Articoli degli studenti - 2014 |
Sunday, April 6 – Huntsville, Alabama
Today was my first day spent in Huntsville. Yesterday evening I arrived with Mathilda and Tobias after we made a long journey from Leipzig to Huntsville via Chicago. The flight went well though and we thankfully had no delays. Ralf and the other team members gave us a warm greeting at the airport. It is always nice to see familiar faces after a long flight. We drove together to the Moonbuggy Workshop—an in-progress house close to being finished. The house provides us with a large garage to build the Moonbuggy, a fully functioning kitchen with a self-made bench, two bathrooms, an in-progress office space, and a warehouse in the back that is rented to a furniture maker. I was quite impressed with the amenities available to the team.
I know that I can speak for Tobias and Mathilda as well about how exhausted we were after the flight. It always takes a couple of days to adjust to the new time and catch up on missed sleep. Soon we were on our way to La Quinta Hotel—where Ralf has been taking the teams for years. The beds were amazingly comfortable, there was free Wi-Fi, and a delicious complimentary breakfast awaited us. I was happy to be there. I laid down, and soon, I was out.
This morning began with an early start for myself and I waited for the team members to join me in the breakfast lounge. Once we were all up, dressed, and fed—we gathered in our Moonbuggy bus and left for the workshop. The boys began to rebuild the Moonbuggy while Katerina, Mathilda, and I were given the duty to drive to the nearby Super-WalMart to supply our refrigerator with food for cheap and easy cooking. We made a list and soon I had us in the car and on our way. I picked out groceries to make salads, sandwiches, rice and beans, and pasta. But I still don't think we got enough with all of the hungry boys on the team.
For lunch, we prepared the sandwiches and the salad and all ate together inside the house. Then, as we planned, we went to the Springtime Farm Days—a one-day fair located in Huntsville. It was great. One could describe it as a living-museum where people imitated traditional home-making methods and trades. There was an area where blacksmiths were creating nails and hooks—they even helped me to create my very own self-made s-hook. There was a trailer that showed what was typically packed by the settlers as they made their way across America. Traditional music was being played by persons dressed in old clothing and old-style games were scattered across the whole area. We saw how cotton was created into string and also how to make rope. The fair was located up in the hills of Huntsville with a beautiful over-look of the city.
On our way back to the workshop, we stopped at Jesco von Puttkamer's old house to see the plaque that was installed. The son of the family that is currently living there spent the day with us and plans to continue participation in the Moonbuggy team. It was wonderful to have a new team-member—a spontaneous addition.
And now we sit at the bench in the kitchen getting ready to eat supper. Terry, a friend of ISEI and an engineer at NASA has cooked us a wonderfully delicious meal of white chicken chili and we are excited to enjoy it!
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