Just a Northern Boy Part 2

One afternoon I decided to take a walk down to the first floor to get something out of the vending machine. As a walked I noticed something in front of someone's room then on the other side I realized there was something just like it. What was it you asked? There were two confederate rebel flags hanging across from each other in front of someone's room. I looked at one that said "OBAMA SUCKS" and stood there a moment and thought wow wait till my RA gets a load of this. I go to the machine and head back to my room. A couple of other people and I were in the midst of decorating the hall so we had to go get supplies from a building on the other side of campus. The person who had the key for the rooms had not seen the flags until we returned and she seemed shocked and appalled, which was pretty funny to me. We decorated the hall and everything then I went into my room and did a little bit more in-depth research on the confederate flag. I eventually came up with the idea of doing a little hall decorating for myself. Out of respect for their own views and what they want to display I decided to put up a reminder to those guys of just exactly who won the war in case they forgot. I printed out a Union Flag and pasted it up on the wall as well as the current flag of the United States of America just as a reminder. Eventually the whole situation got out of hand and the two people who placed these flags up were moved to another building. Me along with other people in my hallway were later asked to write statements about it which I had no clue would go to the dean of housing. At this point I didn't want this situation to go this far because they were talking about expulsion and suspension and personally I'd never want to have someone's college career in my hands or let alone anything I say or write affect it. These students were put on trial in front of different school officials and were sentenced to one year probation and community service because of placing up the flags as well as other activities that turned out to be their doing on campus.

A Grotesque Night in New York City

After taking my girlfriend out to celebrate her birthday and dropping her home. I jump on the 6 train in Harlem and then transfer to the E, the train which has tied for 1^st in the most disgusting trains in the NYC Subway system. After stepping on the subway car the mutual bond between the homeless and the regular night traveler is in full display. In the corners or the one seaters are the homeless people most commonly called the bums. The train goes on its regular scheduled trip until it gets to 71st Continental Ave. The conductor says it's the last stop due to signal trouble and kicks everyone off. Hoping the next E train is actually going to the last stop I wait for about 15 minutes and jump on the next train. After sitting there for about 2mins everyone once again is kicked off the train. As everyone files off the train I realized that the natural bond between night traveler and bum has been broken on the station platform. They seemed to come from all directions and a horrid urine type smell filled the air. Holding my breath and hoping that either the people moved or the F train on the other platform came before I suffocated I watched them as they walked around the platform. They had ungroomed faces tattered clothes in disgusting condition. As I watched something I've seen before popped up again. One of them was wearing a hospital bracelet which got me thinking either that was for an actual hospital or maybe it was for an insane asylum or something around those lines. Then as if called by some mysterious noise on the opposite side of the platform they all turned and walked in that general direction. The F train finally came and with the E train not running I had to take a 5 block walk in the freezing cold to the bus along with a 25 minutes wait for the bus. The good thing is I got home safe a sound.

The Riddle Ratio Strikes Again

After finally getting my friends to go to a party on a boring Saturday night we arrive to a smoke filled restaurant with people in costumes and the sound of salsa music. Most people sat on the sides because they were salsally challenged or just didn't really care for Spanish music. As the night went on everyone jumped on the dance floor when the reggae and the rap and all the dance music that everyone is used to came on. There was then this onslaught of dancing and guys running round for different girls to dance with. Then all of a sudden a huge crowd ensues around two people dancing. All the guys have this delighted smile as if to say oh yea I'm definitely dancing with this girl on their faces. As I looked at the girl I thought wow she really can dance and she real is pretty but, if the chance arises I will try and dance with her. After the music dies down a little the effects of the riddle ratio began to strike. The girl went to sit down and a group of about 5-7 guys crowded around her table. Everyone is trying to get themselves in good with this girl but, there's so much competition no one can really finish a sentence. As I watch this I began to laugh as she gets up from here table to go to the dance floor and these guys literally race behind here to try and get their turns to dance with her. The night progresses everyone has fun meets new people and eventually the magic words of last song for the night comes up. My friend gets his shot at dancing with her finally after waiting about the whole night. Then as the last song stops playing and the girl begins to exit the club one of the most sad and grotesque things that I have seen in a while began to happen. I call it the "Riddle Rush" about 10-15 guys ran behind that girl calling her name trying to talk to her and they all got played one by one. One guy even tried to get her friend to introduce him to her and she tore him apart. This group of guys followed her out into the parking lot screaming her name and running after her it was pure madness and quite amusing at the same time. Eventually my friend got a chance to talk to her and get her number but he didn't have long cause she was whisked away by all the other guys trying to talk to her.

Just a Northern Boy

Growing up with a pretty much shielded life and not really experiencing certain aspects of life that others have and not really completely understanding the world and the big picture of life itself. I came to a school in the south and I ran into something that I had never seen a day before in my life while living in NY for 13 years of my life the confederate flag. Not necessarily understanding the flag only know its standing for the south during the Civil War I did some research on it to get a true understanding on it all. I learned that the flag went through several changes during the period from 1861-1865, six states currently have the flag or some form of it within their state flags and other information as well. As someone coming from the north opinions towards the flag were definitely something I looked into. Many people saw it as a symbol of southern pride while others saw it as a symbol of hatred and a time that a now strong nation was at one of its weakest points. After learning all of this I still had both a mixed emption about the flag in the end. With this topic comes into play the issue of things such as the swastika that would cause a stir if displayed freely anywhere. But as I've said before opinions are based on what side of the spectrum you fall under. Though we sometimes try to place a blind eye towards certain things it creates a mixed field of emotions when it has a negative basis behind it.

The Avion and the grotesque

There was a newspaper article by a student at this school about guys being pigs here at ERAU and asking girls for their numbers and a long list of other things. The article went on to say that girls at this school don't want to talk to us didn't want our numbers and a bunch of other things. I personally didn't like this article because 1. I am guilty of doing one or two things this girl considers to be piggish and 2. No one likes to hear anything negative about them even if it may be the truth. I sat down and thought was it really that big of a deal what this girl said and then I came to the conclusion; Honestly it didn't matter this girl does have the first amendment on her side which pertains to: Establishment Clause, Free Exercise Clause; freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly; right to petition. Personally I feel that freedom of speech is a very picky topic. This rule comes into play a lot especially when someone is saying what the majority of people don't exactly take a liking to the views or speech of another. As a saying goes “The very sad part about human nature is that we tend to comment only on those who do it wrong and neglect to balance it with praise for those who do it right”. I personally feel that it is both sad and an issue when the only issue of the school newspaper that anyone really read was the one with this article in it. Honestly who is to say what is wrong or right in the end there will always be someone on each side of the spectrum when it comes to a certain topic.

A Weird Night in Daytona

As I stayed in my room doing homework or at least trying to focus on it because it seemed as if anything in the world would have been better than HW at that point. I decided that I was fed up with the ratio and having all this school work so I decided to tour the Daytona area with a friend down the hallway. We set out on the journey to what would be an unforgettable night. As we walked to the end of the block we looked around and discussed the city of Daytona in general and the absence of a transit system as I was use to in NYC city and we decided after we were done walking around we would go to K-Mart. We arrived at our first destination which was Daytona Beach State College (DBS) which was a ghost town. Apart from the 2 or 3 cars that drove around the campus to drop someone off or the campus security go cart there was absolutely no one on the campus. There was a guy blowing leaves and gardening but apart from that the campus was absolutely barren. We walked and saw a line of go-karts just begging us to take one of them for a ride but after considering some things we decided against the lure of these go carts all parked up nicely next to this building. After walking around Daytona State College for another couple of minutes we decided to call it a night and go to K-mart like we planned earlier but as we turned on our path back to Embry-Riddle (ERAU) you we heard a tantalizing sound behind us. It was the sound of drums or a band so from this sound we thought instruments+band=chicks so we headed in the directions of the drums after checking the DBS campus map we noticed there was a huge cemetery right across the street, which we decided avoid at all cost! We walked on the DBS campus and looked in windows to see if the sound came from on campus of course it didn't so then we decided that the music was a figment of our imaginations. We set back on our course to ERAU and there it was again the tantalizing sound of a marching band in the opposite direction so wee ser course in that direction and came to the road between the cemetery and DBS. My friend was now convinced it was some sort of spirit from the cemetery trying to lure us in so we both decided once again to go back to ERAU. Not even a second after turning around the sound began to play again so I decided I was not turning back this time especially since we realized the sound was not coming from the cemetery but from somewhere behind hit it a few blocks maybe even a mile or so away. We walked for about 15minutes when we came across a little shopping cent with stores like Family Dollar, Kryspy Kreme, a Chinese Buffet and many more stores. Disappointed after walking pass all these stores which were closed from about 9 o'clock (something you'd never see in NY) my friend decided that the night was a lost cause and he refused to go any further but across the street a little while up the block there was a green sign with white writing on it. The sign caught my eyes though I couldn't make out what it was saying but I definitely knew I had to read it but on the other hand my friend was making a good argument. As I decide if I was going to turn back or read the sign a traffic truck drives by with the arrows that points traffic out of a certain lane and it stops with its arrow right next to this sign, as if it was a message to me the arrow on this truck lights up and begin to point at the green sign that had been plaguing my mind as I tried to make a decision on going back to ERAU. After seeing this, my mind was made up I went to read the sign and it read "Bethune Cookman Universityà". I told my friend but he still wanted to go back to campus so I decided I would ask one of the construction guys how far the school was and if it was really far we would turn back around. We asked the worker who said the school was at the next stop light which we could see from where we were standing so we set off on the third leg of our journey. To solidify that we were meant to take this journey a sign in front of a church read "Where god guides he provides" let me know we were on track and not only was the school not at the next stop light the area began to change. We walked and we saw broken down houses, junked cars, we saw people up ahead as well. As we got closer we realized these people were crack heads huddled up in corners running around the streets and going into abandoned buildings. The area was just really run down and in bad condition so I decide to get in contact with someone who could then transfer me over to my RA to let him know we had wondered off into this part of town in case anything happened. We continued walking saw people on corners drinking hanging out in front of the corner store (typical things in NYC) and then we came across a sign that read Bethune Cookman University. Once on the campus we saw a humongous group of girls standing out in the street talking. We were like to kids in a toy store everywhere we looked there was something we wanted and we were just frozen in one spot just looking around at all the girls that were around. We were like mister kool aid on the street corner with pasted on smile and the urge to say "OOOO YEEEEEAAAAA". It was just too many girls to handle in one night we were lost for words after walking around the campus and seeing the amazing opportunities it had to offer we were shell shocked. So we decide before one of us had a heart attack we would just go back to campus and game plan for the next to we went back. So we called a cab who ironically the cab driver happened to be an alumni of the school gave us the whole run down of how BCU operated. I brought a weird yet potential filled night to an end by wishing my friends as well as my RA good bye cause they would never see me again with a school like that so near by.

Another Adventure in Daytona Beach

After waiting week for the long awaited day of a swim suit party at the Daytona Lagoon the day was finally here. I went through my classes as regularly scheduled and finally came the time to leave for the party. I called up Safe Ride and headed to the Lagoon fashionably late as usual. Upon arriving to the Lagoon I see nothing but little kids playing arcade games so I think to myself if there's suppose to be a party here where exactly will it be kept. So I approach the counter along with my friend and ask about this party that's suppose to be going down tonight and the guy says he doesn't know what we're talking about. We both looked at each other in shock and left the lagoon with looks of defeat. We walked away thinking about how we probably mixed days up or probably got bad information from our source. So we took a walk around Daytona in hopes of finding a back up attraction to hold our time and of course finding nothing we headed back to the Lagoon. On the way back we spotted a poster that had information about the party that we were just told supposedly didn't exist. After going back to the Lagoon we are greeted by a different employee who tells us the location of the party. The party looked great just what we expected and the second we paid and sat down thanks to our luck it began to rain. Everyone who was in the pool filed out in their bathing suits. Again shocked about our luck my friend and I stared at each other in awe. The rain eventually died down and so did the party when we got back to it so we decided to go to a nearby club. The club was filled with the stench of cigarette but we were greeted by bartenders dancing on top of tables and people all around enjoying themselves. We looked at each other and smiled at the fact that we had finally found the type of party we've been looking so hard for.