Friends, family, family friends, and friends that are basically family,
In case you didn't know, my family is going international. My brother, Dan, is in Hong Kong for two weeks on business, my dad had an interview this week in Dubai, and I'm working in Brazil. If my mom or one of my sisters had gone to Australia, we'd have all four corners of the globe covered. I just thought it was cool how we were all over the place at the same time.
Continuing on,
So the other night, I was getting a ride home from work with my friend, Bruno. We locked up our office, and walked out to his car, only to realize that the battery was dead. The headlights had been left on, and the car refused to start. It was rather late in the evening, and there were no other cars in the parking lot. Jumping a battery is usually no problem in the US. Almost everyone has jumper cables and people are willing to help. Not so much here. We couldn't find anyone we trusted with a car, much less a set of jumper cables. So... Bruno started trying to push the car while I steered us out of the parking space. We got about 6 feet before we gave up on that idea. We were calling everyone we knew, and of course nobody was picking up their phones. At that point, you always ask yourself, "What's the point of having a cell phone if you don't answer it!?" So, we were standing there, looking at each other, with the car halfway out of the parking space, wondering what the heck we were going to do. I just started laughing. He was like, "You think this is funny? You can walk home." He was joking with me, but seriously... in those types of situations, you have to laugh at the irony of it all. Plus, you can tell people about it later. :) After about 30 minutes, four of my newer friends from another segment came walking up to the base. They're trainees like me. Bruno, the older authoritative engineer, rounded them up and made them push the car so that he could get the engine to start. Yay!! Problem solved! He gave me a ride home, and it was an uneventful evening after that.
In the workshop, I've been assembling tools for the past couple days. Our tools are all long tubular contraptions. My first couple weeks in the workshop, they all looked like strange cylinders of various diameters and textures. I'm able to identify what different tools are nowadays... it's very exciting. The process of assembling tools involves lots of grease of various types, making up threads of various parts of the tool, and torquing the parts with 3-foot pipe wrenches that weigh as much as a five-year old child. I get to swing a leg over the wrench while it’s locked on the tool and jump up and land my leg on the wrench with all my weight to torque the threads. It's hard work sometimes, but it's fun too. I feel pretty hard core... like an apple. (That's a Jessica joke.. I couldn't resist.)
All this work with dirty tools and grease and stuff does some serious damage to my fingernails. I get black residue underneath my nails and it stains my cuticles. I end up with each of my fingernails completely outlined in black. It's really attractive.. NOT! I've been calling it my field engineer's manicure. We have this gritty soap that takes the grease off our hands, but I scrub and scrub, and can't seem to get my nails clean. Someday, I'll get a real manicure and pedicure and feel like a real girl again. Until then... I'm stuck with clearly outlined nails and the suggestion to the rest of the world that I don't believe in washing my hands.
Oh, traumatic experience that happened yesterday:
Yesterday afternoon while I was working in the workshop I felt something tickle my tickle my neck/collarbone. I figured it was a stray hair or something.. I went to brush it away and found a big, beefy spider!! I was like, "Oh my gosh!!!!!!!" I flung it away from me, but the first time, its web was still stuck to me, so I had to fling it again to get it all the way off. I stomped on it and let the adrenaline rush calm down while I inspected the carcass. It was a whitish color with brown spots. I had never seen a spider like that before. It gives me chills recounting the story to you right now. Ugh (shudder). It was seriously an inch in diameter, including the legs.. no joke. I have no idea how it got on me or how long it had been on my body. SICK! I was paranoid for the rest of the day. I freaked out when I thought I felt something again- it was a false alarm. Everyone I was working with was just laughing at me.. no compassion. :) Okay.. I laughed at myself for that one too.
Well.. that's all for this installment of the Brazil Digest...
Hope all is well in whatever country you're in!
Um abraço,
23 February 2008
11 February 2008
The Formiga Battle and the Little Horseshoe
Hey favorite people,
I have a new nemesis. My apartment has an ant problem. I like to eat cereal in the morning for breakfast... apparently the ants (formigas) do too. Saturday, I came home to find my kitchen table covered in ants, running to and from my box of Kellogg's Honey Nutos. To give you a better mental image, my table is round and made of clear glass. I could see the ants crawling over both sides of the table along the path to the cereal box. They made the table almost opaque, and it was utterly disgusting. It was a new, unopened box of cereal too! I had to throw the whole thing away.. all R$7.60 of it! I was so annoyed... I went and got my insect killing spray and sent the whole colony to their graves... I'll be keeping my cereal in the fridge from now on- safe from greedy insects who don't respect my breakfast needs. Seriously...
On a lighter note, I went to Búzios again this weekend. I was expecting this weekend to be lame, because all my friends from work were offshore, at school, or home for the weekend. I went to lunch with a coworker (Mario) and friend (Katia) of my housemate (Gabi- offshore), and bumped into another friend (Alex) who was eating with his friend (Edgar). (By the way, if you can follow that, I'm very impressed) The five of us had lunch together and decided to get out of Macaé on Sunday. We went for the day on Sunday, and we spent the whole day at this one tiny little beach called Ferradurinha (little horseshoe). There was this outcropping of rock that blocked most of the waves from getting to the beach. Imagine that the sand is at one end of the horseshoe, there is a cliff at the other end, the curved part is opposite both, and the rocks make the indented portion. The water looks like a horseshoe :) Occasionally, a big wave would crash over the rocks and create excitement for everyone climbing and taking photos. It was wonderfully beautiful. We rented kayaks for R$5 per person for 40 minutes (what a steal!) and paddled out around the rocks to where we could see the open ocean and nearby beaches. All around were these mountains islands that protrude from the water. The sky was crystal clear, the ocean was a deep blue, and I REALLY didn't want to come back to work today :)
One of the cool things about Schlumberger is that people come from all over the world. I think I've mentioned that before, but all five of us were from different countries. Alex- Nicaragua, Edgar- Venezuela, Mario-Bolivia, Katia-Brazil, and me-USA. It was great.. I was speaking Spanish a lot, which was not good for my Portuguese, but you gotta do what you gotta do. The guys kept comparing vocabulary. Spanish varies a lot from country to country, so normal words in one country are explicit in another. It cracked me up that they were so entertained by it.
Oh, based on the responses to my last email, I wanted to send out a disclaimer: I'm being very careful when interacting with guys down here, I promise! I am not involved, nor interested in anyone here. Yes, I'm pasty white and redheaded, and that is considered exotic and beautiful here, but I'm not letting it go to my head :-P
I'll continue to keep you up to date on all the lastest events in my Brazilian world...
Um beijo e um abraço,
I have a new nemesis. My apartment has an ant problem. I like to eat cereal in the morning for breakfast... apparently the ants (formigas) do too. Saturday, I came home to find my kitchen table covered in ants, running to and from my box of Kellogg's Honey Nutos. To give you a better mental image, my table is round and made of clear glass. I could see the ants crawling over both sides of the table along the path to the cereal box. They made the table almost opaque, and it was utterly disgusting. It was a new, unopened box of cereal too! I had to throw the whole thing away.. all R$7.60 of it! I was so annoyed... I went and got my insect killing spray and sent the whole colony to their graves... I'll be keeping my cereal in the fridge from now on- safe from greedy insects who don't respect my breakfast needs. Seriously...
On a lighter note, I went to Búzios again this weekend. I was expecting this weekend to be lame, because all my friends from work were offshore, at school, or home for the weekend. I went to lunch with a coworker (Mario) and friend (Katia) of my housemate (Gabi- offshore), and bumped into another friend (Alex) who was eating with his friend (Edgar). (By the way, if you can follow that, I'm very impressed) The five of us had lunch together and decided to get out of Macaé on Sunday. We went for the day on Sunday, and we spent the whole day at this one tiny little beach called Ferradurinha (little horseshoe). There was this outcropping of rock that blocked most of the waves from getting to the beach. Imagine that the sand is at one end of the horseshoe, there is a cliff at the other end, the curved part is opposite both, and the rocks make the indented portion. The water looks like a horseshoe :) Occasionally, a big wave would crash over the rocks and create excitement for everyone climbing and taking photos. It was wonderfully beautiful. We rented kayaks for R$5 per person for 40 minutes (what a steal!) and paddled out around the rocks to where we could see the open ocean and nearby beaches. All around were these mountains islands that protrude from the water. The sky was crystal clear, the ocean was a deep blue, and I REALLY didn't want to come back to work today :)
One of the cool things about Schlumberger is that people come from all over the world. I think I've mentioned that before, but all five of us were from different countries. Alex- Nicaragua, Edgar- Venezuela, Mario-Bolivia, Katia-Brazil, and me-USA. It was great.. I was speaking Spanish a lot, which was not good for my Portuguese, but you gotta do what you gotta do. The guys kept comparing vocabulary. Spanish varies a lot from country to country, so normal words in one country are explicit in another. It cracked me up that they were so entertained by it.
Oh, based on the responses to my last email, I wanted to send out a disclaimer: I'm being very careful when interacting with guys down here, I promise! I am not involved, nor interested in anyone here. Yes, I'm pasty white and redheaded, and that is considered exotic and beautiful here, but I'm not letting it go to my head :-P
I'll continue to keep you up to date on all the lastest events in my Brazilian world...
Um beijo e um abraço,
06 February 2008
Walking the plank, fire-fighting, and more fun!
Subscribers,
Last week, I had the pleasure of taking a safety course to be able to go offshore. I happened to be the only girl of 25 students. Also, I was the only non-Brazilian. I had a translator (Walter), who was pretty cool.. but let's talk about drawing attention to oneself! I was like the token everything! Token girl, token American, token person listening to the translator while the teacher is talking...
Day 1: I learned how to abandon a rig in case of an emergency. This means putting on a life jacket, jumping into the water, uniting with my fellow shipwrecked colleagues and swimming to a life raft. We took a class on this ship, and then each student got to jump from a four meter platform off the ship into the ocean. Yes.. I walked the plank. (please, make pirate jokes among yourselves... Arrrrrbys!). After the jump, we swam and made something called the Survival Circle- basically, we all linked arms in concentric circles to prevent people from getting lost, attacked by aquatic life, and to maintain body heat and energy. The guy on my right was squeezing my arm so tight that I lost circulation in my hand.. I learned later how to say "Looser, please"- a very useful phrase. Finally, (to the relief of my right arm) we split up and swam in chains to a big, round life raft. Twenty-five of us all climbed inside. When I say "climbed" I mean the people in the raft heaved us over the side into the middle of the raft. I was one of the first people in, and watching everyone else flop into the raft in their soaking wet coveralls and life jackets that gave everyone wedgies was extremely entertaining. Have I mentioned that it was chilly, raining, and that the ocean was really rough? Yeah.. I was miserable with seasickness.. I'm surprised I didn't toss my cookies!
Day 2: I learned CPR.. in Portuguese. I got to practice on the dolls- breaths and chest compressions. I learned how to move a person who passed out and lots of other cool stuff too.
Day 3: Personal Responsibility and Environmental Responsibility. Not too fun in the practical department (no hands-on practice), but my teacher kept making jokes about Americans. He asked my if I had ancestors of Hispanic heritage, because I didn't seem much like an American to him. I guess, they don't think Americans are very friendly and smiley.. I am!
Day 4: Firefighting! Woot woot! The ironic part of the week was that I jumped in then ocean on the coldest, rainiest day, and I fought fires on a hot day without a cloud in the sky. Haha.. I was wearing coveralls, a head sock thing, a helmet, gloves and everything, while carrying a heavy fire extinguisher and getting close to a blazing fire. I felt like a hot shot (of course- pun intended) firefighter. :-) I got to put out fires with fire extinguishers and with a big fireman hose too! It was pretty sweet. Oh.. my translator left me for this day too. Haha.. he decided that I didn't actually need him. (which was mostly true). He told me that I was the most Brazilian American he had ever met.. I guess I'm fitting in okay here.
Taking the class with me were six new hires from Schlumberger. They're pretty cool. I was glad to make some friends who could speak English. After a while, they realized that I could get by in Portuguese. One of the guys made me sign that said "No English" to hold up while I was with them. He thought I should practice... he's right. They would tease me in Portuguese a lot.. I'm happy to understand the language more and more.
After the last day, I went to the beach to play volleyball with another friend I made during the class, Jardiel. Unlike the SLB guys, he speaks no English. It's pretty funny to try to communicate with him. I understand most of what everyone says, but I feel like an idiot sometimes trying to put intelligent sentences together. My speaking ability needs work, but I think I really impressed him with my volleyball skillz.. We won four games in row, and then jumped in the ocean. He was like, "I had no idea you could play like that!" And I was like, "I told you I love playing." (Of course the convo was in Portuguese.. but for everyone who doesn't speak that language (everyone but like 2 people), I translated.) I always love a good game of volleyball.. it's seriously an addiction, you know? Hopefully I'll get done early tomorrow to play again. :-D By the way, I think he likes me.. I'm not sure if I trust him, so we'll see how things go. I'll keep you posted.
This weekend was Carnaval.. I stayed in Macaé.. yeah.. kinda lame. Oh well. I watched some of the Rio-craziness on TV. I actually didn't mind chilling here and sleeping in. It was raining for the majority of the weekend anyway. I got to go out for a couple evenings and have some drinks and dance on the beach with friends, so I had a good time, but everyone says that it wasn't a real Carnaval. Maybe next year...
I'm back in the office.. working, working, working...
Um beijo,
Last week, I had the pleasure of taking a safety course to be able to go offshore. I happened to be the only girl of 25 students. Also, I was the only non-Brazilian. I had a translator (Walter), who was pretty cool.. but let's talk about drawing attention to oneself! I was like the token everything! Token girl, token American, token person listening to the translator while the teacher is talking...
Day 1: I learned how to abandon a rig in case of an emergency. This means putting on a life jacket, jumping into the water, uniting with my fellow shipwrecked colleagues and swimming to a life raft. We took a class on this ship, and then each student got to jump from a four meter platform off the ship into the ocean. Yes.. I walked the plank. (please, make pirate jokes among yourselves... Arrrrrbys!). After the jump, we swam and made something called the Survival Circle- basically, we all linked arms in concentric circles to prevent people from getting lost, attacked by aquatic life, and to maintain body heat and energy. The guy on my right was squeezing my arm so tight that I lost circulation in my hand.. I learned later how to say "Looser, please"- a very useful phrase. Finally, (to the relief of my right arm) we split up and swam in chains to a big, round life raft. Twenty-five of us all climbed inside. When I say "climbed" I mean the people in the raft heaved us over the side into the middle of the raft. I was one of the first people in, and watching everyone else flop into the raft in their soaking wet coveralls and life jackets that gave everyone wedgies was extremely entertaining. Have I mentioned that it was chilly, raining, and that the ocean was really rough? Yeah.. I was miserable with seasickness.. I'm surprised I didn't toss my cookies!
Day 2: I learned CPR.. in Portuguese. I got to practice on the dolls- breaths and chest compressions. I learned how to move a person who passed out and lots of other cool stuff too.
Day 3: Personal Responsibility and Environmental Responsibility. Not too fun in the practical department (no hands-on practice), but my teacher kept making jokes about Americans. He asked my if I had ancestors of Hispanic heritage, because I didn't seem much like an American to him. I guess, they don't think Americans are very friendly and smiley.. I am!
Day 4: Firefighting! Woot woot! The ironic part of the week was that I jumped in then ocean on the coldest, rainiest day, and I fought fires on a hot day without a cloud in the sky. Haha.. I was wearing coveralls, a head sock thing, a helmet, gloves and everything, while carrying a heavy fire extinguisher and getting close to a blazing fire. I felt like a hot shot (of course- pun intended) firefighter. :-) I got to put out fires with fire extinguishers and with a big fireman hose too! It was pretty sweet. Oh.. my translator left me for this day too. Haha.. he decided that I didn't actually need him. (which was mostly true). He told me that I was the most Brazilian American he had ever met.. I guess I'm fitting in okay here.
Taking the class with me were six new hires from Schlumberger. They're pretty cool. I was glad to make some friends who could speak English. After a while, they realized that I could get by in Portuguese. One of the guys made me sign that said "No English" to hold up while I was with them. He thought I should practice... he's right. They would tease me in Portuguese a lot.. I'm happy to understand the language more and more.
After the last day, I went to the beach to play volleyball with another friend I made during the class, Jardiel. Unlike the SLB guys, he speaks no English. It's pretty funny to try to communicate with him. I understand most of what everyone says, but I feel like an idiot sometimes trying to put intelligent sentences together. My speaking ability needs work, but I think I really impressed him with my volleyball skillz.. We won four games in row, and then jumped in the ocean. He was like, "I had no idea you could play like that!" And I was like, "I told you I love playing." (Of course the convo was in Portuguese.. but for everyone who doesn't speak that language (everyone but like 2 people), I translated.) I always love a good game of volleyball.. it's seriously an addiction, you know? Hopefully I'll get done early tomorrow to play again. :-D By the way, I think he likes me.. I'm not sure if I trust him, so we'll see how things go. I'll keep you posted.
This weekend was Carnaval.. I stayed in Macaé.. yeah.. kinda lame. Oh well. I watched some of the Rio-craziness on TV. I actually didn't mind chilling here and sleeping in. It was raining for the majority of the weekend anyway. I got to go out for a couple evenings and have some drinks and dance on the beach with friends, so I had a good time, but everyone says that it wasn't a real Carnaval. Maybe next year...
I'm back in the office.. working, working, working...
Um beijo,
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