Summer

At last my favorite season - and on top of that, I'm on vacation. 60 days full of doing whatever I want. So far, its been a lot of fun - 2 weddings, lying out in the sun almost every day, movies, crosswords, shopping, reading, and all that jazz. In a few days, I will go to Boston to visit Billy at his AIAD! Right now we are planning on going to the Sox/Braves game (I'm cheering for the Braves, and Billy for his current "home team"), Harvard, a few of our favorite restaurants in the area (Moogies!!!), and maybe some shopping. He may even be able to convince me to go to "work" with him - we'll see about that. I'm so excited to go, but have been procrastinating on unpacking (just as I typically do with anything having to do with packing...not my favorite pastime to say the least) and still have quite a bit of random stuff to find places for or to give away before I leave. I don't know why, but every time I go on vacation I go into a nocturnal sort of mode...The past week or 2 I've been going to bed at around 3 AM on average and getting up at around 1130 or so (later if I had my way). I attribute it to being content in whatever state I'm in - when I'm awake, I like to stay awake; when I'm asleep, I prefer to keep right on sleeping. So weird...but it did make staying up all those nights before projects/papers were due easier than it would seem. Anyway, in my futile attempts to retain some sort of normal schedule, I should try and go to sleep.

-Krishel

Back from the Block

Well, we made it back safely from our TEE leave which we spent on Block Island. It was fun, but pale in comparison to Ocracoke's friendly folks and warm, sunny weather. We wanted to spend more time out exploring, but it was cold and rainy a good part of the time. It was still a good, relaxing break with no schedules other than catching the ferry off the Island. We had a fun time talking with the owner of a candy store, from whom we bought plenty of gummies and fudge. He was one of the only friendly people we met, however, as most of the people we said hello to on the streets preferred to imagine we didn't exist. Coming back from vacation is always hard, even though I am packing so I can get out of this place. I feel so ready to live without roommates for a little while because I'm tired of trying to fit into the cliques that exist here, especially with the girls. I'm really hoping to get closer again with some of my friends from back home or making some new friends with the ROTC girls or something. A lot of people here (a lot of girls) are way too competitive with one another - always looking to prove that they are better than someone, anyone...Just one more week.

Study, study, study!

Billy and I have both been pretty busy with our work the past few days...not much going on otherwise. Sometimes school can be so frustrating. Yesterday my group had an in-progress review in my capstone design course. My roommate and I spent quite a bit of time this weekend working on it and our other 2 group members didn't really start until the night before. When we presented the project though, my roommate and I were the ones that got grilled with questions and things we did wrong! I think its because a lot of the other part is based off of our part and if we don't get our part right, the whole project would be messed up. We are designing a drinking water treatment plant for an Army base near Mosul, Iraq. We are also trying to have the plant receive at least 30% of its energy from a sustainable source (we will probably use solar and/or hydro power). We still are in the process of deciding whether the ideal water source would be alluvial groundwater or from the Tigris River. Both sources present challenges, but we will weigh these in our decision making process. Then, we have to figure out which would be the best treatment method based off of the source, which is a whole new can of worms. It's pretty cool because it is our first "real world" application and who knows, they might end up using parts of our design. Now that I have sufficiently bored whoever is reading this, I must get back to FEE review!!

-Krishel

Another Great Weekend

As Billy mentioned earlier, we went to a marriage in the military seminar this weekend at the OCF house. It was very informative and a lot of fun! There were different sessions: first was everyone together, then we broke up into dual or singe military couples, and then girls and guys, and then we came back together as a group. It was a lot of fun hearing lots of different perspectives and stories. I feel we both learned a lot and heard a lot of tips to make married life easier in the military.

We also went to the 100th night dinner and show. The dinner was ok - unnecessarily long and the usual filet mignon with potatoes and green beans - very typical but I think most people really enjoy it. We did have real wine which was cool, but I didn't particularly care for it much. The dessert was delicious though. We couldn't really hear the speaker which is too bad because he probably had some interesting experiences in his lifetime. He had been born to parents who had been slaves and he ended up joining the army and becoming pretty successful -except for maybe the time he forgot his name while speaking to General Patton!

After dinner we went down to the 100th night show. It was funny - better than previous years when the goal was to single out people and make fun of them. This year it wasn't quite as obvious who the characters were supposed to be. A lot of them were just general steryotypical cadets like the tool, the guy who is obsessed with his muscles, the profile girl, ice cream girl, and a few others. I think a lot of the characters were meant to be compilations of several people, not just 1 person in particular, which was cool. It was a really fun weekend, but it is not over yet! We will go to church soon and after that Billy signed up to do puppies behind bars so we will get to play with a puppy for awhile!!

Until next time,
Krishel

Marriage in the Military

So, for Krishel and the firsties, happy 100th night! This weekend Krishel and I are going to a Marriage Seminar that OCF is hosting. I'm pretty excited because I have a ton of questions because marriage in the military is much different then what's normal in society.

I'll let ya'll know how it goes!

Picture of the day


17 Mile Drive - Monterey, CA

President's Day Weekend

This last weekend Krishel and I got out of West Point and explored New York City! We've been to the city many times, but with Valentine's Day falling on a Saturday, I had to plan something extraordinary! So I planned to bring her first to the Serendipity Restaurant (from the movie with Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack), but we didn't wake up in time! Therefore, I took her on Sunday to eat there and my sister and roommate Moomin came along to eat! The picture to the left is us in the Serendipity (their desserts are delicious!)

So to continue the day, I surprised her and took her to watch Chicago on Broadway. The night before, she mentioned after seeing a brochure that it would be cool to watch Chicago on Broadway sometime (since she really liked the movie) and I was like..."cha-ching!". So when we rounded the corner she was like "we're going to see Chicago!" and just to tease her I walked her past the entrance and then circled back and was like "yep!". After the show I took her to Chinatown where we feasted at Joe's Ginger. A great night of surprises!

I started taking pictures with my new Canon SD880IS I got last week. Love the camera, but nothing beats my Nikon D70. I realized that despite the many times I've been to the city, I never took a picture in Times Square so I convinced Krishel to let me take a picture of her!

Overall this trip was a success! Krishel was happy, I was happy, I got to see my sister and roommate and do a lot of cool stuff!

Now I got to get back to writing my IR paper! I think I'll head to the library so I don't get distracted!

Billy