D-Day has arrived.
Departure Day, that is. Definitely not my favorite part of training life: when you have to pack your bags and move to the next location. In Star City I have an accommodation that is assigned to me, meaning that I always stay in Room 32 when I come for training. But while I’m gone, other ESA personnel on business travel can stay there, so when I leave I need to pack all my stuff and put in storage whatever I don’t want to take with me. It feels a bit like putting one life on freeze as I go somewhere else to live another life for a while.
Because traffic around Moscow is typically inclement, we usually leave Star City 4 to 5 hours before plane departure. That can be even earlier on snowy days, a bit later if we leave at low-traffic times, like today. Our skillful driver, Nikolay, knocked at my door at 5 am this morning.
Now I’m in Frankfurt waiting for my train to Cologne. I have some office work to take care of at the European Astronaut Center this afternoon. Sitting here in the busy terminal, it’s strange to think that I was riding my bike in peaceful Star City just last night. Or, for that matter, around this time yesterday I was settling in my chair in my “other” office. I attached a picture.
Lots of lessons learned from our fire sim yesterday, especially in terms of distributing tasks between Anton and myself during a fire case. When the situation is critical, Crew Resource Management is especially important!
26/07/2013