jhelvy.com

Tornado at Home

// May 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // Other

Last week a tornado touched down right by my home in Chesapeake. Over here at Virginia Tech I thought nothing of it, that is until I saw on the news exactly where it hit. My house was only about 1 mile from the direct path! This is a PDF of the path. If you go to the 4th page, my neighborhood is the section of the roads just to the left of the “135″ circle and above the “164″ circle in the top right. I can’t believe how close it came to going right through our house! Here’s a link to some pictures of the damage: album 1, album 2. Someone up there must like us.

More China Preparation

// April 17th, 2008 // No Comments » // China, Other

I decided I should keep track of things as I prepare for my trip to China, so I decided to make a post on it.  Soon all of my posts will be from China, so this is sort of a start.  Three days ago I went to the Chinese visa office in D.C., and last week I bought my $1429.65 plane ticket to Beijing.  I leave May 9 at 6:15 am.  I can’t wait for this semester to be over so I can start my journey.  Yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of the April 16th shootings here at Virginia Tech.  I still can’t believe it’s already been a year. Everything is going by so fast.  Only 10 academic days left now.  I think everyone is still trying to digest last year.  I know I am.  Anyway, I’ve got to get back to some intermediate dynamics work now.  Test 2 tomorrow!

Getting Ready for China

// April 10th, 2008 // No Comments » // China, Other, Travel

Well, my bank account is now $1429.65 lower and I am officially booked to fly to Beijing on May 9, 2008. This weekend I will be taking a trip to Washington D.C. with the Engineering Leadership Network at Virginia Tech and while I’m there I am going to attempt to acquire my visa for China. Hopefully things will go smoothly, because I’m running out of time! I found this nifty countdown clock to the right, so you can see how little time I actually have left. For now I am going to do my best to buckle down and finish up this semester so I can leave for China with no worries. It’s going to be a hard month to get through, but at least I have a cool clock to look at as it winds down. I’ll be working on my China page soon so I can post up cool pics/videos from China while I am there this summer and fall. Later!

Spring Break 2008

// March 8th, 2008 // No Comments » // Other, Travel

While I really wanted to go do some Hurricane Katrina relief again down in Mississippi, I decided to head home for spring break this year. I had a whole lot of catching up to do with homework, and I needed to put some time into my plans for my trip to China this summer and fall. So I got my shots–Typhoid, Tetanus, and Hepatitis A all at once is not fun. I planned to go to D.C. to get my visa for China, but it turns out it would be cheaper and way easier to just do it through a travel agency, so no D.C. trip. I was able to get a lot done on the website though, particularly on my photos page. I think the site is finally up to where I want it to be. Anyway, I head back to Blacksburg tomorrow to finish up the rest of the semester. That’s all for now!

Winter Break 2007

// January 15th, 2008 // No Comments » // Other

I’ve finally found some time, so I thought I’d tell you what I did over break. Here’s the rundown:

• 12/14/07 – [Chesapeake, VA] Spend time at home with family
• 12/27/07 – [Asheville, NC] Lindy Focus 6!!! 5 incredible days of swing dancing with amazing people
• 01/01/08 – [ Montreat, NC] Serve as videographer for 2008 College Conference: ”Hope Has a Voice”
• 01/06/08 – [Staunton, VA] Spend the night at Dale’s house to pack for snowboarding trip
• 01/07/08 – [Snowshoe, WVa] Snowboarding @ Snowshoe Mountain in West VA for the next 3 days!
• 01/09/08 – [Blacksburg, VA] Return to Blacksburg and prepare for the next semester

I have some videos posted up on my video page from some of these events if you want to check them out. There are 2 videos from the Montreat camp that I made for the camp, and there’s one from our snowboarding trip. Enjoy!