[ENCI-l] Pools and barbecues.....!

[engg-enci-l at mailman.ucalgary.ca]

 On Sunday we moved into a lovely 16 bed house complete with pool, hot tub and waterfall. The pool/spa/waterfall change  colours at night which is like something out of 'Cribs'....
With the arrival of the rest of the team (Tim, John, George, Ed and Bob) on Sunday night the house is now quite full! Even after travelling for hours and hours they were keen to see the car and so were dropped off at the track for a few hours only. The nightly meeting at 10 forced them back to the house and the newbies were definitely struggling to keep awake. 
The track is filling up with most of the teams now in residence. Cars are in all stages of construction and power tools provide a steady background noise. Durham is gluing on solar cells, one of the Turkish teams (there are two) is buffing their canopy and the Iranian team unloaded their car in parts like a lego set.  We are one of small group of teams that are tweaking and testing rather than full-on building their car.... and then there is Michigan with their semi trailer, rapid deployment tents and secretive nature.....they are driving their car without the aray, so we still haven't seen the whole unit...just like hiding the keel in America's Cup sailing!
ETS (from Montreal) are the most laid back and provide a lovely island of Quebec joie de vivre in the crowd. One of their crew is a great guitarist so live music emanates from their bay and periodically the entire team sings 'Imagine'.  Their trailer is hilarious- apart from the car bay, tool box and generator bays, they have a drop down counter top (for food prep), slide out barbecue and roof top mini-putt (where they charge $1CDN per putt). To round it out on the wall they've posted a Habs score sheet (goals for/against, win/loss)to make sure hockey still has a place.  
 Last night the Canadian Alliance (us, ETS, UofT and Waterloo) had a barbecue at the ETS bay and it was the envy of quite a few other teams. Everyone brought their own food and it was a great chance to strengthen our Canadian network. The evening ended with aloud and lusty rendition of 'Oh Canada' (in both official languages, simultaneously). 
The Maple Leaf flies strongly in Darwin!

Cheers!
Lynne and the Solar Car Team