Camp Acronyms and Terminology

I have decided to make a list of acronyms and terminology that I use so that you all know what I’m talking about. So her goes…

Hab 1- Habitat 1: a four story building used to house most of the campers. The camper rooms hold up to 6 or 7 people.

Hab 2 – Habitat2: the 2 story building where I live. Campers stay in bays which hold more than 20 people. The lower level is built into the gound on one side so it is where we bring trainees during severe weather.

Trainees- our word for campers

Team Leader- the counselor in charge of a group. there can be up to two team leaders per group, a day counsleor and an evening counselor.

Support- a counselor who goes where is needed to support the other counselors or who could be running some activity or other.

Doubles- when you are both the morning and evening team leader.

USSRC- United States Space and Rocket Center, located in Huntsville, Alabama.

Shuttle- the assembly that takes our astronaust into space now.

Orbiter- the part of the shuttle that looks like a plain which most people think of as the shuttle

SRB’s- Solid Rocket Bosters: the two white rocket looking things on either side of the shuttle. they are the engines that get us moving.

ET- External Tank: the big orange thing. it is just a huge fuel tank. it fuels the SSMEs on the Orbiter.

SSME’s- Space Shuttle Main Engines: The three big engines on the orbiter. Fueled by the ET. Also used during launch.

The BEST 24 hours EVER!!! (not!)

Yesterday after I got off work I had planned to go take a nap, that never happened. Instead I decided to go out to eat with some friends, we had planned to meet about 6. It turned into about 7:30 before we left because we were waiting for someone to get out of a meeting that went longer than she planned. When I came back to my room later I felt a little sick but I thought it was because I was so full. NOT! I woke sometime after midnight and ran to the bathroom, throwing up right as I entered, not quite making it to the toilet the first time. By the time I was done, there was puck everywhere. My awesome new roomate went to get the head RA who cleaned up everything. YAY HAINEY! YOU ROCK! I threw up one more time before going back to sleep, hoping to be better by 6am-ish so I could work.

About 4am we were awoken by lowed banging on our door. We had heard earlier that their were tornado watches, the banging was one of out suppervisors telling us that there was a tornado warning and we had to help get all the kids from hab 1 (four story building) to hab 2 (where I live, 2 story with the lower level kind of basement like.) I was still feeling bad so I just headed downstairs. Everyone else got all the kids woken up and into some of the bays (bigger room with lots of bunk beds) Waking up all the kids and getting them down to hab 2 went pretty quickly for a couple hundred people. a half hour or so after we had everyone there we were told we could heard them back to bed. while everyone else was getting the kids back in bed I talked to the day supervisor and told him I wasn’t feeling good and wasn’t sure I would by 6:15 when I had to report for wake up.

I did sleep through wake up but got up to meet my team for breakfast. I ate one cracker and drank some sprite (since I didn’t have any genger ale) I started feeling sick again and asked Adam (day supervisor) if support could take over for me after all. He asked if I could wait a little so that support could eat. I told him okay, took my team to the nurse so those that needed meds could take them and then went to our first activity where I met up with a guy named Matt who was working support duty today. Talked with him for a bit then introduced my team to him and left.

I went to return his walkie-talkie for him, clocked out, through up again and went to bed. I slept most of today. My roommate, Teresa went to target before she had to got to work and got me some ginger ale (which I did keep down.) I did feel much better around 1pm stomach wise though I had a headache so I slept the rest of the afternoon. I’m feeling better now. I’ve had some more ginger ale and I’m eating some crackers. Head doesn’t really hurt at the moment either. I am pretty sure that by tomorrow I will be able to work again. Luckily I don’t have wake up, so I don’t have to report to work till about 7:30 as compared to 6:15.

So, yeah, this was my wonderful past 24 hours.

A great BIG thank you to my roommate Teresa who was awake just as much as I was last night (though luckily she was still awake when I threw up and I didn’t wake her up, just kept her up) and still had to work this evening. And to Hainey,wonderful head RA in Hab 2 who cleaned up after me. She ROCKS!

Any way, now I am going to eat some more crackers and possibly go out to but some sup or something to try to eat.

By the way, assides from getting sick afterwards, dinner was fun. It was neat to hang out with Joseph, who was our training mentor, out side of the USSRC.

My First REAL Day…

I had my very first team today. Well, I’ll actually have them till Friday but they are still my first official team. They are in 6th grade and most of them are pretty lively (after they wake up anyway.) I am their morning counselor so I have them from about 7:45am to 3pm, at which time their evening counselor comes.

When I first got them this morning they were so quiet. that didn’t last long. I got so many questions today, and not all of them related to Space. “When are we going to G-Force?”(after Imax), “When is Imax?” (after lunch), “Can we get dippen-dots?” (not right now), “Can we ride Mars?” (your doing that with Grace this afternoon), “Can we go over there?” (no, you need to stay with the group), “What are we doing next?” “Can I go to the bathroom?” “Whats for lunch?” (I don’t know, I haven’t memorized the menu yet)… are just a few of the questions I got today.

All in all, things went pretty well today. There are a few things I’ve got to figure out like when to leave breakfast so I can take campers to get their meds and still make their first activity on time. I like my group, they are a pretty neat group of kids. I think I know all their names now. I am also somewhat amazed at how much information I retained from training. When I did get questions about Space I knew the answer for the most part.

I have been up since 5:45am so I am going to take a nap now… stay tuned for more updates.

A Very Quick Trip

I went to Tennessee Sunday for a very quick visit with Josh, Julia and Maya. I didn’t stay long but it was still nice to see them. It was also nice to have a hot shower and a nice bed. What can I say, their daybed/couch thing is more comfortable than my bed here at the USSRC.

While visiting I did manage to get some video of Maya crawling. It is so cool to see how much she has changed or what she has learned since I last saw here, which was only a month ago. To see the videos and other pictures of, head to http://mayamauzy.blogspot.com/

What I’ve been up to the past week

Finally! I’m back! I haven’t been able to post for a while because I had to get a new power cord for my laptop and I have bee busy finishing up training and stuff.

So, what has been going on? Good question… here is a brief sumerization of whats been going on.

• Camp for a day (several school groups came out for several hours and we got to experience what it was like to lead a team.)
• Gala- the 50th anniversary celebration of NASA and the opening of the new Davidson center. Very fancy even, lost of astronauts and other NASA big shots in attendance: Buzz Aldrin, Homer Hickam, Jim Lovell, Charlie Duke… and other people I don’t recognize. What was I doing at the Gala? WORKING! yep, thats right, I was close enough to touch these people but I was working and not allowed to even ask for autographs. My job for the day? I started out stuffing inserts into programs and setting them out at tables. (I saw Buzz Aldrin’s name card). Then, since it was raining and we couldn’t set out the luminaries, I got to stand out in the freezing rain for more than an hour with a glow stick around my neck as a “human luminary.” I was among those lighting the way from the VIP reception. So, while I did not recognize them, I am pretty sure the above mentioned people walked right by me. I also got to see some of the proceedings on the big screen in the discovery theater then got to help with the gift bags at the end. I even got to keep one of the extra ones.
• Graduation- We had a special graduation ceremony to officially become counselors. It was nice enough. The Highlight, Charlie Duke, one of the astronauts to land on the moon during Apollo 16, came to speak to us. HE WAS AWESOME! I got pictures of him but I’ll post them latter when I have more time.
• Had some more test and teach backs somewhere in here… I assume I passed because I am still here.
• I get my first real team on Tuesday- Friday, then I have a cub scout group over the weekend and anther group for three days the next Wednesday after that.
• I may be getting a room mate
• I am going to visit with Josh, Julia and Maya this afternoon and hopefully don’t have to be at work tomorrow.
• that is all i can think of

I will post pictures soon.

Have a great week everyone, and wish me luck with my first team.