Back to Villa

I’m back in Villahermosa after more than two weeks back in the US. I had an amazing time with my family and friends. It was nice to just go back and fit again. But it was also nice to leave again. And don’t take that as a negative thing. It was hard to say goodbye again, especially not knowing when I would be back.

When I left Villahermosa I had a slight fear that I would get home and not want to leave again. I mean, what if all this time I’ve been delusional in thinking that I love my job and my life so much? It’s such an unusual life choice. What if I went back home and saw people living normal lives and coming home to their families every night and decided that I am actually completely crazy?  Well I’m back in Villa, so that should tell you something about how that turned out. I might be completely crazy, but I really do love what I’m doing.

Coming back to Villahermosa was strange. I never expected for it to feel so familiar.  To come back and start speaking Spanish again, to see my friends here and be excited (only to have them all abandon me quickly for the rig, sigh). Anyway, the point is that leaving and coming back only served to cement in my mind that I am doing what I’m supposed to. It’s hard. But somehow, life in the States now seems too easy. Where’s the challenge in doing your job in your first language? Seriously…

Since being back, I’ve studied for, taken, and passed my pre-school exam. Which means that the only thing between me and Abu Dhabi is less than two weeks and getting my airline tickets. After Abu Dhabi, I’m meeting my family in Spain for a two week vacation. I’m pretty psyched already and if you have suggestions on where to go and what to do, tell me! 

Also, I didn't put any pictures in here, but I have all my vacation pictures here! They're pretty much all pictures of snow... And a video of my dog wearing booties. 

A Change in Climate

I recently experienced a dramatic climate change. No, it's not global warming. Two weeks ago Tuesday my boss emailed me with dates for a two week vacation so I could go home. It wasn't unexpected, but I was still really excited. I immediately booked tickets.

 I was thrilled, but very busy. We were in the middle of changing out a failed tool, which basically means a lot of reports to close out an old job, then reports on the failure, then opening up for the new job and then physically changing out the tools, a process that can take about 6 hours. Wednesday morning, after being up all night working, my boss called me and asked if I'd like to go home for New Years Eve. He said I could leave the rig the next day and start my vacation Friday.

I spent the next day and a half handing over the job and dealing with the airlines. Trying to get a flight was a challenge and quite expensive. Luckily, my dad has a special talent for dealing with airlines and after I got fed up talking to them, he managed to get me a flight out.

Thursday I left the rig at 6:30 pm, getting back to my staff house at 8:30 that night. I dealt with my work computer, getting cash, arranging transport to the airport, feeding my self, and packing then went to bed for a few hours before waking up to go to the airport. I flew all day. From Villahermosa to Houston, Houston to Seattle, Seattle to Anchorage. I left my apartment at 5 am and arrived in Alaska at 9:30 that night. My parents met me at the airport with a fur coat and fur boots.

Christmas at the Rig

I know many of you are very curious about what my Christmas looked like. Here it is!

I was very worried about how being away from my family would affect me during Christmas. For my family, Christmas is literally the only holiday we manage to gather for each year.  Breaking the tradition of spending the holidays with my family was a hard reality to face. As it turns out, the worry was worse than the reality.

Part of me was also a little excited. Honestly the commercialization of Christmas kind of angers me a little. Basically a lot of stores spend so much time telling you that unless you’re buying _____ for your _____ then you don’t really love them. This season should be about selfless, abounding, conditionless love. The love that God feels for us. The love that God calls us to show towards one another. Part of me was excited to see what Christmas is like without presents. Without fancy food. Without stuff. 

Here’s how I spent Christmas.

We had a weird tool failure at around 4 am on the 23^rd and I was on shift after getting 3 hours of sleep that night. (Oh and the night before too. I was exhausted.)  We stayed up working to fix it until giving up at noon. I slept and then woke up again after 6pm.  I was on shift again until I gave up at 9 am Christmas Eve morning. I slept for part of the day, and then woke up at around 6 pm.  The new tools we ordered had arrived and so we began to assemble them.

Job Challenges

There are a lot of challenges I face on my job every day. Some are more frustrating than others.

First, because I’m a trainee, everyone assumes I know nothing. I’ve been working for 3 months now, which is about twice as long as most trainees work before getting sent to school. I’m not in school because as a company, we’ve been training a lot of engineers and the schools have been full. I don’t go to school until March. My area is busy so I’ve been thrown into responsibilities earlier. Every time I go to a new job with a new engineer and hear ‘This is a survey frame and this is a utility frame’ for the 10^th time I get a little more frustrated with being just a trainee.

My favorite kind of pipetally.
Beer crosses all kinds of
cultural barriers! 

Second, the language barrier plays in heavily. When my coworkers talk, they speak Spanish and often I can’t follow the entire conversation. Some people remember to stop and explain, some people I bother until they stop and explain, and some people just keep right on going. Even after listening and speaking Spanish for 4 months, it might be surprising to learn that I am not fluent in the language. It’s frustrating for me to have to ask for everything to be repeated back so I can understand. It’s frustrating for coworkers who don’t speak English very well. Sometimes the only explanation I get is “I’ll be right back” or “Don’t worry, everything is okay”.  Usually when I hear ‘everything is okay’ I get annoyed because I know it’s not all okay. I can usually get the gist of a conversation, I might not know the details but often I can tell when something is not okay but my coworker doesn’t take the time to explain it. Ugh.

On this job I’ve gotten to deal with a special combination of these two factors.