As of two weeks ago, (more or less), I have officially survived my freshman year of college.  Now I’m a sophomore!  WOO HOO!!  Since I have so much experience under my belt now, (as I roll my eyes sarcastically), I would like to throw out a few things that I have learned in this past year.  Here are ten easy tips that can help all of you upcoming students survive YOUR first year at Embry-Riddle.

Tip #1:  If you are living in the dorms, make sure that you or one of your future suitemates brings a vacuum, broom, dustpan, etc.  You WILL need them sooner or later (it’s your choice if it’s sooner, or later.  My advice?  Sooner.)  Listen to your mom about this stuff.  She’s right.  (And don’t think that if you’re a girl, your room won’t get dirty.  Girls’ dorms were typically just as bad or worse than the boys’ dorms.)  If you decide to ignore these essentials, bring Plan B: a gas mask and rubber gloves.  You’ll need them.  Trust me.

Tip #2:  DO YOUR HOMEWORK.  End of story.

Tip #3:  Chartwell’s is delicious the first week.  Don’t be fooled.  As soon as all the parents leave, you’ll be going to Fry’s to get Ramen and Easy Mac because you’ll get sick of the same thing every day.

Tip #4:  Go do something fun every once in a while.  Hike the Dell’s, go check out downtown Prescott, see a movie, go out to eat with your suitemates; do something fun to help you get adjusted better.  The more you get to know the town and your suitemates, the more comfortable you’ll be.

Tip #5:  If you’re going to burn your food, PLEASE, for the sake of everyone living in your hall, DO NOT WAIT UNTIL TWO THIRTY IN THE MORNING TO TRY TO MAKE IT!!  If you don’t know how to make Ramen or Mac and Cheese, practice now.  The rest of us, er, your hall, would really appreciate not waking up and having to go out in the snow in the wee hours of the morning due to a fire alarm set off by stupidity.

Tip #6:  Get to know the people around you.  Your neighbors down the hall, the kids in your Psychology class, your professors, everyone you possibly can.  The more people you know, the better off you’ll be in the end.  (Especially when you need help in your Psych class… you’ll always have someone to call!)

Tip #7:  Cheap toilet paper is no where as good as expensive toilet paper, but they’re much better than paper towels.  However, if you’re going to use paper towels, DO NOT FLUSH.  Bad things happen.  True story.  Don’t ask.

Tip #8:  Make sure to have a planner.  Even if you don’t write anything down, it’s fun to doodle on it when you’re bored in class!  In high school, I never ever used a planner, because my teachers always told me when the assignments were due.  Professors at ERAU expect you to be an adult and be prepared, so you’re on your own.  Having a planner makes it easy to stay on top of things and turn in assignments when they’re due.

Tip #9:  Flexi dollars disappear at the end of the semester, and don’t carry over to the next one.  Use it all!  And if you haven’t used it all and there’s a week left, splurge.  It’s finals week: you deserve it.  I didn’t know they didn’t carry over until it was finals week, so I got loads of ice cream, chips, and sandwiches just in time for my finals.  It worked!

Tip #10:  And last, but not least: this first year goes by so fast.  Some of it you’ll be miserable, some of it you’ll want to never end, but none of it will last forever.  So enjoy it while you got it!  You’ll be glad you did. 🙂

Now there is no school, what does a college student do?! Even on applications and forums “student” is listed as a career! Why?! Because we dedicate and spend all our time studying, in classes, doing homework- so it really is our “career” in this part of our life. Now when you are on “leave” in a career it gets boring unless you find places to go, things to do, people to see! So, that is exactly what I am doing.

If any of you ever follow on my blogs, you will know that I work for an elderly lady (87 years of age) in the Phoenix area; but she had 3 strokes recently and left to Texas to reside withher daughter for a while. Her daughter set up many therapy appointments for her mother, but she is a lawyer who is busy almost 24/7. It is hard for her to drop her work to pick up her mother and take her to these appointments, but they are necessary for her mother to recover, so that is where I come in. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be there last month due to school, but this month westarted talking about my summer vacation and what my plans were. Initially I was headed to Cali this month for friends, family, and a baptismal on May 29th, but after talking to Annette (the daughter) I realized she really needed help with all the errands and incidentals. I had already told her I was going to California, so instead of having her mom come back to Phoenix and get appointments here, she booked all the appointments in Texas for the month of May. I called her back and told her if she needed me this month more, that I could be free and just take my trip in June. We decided that someone recovering from strokes would need someone that they are familiar with to be around her and it was more vital for me to be there with her now instead of later. Annette then told me to pack up and she was going to fly me out to Texas. It took a few stressful and confusing days, but I am now here since last night. It is pretty amazing here. She resides in Plano, Texas. There are A LOT of police officers around, and since there in minimal crime, they are instead very strict with all driving laws. (One must resist any temptation to go even one mile over the speed limit!) It is also quite muggy outside since a huge storm is supposed to be coming this way. (A thunder storm that we got to flew through to get here- that was pretty neat) I am staying with Annette, her mother Mavis, and her daughter Sade. I have my own room and pretty much own restroom here. They treat me like family and enjoy taking care of Mavis and helping make Annette’s life a bit smoother. Sade is my age, she also had her first year in college this year. She is majoring in Psychology. We have many things in common and it is nice to have someone to talk to, especially during appointments and such. (otherwise I would be waiting alone for Mavis to be done).

Today there was only one appointment which was physical therapy from 11am-noon. Mavis had to do the bicycle for a while, do leg exercises, and walk around a lot. Afterwards we (Sade and I) took her home, made lunch, and then went back out to get the car washed. We came home at about 3pm and we crashed! I didn’t get to sleep until about 4-5 and woke up around 6-6:30. I have been so tired because I have been restless for about a week now. And the night before the plane trip, I had not one minute of sleep. I was up ALL night and my body would not let me sleep, it was frustrating. Although I realize now hoe much you can get done without sleep 😉  I cleaned, packed, organized, planned, and went through all my bills and papers lying around. It was very relieving to get so much done even though all the lack of sleep is catching up to me now!

Well, I got a busy day tomorrow, (today~ it’s almost 1 am here in Texas) so I’ll go ahead and stop talking. I’ll probably write more in a few days to update and add anything I left out. I hope everyone is having a great summer! Take care! 🙂

So this last month has been pretty hectic, but a lot of fun! When I came back from Spring Break it really took me a while to get back into the swing of things, but that break was exactly what I needed! Because when I got back to business, my head was, for the first time this year, completely into school! I worked and studied pretty hard and really enjoyed and appreciated my days off in between.

I would have to say my favorite class from this semester was Psychology! I know many students do not enjoy the course, whether it’s the professor, or perhaps just the subject; I absolutely love the course! I have always been interested in Psychology and Anatomy. Human mind and body are fascinating things to study. My favorite part of this course was the dream/sleep segment. I knew that if I ever got into psychology, I would be studying dreams and the sleep cycle! Professor Lohn was an amazing teacher, in my opinion. I think she is very brilliant and I could tell how much she really loved psychology by the way she described and taught every lesson. Taking her course, (and reminiscing from my high school class of psychology) I have been thinking about double majoring now. Although Psychology is not offered as a major here, it is a minor. I may decide to minor instead, but I already had 3 other minors I wanted (Economics, Environmental Studies, and Astronomy). I guess I’ll just have to think this through.

Anyways, this semester was great! I ended up with a higher GPA this time~ 3.75. Which means I will make Dean’s List again!!! YAY! I am pretty happy! All my hard work (at least at the last half of the courses) paid off! I got A’s in Psychology, Computers, and Humanities. I got a B++++ (so close to an A!) in Public Administration. 300-level class, not too bad for a Freshie, huh? 😉

Oh and I also wanted to mention Preview Day. I know others already did, but I took a picture and wanted to share it!

So I have two weeks to waste before my internship in Atlanta starts. I already found housing and have everything in place. I am staying with a current Delta employee in one of the rooms that he rents for the seasonal interns. I only ay $350 for everything so it’s a great deal! And I get my own room!

Anyways, the drive home was a long one. I had stayed up all night the night before so I decided to postpone the drive by 12 hours. I ended up leaving at 11pm, which was not that smart but whatever right? Lol. I drove all through the night, slept at a couple of rest stops and finally made it home. But what was interesting about the drive was when I was approaching Denver.

I drove through Durango, Fairplay, and Morrison to finally end up in Denver. Between Fairplay and Morrison, it was snowing. Yes snowing! It was the first week of May and it was still snowing. I seriously thought I was driving back for Winter Break. It was like blizzard type blowing snow so it was a little sketchy but nevertheless, awesome! My Subaru really liked it! Anyways, made it home just fine and only a week and a half left for my internship to start.

This is how bad the drive looked. Not the worst but it was awesome!

As my caption says, I have an internship with Delta Air Lines this summer. I was a lot of work trying to get it but ERAU really helped me out. Career Services was always behind me, and pushing for me to get it and I got it!

You should have seen me when I first got the phone call for a phone interview. I was driving back to campus from a flight and I went crazy. Good thing no one was in the car or around me, or it would have been embarrassing! Lol. I did my interview and the next day was invited for a personal interview. Delta flew me all the way out to Atlanta for this and then put me on a plane back the same day. It was a long day and felt good about my interview but still unsure.

About a week later, I was having lunch with a friend when I got a call from an unknown number. I thought it was strange since I never get calls from unknown numbers so I picked up. It was Delta. I almost choked on my lunch when I heard the news. My friend described me as a kid during Christmas. Here I was, a 21 year old in the middle of the Student Union wanting to scream and jump around like a little girl in a Jonas Brothers concert. Sounds ridiculous I know but I had worked so hard for this and finally got it! Now all that was left to do is get all of the hiring paperwork done.

Background check, drug test, fingerprinting, all that had to be done. I had to drive to Phoenix for my fingerprints. It was a little bit of a hassle but it had to get done so one day after my final, I hopped in my car and drove to Phoenix, not before stopping to a nutritious meal for energy; a Chipotle Burrito! J. Anyways, got to the airport and met the lady for the fingerprints.

She took me a way that I got to see the behind the scenes of baggage handling and onto the Tarmac. I could literally could have walked up to an A320 nose and touch it! I didn’t because I didn’t want to get in trouble but really wanted to!

Fingerprints were done and now for the drive back to Prescott, but not before getting dinner and the lunch for the next day again at Chipotle! I have lived in Denver for 11 years and love Chipotle. I saw it grow from when it was just a locally owned store until it became a giant public company. Anyways back to my internship. So all was done and now all I had to do is wait for the day to travel to Atlanta.

This was the snow that was left on my car about a day before I left for my vacation<3

I'm not sure why, but I absolutely love snow~ so this was an exciting time for me!

To me, this is beauty. I have never been raised around snow, so it is so beautiful to me.

Look at the fields of snow! *Giddy dance*

I was then off to Cali~ about a 4.5 hour drive. I actually went really late Thursday night and ended up getting to my grandma’s at about 11pm. It was a lot of fun though since I LOVE night driving. The first night I went to my grandma’s in Fontana and stayed there for about week. I was in and out of her place though because my sister and brother-in-law live about 15 minutes away!! The first Saturday out there I went to Disneyland with my sis and bro-in-law. They also set me up with a blind date~ believe it or not, he was actually pretty fun! We had a great time and I ended up getting a free ticket, so it was a lot of fun! I then decided to drive to San Diego to get away from family and go to the beach and see a friend of mine, Cody. 🙂 It was a lot of fun being there, I have only been to San Diego about twice, so MORE pictures!

Home Sweet Home! This is my drive in Cali, headed to San Diego.

This is my friend Cody and I in San Diego! He lives right off the shore.

I love Cody's face here, and funny enough~ we ran into the man in the background on our way back from the beach!

What a beautiful ocean and what an awesome friend

After that week I then went and resided with a close friend of mine in Sky Valley- Palm Springs area. I got to  meet up with a lot of my childhood friends, some I have not seen in more than a year! It was great. I also got to meet up with my mentor~ a retired pilot that I got in contact with through one of the scholarships I received. He and his wife were amazing and so very helpful and encouraging. They gave me wise words of advice and are trying to help me get more money/scholarships so I can start my flight lessons!<3

This is my mentor, Marty. He is a great mentor and we took this in front of Mimi's Cafe for lunch

I must say, it was such a relief to get away from reality for a while. Get away from studying, books, homework, work, drama, exes, and boys in general. I loved being with my friends and family. It was an amazing trip and I absolutely enjoyed it and needed it!

This past week has been extremely hectic, what with finals, studying, cramming like I’ve never done before, and of course… BLACKLIGHT VOLLEYBALL!  One of the fraternities on campus, Pi Kappa Phi, held their first annual Blacklight Volleyball Tournament to help raise funds for the Push America foundation, a charitable organization that was founded by a Pi Kappa Phi alumni.  Some girls on my school volleyball team and I decided to have a go at it, so we created a team called “Neon Phenomenon.”  We decorated our white shirts with puffy paint and glow-in-the-dark business and went to the activity to have a great time and meet new people.  There were probably seven or eight teams that showed up to play.  Pi Kappa Phi had transformed the Activity Center into a blacklight and glow-in-the-dark party zone!  All the lights that were on were glowing purple, and there was nothing visible save the net (decorated with glow-in-the-dark streamers and stars), white t-shirts, and the highlighting graffiti that were all over everyone’s arms and faces.

Here’s a glimpse of what it looked like!

Anna, Kelsey, and I in our killer uniforms (in which we won the costume contest!!).

You can’t tell, but we wrote “Neon Phenomenon” on the front with our “numbers” on the back.  Since all the rest of my team are engineers and meteorologists, they thought it’d be cool to make our numbers math signs.  Anna was pi, Kelsey was infinity, Sylvia was i (imaginary), Shaw was some binary number, Mahlet was a whole freaking equation that equalled seven, and I was mu.  Hahaha.  Only at Riddle….

D kept score on a fancy lit up board.

And of course, people just came to watch and dance.  Teri and Gianna came, and it was nice of them to cheer for our team! 🙂

That was a great way to start off finals week.  The day after that, Friday, I spent twelve hours in the library to get ready for Saturday.  It was an insanely long day, obviously!  But I think I did well on my finals, both on Saturday and yesterday, so I’m ready to get my last two out of the way today so I can pack up my room and clean out our dorm!  Summer’s almost here, baby!

“Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.”

-William James

This past week, our school was turned into a huge warzone.  Zombies, with their headband bandanas, and humans armed with Nerf guns and balled up socks, with bandanas around their arms, prowled the campus.  Everywhere you looked, someone was either running after someone or being shot with a Nerf bullet.  It was SOOOO.  Much.  Fun!!  The rules: zombies try to get as many “kills” as they possibly can, so they don’t starve.  (Zombies starve after forty eight hours without a kill.)  Humans try to avoid zombies at all costs, but if they happened to be attacked, they were allowed to shoot or throw socks at the zombies, stunning them for fifteen minutes.  I felt like I should have been in an action movie, with the way everyone was strategizing and ninja-rolling and shooting!  At the end of the second day, unfortunately, my very own teammate Shaw tagged me!  She was the original zombie, spreading the “infection” everywhere she went.  It was so fun to be a zombie though!  For one, I wasn’t scared out of my socks (literally) whenever I walked around campus, and two, all the zombies strategized and coordinate to try to get the remaining humans as they came out of class and Chartwell’s.  It got INTENSE.  Overall, it was a great way to get to know people and relieve stress right before finals! 

Here are about twenty zombies waiting outside a math classroom for one human.  I’m the one on the cement to the left who is standing on the sidewalk, arms crossed, waiting to pounce on her prey.  Hehe.  Unfortunately, after an hour of waiting for this kid (since we weren’t allowed to tag him inside), he escaped as our backs were turned.  So, super-ninja-human guy, kudos to you.  Touche.

That was one of the best times that I’ve had at Riddle, and it is probably going to be a semesterly thing.  So any of you prospective students out there reading this, make sure you come prepared! 🙂

This past weekend, after the humans won the game, I went to the comedian and then dinner with my friends Teri, Will, Chris, Andrew, Gianna, Tony, and John.  We went to Bill’s Pizza on Whiskey Row, and had a blast.  We then decided to go see a movie afterwards, so we decided to go see “The Losers”.  I thought that it was a pretty good movie.  That was a good night!  The next day, my institute was having a BBQ and kickoff for summer at Watson Park.  We had water balloons, capture the flag, ultimate frisbee, and more games!  It was a BLAST!   The weather was beautiful, so afterwards, my friends Katie and Tyler and I all went and hiked some of the rocks there at Watson Lake.  The view was amazing, and we weren’t the only ones who decided a nice little hike would be fun.  The rocks were teeming with students who wanted to just get out.

Here are the Dells at Watson Lake.  Beautiful, right?  And we went at sundown.  Perfect timing.  <3

Many movies with best friends and many fun activities later (dang, I’ve done a lot since Saturday!), I’m sitting in my room trying to put off studying for my finals, which at this point, I really can’t avoid anymore.  So until next time, adieu!

“Friendship isn’t a big thing- it’s a million little things.”

-Author Unknown

These are the pictures from a student project in our Experimental Space Systems class (a second semester junior level class for students in the aerospace engineering astro track).  Our class was divided into groups and each group was assigned to make a student payload.  One of the requirements of our team’s payload was to take pictures during flight.  All of these payloads were attached to a weather balloon by a tether and launched from the lower fields on campus last Thursday at 9 in the morning.

The Balloon ascended through layers of the atmosphere until it reached just over 93,000 ft, which (if I’m not being a total blonde) is about 17.6 miles high, before it burst and began to fall again (with a parachute of course).

Our payloads landed in rough wilderness about 30 miles away from campus on the side of a mountain and it took a team of brave students about 7 hours of hiking to retrieve it.

Here are what I consider to be the best pictures from our balloon Launch.  They start with pictures from before the balloon reached the cloud level then go between we were between cloud levels, and the final pictures are taken basically on the edge of space (well kinda, but not really).

Notice the time stamp in the corner.  By that you can judge how fast the balloon is rising.  We think the camera stopped working between 50,000 and 60,000 feet (probably because the camera was too cold despite our heater), but the pictures at that point are still amazing.

Enjoy!

This past week has been filled with friends and fun from both my church and my school.  On April 10, my Young Single Adult (YSA) ward and I traveled to Flagstaff to compete in a 9 stake volleyball tournament!  It was sooo much fun!!  We all carpooled (I drove one of the cars) down to the Institute up in Flag and had breakfast, played against other teams formed from people that go to NAU, had a dance later that night, and just had a great time meeting new people from around the state.  Since I took my own car there, I was also able to go and hang out with one of my good friends from Pinetop, Becky Beus!  She was sweet enough to let me hang out with her at her place and get ready there so I wouldn’t look like crap at the dance.  It was great catching up with her and meeting all of her roommates who also go to NAU.  Here are some random pics from the day:

Here’s me setting Andrew, who was on my team and also goes to Riddle.

The team on the left is our Prescott team; the one on the right is a team from Flagstaff.

I had so much fun with everyone in my ward and getting to hang out with Becky just made it that much better!! <3

Yesterday, a week from when I went to Flagstaff, I worked Student Preview Day with all the other students who work in Admissions.  I had a fun time working it, seeing all the prospective students coming through with their parents and siblings just like I did exactly one year ago!  And the circle of life continues…

The whole campus was teeming with high school seniors and their families, coming to see ERAU.  The weather was GORGEOUS, there were balloons everywhere, and there were even helicopters in front of the Activity Center and on the softball field! (Or baseball field, whichever you prefer.  I prefer softball personally.  🙂 )

I was lucky, and Steven Leon and I got to give away free T-shirts to all the students who came through the Lower Hangar to see all the clubs in the Club Fair.  There were so many clubs, including the sororities/fraternities, the Underwater Robotics Club, the Sweatervest Club, the Music Club, and so much more.  The choir was singing, the band was playing, and there was just a great community atmosphere.  We had a BLAST doing it.  I’ll admit, things got a little crazy, and that’s what makes it fun!  Here’s a pic of our CRAZINESS.

We took a picture with Ernie the Eagle so we could blog about it.  VOILA.

And that is basically what has happened in the past two weeks!  Fun stuff, let me tell ya!

“What you see is what you get.”
– Flip Wilson