a great time.

There really has not been much else going on around here, a lot of people have been getting sick, so it’s felt kind of dreary around campus, but other than that it’s the same old stuff. I hope everyone’s life has been more exciting than mine!!!  Hope all is well and I will talk to you all soon. Make sure you check out my blog for more pictures and videos!!! www.virb.com/joejaworskiatc Until Next Time, Joey Jaworski

Aim- HYPORBOY226
Email: Jaworksj@erau.edu

Hello Journal Readers!!

I hope all your applications to Riddle were successful and if not, make sure you ask why! These two weeks were full of races and exams L boo.

Anyways, I submitted my app for the Orientation Team the other day and have a info session to attend to on Tuesday. I’m not even sure how many slots are open for the position but hey, it’s worth a shot. The applications for running for the SGA also came out on Friday but I didn’t get a chance to grab one yet. Aside from all that, classes have been going on as usual.

I’ve gotten a good feel for all my professors now and they’re all pretty good. Physics, Professor Vuille, I’m a little unsure about; he calls a 60 as a “strong failure”. lol, I didn’t know if I should chuckle or cry when he laughed and said that. I heard he curves insanely though and overall, he’s a great professor, especially for a subject like physics. I’m piled to the top of head with work to do, papers to write, applications to fill out and too many things to do.

Back to the races? Why not. I wasn’t working the races at all, but about half of Riddle did. Race week was crazy! There were Thunderbirds flying right over our heads like it was an everyday occurrence. There were at least 10 different things in the sky above you at anytime including blimps, Riddle planes, planes with banners. I remember walking back from the Student Center one day this week and I looked up and I could’ve sworn the blimp missed the plane with the banner by only an inch. All week there were roars in the sky and racetrack. There were a million planes here this past weekend, all private jets too! I’ve posted pictures of Daytona Beach before and after, it’s unbelievable. It’s such a small airport, with only 6 terminals and only like 20 flights a day the parking lot was packed with private jets.

Speaking of my long weekend, I spent it sick =[ Luckily I got sick only on Friday after my classes, so no loss there. But I spent the rest of the night in bed shivering cuz I was freezing even though my head said I was on fire. I gave people quite a scare, but I watched a movie that night anyways. We watched Closer with Julia Roberts and Natalie Portman and two guys I forgot. The movie was pretty messed up haha until the very end there was a twist and turn. Anyways, I slept well that night and didn’t wake up until way after the sun rose. Ooh on Thursday, (you’ll read about this in Natalie’s page!), I with some other people helped her move! I guess she needed more space/privacy/quiet hours, so she got her own room in Doolittle. We’ll still visit her and stuff, but now there’s only the three of us living in our suite. When I got sick on Friday, a friend and I spent a little while cleaning my room because I assumed the filth got me sick. About once a month I go on a cleaning frenzy because I have crazy sensitive allergies to dust and dirt, but I’m a messy person. So I can’t maintain a clean room, but I can clean it when it makes me sick. Either way I’m feeling much better now and ready for the four day work week! yay!

I’m also excited to be going home in about a month, which should be nice as always. I have to write a paper tonight, it’s a research proposal for my Technical Writing class. I think I’m going to write my proposal on the effects of caffeine, namely coffee and energy drinks, on teenagers and how it affects their adult life. Something like that, I still have to refine my question today/tomorrow.

That’s all for today guys! I’ve got a boat load of homework to do, so I’m gonna get to it. I’m going to be posting pictures on Tuesday evening ish after I upload stuff and grab some from friends!

Have a good next two weeks! and Happy (belated) Valentines Day!!

Well, things have picked up again! School, clubs, fun times, holidays… the list goes on!

CFC has been very encouraging and a great time of fellowship and fun! The first Saturday, we went bowling after a great lesson on using our gifts wisely and trusting in Christ completely. Worship team has also picked up. It’s nice to have vocals instead of trying to sing along with iTunes. I’ve been practicing my harmony and such- good times! The second Saturday, we went to Ritter’s for iced cream after an enlightening message on relationships and purity in honor of Valentine’s Day. I don’t know what was in that custard, but everyone was very goofy. I couldn’t stop laughing over the stupidest things!!

Speaking of eating out, during one of the past weeks, I ate at a restaurant 4 days in a row. The first was the Chinese Buffet after picking up my Daytona 500 schedule. Next, some friends and I went to My Cousin Vinny’s (I had a delicious manicotti!!) after playing tennis (which was my second time ever and I improved a lot). Day three was the CFC Ritter’s trip and day four was going to the Chinese Buffet again after church at Sovereign Grace. It was fun, but I’m glad to get a break from spending money left and right. Don’t worry, I’m still doing great with my budget! 😉

One of the more exciting events of the last two weeks was visiting Gulfstream in Savannah Georgia. If I remember right, it’s like 40-something million dollars for one of their jets. They were gorgeous!! I wouldn’t mind working in the research and design department. If I end up living by one of their plants, I just might give it a try! The funny thing was that I was the only EP honors student to go- everyone else was AE. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, but we do have a group one I’ll try to put up.

I also reached a milestone by finishing the first rounds of tests. I generally wasn’t pleased with the scores, but I’ve made some changes with how I study and how much that will hopefully fix the problem. The only class I legitimately feel will be a constant struggle is Calculus 2. I’ve heard it’s the toughest of Calcs, so I’m gonna stick with it! Also, if you turn in all your homework in that class, you can drop the lowest test score! Hooray!

Recently, I found out about Campus Outreach and have gotten more involved. In addition to the Bible studies every two weeks, I also was able to help with their (and Task Force One’s) Super Bowl party. Following that, we had a session about Tom Brady and the reason why he feels like life must be something more even though he has everything material you can get in this life.

I’ve had fun filling out birthday cards and finding gifts since three friends had their birthdays.

SPRL is in transition mode yet again. We’re trying to hire some more people to continue data analysis while us “more experienced” people are learning the ropes of running the lab. I finally met Dr. Azeem and he encouraged me to continue getting good grades. Who knows? If I do well, I might actually go (in his words) to “a cold place”. 🙂 One can hope, right? One of the sites that I’m manager of, Sondestromfjord, has bad data thanks to a radar that keeps interfering. I’m supposed to graph it so Dr. Azeem can tell them to stop, basically.

Valentine’s Day was practically life-changing. I helped Society of Women Engineers sell roses in the morning. I actually did quite well arranging and wrapping them despite just learning that morning. I was having fun matching colors and adding “fernage” (as I like to say) and Baby’s breath. Valentine’s Day also marked the point when I was able to get my own room. I moved into Doolittle first west after talking to the wonderful housing head. She gave me the key and from when I began packing in Wood at 4pm, I was able to finish set-up, rearranging furniture, and decorating by 11pm. Not bad for a complete move! My sweet suitemates and Alex’s boyfriend helped me. We were a hilarious group of suitcase and duffel bag! It only took two trips. I’m so pleased with the open space and being closer to everything. I do have to pay 1.5 housing rate, but it’s worth it! I will definitely miss being able to walk a maximum of 20 feet to see all my Wood friends, but we still have many classes together and there is a such thing as a cell phone!

As you probably know, the Daytona 500 is upon us. It’s going to be a long two nights of helping CFC raise money, but at least I have my own room to get a good ?? day’s ?? sleep! 🙂 I’m not sure how I’m going to transfer back to sleeping at night… I’ll see. Should be very exciting and hopefully not too cold. I’m hoping to get a friend of my dad’s a bandana of his favorite racers. When I was at K-mart they had a ton of stuff, so maybe it all goes on sale when the crazy crowds leave! I’m walking over for my first shift at six tonight!! At least we have Monday off and I’m going to the beach with some CFC friends. Church on Sunday will be interesting, too… hope I can stay focused and alert!

Until next time,

From the home of the Daytona 500,

And now Doolittle,

Natalie Ann

spencern@erau.edu

www.virb.com/erauladyeagle

Happy February! Hope wherever you are it is cold, because here in Florida there was a high of 85 the other day! Yeah! 85!!! If that sounds good to you . . . you might be crazy or you might just be freezing cold in a place that gets way too cold. Either way, if 85 sounds good, you have something to look forward to! Anyway, other than sweating a lot, I am doing good. I’ve had a busy two weeks, and I have some big plans coming up… more on that later . . . now, some classes!!!

MWF 10:30am-11:30am – Air Traffic Management III – Well, we have taken our first test and both my friend Aaron and I got a 98! Definitely a good way to start off the year. Our second test is scheduled for this coming Wednesday and then after that we’ll be in the labs! I have gotten 6 practice hours in the lab so far and I’m pretty excited that our class will start to consist of only the labs. I’ll try to take some pictures of the labs the next time I’m in there and post them online.

TTH 8:15am-9:30am – Aviation Legislation – We had our first test in here last Thursday and I still don’t know what I got. The test was different than what I am usually used to. Usually, all other tests in my different classes have consisted of multiple choice questions; however, in this class there are only 10 MC questions and we had to write an essay. I’m not a big fan of writing essays, but I think I did alright. The subject seems pretty interesting, so all in all, it’s not too bad.

TTH 9:45am-11:00am – Aerodynamics – This class is starting to kick it up a notch. We are already jumping into some pretty wicked stuff, and now I’m realizing that I am going to need to study for quite some time before my test. The test should be sometime next week, which is good because I have some other tests coming up this week. The professor for this class is definitely pretty cool; he just goes off on tangents a lot, so sometimes it’s hard to learn for the whole hour and fifteen minutes. The class is fun though, so I’ll just need to do some extra work outside of class to make sure I get a good grade.

TTH 11:15am-12:30pm – Commercial Pilot Ops. – This is one of my classes that I will be having a test in soon, and I’m kind of nervous. I have (for the most part) always done good on tests since I’ve been here at Riddle, but in my past two classes that dealt with flying (instrument and private) I didn’t do the best. I ended up with an A last semester, but my entire first year I got B’s. And I’m not one of those people that freaks out if I don’t get straight A’s. I can handle B’s and C’s, but I always try to get A’s. Anyway, the only B’s I’ve gotten at Riddle were the ones in those classes and I really had to work to get an A last semester, so I’m expecting a lot of work this semester so I can keep my GPA up.

TTH 3:45pm-5:00pm – Aircraft Engines – Oh yes, I am way over my head in this class. I am starting to grasp some concepts in this class, but after looking at all these formulas I need to know how to use, I begin to feel like a physicist! I’ll take a picture of the formula sheet and post it online, it’s pretty wicked. Anyway, I’m pushing my way through the class and trying to get ready for the test that is approaching ever so fast. I’ll let you know how that goes when I take it.

TTHS 7:45pm-12:00am – Flight – Well, I am finishing up my instrument rating and I actually got done with everything I was suppose to do, but I didn’t meet the minimum number of hours required. So basically, that means I need to do a few more activities, which is a good thing because some more practice would definitely give me some more confidence. So I’ll be doing some more training over the next two weeks or so, and then I’ll start my final tests! I actually just took my written test the other day and I passed with an 83!!! I am definitely stoked about that because now there is one less thing I have to worry about. I’ll be sure to let you know how the last few activities go!

Other than the school stuff, I have definitely been keeping pretty busy. I’ll start by talking about the Rolex 24. For those of you unfamiliar with the race that is known as the Rolex 24, go here to find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_Hours_of_Daytona

Anyway, in a nutshell, it is a 24 hour race in Daytona and I went with a bunch of friends to go see it! We got out the racetrack at around 9 or so and pulled into a huge grass lot and backed up all our cars and cooked out. We had cheeseburgers and hotdogs and just kind of hung out for a while. I mean there wasn’t really any rush; the race is 24 hours long. After a while we bought tickets and started walking around on the infield area. We went to one of the hair-pin turns and got pretty close to see the race. After a while we stumbled around in different areas and then the next thing we knew, we were in the pit area. You had to pay to get a special pass, but somehow we happened to get in! We were walking down the main road in between all the tents for the racers and we heard a car behind us, so we all jumped out of the way. It ended up pulling into the tent next to us and the driver was yelling to his crew about something and they started working on the car! We were like 15 ft away! I took pictures with my phone so I don’t know how’ll they’ll look on-line, but I’ll put them on the site. After that we ended up going to Waffle House at like 3 in the morning. All in all, it was a pretty fun experience.

I mentioned last journal about my roommate’s aerobatic adventures, but I didn’t really tell you all about it. Basically, he is getting a “tail wheel endorsement” which is done in an aerobatic plane. The planes we train in at Riddle don’t have a tail wheel, so you need special training to fly those types of planes. So my roommate is getting that training, and since it is done in an aerobatic plane he gets to do flips, go inverted, and do high G turns! I want him to finish up everything so he can take me up for a ride! I think that sometime next semester I will try to get the tail wheel endorsement, but I’m not sure though. I’ll just have to see where I’m at then.

So the super bowl was intense! Sorry to all you Pat fans, and congrats to all you Manning fans! Also, just some FYI, favorite commercial was the Doritos one with the mouse trap and then the giant mouse jumps on him. If you didn’t catch it, you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5lBdLEi3ns

Anyway, me and my roommate had some friends over to watch the game and we made some delicious burgers and a new dish: cheeseburger pizza, which was pretty good. I’m looking forward to the next time we have an excuse to cook that again!

As I said last journal I applied to become a member of AOA (an Aeronautical Honor Society) and I just found out that I was accepted!!! I’ll go more into the club itself later, but basically there is a meeting every week and there are activities that we will do through out the year. I’m very excited about being apart of AOA and I look forward to telling you guys about some fun stuff that is going to happen!

Well, as you loyal readers know, my sister goes to school in New York and I am going to go visit her in less than two weeks!!! I went up in October and it was so nice to see her in the city, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing her again! I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures and tell you all about it next journal. Also, I have a little something planned for spring break coming up in March. It’s a little trip with some of my friends, but I don’t want to give too much away now. You’ll have to wait until next time to see what it is! (if you even care!!!)

On another note, my mom came over to my apartment and cooked dinner for me and some friends. We made garlic chicken which is a recipe that my grandmother use to make all the time and now my mom gave it to me! It’s by far my favorite meal and I can’t wait to make it on my own, although it probably won’t be as good! Anyway, it was nice to see my mom and hang out with her and my friends. We ended up watching American Gladiator afterwards which was a blast too!

I promise that I will upload some pictures and videos soon, but I’ve been wicked busy lately. Check up on that sometime within the week and there will be some new stuff. Also, thanks to everyone who is sending e-mails with questions and comments. I have responded to a lot of them and I should be almost caught up with everyone. As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to send me an e-mail. Well, I’ve got a lot of tests to study for, so the journal ends here. I’ll see you in two weeks!!!! Adios…

-Blake

email: wasteofsoap@yahoo.com

pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wasteofsoap/

videos: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=blakeguiles

Hello Journal Readers!!

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a month since I’ve been here for the new semester! Last week was the first week of exams and I’m happy to say I aced my first exam this semester in Technical Writing.

Why don’t I tell everyone the bad news in the beginning, so the end will be better. I didn’t get the position on the SRB ? I came really close though! I was only of only 6 finalists (and one of two freshman) who got the second interview, so I was still pretty happy that I at least got to go that far. The first interview was conducted in the student government office with different people from the different branches of the SRB and SGA. The second interview was in front of the whole SRB in the auditorium. It was a little nerve wracking being the only one standing and talking to them in the auditorium, but it’s okay, it was only my first try.

One good that def. came out of it was a recommendation for the O-Team! Hopefully everyone has made up their mind about if they want to come to Riddle or not and if you do, try your hardest not to miss the orientation events. It’s when you really get to meet your hall mates and know campus so much better. (I’ve mentioned a lot about orientation in my first entry). Anyways, there were guides called Orientation team leaders, basically students who would tell freshmen the ins and outs of campus. I wanted to be on the team just because it looks like a lot of fun and something interesting to do. The application for this due this Friday the 8th and I really need to get started on perfecting that.

I’ve been applying to so many scholarships since I got here; the biggest one was SWE recently. Their one application makes you eligible for all of theirs, which is very convenient. Riddle also grants scholarships, but that one isn’t due until March. I’m also in need of figuring out how to do a college resume. I stopped by career services and they helped me out a lot and gave me tips on how to change my high school one to be relevant to college too.

I had my first calc exam today and spent all weekend studying, so I’m crossing my fingers for an A! Oh I forgot to mention Super bowl Weekend! Friday I had a bunch of stuff to do with TFO. We painted the rock (someone painted over it already =[ ). It looked awesome when we were done. We had the two teams on one side with a diagonal stripe and a football painted and then the info for our event on the other side. This is the third time I’ve painted the rock this year, it’s fun. The pictures didn’t come out as great unfortunately because they were taken on phones. Friday I also did a bunch of promotion for our Super bowl event. For two hours we went to all the dorms and hung up door hangers. Usually you can give the door hangers at an RA meeting but the door hangers came in later than expected. Saturday was one of my friends birthday! We sure do celebrate a lot of birthdays around here. ERAU gives every first-year student a cake on their birthday and we of course, couldn’t resist but have a mini cake fight at midnight. Then came Sunday! TFO had a Madden tournament in the morning, which a bunch of people showed up for, and TFO people played too. Then the super bowl started! I unfortunately missed the event, which I know was a blast. I had a calc exam like I mentioned before. I heard a lot of people showed up for it though and I’m gonna see who took pictures so I can post them up.

This weekend is a three-day weekend! The only thing I have to study for is my Phys exam on the Tuesday we come back, but otherwise I’m free. I know there’s this women’s’ program on Saturday which I don’t know the details for, but thought of checking it out anyways. I also decided to start working out again since I hadn’t since last semester. I went today and it was pretty energizing, so I’m going to hope I make time at least every other day to go. Anyways, I get to go home in about a month! Most people come to Daytona for Spring Break, but I’m going to Jersey, haha. I get to spend a good 10 days there, which I’m excited about because I haven’t really been home since I left for college with Thanksgiving being so short and Christmas spent in India.

Anyways, I’m about to finish up some homework. Take care everybody! Check out pictures I posted!
Spree

Hey Everyone,
So it is definitely apparent that we are back into the swing of things here in Florida. Classes are getting intense, the homework keeps flying at you, exams dates are coming closer and closer. This semester has not started off in the ways that I thought it would what-so-ever… It’s been for the better and the worse. I have become more distant with some of my closest friends down here, but I have started to make or grow in other friendships. Also, with friends back at home it seems like things are starting to get hazy,  what I mean by that is just that things are not the way they used to be at all. When they say you have to sometimes fight for friendships, they weren’t kidding… Just keep your friends close!

So classes, like I said, are getting crazier than ever!!! I feel like the never-ending man of homework… if it’s not one thing it’s the other. This is definitely not like last semester… last semester was more laid back, but this semester is just go GO GOOO!!! I have changed my schedule around a lot and have been trying to limit my extra-curricular activities. I’m still involved with the AcaFellas, ERRSA, and ATC Org, otherwise I’ve been trying to leave more time open for me. I feel like I have been over-doing myself because I have felt so tired lately, I’m not one to take naps during the day, but I haven’t been able to get through a day in a while without one. I think that has a lot to do with emotions, school, extra-curricular activities, and just LIFE!

Oh!!! I got a new roommate. My roommate from last semester decided to transfer to another school so my room was empty and one of my really good friends down here Bobby, was looking to move out so he decided to move into my room. I finally have a roommate whom I like and I get along with. I have not had much luck with roommate situations and I’m just glad I have one that I’m actually friends with.

So, on February 1st, the first newly painted US Airways plane landed at Daytona Beach Airport for the first time. It was a pretty big event and many people went out to go see it. When the plane landed, as it was taxiing to the gate they did this ceremonial thing where they sprayed the aircraft (I’ve never seen it before so it was new to me) but what they did was lined up two fire trucks so that when the plane was entering the gating area, the trucks sprayed the plane on both sides. It was pretty cool to watch! I actually will have pictures posted on my blog site of it (www.virb.com/joejaworskiatc) and hopefully a video of it!!!!

So that’s been my life for the past two weeks. It has had its ups and downs, but, as usual, I have gotten through it! I hope you all are enjoying school and life, AND LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU ALL GET YOUR ACCEPTANCE LETTERS!!!! I’ll leave you with a little piece of wisdom from yours truly. “If you’re not going to fight the battle, don’t expect to win the war. Go into battle with an open heart and an open mind, and any factors working against you cannot beat the convictions that you have for yourself.”

Until Next Time,
Joey Jaworski

According to Punxsutawney Phil we have six more weeks of winter ahead, but I just checked the weather and next week it’s supposed to be in the high 70s!  If you are a senior and still haven’t made the final decision of which college, then think about the weather!  Do you really want to walk to classes in the snow and freezing cold?  The past few weeks I have been busy with homework, activities, and ROTC events.

This coming week most of my classes are having tests, so I will be doing a lot of studying in the next few days.  Thankfully, I only have one test each day because two tests in one day would be a little much.  In my Marketing class, we had to get in groups and throughout the semester we will be working on a marketing plan.  The group projects really teach you a lot about your personality and how to work with various people.  For my Microeconomics class, I have to write a paper and I have been trying to work on it because I don’t want to have to do it over Spring Break.  When scheduling your classes, I recommend that you take Macroeconomics and Microeconomics back to back because they are so similar and if you take a semester off you are likely to forget a lot.  All in all, classes are going pretty well!

On Thursday, the College of Business had its grand opening and you can read a news release about the event at http://www.erau.edu/er/newsmedia/newsreleases/2008/cob.html. The Mayor of Daytona Beach was there and made a short speech about Embry-Riddle and the community.  The building is really nice and a major improvement over the old building.  I have some pictures posted, so if you can’t make it down for a tour— be sure to take a look at them.  The Honors Distinguished Speakers Series had Edward Tenner come and give a talk on January 28th about “The Unintended Dangers of Safety.”  He was quite interesting and mentioned how numerous improvements in safety sometimes aren’t as good as they seem.  The next lecture is going to be given by Joe Galloway who was a war correspondent and he wrote the book We Were Soldiers Once – and Young, which was made into the movie We Were Soldiers.  I am pretty excited to hear him talk about his experiences!

For ROTC, I worked at the Rolex 24 which is not a NASCAR race but specialty cars I think.  I didn’t get to see the race because my job was to keep people from crossing this one street.  Some people were pretty angry when we told them they were going to have to walk a little farther to cross the street!  I get to work the Daytona 500 for ROTC and hopefully, I will get to see a part of the race.  We have a monthly blood drive on campus and the various ROTC branches take turns hosting them.  In January, Air Force hosted the blood drive and they needed people to stand outside of the donation bus and try to get people to give blood.  I got several people to give blood, but I didn’t give any myself.  I don’t like needles and blood, but I am trying to get over my fears.  Next time, I am going to donate blood and I will let you all know how it goes!

Last weekend, I went with some friends to see the movie “27 Dresses” and it was really good!  This weekend was my friend’s birthday, so a bunch of us went out to eat to celebrate.  Also, Silver Wings and Arnold Air (an AFROTC club) had a picnic in the park and it was a lot of fun to just hang out.  I hope everyone has fun watching the Super Bowl—I have to watch the commercials for my Marketing class!  Don’t forget to check out the pictures and if you have any questions e-mail me!

Until next time,

Kaleigh

e-mail:sidesk@erau.edu