Direction: Cité de l’Espace

Coucou! Today has been out of this world, literally!

Right after the end of class, the best program leaders in the world met the students at the Institut Catholique de Toulouse and then we blasted off to our first destination.

Together, all 43 of us walked to the Carmes métro stop where we hopped on the train and rode down one stop then switched to the bus. After a 20 or so minute bus ride, we arrived at our first destination: le parc.

At the park, students were given free time to enjoy their pique-nique lunches and burn off some of that energy. Looking at the playground, we were not sure what kind of intergalactic fun was awaiting us. But, we were all pleasantly surprised.. Especially with the flying see-saw.. Oh, yes, I said it. A flying see-saw. Even your PL’s got a chance to get in on the fun!

Check out the video!!

Feel free to check out some snapshots from the park.

After almost 2 hours of swinging (and falling off the see-saw), climbing, laughing and hanging out, it was then time to walk down to the Cité de l'Espace, just a 5 minutes  from the park.

To start off our day at the Cité de l’Espace, students were broken up into their classes and selected a partner.

Students were then given a scavenger hunt that would guide them through all 4 levels of the museum and a few outside areas. Students were asked questions in French and had to search through the exhibits to find all of the solutions. Students were also asked to film themselves doing tasks such as presenting the weather in French and also doing a “moon jump.”

The winners of the scavenger hunt were:
Niveau 3: Sebastian and Melody
Niveau 2: Isabelle, Candy and Lola
Niveau 1: Foressia and Christine
Niveau 0: Zoe and Wendy.

Félicitations à vous!

Here's a picture of an actual moon rock! It was pretty neat to see it in real life, even if it was in a display case.

Once the winners were crowned and awarded their prizes, it was time for our visite guidée. Because our group was so large, we broke everyone up into 2 groups for the tour. My group had an awesome tour guide named Roxanne. She was very knowledgeable when it came to the solar system and space, in general.

Here are some of the highlights from the tour:

Did you know that it only takes a total of 9 minutes to reach space from planet Earth? On this 9 minute trip, Roxanne shared with us that 3-5 G’s will be experienced while being thrusted out of the Earth’s atmosphere.

One thing that we found extremely interesting while listening to our guide was the fact that if you are on the International Space Station, every 45 minutes you will see the sun rise and then 45 minutes later you will see the sun set. That means you’ll see a total of 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets in a 24 hour period. SO COOL!

We also learned about some of the strict requirements one must meet in order to be an astronaut candidate. One major factor was height. Taking a look at Sofia and Zoe in the space shuttle seat, would you be comfortable riding in this for an incredible 9 minute ride to outer space
Students were given several different examples of how astronauts live in space..

Ever wonder what it would be like to experience zero gravity? Well, our students were given a chance to see what that would be like by using an astronauts glove and a vacuum type device. Using these two things,  they had to try to pick up a red ball. It was interesting to hear  their comments on how difficult this task was.

Another group of students were given a towel that they had to expand by either putting it some water or mouth, while other students had a chance to sample hot chocolate that the astronauts drink. Check our Lola sampling the hot chocolate.

Stellar would probably be the best way to describe how our day went.

Can’t end the blog without giving a shout-out to Elias — Way to be an active participant and answering all of those questions! Bravo!

Gotta blast! 

Kyle