Any of you potential GSIS majors thinking about taking the Chinese language, my recommendation is… DO IT!  It is SOO much fun!  Yang Laoshi is teaching me so much.  Even though it can be pretty tough sometimes, it is so worth it.  I found out how much fun it really is knowing Chinese when Yang Laoshi and Chen Laoshi took us students on a field trip… to the Chinese Cultural Center in Phoenix for the Chinese New Year!  (Just so you know, it’s the year of the rabbit!)  All of us students packed onto a fancy bus (that was really more like a plane, because the teachers handed out drinks for everyone!!) and headed to the valley.  We watched a movie on the way down (because there were TVs on the bus!), but the real fun started when we got off the bus.  The festival was AMAZING.  Tons of Chinese vendors were packed into the square selling everything from Buddha figurines to traditional Chinese fans to stuffed panda bears.  Just the atmosphere was amazing!  A picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll let you decide for yourself!

Yang Laoshi and Chen Laoshi are so sweet!

Dragon… RAWR!  Haha.  Don’t worry guys… he didn’t eat me.

Tai Chi!  And thanks to volleyball, I know some of it!  WOOT!

These fish were on sale.  The cheapest was $20, and the most expensive was $40!

There were probably hundreds of these little vendors.

I bought a little dragon to “keep my apartment safe.”  It’s worked so far!

These guys just ran by with a huge dragon in celebration of the new year!

The food market was pretty intense, if you know what I mean.

Teri and I!  We got to catch up while wandering around the square.

Notice that the black and white rocks are formed into a Yin-Yang.  Cool huh!

So overall the whole thing was just a fantastic experience.  I found out just how awesome it is to know Chinese when I asked the vendors how much the item was… in Chinese!… and they got so excited and, well, to be honest, spoke too fast for me to understand them… but still.  It was just a really great experience to be able to see how Chinese is going to help me later in my life and in my future profession.  I am so glad that I chose to take Chinese!  There is even a Chinese track in the GSIS program for any and all interested!  But for now, 新年快乐!  Happy (Chinese) New Year!

“The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.”

-Confucius

Apparently it snowed last weekend. I didn’t see it happen.  When I left for a Students for Liberty conference in Washington DC last Friday, the weather was warm and the only snow on the ground was the hunks of ice that lurk in the shady areas of my condo neighborhood. When I returned, there was cold air and heaps upon heaps of snow. That just goes to show you what weather can be like here. And yet, as I write this, the weather has turned warm again and the sun is shining. This is good news for me. This, however, is good news for the snowmen whose spherical remains now litter the quad like the elephant graveyard from the Lion King.

In a few weeks, the weather in Arizona won’t matter however, for I shall be headed to California for Spring Break. My friends and I will be travelling the PCH looking for the perfect wave to ride. Plans of my other friends include trips to Lake Havasu in AZ, trips to Las Vegas, Various vacation locales in Mexico and day trips to Phoenix. The location of Embry-Riddle affords this all with its great location. Many of my friends back in Kansas will be making a two hour drive back home to hang out in the small town from which I hail. No sun, sand or fun. One may get homesick their freshman year, but they’ll learn to love the opportunities AZ has for them.

So I had my sim on Friday and man it was ugly. Fun but ugly. It felt like I had never flown a plane in my life. My muscle memory is off, my references, and viewing picture is all messed up, it was as if I were on a totally different planet. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun. Very challenging flying from the right seat but it was a great first time in getting ready to tackle this next step. Can’t wait for the real flight now, I have a feeling that one might be a little easier.

The biggest occurrence this weekend is the fact that it snowed in Prescott….a lot. Now I’m from Denver so I have seen my fair share of snow but to snow this much in Prescott is almost unreal. It was nice having to shovel the snow, reminded me of home, but it was tiring. It was heavy, wet snow compared to the light and fluffy kind but it was great. Got a picture of my house below if you want to look at it. This was taken after I had shoveled once already. When I went to school on Monday evening, I saw a bunch on snowmen and a snow cave next to the dorms and around campus. It’s always nice to know that college students can still be kids and have a great time with each other. More snow is predicted for this weekend so we might be seeing this again soon.

My house and car covered in snow! isn't it awesome!

Last week here at Embry Riddle was one of the most srtessful weeks I have yet had. With exams, homework and a lot of studying it was not pleasant. It almost flet like finals week all over agian. Luckily Friday came by quickely and to my amazement I ended up scoring a 100% on the Physics 2 exam I was so worried about. Also I feel that I did really well on my Calculus 2 exam however will not know for sure until this coming week. It sure was a good way to start the weekend knowing I did well on my exams. Friday night our fraternity had a formal social gathering which ended up being a lot of fun and the next morning we woke up to Prescott being pounded by a snowstorm! With the snow levels down at 4,000 ft. we accumulated a couple of inches of snow just this weekend! Unfortunately most of the snow will melt soon because of the temperatures. Saturday morning after breakfast everybody was outside running around having a great time in the snow with snowball fights, building snowmen, sleding and snowboarding on the soccer feild hill, drifting in the parking lots (Off-Campus), and much more. My friends and I grabbed our snowboards and headed to the soccer feild hill where we set up a couple kickers, benches, and jibs. We had such a great time just messing around in the snow relaxing and getting our minds off of school. Sunday we ended up doing the same thing however we went to a golf course by Prescott lakes and used a fairly large hill. Afterwards we went to method coffee and hung out for a little. Since we had monday off it was a day spent studying and doing homework. This weekend was so much fun hopefully we get another snowstorm come through Prescott soon!

Just got out of my CFI first oral at ERAU! CFI is the Certified Flight Instructor rating that will allow me to teach students and get paid to fly…finally. I really like the instructor I got, he seems to know a lot of his stuff and based on what we talked about today, I kinda wish I was taught his ways when I was learning to be a private pilot. Not going to lie, he definitely fueled my passion for flying even more. That’s one great thing here at Embry-Riddle, people have similar goals and we will push each other, and support each other in achieving these. I’m really excited to get going on all my other things. What is going to be interesting is flying from the right seat. I have a feeling it’s going to be really messy. Can’t wait for my sim tomorrow.

So I had a great opportunity this past Saturday. That was going to Sunrise Ski Resort in Pine Top, AZ for an awesome day of snowboarding. The really cool part about it was that it was a school planned trip! The Embry-Riddle Student Life department set up this trip by giving offering the students a ride and a lift ticket for only $50 total. This was really nice because one, I didn’t have to do the 4hr drive alone or with just a couple friends and two, it was really fun going up with 45 other ERAU students. We had a group of 7 seven people that stayed together (which I would have never been able to fit 7 in my car so that was nice to have a ride), which was fun because the more people, the merrier a time you’ll have I always say.

I really like how different organizations around campus plan these trips for students. This snowboarding/skiing trip was one of many that many other clubs and all do throughout the school year. This is just one of many ways for students to get their minds off of school and homework for a little while. After all, engineers, pilots, weather majors, and all other students have the right to have a life here at ERAU. The good part about this is that Embry-Riddle will provide those opportunities for you to have a life outside of studying. Never thought a university would do that for you at all. Anyways, snowboarding was a great time. Of course it’s nothing like the CO mountains (where I go and snowboard) but who would have thought that you could snowboard in AZ? Lol.

Well, it’s that time of year again… volleyball spring training!  Fun right?  Well this morning my team and I all went into the wrestling room and did P90X for about an hour.  Let me tell you… I am DEFINITELY going to feel that tomorrow.  We’re not in the Activity Center this week for practice because over Christmas break, a pipe (or pipes) broke and totally messed up our gym floor!  That’s not the only place that got hit with burst pipes… my apartment complex got hit too!  My friend’s pipes (who also lives in the complex) burst as well because Prescott is SOOO COOLLDDD!!  Luckily Lauren and my pipes were intact when we got back, but it hasn’t warmed up any since then!  The other day, it was 8 degrees.  NOT including wind chill.  I thought that my face was going to freeze off, but luckily it didn’t! 🙂

This is how ERAU looked over Christmas.  Luckily it isn’t AS cold now, but it’s pretty dang close!  Photo courtesy of Wynter Schneider Krisha.

On Tuesday, the cold did not stop people from going to the speaker at Embry-Riddle, who gave a speech on the “12 Steps to Diversity.”  I thought that the speaker, Mohammed Bilal, did a fantastic job.  Not only was he on Real World on MTV, his poems/raps were so deep and I loved what he had to say about the world all connecting on a more personal level.  I’m so glad that I braved the cold to listen to his speech.  It was SOO worth it!

Here was the advertisement for the speech.  And yes, there were drinks and cookies provided… oh I love ERAU.

“There is only one success – to spend your life your own way.”

-Christopher Morley