October 26

First Tuesday of the new job.  We again got up early and headed out to the MLC (Middle East Learning Center).  I talked with Ben for about 30 minutes this morning.  :)  So very nice.  Had a breakfast of hard boiled egg, oatmeal, and a ground beef/pea mixture.  Kind of strange  Today we spent hours in information technology training.  Most of the students thought we would be getting our computers, but it sounds like that will have to wait.  Abhi, an Indian Wireline, and Guillermo, another Mexico, were new friends I met today.  The Brazilians, Bruno and Magnus, are just plain funny.  I notice that my accent keeps changing as I am hanging out with lots of English as a 2nd language students.  I kind of talk in a stilted, or broken English accent.  I'm trying to get over this tendency, as I think it makes me sound stupid. Had a really exciting afternoon.  We had a round table discussion of our field service managers and people at the MLC that have had field experience.  They shared with us their live with SLB, and we asked them questions about how they maintained their balance.  Then Wireline split away, and we had a couple hour meeting with Omar, our FSM.  He explained our schedule for the next few months, and where we will/how we will obtain our goals.  After this meeting, I feel good about knowing where I will be, but I am still apprehensive about how to handle all of the responsibilities that I am going to have.  We headed back to the hotel after this, and got ready to go to the Shangri-La Hotel.  It is one of the nicest hotels in all of Abu Dhabi.  Amazingly decorated, but I asked the Saudis, and they said this was nothing compared to Saudi.  Well, I guess I'll just have to get there, and see how Saudi actually is!  This hotel was just beautiful, and we could see the main mosque of Abu Dhabi across the bay area.  Just beautiful.  We sat outside, me, the 4 Iranians, the Mexicans, and the Brazilians.  Just a fun group to hang out with.  We had a buffet dinner that was to die for.  More food than you can imagine, dishes from every culture, fresh seafood, sushi, cheese, Indian curries and vegetables, and the desserts, ah the desserts!  5 tables, at least.  Fresh ice cream, chocolate fountains, cakes, candies.  Fortunately I restricted myself to only a few bites of the deserts.  Restraint is working!  I had a delicious mango juice, freshly squeezed.  :)  Then we hung out along the water, and finally headed home.  I stayed up and hung out with other students, and then Frank taught me some Wireline.  Frank mentioned I've been negative about some of he aspects of my job, and it seems like I don't want to be here.  Since that has been true, and I am excited to do my job, tomorrow is going to be an all positive day.  :)  I admit, not every day is good, but I determined to enjoy myself, and make myself happy.