I just received an email the other day from one of the members of the International Space Camp 2007 Norwegian delegation, Kim. Prior to his visit to Space Camp, he found his way to the HabForum and was able to have many of his questions answered.

His letter brought a smile to my face and I wanted to post it here as I think it will bring a smile to yours as well.

Hi!

I just wanted to say that your site helped me a lot in preparing for International Space Camp, especially about what to expect what to bring and stuff. I didn’t know you were at the opening ceremony, and it was a pleasant surprise to see some of the presentations when I came home.

I was part of the delegation from Norway, you may remember me being dressed in a national costume mostly black in color. Our presentation was not as good as I hoped for, mainly because we never rehearsed or had much time to discuss it beforehand. We were planning to create it on the plane across the atlantic, but then our teacher had to take a separate flight. Nevertheless I hope Torgeir as King Olav of Norway taught you a bit about old Norwegian culture and history as it was a major event in my country’s history.

The opening ceremony was great! It was so fun and interesting seeing all the US teachers and then the international delegations. I really liked the running gag with “best beaches in the world” which I think even our viking mentioned.

The rest of the week was even better! I was part of Team Oberth, and was designated as a PLT, just what I hoped for! Our counselors were also great. My daytime counselor was Ellie Hattery, and nighttime was Percy Goode. I can’t imagine a better pair of leaders for our team. They got along very well with everyone and I never experienced any of them in a bad mood or being bossy, they were more like members of the team rather than just people telling us what to do, and when to do it.

I also got to be CDR for the second part of our EDM. We had a thinking anomaly with a fuel cell that we regrettably never got fixed, but we managed every other anomaly. I was also very satisfied with the landing, I hit right on the centerline, even though I came in a bit low and touched down a little early.

Another thing I really enjoyed was High Ropes, and Area 51. Those truly bonded the team closer together and I think it made us work better together later on. And of course the slidewire after cimbing the wall was awesome.

Oberth also won the space bowl, and the team mostly meant that was my achievement. Our last question was something like this “These three astronauts on this Apollo-mission did not know what hit their rocket during launch”. That’s easy, I thought! So we scribbled down the answer and at graduation we were announced as winners.

I also won the Right Stuff-award. That was a surprising moment, but one I really appreciated nonetheless.

Next year I think I’ll go back to space camp, but then I’ll of course have to pay for it myself. Nevertheless I think it’s worth it, and I look forward to seeing the Saturn V and Pathfinder once again.

Sorry for going on abouit this, have a great day!

Best wishes,
Kim Spildrejorde

He later wanted to add:

Of course I can’t forget Mouse, who had to put up with all of us on our first day at the camp, before the opening ceremony. He was great, and I had a really great time that day, learning my way around and checking out the museum. Putting me in the museum was like putting a kid in a candy store!

I still have many impressions to digest from the camp, and I feel extremely fortunate to have been given this opportunity to see so many people from different countries, each with their own culture, and then learning to work closely together with them as a team. I think at the end we didn’t even think about the fact that we were all from different places in the world. We just went along very well.

Indeed this is part of the magic that is Space Camp / Aviation Challenge. I think Kim captured it wonderfully.

The last ISC clip I intend to show here should, I hope, put another smile on your face.

The delegates from China decided as part of their presentation to perform a very traditional, very ancient Chinese song.

I can’t stress enough how edu-taining all of the international visitors’ presentations were. Having said that, here is what made the New Zealand team, in my opinion, the best presentation of the lot:

Speaking of which, in the spirit of a good international ribbing, I’d like to share with you the best (and only) New Zealand joke I’ve ever heard. It’s really sort of an addendum to the kids’ presentation:

New Zealand is home to 14 million sheep, 4 million of which are under the impression they are people.

I’d worry that those rugby hooligans would storm my door, but by the time their flight would have landed, 22 hours later, they’d be too tired to care!

By the way, I know things have been getting pretty video happy around here as of late. But I really love the ISC opening ceremony! And stories of the events never seem to do it justice.

Though I don’t expect them to be this numerous the rest of the year, do expect a jump in quality in the future (assuming YouTube isn’t the only limiting factor) as a shiny new camera has just been acquired!

International Space Camp 2007 is on day two now. As promised here is another video from the Opening Ceremony.

This video shows the best bit of Belgium’s presentation as they played their national anthem.

Check back later for New Zealand!

International Space Camp 2007 started with bang this evening quite literally as fireworks were set off to mark the occasion.

Preceding the fireworks was the International Space Camp Opening Ceremonies.

After the procession of teachers and foreign visitors, the event kicked off with comments from U.S. Space & Rocket Center CEO, Larry Capps.

The 2007 Teacher of the Year, Andrea Peterson, was then invited on stage to provide her remarks. The United States Teachers of the Year representing the 50 states, District of Columbia, and various territories were then brought up one-by-one to introduce themselves and briefly provide some information about where they are from. Despite some quibbles about who had the nicest beaches (Florida, Hawaii, the North Mariana Islands, etc. — it was all in good fun), the teachers were dressed up in outfits appropriate to their origins and proved to be quite entertaining.

After the teachers from the United States were done, my favorite part of the opening ceremonies began. As I said last week, the visiting nations always give short presentations to educate the audience about where they come from. They’re always informative and are often very funny. This year didn’t disappoint.

Students and teachers from the following countries all got up to tell the audience a little about their country:

I promise to get more video up soon, but for the moment, I will provide you with one or my favorite ones from the ceremony. Switzerland didn’t come with a teacher in tow. As such, they were able to do this sketch:

Hab1.com bids welcome to all of the students and teachers from around the country and the world.

Enjoy the week!