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

The last few days have been really interesting; in terms of the range of things we’ve learned: safety training; an introduction to the American part of the International Space Station (ISS); distress, emergency and communication protocols; and so on. It was also really good to see that our schedule on the ISS is organized based on our mission goals (i.e. time for sleeping, eating and other activities). With all this information, I’ll be ready to be a good space-travel companion!

We also took a tour of the NASA facilities, including mock-ups, simulators and mission control centres. We had a lot of fun on some of the simulators, even though that wasn’t strictly part of our training! You could say it brightened up my week. . .

The weather was stifling all week—over 35°C with thunderstorms and intermittent rain. But, thanks to the air conditioning running at full blast, it was freezing-cold inside the buildings. Well, at least it keeps you awake!

Of course, I followed the mission of my friend Julie on the NASA website! I even had the unexpected thrill of getting a phone call from her and Bob Thirsk — I was so excited!