Braving 63 for 2 weeks in “Paradise”
Have you ever had a near death experience? You know, your life flashes before your eyes, you and the almighty have a little heart to heart…well, that was exactly the position I was in yesterday night on my drive up to Fort McMurray from Edmonton. I ended up working at the curling club until about 3pm, I didn’t end up leaving the city until about 4:30. Edmonton and area was under a severe weather warning, we were expecting 20cm of snow that evening. Couple this with the fact that my car only has all-season tires on it, and it makes for some serious white knuckle driving. The drive wasn’t really that bad until I hit Bon Accord, it was pretty well whiteout conditions from there to the Fort McMurray side of Mariana Lake. Now, they don’t call highway 63 the highway of death for nothing! I saw several ditched vehicles on the way, and had a few moments when I thought I would ditch my car. My most anxious moment occured at Wandering River, where all of a sudden there was like 6 inches of snow on the road…guess the plows hadn’t done that stretch of highway. Anyhow, I resisted the urge to hit my brakes as I felt my car begin to fishtail…as luck would have it, a semi was bearing down on me in the opposing lane. I managed to plow through that nasty stretch of road, adreniline pumping. Note to self:buy winter tires!
I ended up making to my cousin’s place at around 10pm, just in time to have a little bite to eat, and get a good night’s rest for my first day at my work experience. For the next two weeks, I’m going to be working as an Account Manager for Baker Hughes’ chemical company, called Petrolite. Today basically consisted of meeting the group of guys I’ll be working with for the next couple of weeks, and going over some of the expectations and objectives of my work term. From first impressions, I can say that this is a really nice group of guys, I’m sure I’m going to have a great time. I’ll be getting a chance to work in the newest SAGD facilities in the world, it’s going to be a great experience!
I managed to find a nice little gym a block or so from my cousin’s place, so I’m definitely going to keep training during my stay. Man is it cold here! The forecast for the next few days is pretty bleak: highs of -30 in the daytime! Yuck. Luckily for me, most of the work I will be doing will be indoors. In addition to my work experience, I have to get cracking on my technical report while I’m here…I managed to get a bunch of research done this weekend, I’m hoping to get a good portion of my rough draft completed over the next couple weeks.
In addition to all of this, I have a 1500 word proposal to write for my Milennium grant. I’m not sure if I’ve written about it, but in August I am planning to spend 3 weeks working with needy children in Guatemala. We’re going to be teaching them to read, write, and speak English. Also, we will be tutoring them in math, teaching computer skills, and helping them learn teamwork. I’m really looking forward to this opportunity, I think it will be a very enriching experience.