SOL 7: “Carpe Diem”
“It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them.” – The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
Today it’s Sunday at the MDRS! The day started a bit later than usual: we woke up at 8:30 instead of 6:45! The daily workout session was longer too: we enjoyed a one-hour session with lots of cardio exercises, to get us in shape for the day. For breakfast, Mathurin and Yves cooked pancakes for the Crew. They were delicious, and we ate so many of them with maple syrup that we decided to avoid lunch and just have brunch!
Then, Sunday means clean-up! Since we arrived at the station, we had not taken the time to fully clean the Hab. This morning, we cleaned up all the tables, countertops, and cooking utensils. We keep a close watch on our water consumption every day, and we are very careful not to waste water, even during cleaning. Léa vacuumed, after struggling to make it work. After a week, the floor was dirty… But now, everything is clean and well tidied up for next week, and this has given the Crew a real boost! Finally, we erased the white bord we used to track our daily task, now that they’re implemented in the AMI interface. That way, we could write quotes on it, like “Carpe Diem”!
During the afternoon, we enjoyed some downtime, not forgetting some essential tasks: Yves collected data for all the experiments we performed during the week, and some Crew members took cognitive tests for the Orbital Architecture experiment. But we made sure everyone was well rested, whether it was reading, or knitting, or crocheting, or making a puzzle and listening to music… The mood is great for this first Sunday on Mars!