Going to Amurica (Part 1)

Alright, so I kind of messed up the order of my blog entries. Mostly because I wrote the one about passing through immigration when I was at the bulk plant in Port Fourchon (yup it's really as in the middle of nowhere as it looks; but more on that place at a later date) and I wasn't a super keener blogger, therefore I hadn't taken a picture of my new SUV yet. SOOOO this is a really long-winded way of saying switch those two entries in your mind.

I had the pleasure of travelling to Houston on August 21 (my god that was a long time ago, yet it feels like it just happened). Much to my chagrin I arrived in the middle of a dry spell/heat wave/sbj I feel like I'm melting. But THANK YOU for not being humid, so it was marginally more bearable. The way this whole thing works is I have to go to Houston for a week with all the other new employees for something called OFS-1 (what does OFS stand for? Your guess is as good as mine; mine is Oilfield Services) where you're pretty much given the rundown on the basic DON'T DO THIS OR YOU WILL GET FIRED rules, sorry TERMINATED (doesn't "terminated"sound so much worse??) Best part of this trip? Getting and AMEX with an eating allowance on it. Awww yeahhh!!

Also got to experience a dry lightning storm (I refer you back to the heat wavedness there). I apologize in advance for this video: I haven't watched it since I took it and likely have ridiculous commentary because that's how I roll.

Other fun things in Houston I got to do:
Turtle racing: no false advertising here folks. You place your bet for free on one of the nine turtles (I picked Snooki of course) and the winning turtle tickets get beer. HOW CAN YOU LOSE??!! The thing is you can't. Found this gem on Youtube to give a better version of the effect. If it's a Thursday, and you're looking for a time in Houston, I recommend definitely.

Aquarium restaurant: you actually get to eat in the middle of fishies swimming around you. Totally loved it! Food was pretty good too!

Stolen from their website (I'm not that old man)

From there we went to Kellyville, OK to learn how to drive. Or try to at least....

Also would like to apologize for my excessive use of caps in this post :)

Gots me a new car

Alright so I am apparently the WORST blogger in the world (I actually blame it on my dad since I was waiting FOR-ever for him to give me the pictures of our road trip down here. But that's a story for another blog entry... or two...), but I'll try and catch you up on the things I've been doing since I moved down south:

On the exact same day that I was chopping all the hair off my head (ok my hairdresser did it but that sounds way less dramatic), I got a nice little email from my recruiter that was forwarded correspondence from my manager. It read a little like this: "soooo where should I book Erin's plane ticket to after her training in Houston? Maurice? (side note: this is Maurice. Imagine my horror when I got my job offer, Googled it and realized what the population was! I live in Lafayette; much more manageable)" Manager's response: "No; Erin is going to be driving to Maurice." I had to read that again. Like four more times... drive?! From Harbour Grace? (point of reference: this happened on a Tuesday and I was leaving to start training Sunday that same week) I don't even have a car?!

Solution: buy a car. If only everything in life could be solved that easily right? I had my heart set on an SUV. I know, I know; typical oilfield employee polluting the environment. Get over it. I really wanted a Ford Escape but my one afternoon of SUV shopping didn't yield any reasonable results for that particular model. BUT I found this gem (don't judge the colour):

Also had to get it an awesome magnet for the back:

Not bad for a 2007!! Also have discovered I'm never going to be able to sell this car in Louisiana (due to the whole km/h speedometer so I guess they're just going to have to move me back so when I want to get rid of it ;).

p.s. it's a Suzuki Grand Vitara