Student Blogs!

By Jim Gerard and Stennis Interns

During the summer, we'll highlight here some of the Summer Interns Blogs that you will find in the OLC Blog.  here is one from the Residential Interns at Stennis Space Center:

                This past week, our group sat down and enjoyed a very heartwarming movie, Extraordinary Measures, which showed us the extent a parent would go in order to save or help their children.  We also sat down and wrote a rough draft of our abstracts.  Xavier and Hunter were proactive and worked on it a little before time so they got to turn it in early and go enjoy the game.  At work, Mayisha asked for some Kleenex since she had allergies, instead she got a giant tissue box!

On Friday we were able to meet the STS-134 astronauts that are suppose to carry out the last space shuttle launch. Frankly, it was awesome!  Xavier, Hunter, and Mayisha got to talk to most of them.  We actually got to meet, greet and converse with them.  They took pictures with us and also gave us their autographs.  Mayisha asked Micheal Fincke what the most fun and scariest part of flying to space was and he said “The funnest and scariest part of flying is one and the same: lift-off!” He also said your legs feel like jello when you step out on to Earth after returning and that space walks are fun because objects that are normally heavy are weightless.  He told us that his grandmother, unlike him, never even flew on an airplane and refuses to fly at all! One of the astronauts will break the record for the longest time spent in space after this mission is completed.  Several of the astronauts were surprised to see high school kids working at Stennis and one of them even said he wished he could have been part of a program like INSPIRE when he was our age.  Later on Xavier and Hunter were able to go out to the test stands and see how everything is operated.  There were so many pipes. 

After work, we all went to the Stennis Wellness Center gym to work out twice last week and again today.  Maria was so worn out she could barely walk and Mayisha was having so much fun in yoga class turning herself into a human pretzel.  Oh, yea, and Xavier and Hunter were lifting weights “trying to get big” hahaha, even though Xavier complained about working out too hard. We also went to go see the Karate Kid; there were so many people at the movies, but we were able to get in. It was a great movie; it was action packed, sad and at times funny. The scenery was beautiful.  Miss Cobb sat a row in front of us and when someone asked her if she was watching the movie alone she said “Oh no, I have four kids in the back!” haha. 

Anyways, Saturday we enjoyed a day on the beach at Ship Island, but Ms. Cobb and Hunter came back sunburned badly. Oh wait I forgot we were on a BOAT, like a boss!! We were able to see some dolphin, blue crabs, ghost crabs, hermit crabs, and even got to run away from some sting rays that swam close to shore! We ate at the Hard Rock Café and everyone was stuffed when we left, but we saved some room to get some Ben and Jerry’s.  That night we got back to the condos and chilled and enjoyed watching the game.  Sunday Mayisha went to spend time with her father who came back from Egypt while the rest of us slept in and washed clothes…until Ms. Cobb realized she had 70 dollar Kohl’s cash card, so she took us shopping.  Hunter and Xavier tried to go to Dick’s Sporting goods but they kicked us out and told us we couldn’t come in because it was ten minutes to closing time, we were highly upset.  Instead we just went to kohl’s and shopped with Ms. Cobb and Maria. We ate at a restaurant named Five Guys and Fries where the food was really good.  Afterwards, we came home said our goodnights’ and went our separate ways.