The semester is going to end pretty soon and so a lot of my friends are not going to be here next semester because they are graduating! On Thursday, the space Department gave their Detail Presentation. It was presided over by 4 judges. 2 of them were the faculty advisors and the remaining two were from the Industry itself. One of them was from NASA Dryden Research center, I believe. It was a great experience. You get to learn a lot of stuff and realize what freshmen have to expect. The scientific detail they go into in these presentations is amazing. I believe, it was a 100+ slide presentation. The questions asked by the judges were surely challenging. The seniors always used to say that the time the slides take is almost always less than the time taken during the question and answers sessions.
The Prelim & Detail Presentations of the Aero Department were conducted the next day. I couldn’t go for the Prelim presentations because I had an Economics Exam on Saturday. Adam’s team gave their Detail presentation today. It was a 170+ slide presentation and was surely exhaustive in detail. I liked their presentation and am pretty happy and excited that I too would get to do all of this in 3 years

The finals ended this Wednesday and it is high time for studies. I am pretty sure that I will have an A in Economics, MATLAB and Calculus. The two classes that are worrying me are Intro to Engineering and Physics 2. After a bad performance in the LTAV Competition, my grade just went down badly. I can make it up to an A but I will have to do really good in the finals. Everyone in my physics class has been striving real hard to get a good grade in this class. Since homework assignments count to 52% of the final grade each and everything counts to the final grade. A great final would change the tides, though. The final, itself, is 25% of the final grade.
I had the Economics Exam this Saturday, Calculus on Monday, Physics and Intro to Engineering on Tuesday

This was my first Thanksgiving ever and I should say that it was fantastic! Kevin’s parents invited me to their home for Thanksgiving. I was pretty excited about it. We got done with our classes on Tuesday and left for St. George, Utah at 5.15 PM. It was a long drive to Utah. So, we decided to stay at his uncle’s place for the night and continue with our drive to Utah in the morning. His uncle stays at Boulder City, right at the boundary of Las Vegas. I got to see Vegas as well! The city never sleeps for sure. It was amazing beyond words. I surely plan to make a trip down to Vegas later during the next year. We had a fun time at Kevin’s uncle’s place cracking up jokes all the time.
On Wednesday,After a sumptuous breakfast, we started our trip to Utah. First, we went to Kevin’s school, met his mentors, teachers and ROTC Officers. They were really proud of him and happy to see him again. Then, we headed to his home where we good some really good food. Shortly after having food, Kevin’s friend TJ came and we decided to go offroading. It was my first time on an ATV and I was scared and excited at the same time. It didn’t go too bad except that I almost broke my hand while making some huge air. Lesson learned: Watch Kevin and then do stuff..lol. It was an amazing experience. I think we went offroading for at least an hour. We came back home all muddy. I was in a complete mess. However, after a good shower and some more great food, everything was fine, good and amazing! Nothing else to do, we spent a lot of time playing ping-pong. Kevin did beat us all individually. However, when teamed up with Kevin’s Dad, we did beat him…badly .Finally, we all came around to play Aggravation! I was teamed up with Kevin’s Mom. We were too hard for all of them. We started with slightly annoying TJ and persistently annoying Kevin. The game was amazing. Later in the evening, TJ, Kevin and I went for a movie: The Transporter 3.
On Thursday, it was Thanksgiving. We woke up at 0900 since we were tired after the late movie. Kevin’s uncle, aunt and grandparents came for the huge, amazing and sumptuous lunch. Obviously, leftover was coming back with us to the college! We had a great lunch and the best desserts ever. We, then, played some classics NES Games and watched Ratatouille. Sporadic games of ping-pong was all day through. We did play basketball as well. Finally, we all came around to play Aggravation! I was teamed up with Kevin’s Mom. We were too hard for all of them. We started with slightly annoying everyone and persistently annoying Kevin. It was a close game and we won again. Yet again, we won and Kevin was aggravated. It was really hilarious! No wonder, I love that game.
On Friday, we went to his family ranch and got some Christmas trees. On the way back, we rode the ATV for at least an hour again. I splashed Kevin with mud twice. It was hilarious. We were too tired to anything. So, we went to sleep.
Saturday was the best day of all. We started off with go-karting, Mini Golf and video games. Kevin’s Dad and Jen, Kevin’s young sister, were flying. And then there was mini-golf. I still have the score card with me. It was my first time and I did beat everyone by 11 strokes. Ha ha, Kevin was aggravated this time as well. Then, we went to the Ultimate Pizza Factory and had some amazing food. Then, we went to play racquetball (squash). It was a great game. I didn’t knew we had this game on campus as well.
On Sunday, we went to the Mass and then drove back to college. Kevin’s Mom gave me a Christmas Gift and it was possibly the best gift I could. It was Aggravation! Ha ha. It was really a funny moment to observe the look at Kevin’s face. She also gave us a box of cashews

I’m so thankful finals are over! They weren’t as stressful as I was expecting, but I definitely did my fair share of studying.
Everywhere on campus students were stressing out about their Semester finals. The library was packed as people finished up papers, projects, presentation and last minute studying.
My COM 219 Speech final was a persuasion speech and a small analysis of the speech attached. I don’t know why, but I panicked when I had to give my speech and was very nervous. My speech was about the over medication of today’s youth. I had worked so hard on this speech, I literally did hours of research and felt confident about the subject, but when I stood in front of the class, I got so nervous I read my speech right of the paper and spoke so fast my speech was over in only about 3 minutes. I sat down feeling terrible about it, and stressed about it until I got my grade. But, it turns out the speech wasn’t as terrible as I had anticipated. Even though I was nervous, and did read too fast, I still got an A. I am so proud of myself; I am a much better speaker now than I was before, and feel much more confident in my abilities.
The BA201, Principles of Management final wasn’t much different than the normal exams, but it was a comprehensive final with extra short answer questions. I found the study guide extremely helpful, and I found myself constantly reading it. When it came time to take the test, I really was confident this time. It didn’t take me long, and I only faltered on one or two questions. At the end of the day, I aced that test also.
As always, I stressed out a lot over my PSY101 Intro to Psych final. The exams in that class, while difficult, helped me learn the material. It was one of my favorite classes and subjects, making the final less painful. It took a long time, and my hand cramped more than once, but I did well and was able to remember all of the material I had learned. Because I enjoyed that class so much, I am taking Social Pysch this Spring Semester, and I am really looking forward to it.
But, the final that stressed me out most was definitely my IT109 final. I am relatively skilled with computers, so I figured I could take the Intro to Computers class online. While the lessons were easy to learn, the assignments step by step and straightforward, and the professor more than willing to help, I struggled in that class, mostly due to laziness. (DON’T BE LAZY!!! I LEARNED THE HARD WAY!!) So when it came to the final, I knew I had to do well or it would be impossible to do better than a “C.

I just got done with our Thanksgiving break, and I have to say, I had an aboslutely amazing weekend, one I will never forget.
My dad and I had alot of people over to eat, we ended up roasting two turkeys and deep frying another (if you have never had a deep fried turkey, they are absolutely amazing!) We made five POUNDS of mashed potatoes and about another five pounds of stuffing. We had twelve people, mostly ERAU students who weren’t going home, over to eat, and almost everybody brought desert, and sadly, we were much too full to eat most of it.Two of the students brought their guitars with them and played music after dinner. The whole day was just so relaxing.
Friday morning after dinner my dad and I drove up to Chinle, Arizona. It’s a small town on the Navajo Reservation. Our close family friend and ERAU Alumnus Arlando invited is to go to his family reunion there.
It was a very long drive, but as soon as we got there we knew it was worth it. We drove through pieces of Monument Valley and went by Meteor Crater.
The family reunion was so nice, even though we aren’t related we felt completely welcome by the time we left.
Right outside of Chinle is Canyon De Chelly. The canyon is one of the most beautful places I have ever seen. It was breathtaking! You are only allowed into the bottom of the canyon if you have a Navajo guide with you, and Arlando was more than happy to show us around.
He drove us into the canyon and showed us his land and his family’s land. Right next to his mother’s land is a place called newspaper rock. It is a cliff face COVERED in pertoglyphs. It is something most people will never see, and I could have reached out to touch it.
Canyon de Chelly has been home to the Anasazi and Navajo for hundreds, even thousands of years. Ruins lined the canyon, some of them were up to three stories tall even after they had started to fall apart.
The drive out was hard. There was alot of quicksand, water and mud. At times we thought we weren’t going to get back without help, but the truck made it through. It looked pretty cool in the process too!
Later that night, we were honored with a special Blessing Way ceremony done by a medicine man. The entire family sang and prayed for us. Even though it was in another language, the pure emotion could be easily understood. They sang songs of protection, focus, healing and other things.
When the ceremony was over we went to something called a Yebiche dance. I believe it’s an ancient healing dance. The dancers wore traditional costumes with masks, fur, branches and ribbons hanging from their arms. There were singers in the Hogan singing all night. The entire ceremony was hypnotic.
It will always be one of my favorite memories, something I will never forget. I got to experience things most people will only read about.
At night the temperature dropped drastically, and the heater in our camper was broken! We were sleeping in a 35 degree trailer, which isn’t that bad, but definitely not comfortable. I had to used three sleeping bags and I layered alot. The mornings were even worse though.
On the way back to Prescott we stopped at the Little Painted Desert, which was beautiful as well.
So I’m finally home, and I have to get ready for my finals. It seems like everyone came home from break with some sort of sickness, and I am not the exception. It’s going to be hard to get back into focus, but not impossible. Wish me luck!

It is Wednesday before Thanksgiving and my family has been preparing for one of the biggest meals of the year. This is one meal I am definitely going to gain a couple of pounds. I don’t know if it’s just me but I;m not a big fan of turkey; always thought it was a little dry. Hopefully my family puts a lot of gravy on that.

The Denver Admissions Information meetings were awesome. I got to meet people really interested into coming to ERAU. I didn’t do much, I only helped with the check in and answering questions at the end of the meeting. It’s cool getting to talk to people and realize that it wasn’t too long ago when I was looking for the right college for me.

Jeni Borge, the Admissions counselor, and Jared Testa, the Chief Flight instructor, were the ones that brought me along on this trip. I was really grateful as if it wasn’t for them, I would not have been able to come home for Thanksgiving. got to see my family for the first time since June.
It was a really fun trip and I am glad I got to go. Jeni and Jared had a lot of fun also. They really liked my mom’s home cooking. Anyways, go to clean the house for tomorrow; fun right?

The semester is reaching its end really soon. The topics in each class are almost over. A fun filled Thanksgiving break at Kevin’s place and a week filled with tension, confusion before the exams awaits me. I hope I start of this semester with a good GPA. We have a MATLAB Exam for which I have to actually start studying. I have been goofing around all weekend.
I have got 17 credits transferred and thus I might graduate in 3.5 years. This is how my schedule looks like for the next semester:
Technical Report Writing
Physics 3 with Lab
Calc 3
Statics
Computer Aided Design (CAD)
That is a total of 17 credits. I am pretty excited for the next semester for CAD and Statics. Physics 3 should be easy as I have done the course already in my high school. This semester I did make a considerable variety of things. I just hope the grades reflect the same. I got one of the most sought after job, The Machine Shop Lab Monitor, as a freshman. I would be a sophomore in my 2nd semester. I tested out of Physics 1 and Calc 1. Our team for the EGR 101 Robotic Competition did a really good job and we were asked specially to showcase our robot during the Open House. I will be starting off an independent study on airfoils with Dr. Traub. I have got a head start by procuring the required journals and have been reading them. I also managed to get into the Structures Team for the Jet Dragster project and I have been working on Solidworks to figure out a way to make weldments in it and create curved tubes so that we can a have a digital design of the chasis and the complete dragster so that we can run analysis tests on the computer to figure out the crush zones and work to improvise them.
I am leaving with Kevin to Utah on Tuesday evening for Thanksgiving. I am pretty sure that we are going to have a really good time. We are planning on the playlist for our 6 hour road trip to his home. After a really good time, we would be back at our dorms preparing for a lot of exams and tests that are scheduled for the first two weeks of December. I would be done with my exams on December 11 and would be off to Oklahoma City for a really good Christmas break with my cousins and would be back at the campus for my second semester on the 6th January. The classes begin on 7th December so I hope that my flights do not get delayed.
It’s really late right now. To be exact it’s 12.50 AM. I would need to wake up tomorrow early for church followed by rigorous MATLAB study.
Sayonara!

The Saturday was a lot of fun. I got up really late because I was exasperated with all the things that happened on Friday. Besides, I worked an additional 5 hours at the machine shop too. So, I woke up after a long good sleep at 10 AM. I went ahead and checked my planner and realized that the books I took from the library were to be returned yesterday. I ran to the Library and reissued the three books.
At the library, the thought struck me that I didn’t had MS Office because I had formatted my hard drive this week and was working with Open Office. So, I got a free copy of MS Office 2007 from the Library. Then, I made a sprint to check my mailbox. It was 11.30 AM by then, so I decided to stop by Chartwells to have my breakfast and lunch combo

Our LTAV Competition was this Friday and our team royally sucked at it with a 84 where the maximum score was 180. It is still a B though. I expected much better and wanted much better score too

It’s time for Spring ’09 registration and everyone is stressing out. It honestly is like a race for classes. The College of Arts and Sciences requires that all of its students see their advisor before they can register for classes online. This is because they really want students to see their advisors at least once a semester and keep communication open.
I guess I didn’t pay enough attention to my emails and reminders, because I had no idea about any of this.
My roommate Kim even woke me up this morning yelling at me to register, and I stressed out along with everyone else; not only do I not have a major yet, I had no idea what classes what I wanted to take! I went to see my advisor, and she helped out alot. Everytime I have been to see her she’s shown me all of my options and really worked with me to get what I needed.
I have all afternoon classes again, which really works out great for me considering my sleep schedule. I’m also planning to get an on campus job, which would mean I need a block of time designated for work, so having all afternoon classes really helps.
I am taking 15 credit hours (5 classes): Business Communications, Social Psychology, Intro to Geography, Arabic and Middle Eastern Culture and Micro Economics. Most of these classes seem interesting or helpful to me, so next semester should be really good.
Everyone keeps asking me about my major. I am part of the small percentage of students on campus who are Still Exploring (undecided) and I am having alot of trouble choosing a major. right nwo I am going back and forth between GSIS and ASP. The three minors I would choose in ASP would be Business, Psychology and Arabic Studies. The only problem with that is, I don’t know what path to take after college with those.
Today definitely gave me alot to think about!