Dear Patient Readers,
I think it's been a while since the last installment of the Brazil Digest. I apologize to anyone who has been anxiously awaiting, compulsively checking their email, hoping and praying that my next email would appear in their inbox. I've been working a lot and staying quite busy.
There are a couple things that I've learned about my daily life that I didn't know before. The restaurant next door that I eat at every day is an oilfield worker hub. Every day, between 11:30 and 1:30, the place is full of people in coveralls of various colors, representing their respective companies, coming to eat the food at this place. It's the classic Brazilian self-service style. You fill up your plate like you would in a buffet, and then they put your plate on a scale and you pay based on how hungry you think you are. Anyway... the place looks dirty in general. The food is really greasy, and nothing really tastes too good, but by the time lunch rolls around, we've all been lifting tools and throwing 36 inch pipe wrenches around all morning and would basically eat anything that seems remotely edible. The point of my story about my midday meals is that I learned the unofficial name of the place. I actually don't know the real name, nor would anyone know what the heck I was talking about if I referred to it by its real name. Previously, I referred to it as "The Restaurant." Now, I can refer to it as "Mosquinha Feliz," which means "the happy little fly." I find it so funny... I hope you do too.
I have good news and good news. My school was approved! That means that I will go to Paris, France (well, actually Melun, France) at the end of May, and I will be there to study sand control engineering until the end of July. It's a total of 9 weeks. I'll have classes all day during the week and hopefully got to travel some on the weekends. I'm pretty excited about it! I mean, who wouldn't be, right? I'll have to have my roommate, Gabi, teach me some French so that I can order at restaurants and find the bathroom in public places and such. Just make it four languages to confuse me even more. Good grief!! (I actually love learning new languages... don't let me fool you).
The other good news is that my name is finally on the official list to go work offshore. Despite hearing about a helicopter accident here in Macaé three weeks ago, I'm excited to go do the job that I signed up to do. Hopefully I will get to go this month. We have two jobs, and we don't know who from our staff is going to get to go to each one. The one I might get to see is not on a rig, but rather a drill ship. Seasick city. :-/ I hear mixed reports on how much the ships move... even in good weather. Hopefully if I go, I have enough Dramamine to keep me from wanting to die. :-)
Speaking of being sick, I had my first bad experience with bad food here. Oh boy!! I spent an afternoon in the bathroom at work, trying not to throw up or pass out and having gastrointestinal issues quite often. I stayed home the next day. It has actually taken over a week to be completely better. The doctor told me to stay away from vegetables, dairy, and greasy food. Eating at Mosquinha's, that diet is nearly impossible. Even the pasta and grilled chicken is greasy. I don't know how they manage it. Thank goodness for medicine and modern toilets!
Last night, we had a Completions Churrasco (my department had a barbeque). It was at my boss's boss's house. (Jorge is his name.) Everyone loves a good party here. We bought 12 kilograms of meat, 7 cases of beer, tons of garlic bread, ingredients for caipirinhas and more. I think pretty much everything was gone at the end of the night. The best part of the evening was when my bosses were making people take shots... does that happen in the US? I really don't know, but I don't think so. I found it hilarious. I got to play with my other boss's two daughters. They're 3 and 5 years old, and I was chasing them around and talking to them in Portuguese. It was great. It's funny that a 3 year old has a better Portuguese vocabulary than I do... funny or depressing... I'm not sure which :)
Attached is a picture one of my coworkers took of me working in the workshop. It's what I do everyday. It's a little out of focus, but you can have a reference, and picture me there for hours every day. Don't forget that it's basically outside, and it's been 90 degrees or more for the past couple weeks. I'm helping my coworker, Raulmar assemble one of our tools. I'm using a 36" chain wrench that you can't really see in the photo. Yeah, I'm pretty hard core.
Well... this is pretty long already. I have some more to tell, but I will do that in a later installment.
Thanks for making it with me to the bottom of this email :)
Um beijão (big kiss),
I think it's been a while since the last installment of the Brazil Digest. I apologize to anyone who has been anxiously awaiting, compulsively checking their email, hoping and praying that my next email would appear in their inbox. I've been working a lot and staying quite busy.
There are a couple things that I've learned about my daily life that I didn't know before. The restaurant next door that I eat at every day is an oilfield worker hub. Every day, between 11:30 and 1:30, the place is full of people in coveralls of various colors, representing their respective companies, coming to eat the food at this place. It's the classic Brazilian self-service style. You fill up your plate like you would in a buffet, and then they put your plate on a scale and you pay based on how hungry you think you are. Anyway... the place looks dirty in general. The food is really greasy, and nothing really tastes too good, but by the time lunch rolls around, we've all been lifting tools and throwing 36 inch pipe wrenches around all morning and would basically eat anything that seems remotely edible. The point of my story about my midday meals is that I learned the unofficial name of the place. I actually don't know the real name, nor would anyone know what the heck I was talking about if I referred to it by its real name. Previously, I referred to it as "The Restaurant." Now, I can refer to it as "Mosquinha Feliz," which means "the happy little fly." I find it so funny... I hope you do too.
I have good news and good news. My school was approved! That means that I will go to Paris, France (well, actually Melun, France) at the end of May, and I will be there to study sand control engineering until the end of July. It's a total of 9 weeks. I'll have classes all day during the week and hopefully got to travel some on the weekends. I'm pretty excited about it! I mean, who wouldn't be, right? I'll have to have my roommate, Gabi, teach me some French so that I can order at restaurants and find the bathroom in public places and such. Just make it four languages to confuse me even more. Good grief!! (I actually love learning new languages... don't let me fool you).
The other good news is that my name is finally on the official list to go work offshore. Despite hearing about a helicopter accident here in Macaé three weeks ago, I'm excited to go do the job that I signed up to do. Hopefully I will get to go this month. We have two jobs, and we don't know who from our staff is going to get to go to each one. The one I might get to see is not on a rig, but rather a drill ship. Seasick city. :-/ I hear mixed reports on how much the ships move... even in good weather. Hopefully if I go, I have enough Dramamine to keep me from wanting to die. :-)
Speaking of being sick, I had my first bad experience with bad food here. Oh boy!! I spent an afternoon in the bathroom at work, trying not to throw up or pass out and having gastrointestinal issues quite often. I stayed home the next day. It has actually taken over a week to be completely better. The doctor told me to stay away from vegetables, dairy, and greasy food. Eating at Mosquinha's, that diet is nearly impossible. Even the pasta and grilled chicken is greasy. I don't know how they manage it. Thank goodness for medicine and modern toilets!
Last night, we had a Completions Churrasco (my department had a barbeque). It was at my boss's boss's house. (Jorge is his name.) Everyone loves a good party here. We bought 12 kilograms of meat, 7 cases of beer, tons of garlic bread, ingredients for caipirinhas and more. I think pretty much everything was gone at the end of the night. The best part of the evening was when my bosses were making people take shots... does that happen in the US? I really don't know, but I don't think so. I found it hilarious. I got to play with my other boss's two daughters. They're 3 and 5 years old, and I was chasing them around and talking to them in Portuguese. It was great. It's funny that a 3 year old has a better Portuguese vocabulary than I do... funny or depressing... I'm not sure which :)
Attached is a picture one of my coworkers took of me working in the workshop. It's what I do everyday. It's a little out of focus, but you can have a reference, and picture me there for hours every day. Don't forget that it's basically outside, and it's been 90 degrees or more for the past couple weeks. I'm helping my coworker, Raulmar assemble one of our tools. I'm using a 36" chain wrench that you can't really see in the photo. Yeah, I'm pretty hard core.
Well... this is pretty long already. I have some more to tell, but I will do that in a later installment.
Thanks for making it with me to the bottom of this email :)
Um beijão (big kiss),
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