actual update from isu campus

Well, I almost have housing and everything settled. It takes forever to do stuff, which I knew, but hadn't really internalized, I guess.

I'm going through a little bit of restructuring of my plans... I'm considering not staying the entire year here. I think I can get the experience I need out of this in a couple months rather than the full nine, then continue on with my life. And I do have some totally exciting plans that I really want to start as soon as I can. In the meantime, I think there's still a lot to learn here and it will be very good for me for the two months.

Update in icky teeth news: My teeth are kinda achy because they're reshifting now, but the holes are healing well. The top ones are closed over already, and the bottom ones are almost together now.

Today had several presentations from the graduating students, and they were all quite interesting. It's also interesting to see that the thing that really brings us all together is PowerPoint. Presentations from people from several different continents who did their internships over even more, and they all had PowerPoint presentations that would not have been out of place in Norman, Oklahoma. It's odd where you find familiarity.

in strasbourg

I am in Strausbourg. All is well. Later!

in Paris

I'm at the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, safely, if two hours behind. Atlanta gave me a new flight to Strasbourg, so it's all worked out for now. I'll be leaving here at 12:40 pm local time. I'll change the time zone on the blog here as soon as I can find that setting. I'll hopefully be at baggage claim by 2 pm. Hopefully, my baggage will be there, too.

Later!

T -28 h

I have four fewer teeth now. That whole part of it went rather well, but the aftershocks of taking so much medication didn't agree with me. My body is much more comfortable in natural mode, and thus rejected added "help" of the pills I was supposed to take. This morning with no painkillers (or anything else) in my system, my jaw's a little sore, but I think I'll be okay to go for my plane trip tomorrow.

Hair cut appointment later today.

Almost done packing. Kendall has a good idea of "put stuff into suitcases until no more things fit in suitcases, and then you're done," but I think I'm going to finish up a bit more complicated than that. I have four small boxes of things that must go with me, and haven't got them in yet. Also, I'm still a bit light-headed from the blood loss and not being able to keep food down, which is why this post is so intensely boring. Probably.

Gotta go to school today, too, for real this time. I hope it goes well.

Shodan

Today I received my certificate for shodan (what's called first-degree black belt in most martial arts) in iaido. Yay! I'm going to have to find out about martial arts in France. An exciting new adventure.

It's funny how my ginormous suitcase is looking smaller and smaller.

awww...

The Shuttle totally followed me home to Oklahoma. How cool is that?

so little time

Couple things:

- It's good to be home. Oklahoma is a good place to inspire you to go other places. But it's not a bad place to be in the meantime.

- Gotta go to school soon and give some CDs to some people and talk to others.

- The wisdom teeth come out on Monday, 8am. I have five different prescriptions to pick up today and take before the appointment.

- I fly to France on August 24 and will arrive in Strasbourg on August 25.

- Anyone know how to get a birth certificate officially translated into French?

- I'm kinda sad that I'm going to miss some big amounts of TV. Oh, VMAs. I miss you. Oh, The Daily Show, I'll only get you through online bits. Stella, I knew you so briefly.

Back!

I'm safely back in Oklahoma! I'll get caught up with posting soon. Really.

Thank you, everyone for some awesome experiences this summer!

Last day of RAs...

Am I relieved? Yes. As much as I like to believe that I can do anything I really want to do, I cannot, in fact, do the 24-hour-a-day job of two people by myself for 2.5 months, do it at all reasonably well, and not get stressed out. I'm 0/3 on those things. I'm lucky to have had several part-timers to take on big pieces of it for us, but organizing with eight other people turns up to be almost as much work. Academies *need* two full time staff students. It's a necessity. Singlehandedness breaks us normal humans.

I've got a "Lessons Learned" document going longer than my arm. Eventually to be taller than me. And I need to go sleep for a week and just unload the summer. Oh, but wait, I'm working here til Wednesday, then moving to France one week after that. Yarrrgh.

Working to enabling the future of space exploration is exhausting. But can you think of a better thing to do in this world?

Discovery

Discovery landed safely! (And I only had to wake up four different times at very early hours to make sure I saw it live.) That's such a good feeling. (Plus it reminds me that I saw that launch live IN PERSON!)

Acceptance

Yay! I was officially selected as a Space Generation Congress delegate to Fukuoka, Japan, this October. I love the idea of this conference; it's pretty much the most inspiring thing a young space-lovin' person can do. And I'll get to go to Japan!!! Now if I can only raise a large chunk of money to fund my airplane tickets and lodging...

Anybody want to donate? Please?

Re-u-nion!

Yay Marshal (sans p.s. mustache!) and Graylan are visiting!! Ames '04!

And Danielle, who is also very awesome! Turns out there are several very cool GSFC alumni :-)

Yeah, yeah..

I'm now over a week behind, but there are more posts coming about the Florida trip (i.e. the actual launch part). Last week, Week 8 was a bit uneventful. This week, however, involves broomball, the PI cookout, Lisa's birthday, two days of the GRC and GSFC Academies visiting here (complete with a meeting with Oklahoma-born astronaut Owen Garriott and MSFC Center Director David King), and many tours. I get to see Marshal and Graylan again, yay!