NASA, Europe 3D and the token American

Being the token American at my Polish University has its benefits. Every time something comes up where they want a “foreign or western” perspective- I get the nod. This occurred twice this week.

On Monday, the US Embassy, American Corners, organized a current NASA astronaut: Steve Robinson to come to Politechnika and speak to students. The house was packed with students and media. As I was the American on faculty at Politechnika, I was asked to do the formal introduction of Dr. Robinson to the audience. Of course, anytime I get a stage I am happy to oblige. Frankly, anytime I am asked to speak for all 300 million Americans, it is a good thing! :)

Prior to the meeting, I researched Dr. Robinson and must admit was rather impressed. He has been on 4 space shuttle flights. He flew on the one with John Glenn (one of his boyhood heros) and has spent over 20 hours on spacewalks. His most recent flight was just back in February, where they docked and spent several days on the International Space Station.

NASA and the US Embassy sponsored the astronaut’s visit to Poland to mostly speak to children and college age kids about spaceflight and encourage them to go into the field. He also spent quite a time talking about flight preparation and team work.

To me, his best comment- at least for my business students- is that “NASA plans for failure”. Basically, they spend as much time on what can go wrong and how to fix it, as they do on getting things right. This obsessive contingency planning is a great tool for businesses. Most businesses plan to succeed, and then have no idea what to do when something goes wrong. Great lesson.

Dr. Robinson showed lots of pictures and videos of his experience in space and what it is like to live up there for several days. He has logged almost 1600 hours in orbit and flow 20 million space miles (did you know that the space shuttle moves at 5 miles per second?).

When the event came up, I arranged for my children to join in the audience. I thought they would enjoy it. So, we rearranged their schooling and had them come up for the talk and meet him. All the kids enjoyed hearing the Dr. Robinson speak- but I think Trey was the most fascinated. They got a special audience with him after the presentation.

Also, I heard many compliments from the university students on his presentation.

After the presentation to the audience and the kids went home, I was able to stay with Dr. Robinson for a few more hours. I was able to go with him to a press conference, then we had lunch together. Lunch was fun. I sat right next to him and we had a great conversation. I spent a lot of time getting his opinions of the future of space travel in the US, etc. He is a very nice guy. Someone asked him what was his favorite space-type TV program. He told us that he has never owned a TV (ever). I guess that is what it takes to become an astronaut.

On Tuesday, another group came to Politechnika. This was a group of young European students (18-19ish) who are part of a program called Europe 3D. These students, from all parts of Europe, apply to the program and take 10 day trips to different countries to get a glimpse of culture, politics and economics of that country. This group of 50 students were learning about Poland by spending half of their time in Gdansk and half in Warsaw. Politechnika was only a small part of their days in Gdansk. Our job was to give them some cultural background and they convene a panel of “foreigners” who were living in Poland. The topic was- what does a foreigner think of Poland. We had a gentleman from Africa, a German, a Chinese, and Australian, and of course, the token American (me).

Frankly, I am not sure how well the students enjoyed the panel. The topics were rather high-brow for that age of student. I am sure they would have rather been drinking Polish vodka than listening to a group of middle-age expats.

In addition to the Europe 3D students, other polish citizens were in the audience. The questions they directed to me (as the token American)- mostly centered around what was American’s opinion on Poland. What do American’s think of Poles. I tried to explain (and they were not surprised)- there is really a lack of opinion on Poland. It is really not part of the American conversation. That most people still think Europe ends at the eastern borders of Germany. That Europe is part of Eastern Europe, when you look at a map and they are clearly located in central Europe. They were very interested in the stereotypes (like do we still tell Pollock jokes). But really want they wanted to know is how can we get American students and American tourists to come to Poland. I told them that unfortunately, most Americans would know John Paul II, then probably a thing or two about WWII, and then maybe Solidarity. Much more than that is a stretch. They are very interested in changing (or adding to) that perception and get people interested in their country.