Well, well, well . . . it is time for journal number two. Overall life is going good down here in the wonderful sunshine state (although it has been raining all the time). Last journal I talked about my summer adventures and I now have those pictures up on my website and hopefully I will soon have the videos. I also posted some pictures of my recent trip to Colorado and the simulators here at Riddle. I will explain about both of those later, but for now I’ll clue you in on my classes and my amazing schedule!

I’m guessing a majority of you readers are in high school. When I was in high school, I had class Monday-Friday from roughly 7:00am – 3:00pm. I’m assuming that most high schools have a similar schedule, and my first year of college was somewhat like that. On Monday Wednesday Friday, I had a flight block from 8-12 and two classes from 1:00-3:15pm, and on Tuesday Thursday I had four classes from 8:15-3:30 with a lunch break in between. This means I basically had class from 8-3:30ish five days a week. Well that was fun to do for my first year, but now that I’m a sophomore, I feel that I needed a lighter schedule. Don’t ask me how I pulled this schedule off, but I only have classes Tuesday Thursday from 8:15am-3:30pm with a flight block that starts at 5:30pm. So this translates into me having a 4 day weekend! You heard right, one day of class, then a day break, then one more day of class, then a 4 day weekend. So far I am really enjoying this schedule. I originally had one class on MWF, but I took a test and got credit for the entire class. I’ll explain that in a little bit as well. So four classes + only two days a week = a very good schedule.

TTH 8:15am-9:30am – Aviation Weather – This class is very different than my previous weather class. My first weather class was very generic and didn’t directly relate to aviation; however, aviation weather deals a lot with aviation (kinda obvious, I know). There are nine separate sections of aviation weather, which means nine different classes that are all going over the same material, and my professor is the one who creates the PowerPoint slides for all the classes. So instead of someone just reading something from a slide, my professor actually created it so he knows what he is talking about. I can already tell that I am learning a lot more than my previous class. My professor seems really cool and I think I’m going to enjoy the rest of the year.

TTH 9:45am-11:00am – Business Communications – I’m not going to lie, I was not looking forward to taking this class, in fact I thought about pushing it off until my second semester as a senior. This class is basically a bunch of writing, and writing in class is my least favorite thing ever. I enjoy writing these journals and things like that because it brings me enjoyment, unlike writing in class where I get no enjoyment what so ever. So I was definitely a little afraid of taking this class, but I think it will turn out alright. The kind of writing we have to do is stuff like writing memos and letters so they aren’t 10 page papers, which is a big relief. We have already turned in our first project which consisted of 4 memos that were about 300 words long and a summary of about 750 words, so nothing too crazy yet.

TTH 11:00am-12:45pm – Lunch – This is where I eat food. Sometimes cheese burgers, while other times chicken wraps. I’ll go into detail about Embry-Riddle’s delicious foods in another journal.

TTH 12:45pm-2:00pm – Intermediate Aeronautics – This class once again is the class that is most vital in my career. We are discussing every aspect of instrument flying and that is the number one thing airline pilots need to know. I think its pretty cool to think that what I am learning in this class right know is what I will do in a plane in a few weeks, and what airline pilots do on a daily basis. My professor that teaches the class has got to be one of the nicest teachers I have ever had. He is so funny and easy to learn from, and I know that I will enjoy this class.

TTH 2:15pm-3:30pm – Air Traffic Management II – I enjoy this class for several reasons: 1. My good friends Aaron and Zach are in there 2. I really enjoy the professor and 3. A majority of the information covered is a review. Since I am a pilot, I have already needed to learn things like airspace and radio calls, but in this class, not everyone is a pilot so they don’t know about it yet. Therefore, while I am still learning things, I am also getting a review of the stuff that I already know and that I will need to know for a long time. We just took our first test the other day and I got a 98 so that always makes me happy.

Overall, I couldn’t be happier about my schedule. The 4 day weekend is a major plus, but the fact is that I really enjoy all my professors. They all know what they are talking about, they are very nice and approachable, and they all enjoy their jobs. They make class fun and they actually make me want to go! Imagine that.

TTHS 5:30pm-8:30pm – Flight – And now the good stuff! I have just recently started my flight activities and I am so excited! So far I have had one oral, two sims, and one flight. It feels great to get back into the airplane and go flying. I flew a couple times over the summer break with friends and family but I am definitely ready to start flying a lot more. The only down side of flying now is that I am training for my instrument rating which means that I don’t get to do anything visual. Basically, I fly around with things called foggles, which limit my vision to only my flight instruments. So I can’t look outside or enjoy the scenery like I was able to do for my Private pilot’s license. It’s all good though, because I get to learn about flying only by my instruments so I can fly in bad weather. My instructor is pretty cool and I think that he is going to make the next year go by pretty fast. He is a new instructor and I was actually his first student, which I though that was pretty exciting. He is always trying to make it fun and shake things up, for example, we had a sim the other day (sim=video game with the exact controls that are in the airplane but you are safely on the ground), and we got done a little earlier than expected so he had an idea of how to use the last 5 minutes. Apparently who ever designed the software for the simulator had some spare time because out in the middle of the ocean there is an aircraft carrier and I landed on it! I put some pictures on the picture website so be sure to check those out. It was fun to do that because I got the chance to practice a short field landing and now I can say I landed on an aircraft carrier, kind of.

So that is what is happening in my school life. I have to prepare for some tests that I have coming up next week and I also have homework here and there. I mentioned earlier that I had a class scheduled for MWF but then I didn’t have to take it. The class was IT 109 which is a basic computer class that all freshmen have to take. Well I didn’t know that I needed to take it when I was a freshman, but fortunately you can take a test and get credit for the class without taking the class, which is what I did. I’m pretty happy about that because now I have a 4 day weekend, which means I get to do fun things like fly to Colorado. That’s what I did last weekend because my friend, Alex, was celebrating his 20th birthday with his brother and I flew out to Boulder, CO to surprise him. He had no idea I was coming and I just showed up on his porch. We went hiking on a mountain that is right next to his school and we also went to a football game. The game was the Colorado Buffalos against Florida State and unfortunately Colorado lost. I usually don’t get into football too much, but being there in the crowd with thousands of people was pretty cool. I have some pictures from Colorado posted on the picture site, so those are there to be viewed.

Another thing that I have been up to lately is playing some volleyball, the BAMFs are back! For those of you new to my journals, last year I played on an intramural volleyball team titled “The BAMFs”. The name came from a Dane Cook joke and we are being led by Aaron who is a friend of mine that was the captain of his varsity team in high school. Unfortunately, we didn’t win a single game last year, and this year we already started with 0-1. But we have fun and we actually are getting a lot better. Who knows, maybe we’ll win a couple games this year!

Well that about sums it up. Life is going pretty good right now and hopefully it will stay that way for a while. I’m enjoying all my classes and life in general, so nothing to complain about. I guess I’ll try to find something to complain about for next journal, so wish me luck with that. As always, good luck to everyone out there reading. Hope your school/job/sitting at home is going well. If there are any questions/comments/concerns/facts/knowledge/food that you would like to share with me, just 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

Ouch. These past two weeks, have hurt. My arms have felt like jelly, my legs felt like they wouldn’t be able to move, my head was about to explode and my eyes have been unable to keep themselves up but I’ll tell you that story a bit later.

Let’s see, since September 10th, I’ve been club surfing, working really hard and having fun! I’ve learned to seize every opportunity I can to get free food, because at the end of the week, if meal plans are left over, I can stock up my fridge, so I don’t have to wake up early to get breakfast in the morning. Life has definitely fallen into a good routine. Last weekend was the Honors Picnic and it was a lot of fun! We all just hung out and got to meet the others Honors kids. I definitely want to be an active member of the Honors Student Association. Their goals are to balance scholarship with service and social. They’re organizing different tours of airplane manufacturing facilities and planning a trip to Universal, see? A balance of everything interesting. Oh yeah, and I want an officer position later because that’s what I like to do.

Now, back to the ouch. College is all about knowing your limits, whether it’s socially or academically. Let me just say, I should’ve known better when I showed up to my first Kickboxing class with my makeup done, while I complained about how the recent rain has been ruining my hair. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Embry-Riddle has about a million different clubs you can join, a million! For possibly anything and everything you could ever want to do. I wanted to kick box! We used to use Billy Blanks’ Tae-Bo videos in high school and they were so much fun, I guess I hadn’t realized that kickboxing, unlike those Tae-Bo video’s, actually consisted of physical contact and one heck of a workout. My first day and my last day of Kickboxing with Riddle’s premier Kickboxing team was on Monday the 17th and it was intense! We had to kick 200 times (100 of which I wimped out of) for each leg into this really hard cushion and also hold while our partner kicked. Hence, my arms and legs both wobbled the next day. I just wanted to do a cheesy video and be done with it; it was excessively competitive for me. There were marines and really buff guys and I almost considered sticking with it, just to get in shape, but then I realized that the reality is that I’ll never be able to flip over 150 pound person in my life, so I might as well find something else more my style.

That night, I went to my first Task Force One meeting. Task Force One is like the Freshman Government Council, so freshmen get more accustomed to the school. It’s almost completely run by freshmen. I wanted to be an officer really badly, because I like doing that kind of stuff, but I wasn’t informed of the first two meetings, so I missed them, thus not letting me run for an officer’s position. It’s okay for now though, I really want to be a part of the Student Government Association (SGA) it’s exclusive and you get a lot of responsibility when you’re a part of them, but you can’t be until I think spring semester. One of the speakers at graduation, Nate Clapper, the president of SGA is like my idol right now. His speech during convocation was so down to earth and boy would I love to steal his spot one day. FYI, something you definitely don’t want to miss is the free, that’s right, free, espresso in the SGA; it’s awesome. I get a few cups every day, because I love my cappuccinos that much and every now and then, I throw a couple bucks into the donation box. Yep =] There’s always so many things going on, on campus that it’s really hard to keep everything straight. There’s a heart walk scheduled for the end of September which supposedly 1000 kids show up! That should be a lot of fun.

We’ve started having tests and it’s only the third week of school! College is faster paced than high school ever was for me. There’s always a project to complete, always a paper to start and always math problems up to your neck. I love being here and all, but seeing my family and friends back home, would definitely perk up my spirits. You quickly learn that your hall mates, especially you roommate, will become your family away from home. When you don’t get how to do your math problem, you can’t ask your sister any more or when you accidentally get punched in the face during kick boxing, mom can’t give you something to make the swelling go away. A plane ticket back home to Jersey, if booked way in advance is about $200, so if I ever do get incredibly homesick, I’m always welcome home for the weekend.

The weekends here for me, are filled with watching movies, doing my nails, and chillin with the people around me. Last weekend I dyed my hair for the first time! Mom never let me dye it when I was in Jersey, but when I asked her, she didn’t care. I’ve attached a picture =] Us Wood 5 kids are a pretty crazy, we started a uh, type of club that I can’t mention, cuz it’s a secret. Basically, we like cookies and pies, a lot. The picture on my door of the last supper, isn’t the last supper, it’s pie, cuz we like pie.  There is a building here on campus, Spruance Hall which used to be the administration building and they’re breaking it down this week. I attached a few pics of that too. The best thing to happen these past two weeks is me getting my laptop! It’s PINK!!! I was so excited.. I got a matching mouse and bag too =]

As an ending note, don’t expect the Florida weather to be gorgeous every day. Just so you know, there’s a phenomenon called the “four o’clock rain” and you can practically set your watch to that timed rain.

Don’t forget to either post on the message board or email me at shankars@erau.edu if you have questions about anything!

Later guys!

Hello!  Wow, time sure does fly when you are having a good time!  I can’t believe I have already been here a little more than a month.  Well, a lot has happened since I wrote last, including the big news—Starbucks is coming to campus!  I am pretty excited because that means we will have another place to use our meal plans.  It will be located in the library with an entrance from the outside and the menu will include lunch and breakfast items plus the usual coffee.  The construction hasn’t started yet but it is scheduled to be open next semester.

Last week was the Activities Fair which was held on Heritage Walkway and consisted of a booth for each club.  I was amazed at how many different clubs were there and truthfully, there is definitely something for everyone.  I decided to sign up for Silver Wings, Women in Aviation, Airport Management Club, and since I am in the Honors Program I am automatically in the Honor Student’s Association.  I choose Silver Wings because it’s a service organization with both cadets and civilians, Women in Aviation because it links all aviation related majors, and Airport Management Club because one day I want to be an airport manager.  The exciting part with the Airport Management Club is that we will get to go on “behind the scenes” tours of different airports.  Clubs are a great way to network with other students that you might not get to meet in your classes or dorms.

On September 14th the Honors Program had a picnic on the beach.  I had a good time swimming in the ocean and talking to some new people.  The Honors Program also hosts monthly lectures featuring different professors.  This month the lecture was titled “Sunni-Shia Relations in Iraq’s Political Predicament” and was given by Dr. Mohamed Camara.  All the lectures are open to the whole student body and I would recommend going to some of these because I learned a lot of new information about Iraq’s history.  My Honors class has been very interesting with all of the books and stories we are reading are about the sea.  In a couple of weeks, the whole class is going to go out on a sailboat for several hours.  I am excited because I have never gone sailing and I have wanted to for a long time!  Soon, I will give a PowerPoint presentation on sea creatures and I just finished writing my first paper.

AFROTC is keeping me entertained and I am enjoying all of it!  I am in Hotel Flight and we try to get together outside of ROTC events.  We go to the new fitness center and workout together or this last time we decided to play sand volleyball.  I have never played sand volleyball before and I had a great time!  Also, every Sunday evening we have extra drill to work on the flight’s marching skills, and one evening after the practice we challenged another flight to a game of basketball.  I am, by no means, an athletic person and the only sport I have played was basketball throughout grade school.  Amazingly, I scored a basket and my flight won the game!  Tonight I got the job of being a flight adj.; which means tomorrow I will be in charge of getting the flight in formation and then reporting to the squadron adj. that everyone is present.  We still haven’t got our true Air Force uniforms yet, but I think we will pretty soon.

I hope all of you high school seniors have started to fill out your college applications!  Good luck!

Until next time,

Kaleigh

e-mail:sidesk@erau.edu

Welcome to my online journal of life at Embry-Riddle. I hope you will find my stories helpful, informative, and interesting whether you are a current or prospective student, parent, or faculty member. Whew— quite a mouthful, but very true!

I certainly will never claim to be an expert on campus events, classes, etc… but I will do my absolute best to describe the activities of at least one freshman on campus— me!

So, let’s get started! I have an exciting two weeks to recap:

Being a Washingtonian through-and-through, the trip to the opposite side of the country was quite a journey with “lay-overs” and such.

However, I count myself blessed considering that one of my suitemates in Wood Hall DROVE from Canada (north of WA). I did have a difficult time taking 18 years of accumulated stuff with me. Many things, of course, stayed at home.

When we finally picked up all of the baggage and the rental car at Jacksonville Intl., we stayed the night in St. Augustine. My sister graduated there from Flagler College last December, so we were very familiar with the area. It’s always a blast to walk the streets of the beautiful old town and get delicious food and gifts from chocolate to purses to flip-flops (Can you tell this was written by a girl 😉 ).

We drove on to Daytona and stayed in a gorgeous hotel resort right on the beach. My mom got a great deal on the room and I enjoyed every minute of staying there! So, I highly recommend the Ocean Walk Resort to y’all (Look at me using southern words already!).

At the dinner for the Honors Program, we met some great staff from Riddle. I sat with a girl from Illinois named Kaleigh and her family since I hadn’t met my roommate yet. Not much later, Kaleigh and I discovered we would both be on Wood floor 5 and be online journal writers. We are already good buddies. What are the odds? After the event, I finally met my Navy ROTC roommate- Kerry. We are very similar in that we both like quiet study and/or alone time and aren’t interested in being big partygoers. We do, however, enjoy watching chick flicks and going to the beach with friends from the dorm, Facebook, classes, and/or ROTC. The best way to put it 🙂 We are outgoing in a non-irresponsible way!

By the way, the Honors Program is awesome- don’t be afraid to apply!

You get priority registration (i.e. you pick the classes and teachers YOU want before anyone else. That way, they don’t fill up before you can even breathe.), a free personal PC that comes equipped with GPS, great Honors Seminar classes where it’s all about reading great literature and discussing deep topics, and you make close friends!

But, let’s get back to my first week: Orientation was perfect for getting used to campus, getting all the information you could possibly want, and meeting other freshmen. I won some free things and had great food, too. Using up meal plans was unbelievably fun. We had 14 like normal, but because Orientation began on Wednesday, there were plenty of extras that we could use on drinks, snacks, cereal, fruit, and more!

Orientation came to a great end with the luau. Free t-shirts, Polynesian dancers, games, and BBQ… perfect! The next day, I enjoyed my last full day with my parents. We decided to drive back up to Saint Augustine to visit the Gator Farm. Fun, fun! How can you visit FL without seein’ some gators?

Next, we stopped at a fancy seafood restaurant for dinner. Yum! And of course, the day ended at… Wal-Mart! It’s just what every college student needs… and Bed, Bath & Beyond, and Linens & Things, and Target…

On Sunday, I couldn’t believe it was almost time to say goodbye! We went to church at Riverbend Community and I was so pleased to find it felt like home. Many of their pastors went to the same seminary that ours did, so the teaching was right on. I know my faith in God will get me through these difficult but exciting years. My prayer is that I will be a testimony of Christ to everyone on campus.

I couldn’t help but cry as I hugged my dad and mom goodbye. True, I will see them in four months (My dad in about two; he’s coming the first week of November to visit.), but it was just the thought that I had a new home; that Arlington house will never really be part of my everyday life anymore. But, my family always will! Time, new friends, and cell phones made the separation easier, but it still wasn’t a pleasant first week without them.

In celebration of completing the first five days of classes, Kaleigh and I walked to the nearby Volusia Mall. We don’t have cars or bikes and it’s not that far anyway. We found some great deals because of the Labor Day weekend. I had to eat at Chick-fil-A since we don’t have those back home. Then, after more ROTC shopping for Kaleigh, we went across the street to Olive Garden. That’s always been one of my favorite restaurants. It was starting to rain, so we quickly rushed back to the dorms.

On Sunday, I got a ride to Riverbend again. It was just what I needed after a week of new things and sometimes overwhelming experiences. I felt kind of alone, but at church, I met some more people from ER and we’re going to start up a Bible study. Should be great! Plus, I’ve even been able to let people know about the Sunday services and a few from my floor are glad I can help them with carpooling. I’m very excited for next week!

Labor Day came and it was time to go to the beach! A guy I met on Facebook and at breakfast that day, Ben, was willing to take Caroline (girl on my floor) and I. The sun was out the waves were high… lovely! We even stopped at a bookstore and then a DVD/CD/Record store and found some great reads and flicks. I even got a nice gift for my dad.

(I won’t say what it is since he might read this someday! 🙂 )

Enough about my weekend, I bet you want to hear about the classes.

Well, Calculus seemed daunting at first, but once I got used to Prof.

Spradlin’s teaching style, I realized that I have experience with everything we’ll be learning, so it should be a fairly comfortable review but also challenge me to become more apt. Most teachers put all of the assignments and grading rubrics on Blackboard (ER’s online site), so it’s not too hard to stay on top of things.

Engineering Physics 101 is a great class! It’s like University 101, but obviously, for EP and Space Physics students. We get to know each other by doing introductions in the front of the class and are free to ask Dr. Olivero any questions we’d like. We will also hear from interesting guest speakers. The class actually ends before Thanksgiving and the only assignments are keeping a journal and writing a short paper on an aerospace subject.

I already spoke on the Honors Seminar classes, but I must mention my excellent teacher, Dr. Kain. He is very fun to listen to and does a great job of presenting points of view from all kinds of beliefs.

Graphical Drawing/CATIA for Engineers has also been fun. It only happens twice a week, but we learn about lettering correctly and how to make diagrams. This information will be very valuable for our future jobs in the industry!  Professor Sun is very patient and very artistic. I’m excited to learn from her!

Chemistry is by far the most challenging class I have this semester.

Dr. Cameron knows what he is doing and expects us to be proficient at working chemistry problems. It is a huge learning curve for me, but I’m planning to go to tutoring as often as I need.

And I haven’t been to a chemistry lab yet, but I’m very intrigued to see what I will learn in that once-a-week experience!

I apologize for the length of this excerpt, but I imagine I won’t have quite as much to say once I get used to college life. Thanks for listening! Feel free to ask any questions or make comments. I’ll do my best to get back to you!

I’m going to go check out the new fitness center. Looks amazing!

Until next time…

Natalie Ann

You can also use the site to ask questions and share your thoughts!

Hope to see you there!

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Hello!!  I can’t believe I am actually at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and writing this journal!  A little piece of information I learned at orientation is everyone calls the school Riddle, instead of having to say Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University all the time.  Since I was a freshman in high school, I have been dreaming about coming to Riddle.  I guess I should probably tell you a little bit about myself.  All my life I have lived in Sidney, Illinois; no it’s not near Chicago— its two hours south.  My town is about 1,000 people and my high school is five towns combined to form a graduating class of about 112.  The University of Illinois in Champaign is about fifteen minutes away, so I got the best of both worlds I grew up in a small town but had the city close enough to do fun things.  My high school experience was a little different because I graduated a semester early and attended a local community college.  I was a few credits short of being a sophomore, but I am glad that I was able to get a feel for what college would be like.

My mom, dad, and I drove from Illinois to Florida because there was no way all my clothes, shoes, and other stuff would have fit on an airplane.  We arrived in Florida on August 20th a day before orientation was to start.  The plan was to have a day to explore Daytona and go to the beach.  Well, as we all know the best laid plans never work out; instead of hanging out on the beach I was sitting in a dentist office with one side of my face twice its normal size.  I had my wisdom teeth taken out in June and one of the holes decided to become infected causing my face to swell.  We found a great dentist, Dr. Lloyd, who performed surgery to drain the poison.  Afterwards, I felt 100% better and thought that the worse was over.  WRONG!!  I began to feel worse that evening and throughout the entire orientation week I was sick which we think might have been due to an allergic reaction to the penicillin.  What a great way to start college!

Orientation week starts with move-in day which is crazy because all the new students are moving in at the same time.  The whole process was pretty fast though, and a nice thing is they have shopping carts to load your stuff into and then take it up to your room, so you don’t have to make twenty trips outside to get all your stuff.  I am living in Wood Hall on the top floor (fifth) and looking out my window I can see the Daytona International Speedway stands.  Several people have told me that you can see the actual racetrack from the roof which is pretty cool!  Many things go on at Orientation but the event I remember most was the reception with the College of Business.  The College of Business is the smallest college on campus but next semester they will have the newest building!  The reason I chose to study aviation business is because one day I hope to become an airport manager.

This semester the classes I am taking are Macroeconomics, Principles of Management, a Computer class, Applied Calculus, Honors Seminar, and an Air Force class.  Also, every freshman is required to take a class that helps orient you to the university and your specific college.  I am in the Honors Program; that requires you to take the Honors Seminar and a number of Honors classes within your major.  Another adventure of mine was I decided to do Air Force ROTC and so far I am really enjoying it.  I am not the most coordinated person and I confuse right with left a lot which means learning drill and how to march has been somewhat of a challenge, but I am always up for challenges.

If you have any questions, you can shoot me an email.

Kaleigh

e-mail:sidesk@erau.edu

I’m back!!! Yes, I loved writing the journals so much that I decided that one year was not enough. I needed to do it at least one more year. For those of you who aren’t familiar with these student journals, my name is Blake Guiles and I’m a sophomore here at Riddle with a major in Aeronautical Science (I want to be an airline pilot). I wrote these journals last year along with several other journal writers and I think that these journals are an excellent resource for future students. You get the rare opportunity to look into the lives of current students and see what college life is all about. I’m not sure if my previous journals will continue to be posted online, but if they are I suggest you go check those out to learn a lot about me. If you’re to lazy to go read those past journals I’ll tell you a little bit about myself. As you know, my name is Blake and I grew up in a little town called Debary which is only about a half hour away from Daytona Beach. I have a girlfriend (Rebecca) who goes to Stetson (a college close by) who I have been dating for a little over two and a half years. I am currently rated as a private pilot, I am certified to skydive, and I like to root for the Tampa Bay Lightning in hockey. I’m here at Embry-Riddle because I want to be a pilot and I think that this is the place to be if you want to fly. Ever since I was little I knew that I wanted to fly, and ever since I knew about Embry-Riddle I wanted to go here. Now I’m in my second year and I have my Private Pilot’s License, and it is surreal when I stop to think about it. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in high school day-dreaming about coming here to Riddle and now I am here and I am already a licensed pilot! I’ll go into more depth as time goes on, but that’s good for now.

One thing that I started last year was an online photo album where I posted pictures of anything and everything. I also had a YouTube account where I put some videos on. I think that some of my fellow journal writers are going to put pictures online this year, but I will definitely be posting them online. If you read last year’s journals, there is a change for the pictures website. I originally had them posted with yahoo photos, but now they are transferred over to my Flickr account. That website is http://www.flickr.com/photos/wasteofsoap/ . Also, while that website is there, my YouTube site is still the same: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=blakeguiles . Since I’m giving you all these addresses, I might as well give you my email which is wasteofsoap@yahoo.com . So throughout this year, make sure you check out some pictures and videos that I post, and feel free to shoot me an email with any questions/comments/concerns.

With all that said, let me tell you about my summer. I worked most of it, unfortunately; but I did go on many adventures. I guess I’ll start with the beginning of the summer. My girlfriend and I drove down to Key West for a couple days and it was amazing. I’ve lived in Florida my whole life, but have never been to the Keys. While we were down there we went parasailing and snorkeling, both of which were amazing. We didn’t see any sharks, which I was kind of glad about to be honest. Overall it was a nice way to begin the summer/end the school year. It was very relaxing and I recommend checking it out if you come to Daytona.

After the trip to the Keys I went up to Pennsylvania to see some friends. One of the cool things about going to a school like Embry-Riddle is that there are people from all over that come here. It’s not like, for example, the University of Central Florida; I know a lot of people that go there, but that is because I live in Central Florida. The students that attend Embry-Riddle are from all across the world, not just a local area. So I made some friends that live in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina and we all went to PA to visit each other. We had a blast and did a whole bunch of fun things. One of which was drove to Six Flags over in New Jersey. I have been to Disney and Universal Studios here in Florida, but I haven’t got the chance to go to other theme parks until now. We spent the whole day there and had so much fun. We went on a wooden rollercoaster called El Toro which was the best wooden rollercoaster I have ever seen in my life. It has the steepest drop at 76 degrees of any wooden coaster in the United States and is the second fastest and tallest wooden coaster in the entire world. But surprisingly, that wasn’t the highlight of the trip to Six Flags. No, it wasn’t until I went on Kingda Ka that I experienced the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world. You start on level ground and get accelerated to 128 miles and hour in 3.5 seconds and then shoot straight up (90 degrees) to 456 feet (45 stories) and then plunge back to earth. It was insane! Me and my friend Cris rode it 7 times, 3 of which were back to back to back. We rode it 3 times in a span of something like 8 minutes and my body was definitely taking a beating. You can check out more info on the coaster here: http://www.sixflags.com/greatAdventure/rides/Kingdaka.aspx . All in all it was an amazing experience. We also did some fun things while in PA like ride my friends 4 wheeler. I will definitely post pictures and videos up on the websites so be sure to check those out.

In July, I went with my family up to Maine to visit my grandparents, which was really fun. I got to see one of my cousins, Jeremy, and I was excited about that because I don’t get to see him that much. We had a lot of fun and I can’t wait until next summer to go up again. Other than those things, I was more or less just hanging in Florida over summer. I got a couple chances to take friends and family flying which was definitely a highlight of my summer. I took some pictures and videos of that, so be sure to keep your eyes out for those.

Well I think that I will keep this journal short, and next time I’ll go into all my classes and my living arrangement. I strongly urge you to read the other student journals even if you aren’t interested in their major. Likewise, if you want to be an engineer, you should still check out my journals because I’m sure you will find some useful information here and there. All you prospective students especially need to read the freshmen journals because they will be giving you their views/opinions as freshmen while I have already been there and done that so my views will be different. This year I won’t pay as much attention to living in the dorms (live in an apartment now) or the meal plans (I don’t have them anymore) but I will be telling you about life in Daytona Beach, the upper level classes you will take, and I will offer a unique prospective on life at Riddle as a second year student. I hope everyone’s year is starting off nicely and I hope that you will check in from time to time to see how I’m doing here in Florida, going to the school of my dreams. Feel free to send me an email if you are so inclined and I will see you in about two weeks!!!

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

If there’s one word to sum up these past two and a half weeks, it would undoubtedly be WOW. Just 15 days ago, I was furiously packing up all my clothes and stuff into the biggest suitcases I could find hoping to not forget important things like my multi-colored lamp or enough shampoo to last me three months. I was undoubtedly in panic mode and had only a few short hours to get everything done in time for my early morning flight the next day. Looking back, it seemed as though that day, August 20th, unexpectedly crept up to me. I had just graduated, just thrown a party to celebrate it and all if a sudden I was leaving New Jersey, and all the familiar things surrounding me to venture into uncharted territory at Embry Riddle. Okay, so it wasn’t uncharted, but it was still new to me, which definitely counts for something.

Let me backtrack and introduce my self. I’m Srinisha Shankar but you can call me  Spree. I’m 18 years old and am a freshman majoring in Aerospace Engineering at Riddle. I’m the first from my family to leave New Jersey, since my older sister (who just turned 21), decided to stay at a state college. I live with my Mama, Papa and Sis and every six months Grandma comes from India to stay with us for 6 months. I came from a school in New Jersey that was focused on Math and engineering so being in a school with an outstanding majority of guys is no news to me. It was a tiny little magnet school called the Middlesex County Academy for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies and our graduating class consisted of 32 kids. It was awesome coming from a small school so Riddle’s size is a completely new experience for me. I’ll save the extra background info for later, now let’s fast forward to Monday, August 20.

We arrived at the really tiny Daytona Beach International Airport and I immediately felt at home. The sun was shining brightly through the windows, I wore my sunglass inside, and not one person gave me a dirty look. I could so get used to this, I thought. Making things better was a phone call I made to sis back home, “It’s thunder storming here and it’s so cold”, she said and I smiled, knowing I’d almost never have to deal with that terrible Jersey weather again.

Once in Daytona, Mom, Grandma and I checked into our hotel and spent the rest of the day shopping in the nearby Volusia Mall and exploring the university by car. The next day was the first unofficial day of the orientation ceremonies. Tuesday night was the honors banquet and it was held and it was held a local Yacht Club. Here all the Honors Students and their families were invited to have dinner with the Honors staff and get presents. This year our present was the ASUS GPS pocket PC. It’s so much fun especially because there’s this one game on there, called Bubble Breaker and it’s the perfect thing to keep your fingers occupied with when you’re waiting for a teacher or just really bored. That night I got to meet my roomie for the first time and we hit it off quite well. You’re always skeptical about what your roommate’s going to be like and I was so glad that mine was normal instead of some girl who was afraid of people.

Anyways, Tuesday was only the beginning of all the activities Riddle had planned for the incoming class. If I could give you the most important piece of advice to follow during Orientation week, it would definitely be to get there early. A half hour early is probably perfect if you don’t want to park a mile away and walk. We luckily did get there just as the doors were opening and almost sprinted to the people holding the “S” posters. Here we received the all-important orientation packet outlining all the activities we’d be participating in these next few days and for the weekend.  Today was possibly my favorite day because the morning started with Housing Check In! I, because I’m an honors student, received the privilege of living in Wood 5! I was so happy when I found out my residence hall was Wood over the summer and even more ecstatic when I found out I was in the top floor.

Grandma, Mom and I then hurried upstairs with suitcases in hand to see the room I was going to be spending the majority of my year in. Opening the door, I let out a sigh, relieved that the space wasn’t cramped but instead pretty spacious and the bathroom was actually clean. It certainly wasn’t home quite yet, but I knew I could get used to it. Having someone share my room was a bit of a new concept to me, but today, about two weeks later, I almost can’t imagine not having someone to talk to in the middle of the night, or have an automatic buddy, for when you don’t feel like walking by yourself. Having a roommate definitely has its perks. After mom made my bed and we did some more last minute shopping, we attended the over crowded convocation ceremony. It was certainly our fault that we came only 15 minutes before the ceremony started and had to park across the street in order to attend. Convocation is a tradition I’m assuming for every university to welcome all the incoming students, it was mildly fun. Then, at 8 I got to meet the rest of Wood 5 for the first time. We are one heck of a group here, and undoubtedly the self-proclaimed tightest hall and best buddies on campus. There are 8 girls (two others of whom are also Journal Writers) and the rest are guys. The majority of us are Honors AE students, so we have a lot of classes in common. Orientation week was starting to look real good, but wasn’t anywhere close to being done.

Some people slept in their dorm that night, but I decided to still stay with Mom and Grandma at the hotel. Thursday was a fairly busy day for Mom and Grandma but I had plenty of time to set my room up and hang out with people from my floor. It was the first time I had lunched with them and now it’s a daily ritual to go to lunch in a group of no less than 10. Like I said, we’ve come to be one big family here at Wood 5 and it’s pretty awesome. Thursday there was only one meeting for me and it was about how to get around campus and who to contact for different things. Mom and Grandma left on Thursday and it didn’t hit me that they’d be leaving until that night when I actually slept in my new own bed. Kind of scary and kind of really really exciting to know that you can finally have that independence you’ve been craving for.

Friday I woke up late and again our entire hall went to lunch together and then I attended this “For Women Only” Program. Incase you haven’t heard already, the guy to girl ratio at Riddle is about 1 to 8, so the girl community here is pretty tight, since you know the chances of seeing another girl soon is pretty slim. That night, there was a luau on the lawn and it was basically just to get to know your hall better. We made our mascot and competed in different cheesy games like the banana and spatula race or the one we started ourselves, the wheelbarrow! It was a ton of fun, but most of us retired early to our dorms so we could watch a movie and play cards in our hallway, both just as fun as playing limbo like we did during the Luau.

This weekend was filled with different activities we could participate in like the “Sundaes on Saturday” sponsored by the Embry-Riddle Resident Student Association (ERRSA) , barbeques sponsored by the Fraternities and Sororities and the hilarious comedic duo Alex McHale and Vic Henley. The best activity was undoubtedly the Hypnotist Tom Deluca. He was so insanely good it left you wondering if he paid the people to do the crazy things they did. One of the guys from our hall was chosen and he was made to believe that he was the savior of fruits and wasn’t allowed to let people touch his apples or pears. I would definitely not miss the show if I were you. That happened Monday night also known as…. The first day of classes!

My schedule this semester is almost amazing. I have an 8 A.M class every morning, but I end all my classes before 1oclock. Good and the bad I guess. The first two weeks of classes haven’t been too stressful even though thinking about my first Physics quiz tomorrow is stressing me out a bit. So this first entry is basically just an intro to my life at Embry-Riddle. I know you all are dying to know more about what I’m about and all the good and bad things that happen here, but this entry has gotten to be much longer than I had expected.

Here’s my contact info, feel free to email me whenever you’d like and I’d be more than happy to answer all those questions you’re too afraid to post on the discussion board.

Catch ya later!

Spree

*sniffles* So, you may be wondering why I’m holding back from tears. As you guys may know, this is my LAST journal submission to you guys. So, this is the last time you will all read about my life on Embry-Riddle’s website. If you are on Facebook, however, then you can follow up on the rest of my college life by adding me!

Okay, so this is a REALLY sad time of my life here in college when the semester is almost over, classes start wrapping up, exams are almost here and we must all say our goodbyes at the end of it all. But before I get into all the mushy stuff, let me tell you about the past 2 weeks here at Riddle. Classes have already been ending and some of them have not completed the course yet. I am officially done with 3 out of my 5 classes and have not begun studying for the finals yet! I don’t plan on starting till an hour before the test, just kidding! I must say, I had a lot of fun with all my professors; the good and the bad ones. Speech class was amazing where I gave a total of 4 speeches that were all great, Physics was a breeze since I already knew most of the material from high school, Basic Aeronautics 2 was fantastic- I had the best professor EVER!!! Accounting class was very informative to say the least. Information Technology was very fun and interesting; I really learned a lot in that class! Overall, this semester’s school work was very strenuous but I value every little bit of knowledge I have gained!

Alright, onto the fun part! So, like I said, the end of the semester is here, so a couple friends and I decided that we should do something together before we start finals. So, this past weekend, 3 of my closest friends and I drove down to Miami! One of them lived there, so we got around easily-thank God! Alright, so we left Saturday morning and got into Miami in the afternoon and went straight to the malls to do some SHOPPING! Yes, who doesn’t love to shop?! Anyway, so we got some cool stuff. And then, after that we decided to go plane spotting at Miami International Airport! I’ve never actually gone plane spotting before, so that was like the highlight of my impromptu trip. That night, my parents were in Miami on business, so we met up with them and then headed over to our friend Guillermo’s house for dinner- you know, the one who lives there. They’re Dominican, so we had authentic Dominican food that was ‘muy sabroso’..? haha, I have to work on my Spanish. After, we went to the hotel room that my parents got for us that night at the Courtyard Marriott and not too long after being restless in the room, we headed out to downtown Miami! WOO HOO! That was CrAzY!!! So busy and full of people just ‘partying it up’! Came back to the room around 3am and hit the bed.

The next day, my parents took us out to dinner at P.F. Chang’s restaurant and right after, we left them and headed back to the airport for even MORE plane spotting! YAY. We ended up getting back into Daytona Beach around 12:30am Monday morning. Now, that was one of the most fun weekends I have ever had here at Riddle; and it wasn’t even in Daytona! Haha.

So, now comes the part where I must bid all of you goodbye. It has been such a wonderful pleasure and experience to write to all of you guys and share my life here at Embry-Riddle with you. I do hope that you enjoyed reading all my submissions and that you will share some of the good and bad experiences that I had here at college because without the bad, how would we know what’s good? Do not hesitate to contact me at all with any questions or comments that you may have; even if you just wanna talk more, just add me on facebook (search for my name), my aim is ‘xtriniboix’ and email is pundib07@erau.edu. It has been an honor and a privilege to write to you guys and I’d like to thank the one who made it all possible, Jill Meredith who works in admissions. I love you Jill! Thanks to all of you out there who have contacted me and now have became my friends. Thanks to my friends for making my freshman year in college an unforgettable experience. Thanks to my parents for supporting me and loving me unconditionally. Thanks! Thanks to everyone who has made a difference not only to my life, but to the world! All the best in getting to Riddle, pre-freshmen! Can’t wait to meet a few of you!

Take care, and once again, thank you for choosing Vick Airways!

Have a good one!

Your (Preferred) Student Journal Writer,
Vick!

Quote of the week: Life is too short to live the same day twice!

Peace