The content of this post is an adaptation of an original text written by Guy Laliberté.

After meeting my commander, Maxim, I had the pleasure of getting to know my engineer, American astronaut Jeffrey Williams. In fact, the day before I left Russia (on June 10), Jeffrey was having a little dinner party at his Star City cottage, so I went over to say hello. We had time to chat for about 15 minutes before a thunderstorm came crashing down—there must have been something in the air! So we each went back to our own affairs: Jeffrey to his guests, and I to my conference calls with Montreal.

On June 11, in addition to my training, I had an exam on the Soyuz TMA communication system. To be sure to ace the exam, Barbara and I studied under the shade of a tree before heading off to class. When I got the results, I felt as proud as when I passed a math test in high school!

And then we were off! We took all of our bags and jumped into the car, en route to the airport. As usual, the traffic was heavy, so our driver drove on the shoulder to make sure we got there in time for take-off. Wow, what a rush!