Part two: Garber, Picnic and Wednesday

Monday us Air and Space Museum interns had a field trip out to Garber. Garber is the old storage facility for the artifacts. They are slowly moving the things from there to Udvar-Hazy. It was wicked awesome! There were warehouses filed with old planes and/or wooden crates. Walking into some of the warehouses you felt like you were at the end of Indiana Jones when the put the Arc into storage! I learned more then I'll ever need to know bout airplanes. I even got to touch one! The plane I touched was made out of steel! Planes are usually made out of aluminium with a steel plate over the engine, but this whole plane was steel. It had the nickname the Tank. These planes were made during the Second World War by the Russians and they were the most produced airplanes at the time. However, there are only six left in the world because most of them were used for scrap after the war.

Monday was also Canada Day! I took the Nanaimo Bars I made to my fellow Space History interns and they all really liked them. The guys were even fighting over who would get the leftovers! Five of my fellow Space interns dressed in red and white along with two other interns from another division who we have adopted. I think I've convinced them to become Canadian!

Tuesday I got up to use the bathroom at 2 in the morning. I was calmly washing my hands when I enormous bug flew at my head! It was gross and huge so I silently screamed and ran out of there waving my hands frantically! I didn't do anything about the bug, but the rest of the night I couldn't sleep because I was worried the bug had followed me into my room of had laid eggs on me and I was going to be covered by baby bugs in the morning! The next morning when I went into the bathroom I slowly opened the door and checked all the walls and the ceiling, but the bug was gone! Either it escaped, died or one of my roommates dealt with it. Whatever happened I'm happy it's no longer around! That day was the Smithsonian picnic. First we started off the day by going back to the simulators. I was the pilot again. I was doing much better until I crashed us upside down into the ground. The game was very nice and flipped us the right was around and let us continue playing. After that I settled back into TMS to finish the morning. By the time noon came I was happy to go outside. It wasn't to hot out, but it kept drizzling on and off for the next two hours. We had been given 11 food tickets to buy lunch and my supervisor was really nice and also gave me hers. I made sure to bring her back a limeaide because I knew she liked them. The picnic was a lot of fun. six of us interns headed outside, but me and two of the guys quickly pulled ahead of the group because we walked much faster. The three of us ended up hanging out together the whole time. We had our food and were looking for a place to sit. All there was was a bench. It was quite funny, one guy sat on one edge of the bench and the other sat on the other side. They left the perfect size spot for me in between them. We were sitting there peacefully on the bench eating our food and talking about awesome things when some people walked by us and started talking about religion, Jesus and sinning to the people on the bench beside us. Now I don't care what you believe, but this men were being quite mean and forceful to these people beside us. The three of us began to talk quite loudly about how we don't believe in God, at least not in their sense. We were also joking that we were in a polyandry relationship meaning that I the woman was married to two men. We were also saying how we were a matriarchal society with me at the top! I liked the sound of that. The men eventually wandered away from us. We're pretty sure they heard us talking and that's why they went away. I don't usually care what you believe, but when you try to force your beliefs onto someone else I get a little defensive. I've have reasons why I believe what I believe and when someone tells me I'm wrong I either have to walk away or I'm going to do something I regret. I can control myself, but I'm worried someone some day will push me to far and that will be the end of it! After we ate we heard there were free segway rides! They were so much fun! I went very quickly around and around in a circle! The guys who run the tours say that because we are interns we get a huge discount on regular tours and we would get an even bigger one if we could get a big group together! We are thinking about maybe one day doing that then coming to my house to drink. The rest of my day was filled with doing TMS stuff. Later on in the night I was really missing home so I went on an hour walk to calm down. It really seemed to help! That might become my new coping method while I'm here!

Today I went to work like normal. I finished up my TMS stuff and then read my medieval history book while I waited for my supervisor. She gave me the most interesting project ever today! After I did that research for her she was really impressed. She told me that I could write two of her entries for the coffee table book she's working on! Today I started writing about STS-42 which was the first shuttle mission to have a female Canadian astronaut on it. I get to decide what is the most important thing about it and have to describe it along with other basic details in under 1000 words. I've decided that I want to focus on the international aspect of this mission. This mission had over six countries chose the experiments that would be preformed on board. Along with the Canadian and US astronauts there was a German one and the experiments were going to go to over 200 scientists in 16 countries! I think that is pretty amazing. My supervisor wants each mission to have its own unique aspect and I thought that was pretty special! I only wrote 250 words today because it was really hard! Reading all of the information and trying to process all of the technical jargon and make it simple but interesting enough for the everyday person makes my head hurt. I had to take a break every hour and work on something else in order to refocus. It's really cool and it will really help with my writing ability. My supervisor said we would go over what I wrote together and revise it and talk about where and how I could improve my writing and if she deems it good enough she'll send it into the editor with her stuff. That means things I've actually written could end up in a book!!!!!!!!! Now my name wouldn't be on it, but it's still really cool!!!!!!!! Also at work today my supervisor told me that she would like to take me and another intern to New York next Wednesday, the 10th, for an exhibit opening of the space shuttle Enterprise! I have my ticket booked. I have to catch the bus at 5:15 am to get there by 10 am and I leave New York at 6 pm to get home by 11 pm. It should be really fun! We're going to the Intrepid in the morning for the exhibit opening and then another museum in the afternoon. We're not sure which one yet. Don't worry everyone I'll be same and in contact as I'm going from my house to Union Station an back again! Finally, for supper tonight I went and got a Nutella crepe.  I don't have that much food for myself at the moment and I don't have time to do groceries until Saturday, so I got my crepe and bought two sandwiches for the next two days for lunch. The crepe was one of the best suppers I have had since getting here! Tomorrow is Independence Day and I'm going to the parade and the fireworks! I'll tell you more about it my next post!

Have a great week!