April 20, 2006
Hey all!
Well, only a few days left for the semester, and I am so ready to be done! I have tons of projects and tests and important things coming up so I will be very busy in the next week and a half. I will be staying for the summer A session, and I will be going home at the end of June, and Kenny will be staying with me in Minnesota until after the 4th of July. Yay! I went to Port St. Lucie again with him this past weekend for Easter and I had a blast. He has seven younger cousins that I love to hang out with, and I got to meet his parents and younger brother and sister from Virginia this time, too. This was my first Easter without snow, so I really enjoyed the egg hunt outside and the pool and the nice weather.
 The weekend before was my formal for Tri-Sigma (the Buccaneer's Ball), and Kenny's formal for his fraternity (Sigma Alpha Epsilon), called the Lion's Ball. We went to both in the same night, and we had lots of fun dancing and taking pictures. At the Lion's Ball, Kenny got the True Gentleman Award and I am so proud of him! I just wish I hadn't stepped out of the room just before it was awarded to him so I could have seen him get it!
I just got my placement letter for the RA class and I am going to be an RA in McKay next year. I was thrilled because this was my first choice, and I was very grateful because I also found out that only half of my class was hired. So, if any of you that are reading this and are going to be a freshman in McKay next year, I might be your RA! Drop me an email!
Have a great summer!
~Sara
April 4, 2006
Hey all!
Well, time is flying by and we have less than a month to go for the spring semester. I have two weeks left of my Resident Advisor class, and then I will find out if I am going to be an alternate or if I will have my own hall of residents in the fall. Also, I registered for the Summer A term, which means I will be staying here until the end of June. I will be taking Calculus III and Statics, which is 7 credits. My schedule from May until the end of June is MTWThF 9:30-1:45 (yuck!). (At least I will be able to get enough credits out of the way to be a junior this fall and not completely ruin my summer!)
Kenny has been sick lately, so I have been busy taking care of him. I don’t mind at all because I love staying at his apartment. It’s so quiet there compared to the dorms, plus he has a kitchen where I can cook (I miss cooking at home so much!). I don’t spend much time in my dorm room anymore because I am at his place all the time.
Well, the weather has been getting super nice and I hope I have a chance to go to the beach sometime. I will have to see if I can find the time with all these projects, tests, and papers!!
Have a Great Day!
~Sara
March 23, 2006
Hey all!
Last week was sooo busy! We all had lots of tests and projects and papers due. Our professors treated this past week like it was finals week. At least I had a whole week off to be excited for, and right now I'm writing this from Kenny's grandparents' house in Port St. Lucie, Florida (about 2 hours south of Daytona). I'm  having a blast here because this is my first spring break in three years!! (Since I went to college the last two years of high school, my college spring breaks were never at the same time as my high school spring breaks).
We have been here since Friday after school, and we have just been relaxing and going to the beach most days. His family is awesome, and he has the cutest little cousins. The picture of us on the left was taken a few minutes ago when he was just dorking around haha.
Have a great break!
~Sara
March 8, 2006
Hey all!
Tons of things have changed these past few weeks. It turns out that I will be staying here for spring break after all. I made the decision to change my plane ticket and get my money back for several reasons. First of all, I will have several major projects to work on, and I really don't want to waste my time at home working on them. Also, the weather is getting much nicer down here lately, and most of my friends are staying here over break. (It is Daytona Beach!!) Plus, I will be home in just over a month anyway, and I'm really not as homesick as I was last semester.
My classes are going really well. The only two classes I don't have an A in are physics and engineering drawing, but that doesn't bother me right now because no one really does.
 As for relationships, Doug just simply didn't work out. The reasons are complicated and too personal for an online journal, but things were just getting worse and worse all the time. Then, to add a little more drama, (haha) I have a new boyfriend! His name is Kenny and he is 22 years old, and he goes to school here at Embry-Riddle. (The picture on the right is him.) It may seem like it's too soon for all this, but Kenny is just too good of a match to pass up. He is the most perfect gentleman, he can cook like no other, and we have so many things in common it's scary. Most importantly, we share the exact same beliefs as far as religion. Right now, I am just following my heart. I just hope it all works out for the best.
Have a great day!!
~Sara
February 24, 2006
Hi Everyone!
These past two weeks have been really busy, and some great things have happened and some not so great. My birthday was on Friday, and my sisters threw me a big party. It was tons of fun, but I still missed being home on my birthday. I also got accepted into the RA class, which means I will be either a resident advisor or an alternate resident advisor. I did well on my physics test, and my professor sent me an email telling me that my score was well above average, and that he could tell that I had been working hard. As for the bad news, I haven't been able to sleep at all lately, and I've been having problems with Doug. I really want to make it work because he is coming here in the fall.
The Daytona 500 was today, and me and Marjory could hear the race from our window. Traffic was so bad this whole week that no one wanted to go anywhere. We tried to go to Carrabba's (an italian restaurant in town) one night this week, but there was a two hour wait.
Well, I have only 27 days left to go before my flight home in March for spring break. I can't believe how much quicker this semester is going by compared to last semester. I also really hope we will get some better weather so I can get some sun at the beach before I go home!
Have a great day!
~Sara
February 9, 2006
Hey all!
What happened to January!? It just whizzed by in a flurry of school and homework and Sigma and a bunch of other things. I've been really stressed out lately with too many things going on at once and not enough sleep.
Anyways, some of my classes are going better than others. I switched my computer programming professor and it has made a HUGE difference with everything. I actually understand my new professor and I like programming now too! It's so unbelievable how much influence a professor can have on the subject matter. I am struggling the most in physics right now because I haven't had nearly as much physics as the rest of the people in my class, and I am busy playing catch-up. My machine shop lab is awesome- no homework and it's all hands on! Right now I'm building an airfoil out of composite materials.
 We are now recruiting again for Sigma, so we are having a bunch of different recruitment events to meet potentials. I am also the new community service chair, so I basically find volunteer stuff for us to do. Things still haven't quite settled down yet from installation, so we are still really busy. On the right is a picture of me and my roommate, Marjory at the installation banquet. (Yes, now that I know I can add pictures I will!)
I made it to the next round of the R.A. selection process, and it looks like about half of us are going to be cut during the next round so my chances aren't that great. I plan to just keep being myself, and if they don't think I'm the right person for the job, then I will just accept that.
Have a great day!
~Sara
January 12, 2006
Hi Everyone!
I can't believe semester break has come and gone already! It feels like I just got here and now I am leaving to go back to Daytona tomorrow morning. I needed that break more than anything. It was great to see my family and friends again, sleep in my own bed, take a hot bath, drive my car, play in the snow, get waited on at the restaurant I used to work at, watch football with my grandpa, and especially spend time with Doug. I saw him nearly every chance I had over break. We especially had fun driving to Minneapolis to go to the Mall of America, Zoo Year's Eve, movies, and going out to eat. I wish I could stay an extra week but I couldn't change my plane ticket. So, I leave tomorrow morning for a full day of traveling. (I don't get into Daytona until 10pm!) Classes start on Wednesday with a three day weekend after so I will have time to get settled again and back into study mode. I am hoping this semester will be much better than the last one, and I am so happy that I will only be away from home for two months instead of four this time.
December 16, 2005
Hey Everyone!
Yesterday I finished my last finals and I am going home in the
morning! I am so excited! I have been so busy lately and really
stressed out. Even though I had only two finals, I still had
projects and presentations and papers due this week. I was the
most nervous for chemistry because the final exam was worth so
much that my B could become as high as an A or as low as a D
with that one test!!! Ahh! And Dr. Cameron said it happened to
someone last year! I studied for a long time to make sure it
didn't happen to me. Calculus was my second and last final, and
I think I did really well on it. Some of my grades are already
posted, and it looks like I will have a 4.0 unless I really screwed
up my chemistry final (which I think I did). That's ok because
I am just so happy to be going home after all this time!
Friday night my sorority had our Christmas party, and I brought
my Polish friend Bartosz as my date. We had so much fun. Today
I am just packing up, doing laundry, and getting ready to go
home. My friend Danny is babysitting my fish (Ruby) for me over
break. Danny lives close to ERAU so he is driving home. I can't
take a fish home with me on the plane, but otherwise I would.
I already have lots of plans for break, and I will be writing
about them for my next journal in January. Our second semester
begins Wednesday, Jan. 11 th , but I may be coming back late
because I want to go to a dance on Sat. Jan. 14 th . We also
have no school on Mon. Jan 16 th , so I could stay almost an
entire extra week and only miss three days of class. I will have
to email my professors to make sure that I won't miss too much.
At least it will be nice to have snow for Christmas and then
come back to sunny, hot Daytona Beach J
Well, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!
~Sara
December 1, 2005
Hi Everyone!
I stayed here for Thanksgiving break and so did my roommate. We were the only people in our hallway that stayed over break. It was so quiet around here and we got to just relax, catch up on homework, watch movies, and go shopping. We went tanning and shopping the day after Thanksgiving (which was crazy!), and we decorated our hallway for Christmas. It was fun, but I really wish I could have gone home instead. I’m getting so homesick. I can’t wait to get on my plane back to Minnesota in only two weeks! We only have eight days of class left, but I have a million things to do in those eight days. I have so many tests, papers, presentations, and finals.
My sorority is going well. I was so nervous for the new member’s ceremony, but it turned out to be okay. We are technically just a colony right now because we have only 39 members. As soon as we have 40 we can get officially installed (probably in January). I love being in a group on campus that is GIRLS ONLY! Seriously, I wanted to be in the Society of Women Engineers and Women in Aviation but guys join that too! They are everywhere!
Next semester I will be taking physics, physics lab, calculus II, machine shop laboratory, engineering drawing, and computing for engineers. The only classes I am worried about are physics and computing for engineers. I got smarter this time and I went to ratemyprofessors.com because the professor can make a world of difference in how painful a class is. I got some really great professors next semester. I have been told that they are very helpful and clear in their explanations, and I am looking forward to it!
Have a Great Day!
Sara
November 17, 2005
Hi Everyone!
The semester is going by so fast that I just can’t believe it! My flight home is already just a month away! I can’t wait to see my family and friends and especially Doug. I’ve been getting really homesick lately, but I found that the best cure for being homesick is to do something fun. My roommate, Marjory, and I like to go to Olive Garden for lunch once in a while and to the mall just to be girly. We live in a man’s world down here with so many guys on campus. Oh! That reminds me! Marjory and I are going to be official members of the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority on Monday. (That’s when the new member’s ceremony is). I never thought I wanted to be in a sorority until I went to the Tri-Sigma ice-cream social and I had a blast! They made my laugh so hard and I love hanging out with just girls for a change too.
My classes are going really well. I don’t know what my current grade is in most of my classes, but I’m sure I have an A or a B for all of them. Chemistry is still my hardest class, but at least I’ve learned a ton in that class.
Well, I think I will be staying here for Thanksgiving break so I can study for finals. I wish I could go home but it’s not worth the time and money for such a short break, especially when I am coming home only two weeks after Thanksgiving. But, I’m really looking forward to five days of no class. Marjory is staying over Thanksgiving too, so I think we will find some fun things to do. I hope the weather will be nice so we can head to the beach and go home tan!
Have a Great Day!
~Sara~
November 3, 2005
Hi Everyone!
Wow! So many things have been going on around here lately. On Monday classes were cancelled because of Hurricane Wilma, (which was so much fun!!), and so we only had three days of class this week. (We got Friday off because of homecoming.) My roommate and I were asked to have our room on the list for tours during open house, which meant we had to clean it and “disappear” for the day. So, we went shopping at the Volusia County Mall, and out to lunch at the Olive Garden. It was so much fun because I haven’t been shopping at a mall in months! Sometimes I feel like I live in a man’s world with the ratio of guys to girls being like 7 to 1, and I needed to get away and do something girly for a change.
This week was also the career expo at the IC center gym. It’s mostly for upperclassmen who are looking for jobs after graduation, but my EP 101 class went to make some connections and find out about internships and co-ops. I found out about many opportunities available to me, but only a few really interested me. I think I was most excited about an internship with the United Space Alliance, and a co-op opportunity as a counselor for Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. Since I transferred in credits, I’m really not that far away from being eligible to apply for them. This made me really excited but also a little worried because I have so many other things I want to do before I graduate and I really want to fit it all in.
Next week I will be registering for my classes for next semester. I can’t guarantee I will get all the classes and times that I want, but so far it looks like I will be taking Physics, Physics for Engineers Lab, Calculus II, Machine Shop Laboratory, Introduction to Computing for Engineers, and Engineering Drawing.
Monday, (Halloween), we are going to have little kids coming to trick-or-treat in the residence halls and I can’t wait for it! They will be so cute in all their costumes!
Happy Halloween!
~Sara~
October 20, 2005
School is the same, but I think that is probably a good thing. I love that time in the semester when you finally get comfortable with the professors’ teaching and testing styles. I also just got over a nasty cold and I am back to normal- or as close as I can get!
Well, as far as news goes, my volleyball team (the Doolittle Pigeons), is currently undefeated!! The competition is tough because there are about 30 other teams in the league. Crew is also going well. The other day we had enough girls to take out a full boat with NO guys and we had a blast! A dolphin swam near our boat and I got really excited. I just love it here in Florida. I am still walking around in shorts and tank tops, when back home in Minnesota my mom and boyfriend tell me that it’s like 20 degrees and snowing. This Halloween is actually going to be my first Halloween with no snow. It’s going to feel so weird. When I was little I had to wear warm clothes to go trick-or-treating, so if I wanted to be a ballerina I had to wear snow pants under my tutu! I’m really excited for Halloween this year because elementary students from Daytona Beach are going to be trick-or-treating in our dorms, and we are planning on decorating the entire hallway for it!
Well, I’m going home on Monday, December 12th, right after my last exam. I can’t believe how fast the time is going by. It feels like I just got here and now I will be home in less than two months! I can’t wait to see my family and friends, and especially Dougie. I miss him so much. For any of you out there who are considering a long distance relationship, my best advice for you is to remember that if both people want to make it work, it will. It also takes a great deal of trust from both sides. A cell phone with good reception and a ton of minutes to talk is also a must. In fact, I think distance can actually make a relationship stronger. Sometimes we don’t realize how much we really care about someone until they’re not around every day. That’s just my 2 cents. I hope it helps someone.
Have a great day!
~Sara~
October 5, 2005
Hi everyone!
Well, school has become much more challenging in the past few weeks. I had two tests in the last couple of days- calculus and chemistry. Even though I have taken calculus in high school as well as a college chemistry class, neither of the classes I have now are easy. I don’t know how I could survive without having already taken those classes. I’m beginning to wish someone had told me that every math and science class I took in high school has a huge impact in college. I never bothered to memorize formulas because they were always given to me during tests. Now, I just had to memorize the unit circle so I could take my calculus test. I have also decided that chemistry is my hardest class. The test we just took after one month of class covered more information than most full-year high school chemistry classes. One of our “booger” homework problems took me and my roommate, Marjory, nearly 6 hours and 10 pages of work to complete. (A “booger” problem is what Dr. Cameron calls his toughest stoichiometry questions.)
I am also trying to adjust to a different lifestyle than the one I had at home. Before I came here, I got plenty of sleep. Now, I will be lucky to get to bed before midnight. It is partially because of studying, but also because I have other things going on that take up my time. I am now on the crew team, (which is so much fun but hard work!), and practice is 4-6pm every day plus Saturdays. I also joined the Society of Women Engineers, and I play and referee volleyball two nights a week. I like being paid to ref. volleyball, but if my schedule gets too full that will be the first thing to go. In college, time management is one of the most important skills to master- especially as an engineering physics major. The rest of the campus knows our small groups of EP’s as either “the smart kids,” or the students who are “completely nuts.” I get one of those two everytime I am asked what my major is. (More often though I hear “are you crazy?!”) I’m not trying to scare anyone away from this major, but it does require quite a bit more work and time than other degree programs.
I can still find plenty of things to do over the weekends; there’s always something fun going on around here! I go to the beach almost every Saturday with the guys in my hall, I went to Pleasure Island in Downtown Disney, Orlando last Friday, and a few weeks ago I went to my first frat party. (Except it was broken up by the cops only an hour after I got there.) The Sunday after the frat party I also got to go flying to the gulf coast with Jason and Matt. They are both pilots that live in my hall, and Marjory also came with. We went to a small town called Crystal River and had ice cream and then flew back after dark and saw Orlando lit up half way back.. It was so cool to see Embry-Riddle from the sky too!
Well, I have work to do so I will update all of you in a few weeks as far as what’s going on. Please feel free to ask questions on the discussion board or email me!
~Sara~
September 22, 2005
Hello Everyone!
My name is Sara and I am 18 years old from Hermantown, Minnesota, which is just north of Duluth (on the tip of Lake Superior). I am a freshman engineering physics major, but I transferred about 21 of my 36 college credits from back home. (In my junior year of high school I went to the University of Minnesota, Duluth and my senior year I went to the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth as well.) I also went to Hermantown High School part-time and I was very involved- varsity volleyball & track, student council president, Junior Rotarian, National Honor Society member, knowledge bowl member, youth mentor, I was in my 12th year as a Girl Scout, and I also managed to graduate with honors and still work a part-time job as a waitress- whew! If you are wondering how I could possibly have a social life, well, I did- I managed to find time for my friends and all our wacky endeavors as well as my boyfriend, Doug, who I am currently in a long-distance relationship with. (And no, I wasn't a sleep deprived zombie either!) I guess I just became used to juggling different things and simply taking one day at a time and enjoying life. When I was packing for college my dad was telling my mom that he's not worried about me being ready for Embry-Riddle, but instead he hopes Embry-Riddle is ready for me! Haha
When I was in the 5th grade at Hermantown Middle School, my class did a 'space exploration unit.' This is when I fell in love with the idea of working for NASA. I originally wanted to be an astronaut but now I think I may be happier in mission control because of the fact that I never grew out of a serious motion-sickness problem! Anyway, this school is one of the best places to come if anyone out there is wondering 'where do I go to college to become an astronaut?' I was asking the same question myself and finally I heard about Embry-Riddle from a private colleges magazine. I did a little digging on the internet and really started to realize this place has everything I need. So, the summer before my senior year in high school (last summer), I came down for a visit. I decided then that this was where I wanted to go and applied last fall and got accepted sometime in December.
It was nice knowing exactly what I wanted to do and where I was going after my senior year, but every time someone asked me about my future plans, they would always say 'Embry-who?' after I told them where I was going to college. It seems like the only people familiar with this place are the locals and anyone involved with aviation.
We've only been in class for a few weeks so I'm going to hold off on my opinions until they really get moving- I will give you all something to come back and read next time! But I will tell you the classes I have this semester: Calculus I & Analytical Geometry, Chemistry for Engineers, Current Topics in Space Science, Technical Writing, and Themes in the Humanities. If you are wondering what the Themes in the Humanities class is about so am I- I've been through almost three weeks of it and I'm still not sure! Oh well, something new is always interesting.
If anyone has questions or wants to contact me please feel free! My email is obrie824@erau.edu, or I can answer questions on the discussion board as well.
Hope you have a great day!
~Sara~
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Name: Sara 