Back home!
Well, I've been home for over two months now. It's nice to be able to eat real food again. That's what I miss most when I'm at school.
Not much is really new. I started my summer student job at Husky's Ram River gas plant, about 50 km outside of town. It's interesting out there. It's just unlike anything I've ever seen. Some of the people out there seem to do no more than the absolute bare minimum of work. There's too many examples to go into, but some ones that I wouldn't believe unless I saw them myself are the insulator sitting outside the shop in a lawn chair doing a crossword puzzle in the middle of work hours (he also keeps the current issue of Maxim and Rolling Stone on his desk in the shop), and the horseshoe pit hidden behind the carpentry/welding shops. Or that the guy I was working with fell asleep when he was supposed to be doing safety watch for some welders (on my first day). Or that a pipefitter slept in his truck before lunch because he had nothing to do. Or that a group of people, rather than picking garbage in the woods and the rain, drove into a cutline out of site of the plant and sat in the truck for the entire day. But anyways. Whenever I start to hate the plant, I remember the Ram River mantra: "We're paid by the hour".
I'm on the maintenance crew. It's hard to explain exactly what that means, but when something breaks, we go fix it. The students usually get paired with an experienced hand and sent out into the plant. We also do general housekeeping stuff and support the ticketed maintenance guys as required, just doing various jobs around the plant.
I'm also working a couple shifts a week at A&W, which helps keep me busy. I've been biking quite a bit this year, trying desperately to reach my 3 000 km target before I have to go back to school. I might actually make it, too.
Speaking of school, I've been officially accepted into the U of A's School of Business for next year. I don't have to pick a business major until the end of this school year; all second-year students take a bunch of basic courses in all the business areas to have a solid core. So hopefully I'll find something that I show an aptitude for, and that interests me as well.
Next year's schedule looks pretty full, so I'm hoping that I'm not overstretching myself by working for Career and Placement Services at the U as well as for the residence system as Food Ombudsman. I think I can handle it, as long as I make efficient use of my time. I opted to take second-year German both semesters as my option, and I know 200-level languages are a lot of work, so that is worrisome. But, it would be cool to know a second language, there's no doubt about that.
It is, however, difficult to believe my summer is already half over.
Not much is really new. I started my summer student job at Husky's Ram River gas plant, about 50 km outside of town. It's interesting out there. It's just unlike anything I've ever seen. Some of the people out there seem to do no more than the absolute bare minimum of work. There's too many examples to go into, but some ones that I wouldn't believe unless I saw them myself are the insulator sitting outside the shop in a lawn chair doing a crossword puzzle in the middle of work hours (he also keeps the current issue of Maxim and Rolling Stone on his desk in the shop), and the horseshoe pit hidden behind the carpentry/welding shops. Or that the guy I was working with fell asleep when he was supposed to be doing safety watch for some welders (on my first day). Or that a pipefitter slept in his truck before lunch because he had nothing to do. Or that a group of people, rather than picking garbage in the woods and the rain, drove into a cutline out of site of the plant and sat in the truck for the entire day. But anyways. Whenever I start to hate the plant, I remember the Ram River mantra: "We're paid by the hour".
I'm on the maintenance crew. It's hard to explain exactly what that means, but when something breaks, we go fix it. The students usually get paired with an experienced hand and sent out into the plant. We also do general housekeeping stuff and support the ticketed maintenance guys as required, just doing various jobs around the plant.
I'm also working a couple shifts a week at A&W, which helps keep me busy. I've been biking quite a bit this year, trying desperately to reach my 3 000 km target before I have to go back to school. I might actually make it, too.
Speaking of school, I've been officially accepted into the U of A's School of Business for next year. I don't have to pick a business major until the end of this school year; all second-year students take a bunch of basic courses in all the business areas to have a solid core. So hopefully I'll find something that I show an aptitude for, and that interests me as well.
Next year's schedule looks pretty full, so I'm hoping that I'm not overstretching myself by working for Career and Placement Services at the U as well as for the residence system as Food Ombudsman. I think I can handle it, as long as I make efficient use of my time. I opted to take second-year German both semesters as my option, and I know 200-level languages are a lot of work, so that is worrisome. But, it would be cool to know a second language, there's no doubt about that.
It is, however, difficult to believe my summer is already half over.
posted by Sam F at 9:07 PM
3 Comments:
Congrats on getting into business school slim!
We missed you on the trip, weather was fabulous, mosquitos not too bad, and the company was very entertaining. Good news about getting into business school, but with your GPA was there any doubt?
Hurrah for business school Sam!
Post a Comment
<< Home