Abu Dhabi, UAE!!

So I am finally here!! I can not believe it . . . I knew I always had a possibility of coming here for courses but never thought it would happen! It was a long journey!! It ended taking 2 1/2 days to get here!! I left on Thurs. at around 4 pm to Mexico City and then got on a flight to Frankfurt. I got to Frankfurt around 2 pm on Fri.!! My flight to Abu Dhabi was not till the next day so I got a hotel in downtown Frankfurt and walked around. It was such a beautiful day . . . so refreshing after being in the heat of Carmen for so long!!

I definitely want to go back to Germany sometime soon . . . it is a really interesting place and it is part of my heritage!! Being there now makes me want to learn German, but I doubt that is going to happen!

I ended up getting to Abu Dhabi around 8:30 at night and went straight to the training center. It took about 25 miuntes in the taxis and it was interesting looking out the windows at the landscape even though it was dark. All you could see were these towers with a green light. I would find out later that these were the mosques. Instead of being at home in the Bible-belt, I am now in the Koran-belt!! There are over 2,000 mosques in Abu Dhabi alone!! I will get to more of that in a later post.

The next day I started class and had my big presentation. Things went pretty well, and I was glad to just get it done!! Another thing about that day is I experienced what true heat is . . . I thought I knew what it was like but here it is about 110 degrees everyday and the heat is smothering . . . you step outside and you can't breathe!! Also I learned that it is flat and sandy . . . enough said!! Below are some pictures from outside my base and a picture with Carlos who works with me in Carmen being sad because we were not able to make it to our friend Karina's wedding back in Mexico.


I am excited to share all me experiences here!! Look out for more posts and most likely more frequently since I have a little more time on my hands!! I am excited to see what I learn about this amazing culture and share it with everyone!!

Dream Team

After my course in Tulsa, it has been crazy here at the base. I have been in charge of 4 units, plus have to make time for studying for my 2 entrance exams and finish my paper and presentation for my second school. Thankfully I was guardia for this week so I had to go early and stay late which helped me get more things done and the units have not had as much work either.

In the end I got everything done and passed both exams, so all was good!! It is crazy that I will be going to Abu Dhabi in just a few days now!! It is very surreal, and I am really excited to learn yet another culture!!

Something abnormal of the week was that I got to play basketball a couple times. The first time of the week was just the normal pickup game that a group of people do every week. It happened to start raining in the middle which was fun but I had to be really careful, 1 because I have not played in a long time and 2 the conditions were really slippery!! The 2nd time was that weekend when SLB was asked to make a team for a tournament hosted by our clients. It was serious . . . we had jerseys made and all!! So instead of sitting at my desk all day on Sat. I took a little break and went with 2 other engineers from Coiled Tubing and 4 from Cementing to the Pemex sports complex!! We first played one of the design segments in Pemex who we happen to play a lot with and are good friends. I played really well for being out of shape and not having a good feel!! I ended up having 2 blocks that game and 9 of the first 13 points, which included a 3 pointer!! We won that game and then played in the championship game against another segment of Pemex. They were a lot taller and bigger! If we had not had played just 30 minutes before I think we could have beat them. I had a couple more blocks and scored a couple of points but nothing would fall for me . . . oh well we got a second place trophy!

The absolute crazy thing about the tournament though was that I ended up being the so called MVP of the tournament! I definitely was not the best person but I guess being a girl that blocked quite a few guys and scored helped my case!! Supposedly there was a coach from the women's league there and wanted me to join their team . . . if I only had time I might say yes if they ever asked me to play!!

Tulsa Trip Take 2

One great thing about my location is that there is soooo much opportunity to learn. There are so many more types of operations here and most of the new technology is here as well. Because of this the managers are not afraid of someone leaving for a week and going to a course. Well that's exactly what I got to do last week. I got to go to a CT logging course since all the engineers that do know how to do it don't want to go offshore anymore!! Most likely I will not get to have that many jobs using it, but it is nice to know that I can bring something special to the group when the time is right. Plus it was a really nice break from normal work especially since the week before leaving for Tulsa was absolutely crazy and hard for me!! Also it is just nice to go back to the comfortable, English speaking US once in a while!!

My way to Tulsa ended up being a little adventure (another for my long list of airport adventures)! My plane out of Cd. del Carmen was 20 minutes late which caused us to be 1 hour late getting to Houston. Normally that would have been fine but when you have only a 2 hour layover and have to get through immigration, baggage claim, customs, and security its not so good. When I got off the plane I had already told myself that I was going to miss my flight and started to figure out how I was going to get to Tulsa. Well after getting through immigrations in only 5 minutes I thought maybe I did have a chance of making it if everything aligned! Well everything aligned all right! I went through immigration, baggage claim and customs in less than 10 minutes. Then I thought for sure security would hold me up for at least 20 minutes but when I got there I was the next in line to go (I think this mainly had to do with taking the normal stairs when there was a large church group going up the escalator)! I then got on the tram to another concourse and speed walked to my gate where I made it in time by 10 minutes! Thank you Jesus ;) I do not think that will every happen again, especially in a huge airport like Houston.

When I finally got to Houston I took the apartment shuttle with a group of truck drivers from SLB that just arrived as well to go to a driving school. These guys were good ole boys from all over the US!! Once we arrived to the apartments I went into shock. Compared to the apartments I stayed in the last time this apartment was a palace. There is plush carpets, granite counter-tops, flat screen TVs, a swimming pool, workout center, sand volleyball court, etc (2 pics below). Just after those 15 minutes I realized I wanted to stay longer then a week! After I snapped out of being in shock, I went to dinner with 3 of the guys from the shuttle!! It was the most random group of people. There was of course me the tall, white woman half the age of most of them, the Mexican that has lived in the US pretty much his whole life, and 2 black guys from the swamps of Mississippi!! We ended up eating at a "Mexican" restaurant (I ended up eating there 3 times . . . so much for getting away from Mexican food for a bit)! I had a lot of fun discussing with the Mexican man, Reyes, about how this was not normal food for Mexico and what our favorite food was. Then our very American waiter completely butchered the punctuation of pollo (po-yo not polo) and said it was pork (actually its chicken)! It was only day 1, and I was already having a fun time!


Then the next day class started. It was really interesting, I learned a lot, and meet some really nice people. In all there was 5 people in the class including me. There were 2 Mexicans supervisors that work in Colombia, 1 supervisor from Algeria, and 1 supervisor from Canada . . . I was the only engineer and had 10 years less experience with Coiled Tubing then the other guys! It was great though because they taught me a lot of the practical things, and I helped them with the software and design considerations. Thankfully most of the course though was hands on, which I definitely loved! We learned how to disassemble and make-up a new tool that maybe with some luck I might be able to get here. It is hard to get into to much detail because I do not know where to start!! Pretty much CT logging is when you have a big cable (7 wires with metal sheaths) inside the Coiled tubing. Wireline, another segment, can then place their tools on our string to be able to get the tools in locations of the well where wireline can't run to. I learned all the tools that are involved and how to set up all the surface equipment, how to make wire connections, etc. Below are some pictures to just give you a little taste of what I did.


Unfortunately, I did not get to meet up with the Dyson's who took me under their wing the last time I was town, but I was able to talk with them a short time. I also got to call a lot of other people that I had not talked to in a verrryyy long time. I apology to all my friends and family for being such a horrible communicator and not keeping in touch better. I also got to see my instructors from my last course which was really nice since one is being transferred to Malaysia this week! All in all it was a great trip though waaaayyy to short, but I know in a veerrry short time I will be starting another adventure!

PS . . most likely the next post will be when I am in Abu Dhabi!! What a life I have!!