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!

1st day of my 2nd workset

I'm back at work after my first break. For the last three weeks I've been in Raleigh except for a short visit to Portland for my cousin's wedding (it was lovely) and to visit my dad. My break went by very fast, and I stayed very busy with catching up on my sleep, recovering from a nasty cold, catching up with people, paperwork, and errands. It was very good to be home.

Now I'm back in New Mexico. This is a picture that I didn't take (my camera is acting up) of a typical view from our field area in the northern Chihuahuan Desert. My flight was really great. We got to see all these dune fields near Roswell from the plane. Then my boss, Billy, and I sat down and talked about my progress towards the first set of goals called START. My last workset I worked with all the various jobs that make up our team, here. This week and next, Billy and I will be talking to the various department heads to see how much I learned and evaluate me. Assuming that all goes well (cross your fingers guys), I'll go on to the final task in START: START School. I'm scheduled to leave for school on the 10th of January. School is held in Abu Dhabi in the UAE. Its 6 weeks on, but I'm scheduled for an extra class on the end, so I'll be there for 7 weeks. On the way there, I get to spend a day in Paris and on the way back I get to spend a day in London. If any of y'all have been to any of these three places and have suggestions for what I should see, let me know!

Update from Artesia, New Mexico

I've been so busy these last few weeks, I've not been keeping up with this like I should. I left Raleigh on October 16th and flew to Houston. I attended an orientation for all kinds of new Schlumberger employees. Its called OFS-1. OFS-1 was held on the Sugarland campus, which houses manufacturing facilities, a teaching oil rig, various administrative and research facilities, and probably some other things, too. We were a class of about 50, representing 23 different countries! It was really fantastic to get to know so many great people in such a nice place. The campus has pretty landscaping, a pond with fish and turtles, and is populated with liveoak trees. I also got to visit the Western Geco campus in downtown Houston.

The next week most of us went on to Tulsa to attend safety and light vehicle training on the Kellyville campus. I don't have any pictures of the stunts they had us doing, but if I get some, I'll post them. We really put their Crown Victoria's through their paces, though. It was just like Blues Brothers, only much safer ~_^ We learned how to control skids and spins, how to safely drive a car into the ditch to avoid oncoming traffic, how to recover if you drop a wheel off the pavement, and other more tame sounding defensive driving skills on their driving course and in the classroom. On the last day, I didn't have class, but went into campus with those who did anyway, to get my computer fixed. It was early in the morning, but while I was waiting for someone from IT to come in, me and a classmate found a little black kitten behind the pop machine beside the classroom. I pulled her out, and carried her around with me all morning. She was SO bony and hungry and had the most obnoxious voice that I had to find something for her to eat. I finally settled on creamer and hot water from the coffee maker, because I couldn't find anything better. She was so hungry that she and I both ended up splattered in creamer. While I was feeding her, one of the veteran Schlumberger guys, Dave, came in looking for the cat that was making all the noise. He was afraid she'd gotten into the ceiling. He found some ham slices for her, which she loved, of course. Anyway, when I went in to see IT, one of the guys there said he had a brother who'd take her in. So I found a home for her!

Now I'm here in Artesia. I've been working with the survey crew all week. We're finding and marking the spots where the vibe trucks and geophones ("jugs") will be placed. In otherwords, I'm actually getting paid to roam over the Chihuahua Desert on Kawasaki Mule. Its so beautiful, here. I'll try to take some pictures soon so that you can all see. The survey crew are contractors, and their based out of Montana. The guys are all really closeknit, and they've been gracious enough to include me in their little family while I'm working with them. If you can't tell I'm having a great time. And yes, Mom... I'm eating my veggies. Sheesh.

Mom Comes to Visit

I thought I'd tell you about my mom's visit to North Carolina a couple of weeks ago, and give you an update since its been a little while. Mom arrived on a Wednesday night. Allen and she and I went across the street to Cinelli's and were wined and dined. The next day she and I drove down to Cedar Island and rode the ferry to Ocracoke. We took in the last concert of the season from Molasses Creek, a famous local bluegrass band, and stayed in this great 1950's era cottage (we got an off-season rate!). Next day we toured around the village, hung around the beach, found some shells in the dredge pile at the north end of the island and took the ferry up to Hatteras to see the lighthouse. We ate at Howard's, of course, and introduced mom to blackened fish and hushpuppies. On Saturday, we met Allen's mom and went out to Chapel Hill to eat at Mama Dip's. MMMmmmMMM! We also toured the arboretum out there before coming back to town to check out the state farmer's market. At some point we toured around Historic Oakwood, too. The following day we saw the art museum, the arboretum at NC State, and the rose garden. We also irritated the internet into coughing up a cached page that contained a picture of my mother's birth parents on a Navy ship heading for Japan. Unfortunately, all that was cached was the caption, not the picture itself. But we ordered a copy from the National Archives. We also discovered that my mom's paternal grandfather was likely a three term congressman from Maine. He's got his own wiki page. Interesting stuff.

I'm leaving this afternoon for Houston, and I've got a to do list as long as my arm. I'll write more from there, later in the week!

Wyoming-Colorado Trip

Hi! I've got the pictures from my Wyoming and Colorado trip, as you can see. We were there the first week of August. You can figure out which is which, but these are pictures of my good buddy John hanging out with us at Veedauwoo recreation area near Laramie; my beautiful sister and my two adorable nieces in my mom's kitchen; Lake Marie, one of the most beautiful places in the world; and a couple of mountain goats that we saw on Mt. Evans in Colorado. I was really pumped about seeing the goats. I've only ever seen them through binoculars before! They are remarkably cute animals. Other things that we saw? Fossil Butte National Monument, Grand Teton National Park, we floated down the North Platte River with my friend Eric, visited Lake John, Colorado to collect rocks, and explored the Cache Le Poudre Canyon, also in Colorado. We got back very tired, but having seen a great deal. Allen got altitude sickness on Mount Evans, so we'll know better than to only allow ourselves seven days to adjust. Next time we will try to spend at least 14 days at high altitude before we try to summit a 14er. My step-dad showed us beautiful slides of some of the mountains that he's climbed. Perhaps next time we'll go backpacking in the Wind River Mountains. Just as pretty as Colorado, less well known, and not quite so high!

Kitten

Hi everyone. I wasn't going to write my first entry until I got to Houston, but something newsworthy has happened. Yesterday I spent four hours trying to coax a tabby out of the hedge outside my apartment. She swindled me out of a whole package of tuna, but she wouldn't let me catch her! This morning I went to the tractor supply in Knightdale and got a humane squirrel trap. Bated with another pack of tuna and set under the hedge, the kitten was caught in about 20 minutes. She's very skinny, the poor thing, and she's got fleas and perhaps an eye infection. She's also very affectionate, cute, and has good house manners! She and I are going to see the vet tomorrow, to see what we can do to fix her up. My adult cat, Titan, doesn't seem to care for her. I'm keeping them apart, in case she's sick, anyway. We decided to call her Cory (short for Albacore). If Titan doesn't come around by the end of the week, we'll find a more hospitable home for her. If he does play nice, we are going to keep her; she's a complete treasure!