Oi. Texas.

Oi. Texas. Yeah so on Sunday I headed for oil spill response training in Corpus Christi Texas. I hadn’t been out of the state of Washington for 4 months and, considering my trip to the South Pole this year, this had been the longest I had spent in one place since the first time I left the ice. So I was definitely itching to get on a plane…but Texas…well it’s not exactly someplace I would choose to go on my own. No offense to those who love Texas, I’m just a wuss when it comes to heat, constant air conditioning makes me feel pretty sick, and “y’all” look at me weird when I request that my steak not be wrapped in bacon.

That being said, at least Corpus Christi has a nice breeze coming off the water. The air might be hot but at least it moves. And my fellow wasties are a lot of fun, just the type of people I had hoped I would be working with, so that has definitely been great. It’s nice to hang out with your coworkers and think “I am so lucky to be in this department!”…but other than that it has been a bit of a rough time…

The first night I got in the couple hour time difference threw me a little so I couldn’t get to bed until late and then needed to wake up, at what was the equivalent of, my 4am. Then we proceeded to class where I felt a bit overwhelmed. This spill response stuff is a little intense. Granted, we are having to learn about stuff that we will most likely never have to deal with, in fact I would say about 75% of the stuff isn’t applicable to the ice, but never having been talented in chemistry it feels like there is a lot to learn in very little time. Our instructor is nice, he’s a little guy with a big mustache, and a lot of experience in this kind of work. But even a good instructor has a hard time making this stuff all that exciting…hopefully our first day will turn out to have been the most tedious. After a full day of class (yuck, I was hoping I would never have to say that phrase ever again) I ended up with a pretty bad migraine (heat + air conditioning + fluorescent lights = not good) and ended up throwing up most of the rest of the evening…good times. But hey, that’s only my first 36 hours in Texas. Maybe the rest will go better? Fingers crossed.