Space Generation Congress Day 2

Day 2: Thursday, September 28^th, 2006 [First Day of Real Conference]

Universitat Politecnica de Valencia

Breakfast was served at 7:00am. I woke up at 7:45, 15 minutes before we had to meet downstairs. No breakfast for me. We walked a few blocks to the subway station and took the metro and trolley lines all the way to the host campus, the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia. The place looked pretty cool, so did some buildings along the way.

UN Youth Declaration

What separated this conference from past SGC conferences was the Youth Space Declaration. The SGC was formed from the remnant of a United Nations sanctioned youth space organization that the UN thought it no longer needed. Without UN funding, the SGC has been strong for 6 years now. After an opening speech by the conference coordinator, Tim Bailey (who worked for Zero-G and presented at a SEDS meeting last year), and a brief history of the Space Generation by Chris Boshuizen, and Australian with weird hair, we took a break.

In Spain, it's apparently insulting if you work too hard, so we had to bend to Spanish culture and take breaks two breaks a day in addition to lunch. They served coffee, and for the first time in my life I needed it badly. I discovered I like my coffee just like Mr. Wolf from Pulp Fiction: lotsa cream, lotsa sugar. Just kidding. I still hate coffee, I just tolerate it more with lots of sugar and cream. It was also a great time to mingle with all the other delegates and learn names.

After the break, we had two more presentations. One was on how we as individuals fit into the Space Generation goal of uniting the world through space exploration. The other was the introduction to the Youth Space Declaration. I have to get this off my chest; Daphne is annoying. I guess all political science people are, but listening to her talk super fast while the rest of the non-native English speakers couldn't keep up with her peeved me. I sat next to Pieter and every ten seconds he'd just hang his head down and give up trying to keep up. Oh well. After that we got a group photo of us all in our SGC polos. [I'll try to link that photo, but I don't have it yet].

Lunches were alright. We had the same thing every single day, but it wasn't too bad. The University served us platters of little sandwiches and finger foods, along with lots of cheese and possibly very unhealthy stuff. Each break they served a wide variety of pastries that got old after one day, but they had plenty to drink at those breaks and served us wine at lunch, which I took advantage of to look more sophisticated. I probably didn't work, but oh well.

Moon-Mars Workshop - Habitats

We finished up lunch and split into project workgroups. According to the online SGC forum, here was the Habitat's description.

"Getting to the planets is just one half of the technical problem. Habitat design includes all living aspects of planetary travel from radiation protection to life support and from living quarters to green houses. Some of the problems we are already faced with is materials and structures, recycling and self sustained life support systems, entertainment and leisure, health and fitness and weathering conditions.

The focus of this workshop is to brainstorm new and unique habitat ideas as well as to discuss a number of habitat related issues including:
• What habitat infrastructure already exists and identifying the major advantages/disadvantages?
• What habitat technologies need to be developed?
• Should the habitat be above or below ground?
• Should it be permanent?
• Should it be built for a single purpose or modular to grow as the mission grows and changes?"

We also had to come up with Youth Space Declarations, which I was really looking forward to because I would have the opportunity to write something that the UN would actually read and people all over the world would sign onto. Pretty sweet if you ask me. In our group we had our Project Moderator, J.J. van der Horst from Holland; Joe Palaia, Vice President of the Four Frontiers Corporation; Lisa Peacocke, an engineer from New Zealand (jet lag must have been horrible for her) (after I first met her, she said "bollocks" and I found out that's not a cuss word, which I had wanted to know ever since I saw V for Vendetta. Awesome movie, by the way); and me, possibly the third youngest person at the conference.

We start discussing habitats and materials and whatnot, but in the end the best idea we come up with is... an art contest. We would hold a worldwide art contest where people submit realistic artwork for the interiors of space habitats rather than just some exotic space buildings on the moon or Mars. At first, I was skeptical because... it's an art contest. I'm a bona fide scientist/engineer. I have no business doing art, let alone being one of the chairs of an international art contest, even if it is of space habitats. The whole time I thought to myself "what the HECK is this?!" But I eventually realized, hey, engineers are no interior designers and therefore every space habitat we come up will be some place no one else in the world would want to live because it would be drab and boring to look at from the inside. Astronauts have been complaining about the interiors of space habitats since Skylab and no one has done anything about it. If I were an astronaut, I wouldn't dare complain about having a boring interior if I'M IN SPACE, but that's not the point.

After the next break, we came back and started discussing Youth Declaration ideas. I started typing ideas down for what I thought we should address as the Habitats group. As a group we came up with eight solid statements and a preamble to our recommendations. I came up with about six of the recommendations before they were edited beyond my original meanings by Joe, but I still had the ideas. It felt good to make a difference in the space world, no matter how small. At 5:45 we all met back in the auditorium and wrapped it up for the day. We headed back to the Hostel and got some pictures in front of the bridge by our hostel's subway stop. UCF had four delegates, the most of any other school (only one other school had two delegates, and that was Embry-Riddle). In this picture is the four of us (from left to right, Dan Florez, Juan Lara, Katie Collier, and me).

As a group of us was ready to head out the door at 7:45 for dinner at the Royal Society of Agriculture (a fancy restaurant where the waiters had to wear tuxedoes), Tim stopped us and told us something that struck another culture shock note. In Spain it is rude to show up on time or early, for some reason. I had FINALLY discovered the reason why the Hispanic American Student Association at UCF starts EVERY SINGLE EVENT at least 45 minutes late. It didn’t solve the fact that I had wasted plenty of 45-minute blocks waiting on their events to start, but it gave me the courage to be late from now on without feeling guilt.

Instead of hanging around waiting for nothing to happen, Hussein, Pieter and I went to the same place to get drinks. This time, Rastaman Mark and another guy named Manu came with us. For some reason, or perhaps no reason at all, I decided to wear my kamikaze headband that my brother had given me from his trip to Japan. I have not idea why I did it; I guess I was trying to look outlandish. Mark promised me that non-US imported Heineken didn’t taste like the horrible stuff I’ve had, and he was right. That Heini was good.

After we finished our drinks, it was time to be 15 minutes late to the restaurant. However, we did not know where the restaurant was. Pieter said that we passed it on the way to the bar, but I said that the restaurant he saw didn’t have guys in tuxedoes. It turns out he was right and we wasted the next 25 minutes walking around searching for this place. We made a grand entrance and took a seat at the last table just as they served the first course.

Granted, I have no idea what they served us, but it was delicious. The first course reminded me of chicken potpie, but it was way better and I have no idea what was in it. They also had several bottles of red and white wine per table that Hussein, Pieter, Mark, Manu, and I destroyed (Note: the amount of alcohol I consumed over the trip was never excessive. I was never drunk beyond comprehension nor did I wake up with a hangover. I was simply on a mission to drink as much as I was served because I couldn’t do it when I went back. If I lived in Europe, I would not drink that much, nor will I ever drink in excessive amounts).

The second course was some type of meat covered in a fruit sauce. My God is was better than the kebab the night before. What made it “an orgasm in your mouth” as Hussein put it was when you mixed it all together and took bite. Despite the connotation, everyone else at the table and I all had to agree.

It’s also polite to get up and mingle with other tables in between courses, so I did. I probably should not have because of the wine, but I did… and ran into the one Japanese girl at the conference while wearing my kamikaze headband. I didn’t even think about how it could offend her, but when she asked (politely, of course) why I had it I told her it was a joke from my brother because I’m a pilot. I’m not sure if she understood me (she easily had the worst English of anyone I met at the conference), but I didn’t even think about the headband until the closing dinner.

Next was dessert, which was chocolate covered vanilla ice cream. Nothing fancy, but it was good enough for me to be jealous that no one was sitting on the other side of Hussein, so he got two.

Another Night in Valencia

After dinner I was fairly inebriated, so I decided to go back to the hostel and just relax for the rest of the night. As I was about to walk back inside, a group of people was heading out.

Hussein: Sunshine! [He gave me that nickname because I’m from Florida, the Sunshine State] Let’s go out!
Me: No, I'm tired, I need to get to bed!
Pieter: Come one Ben, let's go.
Me: No guys, I'm really tired
Everyone: Let's go Ben!
Me: (laughing like an idiot) OK.

I have low resistance to peer pressure when wine is in my system. We went down the same alley where we got the kebabs before, but kept going until we hit a bar that was playing salsa music. I didn't feel like drinking anymore, so I sat with a guy named Juergen and we had an interesting discussion on international politics and intercultural relations. Juergen (seen in this picture sucking face) is from Stuttgart, Germany and said some pretty intelligent stuff on the forums, so I was pretty much familiar with the guy once we started talking. More people joined the discussion and it focused on how much I think Americans are culturally ignorant and how I thought it was pretty unfair how the language of the conference was English and nothing else, no help for the people who didn't already know the language.

Despite our riveting discussion over drinks, the entire group (males only) instantly turned its attention to my right as two Spanish girls entered the bar. It was time to have fun. In retrospect, if I were a women and half a dozen guys came up and spoke a different language trying to get me to dance, I would run. However, I think because Kat was there to translate for us, things worked out. We all talked about random stuff. However, the Turkish guy Mehmet Engin was definitely a space geek with no game. If he didn't have me there to edit his lines during the translation, he wouldn't have gotten to dance with one of them.

Mehmet: Tell her I am very fond of her!
Me: Ok man, that's not what you say to a woman when you first meet her.
Me: (to the Spanish girl, pointing to make sure she knew Mehmet said this) Tu eres muy guapa (horrible Spanish grasp on words, I know, I shouldn't have been translating).

I talked with one of the girls about how we're all here for a space conference and that most of us are engineers. It was a little quieter than in the bar the night before, so I could enjoy a conversation without shouting or getting shouted at. Despite my kindergarten level Spanish, I managed to hold a somewhat decent conversation with these girls (although Kat really helped out). They both had boyfriends, but I now think that's what all Spanish women say when they are hit on by guys who doesn't speak Spanish. It was very fun just to talk in another language.

However, I was very disappointed when I asked the girls if they knew how to salsa dance. It turns out salsa is a Latin American dance, and the Flamenco is a Spanish dance. I need to learn that one for next time. They also didn't know any other ballroom dance I knew, but they didn't seem like dancers anyways, so I did some salsa with one of the SGC project moderators. Even though I never took salsa lessons, I learned by figuring out the basic step and throwing in all the turns, twists, and dips I've learned over the years and BAM! It looks GOOD.

A group of us was ready to head back, so we did. It had been a long day.