Brussels

Brussels!
 

On Thursday 24th of March, 27 of us from the year went to Brussels. The three lucky teachers who got the opportunity to spend 5 whole days with 27 4th years were Ms.Ni Mhuineachain, Ms.Crowley and Ms.Curran. We met at 4.30 in the morning and Dublin airport. After checking in, we had some free time to have a look around the airport until we had to be at the boarding gate.

When we arrived at Brussels airport, we got on the bus to the Interactive Science Museum. We were allowed to go to each activity on our own and do everything in our own time. We then met for lunch. After lunch, we arrived at the European Space Centre and we had a short briefing where we were told about the various different activities we would take part in during our classes that would take place every morning. We were given t-shirts, half of the group got white t-shirts and half of the group got navy t-shirts. This determined which group we were in for our classes. Then, we were assigned our rooms and given a couple of hours to unpack and get ready for dinner. That evening we ate at Hotel de la Poix. We returned to the Space Centre where we had an in-house cinema. Bed time was 10.30.

The following morning we had breakfast at 8.30 and then we had classes. Our first activity was the rotating chair. We had to sit on it and we were spun for 45 seconds. After the chair stopped, we opened our eyes and had to focus on one point without closing our eyes. The rest of the group watched our eyes and saw that they shook side to side as we learned that this was due to the semi-circular canals in our ears trying to find our balance. It is used in training astronauts.

After classes we had lunch and then went to the waterpark. We had 3 hours in the waterpark where there was slides, a lazy river, a wave pool and Jacuzzis. We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner and then to bowling. We all really enjoyed it although a couple of us on the team weren’t so good at it! We arrived back at the Space Centre at 10.30 and went to bed.

On our third day we had classes in which we made rockets that we would launch on our last day. We then did the multi axis chair where we were spun around and upside down but there was an outline in a page and we had to try trace it while being spun upside down. It was great fun and everybody in the group got a good laugh out of it. At 12 noon, we got on the bus and travelled to Aachen in Germany. We were given 3 hours to go shopping. When it was time to leave, we all hopped on the bus and went to Massachusetts in Holland where we had dinner in an Italian restaurant.

On Sunday morning we had no classes so we headed straight to the Challenger Course. We were harnessed onto ropes in the middle of a forest. You had to complete different tasks such as walking tight ropes, climbing across ladders and walking across planks of wood. This was enough to provide us with a few entertaining stories to Bring back to Ireland, although when you’re stuck in a forest 40 feet above the ground it doesn’t seem so funny! After the Challenger Course we went to the cinema. We all had a choice of 3 movies but myself, 4 other girls and Ms.Ni Mhuineachain went to see Big Momma’s House 3 and luckily Ms. Ni Mhuineachain picked up a few new moves from the dancing scene and then kindly demonstrated them to us at the table quiz that night!

The following morning we had our award ceremony where we all got a certificate for completing Space Camp. We then went outside and watched our rockets being launched. Then everybody was able to go collect their rockets, although some of us weren’t so lucky and our rockets never returned! We packed our things and went to the airport.

We all really enjoyed the trip and I became friends with people i didn’t know very well before. It was a great 5 days and I know the teachers were very upset when we reached Dublin airport knowing that they wouldn’t be spending every waking hour with us!