April 24
Wow,
I cant believe that this is my last journal. It seems like last week we all just moved in. I must say that it was an awesome year and that I don't think I missed anything. I did some awesome things and have some awesome plans for this summer as you all know. I remember reading a previous journal writer's last post and he gave the readers some tips on how to survive in your first year of college. I think you will probably find that other journals will do the same thing but I have a different plan: I want to give you tips on how to thrive in college.
At Embry-Riddle there is so much opportunity but you have to be willing to go out there and grab it. I can only relate to the ABA program but I know that the same applies for all other programs. Looking back on the year, certain things come to mind like the ACI-NA conference in Seattle, The Baja 1000, The Las Vegas Trips, Spring Break, surprising my friends for their concert...so much.
So here go the tips:
- I know that you will here this a million times throughout your freshmen year but one of the most important things that you need to do is get out there. Get involved with as many organizations as you can handle...but be careful not to get involved in too much. I did this at the beginning of the year with my involvement in the admissions office, the International Students Association, The Association of Airport Executives and the Airports Council International group. Oh and don't forget I had classes! It turned out to be way too much for me to handle and I think that my grades reflected it at the end out the semester.
- Don't take no for an answer. When you come to Embry-Riddle you will find that many departments and offices are very bureaucratic and are very hard to deal with (The Housing Department, cough cough). As you know from a previous journal, well I guess several journals, I had a very hard time dealing with them. If they give you a hard time go to the next highest level. Although you are a student, you are also a customer and the university does not exist without you.
- Don't sleep. Well I am obviously kidding on this one but what I am trying to say is to get out at night. It is very important that you are not one of those kids who sits in his or her room on a Friday night. Go out and meet some new people. By the time that this year was done I could name at least half of the freshmen body which is one of the nice things about the small population here...everybody knows everybody on a first name basis.
- Take Dr. Carreras's Micro and Macroeconomics classes. Dr. Carreras is one of the professors in the college of arts and sciences here and he is one of the best professors on campus. He gets you so excited about the subject because he is so passionate about it. I really cant say enough about this man.
- Travel: When we had the industry advisory board here for our bi-annual meeting I had the opportunity to go out to dinner with some members that came from all around the globe. We had a long conversation about how marketable traveling abroad makes you over your fellow graduates. Embry-Riddle offers a great study abroad program through the international programs office and I actually had the opportunity to work in it so I got to know quite a bit about them. I will try to set up a program to Dubai for next year so if anybody is interested stop by the office.
- Study, Study and Study (but not your subjects): What I mean by this is to not only study what you are learning in your classes. I would often take a break from studying by going to the library to read one of the thousands of magazines, newspapers and books they have on airlines there. Rumor has it that we have the largest aviation library in the world, second only to the Smithsonian. There is a wealth of knowledge in there and start learning what is happening all around the globe in this awesome industry.
- Above all of these, I think that the most important thing that you need to do is enjoy yourself. My year flew by because I had such an awesome time...between school, work and planning for my summer I never had a dull moment (well maybe when I had the problems with Kenan my roomate and was up all night, every night.) But otherwise have fun. I really think that in order to do well at this school you have to love what you are doing %100 or else there is no point in going. Although rumor has it that it is a fairly easy school to get into, let me say that it is even easier to get kicked out.
As my plane is on final approach now for DXB (Dubai International Airport) I must end this journal and begin my time over here which I am looking forward to! I hope that these tips help you out and now that I am officially done with this blog thing I would like to give you my email so that you can contact me over the summer with any questions you might have (and I know you have a million and one because I was in your position only one year ago). Its kengoggin900@hotmail.com I look forward to meeting some of you in the fall and have a safe and fun summer!
Godspeed my friends,
Kenny
April 20
Hey guys,
Im on my way home from my trip to the Las Vegas McCarren Intl. Airport which went pretty well. Last night I didn't get much sleep because I was so excited. I try to go to every single one of these events because they are such an awesome learning experience. Like I said in my last journal I usually learn more in these single events then I could learn in an entire semester.
I woke up from my 45 minute sleep at 4:00am and hopped into the shower. I then went up to Haas which is the commons building where we were supposed to meet. After waiting for a few late people we were ready to go to Vegas. It was a four hour drive to the airport; we even got pulled over by the department of homeland security on the way over the Hoover dam.
If you end up coming here which I am pretty sure you are or you wouldn't be reading this still. The road over the Hoover dam will be closed as soon as the bridge that they are building over the canyon is finished so hop on that. Anyways, we arrived at the airport about an hour and a half early o I walked around the airport...some areas I don't think I was supposed to be but nobody said anything. We met at the Starbucks just before you enter security at 9:50 so that nobody was late.
At 10 Pete McCann who brought us all around the airport, both airside as well as landside, arrived. We had our own bus and had a few people come on from time to time to talk about the next section. The most surprising part was how many people were Embry-Riddle grads.
At about 12 we went back into the terminal where Pete had arranged for a lunch which was really good: we had some awesome pasta, stuffed mushrooms, salad and some other little snacks. Then, to our surprise the entire board of directors came and joined us for lunch. We had just over an hour to introduce ourselves and ask them questions. When I say that we had the entire board of directors...I mean all of them. Even Randy W. who is the director of all the Clark county airports.
After the lunch we went into a separate room where each of the directors gave us a presentation on what they do and updates on what is currently happening in their department's. After that, which took up about two and a half hours we left and I drove home with our AAAE (Association of American Airline Executives) President, Richard Mosler.
Hey Guys,
I know that it has been a while since my last journal and for that I apologize. I want to start this journal by sending out my condolences to all the family and friends of the students at Virginia Tech, my family's prayers are with you, as are the rest of the worlds. It has been a crazy past few weeks here at Embry-Riddle.
Over the last two weeks I have had two exams, I cant count the number of assignments and too many essays to remember. I had a microeconomics exam which went really good and a math exam which didn't go so well. The weather here has been so nice, usually in the 70's-80's which is so nice compared to our winter that we went through. I moved here thinking that the weather was always going to be nice but it really isn't.
We had to do the room selection for next year and it turns out that I will be living in hall 1. All incoming freshmen will be housed in hall 5 this year which is pretty close to my room. All my friends are moving off campus but I don’t really have a choice to move off, it would be pretty hard because I don't have a car to get back and forth.
This weekend was really busy but awesome at the same time. On Friday I had a normal day of classes but got to go meet with the IAB, the industry advisory board which is made of up a bunch of mainly Embry-Riddle grads who come to the campus twice a year and tell the school what changes need to be made to the curriculum. They came from literally every corner of the world to meet with us which was so awesome. That day we also had many members of the PBL group from Arizona coming in for the state competition. After a question and answer session which lasted 30 minutes longer then it was supposed to I went up to the board room to wait for many of them to come out so I could personally introduce myself. I was particularly interested in meeting Mr. Pierre Volosin who is the regional director for Boeing in the Middle East and Africa. After a quick 5 minute conversation we decided that we would sit together for tonight’s PBL dinner.
When I arrived at dinner I was greeted by Mr. Volosin as well as two other gentlemen from Las Vegas McCarren and Seattle-Tacoma International airport. We had a great dinner and talked about so many things from the Airbus A380 to how the blackberry affects the way they work. If you are an ABA student and have the opportunity to go to one of these dinners take it! I learned more that night then I think I could have learned from an entire semester. We also arranged for Mr. Volosin and I to meet in Dubai where he is usually working while overseas.
That night I went to my friend’s house where we hung out for a while. The next day was Accepted Student Preview Day as well as the PBL competition. I really enjoyed meeting you all and hope that I was able to help you out. I was however disappointed to only meet one ABA student, Ron. Ron I hope to see you here next semester and am also expecting an email from you since I know I have about a million questions over the summer before coming to ERAU. ASPD went off without a hitch and I think that everybody had a great time.
That night I went to the PBL dinner where once again I sat with Mr. Volosin where we furthered our talks about the industry. I am also currently planning on meeting another graduate of ERAU at the ACI World Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland whom I met at the IAB meetings. Needless to say I spent Sunday just relaxing, doing nothing and it was awesome! This week is just as busy as the last few but at least I am getting a lot done. I am less then 20 days before I’m leavin’ on a jet plane for Dubai. Until then I will send out a few more journals and then Ill meet you all in the fall. Have a great week everybody!
KG
March 28, 2007
Hey Everyone,
How was your spring break? Mine was awesome! The week before went by pretty slow because I was so excited to see everybody but I had enough homework to keep me busy. I had an assignment due in IT class which I did in class on Friday. I then had to go hand in math homework before going to my studies in humanity class. In that class I worked with a friend and we had to explicate a poem before flying out to Vegas. My plane landed in Las Vegas at around 8 o'clock where my family was waiting for me at the airport (dad I'm not writing about what you did). Vegas was a great time and we did so much: the food was the best, the attractions were awesome and the shows were great. We stayed at the MGM Grand which was a really nice place, the second largest hotel in the world with 5000 suites. But the most amazing thing about Vegas is the industry itself; it is literally an industry in which the customers hand the casino owners bags and bags of money. The money that city makes is just amazing and I hope to study it one day.
But anyway, after our awesome trip we all flew home on US Airways which was delayed because the previous flight out of San Diego was canceled. Eventually we got on the flight and made it home. That night I went to my friend matt's house where a few other friends were waiting for me. We were up till 4 when we called it a night. The next day I went home and went out to the barn in the back yard to get my jeep out (they store it out there when I’m not home). Sure enough on the way back from the barn I got stuck in mud and had to go get the gator to pull it out. For the rest of the week I hung out with my friends and family and had a great time doing it. The last night I had a bunch of people over for a party and everybody had a great time. Getting back into the swing of things this week really sucked but is obviously necessary. I hope to see some of you at accepted student preview day which I will be working. Have a great week!
KG
March 8, 2007
Hey Everyone,
How is it going? This week has been really busy, probably the busiest it will get in the semester. I had 2 exams, one assignment and one essay due over the last few days but as far as I know it all went well. My math exam was pretty good and I finished it in a flash. I also had a microeconomics exam which went extremely well scoring an awesome 97% on it. My assignment was for my IT class in which we had to make two power point presentations. The first was out of a book and the second was on whatever we wanted to write about...and of course I chose to do my on The Emirates Group. It was really good (only took me an hour to make it because I already knew all of the information). That ’ s one of the best parts about college: you often get to write about whatever you want. So I always choose something that I am knowledgeable in. It is usually either, Dubai, Baja or the automotive industry. My essay however was a struggle because I didn ’ t get to choose my subject, I had to compare two short stories. Wow, I know so exciting! Ha yeah well I got it done and was very pleased with what I had to hand in.
Yesterday I went for a bike ride out near the lake where there are awesome trails. I decided that I would ride over to an island which is connected to the mainland by a skinny piece of raised land. So I made it over there without a problem, rode around a bit and then tried to get back to the mainland...and I got stuck. It was a mess but I eventually made it back to school. My birthday is coming up on Tuesday, I think and I already got a package from my wonderful mother. My friends and I will be celebrating my birthday this weekend. My dad met some guy in Alabama who saw his Embry-Riddle hat and asked him about it. Supposedly this guy has applied to go here so my dad gave him my email. Oh, I booked my flight to Dubai this week which was a pretty big deal, lol. I have a 10 hour layover in London so I plan to meet with somebody from Heathrow and hope to get a tour. Well, for those of you that have been accepted I'm looking forward to meeting you all on Accepted Student preview day. Have a good week and godspeed.
All the best,
Kenny Goggin
February 19, 2007
My Weekend
Well, I don't really know where to start here. I could go back as far as two months but I think that would take to long. In my last journal entry I said that I was so busy with exams and assignments but that wasn't really true. Although I was busy, it also included a secret flight home. Let me start from the beginning: I woke up Friday morning at school, went to work at 9 and worked for three hours. At noon I got out and went to hand in my assignments and make sure that everything was okay with them. At 1:10 I left the university to the Prescott airport where I flew out of about 20 minutes later. I arrived in Detroit around 2:00am because of a five hour layover in Phoenix. At the airport in Detroit my mom arranged for a car to pick me up and drive me home. I arrived around 2:30 in the morning and snuck in the house and slept in the basement. The next morning I woke up, went upstairs and surprised my brother Dennis who had no clue that I was there. After that I ate a bit of breakfast and went to my dads work to surprise him. It was his birthday and he was completely clueless that I was home right up to the moment that I saw him. It was so great to see him and he went wild, almost in shock that I was home. After that my brother and I drove home where my Dad would soon join us for lunch. After watching some offshore racing we went to go see a movie, The Ghost rider. We drove to a theater really far away so that nobody would see that I am home. It was a pretty long movie and I was surprised that my dad lasted the whole thing but it was good to go out just my dad, brother and I. After that we went home to cook some burgers on the BBQ. It was a really good day, especially because I had to stay home with my family the whole time so we had a really good time together.
That night I called Glenna, my best friend’s mom who still thought that I was in AZ. She said that the boys were stressed out as was she. I acted concerned and asked if there as anything that I could do to help and she said no just call them before their performance. I said okay and then drove right to her house to surprise her that I was home for the concert. She was so surprised and said that it was great to have me there because it would help the boys out so much. After that we called Ms. Wilson another friend’s mom and the mom of the two other brothers in the band. We went to go pick her up and then drove to the building in which they were practicing in. We all walked in and they stood there for about 10 seconds just looking at me, so confused. After they realized it was me then were really happy and my friend Ryan gave off a scream that I had no idea a guy could give off. It was so awesome to see them so happy, I knew that this performance was going to go so well now. They played the set that they would be playing at the concert for us and I was truly blown away. They had improved one hundred times since I had last heard them! After that we went to Blair's girlfriend Camille's house. Camille had helped out so much through the entire thing and I am glad that they have her there while I’m not. She made my some pasta which was awesome and we just talked about ticket sales and how everything was going to work out. It was on for tomorrow, the day we had been waiting for for a year and a half.
Sunday came and I had a great nights sleep behind me. That morning we went to the shop where our new boat was being built. It is this awesome, all aluminum pontoon boat and good luck finding a better one than this one. We were there until 3:00 and then went home. I went to go pick up my friend Andrea and she came over for dinner as well as a good Friend of the family Danny and my Aunt Linda. After the amazing dinner that my mom made we went to the concert. I stayed in the car until my buddy Blair called me and told me that they were ready. I walked in the front door and they told the door man that I would be coming in. After asking me who I was it was on and I walked to the front of the stage. After a little glitch with Colin not plugging his mike in we were ready to roll and I gave my introduction. After that the crowd went wild and the night really began. They all played amazing and everybody was blown away by how awesome they were. The set was so awesome and was flawless. As always, I was especially proud of my buddy Colin who is the most amazing drummer in 10th grade I have ever seen. They were even all interviewed by a music magazine which will be awesome to get their name out of the old Aburg (our small town in Ontario). Afterwards I helped them pack up and had a few pictures taken. Andrea and I then walked to my buddy Matt's house who drove us back to my house to get my car. I drove Andrea home then went to Blair's house to hear the CD and go over the whole night with him and woke Colin up to say good job and good night. I then went to Matt's house again where we just sat and talked about things that were going on at home. I left there at 2am and went to bed. I am now waiting for the plane to be ready at the Detroit airport and will be on my way soon. Overall, it was the best short trip home I have had and I think it will be hard to beat. Take care everybody and like the song says, tonight could be the night the stars fall for you so Godspeed!
All the best,
Kenny
February 14, 2007
Wut up
This last week has been really busy. After my mom left it was another busy week at school. I am really beginning to enjoy my classes now that I am settled into my new room. My new roommates are great to live with, usually pretty quite and keep the room pretty clean most of the time. I ride the bike that my mom bought me a lot...its great getting to my old building where most of my friends live.
This last week has been pretty crazy with school: I have quite a few tests coming up and have to prepare all of my assignments in advance so that I can have time to study for the exams. My microeconomics class is getting into new stuff, a lot of things that you wonder about in Macroeconomics are now answered in Micro. I am understanding much more in my Studies in Humanities class. I am now able to study a piece of literature much more in depth than I was able to and I think that is the key to getting a good grade in that class. I gave a 6 minute long speech in my Speech class about Dubai which went really well. All of my reviews were good and the class seemed pretty interested in it all.
I am looking into an internship with airlines in three countries that show big potential in the future of air travel: Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. I have emailed them all but have only heard back from Emirates. They claimed that they do not accept international interns but I won't take that for an answer. I have some friends that live in Dubai and they are going to talk to some of the employees in upper management to see if anything can be changed or make an exception. Other than that, my study abroad program to Dubai this summer is all on track. My advisor over there says that everything is on track and that she received my application for housing and also my transcripts. I am currently working on my project for microeconomics and an audience adaptation plan for Speech class. Well thats all I have on this end. Have a good week and you will hear from my next week with another story.
Later,
Kenny
February 7, 2007
Hey Everyone,
Hows things? Its all really busy here at Riddle as usual. Over the last 2 weeks I have been busy moving out of my old room and into my new one. I have moved in with the guys from Hong Kong that came home with me over the Holidays. They have been really great about it all. Housing on the other hand has been the exact opposite. When I asked the Hong Kongers if I could move in for a bit until I can talk to my old roommate (maybe see if we could work something out). Right away they said that I could move in and they helped me get all my stuff. When I went up to housing the next day to tell them that I was moving into hall 10 they said I couldn’t. When I asked them why they said that it is only for international students...umm yeah I’m from Candada. They said "well that’s not traditional international"...TRADITIONAL INTERNATIONAL! What does that mean. After I proceeded to explain to the lady that they is a border between my country and hers she finally decided to let that slip. But wait! I’m a freshman and there are no freshman allowed in hall 10. Umm my friend that is from Hong Kong is in hall 10...can you guess what she said? Yeah, he’s not a traditional freshman. So fed up with everything I walked right down to the Dean’s office and had him call there. By the next day I was in housing getting me new key and signing papers to let me move over there. I didn’t even have to pay the upgrade fee! So over the last week or so I have been moving in.
School and classes have been going very well. I don’t know if I told you about the three guys from the UAE but we went out to lunch last week. That’s a great thing about this school...how international it is. When I go to Dubai they said that they will show me the sights.
My mom came to visit me this weekend which was a really nice time. He flight came in on a Thursday and then she left on Sunday. It was really great to see her. That night she came to my economics class with Dr. R. A. Carreras which she enjoyed. I was called to the board to answer a question and Dr. Carreras told me that the pressure was on with my mom watching me. It went pretty well and the prof was really good about her being there, giving her additional handouts and asking her if she understood what we were talking about. We did a lot of shopping for things that I needed such as food and shoes. We went to dinner on Thursday at a really good place right across the road from out hotel called Bin 239. I had some funky kind of sauce-free pizza which was really good and my mom had a salad which she really enjoyed. The next day we went shopping and for lunch at the Taj Mahal which is an Indian food place. One day, I think it was Saturday, we went and got a take out lunch from two restaurants and then drove up the mountain side for a lunch up in the hills. The view was awesome and she really enjoyed it. She bought some clothes at the book store that say Embry-Riddle and I took her for a tour of the campus.
This week has been pretty good. I had an assignment due in my IT class and then some simple homework for the rest of my classes. I have a lab for IT due today and then a journal for my humanities class.
I have my grandparents stopping in to see me tomorrow which will be fun. I will tell you more about that later because I have to go to class.
Have a good week.
Kenny
January 23, 2007
Hey Everybody,
Hows things? This last week has been really tough, probably the toughest I have had all my freshman year. I have been really busy, like I prefer to be, but my roommate has been driving me nuts. He has been coming into the room at two in the morning while I am trying to sleep and talking on the phone with his girlfriend Amber. I sleep really lightly and he wakes me up every time he walks in the room. Because of this I have been exhausted every day. Today I had the last straw when, while taking a nap because he woke me up so many times the night before, he decides to come in and wake me up to tell me I need to clean the room. So today I went to the housing office to request a roommate change since my last one didn’t work so well.
Other than being deprived of sleep things have been going really well this semester. Last week we had the guy in charge of Study Abroad to our office and we spent all day together. The Dean even treated us to lunch which was really cool. I have been getting really excited about my trip to Dubai lately. I met three guys from Dubai and Abu Dhabi lately and was asked by Dean Fraher if I could take them out to lunch and give them a tour of the campus. I was more than happy to do this and they had so much to tell me about Dubai and other Emirates. After spending a few hours with them I brought them up to the housing office so that they could look into getting a house off campus. They were really nice guys and invited me to their families’ homes for a traditional meal when I go to Dubai. I think I will be putting my parents in the Madinat Jumeirah when they come to visit me. I plan to take them to lunch atop the Burj Al Arab, the nicest hotel in the world. I think that will be such an awesome time...the restaurant overlooks all of Dubai and the Palm Islands also.
The work load this semester is pretty good. Like I said above, very busy but I love most of my classes. I have economics again with Dr. Carreras and I love that class. If you get a chance to take a class with him, TAKE IT.
Other than that, I think that is all the news around here. The weather has been interesting: SNOW. I cant believe it, I moved to Arizona for the nice weather and I come here and there is snow on the ground...it didn’t even snow in Canada when I went home. I will keep you updated and have a great week!
Later,
Kenny
January 10, 2005
Hey Everyone,
I am now back in Arizona from my trip home for the holidays. I didn’t tell you about my finals though which were my biggest fear all year. Let me tell you, if you study a lot you will do fine. My biggest fear was my macroeconomics exam: this is a great class with an awesome teacher but the topic is just so thick that it takes A LOT of studying to do well on the exam. My teacher later told me that I went into the exam with a C which I brought up to a B in the exam. When I walked out of the exam which is held in the same class rooms as you class usually is, it was one of the greatest feelings ever. You honestly feel the weight lift off your shoulders and just smile. I then had one day to wait for my flight because it was booked a day late. I worked all that day and got a lot done but had a hard time concentrating because I just wanted to get home.
The holiday break is an awesome time to spend with your family and friends while in college. Many people don’t go home until this time which makes it even better for them. I had three friends from Hong Kong come home with me. They were there for 12 days and we did a lot of stuff including went to a Detroit Red Wings hockey game, flew up to Niagara Falls and spent the day there, and just hung out with my friends a lot. After they left I went to work for about a week which was good. I spent new years at two friends, first I went out to see a movie (the new bond movie) with my family and sat right in front of my friends. I then went to Andrea’s house where there were a lot of people. It was good to see everybody, many whom I had not seen since I left. After that (after new years) my friend Kelly drove me to Matt’s where my best fried Blair was. We had a good time there and eventually went to bed. On a different day which I cant remember the date of, one of my friends in the Admissions office came over to spend the day with me and the kids from HK and then had dinner with us. He is moving to Dubai at the end of January so we talked about that a lot. After the craziness of the holidays was over I spent the last weekend with my friends and family.
I got back into Prescott last night and have already had a crazy busy day. Between my classes I had to organize my schedule and am trying to move out of my room to my buddy Jon’s room. Have a good week everyone!
All the best,
Kenny
December 5, 2006
Hey Everybody,
It’s been a while since I updated you all. Just to let you know the November 30th journal is under the wrong date, that one is supposed to be from a long time ago. This last week has been really busy. I came home about a week ago and got right into everything. I came home on Saturday night and went right to bed. Sunday morning I got up and started studying for economics. Yeah I did that for about 8 hours and still felt like I knew nothing. At 8:30 PM I went to bed and just sat there for 5 hours because I couldn’t sleep. I was so worried about this exam because I had been studying for it for almost 2 weeks. I woke up and was still nervous but knew I just had to go write it and get it over with. I went up to AC-1 building, third floor where Dr. Carreras was supposed to meet me. He was a little bit late after spilling some coffee on the way up. As soon as he came in he got me writing the exam. It went alright, I answered all of the questions and crossed my fingers that I had passed it. My prof. graded my exam and gave it back during class later that day. I passed the exam with a 62% which although is not very good, I was just glad that I passed. The rest of that day I worked on a 1400 word essay that I needed to complete for my communications class. I wrote about the Iraqi, UAE economies. It took me about 2 hours to complete it because I knew what I was going to write about. I had been planning it out for almost a week so I just sat down and wrote. I handed that paper in at 3pm and once that class was done I went to bed. lol, I was just so tired from the past couple of days that I slept until 7am the next morning.
The rest of the week was pretty much just catching up from my week in baja. I had a test in math class that I got 100 percent on, went to job orientation for my new job, Student Assistant to the International Program which I am really excited about. There is so much work to be done because it seems to be very unorganized but I will take care of that. Working at Concours Mold with Nancy has taught me a lot about how things should be. Over the weekend I went rock climbing with Mark and John which was really awesome. I wasn’t wearing the proper shoes which made it hard (I wasn’t even wearing socks). Monday (yesterday) I handed in my final essay for communications and then went to work for a few hours. Today, I had a math test again and then went straight to work for 5 hours. I got a lot done today, it is getting organized and I know that I will be able to help out the office a lot. I have been working on a journal from my trip to Baja and I will slowly put parts of it in this journal. Here is what I have so far. Have a great week everybody.
Journal:
Well I don’t know where I last left off…I think I was in the van to the airport. It has been a hell of a trip and I have had the time of my life. I met my family at the airport in Phoenix and we caught our flight to San Diego on time. I sat with my dad for the 45 minute flight and we talked about everything from work, baja to Dubai. When we landed we rented a Durango form the airport and proceeded to our destination: Ensenada. We got lost in Tijuana and spent about 30 minutes driving around the beautiful town. Eventually we found the road to Ensenada and it was about an hour and a half drive. My dad was flying because he was so excited to get there. Instead of dropping our clothes off at the hotel Punta Morro, we drove straight to the Horse Power Ranch where the car was to be waiting for us. Driving up to the ranch my adrenaline was racing like never before: seeing the car for the first time was so awesome! We met with our crew chief, Tommy Morris, and took the car out for a test ride. The second we took off I was hooked for life; I mean I loved it so much I just wanted the race to start right then. We went out on a test track which was just this dirt trail around the ranch but was so much fun. After that my brother Dennis took it for a ride with Dad and was hooked just as I was. We then drove the car into the garage at the ranch and told them everything that needed to be fixed on it.
After that we went up to the reception area of the ranch (it’s a really big ranch) where the Monster Energy-Micron Technology Party was about to begin. There we so many people there and we ate like kings (compared to cafeteria food it was so amazing) and then sat for the presentation and introduction of all the drivers. We were BC-6 (car 6) and called Team Goggin. They had a presentation by the major sponsor of the team:Micron Technologies. At the end of the presentation they gave us all 1gb jump drives which I was pretty impressed with. After getting some video of the party we left for the hotel. It was a half hour drive back to the hotel and as Maureen checked us in I was on a computer helping my mom register me for my classes for next semester. I then started walking towards my room before I met up with Steve Appleton, CEO of Micron Technologies. At the party earlier that night I noticed that the back of one of the Micron Semi Trucks it said Appleton Air Sports so I asked him about that. He said he has a couple of planes and began to name them all: I was there for at least 5 minutes hearing about all the planes he owns. It was unreal how many planes he has and he seemed like a really cool guy. When I got back to the room I passed out on the bed in my room.
The next morning we woke up at about 8am and went to eat breakfast at the hotel restaurant. After breakfast we all went down to the tech inspection for the cars. We got there at about 10:00 and went directly to go see the car. It looked pretty good with all the Canadian flags on it (we had to put those on the night before because Wide Open couldn’t get it together enough to put them on. We all did a little bit of walking around looking at other cars before it was time to go to the San Nicolas hotel to do our driver registration. While we were there I saw many people that I see in the 5 baja movies that I watch all the time. They seemed pretty amazed that my 15 year old brother was going to co-drive. He even had to fill out a different sheet which was notarized by a judge from home. We even saw Bruce, a guy that we go riding with every year down there. He owns a company called gobabaridin.com and they give organized, guided tours in the Baja. I don’t think that I would want to do a tour with anybody other than these guys! Once the car made it through tech inspection we went back to the hotel where we just hung out for an hour. It was then time to go to a very late lunch at the same place we ate at for breakfast. It took an hour and a half to cook our food so we ate it way to fast then ran for a drivers meeting. The meeting was an hour and a half of Todd Clement, the owner of Wide Open Baja rambling on about stuff he didn’t even know about. We just kinda hung out at the hotel, relaxing for what was then going to be a very very long day ahead of us. At 7pm we went to another drivers meeting for all people that were in the race and it was headed by Sal Fish. He said some pretty awesome things about the baja that made the race ahead sound like the best thing I would ever do in my life. He said that the Baja 1000 is the most important off-road race in the world: and you are going to be apart of it. You are going to be talking about it for the rest of your life…your wives, kids, aunts, uncles, friends and family you don’t even know will be talking about it...live it. It’s a hell of a race. Those words will stick with me the rest of my life. After the meeting it was off to bed…tomorrow was the baja 1000, the granddaddy of the world’s off-road races.
6:00am came really fast and it was a slow wake up…until I remembered what I was doing today. A lot of last minute preparations were going to be done to the cars that morning, right up until the start of the race. My adrenaline was pumping really early and I woke up pretty quick. The best part is when the helicopters are flying all around the hotel and coming right onto the hotel grass to pick people up. The majority of the choppers down there are EC-350’s and are amazing machine. It came time for Dennis (my brother) and Danny (a good family friend) to leave on the plane for their pit (where Dennis would be getting in the car) and also around there Dave (another good family friend who would be co-driving) and Maureen (the only assistant my dad can seem to keep…she is awesome at what she does ) to fly down to their pits also (where I would be getting out of the car). All the Baja Challenge cars left the hotel at the same time under a police escort. We arrived at the finish live and figured out pretty quick that our radio and intercom system were not working properly. We had to go the entire 1050 miles without an intercom system that worked properly (my dad could hear his co-driver but the co-driver couldn’t hear my dad) and radio ( we couldn’t be heard more than 5 miles away). We got up to the start line and it was the most awesome moment of my life. There I was…about to begin a journey that could throw anything in front of me. It seemed to go by in almost slow motion just like on the movies. Sal Fish, the hero of the Baja shook our hands and thanked us for racing in the 1000 and said good luck, see you down there. We then took off as they say in Dust To Glory, “the rhythm of the race began”.
Coming through town was really neat because there were thousands of people around to watch us. As soon as we were off the roads and into the wash (just like a really wide ditch that was dried out) we passed out first car. It wasn’t more than 1 minute and we were already in 5th place. Three minutes later we were passing out second car…4th place. It was so awesome passing cars, it is the ULTIMATE adrenaline rush. The dust coming in the car because it was picked up by the car in front of you is amazing. We then came up to the next car who was being a poor sport and wouldn’t move over even after we bumped him. He eventually slammed on his brakes or something, enough to cause extreme dust to come up. We stopped the car immediately but not soon enough to avoid slamming right into his back end. It was so awesome, lol we didn’t stop to see if he was okay, we just kept going. When we hit him though we heard a tire go flat so we pulled off to the side of the road about 2 minutes ahead. One of the most amazing parts of the Baja 1000 is that it isn’t really every man for himself. It’s kinda like every man help every man. As soon as we pulled over there was a guy from Herbst Racing coordinating the local Mexicans on what to do…we just sat there and watched them change the tire in about 3 minutes. We were soon on our way and were pushed back to about 7th or 8th when we got moving. We immediately were passing cars again and on our way back up to the top.
Pretty soon we had two helicopters on us, filming us pass car after car. They were on the radio saying “Goggin, you are doing awesome man…keep going we are getting some awesome footage”. When you are passing cars you are basically eating dust bucket after bucket of Baja dirt. We then came up on the silt beds and they are so tough. Silt is like a bottomless pit of baby powder. Once you hit silt you cant see anything…you basically have to point to car in the general direction you want to go and hope that you go straight. We were pretty lucky on the first silt bed because we were able to see! What we saw was the most beautiful thing I think we could have…cars…stuck cars. Car after car we were passing without a challenge. The chopper was still right beside us flying about 70 feet off the ground and I could see the cameraman hanging out the side of the car. At this point both myself and my dad were thinking “yup, we are kicking ass” (If this goes online sorry Jill). Just as we were exiting the silt beds there was a line up of trucks at a corner. I heard from one of the helicopters that a truck had screwed up its read axle and we would have to find a way around it. Within 30 seconds we were moving, somehow the guy was able to get out of the way, probably by the truck behind him pushing him out of the way. We then made our way up some pretty steep hills and through some really sharp turns. We took it all pretty fast which we really didn’t need to do. We had over a thousand miles to go still.
It was all pretty smooth for the next 100 miles, just a lot of sharp 90 degree turns. We passed cars all the way to the dry lake bed, cars even out of our class. At the dry lake bed the sun was beginning to set behind the mountains. The clutch was slipping pretty badly but we continued on. The dry lake bed is a really fast section of the course but we ran into some fog which slowed us down to 20 mph which sucked. The dry lake bed runs into some bad silt at about mile 145 and he hit it full out again. No problems again and we just plowed through passing car after car just stuck there. As we turned the corner around mile 147 the engine started to run really high and I had no clue what was going on. We then slowed down, eventually to a complete top. My dad took off his helmet and said “that’s it, we are out of the race. I was devastated and asked what had happened. He said that the clutch was fried and we would be there all night waiting for somebody to pick us up. I immediately got on the radio and started to call people, “this is BC-6, we are past mile 145 with a burnt clutch, if you can hear me please respond.” Nobody came back so I said it again and again. I then gave up hope on the radio and pulled out the Iridium Satellite phone and began calling any number that I had. I must have tried 8 numbers before anybody answered their phone. It was Chase Truck 1 and they were down near the finish line. Even though they were all the way down there they worked with me and relayed all of my information. As soon as I told him my situation he got on the radio and said “all stations, BC-6 is down, BC-6 is down, leave the radio frequency clear.” We were on the radio with our crew chief Tommy Morris who arranged for a new clutch to be delivered to us. They said that it would be about 45 before they could get a new clutch and an hour before they would be out to us.
Well that whole plan went up into the air really fast. It took almost two hours before we knew that they even had a part. 5 hours later the trucks rolled up with the parts and crew but what happened between that time was the most amazing part of the race, something I still haven’t gotten over. If you haven’t seen the movie Dust To Glory, I would highly recommend that you go get it. As soon as we broke down and got everything straightened out with the repair, a Red Bull class 1 buggy got stuck right behind us. We then ran over to help him out and only spent about 15 minutes helping these 2 people. They left and we continued to help car after car our of the silt bed. About an hour and a half later we saw a truck (normal truck) pull up right behind us asking us if we had helped Travis out. We were confused and asked him for more info. He explained that this Travis guy was in the Red Bull buggy and called his chase crew to come help us out because he thought we were stuck! Think about that…he chase crew, the guys that were supposed to be helping him out throughout the race was sent to help out his competition! Everybody helps everybody out there…only one person can win and everybody knows that so we all help to make sure that everybody else will at least finish the race. This year only 53% of the cars that entered the race came across the finish line!
So I am going to jump ahead in time to finish the story on the class one car. When I was at the finish line waiting for the car to come across (if they had made it all the way down to La Paz without breaking down) I began to talk to these people about the red bull team. I said “yeah they spend a lot of money down here on this race sponsoring a lot of big names” and the guy said yeah I know, like how did they get Travis Pastrana to do it… … …Hold on, Travis, Travis Pistrana like the extreme sports king? Yeah yeah said the guy, he’s racing a class 1 buggy. I was in complete shock. The guy we had met and helped out in the middle of the desert was a god to a lot of people. Anyways, back to the race: It was about 5 hours until our chase crew came with the part that we needed and they got to work right away. The first car to come was a pre-runner and it had the clutch itself in it and these two guys got right on it working pretty fast. The next vehicle was a huge hummer equipped with every tool that you could ever need. The third vehicle was a huge dodge ram with an amazing lift kit on it. They pulled the engine off and replaced the clutch in just over an hour and we were ready to go again.
By now it is completely dark outside and this is my first experience driving at night in the Baja. The first section was really fast (coming off the dry lake bed) and pretty straight. We were doing a good 60 mph on this section which was a pretty good speed for the course. The nice part lasted about 20 minutes before we came up to what seemed like 50 miles of whoops. Whoops are 3-4 foot tall hills one after another and are one of the worst parts of the race. I got whiplash on this section which still hurts one week afterwards. The hills are almost hypnotizing, threatening to put me to sleep. I managed to keep myself awake and give my dad directions. The whoops seemed to last for hours but it was probably just one. At this point in the race I was starting to see things; the weirdest part was seeing people up ahead standing and cheering, but when you get closer to them they are only cacti. By the end of the race dad said he was seeing cars following him in the mountains or the cactus all wearing blue ball caps! After the whoops came probably 50 miles of just flat, fast runs along a row of telephone poles. We passed two cars along this section, one was broken just trying to get to the next pit. The course was running right next to many different farmers’ fields and was really smooth, much needed after the terrible whoops. Eventually we came up to more whoops but they only lasted 20 minutes. Right around there we came up to a BFG pit where we were not supposed to come in. They were all really good about it though and offered to fuel us up and did a complete walk around of the car. They gave us some sandwiches.
To be continued
November 30, 2006
Wuts up everyone,
Im sittin in my room right now and I think I have a cold. Not sure because I don’t really know what it feels like but I have the heat on high and tryin to sweat it out. Anyways I wanna tell you about this past week. It has been a crazy one that’s for sure. I think the last time I wrote you was on Wednesday when I was about to go to macroeconomics. Well after that class I had English and I handed in my essay (which I am getting 0 on because I supposedly didn’t submit it to turnitin.com but I am still bitter about that so I want talk about it) After that I began my long final project for college success, a class that all freshman are required to take. It took me about 6 hours to complete but there were many distractions in there like Johns potato gun that we tried for the 3rd time (didn’t work again) and packing for my trip home the next day. By 2:00 am I was done and ready to print out all of my boarding passes and shuttle information. I was in bed by 3am and asleep by 3:04 am. I woke up to the All American Rejects “Move Along” and flew out of bed because I was going home. I went to class to hand in my project then grabbed my bags and headed out to the shuttle. It took about 3 hours to get to Phoenix on the shuttle and I sat next to some lady going to Texas for a conference. She, like most people, had no idea what Dubai was and so I was glad to teach her something.
When I got to the airport, myself and a guy that I met in the van who was from Riddle went to some Chinese food place to grab a bite to eat and then I headed to the gate. I sat there for a good hour and a half before a pilot came and sat next to me. I asked him if he was our pilot for the day and he said no, just got off work though. I then asked him what airline he worked for and he said “oh it’s a private company” because he assumed I knew nothing about aviation. I then ask which one and he said NetJets. Oh Warren Buffet’s company I said and he said yeah…I am one of his pilots…. Warren Buffet is a hero of mine and to sit by one of his pilots was frickin awesome. I started talking to him, telling him I am at Embry-Riddle and we talked about his recent trip all around the world.
The flight was really fast with a 150 mph tailwind in the jet stream. It took us just over 3 hours to get to Detroit and I got off the plane as soon as I could…I was excited to see my family. So yeah, about that. I expected them to meet me at the baggage claim like most people do but they were lost…big time. Finally I went up to the check in area and called their cell phones. Off. Great so what do I do now? Then out of nowhere my dad comes up the escalator and doesn’t see me. So I went up right behind him and said hey. He turned around and gave me a hug. Eventually we found my mom and brother and then headed to the car. I was so happy to see my mom because I had been missing her. She is worried about me going to Dubai so it was nice to just talk to her in person. On the car ride home I updated my family about everything that was going on since I last saw them. When we got home my dog didn’t even recognize me at first. Finally I yelled at him and he figured out who I was and went crazy. After bringing all of my bags in my brother Dennis and I took the truck out with the dog for a ride around town. I didn’t take my jeep because this whole trip was a surprise to everybody except my household and I didn’t want to ruin anything. After our ride I went to my friend Andrea’s house and surprised her. She started yelling and screaming and couldn’t believe that I was there. After that visit we went home and then to my wonderful bed.
The next day I woke up pretty early considering the time difference and my brother and I went to get out hair cut. After that we went to one of my best friend matt’s house and just walked in. His dad was sitting down reading the paper and said to matt (who was sleeping) Matt, Kenny’s here…..Kenny who? G*%$&#@ and then he went nuts. It was awesome to see them all again. After that we went to my grandparents house and I knocked on the door and she looked through the stained glass for 30 seconds before she opened the door. We sat and talked about school for 10 minutes before Dennis and I headed to the big surprise: My high school. Me, Matt, Jared and Dennis all walked into the school and just sat in the cafeteria with our backs to the doors. When everybody walked in, my boy Brett just told us who was walking in and then we turned around. They were ALL in shock but the best was my best friend Blair. He has been going through some tough times and I was just looking forward to seeing him. He ran over to me and hugged me. It was awesome…that was the highlight of my whole trip, just seeing his face. I sat and ate with them for a little bit and even saw my mom’s gardener in the cafeteria. Afterwards we all went over to Blair’s house who lives just down the street from the school and surprised GGGGG Glenna. She was crying but she already kinda knew I was coming (thanks Erika, lol jp) We all drove over to Andrea’s for a bit and just hung out. It was good because everybody was together which hadn’t happened in a while. I then went up to my dad’s office to go see himself, Nancy and Maureen. It was great to see them and they had all kinds of questions. I sat through some meetings with my dad and then headed home about two hours later. We had an amazing steak dinner, one of the biggest things I miss about home: my mom’s meals. It was awesome to just sit with my family for dinner. That night I had some friends over my house: Blair, Dave, Jared, Matt, Matt, Matt, lol, Andrea, Kirsten, Pete, Adam, Camille, Erika, Ryan, Mitchell, Daniela, oh damn and Brett. (Im sorry if I forgot anybody). My mom made all kinds of food and snacks, I love that lady. Im not sure what time I went to bed …lets just say it was awesome and I had to clean up puke off my couch and floor!
Saturday morning was interesting. The basement was partially cleaned up by somebody which was really nice. After cleaning the basement I went back to bed and then my dad woke me up. The rest of the day I pretty much just hung out around the house, helping my dad and brother design our new boat and showing family some videos on Dubai. After that my dad, brother and I went for a ride in our pickup truck around town with the dog in the back. We stopped at Matt’s house and talked with his dad for a little bit. After that we went back home for dinner with my grandparents. It was the best meal that I had in a long time made of lamb, fish and salad. After that meal I went to some family friends house, the stoy’s to see Carlee and Sawyer. I went to bed after that because I had an early morning.
I woke up Sunday morning to the house smelling awesome. Mom was having a brunch for a bunch of her friends and that meant that we were eating like kings. Before everybody got there my dad, brother, myself and our friend Danny went for a walk in the bush behind our house. It was awesome because this is what we often do on normal weekends, except on dirt bikes. After the awesome brunch I gave some last minute hello’s and goodbye’s and then we headed off to the airport. The flight home was alright: America West is a very impressive airline compared to Northwest which I normally fly on. I got back to my room around 12:00 am. It was an awesome weekend and you will all experience this when you come to Riddle. Although it is an awesome school, home is still the best of all.
Later,
Kenny G
November 14, 2006
Hey Everybody,
How are things where you are? I am on my way to the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport right now where I will catch my flight to San Diego. My family will be arriving at PHX from Detroit at about 10:30. From there we will be driving down to Ensenada, Mexico which is about two hours from the Mexican border. This last week has been crazy busy, especially in preparing for missing 4 days of school. I had a macroeconomics project due yesterday which I had been working on for all of last week. I had been struggling with it for just over 2 weeks now and finally, just yesterday, I got it.
We are in the process of registering for classes as we speak and my mom will be doing it for me from home (I will be in Baja). I haven’t been able to sleep lately because I was so excited about the race. Last night I got about 4 hours of asleep and the night before just over 5. We had a fire alarm this past weekend which lasted almost 45 minutes at 1:00am. Safety went into each room in my hall to see if people were in there and pretending that they were outside. My friends John, Greg, Taylor, Mike and Ryan were all in their room so I told Mark to call them and tell them that they had to get out of the room. Everybody did except for Greg but safety just told him to get out, the room beneath him could be burning. After that I went right back to bed.
Work has been pretty slow lately in the admissions: I haven’t had any of you come into the chat room in over 3 weeks! What’s going on people? I got Jon to cover my shift on Wednesday so he will be there to answer any of your questions. Anyways, I have to do some reading about my Dubai program so I will write to you later. Expect an entry about the race because I cant wait to tell you all about it. You can track our car online at www.racetrackinginternational.com and our car is BC-6.
Be well,
Kenny
November 8, 2006
Wuts up everybody,
This last week was really awesome. I went to Seattle, Washington for the AAAE meeting which was the best $600 I have ever spent (I am completely broke now lol). I left my room Wednesday morning at 5:00 am which was better than expected. I had the coffee maker set so that when I got out of the shower it was their waiting for me. I did some last minute packing and then Christie came to pick me up. It was about a two hour drive to the airport in her car and most of it was still in the dark. By the time we got to the airport the sun was beginning to rise and we were almost late for our flight. It didn’t help that we forgot an alumni gift bag on the shuttle bus! So of course I had to wait for the bus to come back to the terminal 4 to get it. I waited 5 minutes, 10, 15, 20 and finally I asked somebody what time it was…7:50!!!! My plane leave in 20 minutes and I still have to make it through security. I ran as fast as I could to security expected it to be a short line because its so early in the morning hahahaha yeah it was a 30 minute line (said the sign). Wow I was about to miss my first flight ever. So I sat in that stupid line for what seemed like ever, so many things were going through my mind like: would they put me on another flight or would I have to buy another ticket. Finally I made it through the line and at 8:10 I made it to the gate…the door closed at 8:11. The flight was interesting, more exciting than most flights that I have been on. There was a lady in my seat (a window seat) so I just asked her where her seat was (hoping it was a window seat). It turned out to be an aisle seat at the very back of the plane and I could see why she moved. In the window seat was a pretty big lady who was taking 1.5 seats so the guy next to me in the middle seat was halfway in my seat. I squished myself into the seat and buckled up. The takeoff was uneventful and seemed normal.
When we leveled off the lady sitting in the window seat passed out and we had an emergency in my aisle. The flight attendant kept it low profile so that nobody would panic and did a great job of taking care of the lady. I told the flight attendant that I was willing to move so that she would have more room and they put me in a middle seat somewhere else. I eventually went back and started talking to the flight attendants about their upcoming contract merger. We discussed the issues they face and what they think about the future of the airline. Upon landing we had a motorcade waiting to rush us to the conference that we were already late for. I got to see quite a bit on the ride, things like Boeing Field, Paul Allen’s hangars (cofounder of Microsoft) and the Space Needle. When we got to the Grand Hyatt we went right to our rooms to get dressed and then ran down to lunch. At lunch I sat next to Mike from Ottawa airport. I don’t know if it was planned that my table would be Canadians but it was pretty nice. After lunch we had this awesome speed dating session. In this part of the conference we got to go from table to table meeting the managers of various airports from around the world. I met some awesome people and even found a job opportunity in Dubai! My advisor, Dr. Sobotta was so excited that ABA students were out talking to actual employers…I aint gonna lie, it was pretty sweet. After that session we went to a conference talking about security in airports and how it is affecting business. For dinner that night we went out on a boat to a reserve where we ate native foods to the area. We had some awesome smoked salmon and were treated to a show while we ate. By the time we got back to the room I was dead tired and passed out the minute I hit the bed.
The next day, Thursday was packed in the morning with conferences. I got up early and went for a run throughout downtown Seattle. It is such a beautiful city! After some conferences we went to this neat round table session where we got 20 minutes at one of 6 or 7 tables all with an expert on a special topic. During these 20 minutes we were able to ask anything that we wanted relating to that topic. I learned more in those 2 hours than I could ever learn in a class room in an entire semester. For dinner that night we went to PF Chang’s, a place I had never been before. The food was OK, I just don’t think that I ordered the right thing. That night we all had a little party in the hotel room.
Friday was by far the best part of the trip. All 300 people that attended the conference met in the lobby of the hotel and got onto one of three buses. We were shuttled to the airport where after checking out bags we were escorted to a special area of the airport: the business part. We had breakfast while listening to presentations by various managers at the SEA-TAC Intl airport. After that we met with a ERAU alumni and got a tour of the airport along with a few other conference attendees. We all boarded another bus and got to go out on the ramp of the airport. Whenever we wanted to we could stop the bus, get out and take pictures. It was something that very few people ever get to do. We got caught in the exhaust of a 777 which was so cool. After that the official tour was over…for most people. As we said goodbye to all the people that we met, Mike our tour guide informed us that the airport had arranged a special tour for us students. We got to go EVERYWHERE. No where was off limits which was so awesome, we went to the tower, airport ops, terminal tours, offices, noise abatement, emergency centers, security. I took so many pictures and we even got to go down into the “bunker” section of the airport. After that tour was complete we had a surprise lunch with all Alumni that worked in the area. We went up to the conference room at the top floor of the airport and ate lunch with 5 grads: one of them was the director of aviation operations. We all got to introduce ourselves and were able to say a little something about us. They explained to us that they are looking for Riddle students to fill internships they have there. After lunch we got a presentation on Noise Abatement, something that I knew very little about. It was then time to head out into the terminal for some of us to catch flights. Mike was actually able to get us right through security using his own special lane..COOL! He then gave us a tour of the new terminal which was amazing! I have to give a round of applause to those involved with that because it is truly remarkable. After sitting and talking with mike for about an hour it was time for him to go home to his family. We just sat around for another half hour before we caught our flight home.
If you end up coming to Embry-Riddle and are in the ABA program I would highly recommend that you go on this trip. It may be expensive but there is no price for what I learned.
The next day I went to the Grand Canyon on a trip with ISA (international students association) which was really awesome. I had never seen the Grand Canyon before and it is really really awesome. We hiked about 2 miles into the Canyon before turning around. On the way down I had a freak thing happen to me: A raven dropped a rock on my head and cut me open!!! How many people go there every year and have that happen to them!??!! Other than that it was an awesome trip.
This week has been really busy: I am going to Baja on Tuesday and am trying to catch up on all of my school work before I go there. It is now 3:57 am and I just finished up a Macroeconomics project which feels great to finish. I still have some English to do and plan on answering some of the comment boards that you guys post questions on. Its probably going to be an all nighter but I will have gotten so much done it is totally worth it.
Be safe everyone,
Kenny
October 31, 2006
Wuts up everyone,
Hope everything is going good where you are. Things are going really well here. I have recovered from my exhausting weekend at home and I am now back into things here. I had a great sleep the day that I got back from Canada but had to get up at seven so it was kinda rough. I had a math and management exam, both of which went pretty well. I’m kind of getting worried about how easy my math class is…it’s just ridiculous. Either I’m brilliant or in the wrong class or something. I have at least a 90 in the class and am finding it really easy. All my other classes are going really well also.
English has been getting better because we are talking about what ever we want to really. We are in the process of writing an argument essay about really whatever we want and I am writing mine about why Middle Eastern countries (particularly Iraq) don’t need to depend on oil and need to start becoming more independent in that sense of their economy. I will be comparing Iraq with the United Arab Emirates because they are very quickly becoming less dependent on oil since the reserves will be dry by 2016. I got zero out of twenty possible points on an awesome essay I wrote about the word home because I didn’t properly turn it into turnitin.com which I think is ridiculous. I will just have to work harder on the rest of my work to make up for it. That really hurt my grade though.
In economics we are covering some really deep topics. I have a hard time understanding them in class but I usually go back to my room to go over it all in the text book. I am going to start a project for macro today even though it is due in two weeks. I am really busy over the next three months so I am going to try and get as much stuff done as I can right now while things are still relatively slow.
I am going to Seattle tomorrow for a meeting with the Association of American Airline Executives, going to the Grand Canyon next weekend and then two weeks after that I am heading to the Baja 1000. After that I go home again for 5 days for Thanksgiving. So I think you can see why I want to get as much stuff as I can right now.
I went to go talk to my English teacher the other day to talk about my essay and she had some really awesome ideas and referred me to people I could talk to about it. I haven’t really worked on the Dubai program much this week but I do have to call them when I get back to tell them how I plan to pay for my tuition and things.
I went shopping for clothes for my conference tomorrow this week and had a good time. Whitney and John went with me and we first went to Wal-Mart which didn’t have anything so we went to JCPenny which I had never been to before. Wow, what a terrible place. There was nobody that even asked me if I need help the entire half hour I was in there for. It was terrible. Anyways, I tried on about 10 different shirts before I found one that just fit me. After that we tried looking for nice shirts that had a matching tie. It was so hard I couldn’t believe it. Eventually we just ripped the shirt and tie off a manikin and then left. We went out to dinner with a bunch of people to Olive Garden and spent $10 on that. The cash is running kind of low after this trip but I am learning how to spend as little money as I can. It’s still nice to go out to dinner with friends outside of the cafeteria though. Anyways, I have to start packing for my trip. I will write another entry when I get to Seattle.
Be safe,
Kenny G.
Oh and Track 14 had an awesome performance at home. They played in front of almost 900 people and then again at a dance of 400 people…a complete sell out. They did an awesome job and I think will be trying to get some music on Limewire so you can hear them. Way to go boys!
October 18, 2006
Hey everybody,
How has your week been? This past week has been pretty crazy because I had a macroeconomics exam and many other projects and essays due. This weekend, although I had to do a lot of studying, I went camping with some friends: Kenan my roommate, Mark my suitemate, John, Taylor, Mike, and Amber (Kenan’s girlfriend). We had a huge fire from pallets and set up 3 tents. We all had a very much needed, really good time. While we were all out there, in the middle of nowhere we heard a really loud explosion. John, knowing guns told us that it wasn’t a gun and probably a little bomb some kids made. So we waited for 5, 10, 20 minutes and nobody came out. Finally we lost interest in it and then one guy that we know walked out of the forest, and then about 12 people walked out from all around the forest. It was really weird but kind of cool now that I think about it.
I have been working really hard on my Dubai program and finally, just yesterday I was accepted into the school. I will be going in May for the first summer semester, which is called Summer I and then I have the option for Summer II, but no obligation to stay for it just in case I do not want to stay. The more I look into the city and country the more amazing it looks… I was reading an article about a student that went to Dubai and every week went and had traditional tea in the lobby of the Dubai trade center. I don’t know if my mom is to excited about it though. She really misses my presence at our home in Canada and this is only putting me further away from her. I know though that when she sees Dubai and the surrounding area that she will fall in love instantly.
This weekend we are having OctoberWest which is Riddle’s version of homecoming. It will be a pretty cool weekend but I do have to work quite a bit. I am sorry that this journal is so short but I will write another one tomorrow because I have to go to class. Be safe!
Kenny
October 10, 2006
Wuts Up,
It has been a good week here in Prescott...I don’t think that I had a single moment to just sit. I had a macroeconomics project due on Monday which took me the entire weekend to do.
Other than that I had my friend Andrea down for Thursday through Monday which was really awesome. It was kind of weird having somebody from Canada here but I enjoyed it. When she first got here I gave her a tour of the campus which was nothing like what she imagined. For some reason she pictured it to be really green (umm yeah we’re in the desert) and thought that it would have an airport attached right to it. Overall she really liked the campus and all of my friends. We had dinner at Chartwell’s and then watched a few movies. The next day I had to go to class in the morning so she just stuck around while I was there.
After my classes were complete we went for a walk out around the lake and then got back in time for the Hypnotist. That guy was so funny. He had about 10 people up there doing different things but I was laughing my ass off. Afterwards we went back and then hung out with some friends until about 2 am and then headed to bed.
On Saturday we decided that we wanted to go climb the Dells that are around the lake. We spent the entire day out there climbing and just having fun. After we got back to the room which was at about 5pm I was ready to crash already because I was so tired from the rock climbing. Of course that’s when Kenan walks in and asks if we want to go camping with about 15 other people. Andrea was soooo excited so I really had no choice. We drove over there in John’s truck which had about 25 skids in it. We had a convoy of 6 cars headed out to the forest and it took about 30 minutes to get out there.......The next morning I woke up at about 9 and had breakfast.
Sunday was a very relaxing day and I did mostly homework. Andrea left yesterday at 4:00, 10 minutes before a huge storm was to hit. Today I had a long phone call with the American University in Dubai where I am planning on studying this summer. Anyways, I’m heading out. Have a good week everybody!
Peace,
Kenny
September, 19, 2006
Hey Everyone,
Today was a pretty normal day here in Prescott. The weather was amazing, probably 85 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. I woke up a bit late, 8:00 and was late for my principles of management class by 10 minutes. After that class I went down to Chartwells for some breakfast. I am in training for the Baja 1000, a legendary race that takes place every year in Baja California (Mexico). It is 1000 miles of the toughest terrain in the world and is often quoted to be the most difficult race in the world. Because of this I have been eating extremely healthy. Well as healthy as I can at the cafeteria.
I then went to Macro economics which is an awesome class. We talked about the different classes of an economy which sounds boring but the prof has this way of keeping us all awake. Once that was out it was down to the caf again with my suitemates mark and kenan and some friends from the hall. Once again a healthy meal was made by myself. Once we were done eating I headed to the mail room to find that my wonderful mother sent me a HUGE box of cookies. On the way back I ran into my friend Derek from Hong Kong and we talked for a bit. Back at the room I started studying for English which lasted about an hour...one hell of a long hour.
After that I had a long conversation with the members of a band that I manage at home. They recently ran into a guy who said that he would get them a label which is huge news considering that they started the band only a year ago. One member of the band, Colin, is the most amazing drum player I have ever heard for his age and I am so damn proud of the kid. The head honcho is Blair, aka b, my brotha...he is such an awesome dude, lol i don’t know what else to say...then there is Dave and Ryan, 2 of the funniest kids in the world. Dave is known for doing the stupidest stuff ever: like diving into the shallow end of a pool off his 20 foot roof. Anyways, I will let you know when we have some stuff recorded so that you can download it.
After that meeting I headed for English class which was really boring. I just have such a hard time paying attention in that class because I am not interested at all by it. All of my other classes are awesome except for that one. I then walked down to Chartwell’s for dinner and sat and talked with some dudes from Texas, Cali and Oregon. After dinner it was back up to the rooms to do some studying for a math quiz that I have tomorrow which lasted two hours. We then went to Starbucks and I got to use a gift card that my aunt Lorna bought me as a going away gift. We hung out there doing some studying before my a.d.d. roommate couldn’t sit any longer and we left. When we got back we went down to the common area where about 10 people were hanging out and we just sat and chilled for another two hours. I am now back up at my room still studying for math which I will do pretty well on tomorrow. Anyways I’m headin to bed now and will ttyl. peace!
GO TRACK 14!!
September 18, 2006
Hey dudes,
How's it going?
I have had a pretty solid week...a lot happened and was definitely not boring. It started off with coming back from an awesome weekend in Phoenix with my roommate Kenan. We first went to his girlfriend’s boss's place...one of his many places and had a goodtime there. The next day we slept in and then headed to Kenan's house where we hung out for about three hours. We then went to pick up Kenan's girlfriend’s friend Natalie, or Nicole...um yeah I don't remember her name. We went to see downtown Phoenix and I told them that I wanted to walk around. Phoenix is such an awesome city and the people are so friendly! We ate lunch at a little pizzeria and then walked to the US Airways Center. In front of there this guy offered us tickets to the Diamondbacks game for only four bucks...an offer nobody could turn down. The place was amazing and I just stood there in awe...and then they opened the roof and I was lovin life. After that we went golfing at some open driving range and I taught Natalie how to golf...lets just say after I was done with her she was driving to the 100 yard flag compared to the just making it off the green at first. By the time we were done that it was about 11:30 and we headed back to Kenan's house in a suburb of Phoenix. Kenan and his girlfriend Amber disappeared and me and Natalie watched a movie. Her mom called like three hours later and told her to get home. We drove her home and then went to crash at Kenan's place. The next morning we woke up at noon and then drove back to Prescott which is an hour and a half drive when Kenan drives.
The week ahead was an extremely busy one but I like being busy rather than bored. Classes were pretty good except for English which I have a hard time with. Tuesday night I sat down and wrote an extremely good essay about "all that glitters is not gold" and was up until 2:00 am. Night time here is so awesome, coming from a small town and living in the boondocks there was not much to do at night unless I was staying at my best friends Blairs or Matts houses. Those were ALWAYS awesome night and that is one of the things I miss the most about home.
Throughout this past week I had a meeting for many organizations including the International Students Group, a business club, the Association of American Airline Executives and went to the club fair which was awesome...If you come to riddle there is a club for anything that you can imagine and if there isn’t then the school will give you 60 bucks to start your own. The school even gave some students money to start a hookah club which I think is killer.
This weekend my family came down from Canada to visit me for the first time which was pretty sweet. They came Friday night and then left this morning (Sunday). The first night we went to Murphey’s, a grill in town and had some awesome food (compared to the cafeteria, my parents didn’t like it but me, wister, jason, and derek thought we were in heaven). The next day we all went to the lake and had a BBQ which was awesome. We went for a little hike and then went up to the campsite for steak! After that me and my brother Dennis came back to school and went to our Hall’s movie night where we watched one of the greatest movies ever, Boondock Saints. It was awesome that my brother was there to watch it with me since we don’t see each other very much. After that we came back to the room and chilled with a bunch of my friends. We eventually asked my suitemate Mark for a ride back and then went to bed.
In the morning my dad woke me up to get me fitted for my suit for the baja 1000 which we are racing in November. They then drove me to the campus and I fell asleep in the lounge. It’s not 11:58 and I’m out...I will keep you up to date with what’s goin on here. As my boy B says, pop-peace.
September 1, 2006
Hey Everyone!
My name is Kenny and I am from Amherstburg, Ontario Canada. I am a freshman here at the Prescott Campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the Aviation Business program. At the time that I am writing this journal I have been on campus for just over one and a half weeks and I am loving every minute of it. I chose to come to Embry-Riddle because of the reputation that the school has. ERAU is basically the Harvard of aviation which is why I came. When I graduate I want to go work in the United Arab Emirates at the national airline Emirates. The airline currently has over $35, 000, 000, 000 worth of aircraft on order and will take delivery of them by the year 2010.
I want to tell you a little bit about my first day here. I woke up at 5:30 AM to leave for the airport. My town is about thirty minutes from the Detroit Metropolitan airport so I booked my ticket on NWA. The ride to the airport was an emotional one for my parents but I looked at it as the beginning of my journey and was so excited to start it. Don’t get me wrong, I was nervous but was sure that I had made the right decision. We pulled up to the airport and my parents gave me a hug and let me go. This was really hard for my mom to do but she knew that it was what I wanted to do. My parents then sped off and I headed for the hotel. Most people don’t know about the hotel and head for the major ticket counters. At the hotel I sat in the lounge and watched CNN for a little bit before I headed to the security gate. There was no line up which is a major advantage of going through the hotel. The security agent made me chug my coffee which was kind of hard to do. Once through security I learned that my flight was actually delayed due to unscheduled maintenance. I then walked up to the gate agent and asked her what the problem was. She said that a pressure valve had blown somewhere in the right engine and the mechanics were already on the scene. Having done a lot of flying and being a pilot myself I understand that these things happen and there is nothing you can do about it. I sat down and pulled out my laptop and played some music for about a half hour. I then called Matt Flaherty who was picking my up at the airport and let him know that my flight was delayed. One hour later they began to board the plane. I used my world perks points and upgraded my seat to first class which was a great decision. We waited another hour and a half on the plane because the luggage handlers had thrown a bag and broken a panel inside the baggage compartment. On the flight I began to get really nervous wondering if I had made the right decision. I was going to be over 1600 miles from home and couldn’t just drive home on the weekends.
Upon landing Matt was waiting for me with two other students. The students, Warren and Victoria then drove me to Prescott which was about two hours away. The drive there was awesome and the scenery was amazing. When we arrived at my dorm we unloaded my luggage and they then took my out to dinner at Subway. II bought two subs so that I could have one in my room for the next day. When I got back I set up my computer and did some unpacking and then went to bed. It was a long day but also important: my mom has a saying on a wall in our house that reads “the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”…today I have taken that step.
|
