Special Saturday

ONE AND ONLY: Saturday afternoon we winged our way to The Museum of Flight for a very special presentation. The star attraction was Soyeon Yi, South Korea's first - and only - astronaut.

Needless to say, Yi was proud to represent her birth country, but she is also one of the most humble people you'd ever care to meet.  Her mission to the International Space Station spanned 11 days in 2008.

Soyeon Yi's return to Earth in a Soyuz capsule didn't go as planned. The trajectory of descent a was much steeper than normal, subjecting the crew to gravitational forces of up to 10 times those on Earth. The capsule landed late and some 260-miles off target.

 Yi said the moon doesn't look much different from the ISS than it does on Earth.

She loves to sing, and shared a clip of herself singing her favorite song, "Fly Me to the Moon" while on board the International Space Station. 

Here's what CJ had to say about his astronaut encounter: 

Yi So-Yeon is a biotechnologisty and South Korea's first and only astronaut. Recently, she gave a speech at the Museum of Flight, about being an astronaut, and some of the things she went through while becoming an astronaut. Yo So-Yeon beat 32,000 other Koreans to become the one and only Korean astronaut so far. The South Korean government paid equivalent to twenty million dollars to give her a seat on the Soyuz TMA-12 mission, making her the 49th astronaut that was a woman. Yi So-Yeon has a PHD in biotechnology, but her grandmother and mother were not as fortunate. So-Yeon's mother wasn't able to go to high school, and her grandmother wasn't able to get an education at all!One of the barriers that made it difficult for So-Yeon to become an astronaut out of 32,000 other Koreans was the fact that she was a single, young woman. Many people in Korea and Russia thought that single, young women were mentally unstable. Yi So-Yeon said on stage that singing was one of her favorite things, and proceeded to show us a video of her singing "Take Me to the Moon" on the ISS. Near the end of the presentation, she let the audience ask some questions. My sister asked if, and how often she was told that she couldn't do it, and So-Yeon said that she was told "no" *a lot* while becoming an astronaut.

And here are Annabelle's thoughts ... 

Soyeon Yi is the first, and only, South Korean astronaut. She was chosen out of a pool of tens of thousands of people, and it’s a miracle she was picked because back then, young single women were thought of as “unstable” both mentally and physically in her culture.

When she did get up to space, she was working almost 24/7, with the exception of her required sleeping time. She even got a call from the president of her country! It was like a primitive version of Skype, with the president (and anyone watching tv!) being able to see her but not vice versa. She let her hair loose and it went everywhere. She could hear the president’s reaction, but couldn’t see him. So she started doing flips to show everyone down on Earth what it’s like in zero gravity. The thing about talking with the president was that you had a script you had to follow, so you would be in trouble if you said something wrong. But up in space, you only had a short window of time where the signal could reach and they couldn’t call you to ask why you did that. The president said he was happy to fund the space program, but Soyeon went against the script and said that she wanted to make sure he would.  It went something like: “Are you sure? You’re inviting me to The Blue House? I’m going to record this.” Her friends were surprised she was making sure the president wasn’t lying, but they were proud of her because of when she went off the script in space. 

Fast forward to when she’s leaving space. She sang at the farewell party (singing was her hobby and until then, because she had so much work he had just hummed) and she came home. She made a point at the end of her presentation that you should be very glad you were born with the circumstances you had, and you shouldn’t give up because other people might not be as fortunate.

Soyeon was very generous with her time, and made a special point to connect with the kids in attendance.

We didn't see anyone recording Soyeon's presentation on Saturday, but she has given an identically titled talk before, which you can check out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDPiX9rBjp0

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zDPiX9rBjp0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

You can see an interview with her about the selection process and her landing here: https://youtu.be/mc5GT9lmbz4 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mc5GT9lmbz4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

PONY PREMIERE: Our Saturday morning started with a little pony party. Specifically, a My Little Pony party, as it was time for the Season 6 premiere of "My Little Pony Friendship is Magic."

Annabelle printed out special cereal box covers for the occasion, and invited a whole lot of ponies to the party. 

HERE WE GO A CAUCUSING: At 9:30 we headed over the hill to a local elementary school to participate in the Democratic caucus.  On our way in we passed the staging ground of the community Easter egg hunt. Guess Democrats had to choose between participating in the caucus and taking their kids to the egg hunt. Unfortunate timing on planners' parts. 

 Above, all the white dots are eggs. On our way out, the field had been wiped clean.

Once inside the caucus space, it became clear people had a choice between two candidates.

Though they're not old enough to vote, CJ and Annabelle got in on the introductory part of the process.