ISU Reunion

This weekend Jeff and I came to San Francisco, California for the International Space University (ISU) Reunion. (ISU was the program I did last year in Barcelona.) This year, the program is being held at the NASA Ames Research Center.

When we got into San Francisco, Jeff's brother Dave picked us up, and we met up with our friend, Janet, who also lives in the area. We grabbed a quick lunch and chatted before heading back to Dave's apartment. Dave lives in Mountain View, just a few miles from Ames, so it worked out really well to stay with him.

The first event of the reunion was on Friday - we went and met up with people for lunch and went on a tour of Ames. It's a really cool facility. It has a hanger bay for a zeppelin.

It also has one of the largest wind tunnels in the world. We were able to walk around inside it - one of the air intake grates is the size of eight football fields.

There was also a dinner at the NASA Ames Exploration Center, which had some really cool exhibits - like this moon room, which had a real moon rock in it.

There were a lot of people from last year (SSP08) who came to the reunion. We got a great group shot.

On Saturday we had an SSP08 reunion dinner at a restaurant that just happened to be less than a block from Dave's apartment. But the big event of the night - and the last of the reunion - was the Space Masquerade. Emma, Kris, Jeff and I dressed up as "Hitchhikers" from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. We had shirts that said "Don't Panic" and we carried around towels all night.

Our friend Jaisha dressed up as the cow that jumped over the moon, and another friend, Paul, was the moon.

We got another good SSP08 group pic at the Space Masquerade.

Overall the reunion was really fun. It was great to see people from last year, hear about people's experience this year, and spend some time in California.

Jeff and I are going to a friend's wedding in Colorado Springs next weekend, and rather than fly all the way back to the East Coast and then almost all the way back to the West Coast a few days later, we're just staying in California for the week and working from here. I'm looking forward to the nice weather (around 75 degrees most days) - especially since in DC the forecast for tomorrow is 100 degrees and humid! Kris and Emma are in town for a few more days too, so hopefully we'll all meet up downtown for dinner at some point. Should be a fun week!

Last Day in Strasbourg

Friday was the last day of the conference, the day I presented, and our last full day in Strasbourg.

The morning session of the conference went well. There were a lot of presentations on Space Situational Awareness, given from different perspectives. Lunch was very nice again, though this time I was a bit distracted, running through my presentation in my head.

I was the third presenter after lunch. I think it went well – I didn’t rush through my slides, and I remembered to say the things I meant to. It seemed to go quickly, especially because the presenters before me had taken more than their allotted 15 minutes, and I had taken slightly less. However, on Friday afternoon, I don’t think people are too upset if you take a bit less than the time allowed. People asked me questions afterward and asked for my slides, so it did seem like there was interest in the presentation. I was very happy to finally be done and able to relax a bit.

After a long day at the conference and the stress of presenting, I decided to take a much needed nap in the evening. I woke up in time to eat some of Halit’s awesome dinner and head over to Pol, Raycho, and James’ apartment to visit with friends. Later in the evening we met up with all the ISU students at “The Living Room” and spent the last night partying together in France.

The Conference Continues

On Thursday, Jeff and I spent a couple hours in the morning walking around Strasbourg. It was a bit chilly, but I wanted to make sure I saw the city. It has lots of pedestrian walk-ways, so it’s perfect for wandering around. The architecture mostly looks like the traditional German style – with the large wood beams visible on the outside. This area has changed ownership from French to German multiple times.
We visited the cathedral, which is famous because it has one spire instead of two. I heard a story that this was basically due to a lack of funding, rather than unique architectural planning, but I suppose it must be a mix.

After our quick walk around the city, I headed back to the conference to learn more about space security. The afternoon presentations were mostly about military use of space. There was a talk about Space Weaponization - the original presenter couldn't make it, so a person from the United States National Security Space Office talked instead, and made the news (well, Space News) for some of his comments. There was also a talk about Operationally Responsive Space - the idea by the U.S. DoD of making smaller, simpler satellites that can be built and launched really quickly when needed.

The conference on Thursday was followed by a concert and dinner in town. The concert was held at the church of St. Thomas, where Mozart had played, and praised the organ there.

The dinner was at a nice restaurant nearby and featured traditional food of the area. The appetizer was what I called a ‘fish cake,’ though I’m sure the name is much nicer in France. It was pure of three types of fish arranged into layers and cut like a slice of cake. The main course was chicken royal with some milk dumplings, and the dessert was a very good cake with cream cheese. We also had the chance to try Alsatian wine, made in the area.

In the News!

First thing this morning, I headed to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) building in DC, to give a presenation on our ISU Team Project - Spaceports - with Emma, Stephanie, and Eric. The presentation went really well. People seemed to enjoy it, and we had some interesting questions. We even made it onto the FAA website, where they posted an article about our presentation.

After lunch, I went in for my first few hours working at The Space Foundation. I am a research analyst, and will be in charge of collecting daily news clips about space issues, helping with events, and researching and writing white papers about the space industry.

Spaceports, Ethiopia, and Spain

The title basically summarizes my Sunday. I woke up with Spanish music still stuck in my head from the Fiesta Espanola, and headed right back to Stephanie's house to meet up with the other ISU Spaceports Team members in DC - Stephanie, Eric, Emma. We're giving a presentation to the FAA about our project tomorrow, so we needed to finalize our slides and practice a bit. And, as Stephanie put in her away message, "it wouldn't really be a Spain party if we didn't wake up and work on our team project the next morning."

We worked throughout the afternoon, so that when I got home, Jeff and I spent just a few minutes laying in the sun on our roof, before it started to get dark. Our roof has a pool and a great view of the city, but Sunday was the last day it was open. Since we were away all summer, I was determined to go at least once before it closed.

That brought us to dinner time, for which we were meeting up with my friend Al, and some of his friends from high school. Jeff and I just got our SmartBikeDC cards the other day, and Sunday was the first time we'd used them. There is a bike rack right next to our house, and others near metro stops around the city, so Jeff and I were able to rent them and speed down 14th street to drop them off at the U Street Metro, two blocks from the restaurant.

We ate at Dukem, which always gets rated as one of the best Ethiopian restaurants in the city. And the critics weren't wrong - the food was amazing. I'd highly recommend Dukem Special Kibs (kind of like marinated steak tips), Lamb Wot (like a spicy stew or curry), and Dukem Kitfo (beef tar-tar with spices and cottage cheese). All the standard veggies - lentils, cabbage, potatoes, etc. are very good as well. If you come to DC, this is definitely a place to check out.

After Dukem, we headed a block down the street to Vinoteca, a wine bar with half-off Spanish wines and a free flamenco show on Sundays. We sat and chatted over a glass of wine while enjoying the music. I don't think I'd ever been to a Spanish bar in DC, but since I've been back, I've heard about a few of them. Also, I found out my friend Al may move to Barcelona for a year of two, which gives me that much more reason to go back and visit soon!

It's Only the Beginning

Friday, August 29th was the last official day of ISU. I woke up around 10:30am, meaning to pack and get things together. Pol offered to help me pack, but somehow even with his help, I accomplished nothing except sitting around thinking about how amazing the summer was until about 1:30pm, when I realized I really needed to go de-register.

I went to de-registration with Stephanie, Eric, and Pol, turned in my much-needed fan, picked up a copy of the executive summary (great work, Laurent!), and got my T-Shirt.

Heading back, I was finally starting to feel hungry again after the incredible meal I had had at Patrizia's the day before, so Pol and I headed to Mango for a bite to eat. We both ordered the set lunch menu, which was probably too much food on its own, and also ordered a completely superflous plate of patatas bravas - I couldn't risk heading home without having them one last time.

Somehow, we stayed at lunch until almost 4pm, and with the bus to closing ceremonies leaving at 4:30pm, we had to hurry to Penyafort for some rapid getting ready. To add a nice cyclical feeling to the summer (and because I didn't have time or money to shop) I wore the same dress to closing ceremonies that I had worn to opening ceremonies.
Closing ceremonies were at CaixaForum - a museum near Placa Espanya in Barcelona. We had a bit of a tour, grabbed some much needed espresso, and then went to the auditorium. Closing ceremonies were very nice - they called each person's name and presented them with a certificate.
I actually recieved a special award. I was presented with the "Morla Milne Award for Academic Excellence." The award is given to the person with the highest mark on the written examination. I was proud to have won the award and glad that despite all of my day trips and exploring Barcelona, I showed that I also cared about academics. They asked me to say a few words, which was completely unexpected. I don't really even remember what I said... so hopefully it was coherent.After the presentation of awards ended, we headed out of the auditorium to the reception. The reception was very nice, and gave us another chance to enjoy some cava, watch a slide show of pictures, and enjoy some last face-to-face conversations with good friends.

In some ways, the end was similar to the beginning - at opening ceremonies, everyone was asking the same questions "Where are you from?", "What do you do?", etc. Now that the summer was over, everyone was asking "What will you do now?" "How long are you staying?" or "When do you head back?". So in both cases, you walk around having the same conversation with different groups of people.As the reception was coming to a close, I left with Pol to go back to his house and get his car. He had offered to drive me to the airport, since I was leaving early the next morning. It was fun to drop by his house one last time, and I had the chance to meet his mother and grandmother, who were both very nice.

When we arrived back at Penyafort, people were out on the patio, enjoying our last warm Barcelona night as a big group. We hung out and chatted until the patio closed at 1am. At that point, people started to head out to the garden area, but I said my good-byes. I hadn't packed yet, and I was supposed to leave for my flight around 7am.

I went to pack, and Pol came to help and keep me company - packing late at night before leaving is definitely not the cheeriest activity, but we had fun. I pulled everything out of the drawers and shelves and put it on my bed, and it really seemed like there was no chance I would fit it all into the two small bags that I had brought.

I had to ditch a towell, hairdryer, my travel books, and some other odds and ends, but I made it. Pol said I have some great packing skills (we'd watched Napoleon Dynomite twice in the last few days, and decided packing skills are just as important as bo-hunting skills and computer hacking skills).

At 7am, I woke up to grab my stuff and head to the airport. Dragging my feet, and still in denial that it was really time to leave, Pol and I finally got out the door with all my stuff around 8am. Luckily, in a car, its only about 20 minutes to the airport (Pol saved me from what would have otherwise been a long and lonely train ride).

The woman who checked me in at the airport must have seen I was pretty sad to go. "Returning to the U.S.?" she asked me. "By yourself, I guess," she added. That was not helping my efforts not to cry. She quickly added that I was there early enough to grab a coffee before going through security - prolonging my time in Barcelona just a bit more.

So I ordered my last "cafe solo" (espresso) for the forseeable future, and sat chatting with Pol at the airport cafe. I finally went through to the gate around 8:30am - just as my plane was boarding.

Luckily for me, I ran into Paul McBeth, who happened to be on the same flight as me, headed to Amsterdam. He and I chatted while we waited in line, both slept through the flight, and met up again briefly in Amsterdam as we headed for our next gates. That was my final face to face good-bye with a foreign ISU friend.

I arrived home, finally, around 10:30pm, and Jeff picked me up with a bouquet of red roses. I'm so lucky to have people that care about me so much. As sad as it is to have people I love spread out around the world, I feel really happy and lucky to know them.

It's easy to be sad about leaving Barcelona, and primarily that's how I'm feeling right now - the summer was so amazing, and the people I met and made friends with mean so much to me. But I'm trying to focus on something that Michael said the last night while we were hanging out at Penyafort.

Throughout the whole summer, he would always say "It's only the beginning!". Whether it was lunchtime, dinnertime, or 5am walking home from a club, you'd hear him, "Hey, it's only the beginning!" When we were saying goodbye for the last time before going to the airport, Michael repeated his phrase, which made me laugh. But he said he was serious. Sure, it's the end of SSP '08, and people are heading home, but now we have to visit each other, chat online, and start planning re-unions. "Really," he said, "It's only the beginning."

Final Presentation Day

Thursday, August 28 was the day of final presentations. After many hours of working on the final report, and tons of effort by our presentation team putting turning that into a presentation, it was time to show what we had accomplished.

I was the point of contact for Business and Commercial related questions, so I sat up front in my suit, ready to speak if needed. I actually did field one question, but I'm not sure I fully understood what the person was getting at - hopefully the answer was satisfactory.

A short (1.5 min) video that was part of the presentation was posted online by my teammate (and friend) Hugo. You can find it here.

After the presentation was over, we headed up to our team room for one last meeting with our whole group. We had cava and snacks to celebrate and all got T-shirts.
After that, I hurried off with my friend Patrizia to her house for home-made Paella. Hugo, Andrew, Stephanie, and Pol also came. The paella was amazing - definitely the best I've had while in Spain. I wish that I could learn how to cook like that. We had a huge meal (I couldn't eat for the rest of the day!) with appetizers, paella, desserts, and drinks. It was really nice of Patrizia and her family to invite us over!

After lunch and a bit of relaxing and hanging out at Patrizia's, we headed back to Penyafort. I took a much needed nap, which lasted until 8:30pm - 30 minutes before the start of the talent show that I was supposed to be in.

The talent show act was 100% Jaisha's idea. She thought of it, organized it, and conjoled Stephanie and I into doing it. We practiced it twice in her room, minutes before actually performing. Needless to say, I was a bit worried about going on stage. However, Jaisha's wisdom proved true again - I had tons of fun and people really enjoyed the act.Our group was made up of Jaisha, Stephanie, and I, and we called our act "An American Tribute to Spanish Culture." Stephanie and I wore red shirts, and Jaisha wore yellow (colors of the Spanish flag), and we danced to the refrain of a couple of popular Spanish songs. There's a video out there somewhere, and if I get a hold of it, I'll try to post it. (Here it is!)After the talent show, people were ready for one more night out. We decided to all head to Almoda Bar, which has karaoke upstairs and dancing downstairs. It turned out to be my last night out dancing in Barcelona, and I had a really great time!

Final Report Writing

The schedule for ISU August 18-23 planned for team meetings all day everyday. Essentially, we had one week to write and finalize our 110 page final report.

Each day we'd have a meeting or two, figure out our assignments, review the schedule, and then work in small teams. I was on the business and commercial team and also the editing team. A lot of the work I volunteered to do was early in the week - writing and editing for Chapter 2 (out of 5). Most of the work could be done during the day, but occasionally we'd work outside normal hours. Pol had volunteered to lead chapter 3 integration, so we spent one night staying up trying to finish all our work - I decided to take a break from chapter 2 editing at 4am, but Pol continued on with chapter 3 until 6am.

My friend, Laurent, volunteered to lead the executive summary group. His workload stayed very high through the later part of the week, so I ended up joining that team as well, and editing and working with them. Because of all the aesthetic and lay-out issues, executive summary was much more of a challenge. Unlike edits to text-only, any changes to the executive summary were difficult and lengthy to make. However, Laurent and others who knew the image-editing program spent many hours working day and night to get a really great final version.

Our final report is going to be available online and when I figure out where, I'll definitely post about it!