These past two weeks have been busy, busy, busy. I’m afraid I’m going to have to keep this entry short because I’m sitting in about twelve suitcases worth of clothing and stuff (that I have to stuff into two) in my room back home in Jersey!

When I last left you guys, TFO was preparing for our semester event Tropical Holiday, which I think, was a success. The night was a bit chilly but I went into the inflatable boxing ring with one of my friends, who happened to be a guy and I got to punch him all I wanted, it was great.

The night before our event we had planned to paint the rock and the funniest thing happened. We went there close to eleven so it would hopefully not be painted over by morning time, but just after we painted the first side, the sprinklers turned on, it was hilarious. Once I get the pics from that day I’ll post them, we all got wet and the paint started to drip so we placed a plastic bag over the big sprinkler, but that obviously didn’t work. Then I ended up pretty soaked because one of my friends dumped a bag full of freezing water on me thinking it would be funny, lol.

That was that week, Saturday (8th) was my first final, Calc! I spent hours and HOURS studying for it. It was definitely worth the effort though cuz I got an A! WooHoooo.

Then I had a Physics final on Tuesday that I really needed to study for because according to ratemyprofessors.com, it was going to be hard.

Saturday Me, Roomie and Suitemates all took a break from studying for finals and had a chick night. We all wore matching t-shirts that said SMILE! and we watched chick flicks while eating some AMAZING chocolate we bought from this store called the World Market nearby. They have the best variety of Lindt and other foreign chocolate at great prices. It was a fun night.

I spent the rest of the weekend studying for physics. All the physics professors had review sessions for the final which was really helpful, and there were study sessions going on all over the place, it was just a matter of asking someone.

Anyways, during all this, my flight out of Florida changed! I was supposed to leave on that Saturday, but my last final was Tuesday and with this whole India trip, I would only get to spend two days at home, so Mom changed my flight and I left Tuesday, out of Orlando instead of Daytona Beach and now had a stopover in Charlotte, which sucked but it was much better than going home four days later. Charlotte was a cute airport, I did a little bit of shopping for my family and my flight was delayed almost two hours, which sucked so much, but it was still much better than going home on Saturday, so I sucked it up again.

I remember leaving Daytona in a T-shirt and jeans feeling hot and landing in Newark airport wondering why I was idiotic enough to think I wouldn’t need a jacket. The day after I came, there was a snowstorm! Brr, it was cold. Ooh I forgot to mention we did a Secret Santa thing for our floor, it was a lot of fun. I got a bunch of cute bath stuff and some really really yummy good chocolate, you can never go wrong with giving me chocolate.

After I came back home, it was a little weird. I got so used to waking up every morning and basically doing my own thing hanging out with the same people almost every day and not being in that atmosphere is almost a little strange. I remember going downstairs the next morning and I was like, wait, I have to cream cheese my bagel myself? lol, as strange as that sounds, Einstein’s (a dining facility at Riddle) has been putting cream cheese on my morning bagel for me for months! I adjusted quickly though, after all this is home.

It feels great, but I’m going to India tomorrow! I can’t wait. There’s going to be a big celebration and I’m going to get to see all my family and go shopping, woo hoo! I’ll be sure to take pictures and show everyone how we celebrate my Grandpa’s 80th birthday.

The next entry won’t be for a little while, so I hope everyone is busy submitting applications and such for Riddle, trust me it’s worth the effort. Enjoy your Christmas, New Years and any other holiday I’m missing! Take care everyone!

Hello from freezing Illinois!

My flight left Daytona Beach on Wednesday afternoon, I had a long layover in Atlanta and I made it home to Illinois late that evening. The Atlanta airport is crazy and each time I land there, my gate gets changed. This time was no exception because the gate was changed three times!

I am so glad to be home for a visit and having completed my first semester at ERAU. The last two weeks at school included my flight’s Christmas Party, study day, and finals. On December 2nd, my AFROTC flight had one last activity together—a Christmas party. We decorated sugar cookies, watched a movie, and exchanged presents. The gift I got was a car that moves when you push a button. I thought it was pretty cute and was glad that I didn’t end up with the fish someone brought. My flight was a great group of people and I hope that next semester I am just as lucky to get such a good flight. The Christmas party started to get me in the Christmas spirit and my mom sent me a box full of homemade Christmas cookies and that helped too.

We didn’t have class on Friday last week because finals started on Saturday and they give us a day to just study. The Honors Program provided us with a free catered lunch that day to provide us with a break in studying. The food was pretty tasty and I needed something to break up the study day.

The last two weeks of school were sort of boring because no clubs were having meetings and ROTC was over, so I didn’t have anything to do except study. I don’t mind studying but after awhile I began to get bored, so I went over to a friend’s room and together we helped one another study.

I had a final on Saturday night and we ended up being able to use our notes. Monday I had two finals in the afternoon including my Honors final which was short answer and multiple essays. Afterwards, I felt like my fingers were going to fall off. I had Tuesday off and then Wednesday morning I had two—my math and computer final. Before my math final, I got together with another girl and we studied our old tests and that helped a lot.

My finals all went pretty well and I am really happy with my final grades. They were all done really early on Wednesday and my flight wasn’t until later, so I cashed in all of my meal plans and finished cleaning my room.

The Student Village put up a twelve foot Christmas tree and I took a picture of it and put it on my website. Also, the College of Business building was pretty much finished when I left and I included some pictures of that. Now, I am going to go make some chocolate chip cookies!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Until next time, Kaleigh
e-mail: sidesk@erau.edu

Well hello to everyone out there in internet land! I’d like to first start by apologizing to everyone who reads these on a regular basis. As you may know, my fellow journal writers had there journals online by last week. Unfortunately, I have been running a little late.

This past week was the last week in school and I had 4 tests and my big paper due. On top of that I have been having some personal troubles which translated into a pretty tough past week. Overall, school has been going great, but other things haven’t. It’s nothing to worry about though, life goes on and I’m excited to be done with school! I’ll go ahead and tell you about my last weeks of classes . . .

TTH 8:15am-9:30am – Aviation Weather – We had an option final exam, if we wanted to take it. The final would replace our lowest test grade, but since I had an A average, I didn’t need to take it! Overall, this class was beneficial, but I’m glad it’s over. It was early in the morning, but it did cover a lot of valuable information that I will use on a regular basis. I have some friends that are minoring in weather, which is something that I think I’ll pass on. This class was a great overview of all of aviation weather, but I don’t think I would like to go way in-depth like other classes.

TTH 9:45am-11:00am – Business Communications – I am so relieved this class is over. I was dreading this class from the beginning and I couldn’t be happier now that it’s done. My group turned in our paper and I could feel the weight being lifted off my shoulders as we handed it to our professor. I was really impressed with what we accomplished. I’m not sure of my grade in the class, but I have been making Bs on all my papers, so hopefully I can at least get a B. An A would be great, but I am a horrible writer! Can’t you tell just by reading! 😉

TTH 12:45pm-2:00pm – Intermediate Aeronautics – This class has been great for numerous reasons. For one, it directly pertains to my flight course and what my instructor and I have been doing, and two, the professor was great. He made the subject fun and interesting, and I liked him so much I signed up for a class of his next semester. We took our third and final exam and I got a 95! I ended up with an A in the class, so I’m pretty psyched about that! If you have read my previous journals, you know about the three steps in attaining your pilot’s license. There is a written test, an oral test, and a practical test. Well, the same goes for your instrument rating. I took a practice written exam in our class which simulates the real thing and I got a 91%. There is a test bank of 926 questions, and I have been studying non-stop for the past three weeks. I was so happy when I found out I got a 91!!! Now I have to sign up for the real one, and I’m getting kind of nervous. Hopefully it won’t be too bad.

TTH 2:15pm-3:30pm – Air Traffic Management II – Well I am very happy I chose to minor in Air Traffic Control, because it really has enforced everything I have learned. I enjoyed the class as a whole and I’m looking forward to next semester because I am taking ATM III with my two friends that I was with in ATM II and another friend. For ATM III, we actually get headsets and have to look at screens and talk to each other, so it should be fun.

TTHS 5:30pm-8:30pm – Flight – I am at the point where I have learned almost everything I need to know, and now I just have to review it and practice. I am going to take a break until next semester, and I’ll pick up where I left off in January. Over the break, hopefully I’ll have a lot of time to study, but I know that I’ve said that before! I’ll give it a shot though, if I don’t study over the break, I’ll slowly start to forget things. That’s not good!

Well, I’m going to have to cut the journal short this week. To be honest this past week has been one of the toughest periods in my life, even if school wasn’t part of it. But then you throw finals and papers on top of that, wooah. I promise that next journal will be longer and more informative. Until then, I’m going to do some working over the break, maybe do some snowboarding, and try to enjoy life.

I hope everyone has a good holiday season and I look forward to seeing you next year!

-Blake
email: wasteofsoap@yahoo.com

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

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

Hey Everyone,
Well, once again, life on the Embry Riddle Campus has been crazy. There has been so much that has been going on, some good, some bad, some I’m just not sure how to take it. I’ll be letting you guys know what classes have been like and what I am taking next semester. Well I hope you all are doing well and let’s begin!!

CLASSES
Air Traffic 302 (AT302)- William Coyne
This class has surprisingly been going a lot better than it has been previously. I know it has taken a whole semester but the professor is just not that great. I know that sounds mean to say, but he is an extremely nice guy, but I just don’t get his teaching methods. I was talking to another Air Traffic Control professor and this is what has been going on: I am in 302, and there is a 300 class before 302. Now, the 300 class has a prerequisite of AS 120 to it, but 302 does not have any prerequisites  to it at all.  So this professor knew that I was struggling in my class. What I did not understand was why I was not informed of this earlier when I was doing my scheduling. Basically, what I’m trying to tell everyone that is coming here for ATC, don’t let anyone tell you that it is okay to take 302 before 300. If you don’t have your private pilot’s license you have to take AS 120 so take that, then take 300 and eventually take 302. Don’t make yourself struggle through an entire semester like I did.

Intro to Contemporary Mathematics (MA006)- Debbie Edwards
Hopefully you all won’t be in this math, this is a “refresher” type of math class for transfers students who have not taken math in a long time, like me!!! So the class has been going well, I really like the professor for this class, she is an amazing teacher, and it is really hard to find good math professors anymore so I’m really glad that I had her. I actually am taking my MA 111 class with her too.

Introduction to Psychology (PSY101)- Jessica Cruit
I really liked this class this semester. I had always wanted to take a Psychology class and I’m glad that I got the opportunity to do so. The teacher is amazing! She knows how to make you interested in the topic and she is extremely generous with letting you know what she will be testing you on. I got a 94 on my midterm, and it was basically because she went over every little thing that would be on it the class before we took the exam. We just handed in our case studies in which we had to make a story up about a client that we had and diagnose them with a Psychological Disorder and then treat them. This was actually pretty fun and it would have been a lot more fun if I didn’t wait until the last second to do it.

Business Administration (BA201)-Tamilla Curtis
Business class has also turned around from the beginning of the year. We just presented our end of the semester projects and my group members and I got a 90 on it. We had to create a business and create an in detail business plan or its structure, financial data, and all that fun stuff. My group decided to do “The Mile High Bar and Grill” It was a lot of fun. For our presentations, everyone was wearing like ties and dress pants but since we had a sports bar my group decided to show up in jeans and sports jerseys. We didn’t know if we would get criticized or if the teacher would like it, but she complimented us on how we matched with each other and with our business plan. Otherwise we are just preparing for our final exam.

Introduction to Meteorology (WX201)
Meteorology is a fun class, the material we learn in completely boring but the professor is cool and the people that I sit around are a lot of fun. We all always compare homework in the beginning of class and we have gotten like all 100 on our homework. I finally did semi-good on a test in that class. Those tests are ridiculously hard but I managed to pull off a 78. Yes I know that sounds bad but it was a miracle LOL. Now that all of our tests are done, we are just going over final exam material.

EXTRA-CURRICULAR  ACTIVITIES
ERAU Choir
Choir has been going very well but very slow. Last week we still didn’t know all of our songs for our concert this Wednesday. It’s very irritating because there are a handful of us that are putting in all the effort and then there are just people that care about being there but are not exactly putting in the effort. I don’t like that they are the ones holding us back. It’s like learn your part and remember your part. Every rehearsal it seems like we are going back and learning songs that we have gone over so many times. I still have fun though!!!

AcaFellas
AcaFellas is going very well. We have done a few National Anthem gigs and we are doing a few holiday party gigs, so that is a lot of fun. At least with AcaFellas, when we learn music, people actually remember it and we don’t have to continually go back and learn over and over. We get to sing at the President of Embry Riddle’s house on December 16th, so I am pretty excited about that, and then we are singing the National Anthem on December 17th.

ERRSA
ERRSA is still as amazing as ever. I have been doing a lot with lately. We had our Residence Hall week just recently, and we had events for like 5 days in a row. They all went very well and I had a good time with them all. My friends in ERRSA have also been as amazing as ever. They have been there for me in the past few weeks when I have been having some problems, and I feel like I have been there for them too. They are all amazing people and I know I have said that before but there are just no words to describe what great friends they are.

I know that this semester has been awesome and I know that I have made so many new friends, but I cannot wait to go home. I really just need to see my family and spend time with them. I think that has definitely been the hardest part about this semester. I miss my family and friends back at home. What is good about the upcoming few weeks is that when I am done with exams on the 10th I am going to Texas to see my sister and nieces. I’ll be there until December 16th and then I am coming back to school to sing at graduation and the President’s house. I am so happy to go see them, they moved in August and it has been tough not seeing them.

I’m going to the Space Shuttle Launch this Thursday, December 6th, so I will let you guys know how that went, but other that I think that is all that I have. I hope that everybody has a great end to their semester and I’d like to hear from you all to see how everyone is doing with the Admissions process  and/or school selections. Any problems just let me know and I’ll get them answered for you. “There’s a kind of a sort of cost, there’s a couple of things that get lost, there are bridges you cross you didn’t know you crossed until you’ve crossed.” from the musical Wicked.

Until Next Time,
Joe Jaworski
Email- Jaworksj@erau.edu
Aim- HYPORBOY226

10 days  9 hours  29 minutes  18 seconds… until I’m halfway home!

…and that will be even less by the time I’m done writing this and by the time you read it! Yes, the thing on everyone’s mind here is HOME.
After all, I’ve never been away from it for more than two weeks before and I didn’t get to go home for Thanksgiving.

Things have been pretty easy going here the past few weeks. I’ve just been working in SPRL and doing little quizzes and homework assignments. We had a nice 5-day break for Thanksgiving. A friend and I went to the beach, had some Starbucks, and saw August Rush at Ocean Walk on Wednesday. I got to use Safe Ride for the first time since Kerry was able to drop us off and do Thanksgiving shopping with her grandpa’s car, but we needed a way back. It’s only $8 a ride within the zone and $1 for each extra person. So we split $11 (tip, too), which is not bad!

The next day, Thanksgiving, it was painfully slow waiting for 2:00 to arrive. Campus was so quiet and mellow it was bizarre. The buffet had great Thanksgiving food up already on nice tables and silver dishes. I introduced another friend from our floor to stuffing. He was hooked. That’s my favorite thing, too. He came with us, as well as the girl I went to the beach with the day before, who I know from Christian Fellowship Club. The last member of our party minus my roommate’s whole family was a mutual friend of Kerry’s and mine. I know him from Chem lab and she knows him from the Catholic Student Union. Phew! Now that introductions are all over (cleverly minus names! ;)) I can tell you about the rest of the day.

We stopped to get some last minute supplies and met some of Kerry’s siblings. At the house, we played Cranium and Apples to Apples and enjoyed goofing off with the kids. They were full of energy and hilarious! Our Thanksgiving feast was wonderful and I enjoyed some dishes I’d never had before.

On Black Friday instead of going shopping (I severely miss that because it’s a huge family tradition back home) we braved the crowds at Epcot. I hadn’t been to that park in several years, so it was fun to go back. We started the day by doing Fast Track and getting fastpasses for Soarin’ over California. Next, we wandered through the countries. Now that I’ve been to several more represented, it was even better. We made our way around and I became nostalgic seeing British tea, French pastries, and German bratwurst. Good stuff. For lunch I had a ham and chesse croissant and a cream puff. For dinner, my friend (Yes, the one from the beach and yesterday- sorry I have to be so
confusing!)  and I had Chinese food. Finally, it was time for Mission Space- my favorite! We both had such a great time on that one. Then we saw a huge Christmas concert and managed to get front-row seats. It was beautiful. To close the night, we ate crepes in France while watching the huge fireworks show. Lovely.

For Christian Fellowship Club, we went out to Denny’s and then Super Target. I was so excited to find that their Black Friday sale went 2 days so I got some cheap DVDs!! I also bought a cute 3-foot $10 tree for the room as well as some small glass ball ornaments. It looks so nice! I had some purple lights already and it looks so nice when I plug it in.

As for this past week, there isn’t too much to say. It’s just the same old stuff. We did have our last Calc test; I think I did well. Wednesday was crazy because at midnight, we surprised my suitemate with a cake and gifts. Some silly guys started a cake fight and two guys and two girls ended up screaming, yelling, and getting covered in cake. It was exciting to say the least.

And I’m officially finished with Chem Lab because we had our final on Thursday. I got the last one I wanted, but I managed to do ok, I think. It’s so nice that only one final is actually during finals week. That means coming home earlier! I took the birthday girl out to Chili’s later that night and we had a great time. We also wandered through Wal-Mart with some others getting a cake and gift yet again for another person on our floor whose birthday was Friday.

So now, here I am close to finishing my first semester of college!
I’ve got plenty of time to study for my few things left and to pack.
The second I get home I’m gonna enjoy the Christmas tree (It’s snowing in WA right now, too!!), bake something, and go to my favorite restaurant, where I work, Red Robin with my parents! I think I can make it…

Happy December!
Natalie Ann
spencern@erau.edu

Let the countdown begin!  Only nine more days until I get to go home!  I am so excited and ready to go home for a break, after four months of being gone I am ready to see some cornfields and the stars at night.  In Florida, there are too many lights at night to see the stars clearly.  These past two weeks I got to go to the movies, on a helicopter ride, Air Force ROTC ended for the semester, and I went sailing.

I didn’t get to go home for Thanksgiving, so for Thanksgiving Day I went to a professor’s house with a bunch of other Honors students.  I had a really good time and got to eat pumpkin pie.  On Black Friday, I went shopping and bought some Christmas presents to take back home with me.  That evening I was bored and I convinced some guys to take a trip to the movies because I though it would be fun.  I hadn’t been to the movies since I had arrived at school. Once we got to the movie theater we couldn’t decide what to see—I wanted to see Enchanted (a Disney film) and they wanted to see a bloody, scary movie.  Well, guess what movie three guys and I went to see?  Of course, Enchanted!  They did admit later on that they liked it.  Afterwards, we went to get ice cream at a place called Cow Licks and it reminded me of the ice cream place I worked at back home.  Thanksgiving break was nice and long but next year I plan on going home rather than staying here.

On Wednesday, November 28th I got to travel to Georgia and visit Moody Air Force Base.  For the trip I had to get my Battle Dress Uniform (BDUs) and I was pretty excited to finally have all of my Air Force uniforms.  A month earlier I got to sign up for this trip because I was in the ROTC detachment at the right time.  The main reason we were going was to ride in a helicopter, more specifically a HH-60.  I had never ridden in a helicopter before and I was thrilled to have this chance!  The drive to the base took 3.5 hours and then we had to have the doctors check all of us before we could ride in the helicopters.  Then, we got to meet our pilot and co-pilot who gave us a briefing on safety and the helicopter.  Only five cadets could ride at once, so when the first group went up the rest of us went to eat and see the base.  I thought the base looked pretty small, but I don’t think we got to see all of it, and I have never been on an Air Force base before, just Navy bases.  We got in the helicopter and I got a seat next to the door, which was great because the doors were open for the entire ride.  Unfortunately, my headset didn’t have a place to plug in and I didn’t get to hear any of the conversations.  The helicopter is equipped with two guns and they fired those at targets like old cars and airplanes.  Then my favorite part—I got to launch a flare!!  All I had to do was push a big red button next to the gunner, but not everyone got to do it.  The ride lasted about 35 minutes and we landed and took-off a couple of times.  When the last group was going, my group got to talk to some of the officers and enlisted people and the whole experience was great.  Then we all jumped back into the van for another 3.5 hour drive back to Riddle.

Air Force ROTC ended with an event called Pass-in-Review which is a big event where the cadet officers switch, awards are passed out, and all the flights march around the soccer field.  Everyone has to wear their service dress which means a tie and a jacket; this event is one of the fancier ones.  I wasn’t expecting to get an award and I was shocked when my name was called.  The award I got is the AFROTC Commendation Award and it means my performance was pretty outstanding and I should get a ribbon to pin on my uniform.  I still can’t believe I made it through an entire semester of AFROTC!

On Saturday, I went sailing with my Honors class.  We didn’t go out on the ocean we just stayed in the Halifax River, I was hoping for some bigger waves, like ocean size. The boat was huge compared to some other boats that were docked at the yacht club.  I was told that the boat we were on was 50 feet long and I think that’s pretty good size.  Also, we got a tour of the yacht club and it was really nice and all decorated for Christmas.  When I was in the building it felt like December and then I stepped back outside into the 70° weather.  My next journal entry will be written from Illinois were hopefully it will be snowing.  Good luck on your finals!

Until next time,

Kaleigh

e-mail:sidesk@erau.edu

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving break because I did! I got to go back home and spend a good four-ish days with my family. My uncle, aunt, and cousin came from Pennsylvania and my grandma was there so we had a good time. I got there on Tuesday evening and my mom saw my dyed hair for the first time and was like, omg, what happened? No one said I gained weight, which is definitely a good thing because I ate all that ice cream just a few days before leaving. On Tuesday I didn’t do much, I was glad to be home so I wore my pajamas played a bit of guitar hero, hung out with sis, and finally got to relax for the first time in a while. Wednesday I went out for a few hours in the morning to meet some people, which was awesome and then went out to this Indian-Chinese restaurant called Ming. If you’re afraid of trying Indian food for the spice, this restaurant is perfect. The food is so delicious. Family from PA came this night and slept over for Thanksgiving. We don’t really celebrate Thanksgiving with turkey and cranberry sauce like most families do, mostly because we’re all vegetarians and it never really became one of our traditions to celebrate it. So we went to an Indian movie that night and sat in a crowded theater to watch a pretty funny movie. It made me feel better to know that we weren’t the only people who weren’t eating all day. After the movie we went to a nearby restaurant and ate some spicy food. After coming to Riddle I’ve been able to handle much less spice than I used to. I coughed when I was eating some home cooked food which prior to coming to Riddle wasn’t spicy. Then came Friday! Me, my sis, and one of my best friends went shopping all morning, it was awesome. We were planning to buy Digital cameras for sis and me, but then … somehow we didn’t. I can’t remember exactly why but we postponed it to December because we didn’t have enough time to figure out exactly what we wanted.

I came back from home Sunday morning and had to get work. I had exams in so many classes that week, but one was postponed to today, which was nice =] I studied all Sunday and Monday and studied major for my Calc exam, which I know I did well on, yay! Then came this past weekend. I hung out with my suitemates and roommate and a bunch of one of my suitemates navy friends. I played some video games, watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith for the first time and oh yeah, CLEANED. One of my friends from the hall helped Alex and I clean our room so we could walk from one end to the other without being stuck with a thumbtack. It looks amazing now; I can barely believe it’s my room. Housing is a stickler when it comes to fall checkout. Everything (including chairs) has to be off the floor over December, the bathroom should be spotless, and they just have so many ridiculous demands for us to have our room clean. It’s crazy.

Today in my Honors Seminar class we had a debate. There were eight of us participating in today’s debate and another set of eight on Wednesday’s debate. Our debate question was, should Embry Riddle develop new Humanities majors like art, literature and the like. I was on the con side, opposing the idea. We lost, but we definitely put up a good fight. The judges were three students from our class and the result of the debate doesn’t affect our grade, so I’m not worried. Both teams planned a lot for the debate so it was definitely a lot of fun and a new experience for me. I like giving presentations and talking to people about stuff. I think it’s the training I’ve gotten my past four years at my high school where I’d end up giving a presentation at least once in three weeks. The best part is, of course, getting to dress up! For once I didn’t just wear jeans and a sweatshirt and wore nice shoes instead of flip-flops. lol

TFO has our big event this Thursday! I’m so excited. Riddle has this rock in the middle of campus called the Spirit Rock. People from different clubs (and even randomly) spray paint the rock to advertise, etc. We’re going to paint the rock on Wednesday to promote our Tropical Holiday Party! It’s going to be great. Our event is like palm trees with holiday lights and Santa in a bathing type of thing. An inflatable boxing ring is our main attraction and there’s going to be a ton of food. We even got local businesses to donate things like a digital camera for our raffle. Riddle also donated an hour of flight sim time and a free of hour of flight lessons, which is AMAZING! The event is going to go from about 4-9, but clean up will run later. Friday is study day, so I’m going to do exactly that, study.

Saturday is my first final and its calc, so I really want to start studying as soon as I can. My suitemates, Alex, and I decided that we were going to dedicate Saturday night to ourselves. We’re going to make a Target run and buy a lot of chocolate and then lock the door and watch movies all night. No boys allowed. With the overflow of guys at Riddle, it’s definitely necessary to have at least one night a semester with just your girls, chocolate and chick flicks like A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, and Grease!

So there’s my two weeks in a nutshell. I’m sorry for not putting up pictures yet. I’ve been waiting on sis to send me some because I left the digi cam at home, oops. But I’ll take a TON of pictures on Thursday during the TFO event and post them, so you guys can see what a Riddle event looks like. I can’t wait!

Feel free to write to me about anything you want to ask. I’ve gotten a few emails and I do try to respond as soon as I can, so don’t hesitate. Make sure you get your application in soon!

Next Journal entry I’ll be back home packing to leave for India on the next day! Oh my, what an exciting two weeks it’s going to be.

Well time is definitely flying by . . . I can’t believe that it’s already Thanksgiving!!! I have really been enjoying life down here in Florida. I mean I always enjoy life, but this past two weeks have been something else. I have had a fun-filled, very packed past two weeks and I can’t wait to tell you about them. Well, I guess I’ll wait until I tell you about my classes. . . . .

TTH 8:15am-9:30am – Aviation Weather – As I already told you in a previous journal, this class is half lab, half lecture; however, the labs are only worth 20% of your final grade. We take three tests which account for 60% of the grade, and there is a project that is the remaining 20%.

Usually the project is a big long paper about something weather related and most of the time only mildly interesting, which is why I’m glad they decided to change it. Instead, the project consists of making a webpage that is weather related. I like this project for two reasons:
1. I enjoy working on the computer a million times better than writing a paper.
2. It is very practical. I am almost done with the project, and once I put the final touches on it, I will put it online. So now when ever I have a flight, I can just go on the website that I created and gather all the information in one place! And I know that it is all the information I need because I created the website!

TTH 9:45am-11:00am – Business Communications – Well, since we have this huge paper due in a couple of weeks, we haven’t met in class that much. Instead, we just meet in our groups and try to work on the paper. I’ve got to say as much as I dislike writing huge research papers, I have really enjoyed researching my topic (Boeing’s new 747-8). Out of all the things that I research in high school, this is by far the most exciting for me. Just the engines alone I would read about for hours. Technology is getting pretty crazy; just check out the 747-8 engines here http://www.geae.com/education/theatre/genx/

TTH 12:45pm-2:00pm – Intermediate Aeronautics – I am definitely learning a lot in this class, and I think I really lucked out with my professor. I haven’t heard a lot about the other teachers that teach this course, but I am so glad that I got the professor I did. I actually signed up for a class next semester with my professor (Professor Harmon) and I’m looking forward to it.

TTH 2:15pm-3:30pm – Air Traffic Management II – We took test number 4 out of 5 last week and I got a 98. Definitely happy with that, but my stupid friend Aaron had to go and get a 103 just to prove no matter how smart I am, he’s still smarter! Well, good for him. He is majoring in Air Traffic so he should be better than me, because I am only minoring in it.

TTHS 5:30pm-8:30pm – Flight – I am at the point where I have learned almost everything about Instrument flying, but now I need to study and practice everything to get better. It’s cool to see how much aviation has changed in the past 30 years. I have been practicing different approach procedures and some were used 50 years ago and work, but aren’t very accurate. And sometimes I practice with GPS which is amazingly accurate. You go from one extreme to the other, and it really makes you appreciate how much easier it is getting to navigate in a plane. I know I’m glad that I have GPS!!!

Well since I only have classes Tuesday and Thursday, I obviously don’t have class on Thanksgiving, which is good. However, for some reasons my professors decided that we should start our vacation early and take Tuesday off! No arguments here! So now I have a full week off, but loads of homework to do.
Oh well, welcome to college.

Well I have been having a lot of fun this past two weeks. It all started with homecoming and its festivities. There was a lot of stuff going on, so I’ll just touch on the stuff I did.

There was a stunt pilot who graduated from Embry-Riddle years ago and he now is a professional stunt pilot. He came and did a quick show over Daytona’s airport and it was insane. I was actually getting ready to go on a flight with my instructor when the show started. We ended up just staring at the sky for 15 minutes. The stunt pilot shot across the ground and went straight in the air until he stopped, then he started falling back down backwards. Then he twisted out of it just feet off the ground! He was doing some crazy stuff, much crazier than the stuff I get to do!

There is always entertainment during homecoming, and this year we had some country singer whose name I already forgot, and Pablo Francisco who is a comedian. I actually have been a fan of Pablo for a while and that was real cool to be able to see him live. He had an opening act that was pretty funny too. He’s most known for his “movie-guy” voice, and I still laugh every time I hear that joke.

Along with the homecoming activities, I have been doing some other things as well. For example: There is a place about 45 minutes away that has indoor rock climbing, and I went twice this past two weeks. It is a whole lotta fun. You pay around $15 and you can climb until they close. They have over 30 walls with different paths on each wall, so you never get bored. Also, they have bouldering, which is where you don’t get hooked up to a rope, and you just climb stuff that is right off the ground. Overall it is definitely a work out, and a fun one at that!

One thing I was real excited about was the fact that I got to see my favorite band in concert, Slightly Stoopid. I have been listening to Slightly Stoopid for a couple years, and they continue to be my favorite band. They came out with a CD a couple months back, and I actually saw them over the summer down in Boca Raton. They are constantly on tour and they always make a stop in Orlando! I’m already anxiously awaiting their next visit!

So rock climbing, Pablo Francisco, seeing my favorite band live, you would think this week couldn’t get any better. Well guess again.

I got the chance to see my favorite comedian as well, that’s right; I got to see Dane Cook! I went with six other friends to Orlando and we saw Dane Cook in his tour, “Rough Around the Edges.” When I first found out about the show, I bought tickets 10 minutes after they went on presale.

The seats we got were pretty good, but not the best. There is the stage, all the floor seating, then the lower bowl and finally the upper bowl. Well, we were in the second row of the lower bowl. We were a little to the left of center stage, which I was bummed about at first, but then I realized that just to our left, Dane Cook would be running out from behind stage.

When the time finally came, he walked out with SuFis blazin’ and for just a second he turned to his right and looked right at me and my friends. He just stared as we gave the SuFi back and then he ran up on stage. He did all his jokes and there was laughter after everything. It was so cool to see him on stage and in person. After he finished all his jokes he ran off right by us again and I reached out to give him a five, but I was just short. Then, the arena got so loud I thought I was going to go deaf. A couple seconds later he ran back on stage, passing right in front of me and my friends again. He did a couple more jokes and then he thanked the audience and it got even louder. Then he tore his shirt off and threw it into the crowd and started running off stage. I tried one last time to slap his hand as he ran by, but this time I overshot. I leaned too far forward and grabbed his shoulder by accident and he kinda stumbled past me. I was so excited, I mean I know it sounds stupid, but I’m a huge fan of Dane Cook and now I can say, “I touched Dane Cook!!!!!”

Well I think that’ll wrap it up for this journal. I am exhausted after this past two weeks and I am looking forward to relaxing, eating turkey, and seeing family. I hope everyone has a safe holiday and I look forward to sharing my next two weeks with you!

See ya later! -Blake

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

It’s been two long weeks since my last entry and a lot has happened!

On the fifth I attended this lecture by Dr. Kevin Trenberth about global warming and how it’s inevitable. He’s a famous person in the subject of this and it was cool to hear his opinion about it. His presentation though was so fact based and had a million different graphs that I’m assuming most of us didn’t understand. It was still decent though. The next day, to fulfill a requirement of one of my classes I attended this presentation by PenAir and he was talking about the company and then about one of the recent disasters that happened. As sad as the disaster was, it was fascinating hearing about what they found, or didn’t find and how different clues would help them figure out how the accident happened. The plane had crash-landed incredibly fast into ice throwing the pilot and the only passenger hundreds of feet away and in a mangled way. The plane had practically blown up but different tests said the plane was functioning correctly. It was captivating even though the accident itself was terrifying.

I worked out every day that week, which was good because I didn’t have that much work to do. We had Friday off for homecoming, which was sweet. The career fair was also this week. It was huge! There were so many companies present and all of them obviously related to the Aerospace industry. I asked around to see if any offered internships for freshman but not many did, which was a bit disappointing. It was still useful to see all the different companies present and get a feel for how the expo works.

That weekend was homecoming so campus was active with different things going on like the parade and different activities going on like a chalk art contest and sign building competition. Since we don’t have a football team we have a homecoming for the basketball team and we creamed the other team.

Life continued as usual and my first class of my freshman year ended today (11/19). It was EGR 101 and we completed our last project and hopefully did a fantastic job on it. Yesterday my friend and I had our long-awaited eating contest. He thought he could beat me in eating ice cream, but my mom and I know no one can beat me in eating ice cream. We had the contest planned for a few weeks and we were going to see who would have that one more scoop. We ended up eating ice cream for an hour and a half before the buffet closed and we had to leave. I won though, because he came upstairs and threw up for an hour and I had practically forgotten that I had 47 scoops of ice cream. I don’t know what it is with ice cream and me but I really can eat a lot. I gave him a bottle of Pepto and he’s fine now =]

I’m going home tomorrow! I’m so excited. I’ll be back next Saturday, so it’s a bit of a short trip, but at least I get to go home for a little while.

Finals are fast approaching and it’s really strange for me to start studying for finals when it feels like the semester just started. I have a quiz early in the morning tomorrow and then am catching a flight out of DAB to Newark! This week is pretty packed, filled with visiting family, eating a lot of Indian food and meeting up with friends.

I know this entry is much shorter than my usual, but as eventful as these past three weeks have been, they’ve lead to a lot of homework. I have a few tests the week I get back from home so I’m making every effort to start studying, so I don’t have to go crazy that weekend.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! Don’t forget about black Friday! I know I won’t  ;]

Btw – I’ve added pictures (career fair  + volleyball) ! Check them out

Spree

Hey Everyone! Hope everyone is doing well. I must say that I definitely have more to tell you this time then I did last time. These past two weeks have been crazy, fun, sad, heart-breaking and enthralling, all at the same time. One thing that you will learn when you get to college, whether it’s Riddle or not, is that emotions change in an instant. It is not unheard of to wake up happy, and by the end of the day, be crying yourself to sleep. Those are the rough times, but let’s talk about some of the good things that have happened.

So we start with Tuesday, November 6th. This was a great day for me, not only because it was an all around nice day, but for the fact that I got my first opportunity to go into an ATC simulation lab. It was so much fun. The ATC Organization went into the lab to just goof off, but I got to go on the Controller head-set and someone else was on the pilot’s headset and I gave instructions of what the pilot should do, and then it was just so awesome to actually see the simulation move with your instructions. I mean, I know that’s what it is supposed to do obviously, but it was a phenomenal experience, and I DIDN’T CRASH ANY PLANES!!! YAY ME!

So the following day Wednesday, November 8, was ERRSA election for positions in our Hall Councils. I spent that afternoon preparing to give my speech for my bid as Governor of Adams Hall, and I had it all planned out, but when it came time to give my speech I totally blew it. It was by far the worst speech I have ever given, but the good news is that I still won the position. So now I am the Governator!!! Just Kidding! Also, we had a member of the Executive Board drop out of the organization so there was an empty spot to fill for this HUGE conference called the South Atlantic Affiliation of College and University Residence Halls (yes I know that is a mouthful to say) but the Executive Board chose me to fill that spot. It was a great honor to be chosen, considering the fact I was running against 11 other people. You will hear more about the conference later in the blog!

So Thursday came and that was the Talent Show that I had told you last time about. So for my act with my friend we sang “All I Ask of You” from Phantom of the Opera, and with the AcaFella’s we sang Happy Days. What was ironic about the two performances was that they were both for the same category, so I was pretty much competing with myself. Well the act with my friend went really well, I had been having trouble getting some of the harmony for the song, and I messed that up when we performed, but I covered it by just singing the melody. So, both performance went really well and my friend and I won 3rd place, and the AcaFellas won 1st.

That weekend was the conference I was telling you about and I must say that it was a lot of fun.  The conference was held in Gainsville, Florida, and we left on Friday afternoon to drive there. At night we didn’t do much besides hear a keynote speaker who was absolutely phenomenal, and we also got some dinner and just hung out at the hotel. Saturday was filled with different workshops to go to, all about how to make residence life better and how to strengthen the organizations that we are affiliated with. I learned a lot by attending this conference and I had a great time!

This past week and weekend was not so hot. I found out on Monday that we were going to have to put my dog down, because he had gotten so sick and he was in pain. That was the start of the week and by the end of the week it just progressively got worse. By the weekend it was almost unbearable just to wake up, it seemed like everyday just got progressively worse. I got sick on Friday, and Saturday was just the worse day ever. On Sunday things progressively started to get better and I hope that this upcoming week will be a lot better than last week!

Well that all I have for you for now. I’m sorry it was so long, but I hope that you enjoyed reading and that you will be looking forward to my next blog. As always, if you have any questions please email me or Instant Message me on AIM. “Forget regret, or life is yours to miss, no other road no other way, no day but today” –Rent

Until Next Time,

Joe Jaworski
Email: Jaworksj@erau.edu
AIM: HYPORBOY226