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A real education...
Feb. 28th, 2007 09:53 pmI have to admit, I've learned more about oil wells in the past couple of days than in my entire previous lifetime. On the other hand, the pace of the work is incredible. I don't know who is responsible for this state of affairs, but I definitely get the feeling that I've been "ridden hard and put away wet."
Last night, it was all I could do to fall down into my bed once we got to the hotel at the end of the day. I was in no shape to do anything but sleep, and I was so tired from dragging my bags from the front desk to my room that, when my key card refused to work, I called the front desk on my cell phone (in roaming mode) and asked them to send someone my way rather than drag all my stuff back to the desk and again to the room.
Today, the discussions were back-to-back and very technical. The first presenter kicked things off by describing the wave equations that are used in the end client's hardware to compute the performance of a pump that may be several thousand feet inside a well, based on data being gathered at the surface of the earth (sort of the petrochemical equivalent of an electrocardiogram).
There is only so much of this kind of stuff you can interpret before your brain turns to mush. I started to call "time outs" that became increasingly frequent as the day wore on. I hid from everyone during the lunch break. By 3 pm, my throat was killing me, I get the feeling that half of what I said in Russian was nonsense, and by then, not only were there still two hours left of highly technical discussions, but you have to keep in mind that I've also been interpreting during pretty much all meal times, and dinner was still before us.
At it turns out, we just got back a few minutes ago from an end client barbecue, which was quite filling, but also involved the usual remarks delivered by a variety of folks. I've left a message with my client to let them know the state of affairs. Maybe they'll arrange for someone to back me up during the meeting on Friday.
In any event, we get to do the same tomorrow, except that we first have to check out of the hotel, so I have to remember to set my alarm for something a bit earlier than it is now. And I really need to go to sleep.
Cheers...
Last night, it was all I could do to fall down into my bed once we got to the hotel at the end of the day. I was in no shape to do anything but sleep, and I was so tired from dragging my bags from the front desk to my room that, when my key card refused to work, I called the front desk on my cell phone (in roaming mode) and asked them to send someone my way rather than drag all my stuff back to the desk and again to the room.
Today, the discussions were back-to-back and very technical. The first presenter kicked things off by describing the wave equations that are used in the end client's hardware to compute the performance of a pump that may be several thousand feet inside a well, based on data being gathered at the surface of the earth (sort of the petrochemical equivalent of an electrocardiogram).
There is only so much of this kind of stuff you can interpret before your brain turns to mush. I started to call "time outs" that became increasingly frequent as the day wore on. I hid from everyone during the lunch break. By 3 pm, my throat was killing me, I get the feeling that half of what I said in Russian was nonsense, and by then, not only were there still two hours left of highly technical discussions, but you have to keep in mind that I've also been interpreting during pretty much all meal times, and dinner was still before us.
At it turns out, we just got back a few minutes ago from an end client barbecue, which was quite filling, but also involved the usual remarks delivered by a variety of folks. I've left a message with my client to let them know the state of affairs. Maybe they'll arrange for someone to back me up during the meeting on Friday.
In any event, we get to do the same tomorrow, except that we first have to check out of the hotel, so I have to remember to set my alarm for something a bit earlier than it is now. And I really need to go to sleep.
Cheers...
