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,