Day 16/17/18.

Matt woke up in the morning and he was feeling better. He wasn’t 100% but he was well enough to come shopping with the group.

Today was the only chance to sleep in this whole trip pretty much. Everyone enjoyed the chance to sleep just that extra couple of hours.

Then the ones that wanted to left for breakfast at the Sizzlers around the corner from our hotel. The breakfast wasn’t the best quality but it was filling. Some super smart kids decided that it was the best chance to have ice cream for brekkie. Others decided a breakfast of chips and fudge was an excellent nutritious choice.

James left with his mum and his three brothers and headed to his auntie’s house.

The tourist trolley bus took us to the outlet stores. Once off the bus the girls sprinted to Victoria Secret and yet they still never found out what the secret was. WOMEN! As we were only allowed 3 hours of shopping, it was a race to see who could buy the most in the shortest amount of time. Shopping was OK (or great, if you asked the girls) most of us walked around the shops and we all found lots of bargains. The Prime Outlet had stores like Tommy Hilfiger, Forever 21, Converse, Vans, Dior, Juicy Couture, Wet Seal (officially the new favourite store of every girl on this trip). On the way back on the trolley bus (surprise, surprise Deonie and Jess were nearly late), Ryan lost his wallet on the trolley, but thanks to a timely phone call, it was recovered just in time.

Then it was time to get back on our bus, which drove us to the Orlando airport, from which we caught our connecting flight to LAX airport. Several hassles with luggage were had, from some girls being unable to keep track of the many bags they needed to put their new clothes in, to Ryan Bodmer and Alex Griffiths being told that their bags weren’t going all the way back to Perth. All problems were sorted out, and we made it onto our plane in time for a 'fun-filled' 6 hours to Los Angeles Airport.

One down, three to go. Our next flight was the 12 hour ride to Aukland Airport. We’re becoming very well acquainted with the airport etiquette: sit on long plane ride, get off plane, grumble about plane ride, buy as much Burger King/Hungry Jack’s/MacDonald’s as we can, sleep on the floor, board next flight. Not to mention the all to regular security checks where we have to virtually strip down to get through. Ryan has just realised he left his poster on the plane-we are hoping lost property will have it.

In a few hours, we will board yet another flight, which will take us back to Melbourne, Australia. Then after repeating our airport behaviour, we will catch our last connecting flight back to Perth! Yay! Home beckons.

Our last departure was made memorable by- Rohan deciding to wander off with the plane boarding, necessitating a PA call-up; Cuan loosing his boarding pass and a very nervous posse of policemen watching us closely as we boarded the plane ( this was later explained by the presence of the Dali Lama on our flight).

We finally arrived in Perth to a very emotional welcome by family and friends. All seemed impressed by our NASA Jumpsuits as we posed for our final group photo.

By Cuan, Rohan and Anna.

Day 15

7.30am down to breki- although most students decided to sleep in an extra half hour rather than fight for a chair in the very cramped dining room.

9.00am onto the bus (all our chartered transport has been on luxury coaches) for the 45min drive to Kennedy Space Centre (KSC). Here we hopped onto one of the many tour buses that ply the same route- we travelled passed the giant assembly building (where the rockets are pieced together before launch) to a look-out tower, from here we could see the launch towers and the crawler track. We then drove on to a museum featuring a Saturn V rocket. Here we had a lunch stop before travelling onto a display featuring the International Space Station (we could look into a room were actual components were being assembled). Our final leg took us back to the KSC. Along the way the tour included a number of video presentations of the various features of the region. We also got to see numerous Alligators in the roadside ditches along with tortoises, egrets, a dead Armadillo and a huge Bald Eagle nest.

At KSC the highlight was a 3D Imax movie on the moon landings. There were a number of interesting displays enjoyed by the ‘strong’ but the ‘wimps’ were largely all museumed-out by this stage and spent an hour relaxing on the lawn.

5.00pm on the bus for the drive back to Orlando. A few of us enjoyed a swim in the hotel pool before we headed out to dinner-Chinese with Mrs Mengler or Sizzler with Mr Roberts.

James Hill was given a surprise tonight – his Mum and three brothers arrived a day earlier than expected and booked into our hotel.

The award for best ‘team effort’ today went to Matt, who despite emptying the contents of his stomach a couple of times, soldiered-on and managed to get through the day sleeping on benches whenever he could. He seems to have recovered a little this evening; hopefully he will be brighter tomorrow for the trip home.

By Team Leader 1.

Days 13/14

Days 13/14

Yesterday after a long and tiring flight, with a three hour delay, we checked into our hotel rooms in the early hours of the morning to try and get some rest before a long day at the Epcot Centre. The first sign of it is the impressive golf ball, a well-known icon, which can be seen from miles away. The park was divided into various sections and included a brief tour of the world.

We stayed for a spectacular fireworks display, and had front row seats during the show, feeling the heat and sounds as the fireworks exploded. After this we returned to our hotel rooms to have another long, hot shower and collapsed into our large, comfy beds, luxury, compared to the accommodation at space camp anyway.

Mr Roberts provided us with some entertainment this morning, with a spectacular fall up the stairs to our 2nd floor rooms.

Whilst visiting the Magic Kingdom in Disney World, people made the most of the time by getting to the rides early, and getting fast passes for the rides they wanted to return to later on.

The most popular rides seemed to be the Splash Mountain, which included a 52 foot drop, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain, both of which were roller coasters however the Space Mountain was almost completely pitch black. The Pirates of the Carribean ride was noted for the realistic scenes and smooth movements of characters.

The street parade had everyone lined up to see their favourite characters.

The most spectacular part of the Magic Kingdom was Cinderella’s Castle, which was lit up beautifully as the night fell. It was fun to see almost everyone in Disney Theme hats play fighting with light sabres and swords at the base of the castle before we headed off to the mono-rail.

We were on the bus and back to the hotel by 8.15pm.

Dinner was a gourmet and amazingly well designed meal at KFC located just 40m from our hotel. Good to get an earlier night after two fantastic days in Disney World.

By Elysia and Callum.

Day 13

Its close to midnight after a long, exciting day at Disney(EPCOT). Decided to stay for the fireworks. Everyone had a great time. No student bloggers tonight- they need their rest. We should have an earlier finish tomorrow, so we will try to catch up then! Graeme.

Day 12

Hello Everyone! Welcome to the last day of Space Camp. The day that we graduate from the ‘Advanced Space Academy’ and get to wear our blue flight suits with pride. So, let’s reflect on the week. We started the week by dragging our heavy bags up the stairs to a small dorm room and complaining about the horrible beds. To breakfast at the cafeteria, eating food out of small Styrofoam bowls, from performing AOA missions to the 6 hour EDM mission. Space camp has probably been the most memorable experience any of us have had. We formed close bonds with our counsellors and all the staff there at space camp, and we would like to thank everyone there for helping us try our best at every activity and challenge thrown at us.

Today started off with us waking up and packing our bags so we could leave Huntsville and head off to Orlando, Florida. We had extra time to get ready, but still it wasn’t enough time to properly pack all our stuff and take all our bags to a room so we could get them later. So off to breakfast we went to say goodbye to all the staff. We then headed off to the gift shop to buy gifts for ourselves and our families and explored the museum, and tried some of the simulators in the museum.

After rock climbing and landing the shuttle a couple of times we headed off to graduate from Space Academy. It was really great, we got our patches and people who had won the competitions during the week got their prizes, and the “Right Stuff” award was given out, this award was basically an award that is given out to the person that exemplifies the qualities that Space Camp tries to teach students (i.e. teamwork, leadership etc.) We were given T-Shirts and then we said our goodbye’s to our fantastic counsellors that made us feel so welcome (Thanks so much Jer-Bear and Em-Dog) [Insert Jer-Bear dance here]

We then went back to where our luggage was and ‘chilled’ for a while, we watched Batman and hopped on the computers for a little while to communicate with our relatives on the other side of the world. Soon after that we had to pack up all our stuff and climb onto the bus and head to the airport. The first flight went smoothly, but then- as we were boarding the second flight to Orlando. A three hour delay has slowed us down for a little bit so it looks like it will be a long night. Bye for now…

Kristen and Ryan B.

Ps. Kristen was too modest to mention it was her that won “THE RIGHT STUFF” medal.
Pps. Didn’t get to the hotel till 4.00am-decided to delay our departure to Epcot till 10.00am-we need the sleep. Graeme.

Day 11

6.30- Wake-up/showers: same old routine, the councillors and the Indian students woke us up at 6:30. All the boys were awake early and downstairs waiting for the girls. It was a long wait. Our councillor, Jeramy (JerBear) was in charge of the girls wake-up calls and let them sleep in another 15 minutes! Finally the girls arrived downstairs and we went to breakfast.
7.30- Breakfast: breakfast was same old fare except jerbear had brought us a special treat of hot chocolate and marshmallows ^_^
8.00- Space History 1: space history was most likely the least stimulating part of our busy day. We sat around in exhibits etc. Jerbear explained the history of the shuttles and people that have gone into space and developed the rockets. Some of the group lay down and dozed-off.
9.00- Rocket Launch: the rocket launch was very exciting. Jerbear led us through a path in the woods where jokes were made at a certain staff members expense ;) We came onto a huge field. On the field lay stands and a blast shield just in case. There were many primary school kids launching rockets too and it was extremely noisy. Despite the freezing cold weather, (just above zero degrees Celsius) we stood there until everyone of us had launched our groups rockets. Some rockets were a huge success and flew the distance of the field and more, whereas some groups’ rockets didn’t work quite so smoothly with one case of a magically exploding rocket and a rocket with a faulty motor spiralling out of control. Amazingly only one egg payload broke on landing.
10.00- Pamper Pole 1: we arrived at area 51 to meet Chuck, Varner, Jumpman and Redbeard who were the supervisors for the high ropes. The pamper pole they led us too was a 10 metre high pole the diameter of a wooden power line pole with pegs sticking out the side. 1 at a time we climbed the massive pole and got to the top despite the shakiness. Once at the top we dived for a rope dangling in the air with only a few reaching it.
12:00 – MAT: our pamper pole adrenaline rush didn’t end right away as we caught the bus back to the Astro-trek building and had a go on the Multi-Axis Trainers which simulate the motion when a spacecraft spirals out of control. It is basically a random pendulum kind of thing, we will show you a picture later, which spun us around in all different directions.
1.00- Lunch
1.30- Pamper Pole 2: the people who hadn’t climbed in the morning were sent up with the others belaying. Everyone reached the top and Ryan took a whole new perspective on pole dancing. We then had a debrief and everyone praised one another- overall it was exhilerating, fun and we worked brilliantly as a team.
4.30- Aero Design 2: in aero design we took a look at how aircraft are made and we made our own out of polystyrene, we then flew them to see how far we could make them fly, with not much success.
5.30- Dinner: at dinner Jerbear brought us Krispy Kreme doughnuts and overall they tasted like love and happiness in 1 small doughnut.
6.00- Space History 2: in space history 2 we lay under the Saturn 5 rocket and listened to Emily tell us about the shuttles and rockets.
7.30- Applenaut Challenge: this was our final ‘Physical Briefing’ in which we had to design a ‘spacesuit’ to protect an apple. We were given different materials to protect it against: radiation, heat, water and a puncture. This was a good fun way to end our activities.
8.30- Space Bowl: space bowl was a quiz. It was set-up like ‘Jeopardy’ the game show. We had 2 rival teams that consisted of the Indian students. We did very well and we think we won but they won’t confirm it until the graduation tomorrow.
10.30- Bed………………Another huge day in Rocket City!!!
By Rohan and James.


Ps. Huntsville is promoted as ‘Rocket City'.

Day 10

Wake up/ Prep for day.
We woke up this morning at 6:30 am with a long day ahead of us.

7:30 am- Breakfast

8:00 am- EDM Positions:
Delegating positions with one another for our extended duration mission, headed up by Cuan who methodically separated us into groups and then finalised positions with paper, scissors, rocks.

8:30 am- Orbital Mechanics – Pilots ( learned about the different angles of flight and different axis of flying a space shuttle).

Micro Gravity DNA extraction – Mission Specialists (did a DNA extraction activity in preparation for a mission on the space station. We extracted the DNA of a strawberry; highlight of the lesson was Matt spilling strawberry juice all over James).

9:30 am- Shuttle Landing Simulation :Pilots(The pilots headed up to ISS control for a simulation of a shuttle landing at 30,000 ft. in many different conditions, such as landing during the night or in bad weather).
:Mission Specialists (to their surprise discovered that they would also face medical anomalies during the EDM and learned the proper procedures for dealing with such events).

10:30 am -Orbital Systems 2:
We learned about the different power systems aboard the space shuttle, where the main faults would occur and who to contact when such an event did occur.

11:30 am -Lunch

12:00 pm -Extended Duration Mission (EDM) Training:
We were separated into our different tracks and briefed about the EDM and some events that may occur during the mission. This didn’t take very long and we ended up talking to the instructors for most of the lesson.

1:00 pm - Rocket Construction 3 :
We finished our rockets in preparation for tomorrows launch. The objective is to fire an egg into the air and safely return to the ground in a hand made rocket.

2:00 pm - Orbital Systems 2:
Orbital systems 2 turned out to be exactly the same as the earlier session.
2:30 pm -Shuttle History:
We went to the museum and had a quick look at some of the shuttle displays there.
3:00 pm to 9:00 pm – EDM:
We had 3 x 1.75 hour missions: launch, docking with the space station and landing. This was a very long hard challenge that had people dieing every few minutes with the medical anomalies and the ‘space ghosts’ (the councillors) kept standing by and giving us cards which diagnosed us with different symptoms. This kept the mission specialists on their toes as they had to continually help people. Some of the medical anomalies that occurred were:
2 minutes into the flight Jess had a heart attack and James and Matt got up to help and then got knocked out by the G’s.
Later in the flight the ISS was hit by a meteorite shower and the damage which resulted in a LiOH canister failure, which killed half the crew.
On the descent, the crew in the mid-deck were bitten by a tiger snake (what was that doing in space?) and had 5 minutes to live.
To bring a crew member back to life the councillors made us do stupid stuff like sing songs in front of the camera, which Mr Roberts and Mrs Mengler were recording from.
We all survived, kind of, and had a successful mission.
9:00 pm- Night Telescope Session:
It was cancelled because of cloud cover so we had a brief talk on the northern sky and its constellations.
9:30 pm Hide and Seek in Museum
Another fun game of Hide and go seek as the Americans call it and now off to bed.

By Ryan S. and James.

Day 9

6.30 Wake-up
7.00 Breakfast
7.30 Charlie Mission Training – This training involved launching the shuttle to the international space station to repair a satellite in orbit. Once again the Von Tiesenhausen team split off into groups and rotated between jobs that required different specialised training: Mission Specialists (astronaut space walks), Pilots and Commanders in control of the Orbiter, Mission Control (solving many problems) and the Space Station crew in charge of experiments and flicking switches.
9.00 Delta Mission Training – Same as the Charlie Mission training but with a rotation of different jobs for different trainees.
10.30 Alpha Mission – And so begins the real challenges with a simulated AOA (Abort Once Around) where The Orbiter needs to return to Earth after one Earth orbit due to a major malfunction such as a engine error. Even under extreme pressure (encountering problems and challenges) a relatively smooth flowing mission ensues making a good start for the following three missions.
11.30 Bravo Mission – Similar to Alpha with different problems that take longer and slowly begin to frustrate the team just a little further, but yet again we managed to deal with what was thrown at us.
12.30 Lunch
1.00 Charlie Mission – Once well fed, with more energy and new jobs to preform, many were exposed to different environments but by now we had the hang of things and finished on a relatively good note apart from a skewed landing…
2.00 Delta Mission – The last mission for the day was cut short due to the IMAX movie viewing was to begin slightly early, so we landed prior to finishing majority of our checklists and rushed over to the cinema.
3.00 IMAX - To put it short- a 3D movie about flies going to space (obviously intended for a younger age) even though the effects were excellent.
4.00 Rocket Construction – Period Two of our groups building our rockets getting that inch closer to finally getting to launch our masterpieces. Our piles of cardboard actually start to look like rockets with parachutes and engines beginning to be attached and almost ready for lift off. Only one more period before lift off!
5.30 Dinner
6.00 Scuba/Pilot Training – The team then split into two to perform scuba training and pilot training. The pilot training involved members entering a centrifuge to experience 3.2 Gs of force holding you to your seat, then we entered a room of flight simulators to gun down our friends and barrel roll in the planes. A lot of fun was had by all. The Scuba team, however, went through a rigorous medical check before being briefed on the basics of scuba. The dive master and four support divers led the crew through mask clearance, breathing techniques, neutral buoancy, etc. before descending to the bottom of a 7.00m tank. Here we had a great time throwing bowling balls, constructing frames, etc. to simulate working on tasks in a weightless environment. All made it out of the tank safely with huge smiles on our faces.


9.00 Abort Briefing – Last agenda for Day 9 was a quick 1 hour briefing on various abort procedures available for the space shuttles from launch, including whether or not they have actually been used and in some cases whether or not they are possible. All in all, an eventful day yet again, one that has challenged the team while creating a massive amount of fun for everyone.
10.30 Bed time

Written by Ryan B. and Jaidon

Day 8

Day 8
We were rudely awaken by the Indian students at 5:30am in the morning when our actual wake up call was meant to be at 6:30 so most of us were not feeling warm and fuzzy towards them for the rest of the day. Breakfast was at 7.00am and we were given eggs, biscuits, bananas, apples and a random meat patty.
7:30- we went to the Thermal Design Challenge in which we were given 4 materials( a screw, a piece of copper wire, aluminium foil and a metal mesh) with which we then had to design a thermal heat shield to protect our screw from the blow torch. Most of our heat shields lasted for a while- the average time was about 30 second the best time was 56 seconds and it was a very simple design that worked really well.
9:00- Pay-load opps. was our next task where we made a container to try to stop our egg from breaking when launched from the second floor. We were given 2 materials to make it with, cardboard and duck tape, the other materials we could buy, but the group that won didn’t spend any money at all and they just made a paper aeroplane out of their card board and by luck it landed on the correct side-up.
12.00 Lunch was a KFC product that we all ate and some of us enjoyed more than others. We also had potatoes that were nice and a salad that was frozen, but still a salad.
1.00- Group photo.
2:00- Von T’s lecture- he is a 95 year old NASA retiree who told us about his experiences and he shared his knowledge with us - which was an interesting experience.(Von Tiesenhausen was won of the original German scientists captured by the USA to work on their rocket program)
3:00- Rocket Construction- most groups got a good start on their rockets and we will be launching them soon.
5.00- Alpha mission training was an excellent experience which all of us enjoyed and will be glad when we start our actual mission tomorrow. We then did another mission training (Bravo mission) in which we all moved position so no one had to the same task twice.
8.00-Aero Design-most of us designed a plane that flew nicely and we all had fun making and flying them. The lady that was teaching us was an excellent teacher so we learnt fast and we built the planes in less then 5 minutes.
9.00- Then we went and learnt about the Crew Systems and how they operate and all about the things that they can eat in space and all the new products that are going to be used in the next series of missions.
Its now 10.30pm and we’re off to bed. As you can see we sure pack a lot into our days.



Ps.notes from Mr Roberts- Anna is in sick-bay tonight; we hope she gets over some viral infection soon.
-I’ve included some photos with some of the older blogs ,(they aren’t exactly in order- but you may enjoy them anyway) with our very busy schedule there has been little time to do better.
-the kids are doing very well, Janet and I have been very impressed by their behaviour, positive attitude,etc. By Cuan and Alex R.

Day 7

We awoke to the sound of our camp counsellors yelling at us to get out of bed. After a night of rough sleeping (beds with cheap plastic mattresses and a chilly temperature for our thin blankets), we had 30 minutes to get ready and down for breakfast.

What awaited us were small plates of scrambled eggs, potato gems (tater tots in America), sausage patties, cereal and fruit, which was definitely a welcome change from our vegetable-free Southern American diet! After breakfast, we started our day by making a trip to the museum.

Inside, there were a number of interesting exhibits such as artefacts of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs, Skylab fragments and a landing simulator. After the museum, we made our way across to the Davidson Centre, which houses an actual Saturn V Rocket (one of only 3 remaining). To store the rocket, the building was only half-complete when the rocket moved in and the other half built once it was actually inside. After the rockets, we went back to the Gravitron, which simulates 4Gs. Scientifically speaking, it rocked our socks off!

For lunch, we had ham rolls, and a baked potato. We also met the new Indian Nationals from Dubai who are also staying at the camp and outnumber us 3:1! After lunch, we went and watched Apollo 13 in the movie theatre. Most of us have seen the movie before but didn't mind. Following this, we had the manager lay out the ground rules (again) and met our team leaders, who are Emily and Jeramy. Our team is called Von Tiesenhausen.
As for the activity tracks, we have 9 in Mission Specialists and 9 in Pilot Tracks. We went and got our logbooks and saw some training simulators. Then we were taught about the anatomy of the space shuttle, and later we went out and fired a rocket motor and blew some stuff up, things like hydrogen balloons. We went into their real space shuttle simulator, shown around the flight deck, housing and laboratory.
At dinner there were hamburgers, corn, beans, brownies and still lots of soft drink (or soda). Apples and bananas are available for every meal.
After dinner we were briefed about some of the activities we were going to be doing in the week. We will be designing and launching our own rockets that will fly an ‘Eggstronaut’ into ‘Space’, told a little more about the Mission Tracks, and more about the specific jobs and roles that we will be doing in the four 1 hour missions and the one 6 hour mission.
We also got our pre- loved jump suits (looked like real astronauts!) and our shiny new space camp T-shirts. We also played hide and seek in the museum; which was a lot of fun.
We got back to the dorms by 10 and had lights out at 10:30pm-another long and eventful day.
By Alex G and Adam.

Day 6

Day 6

28th November 2009:
We woke at the crack of dawn, which was about 5.30am; for an early departure from our luxurious Hilton hotel in Washington DC. Our breakfast was ready and waiting in lunch box packs; consisting of a banana, yoghurt, Danish, water, juice and a muesli bar. We arrived at Dulles Airport to check in and yet again go through another security check. This time only one or two of us were pulled over for food which we had accidentally forgotten. The gate was miles away from the check in although the travelators did speed things up. We had to walk onto the tarmac in order to border our somewhat miniscule plane. After all we were use to the Qantas A380, which had all the creature comforts. The plane trip felt very short(only 2 hrs.), there was much to see out side the window; the scenic American landscape was passing us by. In this American Airways plane we could feel the change in direction. We were thankful that the skies were clear; making for a smooth trip. Upon arriving in Huntsville we waited for our bus, which was running late. To pass the time we munched on lollies found in the small and somewhat deserted airport of Huntsville. The bus that finally picked us up arrived about an hour later. The girls had to get the buff men to help them pull their heavy luggage up the steps of the typical American school bus. Once we arrived at the camp we were given hospital tags and minimal bedding and we went upstairs to go see and set up the dorm. To our disgust, horror, shock and surprise the dorms were somewhat like a prison cell. The pillows were more like pancakes then fluffy duck down bedding. We must be used to the five or four-star hotels we have been previously staying in. The rules here are tight, we feel as if we are back in a children’s environment which contrasts to the relative freedom we have grown used to with Mr Roberts and Mrs Mengler. Today is not the official first day of space camp; we do not start the activities until tomorrow. Our lunch was served; consisting of a sumptuous ham and cheese bun, Oreos, coke and chips. Unfortunately fruit and veg is not something that the Americans are keen on. The afternoon was filled with our choice of activities at the Space Centre. The highlight, by far, was the Super Shot which threw us up and down through the sky at scream provoking speeds. We hope this ride will be the first of many great rides that we will experience at Disney World in a weeks time. At the space centre we also went rock climbing and on the Gravitron; which is a large centrifuge that you ride in.
We had a look at the AR12 ( Blackbird) ( the fastest plane in the world) and then we played ball on the grass for a couple of hours. Its amazing at how much entertainment can still be had by playing tunnel ball, leader ball, dodge and clap ball. For a snack some of us had ice cream in very peculiar tiny frozen ball shapes, it surprisingly tasted normal despite its appearance. Dinner was pizza followed by a much-appreciated apple. Then we got involved in watching the Simpson’s movie, playing Monopoly or playing twister (Alex was the winner) before bunking down for bed at lights out (9.00pm). The day was a great success!!!! By Deonie.

Day 5 Blog

27thNov.

Welcome to ‘Day 5’ or as people keep calling it here ‘Black Friday’- The day after Thanksgiving… the day that most people saw their money disappear like they saw the clouds vanish this morning for a morning of brilliant sunshine.

(Almost) everyone filled up on the delicious buffet breakfast before heading off to the shopping mall early to get some great specials! The sun stayed up as we emerged from the mall- our arms full of shopping bags (Heck - even Mr Roberts joined in!!). But who couldn’t resist a 50% discount across most stores?? After shopping we then hurried back to our rooms to put away our shopping and headed to the ‘Metro’ to go to the ‘Museum of Natural History’.

From the Metro station we had a long, icy walk to the museum and what awaited us…? Another bag check!!

We all waited eagerly inside the foyer so we could explore the wonders of the museum.

Some highlights of the museum were: “Rexy” – the giant statue of the Tyrannosaurus Rex made famous by the movie “The Night at the Museum”, the Hope Diamond, which is said to be cursed because it’s wearers usually die soon after wearing it, the giant display of the grey whale, the skeletons of giant animals such as a land sloth and a turtle, skeletons of mini horses, and the various gems.The holiday crowds were huge, making it very hard to get to the more popular exhibits but everyone seemed most impressed by the experience.

After the Museum and a head-count, we then made our way through the rain and cold wind to the Capitol Building. Soon after stopping to put our rain jackets on the Sun came out!! This made for some very good photo ops as we were walking up to the Capitol Building!

After arriving at the “East Entrance” of the Capitol Building (which was the furthest away from the Museum of Natural History…) we were greeted with yet another bag check. The worst part about this bag check was that we were not even allowed to take empty water bottles in there – we had to throw them out! Some of us had water bottles that we wanted to hang on to, so we kept them outside of the bin. We later found that they had been placed in the bin, so of course we went in the bin to get them! It was rather suspicious that we were in the Capitol Building for a considerable amount of time and everyone’s drink bottles were on the still on top of the recycling bin! You’d think that after all that time other drink bottles would be in there too!

After making it through the security check-points, we waited for our tour tickets. The line was long, so instead of going to the 2pm tour, we went to the 2.20pm tour. We were then ushered into a lecture theatre where we were shown a video about the construction of the Capitol Building, and also the formation of the American government. We were then greeted by a tour guide who showed us several rooms of the Capitol Building which were huge and ornately decorated. These rooms contained several statues (most of past Presidents) that had been donated by State governments of America or commissioned by Congress.

This bought us to the end of the tour where we had the choice to leave or visit an interactive look at the Capitol Building. We decided the latter would be worthwhile and spent some time there.

By this time, everyone’s feet and backs were sore and everyone was exhausted! We then walked to the Metro Station to catch the train to Arlington Cemetery. Unfortunately, the closing time for the visitor’s centre at Arlington Cemetery was 5pm, and we had arrived just after. We were severely disappointed that we had come all that way for nothing! So we then walked back to the train station and took the train back to our hotel.

Tonight, we had some activities planned. There was a choice between ice skating (there is an ice rink on top of the mall right near the hotel) or seeing a movie (some of us had been dying to see “New Moon” of the Twilight Saga. Most chose ice skating (which of course was fun…and guaranteed us a good night’s sleep.) The movie was also enjoyable with all who saw it concluding that it was far better than the last one!! And the ice skating gave us plenty of excuses to sing along to some classic songs as we skated. Upon checking into Mr Roberts after we arrived back at the hotel, we were awarded a Twinkie (a cake with icing in the middle), which some of us had never had before (it tasted great…)! And Kristen gave the lucky few that were around at the time a sampling of some delicious candy corn…

Well, after a long (but enjoyable) couple of days in Washington D.C, our time as come to leave. As one member of the group commented, “Just as we begin to fit into a city, we have to leave!” The people around the hotel and staff are beginning to know us as we are such a large group! We will be sad to leave the comforts and luxury of Washington D.C, but Space Camp will be an entirely new and fun experience!

As it nears lunch-time in Perth, all the Leeming High School kids will be packing their bags and watching the all-night marathon of George Lopez (perhaps at the same time?) on Nickelodeon.

Goodnight! George Lopez (and of course bag-packing) awaits us! By Kristen and Jessica.

DAY 4

Wednesday 24th November

Today began with a lazy start and a very nice thanksgiving buffet breakfast at our hotels restaurant. We then planned the day ahead and made our way to the Smithsonian Institute of Space and Aeronautics. We took the Underground Rail (called the Metro).

Many photos were taken here and much time was spent in the numerous museum shops. The highlights at the museum varied depending on who you spoke to- for Alex(the original Star Treck Enterprise), for Jess(the Astronomy display), James( XU1), Mr Roberts(Sputnick),Freeze Dried Icecream, and so on. Lunch (for those who wanted it) was the McDonalds (a name we’ve heard before), which was at one end. After waiting many hours (well, maybe not quite but close enough) for the people ordering to be served in the tremendous queues, we made our way to the Washington Monument, the tallest building in DC (District of Columbia) and once, for a short period of time, the tallest building in the world.

The views from the top were pretty amazing, (apart from the fact that it was still a bit misty up there) but you could see the entire area of Washington, and some of Virginia and Maryland. We also managed to fit in some funny moments, like Elysia looking for a Maryland sign (like the Hollywood one) but not being able to find one.

Next, we walked around the White House (at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave)- it was great to see such an iconic building but the crowds of tourists and the occasional protestor made it even more memorable. Our favourite was the leprechaun promoting the legalisation of Hemp.

After wandering through the Smithsonian Art Gallery, which surprised us all with its amazing exhibits, we went down to the World War II Memorial site, complete with fountains and a wall of over 4000 stars, remembering those who lost their lives in that war (1 star for every 100 lives lost). As we walked down to the Lincoln memorial, James lost his footing (and dignity) and went sliding down the empty Reflecting Pool, gathering mud, slime and momentum on his way down. This was quite a comical sight for all us there.

Another tourist didn’t fare so well-cracking his head on the way down -but Cuan came to his rescue, dialling 911 which was followed by an impressive response time from the ambulance.

At the Lincoln memorial, some of us where waiting for Lincoln to stand up (like in Night At The Museum 2), but this never happened and we were quite disappointed (we figured we might have been a bit too early). We finished our touring with a visit to the Vietnam War Memorial. After walking a few more blocks, we took the subway back to the Hilton where we had a rush to get down to dinner (because being Thanksgiving nothing is open, and Mr Roberts found that the only food place was shutting in ten minutes from when he found out). At our team meeting we had a discussion about the shopping plans for tomorrow (because there are 50% off sales everywhere) and then prepared ourselves for a lazy night (Callum still recovering from his meet with a pillar on our way back). Another exhausting but amazing day!

Tomorrow we plan to go to the Smithsonian Natural History museum (and hopefully get to see a few more scenes from Night At The Museum, and meet some of the characters), and spend some time (and money) at the major shopping sales. By Matt and Callum.

Day 3

Day 3
Today we woke up and went down to breakfast. It was going to be another busy day. After brekkie we went upstairs and packed our bags, we left the room for the last time and went downstairs. We left the hotel and waited out the front for the bus driver. Although we did have to wait outside standing in the cold until the bus driver came, he was 15 minutes late, during that time we saw Otis Spunkmeyer a cookie company with the slogan “Warm cookies are happiness” although the driver of the car did not seem so happy, its cookie time. We all trampled onto the bus (another luxury coach) and got ourselves comfortable for the drive. The drive was very interesting-great views back to New York as we came out of the tunnel below the Hudson River-after 40min we left the metro area- into semi rural and deciduous forests (looking almost dead in the fall) to Allentown Pennsylvania. Here we would go to David and Jennifer Campain’s house for thanks-giving lunch. While we waited for lunch the boys tried to play guitar hero, Cuan was beaten by Owen Campain (who is 9 years old) in ping pong it was 1500 to 0 (he was awarded most of these points for hitting Emmily in the head with the ball) and Telicia and Emmily caught up with the family. And we can’t forget that the girls got make-up and make-up brushes.(Jennifer is a professional make-up artist!) After a while lunch was ready, it was a feast fit for a king. Drinks included Egg Nog and Root Beer followed by the main meal. There was dark turkey and light turkey, beans, potato, sweet potato and marshmallows, biscuits ( which is bread, “those weird Americans”). We then got dessert, which was apple pie and pumpkin pie with cream and ice cream. Meanwhile Jennifer, Anna, Emmily and Telicia went off on a quest to Wegmens in search of twinkie bars. Then Hayden and his friends (Ethan and the other guy) came home and we talked to them about life in Australia and in America and twinkie bars “Life without twinkies, is like life without air” as Ethan said. There was a brief throw of a boomerang on the street followed by a group photo on the porch. We gave the Campain family a thank-you present and then we said good-bye and left. Everyone was so impressed with the whole experience- the wonderful generosity of our hosts; the chance to look at their lovely house (with no fences and immaculate streetscape); the chance to experience family life in USA. We were all really tired but before we fell asleep we sang Barbie Girl, Teenage Dirtbag, Lady Marmalade and Hot n’ Cold. Then one by one we fell asleep and didn’t wake up until we hit the capital. The drive to Washington was slowed by the misty rain and the heavy holiday traffic. We then checked into the HILTON! Another team meeting in Mr Roberts’ ‘suite’ and then we went out to dinner-found a nice food court in an even nicer Shopping Mall. Alex brought a new touch ipod (at half Perth prices), and Dee, Jess, James and Emmily found some cool lollies in the shape of lego blocks which actually go together. Kristen, Elysia , Callum and Co were into the digital store. When we came back Emmily went into her room only to get a call 2 minutes later from Anna to tell her that Telicia had broken the toilet( she maintains that she didn’t break it even though she did try and flush it with her foot) Tomorrow we’re doing a tour of the Smithsonian and the Washington Mall. By Emmily and Elysia.

Day 2

USA
Day Two

Well. Today was a huge day, to say the least! We started off with a rather creepy wake-up call around 7:30am. Everyone (finally) met downstairs for our first breakfast in the hotel. Everyone got very excited as the hotel provided waffle makers, which are a lot more fun (and complicated) then you would think. After breakfast, we met with our guide Remo and got on our bus and took a ride to midtown, to our first destination of a ferry that took us to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Along the ride, we were all very excited as we saw genuine yellow taxis and NYPD cop cars. After seeing Lady Liberty, we sailed to Ellis Island, where we took a tour of the museum there (Ellis Island is where roughly 12 million refugees were processed from the mid-1800’s to 1954.) Remo was our guide through Ellis Island, re-enacting the journey that would have happened all those years ago (Cuan was labelled as crazy and refused entry to America). After the tour it was a quick lunch, photo stop and then the ferry back to the mainland. (Word of warning to future travellers: the seagulls on Ellis Island are mutant size). Then we rode through the city to see the Brooklyn Bridge at Pier 17. Next our journey took a sombre turn as we went to Ground Zero (the site of the September 11 attacks), and visited St Paul’s Cathedral, the only building in the vicinity not affected by the fallout of the collapse. Back on the bus, and we rode to Wall Street and saw the Wall Street Stock Exchange, and next was a detour to Central Park. We took a quick walk through a small part of it (we also saw the spot where John Lennon was shot), and saw where some of the scenes of Spider-Man were filmed (being in New York literally feels like a movie). Then we walked through Chinatown and Little Italy, both very interesting and busy places. Now everyone was pretty much starving, so we took our route to a two-storey MacDonald’s (after a stop in a souvenir shop, as some unnamed dedicated shoppers were starting to whinge). After saying goodbye to Remo, we walked through Rockefeller Centre and saw the ice-rink. Then we walked to Times Square (many, many lights) and had a look in the Toys-R-Us (there was a life-size Tyrannosaurus Rex and a two-storey Barbie house!) Finally, after much nagging, Mr Roberts allowed a “quick” detour to Macy’s where the girls ran amok, and did some much-needed shopping (Macy’s is the largest department store in the world, which pretty much equals a shopper’s heaven). Next (yes, we were still going) we walked up to the Empire State Building, and went up to the 86th floor to look at the panorama views of late night New York. Lastly was a subway ride back to the hotel (we had to beware of alligators, hobos, rats, pickpockets) which was relatively uneventful, apart from nearly losing Callum to a pair of hungry subway doors, we made it back to our hotel unscathed. Tomorrow we leave early for Washington. By Anna and Telicia.

Day 1

USA (at last)

Day 1

It was a long journey to the United States; we had a quick flight to Melbourne, but very boring 6 hour wait in airport, highlight for some- chatting to Nathan Buckley and Scott Watters from Collingwood who was on the same flight to L.A.(Altitude Training? Or just getting HIGH!) Flew on the new airbus A380 ‘huge’ extremely boring 14 hours but the in- house entertainment was great- movies, games etc. some students saw up to six movies. L.A. airport: dramas….. for some reason they thought Alex Roberts was a drug smuggler, was questioned and intensively interrogated, barely made flight even with the help of a Quantas representative. A simple minded student left his bag in the departure lounge,(had to run-off the plane to get it) and then we were off on a 4 hour flight to the Big Apple (New York). Great views of snow capped peaks. Met tour guide, very friendly. Interesting drive great views of trademark sights (Manhattan Is) Hotel is great, shower a bit tricky, dinner was at a quaint little pizzeria across the street, huge serve sizes or at a burger shop, also close by. Had a team meeting to discuss plans for tomorrow.(Two other stuff-ups mentioned: one student lost their lanyard on the plane and Mrs Mengler dialled 911 by mistake with an emergency response she had to explain away).
Half the group finished the evening with a brisk walk around the streets-all very excited to see and feel the pulse of the city. All to bed exhausted. By Alex R.

12/11/09 -Good to see everyone at the final parents night. The next time we will all be together will be at the airport- see you at 9.30pm on the 22nd.

usaSPACEcamp

2009 USA/SPACE Camp


12/11/09 - Final parents/tour group meeting.