“X harvested some romaine lettuce and put a little of it in his pocket to give to Y and me. It was unreal to taste something so fresh and delicious in this sterile environment.”

“I was floating back to the service module and am good enough now to make it all the way through the FGB and the PXO into the SM without touching a handrail.”

“Tonight I was in the cupola way, way past when I should have been… I saw an amazing sunrise. It was just incredible, to have my brain right side up, which makes a difference in perceiving the sunrise. The colors were amazing.”

“Body hasn’t adjusted just yet. I still feel the pressure in my head of body fluids pressurized by my cardiovascular system still being shoved cephalad like on Earth. Lower GI system hasn’t adapted yet either…”

“The best part of exercise is that, aside from sleep, it’s the only time the brain gets to take a break. …the time is accounted for already – it’s been given to exercise time, and so we feel we can mentally do what we want.”

Sauces -- including salsa, hot sauce, pesto, mayo, and mustard -- are critical to food enjoyment for some, as sauces are relished to the last drop.

“Life continues to be grand here – no mistake about that. But, after a couple of months, when one feels they are in charge of their environment, thoughts of home and family rise to the surface.”

“X and Y did a great job on the Progress trash gather. We’ve been swimming in trash for months and it will be great to have some free space again.”

Recreating a meal from a previous mission for movie night by requesting specific preference foods, to share with the crew. Sauces 'glued' the meal together.

“Watching [World Cup] soccer on the laptop via Ku uplink has become the community activity of late. …There is something great about watching live major sporting events up here. Gives a good connection to family and friends.”

“Most items are buried deep in bags, sometimes three or four deep. Inside a locker, there is a CTB, inside of which is a kit, which has a Ziploc with a tool inside. This can really add to the cost of doing business.”

“Biggest impact of X operations was the unstow and restow... Don’t think they understood how much overhead was involved. Gave them lots of pictures and movies, before, during, and after to help them get an idea.”

A female commander was gifted Kazakh riding whips by Russian dignitaries 'to keep the men in line,' but they were left at home on Earth.

“Today I broke out a new pair of pants; not too bad after 2 months. I could definitely have made it for the duration, but when we do that we contribute to the stowage issues. We have an overabundance of cargo pants and shorts.”

“I am getting good enough at floating around that it is second nature. It took longer than I thought to get good at that. My body is clearly still adapting.”

“Another smoke detector alarm today. I was exercising but made sure I checked out the situation. It is good training to react as if it is a real emergency.”

For a first time flyer, space sickness started after overzealous flying on the first day in microgravity led to nausea. Motion sickness injections were used but it took a few days to recover.

A self described "people person" misses the company of his crewmates who have departed for Earth, but is grateful they've arrived safely.

“The day always ends with a phone call to home. We rely on satellite coverage, operating laptops, and lack of cell phone drops to keep a conversation going. It’s a delicate chain that often breaks.”

“Here on ISS the time and the miles flow by at breathtaking speed. We mark our accomplishments by the week of successful tasks completed, and by the number of remarkable photographs we’ve been able to take—maybe because we want to try to permanently brand our brains with these sights.”

“Really miss the sound of rain and the cool air and fresh grass smells that come with it. I miss being under a blanket of clouds and guess I’ll always be a child of the Earth.”

“Stowage is one area that deserves some attention, because ground doesn’t really understand the problems of gathering equipment from multiple locations and tying it down for use at a work site. Walls are already cluttered, and it’s hard to organize a location nearby.”

Opening the hatch after docking releases "the smell of space," which to one flyer smelt like burned almond cookies.

“I had to make some connections this week in the CIR rack – fluid quick disconnects, that took no less than 100 pounds of force to mate. The push force was toward the floor, so I literally stood on the ceiling and pushed upward with all my might. Tricky.”

“We watched The Avengers. It was a fun movie to watch as a crew. The BHP [Behavioral Health and Performance] folks do a great job supporting us and we are lucky to have them.”

Water is a valuable resource, and so wet things are left out to air dry. A water conduction collection unit then removes moisture out of the air to purify and recycle. The crew jokes that they're all very close, given they drink each others' sweat.

“I slammed HARD into something with the top of my head and stopped instantly. I quickly looked around to see what unknown obstacle I hit and there was X, also rubbing his head… We slammed into each other head-to-head – we had a mid-air collision.”

“The Russian telemetry system is still acting up. It is not the way you want to wake up, especially when you can sleep in."

“After dinner, we went over to the Russian segment with gifts, per tradition, and had some chocolate pudding cake.”

"Smells are the most interesting. Node 01 is getting a bit ripe and X has no notice of it. I’m guessing it is from wet trash so I’ll see if it goes away when we change the bag later.”

“Two weeks here and just now beginning to sense that I smell bad. Or maybe it’s me and my crewmates. But on weekends we can throw away some old clothes, scrub ourselves down well after the workouts, and put on brand new clothes.”

A first time flyer noted that her veteran Russian colleagues would speak in English to her NASA colleagues, who in turn would respond in Russian, as a sign of mutual respect.

“I did some serious cleaning – pulling tape and Velcro off of walls, straightening up modules, throwing out anything that didn’t look like it had a purpose. Some stuff has been there for years.”

Sleeping in sleeping bags hung from the ceiling in Soyuz reminded one participant of how bats sleep. Sleeping in zero-g felt like floating on a lake.

Given that days start at 4AM GMT, 'lights out' is at 7:30PM GMT. This time is used for crew to chat with each other, call family on Earth, and take personal time for hobbies and reflection.

“I could tell there was some stress in the air because there were a couple very short tempered exchanges between us this morning. I have come to recognize these moments as relating to stress and I saw them often in training too… All it takes is a little direct communication and a couple jokes to clear the air and that is exactly how the morning proceeded.”

“I have heard that [sleep shifts] can be painful and the scheduling is not always the best. It is now 2130 and just now getting to my quarters.”

An evening ritual for one crew was to gather around the Russian segment's dining table for dinner at 6:30 to share a meal and stories. When the food gets repetitive, the crew combines different parts of different meals together to make new recipes.

“Food is still just okay... There is definitely a difference in quality. I don't know really why that is. Maybe manufacturing or just age of it in the package. But that is something that needs work.”

“Had corn chips, jalapeños, salsa, and Russian cheese last night. Just the three of us on the USOS side. Was very nice to have something different. Into my third week on ISS, a small special event like that has more meaning and buoyant effect on my spirits than during the first two weeks.”

“Woke with no headache today after putting a sleep bag in front of vent. Tonight I sleep in a crew quarter, which will be a great improvement in living conditions and convenience.”

It's easy to get bored of food when there are limited options. However, eating to stay healthy is important, and is akin to "sport eating."

“I went down to the Soyuz, which definitely has good orientation. It is very comfortable [to sit there] and I am used to the visual picture…. I [my brain] needs a visual orientation system to reference.”

“I always wake up feeling upside down in my crew quarters. It is funny actually, I should video tape me waking up and trying to find my watch to turn the alarm off.”

“Dealing with the frustration of difficult working positions, equipment floating away, stability, computer failures, bad procedures, disappointing outcomes wears on one after a while.”

"I had a good day yesterday and was actually able to do real science for the first time. It was fun and interesting. Much of the science we do is just turning equipment on or off or cleaning out a glove box or whatever, but this was actual real science for a couple of hours. I loved it.”

The Soyuz spins on its axis while chasing the space station, which one crewmate linked to prior 'spinning chair trainings.' It was still hard to resist looking out the window.

I’m learning how to put things “down” in space. For a while after arriving we spend a lot of time “temp-stowing” items we’ll be needing again in just a moment. But now, without even thinking about it, I’ve found that I place things in the air beside me so they’re easily available right away.

“You will start packing one area, get done with that, you think, and put stuff in the next area, which you find out doesn't match up… It took a lot longer than it would have if we had a Big Picture of how things were [supposed to fit].”

“I look up the location of the next bag of breads available, hunt it down in another module, bring it back to our "table," bar code it, bar code the pantry location where it's going, separate out the breads which for some reason are packaged with "rehydratable meats," get those corralled into separate bags and stowed away in the pantry, and then eat.”

Given the lack of running water, the crew has had to 'improvise' elements of hygiene - using wet wipes and towels, needing to swallow toothpaste after brushing, wearing a water bag over your head to wash hair.

“It was cool talking to my family and hearing them sing happy birthday. I received lots of birthday emails. It is too bad there is not enough time to respond to all of them.”

“The X experiment runs automatically, and provides video to the ground of a process through which physicists study fluid mechanics. It runs at night to minimize effects of crew movements. Problem is, the experiment starts at 9pm and runs for 9 hours. If we must move around during that time, we float slowly, using minimal fingertip pressure for control.”

“I want to clean up the eating area – new straps for the table, new Velcro, maybe even scrub some of the stains out of the fabric lockers. There are just odds and ends everywhere, and I would like to make it a little bit more orderly.”

Each day, Moscow and Houston send a schedule with specific tasks assigned to each crewmate. Two calls are made with Ground Control, one in the morning to clarify and one in the evening for next steps. Even weekends have tasks to be done, systems to be repaired, and educational programs to be completed.

Enjoying time on the ISS, but still missing sun rays and warm breezes, fresh cut grass, the sound of lawn mowers, and steak.

"Had some good quality time in the Cupola. Words cannot describe the view and the feeling of looking back on Earth. I am definitely one lucky person to have this opportunity.”

"The toilet is very noisy and is probably damaging our hearing.”

“It is going to be a much, much, much different crew experience when you don't have a space ship sufficiently large to ever get away from each other during the day.”

“It amazes me that 150ml of hot water on a hygiene towel can bring me such joy and satisfaction up here. We get one every other day. Hygiene towel days, as we call them, are very nice days!”

“I also think it is best to give people their space and not push the social things on people every day. We all need a break from each other at times.”

“Now [with] the equipment being in different orientations, it is easy to lose your place in a procedure.”

“One of us usually throws a few packets of meat and soup into the food warmer before dinner. Or one of us floats by the water dispenser (which is on the ceiling in the Lab), and fills packets of dehydrated vegetables or drinks, tossing them to each one of us.”

“…availability of the i-phone, videoconferencing, email, the view of the Earth, and the ability to broadcast our thoughts and experiences through social media has largely solved the major behavioral health issues for long-duration spaceflight of 6 months or less.”

“The ARED is my sanctuary. I don’t wear iPods or watch any movies while working out on it. Often there is a soft blue light overhead: the cupola transmitting Earth albedo.”

“Riding on the [bike] today listening to my music… The song reminded me of the days when I dreamed of being an astronaut. Now I am living in space and preparing for a spacewalk. Wow!”

“I just saw the most amazing, most beautiful thing I have ever seen in space: Sun setting and throwing enormous golden rays of light across the entire planet. I am speechless.”

“SLAMMD weigh-in. Says I’m 180-186 lbs (about 10-12 lbs more than Russian scale). I trust their scale more than ours. SLAMMD varies considerably depending on how tight you hold the fixture.”

“If we must move around during that time, we float slowly, using minimal fingertip pressure for control…. All of us quietly and slowly swimming around reminds me of a family of dugongs.”