I can’t stress enough how edu-taining all of the international visitors’ presentations were. Having said that, here is what made the New Zealand team, in my opinion, the best presentation of the lot:

Speaking of which, in the spirit of a good international ribbing, I’d like to share with you the best (and only) New Zealand joke I’ve ever heard. It’s really sort of an addendum to the kids’ presentation:

New Zealand is home to 14 million sheep, 4 million of which are under the impression they are people.

I’d worry that those rugby hooligans would storm my door, but by the time their flight would have landed, 22 hours later, they’d be too tired to care!

By the way, I know things have been getting pretty video happy around here as of late. But I really love the ISC opening ceremony! And stories of the events never seem to do it justice.

Though I don’t expect them to be this numerous the rest of the year, do expect a jump in quality in the future (assuming YouTube isn’t the only limiting factor) as a shiny new camera has just been acquired!

International Space Camp 2007 is on day two now. As promised here is another video from the Opening Ceremony.

This video shows the best bit of Belgium’s presentation as they played their national anthem.

Check back later for New Zealand!

International Space Camp 2007 started with bang this evening quite literally as fireworks were set off to mark the occasion.

Preceding the fireworks was the International Space Camp Opening Ceremonies.

After the procession of teachers and foreign visitors, the event kicked off with comments from U.S. Space & Rocket Center CEO, Larry Capps.

The 2007 Teacher of the Year, Andrea Peterson, was then invited on stage to provide her remarks. The United States Teachers of the Year representing the 50 states, District of Columbia, and various territories were then brought up one-by-one to introduce themselves and briefly provide some information about where they are from. Despite some quibbles about who had the nicest beaches (Florida, Hawaii, the North Mariana Islands, etc. — it was all in good fun), the teachers were dressed up in outfits appropriate to their origins and proved to be quite entertaining.

After the teachers from the United States were done, my favorite part of the opening ceremonies began. As I said last week, the visiting nations always give short presentations to educate the audience about where they come from. They’re always informative and are often very funny. This year didn’t disappoint.

Students and teachers from the following countries all got up to tell the audience a little about their country:

I promise to get more video up soon, but for the moment, I will provide you with one or my favorite ones from the ceremony. Switzerland didn’t come with a teacher in tow. As such, they were able to do this sketch:

Hab1.com bids welcome to all of the students and teachers from around the country and the world.

Enjoy the week!

I thought I would mention that the 2007 session of International Space Camp begins this Saturday, July 21, with the opening ceremony. That means that in a few short days, visitors from around the world will arrive at Space Camp to take part in an what should be quite an exciting week!

I’m really looking forward to the event as delegates from each country always do some sort of opening presentation to educate the audience about their culture.

During the opening ceremony of International Space Camp in 2004, the Belgium contingent gave the most excellent of presentations.

So in honor of ISC 2007, I thought I would share with you their presentation from 2004. I do still laugh every time I watch this video.