Frozen Tundra

Coming back here after being home for a month has been some-what of a struggle.  I expected to come back to the cold, but after three weeks now I don't think there has been a single day above 10 degrees. Most days are negative with wind chills anywhere from -25 to -50 degrees! I still love the cold...but this is more than that. This is a frozen, barren wasteland. Every time I am outside, my face feels like it is being stabbed by a thousand knives, and there is no way to avoid it while walking to classes.  Everything about this weather is amazing...if only it had about 20 degrees added to it :P  Multiple socks, two sweatshirts/snow coat, beanie, and big snow gloves are a necessity when walking outside. There has been a lot of ice buildup on the sidewalks so walking to classes, on top of staying warm, becomes a maze of finding spots to step so you don't take a tumble. 

On a more positive note, at the same time, walking to classes can be quite enjoyable (so long as you are properly dressed) because you get to see others slip and fall around you. Something about people falling is just extra funny. I do feel bad but it is so hard not to laugh seeing someone go up on all fours and flat on their back. There have been several occasions where I have been so close to going down myself, so it happens to even the best of us. :)  

There was one bad fall I made, my first week back to school. I was walking to the aviation building to catch the shuttle to the airport. I was about 30 steps from the shuttle and I walked right into this huge patch of ice. Out goes my foot, soon comes the other, and before I knew it I was up in the air and moments later, flat on my back. My flight bag, and a lot of the objects in it, went sliding across the ice. I just stayed on the ground for a few seconds, ashamed that I had just done that. Luckily, when I got up and looked around, there was no one around me to see my fall. I picked up all my gear, avoiding another fall, and finished my very short walk.  The only person that saw me was the driver of the shuttle van, he chuckled and said a few words to me as I hopped in.  

What it looks like outside, EVERYDAY 

I know I have been behind on posts, hopefully this will be enough to catch me back up. Like I said before, weather has been the same for all three weeks. I am enjoying a few of my classes, others not so much.  I am taking Spanish 102 this semester after not speaking Spanish since my sophomore year of high school.  When I went into class the first day, I thought I would be in big trouble because I was so rusty on my speaking. But after three weeks I definitely think I can handle it and I just have to push through it. This will be the only semester I have to take a foreign language. 

English 110 is another class I am taking which is not one of my favorites. It has never been a favorite of mine and it continues to be that way.  Wrote my first essay this last week, pretty much everything I learned from high school just goes to waste. The professor isn't looking for structure, foundation, anything like that. While it seems like it may allow more freedom, we still have a topic we have to write about and it makes it rather difficult writing 5-8 pages, free-write, on something you don't care anything about. At least with structure it makes it easier to develop main points and go off of that. So this class with definitely be tough and un-enjoyable.

What I wear when I go fly a plane,
who wants to fly with me? :)

All my Aviation classes are a lot of fun though.  I am learning a lot and continuing to progress with my major. Flying has been a struggle so far this semester. I have been weathered (meaning the weather is too bad to fly) five times now. It is such an inconvenience going all the way out to the airport to figure out that my flight will have to be cancelled for the day.  I just want to keep flying and get done with it for the semester rather than rushing it at the end. 

Well this is what I have been up to these first couple weeks. Just trying to stay warm, keep flying, and push through my not-so-exciting classes. I can't believe it has already been three weeks and how it is already almost February.  Hope family and friends back home are enjoying the 80 degree days in the middle of January.  I don't want to hear any complaining about it being cold there :P

 Counting down the days to come home again!

Cameron

P.S. Sorry for lack of pictures...I have been trying to keep my hands warm while outside so it makes it difficult to take pictures :P  Let me know what you want to see pictures of and I will make it happen!

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Winter Break!

Goodbye home....

I know I'm two weeks behind now but I thought I would talk about how my time back home was before I get moving on with this semester.  I loved being able to see all my family and friends again. It was a much needed visit and it gets me excited to come back for hopefully another amazing summer! The warmer weather was great and it was nice to get out of the negative degree temperatures.  I did not miss the traffic, however, and how busy every place was. That is one thing that I don't think I will ever miss, and I guess I got so used to living here that it was weird being around that again. (Even though I have lived there my whole life :P)

Carpinteria, beach on one side..mountains on the other. :)

While home, I went on a camping trip with my family to Carpinteria beach that we have gone on for the past six or seven years. It is always such an amazing vacation and I think this last year was one of the better ones. Not only did we have great weather but I managed to not get in arguments with anyone from my family! Finally after all these years I realized I just need to enjoy their presence and that there is no need to fight! :) I think being away also helps because when I do come home I am just happy to see everyone and there is no need to get mad at each other.

I have decided that nothing beats the beach...

Along with spending endless amounts of hours with my family, I also was able to catch up and spend time with pretty much every friend that I have had for so many years. It was nice seeing all of them and I hope to always remain in contact with them because there is not a time that we don't have a blast together. I know that there will be one day when we all get busy with careers and our own separate lives but I make the best of the time I still have! I don't look forward to that day.




I think I finally realized over this break as well that growing up really sucks. I was so excited to come to school and move on, don't get me wrong I love being here and flying and new experiences and progressing in my major, but who wouldn't want to always be a kid and enjoy all those fun times you had when you were carefree and could do anything! Each year that goes by, even each semester, continues to get more serious and the fun you used to have slowly fades away. Having to be busy with work, school, and figuring out my future.....makes me really miss the old days.

Overall I had an amazing time back, I'm sure there is more that I am forgetting to talk about but I think I got most of it! I plan on writing each week like I did last semester, but with more creative titles! (One of my New Years resolutions) I also made it easier for people to follow me by entering your email on the right and when I post a new entry each week, you can be notified! Be sure to leave comments and I'm up for suggestions and possible future entries of what you want to hear!

I miss my family more this time around....but I'm already two weeks in and it will be just as fast of a second semester!

-Cameron    (More pictures below too...clicking on them will blow them up!)

I can go to the beach and hike in the mountains the same day!

Pro goalie! Also on the beach in the middle of December! 

Sixteenth week of college! 12/09/12

Well it has been a VERY fast week and an amazing one too. It is so weird thinking that a lot of the people in my classes this semester I may never have a class with again or even see anymore. It didn't really hit me until this past week when I was actually saying "goodbye" to several classmates and professors.  I'm sure there will be several students that I do see around and continue to talk to but for the most part, I feel like we will both go our separate ways and continue on with the subjects more related to our own majors.

This whole weekend I have been busy studying for my Math and Meteorology finals that I have on Monday. I am not too worried about my Meteorology final, however, my Math final is going to be very challenging and I am stressing heavily for that test. Unfortunately, I was stuck studying today (on my birthday) instead of going out and having fun. I did get to go to dinner with my wonderful roommates and neighbors tonight though which ended my day on a good note. I hope my studying pays off because I can't remember the last time I studied for something this hard or long. (Probably never)

This was taken at about 12:30. 

I haven't mentioned this yet but it is crazy seeing the Sun rise and set during the day. As you can see, this is how high the sun gets during the day. It comes up at around 8 and then sets at 4:30. They are very short days and it is weird waking up in the morning, going to class, and it feeling like it is the evening because of all the shadows that are cast and the "sunset" feeling. (hope that makes sense?) So pretty much the Sun makes a rainbow pattern right along the horizon from morning to nighttime. 

 Another fun thing that Devin and I did this week was walk on the frozen river that goes through the middle of campus. After coming back from the gym one afternoon, we decided to go down and try to walk along it. Fortunately, it was frozen solid and we were able to walk from one end to the other. Definitely a first time experience for both of us and it was so much fun being able to do that. Since that day, I have seen many people ice skating and playing hockey games on the ice!

Completely frozen shut.....

Today I woke up to it being -5 degrees outside. When I opened my curtain, I saw my window completely frozen shut and I was physically unable to open it because of how much ice was built up around the edges and along the whole window. (Devin tried too so it isn't just my weak self that was unable to do it :P) As I'm writing this....the current temperature in Grand Forks, North Dakota is -11 degrees with a wind chill of -20. I only went outside once today and that was when I went out to dinner for my birthday. Breathing in hurt and it made you cough from how cold it was. I don't care what anyone says this is absolutely freezing cold....but I LOVE it! :D

This was a great final week of my first semester in college. I hope everyone has enjoyed my blog for these first 16 weeks! I look forward to starting up when I get back here after the new year! Maybe I will write a few times while I am back home but I might be too busy hanging out with my family and friends. I miss them all so much and can't wait to see them in 3 days!!

Hope you all enjoyed! Merry Christmas!

Cameron Mosher

One semester down...many more to go!

Trying not to fall on the ice!

Fifteenth week of college! 11/30/12

This week will probably be short...having only 5 days from my last post to this one leaves minimal time for anything exciting to occur. However, I do have some exciting stories about the current prank wars that have been going on throughout our floor.  Our room (on the left) was taped up which made it difficult to get out and on the right (Jenn and Chelsey's room) Devin, Ryan, Tyler and I filled up 200 red cups and stacked them right in front of their door while they were gone. As you can see for yourself, the men of room 6 come out on top with this one but Jenn claims that they have big plans in the making to get us back. As for Devin, Ryan, Tyler and I, we also have big plans and I look forward to posting pictures up so everyone can see! Not sure if it will happen before winter break but who knows.

Wasn't too hard to get out of but still a funny prank!

I don't think I have mentioned before but we also call our wing the "Bat Cave" because of how we are separated and unique from the rest of the dorm. Unlike all the other wings of the dorm, ours contains no common-area in the middle and instead it is only a hallway. I really enjoy it though because there are only 4 suites versus the normal 6 or 8 on every other wing. It allows us all to become good friends with one another which also leads to being able to make noise and be loud even after quiet hours. 

Well that is pretty much all I have for this week. I haven't seen the sun for several days and it looks like it is going to continue to stay away throughout the weekend. 20's during the day and single digits at night. It only continues to drop as days go on.

12 days until I come home. I am pretty much finished in all of my classes other than the finals which I am starting to study for. 

See everyone soon!

Cameron

Fourteenth week of college and Thanksgiving! 11/25/12

I was very sad that I chose not to go home for Thanksgiving this year but I was fortunate enough to go home with my friend Chelsey to her house in Harvey, ND. I know now that I will not make that mistake again of going home for this holiday. I was "adopted" by the Marchand family for the weekend and had such a great time. They were so kind and friendly which made me feel very welcome and happy to be apart of their family. We had our Thanksgiving "supper" Thursday evening with one-half of their family and then another Thanksgiving lunch with the other half of the family on Saturday. Both meals were amazing and there were a few dishes I had never tried before which I really enjoyed as well. I had deer for the first time and I would have never noticed the difference between deer and beef if someone wouldn't have told me. When I asked how they purchased the deer....they explained how it was a deer they had killed. That was kind of startling for me to hear because I have never eaten or been in a situation like that where I was eating a meal that was killed and prepared without the help of others. But either way the meal was delicious. (I still had turkey and all the other standard Thanksgiving meals on top of the exotic ones too)

Harvey, ND

As for the town itself, it was nothing like I have ever lived in/experienced before. The total population of the town was only about 1800, smaller than my whole high school, and a little....old fashioned?  It's not that they didn't know about all the current technology but that it just simply hasn't been introduced greatly in this town.  I'll give an example; the use of checks is still very big there and using my debit card in the movie theater was not possible. I can't remember the last time I wasn't able to use a debit card to make a purchase but I guess I did live in So Cal my whole life....I'm so used to how everything flows there that I don't realize there are plenty of other places in the country that don't all live the same way as I do. (did?)

Going to the movie theater was so enjoyable and it was the smallest theater I had ever seen. Only one theater, with one movie showing, one time a day, on the weekends. (If that makes sense) They also only got digital projection this last year which I thought was an interesting fact as well. 

Lastly, it was awesome walking around town with the family and noticing that everyone knew each other. The environment was so much friendlier and you could easily get stuck in a store for 30 minutes just because you start talking with someone that you know. How often does that happen back home? Maybe once in awhile you see someone you know at a store but for the most part you get in and get out and move on with your day.

I went a little backwards this week starting with Thanksgiving first...but it was the most recent and I didn't want to forget to talk about any of the interesting events that had gone on over the weekend. Last week of school went very fast, only having two days of classes then showing up to my one class on Wednesday to have about 7 people in the class of about 50. However, I did get some good news in my math class when my professor mentioned to me that there was a mistake with my test and I actually got a 92% instead of an 82, so that boosts my grade up to an 86 and I can't decide if I want to try really hard to get that A or just settle with my B. :P  Let me know what I should do! 

Hope you all enjoy the pictures and had as an amazing of a Thanksgiving as I did. We are just about on a two week countdown (17 days to go) before I am back in YL. Can't wait to see my family and friends.

Cameron

My whole drive to/from Harvey. Nothing but flatland.

A few fun phrases that people use and like to say down in Harvey:

**"Neck of the woods"

      Ex: You don't see much of this down in your "neck of the woods" do you?

      Ex: We will have to come down and visit your "neck of the woods" sometime.

The one street in town with a majority of the stores.

**Order of meals for the day

     -Breakfast

     -Lunch/Dinner

     -Supper 

**There is a siren that goes off EVERY DAY at 12 PM and 6PM. When I asked what the meaning of the siren was, I was given the answer "it lets everyone know that it is time for lunch(12pm) or supper (6pm)" 

Thirteenth week of college! 11/16/12

Not very exciting of a week. My roommate Devin and I can't believe it is already Friday again and how fast weeks come and go. As much as I like the weekends, I kind of want them to go by fast as well so that it gets me closer to coming home!!

Next week is only a three day week so that will go by just as fast, and then only 3 weeks after that!  I am not coming home for Thanksgiving, but I am fortunately able to go home with another friend, Chelsey, who lives up here in ND so I can still have an enjoyable Thanksgiving dinner. What I am most excited for is being able to make my Aunt Debby's WONDERFUL Orange Delight fruit salad. (I don't know the exact name?) I know I will never be able to make it as amazing as she does but it still reminds me of her and how she used to make it for all of us on Thanksgiving. :) Miss you Debby!

I also applied for classes this week, and got everything I wanted when I wanted!! No Friday classes and only one class on Monday and Wednesdays. It won't be an easy schedule but because of my availability on Monday and Wednesday it will give me plenty of time to get my homework done for all the classes on Tuesday and Thursday. I also start up flying again next semester and continue to improve in my flying skills. Hopefully I will be able to juggle work, school, and flying all at the same time and still have fun too.




Weather this week was amazing. Clear skies and little wind but because of how cold it is here already...the snow/ice stays! I tried to go for a run this week in the morning, however, with it being only about 15 degrees outside it made it rather difficult. By the end of my run, I had a massive brain freeze/headache and my hands were completely numb.  Lesson learned, no early morning runs until the Spring!





26 days until I come home. Under one month!! Fun week overall and I can't wait to see everyone soon!

Until next week,

Cameron

Eleventh/Kansas City/Twelfth week of college! 11/2-11/10

Finally able to sit down and write about my last two weeks! I wasn't able to get my week 11 blog in last weekend because I was in Kansas City and then Monday started a VERY busy week, so this blog will be filled with awesome times and lots of pictures!!

I will first talk about last week and then move into talking about this week.  Last week (Halloween week) was a blast! There weren't too many Halloween parties actually occurring on the 31st but there were a lot the weekend before! I didn't really have anything to wear but my roommate Ryan and I just kind of threw stuff together that we both had to look like homeless people!  That night was a lot of fun and it led into a great week of school! All that week, I was finishing my homework early and having plenty of extra time to do whatever I wanted to. I had also taken another math test which I did very well on, leaving me with a solid B coming into the last test and final exam.

As last Friday rolled around, I began packing and getting ready to head off to Kansas City for the weekend with Pike. That Thursday night, I was up late knowing that I would have a 10 hour drive ahead of me and that we were leaving Friday morning at 4. I decided to not sleep much so I could do that while on the road. The drive down wasn't even that bad. A lot of laughing and having a great time with several guys I have gotten to know very well. We arrived in Kansas City around 4 and it pretty much led straight into wearing my suit for hours on end.

So that Friday afternoon consisted of many speakers and learning a lot more about Pike. As the evening and late night rolled around, we all decided to roam around and cause mayhem in the streets of Kansas City! Taking pictures with legos and seeing questionable billboards up around the city were only a few of the exciting adventures we encountered. Being in Kansas City also gave me my first experience at using 4G on my phone!! It was so nice being able to move quickly on the internet and not have to worry about my connection being slow!  Friday night finally ended around 2 in the morning which wasn't a good thing because we had to be up at 8 the next morning to start our whole day over again.


Saturday consisted of mostly the same events. My suit went on at 8 in the morning and didn't come off until 9 o'clock at night.  I definitely need to get used to wearing a suit for that many hours, because I was very uncomfortable for most of the day. During those 13 hours of wearing a suit, there was just a lot of listening to speakers and several meetings, however, the fun adventures luckily began shortly after I took my suit off that night. The meals that were served to us weren't amazing but were definitely decent. I learned how to "formally" eat food and have the proper table manners when eating this way. I had to eat my chicken breast with a fork and knife and was unable to just pick it up with my hands and munch away.  It made it a lot more difficult to get all of the meat off the bone and towards the end, my plate looked like a huge massacre of chicken. But overall, I would say it definitely makes eating food look nicer and more proper, however, I wouldn't want to do that on a regular basis.

As the weekend came to a close, our 12 hour drive home was even more enjoyable than the ride down. We stopped at many places which helped contribute to our slightly longer drive, but it was definitely worth it. It was my first time ever going to Hooters, firing off fireworks in the middle of no where, and seeing nothing but fields for hundreds of miles! It was a weekend to remember and I will have plenty of pictures and memories to remind me of it forever.

Now comes this week......and all I can say is.......LONG!  I got home Sunday evening around 11, having done no homework for my classes on Monday, and trying to prepare for initiation which occurred all this last week as well.  I ended up being awake until like 2 or 3 in the morning giving me about 5 hours of sleep and waking up to a very busy Monday. I went through all of my classes on Monday, stressing about getting my work done for my next class, trying to mentally preparing myself for initiation, and also figuring out when I was going to have time to go in and speak with someone from my new job (i will talk about that in further down).  Luckily I got through that day but the rest of the week just led to more stressing and a lot of laziness and putting my school work off.

Initiation was......interesting. Like SO many others have said before, "It's the most fun you will NEVER want to experience again" and they all are completely right when they say that.  I will simply leave it at that, and long story short....I am officially a PIKE! Such a great feeling of accomplishment going through these last 8 weeks and finally being done and able to relax for a little while.  I look forward to the years ahead of me and the memories I will gain from it.  Sorry I am unable to share more about how my week was, but some things are meant to be kept secret ;)

FINALLY, I will just briefly mention the new job I got last week! I applied for a position at the dining center on campus, and was given a job without even hardly trying. The interview was easy, the people are nice, and I'm sure it will be a very chill job and it is only a minute and a half walk from my room!  I can't wait to start bringing in some cash flow to start slowly paying off debts and being able to go out and spend money again!

Hopefully I didn't upset anyone too much with my lack of posts these past two weeks. It is finally calming back down here and I will be back on track this next Friday with my weekly blogs. :)  Four weeks and two days until I come home!!!

Miss everyone so much!

Cameron


Oh, AND MORE SNOW!

Not me but just showing the snow! My suite-mate Tyler!