An Update from Barcelona...

You can imagine that Barcelona has been a bit rowdy as patriotic fans are thrilled about Spain winning the Euro 2008 Soccer Championships! Everyone was running around excited and throwing fireworks in the city.
Yesterday was our official Welcome Ceremony for all the participants of International Space University. Some students wore their cultural attire related to their country. 29 countries are being represented this summer and we're all having a great time getting to know one another. It is very interesting to be amongst so many cultures and customs and I am even learning more about cultures that I thought I already knew about. Here a couple of pictures of some friends from India, Germany, and England:


Today was the first day of lecture. The morning started off with a bus ride over to the campus of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).

Today's lectures were on:

The Space Perspective by former astronaut and MIT professor Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman

Policy Rationales for Space Activities by Dr. John Logsdon from George Washington University

Economic Rationale for Space Activities by Professor Patrick Cohendet from University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France.

Entrepreneurial Futures by Peter Diamandis who is chairman and CEO of X Prize Foundation, CEO and co-founder of Zero G Corp., and also one of the founders of the International Space University

After the lectures, we didn't have any homework and I've been dying to visit La Sagrada Familia...so I took the Metro with my friend Shaq and went to take a tour of the cathedral. When I climbed up the stairs from the Metro and turned around it was RIGHT THERE!! The view was breathtaking and it is amazing to see how beautiful and detailed Gaudi was in his design. Below is a little slide show during my tour inside the cathedral. It's only half way completed and they're hoping to have it completely restored by 2026.

After the tour, I headed back to the residence as the 22 participants from Canada would like us all to celebrate Canada Day with them. However, I stopped at a small market and I had to take a picture of this basket. In the United States, we have baskets similar to these, but they don't have wheels on them. These were AWESOME!