Spring Break happened awhile ago but I forgot to write about it! So much has happened lately and it seems as if every class demands some sort of group project. Ok, group projects….this blog is no such place for me to rant and rave about how group projects are the ironic failures of society because it is material deemed inappropriate. But in a nutshell, I am usually that one person who does all the work for the group while the majority of the others are stupid and do not contribute or lack any initiative to become part of the group, especially when it is too late.  I am working on two group projects right now and am frustrated to the point that I will play Chess against the computer. I used to be so good but now I lose all the time!

Anyway, Spring Break was a much needed vacation from here because I really needed to get away from all the homework and Army stuff, even there is never getting away from the Army! I went back to Tucson and immediately saw my friend Brandon that first night. I cannot remember every detail of break because I was lazy in blogging but I was able to see my friends Bobby and Therese on one of the mornings, went to dinner with Julie and Emily, lunch with Julia, caving with Michael, Brandon and Megan and a whole bunch of activities with people whose names none of you know. It was a lot of fun and a really good way to relax before coming back up here to study and work for the rest of the year. I love spending time with my family and being home just beats any vacation that I could wish for. I found out that my brother Michael is going to France to spend his Rotary Youth Exchange year abroad and I am so proud of him! I went to Germany with the same program four years ago and cannot wait for him to come back speaking fluent French. I just hope that he gets a good host family this time.

Parent’s Day was last Friday/Saturday in which Embry-Riddle invites all parents of ERAU students to come and visit here. My Mom and brother James came up on Saturday to see me although we didn’t partake in any Parents Day activities like we were supposed to. I showed them where I lived, my future roommates for next year and then took them out to lunch with my roommate Joshua. We went to Zeke’s and for those who know it, was delicious beyond their dreams and we were stuffed for the rest of the day. Afterwards they checked out the bookstore and went shopping for food and such before I had to say goodbye and they went home. My Mom loves going to outlets on the ride home so the usual 3 1/2 hour drive back to Tucson was some 6 hours because of Mom’s shopping! Poor James! I like it when she does that though because I know I’ll always remember it when I am not at ERAU anymore.

Embry-Riddle has been bustling with activity since I got back from Spring Break, which will have its own blog soon, and I have never been this busy! Analysis reports, personality profiles of spies and social psychological case studies have me running all over the place trying to complete all this work before the Army commitments take me over. On that note, The Army has been demanding a lot of the cadets lately in preparation for the Spring 2011 JTFX (Joint Field Training Exercise). For those that don’t know, every school in Arizona sends its ROTC units to work together during this JFTX which lasts a few days at some base of military operations. This year it is taking place at Ft. Hauchuca in Cochise Country near Tucson! Last years JFTX was at Ft. Navajo and we all froze the entire time! The unit here can only take a few MSII’s, sophomore cadets, due to lack of space. I fortunately was one of the ones that is assigned to go in my class although this means that a lot of work and commitment is required even of us sophomores in order to make this learning experience worth our time and worth the Army’s time.

Some more good Army news is that I was fortunate enough to get offered some Army school slots this upcoming summer. Only a fool would turn down any of these amazing opportunities and I got to pick between Airborne, Northern Warfare and an attempt at seizing a Combat Diver Scuba Slot. I picked the Northern Warfare slot but a lot of commitment and physical and mental training comes as a prerequisite in order to pass the school. It happens this summer in Alaska from July 31th – August 18th and it is going to be freezing up there even in the summer! I will probably turn into either an ice cube or lose my permanent Hispanic tan by the time I get back. I am excited but if I said I wasn’t nervous then I would be lying because I most definitely am! I know that I can do it but I have to prove myself now through physical conditioning so that I can be prepared instead of some cornfused cadet with the “deer in the headlights” approach to everything I will be presented with.

The Army’s Military Ball is happening this Friday and I am excited because I invited my friends Rachel and Lindsey to come up from ASU to be my dates to the ball! It is going to be fun and my friends Joshua and Emily had to get all dressed up today for inspections so that nothing we wear is entirely inappropriate. I mean, please, this is a professional environment. I am really looking forward to living with these two next year because they are great friends and I know that we will get along great.

Joshua, Emily, Steven

Instead of heading down to Tucson on an Admissions trip like I had hoped, my friends and I decided to experience a taste of spring break by heading up to Flagstaff for a daytrip. These past few weeks have been rather stressful and loaded with unnecessary amounts of busywork of which I attribute to laziness and procrastination on my part. We concluded some experiments and some other projects that needed finishing. For instance, we conducted a Social Psychology experiment during which we tested the students of ERAU when they went to eat. We put four signs, two “WOMEN ENTER HERE” and “MEN ENTER HERE” on the four doors of Chartwells to see if people would comply when they entered. For the most part, men only entered through doors marked with MEN and women entered through doors that said WOMEN on them but there were a few cases of people who accidentally or deliberately disobeyed with our experiment. To the few that entered through doors of the opposite gender we marked them as being Undetermined. It was humorous but now we have to write up a report about it and its due Friday along with a Psych test. SO instead of studying for that this weekend my Psych group, Shawn Emily, Joshua and I went to Flagstaff.

The night before on Friday we attended Casino Night in the Activity Fair where some 500 people or so (I actually don’t know but exaggerating the number will help someone make an image of people packed into the Activity Center) gathered to gamble fake money for charity and in an effort to win raffle prizes. I proved that I am the King of Blackjack despite the fact that when Bobby, Aaron and I went to a casino in San Diego I merely stood there and watched everyone lose. I won up to $5252 in fake money and bought a bunch of raffle tickets although I didn’t win anything. Whatever, its not like I could’ve used a free iPad or semester of housing or even that girl bike that some freshman won. Anyway, we stayed the night at Shawn’s house and then went to Flagstaff early the next morning. We rented our boards and boots from some cheaper place and then went up to the Snowbowl to start snowboarding. I have never gone before and was nervous for it because I fully expected to fall on my butt the entire time. Well, I can say with 100% guarantee that that happened pretty much most of the time. I caught on with snowboarding pretty quickly and learned to carve and head down the mountain pretty fast with an unorthodox method of mine. I would sit down on my butt and pretty much sled down the entire way at superspeed. It ended up hurting my wrists and butt pretty bad but it was worth it. We ran quite a few of the mountain courses and then when we reached a lodge I found that a cut on my wrist was bleeding pretty badly. It turns out that during one of my spills my wrist came in front of my to protect myself and my abnormally sharp incisor tooth cut my arm. Strange yeah but not unheard of.

After that happened I resigned to staying at the lodge eating chicken strips and keeping an eye out for snowbunnies while the other three tacked the Black Diamond trail. I fell asleep waiting for them to come back (hence there were no snowbunnies around and I was disappointed in Flagstaff) and when they did they were all dead and exhausted. I had regained some energy after my little nap and therefore was ready to call it a day. It was so much fun even though I did get frustrated after falling all the time. So that was our taste of mini-vacation and it sure was great to get away from this place for a while. But now we’re back and have PT tomorrow, just one more week left!!!