Experiencing Strasbourg

Today was another good day. The lectures in the morning were really good again. Today we talked about management of space projects, the international dimensions of space exploration (mostly about the policies in place for ISS), and space mission design. In the space mission design class John Connolly used the lunar lander that he is working on for NASA as an example. It is so cool to know that we're learning the processes that are being used today to design the next vehicles.

Our afternoon session was a departmental activity. It was my first session with the business and management department, and I am SO glad they let me switch. Alex Tai, the VP of Operations at Virgin Galactic, gave a presentation on what's going on at Virgin Galactic and with Spaceship Two. Then Bob Richards revealed a plan for an International Lunar Observatory, which I don't think we're really allowed to talk about. I can say that he has a great idea. It still needs to be funded, and I'm sure there are a lot of political hurdles to overcome, but it will be awesome if he can pull it off. After their presentations we were given a couple of hours to ask questions of them as well as Chris Sallaberger from MDA and Chris Stott who I mentioned yesterday. I think that was the best part. They didn't always agree, but they all had great insights and seemed to be very open about sharing their successes and their failures. It was an inspiring discussion. I think it made all of us want to do something we are passionate about whether that is space or something completely different.

After the department activity the US students got together to practice for our culture night. One night each week a few countries share information about their culture to help the other students better understand us. We've been told that US students in the past have just given boring power point presentations, but not us! Our current plan is to do something for each region of the country. For the south, we're going to do a country line dance and possibly serve Tex-Mex food. Of course, we'll include some factual information as well, but we're hoping this will be fun.

I finally made it to Auchan today, which is the French version of Wal-Mart. Everything here closes around 8 PM, and since we are usually at ISU until 9, I haven't been able to go. I have been in desperate need of a few things, so it made me a very happy girl to go. The other wonderful thing about tonight was that a few of us skipped out on the cafeteria meal at ISU and went out to eat in Strasbourg. We had tarte flambe, which is a specialty in the Alsace region. It 's sort of like a thin crust pizza with out the pizza sauce. It was delicious! That was followed by a chocolate and banana crepe. Again, delicious! I really wish we had more free time like we have had tonight. I enjoyed being out among the people of Strasbourg indulging in the food and the culture. Right now I'm sitting in my room with the windows open (no AC) listening to some of my fellow classmates playing the guitar and singing downstairs. It's pretty nice. Now I need to go study!