The Experience...

For those of you who I have made it this far without being bored, let me tell you a little bit about the experience. One thing I know that everybody who goes through this program will tell you – IT IS EXHAUSTING!!! They run you ragged for 6 days but I would not have it any other way. They were not kidding when they said to bring comfortable shoes! But the biggest problem I had was the fact that this Phoenix-boy was not used to the overwhelming humidity of the south so that made it a bit uncomfortable especially on days we had to wear our flight suits.

We stayed at the University of Alabama-Huntsville dorm which is only a couple of miles away from the center. Now if you can remember back to your dorm life you will remember how absolutely uncomfortable the beds are so sleeping was kind of rare. The nice thing is that we got individual rooms and you share a bathroom with one other person and then there is a sitting room you share with 2 other people for the whole suite which even had a refrigerator and microwave

The food is actually pretty good. I would not recommend being on a diet during this week because it is not the healthiest fair but it is pretty darn good and all you can eat. There are 3 meals a day and I can honestly say that I never went hungry.

Now as much fun as the actual space camp is, the night time activities can be just as fun just hanging out and swapping stories with other teachers. The place of choice happened to be a Karaoke Bar down the street from the dorm called Bobby G’s. Now I am not a big fan of Karaoke but it was really a blast. By the end of the week we had probably more than half of the camp there just singing away – now very few of us could really sing but nobody cared and belted out our all time favorites (mine being “Piano Man” because my philosophy is to choose a song everybody wants to sing to loudly so they do not pay attention to my singing). Another fun thing we uncovered was playing sand volleyball well into the night.


Well I guess that is about it. I cannot encourage you enough to apply to this program and go if at all possible. It was an incredible experience and one that I know I will NEVER forget. Please feel free to leave comments especially from those of you who have gone to camp and would like to add something. And if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at pstrauss1856 [at] cox dot net.

And I have to give thanks to the company that made this all possible - the great people at Honeywell. This is only the 3rd year of the Educator Space Academy and Honeywell has been a big part of its success. And the great thing is that the funding of this scholarship is actually by the Honeywell employees and the Hometown Solutions Program. Because of the generosity of these individuals, literally tens of thousands of students from around the world have the potential of being exposed to the wonders of the universe.



Finally, here is a shot of the latest ambassadors to the space program - may we all inspire our students to constantly seek out knowledge and never be afraid to do things no one has ever done before...