Well I haven’t had much time to write lately so I’ll pull you up to speed. The semester started in the end of August. I live on campus and enjoying every minute of school. A great thing about attending ERAU is how the classes are focused intently on your specific major. For example, I am a GSIS major and these are my classes: Chinese 3, Creative Writing, Forensic Science, Forensics Lab, Computer Applications, and Geography. All of these courses will prove their worth in my future career.
Originally I was a Daytona Beach student planning on majoring in Homeland Security. Most people get the idea their head that Daytona is a much more interesting campus. In some ways it might be, but I’ll give you some examples of things I’ve done around Prescott. Prescott is in the mountains so if you plan on going anywhere besides the city you can count on having to drive, it’s just the way it is. Outside of Prescott there are plenty of things to do.
One day my suitemates and I decided we were bored so we headed off to the nearby city of Sedona to go cliff diving. Sedona is a small tourist city situated on a plateau of red cliffs. There were plenty of people from NAU and ASU hanging out and partying at the river where the cliff diving takes place. On another occasion we decided to take the 1 ½ hour drive to go to a Weezer concert down in Phoenix. There are many things that I haven’t listed due to the fact that I have homework and a life to lead, but you get the idea.
In addition to external activities, the school also puts on a lot student functions like dances, concerts and sporting events. These functions are usually top notch and there is a lot of effort put into the planning and executing of the event. Between the occasional school function and outside activity you can definitely find things to do around this area. Well I’m off to forensics now. I’ll be writing more soon.
Brett Watts

Sunday was a fun filled day. Kevin and I go to the Sacred Heart Church almost every Sunday for the Eucharist. We met a family there. The father graduated from Embry Riddle, Florida and was a pilot. They invited us for a mountain hike at Sedona this Sunday. Despite the Economics Exam that was on Tuesday, we decided that this was a much required break from campus. So, we decided to go for the Mountain Hike. They met us at the campus at like 2.30 PM. We went to Sedona through Jerome. Jerome is a really ‘different’ city. You get goose bumps looking at the landscape, at least I did. As said by someone’ It is a haunted city that has been transformed into a hippie artist community’. It is so true. Ghost stories flow like anything here and things are spooky here. They gave a place called the Haunted Burgers. And the whole city is on a cliff. Houses are built so close to the road, that is difficult to even imagine. Finally, we reached the place we had to reach. It is a mountain trail in Sedona that also has a creek. We basically wanted to walk the trail, cross the creek and reach the end of the trail. It was supposed to be a 4 mile hike, one way.
We started our hike. It was a bit late by the time we started. It was around 4PM. So, we just went till the creek. It was not at all a tiring hike. The landscape was amazing. There were huge mountains on one side and the whole city, Sedona, was visible on the other side. After reaching the creek, we just relaxed for some time. The kids, Kevin and I skipped stones in the river. Stones ranged from small smooth ones to really huge ones. However, it was getting really dark and we had to make a 2.5 mile hike back to the origin. We started our way back quickly. Kevin happily carried Elias on his back all the way. It was pitch black and we had nothing but my camera with a flash. So….?
We took random pics and tried to figure out our way back using the light from flash. It was way fun. We knew that we would not be lost, but still the night was really creeping out everyone. I kept taking pictures now and then just to make sure that we are on a track instead of walking along the greens. We finally reached the beginning spot without any problems. On the way back, everyone was way tired. Everyone slept within 30 minutes of being in the car. We finally stopped at the Fry’s to get some Powerade and they dropped us at the campus. It was a much needed break. We were so tired when we finally reached the dorms that we fell asleep without getting anything done.
The next day, Kevin and I toiled at the Library, the dining hall and the room before the exam. In EGR 101, we are making the LTAV. It is way too complex. We have LEGO bricks, Bluetooth and a whole lot of confusion about what is to be done.

Last few weeks have been really busy for me. I had 2 exams last week, took one this week and will be taking another one the next week. Last week, I took the Physics Exam. It was a nightmare. It had a total of 6 questions and the total mounts to 320. A single numerical problem is worth 70 points and a single discussion question is worth 40 points. I have no idea how the instructor is going to give partial credits. The questions were simple enough, and I think I have done well but the grade heavily depends on how it is graded. It covered chapters that I have completed in my high school. However, I am not confident about the exam.
There was a MATLAB Exam too. It was another (un)pleasant experience while I was taking the exam. We had a total of 4 questions out of which one was the bonus question. I got the 1st question working perfectly as well as the bonus question. However, the remaining questions were not up to the mark. My programming was not good enough for the 2 questions. However, time was running out. SO, I got all the pseudocode and algorithm I could think of for those questions. I wrote them in the M-Files and saved them and printed them out. I was so sure I would be getting something near 50% because of the remaining 2 questions. However, on Monday, we got the test papers back. The result was a pleasant surprise. I got 106 out of 100. Dr. Gally reduced 14 points in total for the flaws I had in the 2 questions. However, I got the bonus question that was worth 20 points. So, I had a total of 106. Now, Dr. Gally decided to curve the points by 20 for everyone. So, now I had 126 out of 100. And thus, the final grade I have now is 100.44%. I was so surprised how a really bad exam according to me turns out to be fine enough for a great grade.
Physics results are yet to be out. I am barely making a B on that. This exam can make or break my grade. Hope everything turns out to be good. Today, I also took the Engineering Economics Exam. It was a really long exam. The exam went good enough, according to me. The results would be available tomorrow, I think.
Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. Physics and Economics results are going to be declared tomorrow. Hope it is good.

This week has been extremely eventful…
My classes are getting to be a little more stressful as the semester goes on, but it is nothing I can’t handle!
I finally had my third Psychology test today. Professor Lohn’s tests are some of the harder tests I’ll have to take this semester. I studied all week and I think I did pretty well today.
It was twenty-five open ended questions, and the answers had to be really detailed.
I have the class every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 4:10 until 5:10 . Because it’s such a late class on Friday’s we have discussions, contests and videos instead of lectures, which definitely helps keeping the entire class awake! We have only had a few homework assignments, all relatively short essays.
The class is alot of fun, and the discussions we have are always hilarious, which makes the really hard tests alot easier to handle.
Now that the test is over tonight, I think I’ll probably finish some other homework, practice my first persuasion speech and then hang out with friends.
Tonight is Karaoke Night at Buffalo Wild Wings in Prescott Valley about 15 minutes away. It is always alot of fun watching everyone sing, but i’m not really the singing type. (I think the rest of the restaurant would appreciate it if I didn’t sing too!) I am most likely going to go tonight, but I need to go to bed early.
I have only been to bed early once since the semester started, most days I stay up until about 1 or 2 in the morning. (I know! I know! it’s not good for me!)
The other day Sean, Daniel, Katie, Christina and I made a random trip to ASU to help out our friend.. He wanted to stay with a friend before flying home out of Sky Harbor, so we all made it a road trip to drop him off. What was supposed to be a three hour trip ended up lasting five hours!!!!!!! We left at 9:30 p.m. and had a blast the whole way down… at least until we realized how far in the wrong direction we went. We all started to get a little cranky (well, at least I did) at how lost we were but we ended up figuring out where we were, but we still didn’t get back until about 2 in the morning. In the end we had a blast even though we all got a little tired and hungry.
I’m getting excited for Thanksgiving and the holidays, after all it’s already almost Halloween. the semster is half over and it really feels like it just started!

The rocket we build was launched on Oct 23, 2008. It had a lot of surprises in store for us. First of all, our unique model got us the Most Creative Rocket Award. My team( Kevin, Eric, Payton and I) were the third group to launch the rocket. The rocket was shot, it didn’t scale much height, because a strong wind was blowing and it billowed up the exterior parachute. The rocket actually zigzagged all the time it was scaling the height and it came down crashing towards the benches we were sitting on. It was so close to make a vertical landing as it didn’t had much speed. However, after it fell it shot out the wadding. The burning wadding shot out of one end. Jake got hold of the burning wadding. It was hilarious! By that time, two other teams made a great launch and one of them got the award for the Longest Duration. However, we had another engine left. So, we decided to strip off the exterior parachute and get rid of the additional fins too. And then, the magic began.
The C6-5 Engine gave the ’Screaming Jelly’ an unprecedented amount of thrust and the next thing every notices after I make the second launch is that they have to crane their necks really bad and squeeze their eyes to search for the rocket that has scaled a height that couldn’t be imagined. It was a perfect vertical launch. Nothing went wrong. The parachute came up after the rocket reached its apogee and the parachute helped it to remain in air for a long time. While the rocket was on the way down, everyone of us ran towards getting hold of it. Finally, Landon got hold of it.
We were not satiated by that performance. All of our team members were sure that it deserved another launch. However, the C6-5 went out of stock. I had 3 of them for our rocket. I rushed to my dorms to get them and we used the three engines for two other teams as well. The launches were conducted at the rugby field near AC1 and AFROTC Buildings. There was a vast expanse of barren land besides the Rugby Field. The third launch was eventful. Nothing went as expected. However, it was amazing. The launch was a perfect vertical one. So far so good. However, the wadding we had was not good enough. While coming down, the string that attaches the nose and parachute to the main body was burned due to inadequate wadding. We could see a white parachute (though it was yellow and black) with a nose coming down slowly and the main body of the rocket crashing down to the Earth. We went for the parachute. To get hold of that, we almost crossed the whole expanse of the barren land. We got hold of it at the edge of the land. The string was burned out which helped us to confirm that what we thought about the mishap was correct. However, it was a great exercise and I completely loved it.
Our team got the award for the Most Creative Award and though we clocked the longest duration, it was too late for another award. However, we are happy that we put up a good work and everyone of us had a lot of fun. In the end, everyone got some spooky gifts, thanks to Halloween, and lots of chocolates.

I am a member of a total of 3 clubs right now. I am in the Structures Team for both AIAA and ERAU Jet Car Project. I also am a part of the music club. When I started college, I decided that I have to do much more than just studies here. I know the basics of playing a guitar but I am not that great at it. The drum kits have always amazed me and I have always been looking for an opportunity to play them. I joined the Music Club for the same. I would be able to get my hands on drums and learn it how to play! I also would be improving myself on the guitar.
ERAU, or for that matter any other college, can prove to be really stressful. I do know all that is being taught in Calculus 2 and Physics 2, however there is a lot of stuff to be done every single day that there is no escaping it. I am yet to come across a day when I had no homework to do. Something like music can be a real stress buster. Besides, having a GPA less than 4.0 and a lot of creative skills and talents looks much better than a solid GPA of 4.0 in a resume.
We meet every Thursday at 9PM at the Davis Learning Center and jam out, learn and have fun. The Club did take part in some programs at the October West. I am just waiting for my guitar to be shipped as soon as possible.
ERAU Jet Car Project is the biggest project that is been undertaken at the college. It is headed by Dr. Nafziger. Even though being a freshman, I have been selected in the structures team and would be working and learning a lot with the upperclassmen. I believe this is going to be the most exciting thing the whole semester. I will actually get to engineer! Not just tweak those physics and math formulae, but get to do the ACTUAL Stuff! We would be working on the chasis beginning this week. Just waiting to get things rolling!
AIAA Design, Build and Fly Competition is going to be a tough challenge. We are supposed to work on a design for an aircraft that can hold 4 liters of water and still make 4 fast lap times. It’s going to be a real challenge. However, a lot is to be gathered, learned and understood in the process. We have meetings every Tuesday where we discuss the basic ideas and come up with better ones.

Well, as you all should know by now, I am a senior on the women’s volleyball team; which means that this is my last year to ever play and represent ERAU as a student-athlete. As crazy as it seems, I am anxious for the start of season but sad that this will be my last. I have seen our volleyball program grow so much in the past four years that I have been apart of it, that I am really excited to see our team push our way to Nationals this year…but there is always the burden of going through the much dreaded preseason first.
Our coach cooked something up for us new this year: on our first day of training (which was August 4, 2008), we drove to the rope course at Northern Arizona University (NAU) to learn about team building, communication, trust, and about building our relationships with each other. My teammates and I have learned a lot about ourselves and what goals we wanted to set for ourselves and each other. There was a ‘rubber ducky’ challenge, where we were split into two teams, each having their hula hoop empty. Between our teams was a hula hoop filled with rubber ducks, and our main objective was to see which team could end up with the most ducks in their hoop. We all started sprinting back-and-forth between the main hoop and our own hoops along with stealing from our opponent’s hoop. The leader of the activity just gave us strange looks for the ten minutes that we were sprinting (and I am sure that coach was happy that we did sprint). One of our teammates thought of putting all the rubber ducks into the main hoop and place both of our hula hoops over the main hoop. Yes, we finally got the message from that: we are ONE team, and if we should ever have a division between us we will never get anywhere.
We also did a few communication exercises before a lightning storm decided to roll on it. We went into their indoor rope course, and dude, I was excited! Everyone did the flying squirrel (which basically means one person will run in the opposite direction of her six teammates pulling her on the other end of the rope and therefore fly and be suspended into the air for a bit until her teammates slowly bring her back to the ground). The second team ropes activity was basically trying to balance on a wooden platform with your teammates pulling you up on both sides. Our teammate’s job was to make sure that the wooden platform would stay horizontal on the journey up. Once each person got to the top, we rang the bell and then slowly be dropped back down to earth. Next were the individual tests: rock climbing, rope ladder climbing, and air-swings. I officially LOVE rock climbing!!! I did two of the five rock climbing courses that they had. It took me about eight minutes to get to the top for one since I had a difficult time trying find some grip rocks for my shoes.
We ended with learning our new favorite game called “HAIYA!

8/01/08-
So the Foreign Language Institute is officially over. I’ll recap on some of the activities we did in the last week. We had an opportunity to spend time with native Chinese speakers while cooking authentic Chinese food. Zhan Lao Shi brought her friends up to the Spruance house and we spent the day cooking, eating and chatting in Chinese. Many of us learned how to cook fried rice (or 炒饭). We also excelled in our ability to speak about or likes and dislikes and also current events.
The last couple days of class were intense to say the least. We went through an entire chapter of work out of the textbook every other day, which means that every other day we had a 100+ point test. Our final consisted of 3 parts, written, listening and an oral presentation. Our written test was at least 4 pages long and was written entirely in characters. The listening section was a dialogue Zhan Lao Shi read about changing subways and using all forms of public transportation. The oral presentation was done in small groups. We had to come up with a dialogue involving all the things we had learned up until then. The presentation had to be technically sound and yet we were encouraged to make it humorous. These tests all proved to be difficult.
In the end I was able to greatly increase my Chinese language abilities and receive a high grade in the class. For anyone who is interested in taking Chinese as a foreign language I would greatly recommend it. Both Chen Lao Shi and Zhan Lao Shi are excellent teachers who want to see their students succeed. For now,

7/12/08-
Chinese language is anything but simple. I’m going on my 4th week of the Chinese Foreign Language Institute. As a GSIS major, foreign language plays a large part in my degree. In addition the Graduate program I plan on entering into at George Washington University requires fluency in foreign languages, so here I am. I actually really do enjoy the class. Zhan lao shi (translation- Professor Zhan) is a great teacher who has a strong desire to see us succeed. On Saturday the 19th our class will be going on a trip to the Chinese Cultural Center in Phoenix. It is a nice break from the monotony of class, day after day.
Professor Zhan and her assistants often plan things like this to keep us interested. We have lessons on Chinese paintings, ordering food and Chinese culture regularly. We only have two weeks left. I’m looking forward to an actual “summer break

June 30, 2008-
You know how occasionally you meet a person who just isn’t happy with doing the normal day to day things. They constantly study to keep that 4.0 and never allow themselves to slack off just a little bit. Well, for one reason or another I turned out to be that kind of person.
I graduated from Norco High School in southern California a semester early, so being my normal self there was no way I was going to just sit back and let that time go by. I signed up for Riddle’s study abroad program in the People’s Republic of China. I spent a month there studying the language and culture of the Chinese people. The trip was a once in a life time experience for me. I was impacted by the amount of knowledge there was right in front of me, at the edge of my finger tips. Unfortunately, as always good things must come to an end. I returned from China on the day my high school graduating class walked to receive their diplomas, so I joined them. I had a single day back at home in the States and then I was off again. This time I found myself in the beautiful but, blistering Prescott, Arizona.
So here I am, once again enrolled in a Chinese course. I am here for the Summer B Intensive Foreign Language Institute. I cannot even begin to describe the amount of information Zhan Lao Shi (Professor Zhan) is shoveling into our heads. Day after day we show up at 9 A.M. for the normal classroom session. We learn all about pronunciation, pin yin, and Chinese characters. In China I picked up a lot of the street language, you know, like the stuff you absolutely need to survive, such as: Zhege shi shenme (what is that?!?!) or Cesuo zai nar? (Where is the bathroom?) But now I find myself deciphering what looks to me like a code, such as this: 你好 我