Covering the Miles

I got three days off crew to attend a friend's wedding in Las Vegas in May. The wedding was a Treasure Island! I got to see a lot of old friends and meet a few new ones. If anyone has a picture of the three pirates that snuck into the ceremony, I would like to have a copy, please! Everyone knows that pirates at a wedding are good luck. Every good adventures should begin with pirates. Arr! Here's a picture from the wild bachelor party we threw for my friend on the morning before. As you can see, pirates have had to come in line with OSHA standards: they now wear safety glasses when engaged in grog related activities. Pirates run a high risk of eye injury, as is obvious by the prevalent use of eye patches.

My break was only 10 days long this time, because of staffing issues in my department. I drove to Denver to get a physical, and then to Boise to visit a friend. Then I drove to Casper to see my family, and finally back to crew in New Mexico. All and all I spent 6 days driving. Not a very restful or interesting break. I'm happy to be back on crew! I am going to Denver for a couple of weeks later this month to work at the data processing center there, and then I will be coming back to crew to finish my workset. I don't know yet what my plans are for my next break, but I applied to be a student at the Buddhist center in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. I haven't heard back from them, yet. The rumor is that we are finishing up our project here in the Pecos Valley and will be moving to a new project in Colorado in August. I am thinking about dropping in on my cousin and his wife in Chaing Mai, Thailand in October maybe. Other than that, no news! Everyone keep me up to date with what's going on in your lives, and I'll talk to you soon.

After Work

The bats have come back to Carlsbad, they leave in the winter time. I get off of work very early in the morning, these days. I'm staying at the KOA less than 2 miles from Q-Village. Lately I've been sitting at the picnic table outside my cabin to eat my dinner. My cabin has a little yard with a sweet-smelling flowering bush. There are some large moths that come there for their dinner, too. There's also a streetlight beside my cabin. I can sit out there and watch the bats swoop through the light catching insects. The other night I heard and saw something hit the road under the light. I thought that a bat had fallen down, so I got up to look. It wasn't a bat, it was one of the moths. I stood under the light and I noticed that the bats were teaming up to fly into the moths and knock them out of the air. Every few minutes a moth would fall. After a while the moth would try to fly again, but it would be slow and injured and clumsy, and then it would be bat food. These bats are really cool critters, and totally fearless. As I was standing out under the light, they flew very close to me, not in the least concerned or curious about me. Watching them is something I look forward to every night after work.

A March with no work

My last break, I had the whole month of March off. I landed in Raleigh and went to stay with friends for a few days. They had graciously stored my truck and my things for me. Yes, I have awesome friends. I sorted through my stuff until I had only what I needed (and only what would fit in the truck) and got rid of everything else. Its a very good feeling to have so few things!

I went to Camp Lejeune to pick up a friend who was getting out of the Marines and take him home to Boise, Idaho. His paperwork got messed up, so he didn't end up getting out until I was all ready back at work. So instead, we went to Washington DC for a weekend. In DC we played games and visited with friends. We returned to Camp Lejeune and I stayed for a few days. I got to visit their beautiful beach, make some friends, and relax.

After that I drove home to Wyoming and moved my things into storage in my mom's basement. I spent time with my family there, and had dinner with an old friend. My niece had Good Friday off from school, so she and I painted Easter eggs, went mini-golfing, and got our nails done to match my yellow truck! Then I went to Laramie to see my friends there, and go to lunch with my little brother and his girlfriend. I left Laramie and drove to Socorro, New Mexico to see more friends. In Socorro I got to eat at Socorro Springs Brewry (yummy!) and went to visit Fort Craig.

I took the scenic route back to work and stopped to walk up the Catwalk National Recreation Trail which is a short, easy, but stunning and unique trail. Much of its length is on steel walkways suspended over the creek as it cataracts through this beautiful, narrow canyon. That night I camped at Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. The next morning, I woke up, saw some petroglyphs at the campground, and hiked up to the cliff dwellings. I think I was the first visitor up there that morning. Its a peaceful and serene little hike up a small, verdant canyon. I enjoyed the drive through the Gila National Forest and then drove to City of Rocks State Park for the afternoon. I camped that night at the mouth of Dog Canyon outside of Ruidoso. I really want to find the time to hike this canyon sometime. In the morning, I visited White Sands National Monument, which is among the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen. I wanted to spend more time there, but I had to get back to work at last.

The past month or so on crew have been very busy for me. I started out on the morning shift in the Recorder, learning how to run our QC system out in the field. Now, I'm on the afternoon shift in the Recorder, and the night shift in Q-Village (our base of operations). Adjusting to the night work has been hard for me, but the work has to be done at night in order for the morning guys in the field to know what points need to be reshot. If they don't get the information first thing in the morning, its often too expensive to go back and get the shots that were no good. I'm working closely with our Cheif QC, and learning a great deal from him. To minimize the hazards of driving at night, they have people who work in Q-Village at night staying at the KOA less than 2 miles away. I get a darling cabin with a kitchen and a bathroom all to myself! Now if only I had time to cook...

This has been a bad workset for accidents. I was hit by a door that got caught in the wind and knocked off the stairs of the Recorder a few days ago. I didn't break anything, and luckily only came away with bruises and sprains. One of our workers was hit and killed by a car in Carlsbad as he was returning a grocery cart to a store. Last night the man who drove our water truck was in an accident and killed while driving the truck. Everyone is trying to stay safe and be careful, here.

I'm going to Vegas for a wedding next week. But for now, you all are up to date.

My time in the UAE

I'm back in the US now. I'll fill you in on my break in the next post. This one will be devoted to catching you all up on how I spent my time, while I was in Abu Dhabi.

My first week of class was a struggle to get over my jet lag. My first few weeks of class were with people from all areas of WesternGeco's land division, both conventional and Q crews (like me). My classmates were from Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Pakistan, and the United States. Our instructors were British, Nigerian, and South African. Some of us went to the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai. We gawked at the glitterati and their cars and visited Ski Dubai, an indoor ski slope. This is a picture of me in front of an ice sculpture that they had there.

The next weekend we went to Al Ain, for an air show. We rode the bus from Abu Dhabi to Al Ain and then took a taxi to the airport. The show was really great, especially the Saudi team. After the end of the show, we couldn't find a cab to get back to the bus station. We started to walk back to town and got stranded in the dark on a round about in heavy traffic. A car stopped for us, and we got in. It turns out that the person who stopped to help us was the captain of the Saudi jet team! Such a nice guy, he took us to the bus station!



During our second class, we added Russian to the list of nationalities represented. We took one of our weekends to go on "safari" up by the Omani boarder. We rode four-wheelers, took 4WD vehicles over the dunes ("dune bashing"), and attended a feast and belly dance in the evening. Another weekend we took a cruise on "the creek," a waterway in Dubai, and saw the city from a whole new angle. Also during this time we picked up bowling as a class habit. The Al Wada Mall was near our apartment building, and we Americans got the others hooked on the game. We also went to the beach in Abu Dhabi to swim in the Persian Gulf. It was beautiful.

During the second class, my boyfriend and I broke up. All the way through my recruitment and orientation process with this job they kept telling me, "its not for everyone." That's true. But it is for me.

During the last week we spent time leaning about the computer systems inside the recorder. We added Moroccan and Iranian to the represented nationalities. Here is a picture of our class outside the recorder on the campus of the school in Abu Dhabi.

On the way home, had a 30 hour layover in London. I visited Hyde Park, the Natural History Museum, St Paul's Cathedral, Big Ben, and Piccadilly Circus. I flew from London to Newark, New Jersey. When we were taking off to fly from Newark to Raleigh, I saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time. Right now I'm on my way back to crew. I'll fill you in on my break in the next post.

21 Hours in Paris

On my way to Abu Dhabi, I had a layover in Paris. I took a taxi from the airport to my hotel. I was up on the sixth floor in this absolutely tiny, but very well laid out room with this very Parisian little wrought iron balcony overlooking a neighborhood of apartments. I cleaned up and caught the metro. I had found this great deal (yeah for the off season!) on a guide for a walking tour and I met him at the St. Eustache Cathedral (I didn't take this picture). I recommend Paris a Peid if you get a chance, they were great. We walked around that side of the Seine, talking about the history and the architecture. What's amazing to me is that Paris has had to overcome many of the issues that we think of as modern city planning issues hundreds of years ago. Landfills, zoning and real estate scarcity, for example. We crossed onto the Ile de la Cite and Ile St. Louis. Of course we saw the Louvre (just the outside), and Notre Dame (inside and out). After the tour I walked on the surface streets back to my hotel. Paris is alive with pedestrians, and the later it got, the more people were on the street.

I went to bed early, but because of my jet lag, I got up about 1 am. I wondered down stairs and chatted with the night clerk. Since I was ready for breakfast, the clerk suggested that I hurry across the street to the fruit stand that was closing. The fruit stands close at 2 in the morning! I got a little wine, some fruit, and a chocolate bar. Then I sat out on my little balcony and had a leisurely breakfast while the Paris sky misted on me.

Later that morning I went to the airport. While waiting for my flight I had the frothiest cafe au lait of my life at the illy by my gate. I took a short flight to Geneva. I thought it'd be nice to see the Alps for the first time, but it was too dark. In Geneva, I looked for lunch. But I think that the Swiss must eat high fashion and watches, because that's all they seem to sell at the airport. It all worked out, however, because my flight to Abu Dhabi was with Etihad. The amenities were endless. Although I flew coach, they kept coming by offering fresh coffee, fruit juice, or wine. The food was excellent and interesting. There was a computer in the seat in front of each of us which allowed us to watch movies of our choice, play games, listen to music, play with the flight status maps, or best of all check out the view from a downward and forward looking cameras outside the plane. I was watching Across the Universe and the funeral scene made me cry, but at that moment, the stewardess came by and offered me Hagen das. I couldn't say no.

I'm in Abu Dhabi, now. We don't have connectivity at the apartments we are living in, so apologies if my emails are slow in coming back to you all. I have to work them in during the breaks in class. I'll write more later about life in the UAE. I haven't had much of a chance to experience it yet because all of my energy so far has been devoted to class and recovering from jet lag. I didn't know it could be so miserable. If anyone has suggestions for getting over it, please pass them along!