Greetings from chilly Daytona!

Seriously, it has actually been quite cold lately, especially in the morning and evening when the sun goes down and a frigid breeze passes by! It makes me feel excited realizing that being home where it’s expectedly cold really isn’t too far away.

Plus, I’m already encouraged by being able to see the end of my classes. If that wasn’t perfect enough, I also had a wonderful time with my Daddy! I had been awaiting his arrival for so long, I could hardly believe it had actually come!

But, to go back a little, I had an insanely busy few days getting ready for his coming. I didn’t want to have any homework or loose ends to fix so I could fully enjoy the 4-day visit. I’ve also put a few more things into my daily schedule. I try to exercise 1-hr a day and it’s been going well so far! Doing the bike or elliptical in the comfort of Tallman Commons or the sparkling new Fitness Center is a joy. My friend Alex got me into reading while I bike. It certainly helps to pass the time and she practically brought a library down with her, so I am well-supplied. Plus, for my Honors class, we finally get to read one of my favorite stories, Pride and Prejudice. I honestly have never read the book before, but I’ve seen both the 6-hr BBC version and the new with Ms. Knightly. Sad, I know, but now I have read it, so no worries.

Drinking tea is a daily thrill. I can get some lovely English Breakfast at Einstein’s and I got Green and Bubble at a store on Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom. I’ve had a cold I’m just about over and it’s cold outside, so it’s just what I need! 🙂

Working in SPRL is already getting more interesting. The last 4 hours I spent in the lab were doing more secretarial things, which I love. I typed up an inventory sheet and quickly whipped up a sign-out sheet for people who wanna borrow a book, tool, or folder. My fellow EP major worker and I were also able to get a closer look at some of the instruments. A lot of the words went over my head, but I still got a general feel for it. Maybe someday I’ll be designing instruments like them! My next task will be coming up with a catalog system for all the data with one of the older workers in addition to continuing to analyze the data set I’ve been given. The graphs I look at were taken in 2003-2004 in Norway. Cool stuff!

Just as a follow-up on the STS-120 Discovery, when I was walking to Graphical Design, I heard a loud “Bo-boom!” and a guy in front of me said it was the shuttle re-entering the atmosphere. Pretty cool since I saw it go up too!

Speaking of Graphics, I’ve been enjoying it so much more now since we moved on from views. I so love the dimension/extension work we are doing now. We have an extra credit quiz on Monday, so I should be able to recover from an earlier bad quiz.

One of the exciting things on campus has been the 12 Angry Men play. I finally was able to go last night. I’d never heard of the story, but it’s apparently a very classic film. My mom says we’re watching it when I’m home! I only knew of two of my friends, but actually five of them were in the play. I was surprised that I know so many people already! Everyone did an excellent job! I hope I can get involved in Riddle Players one of my semesters here!

Another big event was the College Career Expo. I went mostly to get a feel for internships and Co-ops as well as watch the older students interact with prospective employers. I saw some of my favorite companies like Boeing, Cessna, and Piper, and was introduced to others like Honeywell, United Space Alliance, and Lockheed Martin. The summary? Internships are around six weeks; Co-ops a semester. But, Co-ops have benefits, internships don’t. Finally, almost everyone does business and hiring online. I did pick up a few tips about applying for Boeing internships, so I’ll remember that next time I apply. I’ve already sent in my resume’ for 4 summer ones. I love that I live so close to their Everett plant! I walked out of that fair with a crazy amount of free stuff, looking forward to the future I could have in the industry! It truly is amazing that our school can draw so many huge aerospace companies. We don’t have to go anywhere except across the street and we can get great jobs!

One of the funnest things I’ve done in the past two weeks apart from my adventures with my dad (which I will discuss soon) was going to the Latin Dance class! I have always wanted to learn some kind of dance and it was so much fun! Once we got over being a little embarrassed, my friend and I had a great time. We were already picking up the tricky spins and getting used to the beats. I just don’t have those amazing Latina hips like some of the girls we met, but they so kindly helped me learn some steps so I didn’t look too ridiculous. It was good exercise, let me tell you! Regardless, I can’t wait until the next time! It’s so nice to have the Fitness Center and all of the free classes!

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for- the homecoming weekend stories! On Thursday, my lab partner and I had everything go wrong. Thankfully, one lab is going to be thrown out. To brush off the bad hours, my partner drove me to her new apartment and we ate dinner with her roomie before going to Marble Slab and then the Homecoming Talent Show in the Student Center. It was so hilarious!! I loved the dancers, juggler, and many more. We even got free Homecoming t-shirts and cups. That was the only Homecoming thing I was able to experience ’cause my dad was coming the next morning. I made sure everything was packed, but I was still so excited, I ended up staying up pretty late with Alex. We drank tea, read books, drew pictures, and listened to music. Fun times!

The next morning, he was here! When I walked down to the circle drive outside Tallmans I couldn’t keep the smile in. We had a little white Pontiac rental car. I brought my daddy up to my room to help me get the bags down. Then, we walked over to Propeller’s to eat. I had a Caesar chicken wrap and my dad got a cheeseburger. I’ve actually never eaten there before… It was so nice to just sit outside and talk while planes flew overhead. Our next stop was the UC (Student Center; don’t ask me why we call it that!) to use up my 7 meal plans. We got plenty of good stuff for the weekend and then jumped in the car to go. It was off to Orlando! We stopped by our nice hotel only to find it wouldn’t be ready for several more hours. But I did get to pick up my no expiration, hopper 10-day Disney World ticket. That means I only pay $35 every time I go (I’m already going twice this year at least) instead of $70. So, it’s a perfect deal. We found the Mall at Millenia to visit. I loved all of the beautiful Christmas decorations! I flew in and out of the stores, only finding things at Urban Outfitters. It was fun just to be with my dad. For dinner, I decided it would be really fun to eat at Hard Rock Café. I saw a brochure at the hotel for a free gift with $25 purchase, so off we went. But, unlike Downtown Disney, you have to pay to park to even get near Universal City Walk. We paid the ridiculous $11 charge and parked in Jurassic Park 505. I really want to go to Islands of Adventure sometime. I’ve got 4 ½ more years to do it, so… We ate at Hard Rock and got a tasty appetizer mix and salad. When we finished, I got a free pin with a wee guitar on it. I like it! The rest of the night we wandered stores, got ice cream at TCBY, and made the long trek back to the hotel.

We were so tired on Saturday that we decided to get up when we got up and then go to Disney World and the Magic Kingdom. Even agreeing to that, we ended up making it to Disney 15 minutes after it opened at 9.
This is significant because we stayed until 15 minutes before the park closed, 11:45. Phew. Long fun day! We made off like bandits in the morning going to rides like Pirates, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain (we did a funny pose for the camera and Dad bought it for me to have in the room), and Haunted Mansion. For lunch, we ate in Liberty Square at the Plaza restaurant. We both had delicious sandwiches. I loved the sweet potato chips too. We would throughout the day stop in little shops. I eventually got a cute rainbow Mickey bracelet and tea. Our fastpass for Space Mountain was valid, so we went there. I took video, but it’s mostly just black. I might use some parts in a video collage though. Next, since we were in Tomorrowland, I went on my favorite Tomorrowland Transit Authority, the new Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor, and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. We also found a cool Kodak picture area to take funny shots. We used fastpasses to the max and also went to Mickey’s Philharmagic and TIki Room Under New Management before going on the Train around the park. We decided to take the monorail to the Contemporary Resort and catch a bus to Downtown Disney. We were going to eat at Rainforest Café but the wait was 2 hrs, so we ate at Planet Hollywood instead. We stopped in a couple stores and got some nice gifts and such. When we finally found the restaurant, we relaxed.

That place is so funky, but fun! We had a delicious plate called LA Lasagna and I had a Home Alone smoothie in honor of my dad (he loves that movie). After returning from our Downtown Disney adventure, we went on Teacups (I haven’t done it since my very first time at Disney World and this was my 5th). We accidentally went on Snow White because we were enjoying the big fireworks show and then found ourselves in the line for it. The witch was so scary!! 😉 Small World was next. I taped the whole thing to torture others online. We went on Thunder Mountain and Pirates again, then I tried another old ride, the Astro Orbiter! We also went on the Indy Speedway. I drove and it was easy since both of us weighed down the car it couldn’t go very fast! Finally, as per my tradition, we finished the night with one last Space Mountain. My favorite!

On Sunday, we got all the stuff together to check out of the hotel. It was a Wyndham like the crazy nice one at Ocean Walk, but a little more laid back and less fancy. It was still very nice, though. We stopped back at the school to pick up my Crop Walk donation envelope. We waited for Casey, Josh, and Chris from CFC in the chapel and then followed them to Westiminster-By-The-Sea Presbyterian Church. They had free hotdogs, chips, and rice krispies with plenty of drinks. We also got a Crop Walk t-shirt. Josh designed it and it’s burnt orange. We walked along the beach and enjoyed the really nice day. It was fun to joke around with the guys too. My dad is so funny! We never ran into the 1-mile marker table the head guy talked about so we ended up walking 6 miles total. Whoops. On the way back to the car parked at the church, I saw a giant inflatable gold fish at a garage sale and we got it for my room. It’s hilarious! Back in the car, we decided to go stop by our new hotel. Then, we went to Ocean Walk. It was tough to find a parking spot as usual. We went to Bubba Gump’s and enjoyed a shrimp platter and hush pups. It was so beautiful sitting outside and looking out at the ocean. We walked along the beach to kill time for our movie that didn’t start until 7. It all of a sudden got very dark and windy. The clouds looked very ominous! Next, I got pumpkin pie in the sky from Coldstone and Dad got a Starbucks drink. We sat in comfy Starbucks chairs and listened to a guy sing Hotel California while teaching a teen how to play. Finally, we could go on up to the theater to watch Fred Claus. It was very cute and fun. We always tend to watch Christmas movies together… I feel like it’s here already because of all the trees, decorations, and music! So early!

On our last day together, we thought it would be fun to go to the nearby Museum of Arts and Sciences on Nova Rd. I found out that students from a DBCC and Riddle get in for free. I had no idea. Cool!

They had a crazy Coke collection, Teddy Bears galore, pretty art, amazingly old pots and jewelry, cool trains, and giant fossils. I want to go back for their Christmas festival of lights thing this weekend.

After that, we left and went to a few stores like Wal-Mart, the record store, and Office Depot to get last-minute stuff done. I even got a cool Christmas star light for the window. We ate at Sonic before coming back to my dorm room for the last 30 minutes before he had to leave for the airport. I wanted to cry again, but I held it in as best as I could. It’s not really that bad- I go home in less than 30 days.

And I only have 17 school days left. Only 1 final during “finals week”. Not bad at all! I spent the rest of the evening unpacking, fixing the Christmas lights, and doing the Chemistry group quiz.

Well, I had originally thought that this would be a short entry, but then I had too much to say about the long weekend. Sorry! 🙂 Oh well… You know the drill: please e-mail me if you have any questions and enjoy the pics and video I put up!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I know I for one will be counting my blessings and be praising God for his awesome work. I have such wonderful family and friends not to mention an amazing opportunity to go to a school like Riddle!

Tell at least one someone how much you love them this week, ok?

Until Next Time,
Natalie
spencern@erau.edu

Happy Thanksgiving!!  Florida does not stay warm all year long!  On Friday morning during PT, it was 40 degrees and I was still freezing in my sweats.  Back home in Illinois I wouldn’t have considered that to be cold but here you expect it to be warm and in the 70’s, so it was a definite shock.  Speaking of PT, a couple of Wednesday’s ago we got to run on the Daytona Speedway!  I was excited to see the inside of a racetrack; however, I would have had a little bit more fun had I been driving a racecar instead of running!  I love being in AFROTC because we do things other people just dream of doing!

Homecoming was two weeks ago and I had a lot of fun!  Last year, I was here for my campus visit during Homecoming so I had an idea of what to expect.  There is a parade and this year the theme was television shows, so each club that participated chose a TV show and had a float.  The Airport Management Club turned a car into a Southwest airplane and I helped spray paint the cardboard.  I was holding the spray paint and thought the nozzle was pointed at the cardboard, but it wasn’t—instead my finger became a nice bright blue color. Also, country singer Keith Anderson came and gave a performance before the basketball game.  Don’t forget to check out the pictures on my website.  The basketball game against Viterbo was more intense than the last one but we still won.  I had a good time and can’t wait for next year’s homecoming!

Well, I have finished the Associate Process of Silver Wings and am now a member.  Last night, we had our Initiation Banquet at the Daytona Beach Resort.  Everybody was all dressed up and the colonel was there and gave a presentation.  Two weekends ago, I had my interview which was a little intense because there were seven interviewers sitting behind a table and then me sitting in a chair in the middle of the room.  I did well though, and am glad I had to do an interview because the more you practice the better you get.  Silver Wings is a great club and I am excited to be a part of it.

I got my low quarters (shoes) on Friday!!  I can now wear the real Air Force uniform and just in time because Monday is the Air Force Finals.  We will be having one last inspection for the semester and cadets have to brief upperclassmen on what they have taught us.  I will be sure to let you know how it goes in my next entry.  I have to shine my low quarters and thankfully, I have other cadets on my floor who have been willing to help me because I have never shined shoes before.  Yesterday, I found a video on the Internet that showed how to shine shoes and that was helpful.  For all future AFROTC cadets, buy Kiwi Black Shoe Polish because it is what everyone uses.

My classes are going well and I am excited to be getting close to the end of the semester.  I only have one big presentation left and it’s in my Principles of Management class.  All of my other classes have had the projects due throughout the semester which is nice because it doesn’t get all dumped on you in the end.  I am not going home over Thanksgiving so I plan to get some homework done and just relax before finals.  If you have any questions about ROTC or college in general, shoot me an e-mail.

Until next time,

Kaleigh

e-mail:sidesk@erau.edu

Well two weeks have past and I know you all have been anxiously waiting for journal number five. Well lucky you, because today is your lucky day! I have a pretty good past two weeks and I know the fun will continue for the next couple weeks. By next journal, I will have gone to a concert with Slightly Stoopid (my favorite band) and seen Dane Cook (my favorite comedian). So I am definitely looking forward to that! This past week I got the chance to visit my sister at her college, which is actually in New York City! So that was a blast. I’ll tell you all about that right after I give you the 411 on my classes.

TTH 8:15am-9:30am – Aviation Weather – We took test two the other day and I got a 94! After I finished I wasn’t feeling too good because there were a lot of questions that I wasn’t sure about, but as it turns out, I got most of them right! Our teacher gave us a study guide and I didn’t start working on it until the night before. He gave it to us on Friday, but I was in New York from Friday to late late Monday night, and the test was Tuesday. So I was up till about 5:00am finishing the guide and studying, then I got a good two hours of sleep and took the test. It ended up working out pretty good, but next time I’ll try to manage my time a little better so I can actually get some sleep.

TTH 9:45am-11:00am – Business Communications – Well, my group and I are finally making progress for our huge writing assignment. We had to turn in a summary the other day, and so we had to organize how we would structure the report. So I feel much better because at least we have a general direction we’re going in now. But there is a lot of work that still needs to be done. It gets kind of scary just thinking about all of it. Oh well, welcome to college.

TTH 12:45pm-2:00pm – Intermediate Aeronautics – We finished up talking about all the approach, departure, arrival, and holding procedures and then we took the test. I ended up getting a 90, which I’m happy with. I studied a lot, and I’m glad I did because it was a pretty tough test. For the next couple of weeks we’ll be talking about cross-countries (flying to airports far away) and weather.

TTH 2:15pm-3:30pm – Air Traffic Management II – We took our third test and this time I only got an 87%. I’m not complaining about an 87, but there is a little competition brewing with my friend Aaron. He’s an AT major and we have the same class together and we always compete. The first test we took, I got a 98 and he got a 100. The second test, he got a 98 and I got a 94. Now he took the third test and he got a 96 and I got an 87. So now I’m determined to beat him at least once. We have two tests coming up, so I gotta get on my game. We’ll see how it goes.

TTHS 5:30pm-8:30pm – Flight – Well as I was saying before, the way it has been going lately is that I learn something in my Intermediate Aeronautical class and then I practice it with my instructor. This is still true because now we are practicing approaches and let me tell you what, there are a 1000 things going on at once. When you are going for your private pilot’s license, you think there is so much going on at once. Well once you start your instrument training, there is everything that you learned in your private course plus three times more. I have only just started with the approaches and I have to admit, it’s already very difficult. I have gotten overwhelmed numerous times and have forgotten basic things that I never forget. I am trying to practice as much as I can on my own so I can try to get use to the high work load. I think I’ll be doing better in a couple of weeks when I get some more practice.

Well, that’s the classes. In other news, the BAMFs are officially practicing for next season, partly due to losing two more games and being eliminated from the playoffs. I have to admit, this year we should have won several games and when we did lose, it was only by two or three points. So that means next year we will win a lot. So get ready for that.

Well as I mentioned above, I got the chance to go to New York City the other weekend. I left on Friday morning and got back late Monday night. My sister goes to the Fashion Institute of Technology and that is located right in Manhattan. I flew into Newark on Friday and took a cab into the city. Currently, I’m 19 and I have done a lot traveling by myself, but I have never traveled into New York City all alone. It was pretty intense. I rode in the cab for 45 silent minutes, and got dropped off at 27th and 7th. I got out and met my sister and put all my bags in her room, but then she had to go to class. So I just started walking around randomly. I ended up walking around for three hours aimlessly until my sister was done with her class. When she got back we met up with her friends and went to a nice little Cuban restaurant and had dinner. On Saturday we woke up and took the Subway downtown and walked around for a while. We saw the Statue of Liberty (from a distance) and then walked over to Ground Zero where the Twin Towers use to be. I can remember seeing the twin towers years and years ago with my dad when I was little, and it was pretty intense seeing the huge site with nothing there now. After that, we walked over to Wall Street and then down to Canal Street (China Town). We walked around China Town for a while and let me tell you what, that is an interesting place. I definitely have a couple stories that I could tell, but it might be best if I just keep those to myself.

After walking around some more, my sister and I met up with my uncle who lives in the City, and we went out to dinner. We went to this awesome place, but I can’t remember the name. Basically, you sit down and you have a coaster with a red side and a green side. If the red side is up, you just sit there, but as soon as you flip it over to green, there are 50 people walking around with various foods that seemed to be on Samurai swords. They walk over to your seat and tell you what they have, and you say yes or no. They had anything you could imagine and they keep bringing it until you flip the coaster to red. I will tell you this, if you are on a diet, you should stay far away from this place. You could sit there for hours if you wanted. After dinner, we walked over to Times Square and were tourists for a little while and took pictures. The next day we took the subway to a bus stop, hopped on the bus and went to Staten Island. I didn’t tell my sister the real reason we were going because I wanted to surprise her. I’m not sure if any of you are familiar with a place called Moe’s, but if you aren’t I suggest you do so immediately. Moe’s is a Mexican-type restaurant that makes delicious food fast. Check them out here: http://www.moes.com/ Anyway, my mom got my sister and I addicted to Moe’s. There is a Moe’s about 5 minutes from my apartment, so I can get it anytime I want. However, my sister isn’t so lucky. She thought that there wasn’t a Moe’s anywhere near her, so I found the closest one and we went there. I told her that I wanted to go to Staten Island and go look around and she just went with it. When we got off the bus, I made her close her eyes and we walked into Moe’s. One more thing about Moe’s, when ever you walk in, they yell “WELCOME TO MOE’S!!!” so when we walked in that’s the first thing she heard and opened her eyes and was so surprised. It was a lot of fun. After Moe’s, we went back to the City and then went over to the Empire State Building. We went up to the 87th floor and looked out on the city, and I have to say that it was incredible. You could walk around to get a 360 view of the city, and I couldn’t believe how windy it was. It literally felt like I was skydiving. People were constantly losing their balance and everyone’s hair was in disarray. We went up at the perfect time too. The sun was just about to set, so we got some good sunset pictures. After that, we grabbed some dinner and went to bed. Then on Monday I flew back to Florida. All in all I had a blast and I can’t wait until I can go back up. It was very nice to see my sister and I look forward to seeing her again at Thanksgiving.

Well that was the highlight of my week, and not too much else happened. I did see a good movie though. American Gangster just came out with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe and I thought it was an awesome movie. It is definitely intense, and long, but very good.

Well I guess that’ll wrap it up for this journal. I will be posting the pictures from New York on the web within the next few days, so stay tuned for those. I am definitely looking forward to the next couple of weeks! School is going well, my flying is coming along nicely, and I am finding entertaining things to do, so life I going well! If anyone has any ?s or comments, feel free to shoot me an email! Until next time . . .

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

Hello Everyone! How is everything going? Well, I will start off by saying that both acts that I tried out for made it into the talent show and the show is this Thursday (I’m getting nervous!) But anyways, it has been crazy hectic around here. Last time I wrote to you it was a good hectic, and this time, not-so-much. I have been absolutely swamped with work and tests. I think I have had 7 or 8 tests in the past week and a half alone! That’s a lot of studying and a lot of late nights. For the most part, it all paid off though! It never seems like I have enough time to get things done. Like my time management skills are so off. I used to have a set pace and a set timetable of when things will be done, and now it’s more like, I’ll get to it as soon as I can! Other than school work, nothing much has been going on around campus or anything. I will tell you guys about a few things that I have been doing and then I will wrap up with my “encouraging words of thought”

So I worked Open House for all of you who came! I was giving tours of the Residence Halls! I had such a good time, it seemed like a lot of people were interested in ATC which I thought was really cool. It was funny to see their reactions to the rooms and stuff like that, because I was the same way, it seemed like they were so small, and while they are not huge, they really do accommodate you for what you need! It was a great experience and I hope I get to do it again next year.

I have also been preparing a few things for ERRSA. I am currently working on writing a Code of Conduct for our Constitution, which I think is just awesome. I’m having fun being able to write the rules for how people should behave! I’m also working with a committee to write a newsletter to past members of our organization, so I think that will be a great success. And finally, I have finally finished my bid to run for the Governor of my Residence Hall. Elections are this Wednesday so I will keep everyone posted on that!

I’m really sorry that I don’t have more interesting things to talk about, I really wish I wasn’t so swamped with work and ERRSA so that I can actually have a life!! LOL.. I hope you all are doing well, and as always if you need to talk to me, either Instant Message me or email me. Please ask away, that’s what I am here for. Keep your hopes alive, and your visions clear and in the end you will make it through!

Until Next Time!

Joe Jaworski

AIM- HYPORBOY226

EMAIL: Jaworksj@erau.edu

Hi everyone!! Yesterday while walking to the gym I remembered that another journal entry was due on Monday and I was like… “I don’t think anything has happened that’s worth writing about” but then… My friend was like.. LOTS has happened and rambled a list of things to refresh my memory.

Last entry I mentioned I was going to see the rocket launch. I posted pictures of it that day, but never got to tell you how amazing it was! We were in Titusville, about an hour away from Daytona Beach. It is supposedly the best viewing spot aside from the KSC itself. We’re hoping to get bleacher seats for the next launch.

Halloween, of course, was fantastic. We had a little party on our floor and I dressed up as my opposite door neighbor and vice versa, ton of fun. My roommate and I supplied the chocolate because we just had so much to spare. A bunch of people watched scary movies after our party, but I’m too big of a chicken to watch scary movies, they give me nightmares, so I opted out of that and stuck to a bag of M&M’s.

The Saturday after Halloween, I got to give my open house speech to like 800 people. I got to meet the chancellor and many other people who work in undergraduate admissions, so it was definitely a lot of fun. I want to be a tour guide sometime lol. After I presented my spiel, I went on a tour with the largest tour group and spent the day answering questions from eager parents and children. Most of the people present during open house were either from Florida or New Jersey, which wasn’t all that surprising to me. It feels like Riddle attracts Jersey kids like no other. If you were at the open house, shoot me an email, I’d love to hear what you thought about your day at Riddle! I ended my work day only to find out that we had a review session in physics for the test that Monday, so I practically ran (still in my work clothes) to the session so I wouldn’t be late. I spent the rest of the weekend pretty much studying for exams, working on a project and eating when I could.

I’ve gotten active with TFO (Task Force One) lately. We scrounged up materials for our homecoming float, which has to be completed by today. We also participated in a charity even for Palance Powell. Palance is a dining services worker who got hit by a car when he was riding his bike. Embry-Riddle has made an effort to help his family out through various fundraisers. TFO baked cookies and cakes that were sold for donations. FYI, if you’re doing a bake sale, depending on your crowd, sometimes it’s better to let them take as many cookies as they want and mention that it’s a “by donation” basis. Some people donated $20 for a cookie or two, much more than we would’ve gotten just selling the cookie by itself. We were present during the women’s volleyball game and I’ve posted a bunch of pictures up of our team so check them out on my pix site.

This weekend is really busy. I have to write a paper, write this journal entry, work out, write a mini paper, and do my math and physics homework. Phew, that was a mouthful. I’ve been working out a lot lately! I can see calf muscle and I’m hoping to get abs very soon. Working out is really relaxing for me, it’s definitely a good way to get frustration out and is a major stress reliever even if it’s just for an hour and a half every other day.

The semester is almost over, as crazy as that seems. We’re being assigned our final projects, our final exams and it’s all happening so quickly! Mom warned me about this and that’s why I’ve been trying to make sure I have time for everything I need to do and actually get it done. Life is hard especially when your friend can watch movies all day because somehow they got a free weekend and you’re bombarded with work knowing your friend is having way more fun than you. haha, that takes a lot of self control right there.

Have a good week everyone!

Spree

Hello again everyone and a Happy November to you!

I have to admit that I have pleasantly surprised with many things this past two weeks. The first thing being that fall feels like fall. What in the world can I mean by that? Well, let me explain:

Thanks to hurricane Noel being close enough to send gusty weather our way, I get to see leaves swirling and feel the cool wind on my face. I finally believe it’s actually fall. Sunny skies and palm trees don’t exactly match what I’m used to back home, so this new weather pattern is a nice change. Also, the stores around town are very festive. And my room has followed suit thanks to another care package, this one from my grandma. It had delicious shortbread and lemon cookies, chocolate, a cute ghost, and a nice shoebox-size Halloween teddy bear box.

I even got to go to Starbucks for the first time in weeks. For a Seattle-area girl, that’s just torture to get nice frappuchinos so rarely. And I don’t even like coffee. (Blended cream frapps, tazo tea, and caramel apple cider are my favs.) It’s great to see stores with leaves and such in the windows, but I can’t believe how many retail clothing places in the mall have heavy jackets and sweaters. I certainly don’t need them here! Although, someone did recently tell me that we had an abnormally warm October. Go figure.

Having the Omega Pi/Wood 5 Halloween party also greatly helped. It was pretty hilarious. Most of it was eating, talking, laughing, and taking pictures. Also included was walking on different floors and around Tallman Commons to see how many strange looks we could get (Because it was the Friday BEFORE Halloween and a whole lot of people were downstairs for the DDR and Guitar Hero competitions.) I even gave in to watching Van Helsing, the closest thing to a scary movie I’ve seen. It was more action than anything else with a touch of the Mummy’s grossness. When you combine werewolves, Dracula, Dracula’s wives, Dr. Jeckell/Hyde, Igor, and Frankenstein, what do you expect?

Another pleasant surprise I’ve had recently is my scores in Chemistry.

We had a take-home group quiz that we solved in minutes. The entire assignment was extra credit, so 10 pts for me! Then when I got the dreaded test scores back, I saw a beautiful 88 on the top! But, even better, he said to add 6 points to that number. I got a 94!!!!! I went from a 69 last time to a 94! How cool is that? I was so tired, I couldn’t even get that excited, but I was very happy inside. This third and final section will be tough, but my grade may actually turn out to be pretty good. And speaking of tests, I’ll just throw in that I got 104/105 on my math test- hooray! Studying works wonders!

Yet another positive was going to see the STS-120 Discovery launch!

Three friends and I had a fun ride down and finally managed to find a nice spot by the water in Titusville. Three of us climbed past some grass and found a nice rock and wood to sit on. No one was in front of us and we were low so people standing behind wouldn’t get mad. Right when we heard heated arguments a few rows back, it all of a sudden took off. It was tiny, but definitely easy to catch on video. Very exciting to see my first shuttle launch, especially when they’ll be retired in the coming years. Plus, we all got free souvenir coins from the Walgreen’s across the street. They’re cheesy, but I’ll keep it for memory’s sake. One side has the mission info and patch; the other’s about their 1-hour photo. 🙂 Before heading back to campus, we had a nice picnic lunch under some trees. Great experience!

I also had another great opportunity when the women’s program on campus sponsored an “Evening with Jo” event. It was free and very enlightening. The dinner was very nice- Olive Garden catered. I really enjoyed hearing from Jo Ames. She is a mechanical engineer – basically, but she does all kinds of interesting jobs on the defense side of things. She was even in charge of painting the inside of the air lock that astronauts use on the ISS for space walks. She works for Boeing right now so she’s not that far from me back home. I got some good tips about internships from her too. I’ve been sending my resume’ to different Boeing internships online for this summer. It would be so nice to work for them and they’re only 15-30 minutes from home!

One weird fettish I have to tell everyone about is getting mail. Yes, I have gone to great lengths to purchase (Good deals, mind you! I always get things on sale and “shop around”!) DVDs and Christmas gifts online mostly so I can have the joy of getting packages from the campus post office. Plus, my parents sent me a care package, two grandparent sets sent me a letter or card, and a good friend in Germany sent a letter, too. But, don’t worry, I was faithful to pass on the fun excitement by sending several “thank yous”, a couple of “happy birthdays” and even one “congratulations” to friends and family. I love writing and sending cards!

On a final, very positive note, I will give you the results of my SPRL (If you didn’t read my last blog, it’s the Space Physics Research Lab student assistant job) aspirations. As I worked hard to finish the homework assignment, I kept having problems because I’m used to C++ and not IDL. But, I finally found a very helpful worker and I finished it up. I called the hirer to come see my work and he asked a few questions then shook my hand, “Welcome to SPRL!” So, yes, my good friend and I both got the job and started our graph analysis. For the first semester or so, it’s just “grunt work”. But I’ve found it can be very relaxing and the entire experience will open several doors even if it just looks nice on a resume’. Plus, if I do well enough and stick with the program, I might even get to go to the South Pole some summer. Wouldn’t that be an experience?

As evidenced by all of my happy paragraphs, God has been very gracious to me! I’ve really enjoyed fellowship with His people every Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday. After church one day, my small group went out to Cracker Barrel for lunch. It was so much fun and I even found great Christmas gifts in their Country Store. My leader then took me to Target and JCPenny’s so we had a great time just talking and shopping.

Apart from chatting, I have also been learning from church, Christian Fellowship Club, and my Bible study. From watching Facing the Giants at CFC, I discovered that I have to be faithful to “prepare the field”. Then, God will send the rain. In other words, I can’t just do what I want or sit around and expect Him to bless me all the time. I need to prepare my heart and mind to be a great servant of His and if I am open, humble, and willing, He can use me. I want to greatly impact those around me.

Well, believe it or not, I do have homework I need to tackle, so I’ll say goodbye for now. I’ll tell you all about my fun weekend with Dad next time!

Natalie Ann

spencern@erau.edu

Happy late Halloween!  For Halloween, I went to the Star Shelter with Silver Wings and we all wore costumes to be festive.  I decided to be a witch and another student from my floor was a cowboy—the picture is online.   We passed out candy to the children and then some of them got their faces painted.  On campus they were going to have trick-or-treating, crafts, and a haunted house in one of the residence halls and the whole community was invited to attend.

Now that I have covered Halloween, let’s back up to the week before and those events.  I had Air Force Mid-Terms, the Physical Fitness Test, and I participated in Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk.  Oh yeah, I almost forgot I played flag football and came very close to scoring a touchdown!  Unfortunately, someone had to tag me right before I crossed the line, but I think my team still won!  For Air Force Mid-Terms we have an inspection and are supposed to wear our official uniforms, but l still don’t have a complete uniform so I am continuing to wear the t-shirt and jeans.  We also had to take a test and some of the questions I knew right away and others I couldn’t remember so I still need to study.  The Physical Fitness Test was on a perfect day because it was cool and the humidity wasn’t super high.  Since the beginning of the semester, I have shaved almost a minute off of my run time.

The Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk that I participated in with Silver Wings, all the money we raised was for the American Cancer Society.  I thought the walk was really fun and we got to walk over this huge bridge.  In my pictures you can see the bridge and the enormous amount of people that participated.

This week I attended another women’s event—“An Evening with Jo” and all of the women attending were asked to dress in business attire.  I was so glad that I had another reason to wear the suit I just purchased.  The evening included dinner from Olive Garden and a talk from Jo Ann Ames.  She works for Boeing and talked about her job and some of the challenges women face in the workforce.  Everyone should take advantage of these events because it’s a great way to network and there is always free food!

In addition, the College of Business hosted a seminar talking about consulting work.  The speaker works for a small consulting firm in Chicago, IL and gets to travel all over doing work with airports.  Before I went to the event, I was thinking that maybe I would like to be a consultant.  Afterwards, I realized that consulting is most likely not the right job for me.  I am glad I went to the event because I learned a lot of new information about airports.  Make sure you always check out the bulletin boards in each building because that is how I find out about all these events.

On Saturday, I went with my Honors class to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and then to my professor’s house for lunch.  When we arrived at the lighthouse, we got our own tour guide and for about three hours we learned all about the lighthouse and the buildings around it.  I have only been to one other lighthouse and I didn’t get to go inside of that one.  This one you can climb all 203 steps and we all did, including our 86-year-old tour guide and it was his second climb of the day.  After eating lunch, we went to the ocean and the waves were pretty rough looking.  I had a wonderful time and was glad to get off of campus for the day!  We are supposed to get to go sailing soon and I am looking forward to that.  I put some pictures of the lighthouse online, so don’t forget to take a look!  Saturday night I went to the basketball game and we won!  We played the College of the Bahamas and the score was around a 100 to 50.  Next weekend is homecoming and hopefully the competition will be a little bit better.

Last entry I mentioned that registration for spring classes was starting and that I would keep you updated.  Well, I was able to get my advisor and Honors advisor to sign my schedule on Monday and then I took it to Records and Registration.   I was expecting a long line but surprisingly there was no line at all!  The whole process took about five minutes and when she was done I got a printout of my schedule.  If you go early everything works out!

Until next time,

Kaleigh

e-mail:sidesk@erau.edu

Hello, all!

Next week is shaping up to be a tough one, but certainly manageable. I have my second Chemistry hourly exam, my second Calculus test, and I find out whether or not I am accepted into the Space Physics Research Lab program (SPRL). To explain what SPRL is I’ll catch you up on the last few weeks:

I might as well start with that tough class you always hear so much about from me: Chemistry! Many things have improved. Right after my last journal entry, a miracle happened- I finished a quiz. And it had the RIGHT ANSWER. Gasp! I was ecstatic! I drew a nice sunny scene on the paper to celebrate. Professor Cameron gave me a teasing smile as he collected the quiz. The next week, we had another quiz. I did my best to relax and when we got the paper, I easily completed the problem. But he had also added a short answer question. The problem was I hadn’t studied bond types yet, so I was just “shooting in the dark”. Then, when we turned it in, I realized I had made the stupidest mistake of my life! I answered the bond question pertaining to the problem on my quiz instead of the one written on the board. As I found out later, he was compassionate with me and gave me two points for the answer I put. Amazing. So, that quiz became an 8/10. Then, last Friday, we had our last individual quiz before the test. Somehow, I had missed hearing about it, so I didn’t have time to be concerned. I got a beautiful 10/10 again! I love heat transfer! If improvement on quizzes wasn’t “happy” enough, we also have an extra credit group quiz to do this weekend. +10 points! I will also give 100% as I study for the test. I think I can do really well!

Christian Fellowship Club has been fun and uplifting as usual! We learned about Moses one night before going bowling. Last weekend, we had the annual picture scavenger hunt. It was great fun sprinting all over the campus. My team managed to win and get some great photos out of it all, too!

Another thing that makes weekends so wonderful is the time! I have time to rest, exercise, and do laundry. I also do that on Tuesday and Thursday since the class load is much lighter. I started an exercise routine that I’ll try to do Sun, Tues, Thurs, and maybe Sat. I bike for 15 minutes at whatever speed I can take. Then, I stretch a ton (I don’t want to get tight, bulky leg muscles!) and do some crunches to get that proverbial flat stomach (might take awhile…). Finally, I do a 1-mile jog at 5.7 miles per hour. The little exercise room by the Student Village bridge is awesome. It’s usually deserted and I can leave the lights off to have a cool, peaceful environment with the iPod groovin’.

Many changes on Wood 5th have occurred since I last wrote. My room is decked out in fall/Halloween decorations from a package my parents sent. It had a cute light-up pumpkin, Snoopy with a pumpkin costume on, candy corn, and a pumpkin/cinnamon room spray. Pretty cool stuff! I also got a Halloween card from them and one from my grandma. The final, best touch was putting fabric leaves on the door and TV. I suppose the decorating got me in a cleaning mood because I decided to clean and organize my roommate’s stuff. She always talked about picking-up but is perpetually too busy. Navy ROTC is tough! So, as a gift to her during difficult times, I attacked the mounds of stuff.
She went home for the weekend, so I had plenty of time.

Before I got too far, Spree (another journal writer) knocked on the door. Her dad was visiting and he wanted to take some of our floor out for dinner. Seven from Wood 5 came along. We stopped at Chili’s, but they couldn’t adapt to the water problem so they were closed. (Just in case you didn’t hear, in Daytona, we had a water main break, so we couldn’t drink water except bottled for several days.) So, we walked over to a favorite of mine, Buca di Beppo’s. The chatter, laughter, and eating was a very special time. Spree’s dad was so nice to pick up the bill for all of us! Crazy!

When we got back, I talked to my best friend for an hour on the phone. Then, I heard the 4 people going to Alabama (One guy was taking three others to visit his home) out in the hallway, so I went out to say “Bye!” I ended up staying out there and talking until 3:30. I’ve never stayed up that late here! At least I can sleep-in to my heart’s content on Saturdays.

On Saturday, I had even more fun with floormates. We shared vacuums, coffee, and even flying Styrofoam airplanes. Another project began when I decided to clean the bathroom. It took a bit of time, but it looks great now.

Finally, the moment of truth arrived. I was so nervous about my roommate’s reaction that I went into the study room. Suddenly, she came in and gave me a big hug. She was very excited. I’m so glad I could be an encouragement to her. If only we can keep it looking this clean! The rest of the night we heard the stories of the four that went to Alabama, ate some southern banana pudding, looked through magazines, and chatted away. Wood 5 Rocks!

We also made our own fraternity several weeks ago. No one told me about it because I was somewhat of a hermit in my room. But, now I officially “joined” and am in Omega Pi. It’s hilarious. The slogan?
“Honor. Brotherhood. Baked Goods.” We have random meetings and give people bizarre titles. They include Supreme Baker, Founding Father, Iron Chef, and Schnitzel. I want to be the Crust Coordinator or perhaps Director of Flavors and Fillings. Hmm…

Our very own Schnitzel took things a bit further and set up his own psychiatry office. Dr. Schnitzel is very professional. He has the glasses, crackling fireplace (A life-like animation on his computer!), secretary, comfy “chair”, appointment sheet, door sign, and credential list! Many Wood Fifthians (as we like to call ourselves) have benefited from this wise Doctor. Yes, we’re weird like that, but it’s fun!

Speaking of having fun, my lab partner invited me to “hang” with her friends and her. We went to Moe’s for dinner (tasty Mexican) and Ritter’s (best ice cream ever) for dessert. Finally, it was time to shop! They all needed nice dresses for a sorority event. Ironically, I was the only one who found stuff! Always fun to get new clothes and good deals!

Back to school updates, I can tell you all about the Spring 08 Registration. The perfect phrase to describe my pursuit has been “running around like a chicken with its head cut off”. Why? First, I talked with my 1st Year Advisor, Jenny, and she helped me know which classes to take. Then, she called my EP advisor, Prof Wanliss, to make sure he was available. So, I set off to get signature #2 (Jenny signed my schedule first). Wanliss was very nice and listened well. He approved of the classes I chose and signed. Next, I sat down at a very wobbly table and planned out my schedule. I had to go down to the first floor of the Engineering building (where I currently was on the third floor) to log onto ratemyprofessor.com to pick my physics and honors professor.

It’s foolish to take every word seriously, but I like getting a general feel for the teacher as well as seeing what type of student I need to be (i.e. study a ton, take notes, ask questions, go to his office…). I decided on everything, filled in the paper, and showed it to Dr. Olivero. Finally, I ran it by Jenny one last time and went to have lunch before Chemistry. The last two steps are getting Dr. Kain to sign on Monday and then running it over to records and registration! It’s only this complicated for first-year honors students. Normally, you only need one person in your major to look at it.

And now, to my last description, I will share what SPRL is! The Space Physics Research Lab is all about compiling and organizing data that students and faculty collected while at the SPRL research station in the South Pole. I’m not the best at explaining it, but from what I can gather, they analyze spacial and solar particles that enter the earth’s atmosphere at the magnetic south pole. If I botched that explanation, I’m sorry! I will be glad to amend it if I do get the job. It requires going through a 1-week training session and then if hired, working eight hours a week in the lab. It mostly deals with programming, but you may get to be part of the trip to the Pole the next summer. I will do my best at the training, and if God wants me to be in the program, I will be in the program. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t at least try to be in such an exciting and valuable experience. Plus, I manage my time well, so I do have several hours available to devote to such an endeavor. And for next semester, it looks like I will be taking 14 credits since the only other class would make it 17 and I can’t go over 16. Now would be the best time to get involved in this before my classes get harder!

As usual- write me with any questions! Hope to hear from someone soon!

My e-mail:spencern@erau.edu

That’s all for now! Time to study chemistry!
Natalie Ann

It’s that time again! Here we are with number 4 of the journal series written by me, Blake Guiles. Life is going good right now and I have no complaints, well . . . maybe a few but overall it’s good. I’ve been staying busy with school and just life in general. I went to Halloween Horror Nights last week, I celebrated my girlfriend’s birthday, and I did a whole lot of school work. I’ll give some more detail later, but now it’s time for my wonderful, always exciting classes!

TTH 8:15am-9:30am – Aviation Weather – Since I have this class two days a week, it is broken up so that I have the lecture portion on Thursday and the lab portion on Tuesday. On Thursdays we discuss a certain topic and on Tuesdays we have a lab on what we covered last Thursday. For example: We just had a lecture on turbulence this past Thursday, so this coming Tuesday we will have a lab that involves turbulence. The lab will most likely consist of finding different reports of turbulence and analyzing our findings. Once again, it’s nice to learn something that directly relates to what my career will be. Finding turbulence and staying away from it is important!

TTH 9:45am-11:00am – Business Communications – We’ll, I have finished 3 projects so far and I’ve gotten Bs on all of them. I’m pretty happy about that, but my happiness quickly vanishes when my professor assigns our final project which is a mega-huge-enormous paper that will most likely be the death of me. I have been able to do all the other projects, but this last one is going to be something else. I have 2 partners and we are doing a paper that compares the Airbus 380, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and the new Boeing 747-8. It’s exciting to do all the research regarding all 3 of these awesome planes, but we have to organize all this information into a 20-24 page report . . . and we have no idea where to begin. I know as time goes on I will lose a little bit of stress because we will know what we have to do and how to organize it, but then my stress level will increase when we are approaching the deadline. I’ll keep you updated.

TTH 12:45pm-2:00pm – Intermediate Aeronautics – The past couple of weeks we have been talking about approach, departure, arrival, and holding procedures. All these procedures are usually encountered on every flight and it is pretty important to understand how to use them. My professor has been good at teaching the material and making sure that everyone understands it. He assigned several worksheets and there were a couple of questions that I had so I went to see him in his office and he was very helpful. He stopped right in the middle of what he was doing and made sure that I understood the material on the worksheet. Most professors will do this and I’m glad they do otherwise I would still be confused!

TTH 2:15pm-3:30pm – Air Traffic Management II – If you are an Aeronautical Science major, I highly recommend having an Air Traffic minor. Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers have to have a lot of the same knowledge, so part of this class is a review while the other half is stuff that I will learn soon. For example: We are learning about enroute charts for smaller aircraft and next week I will be covering that in my intermediate aeronautical class. So, once again, an Air Traffic minor is definitely a good idea!

TTHS 5:30pm-8:30pm – Flight – Well last week I did some holding patterns and they went perfectly! I was getting nervous about them because there is so much going on at once, but when I got up there I stayed calm and did a very good job. I was on my way to the holding pattern and I was trying to do some things inside the airplane, and then the Air Traffic Controller came on the radios. He was supposed to say, “Riddle 1-2-3, advise when ready to copy holding instructions.” When he says this, the pilot has a chance to get caught up on things before he has to copy a whole bunch of stuff. Well, instead ATC told me, “Riddle 1-2-3, turn to a heading of three one zero, fly to Ormond Beach VOR track outbound on the three four two Radial from the station, maintain right turns at two thousand feet, expect further clearance at twenty-two thirty.” At which point I said, “Uhhhh, could you repeat that for Riddle 1-2-3.” Then he did and I frantically scratched on a piece of paper, “R-342 / R / 2000 / EFC 22:30.” So that caught me off guard, but instead of getting flustered, like I normally do, I just calmly began the proper procedures and decided I needed to do a teardrop entry. I entered the pattern and established a wind correction angle and flew the pattern a dozen times or so. It went pretty smoothly and I was pleasantly shocked! Next on the agenda is how to navigate in clouds without your primary flight instruments . . . that should definitely be interesting! If you want to learn more about holding patterns, check out this link: http://www.pilotlist.org/zahar/howto.htm

Well, that’s how the classes are going. If you are a loyal journal reader (which I’m sure all of you are) then you know about the BAMFs and their volleyball season. Well we played in the first week, and then didn’t play weeks 2-5, and now it’s week 6 and we are scheduled for games on both Monday and Wednesday. Something happened with the list of teams and since there was a weird number, certain teams couldn’t play every week, but for some reason we weren’t scheduled at all so they are trying to make up for it now. After our next two games the playoffs begin. Woohoo.

I mentioned last week about going to Halloween Horror Nights with some friends. We ended up going on a Thursday and we had a blast. My friend John and I took our girlfriends and it was so funny to watch them get scared every 10 feet. They have people dressed in all sorts of costumes jumping out at you and trying to scare you. Every now and then they would try to scare me or John, but 95% of the time they tried to scare the girls, and 95% of the time they succeeded! We went through a couple different haunted houses and saw a couple of shows. Overall it was fun to walk around and see these creepy looking goblins chasing after screaming girls. I plan on going next year as well!

I’d like to say sorry to all you Cleveland fans and congratulations to all you Boston fans. I’m not a major fan of baseball but, eh, I try.

Well, once again I have managed to survive one of Daytona’s world-renowned activities . . . I, of course, am talking about Biketoberfest! For those of you who don’t know about Biketoberfest, please learn more about it here: http://www.biketoberfest.org/ Well last year I did go down to Main Street and check out the bikes, but this year I decided to stay far away from all the festivities. I think I’ll wait until March when Bike Week rolls around. That’s the good thing about living in an apartment. I live in Port Orange (just south of Daytona) so I’m still 5 minutes from school but I manage to dodge all the heavy traffic of bikes. If I choose to, though, I can take a quick drive and immerse myself in the culture!

Well, I usually don’t watch too much TV (except Family Guy, the Simpsons, and Southpark) but there is a relatively new show on CBS called Kid Nation. In a nutshell, it is a show that puts 40 kids, ages 8-15, in a small town with no “grown-ups” and they are expected to . . . survive I guess. If you haven’t seen the show yet, I recommend watching at least one episode just to see it for yourself. You can watch past episodes on-line here: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/kid_nation/ Just watch one episode and tell me what you think: Anger? Sadness? Laughter? Maybe all of these combined?

I know last journal I talked about The Heartbreak Kid staring Ben Stiller, but this past week I saw a movie with George Clooney titled Michael Clayton. I have to admit, I am a fan of George in just about anything, but this movie was something else. I don’t think there was one aspect of it that I didn’t like. It was well written, all the actors were very convincing and I never saw the ending coming. I will definitely be buying this when it comes out on DVD.

Well I think that will end it for this journal. Sorry to be plugging so many things. I swear that my intent for writing these journals was to give you a look into a sophomore’s life at Embry-Riddle and not to advertise movies and TV shows. Oh well, you should check ’em out anyway. I hope you all are doing well and stay tuned for the next journal when I advertise other TV shows and movies! It should be fun! As always, any ?s feel free to e-mail me anytime! See ya!

-Blake

email: wasteofsoap@yahoo.com

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

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

Hi all my Journal readers! Just to let you know, it’s okay to email me and ask questions about whatever you’d like. I got my first email response from a reader who was concerned about my physical fitness after the whole kickboxing incident. It was great! It’s nice to know someone’s reading, other than my friends and mom. lol

These past two weeks have been great! …. and then not so great. I’ve had my share of tests and quizzes but got to see the coolest thing ever! On the 10th, there was a rocket launch and we got to see it….from the engineering building! How cool is that? Actually being able to see the rocket launch from campus! It started out as this tiny speck of orange light in the distance that blended in with the lamposts and turns into this quickly rising blob of orange light that you could see for almost 5 minutes. It was amazing, I’ve never been that close to a rocket launch. On the 23rd (tomorrow!) space shuttle Discovery is set to launch at 11:38AM and I’m going to be there!! A bunch of us are heading down there because it works out so well between classes to have just enough time. I’m so excited. I’ll be sure to take pictures so everyone can see!

The night of the rocket launch, there was a show put on by Mike Super, an illusionist. He was so cool; it was great. He made a girl levitate, a guy be affected by voodoo magic and did some cool card tricks too. I’ve taken pictures and posted them on my site. As engineers, we couldn’t accept levitation and “magic” as reality and throughout the show, we kept pointing out the quirks in his tricks that made them work and we figured out a majority of them too, just by being attentive. That too was a lot of fun.

Every week here passes fairly quickly, every test and quiz springs up on you if you’re not ready, so when you get here, start working day one, or it’ll be much harder to catch up. In some ways, college is easier for me than high school and in some ways, it’s much harder. Here, especially being away from home, causes so many more distractions. We could go out to lunch at the buffet downstairs and take two hours just eating and talking. I’ve learned to control that over the past two weeks and make sure I stay a max of 45 minutes, less if I have to get work done. It’s also not a wise idea to cram before a test because a lot more material is covered in one test. For example, in my physics course last year, we spent at least a month on Newton’s Laws and forces. Here, we’re done with the section in about two weeks and keep moving because the test doesn’t span just one chapter, it spans four. College, I’ve learned, is all about balancing your social life with your academics, while keeping in mind that you’re not here for the social as much as you are for the academics, especially at Embry-Riddle, a school with a far from partying atmosphere. I’m not saying we don’t have fun, there are people who like to party, play board games all night and those who like to watch movies late at night.

Last weekend, my dad came to visit! He was in North Carolina for business and flew in to Daytona before going back home to Jersey! It was great seeing a really familiar face again, because there’s no one more familiar than your parents. When he came last Friday night he took a bunch of my friends and me out to dinner. Nine of us crammed into a five-person sedan and piled out at an Italian restaurant, it was a sight to see. Dad was pretty impressed by my friends, yay. After dinner, I went back to my dorm to sleep so Dad and I could go shopping in the morning. We basically spent the day from 9-4 shopping, eating lunch and fixing some things in my dorm. We bought another full-size mirror (the first one broke :x) and dad fixed it in a way that it would be impossible for it to tip over, which is definitely a good thing. He left Saturday evening after a trip to Starbucks! I bought a new watch that weekend, because my old one was so rusted on the inside from the terrible rain a few weeks ago, that the battery practically exploded, it was gross.

This past week went by really quickly too. We were assigned a new project in my Intro to Engineering class and this one is to design a launch system mount. We learned about orbital heights and velocity first, then designed a satellite, are now designing the mounting system and rocket to put it in orbit and then going to design the plane that will transport the satellite in the near future. Exciting stuff isn’t it?

This weekend is Biketoberfest! Oh my, it’s scary outside. You can hear the bikers “vroom”-ing their bikes and there’s so many of them, too!  They’re everywhere, making a lot of noise. I heard bike-week in March is ten times worse than this and I’m not looking forward to that, I’m scared already. Speaking of scared, Halloween is coming up soon and I’m not excited. I don’t like Halloween, especially now because we can’t go trick or treating and eat a lot of candy.

My opposite door neighbor and a few of his friends were going to a Garba in Tampa on Saturday and tried so hard to convince me to go too. But…not only did I not have Indian clothes with me, but Tampa is two hours away and we wouldn’t be back before 5 in the morning. For those of you that don’t know, Garba is an Indian dance that comes around this time of the year and lasts a few weeks. It’s usually a lot of fun, but the ones back home are only 5 minutes away. That night I got some work done and watched a movie with some friends, it’s was low-key, I’d say.

Alex and I rearranged our room like crazy to make a big open space in the middle. I put pictures on my website. There’s plans to buy a mini trampoline ($15 on e-bay), to put in the open space, so we can workout and jump on it to let out frustration and have fun. I’ll let you know how that works out.

My plans for today include studying for my physics exam next week, writing a paper and completing my part in that Launch mount system project I mentioned earlier. Sounds like it’s going to be a long night.

P.S – I’ve added new pic’s on my website. Some of the rocket launch, the Mike Super show, our newly rearranged room and, when I get them, pictures of the shuttle launch.

Until next time!

Spree!