October 24

What a long day.  It was the first day of OFS 1 (Oil Field Services) Training.  Unfortunately my group of trainees did not get to stay at the complex where the training was going on, but fortunately we got to stay at a kick-ass hotel instead!  We are on Yas Island, not that I can really tell we're on an island, and we're staying at the Rotana Hotel.  I have a single room that is nice and cozy, with free internet!  Strangely there is a small water hose net to the toilet?  I can only assume this is something like a bidet.  I'm just going to leave it alone...  I got up at 5:45 AM to get ready for the day, and then went downstairs to hang out with the other 75 people in my group.  We took our 45 minutes shuttle ride to the MLC Center for our security briefing.  In the daylight you can really tell that our hotel is not really by Abu Dhabi city.  We're kind of on the suburbs I think.  Lots of flat sand dunes with lots of unfinished construction projects.  In their defense, most of them were being worked on, but everywhere you look, it looks unfinished.  A Ferrari amusement park and the Grand Prix racing series is right by the hotel.  Maybe they're just trying to spruce up the area?  Finally got to the MLC, tried to find breakfast quickly, but it was too far away.  Had the most morbid talk about how people in SLB (Schlumberger) have died in the past months.  Jeez, I'll wear my seat belt already.   Then we had a few talks introducing us to SLB, and I gave a group presentation in front of everybody about how SLB was founded.  Lunch was an interesting experience; lots of cultures represented.  I chose a chicken biryani dish, salad, strange cheese dessert, and grape juice.  Needless to say, there are a lot of options.  Such interesting people I'm meeting.  I'm sitting next to Luis from Mexico and Azia from Malaysia.  There are 4 of us going to Perth: Jake (real name unknown) from China, Nick from Texas, and Jessica from Nebraska/Kansas.  There are quite a few Saudis, Yemenis (is that how you spell that?), Iranians, and Americans.  20 countries are represented in my group of 75.  We spent a lot of time talking about what SLB stands for, how to present ourselves to customers, and how to work in such a multi-cultural environment.  Then we got to try on our steel toed boots and blue jump suits.  Then the IM (international mobile) people got to spend 2 hours filling out paperwork.  Guess which group I'm in?  :)  I spent another 2 hours on it once I got back to the hotel.  Finally the IM group got to go back to the hotel, and eat dinner at the hotel.  What a swanky place!  I really liked dinner; they had a lot of vegetarian options, curries, and a killer desert bar.  Only one dessert though, thanks restraint!  Then I stayed up with my paperwork, and I actually got to Skype with Ben!!!  It was so nice to hear his voice, but I'd really like for my video call to work.  I just don't have enough bandwidth at this hotel.  Finally it was off to sleep.  I'm trying to get used to this 6 hours a night, but I think tomorrow I'll be sleeping more.