Solstice Party ...

Continuted....My Rendez-vous with an Astronuat

One great thing I realized in my current job is the opportunity to meet great people. These people include space tech researchers, remote sensing scientists, geographers (of course), computer scientists, peace corps volunteers working around the world, and even folks from reputed international aid organizations.

Last couple of weeks have been especially interesting; I met the kind of folks that changed the way I view the world. It is plain thrilling.

Anyway, the last week has been less busy at work, with the Christmas break coming up. Serious work meetings gave way to the Holiday parties with some great wine and food. Yeah, 'tis the season for .... parties!

One of those parties was the Solstice party, arranged by one of our colleagues. For those of you who are "Geography"-cally challenged, read about what Solstice is here. And the star guest in that party was Piers Sellers, the astronaut! It was quite thrilling to meet an astronaut, and hear him talking about his experiences in life, on earth, and in space. It was quite an amazing experience.

Just the past week, I visited the Space and Flight Museum in DC last week, and I saw the IMAX film on astronauts and moon landings. One thing the narrator in the film (Tom Hanks) stressed is how normal these people are - just like you and I. In less than a week of my visit to the space and flight museum, I had a chance to meet with an astronaut and see how normal they are. It is one of those experiences that is hard to describe.