Merry Christmas and Happy New Year...

The rest of the Everest Base Camp blog will have to wait until I get home so I can add pictures – so stay tuned.

After the EBC trek Chelsea and I flew back to LA, spent the night and picked up Adam to drive down to a close friends wedding – Dave and Rachael. The festivities leading up to the wedding were fun and the food was AMAZING! We went to a place called the Barrel Room, a must visit for anyone travelling to San Diego. The wedding went off without a hitch – or did it – dadashhhh... We got to make some new friends and before we knew it we were on our way home.

I had another 3 weeks off before having to return to work. We focused on relaxing at home, spending time with our dogs, hanging out with family and friends, and eating great food!!!

I returned to Angola December 1^st for a five week hitch and am now “on-schedule” with my back-2-back Johnnaton. A back-2-back is your counterpart that while one is on field break the other fills the position. In the future we will be working 4 weeks on/4 weeks off which will be way better than 5/5 since the 5^th week is always the most extreme.

I also established my route to and from Angola and it turned out to be pretty sweet and not waste much time. Some people take 48-70 hours getting home, in the end it takes me 24 hours to get home and 30 hours to get to Angola. I fly from LAX to Houston at midnight, have a 5 hour layover, then fly the “Houston Express” directly from Houston to Luanda, Angola. (More about the Houston express in the next paragraph) From Luanda, I transfer to the local airport and get on a plane to Cabinda, Angola. From Cabinda, I take a bus to my new home for 28 days called Malongo Camp.

The Houston Express is a company started by the Angola national company called Sonangol. They designed the planes around comfort and only have 5 rows of economy seating and 80% first class seating. The catch is, since they have so many fewer seats they have to charge a horrendous amount for tickets – approx. $5600 r/t. A “normal” carrier like Air France, Delta, or Emerites costs about $2000!!! Since Sonangol is a national company with direct interests in the government they can pretty much tell us how we are going to do business while in their country. Instead of taking the cheaper (and longer) route of getting to Angola, if we wanted permits, visa’s, etc. to keep coming we were going to fly the Houston Express... However, since my company has so many people commuting and so few economy seats, they agreed to put us in first class for the 12 hour trip! Long story short, for the longest leg of the trip I get to sit first class, which is very irregular within my company.

So, I got to Angola December 1^st, unpacked all of my things in my new permanent room on base – which is huge because now I do not need to take the 5am bus to arrive at 5:15, instead I can leave my room at 6am and arrive to work by the morning meeting at 6:15am. Likewise, I am free to go back to my room during our 1.5 hour lunch and can walk home when I am done with work instead of waiting for the 6pm bus. (30 minute commute) – I was told that I would be going offshore the next morning and that I needed to make sure that all the equipment was checked and functional. It was a huge job since the Unit, all tools, doghouse, etc were sitting in the yard... I only had time for the important things and prayed for the rest. =) We had stolen the job from our biggest competitor because they didn’t have access to their tools, and the job went perfectly. Everyone involved was praised and we looked great. On top of that, there were all sorts of additional charges since we had to mobilize another unit, it wasn’t our rig, etc,etc, and it was a good payday. =)

I was assigned a lead operator named Clovicio. He has worked for the company for about 10 years and really knows his stuff. He works very hard for me and he speaks perfect English. On my last hitch I had given him my $10 watch and he thinks it’s the best thing since sliced bread. I think it will be great to work with him on jobs.

I did busy work at the shop for the next three weeks then went offshore for another job December 24^th. I have been on this rig since then and expect to stay out here up until it is time for me to leave Angola. Christmas was weird being offshore. Besides being away from family and friends, it was the most non-christmas I have ever experienced. Everyone was basically in denial that it was Christmas. We had a nice lunch and dinner, but besides that, no Christmas songs, no lights, no church service, etc...

We had a small incident on the rig a few days ago, the top drive (the part that travels up and down the rig holding drill pipe in its “tongs”) caught on fire. It turned out to be an electrical fire in a hydraulic brake system, so there was black billowing smoke coming from the rig floor. We stood by the lifeboats for about 2 hours then went back to our duties. The HUGE difference on this rig compared to other rigs is that my company has a satellite set up so we always have internet connection. Internet definitely makes the time go by faster. I am also working out alot on the Helideck.

This rig is called the Ben Rinnes and it is a jack-up rig. It has 3 huge legs that have gears and teeth. The rig floats like a boat to the drilling locations, then slowly puts down the legs until they are resting on the ocean floor. It is a shallow water drilling rig. This link shows an example of said rig... Jack UP Rig

As I have hinted in this blog, things in Angola have gotten somewhat better with the new move onto the base and being assigned a great lead operator who speaks good English... However, the aversion to work for my snake-like, lying, condescending managers here is another story... We will see how it goes and when it will be the most beneficial time for me to leverage leaving, but I will have to renege on many promises I made that this would be my last hitch. I will return for at least one or two more hitches.

Mt Everest Trip (getting there)

I know this blog is late, turns out, I dont stick to things very well. Whats new...

Everything went according to plan on my way home from Angola Oct. 20th, I arrived on Sunday afternoon at about 1pm Chelsea picked me up from LAX and we went home to pack. The following day we had lunch with family, dinner with friends, and then drove down to LAX at 8pm for our flight that left at 1am. (checkin closes at midnight) We got to the long term parking lot where we had a small tragedy - we had forgotten to pack Chelsea's passport.

We went into panic mode. I ran inside and told the guy (that I had just checked in and given the keys to) that I needed my keys back because we had a problem. There was no time to go all the way back up to Bakersfield, so we called Chelsea's mom and she graciously offered to bring it for us all the way to the airport! At this point it was 11pm and it takes about 2 hours to get to LAX. We were sure that we would miss our flight. We circled the airport several times and I got out to talk with the ticket agents at Korean Air to explain our situation. They said that at 12:15 it would be the last possible time to check in, the earliest Chelsea’s mom could arrive is 12:45.

In the end, Chelsea's mom pulled up to the terminal, right behind our car, at 12:45am. Jimmy jumped into the driver’s seat and parked our car for us. We ran to the ticket counter, and through the tears and craziness of the situation the ticket agent let us check-in for our flight would leave in 15 minutes! We ran to the gate, which was a solid ½ - ¾ of a mile away. The rest of the trip went very well. The seats on Korean Air seem to be bigger than Delta and Air France, which was nice because it was a 15-hour and 8-hour plane ride from LA to Seoul and Kathmandu!

When we arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal our friend Matt was waiting for us. We all cleared immigration together and were picked up by our tour company, iTrekNepal. The roads to our hotel were crazy, we had a million of those "gasp" moments where you foresee an accident, but cant get any useful words out. But we arrived at our hotel safely and the adventure begins...

When we got there our tour guide was waiting for us, his name was PM - aka Pretty Man. He was a nice guy and has been hiking for ~15 years. We knew we were in good hands. He explained to us what to expect, the route we would take and some advice about the trip. We would all leave in the morning to go to the airport to catch a plane to Lukla - the starting point of the Everest Base Camp (EBC) trek.

Once we finally got out of the hotel, the first thing that we noticed about Kathmandu is how inexpensive everything is, our first meal was three sandwiches and two 1-L bottles of water for $3.50! Thats crazy. The next thing we noticed is that there are knockoff's of everything, everywhere. Northface, Adidas, Nike, take your pick. That night we went back to the room to get ready for our trek the next day. More on this in further blogs.

Offshore on the West Setia

I have been on this rig for about 2 weeks now and have gotten into a dangerous routine. The saying on the ship is, “You eat until your tired, and you sleep until your hungry.” Something that will not be very good for my Everest Base Camp trek. To make matters worse, I had worked out too hard and temporarily hurt my knee, it feels like arthritus would feel but I will give it a rest and see how it is in a couple of days.

I now have 7 days left on my hitch and 6 days out here on the West Setia. I have done 4 jobs out here with a tool that I did not previously have a lot of experience. So it is good for learning and I am now by myself to do one last run in 2-3 days. I am excited to get home  and see Chelsea, see Matt in Nepal, and check Mt. Everest off the bucket list. On that note, Matt and I originally wanted to do the whole hike to the top of Mt. Everest, but seeing as 33% of people die on the mountain to conditions and things not their fault we decided against it… Everest Base Camp will do.

I have taken many pictures out here and I would love to share them with you. As you can see the living quarters are quite nice, there are a few TV rooms, and a Service engineer room that has two phones and two computers for calling home and checking emails. (Or writing blogs =) I unlucked out, and my bunk is the one in the upper left. The guy underneath of me told me a few days ago, that he says his prayers every night that I don’t fall through. LOL. That would not be good.

Only in Africa would they have Acid Bugs...

Mess Hall

My Room - Im in the upper left bunk.

Bathroom and lockers

Game room - mainly locals hang out here.

The Rig (in the middle) is what pays for the party.

Everything else is for support - lots of stuff is needed

The Helideck

This guy is going to have a long trip back to land.

View of the platform

Yes, I have to hike all those stairs 2-3 times a day! FML.

The bridge to cross from the floating West Setia to the rigid Tambula Landana Platform

The deck of the West Setia

The lifeboats, hopefully I wont see the inside of those.

I am sitting right were the guy in the red is sitting now.

Pilots - Please dont kill us.

Best picture showing the layout of the West Setia and TL Platform

Another view

Malongo - the main city/base of Chevron

We are in the middle of the jungle.

On land again.

The bridge to cross and the West Setia in the background

The flare at night, you can feel its heat 100yds away!

The bridge

The rig at night

Working out on the Helideck

Hello Cabinda, Goodbye Freetime.

It has been a while since my last post and lots has happened. For that reason I will be sparing you a lot of the details and mainly give an overview. I got my receipt on Friday Sept 23 at 8pm, and by 6am the next morning I was on a plane to go to my new semi-permanent home – Cabinda. I flew from the domestic airport in Luanda on a Chevron chartered flight. Then took a bus to the Chevron base Malongo. The base is huge and when I arrived I tried calling both of my managers and no one answered. Fortunately, my friend Jing was walking by and helped take care of me. My badge that I needed to sign in was at a different gate 2-3 miles away. I had all of my luggage with me, and no vehicle to help carry it. They told me to go eat and that they would be back with my badge and a vehicle and sure enough after I had a bite to eat, they came back with a truck. After arriving at the base I met with my bosses boss, the guy who had brought me into Angola and we had an interesting talk.

Previous to coming to Angola I had met three people. All of which were pretty high ranking. The country manager, the BSM (local manager), and another one of my direct managers. However, since I accepted the position ALL of these managers, who made “promises” have left. I now know no one, and worse, no one knows me…

The BSM, Rick, who I was talking to spent about 45 minutes talking with me. We talked about everything pertinent to working in this location. We talked about the food, the hours, the people, the camp, the staff houses, etc… In short, we stay off the base at a staff house 30 minutes away and are transported by bus at 5am and 6pm daily. There are no other cars or ways to get back besides them. So we work 13.5 hours a day minimum. Lunch is served everyday in a facility 2 miles away from my office and its ok. There is normally sandwiches and soup and a variety of cafeteria food. The downside is that we have no vehicles so we have to walk. The people here now are friendly and pretty knowledgeable; but, I guess that they had a “house cleaning” back in January when they got rid of many engineers and managers because of tools breaking and personnel errors that cost us $17 million.

From first impressions on the few days that I spent at the shop and from talks that I have had with people. Everything here is extremely disorganized to add to the confusion everyone is on a back-to-back schedule (35 on/35 off) there is poor transfer of information. So when one boss comes on, he has no idea of the promises/talks you had with the other manger he was replacing. But everything in general is a mess… On top of that, the hours are crazy!!! By the time that you wake up at 4am, shower, eat, bus to work, bus back from work at 6:30pm, eat, then get to your room it is already it is 8pm. Just enough time to get 8 hours of sleep and repeat the schedule again. No time for working out, no time for reading, doing anything personal, etc… Also, the fact that we have to walk everyday to and from the cafeteria is ridiculous… Well see how everything pans out.

I spent the rest of the next two days helping my friend Jing get equipment ready for going offshore and jump through about a million hoops to get badges, access, safety classes, etc. That night I went back to our staff house in Futilla. As we passed a huge-nice house up on a hill the guys said, “There’s our staff house, and there it goes” as we passed it by and kept driving 10 minutes away. I wanted that mansion to be our staff house! It was impressive with many rooms, a pool, a driveway with a guard, but we were still driving… Then we made a U-turn and started driving the other way. I thought to myself. CRAP, there were no nice places that we passed. Then we pulled up to the Impressive Mansion that will be my home for the next many years! SWEET!!! I will take some pictures and upload them later…

The next day I was around the shop getting paperwork ready to go offshore. I would be leaving the morning after next on Wednesday. Wednesday came around and we went to the docks where the helicopters fly us out to the rigs. The rigs are approx. 20-30 miles offshore, a ~20 minute chopper ride.

As we arrive to the rig it is exactly how you imagine it. We landed on the top deck of the housing quarters. (The West Setia) I was shown to my room and met my four roommates. The rooms are decent size for being on a ship, but the ship and drilling platform is HUGE HUGE HUGE. I will take some pictures and post them when I get back because the internet here is very slow. I will also post the remainder of my time offshore, but right now I need to catch a chopper off this place.

Mt. Everest, here we come!

In the past few months I have been talking to one of my friends Matt about places that we want to visit or things we want to do before we stop commuting – essentially a bucket list for commuting. He has been commuting for about 1.5 years longer than me, so naturally my list is much longer than his. However, it just so happens that he and I have aligning days off after this work hitch, so Chelsea, Matt, and I decided to knock out one of the things on the list – Mt. Everest Base Camp! (which was earlier Mt. Everest, but since around 25%-50% of hikers die on the trek for things beyond their control, we changed it to hiking to the base camp.) I have to admit, Matt was originally going to do the trip solo or with a group, but realizing the timing of our days off he invited Chelsea and I to join him – ok, I kindof invited ourselves. =)

For the last three days Chelsea and I have been deciding if we wanted to do the trip right now or not. We both have poured through countless webpages and blogs about the trek and finally decided to do it. Even though its just hiking to the base camp its still at 17,600’ elevation and requires many days of acclimatization. (allowing your body to adjust for the change in oxygen percentage) We have yet to find a guide or set a solid schedule, but that will come soon. The best synopsis of a “normal” schedule, track distances, and change in elevation per day can be found here http://www.rei.com/adventures/trips/asia/nepal_everest.html

We bought tickets today and will attempt this trek in 17 total days, arriving on Oct. 24^th and departing on Nov. 9^th. One funny thing with the trip is that we fly from Kathmandu to Seoul, then leave Seoul at 2am on the 10^th and arrive in LAX on the 9^th at 8pm. LOL – I love it when the dateline works in your favor. I guess that the timing of the trek depends largely on the individual and how long it takes to acclimatize – so well see how it goes for us. Nonetheless, we are extremely excited for the trip and to see Matt, a close friend who we haven’t seen in over two years!!

I am definitely the most unfit one in the group and have started training hardcore, working out three times a day, using three different programs – P90X, Insanity, and Amped Abs – conveniently, non of these require a gym! I plan to lose 1 pound or more every two days for the remainder of my 28 day work hitch. Not to mention, get stronger and build endurance for the hike.

As for my last few work days in Angola. I went into the office and met our country manager, he said that he had some things for me to do while I am waiting for my receipt and my base pass and I was actually greatful. Ive been going crazy with boredom! He also told me that I would be able to work from my room since space is limited in Escom and transportation difficult. He was a nice guy. That day I worked from 6am until 6pm and by days end I had done all the things he had asked me to do for the week. I think I will turn in one thing at a time until Monday though… =)

I moved to a new room today. It’s a lot bigger with a nicer shower and better bed. I don’t think that my feet will fall asleep on it anymore! Score. See pictures below.

Food that I brought for the trip. So far I have eaten LOTS! I need to bring more next time.

New Room

New Room 2

Bathroom

Jetlagged...

After talking with a few friends from Angola, I decided that since I didn’t have any notarized copies of my Visa and Passport - and that if I got inspected by a police officer that I would go to an Angolan jail - that I should work from home the next day. I probably wouldn’t see my bosses boss again anyway. This was good, because due to jetlag, or my addiction to finishing TV Series the day that I start them, I didn’t go to sleep until 5am. In fact, the season finale of V was so exciting that I couldn’t go to sleep for about an hour after I started trying…

At 7:04am, there was a knock on my door and then I heard “What yoou doooin in ma room boy” (Tinidad accent, similar to Jamaican). Patrick had arrived, and had been traveling for 3 days straight, and they shouldn’t have put me in his room. After getting to the bottom of who is in which room, who is coming, etc. We found out that all the rooms in staff house 6 were full!!! They assigned me to the Ilha a completely new, and big staff house about 7km away. The guy who assigned my room on the phone told me that he would send a bus at 10am to take me to my new staff house. I packed up all my things, then waited downstairs. I waited some more, then at noon, I called this guy and he said, "oh yea I will send a bus right now". Seriously?! Long story short, I arrived at the Ilha 3 hours later and it took us 2 hours to go 7 km – that’s stupid.

The drive to the new staff house was very nice. The road went along the ocean and there were palm trees on either side. The restaurants and buildings all seemed to get nicer, and nicer, I was excited about this new staff house! Then we turned down a dirt street revealing shanties on each side and finally arrived at a large 6 story building. The reception guy spoke good English, and put me in room 23. See pictures below.

Palm Tree's on Both Sides

Shanties

The room is fine but, of course, I am too large for the bed and since it has a wood frame, my feet constantly fall asleep  from resting on the wood unless I sleep diagonal. The only other complaint is there is also no gym in this staff house, but aside from that no complaints.

That night, immediately after I had dinner I saw a big group of expats, ranging in age from 25-40, congregating just outside the front doors of the staff house. I went outside to introduce myself and they told me that they were going out to celebrate one of their guys getting transferred to another location – Nigeria. They invited me to come, and said that the company would pay for the food and drink. I ran upstairs grabbed some money, and ~20 of us start walking down the shanty street, then about half a mile down the main street arrived at a Chinese restaurant. There were already seven people at the dinner, and everyone that I met was nice. People kept straggling in as they got off work and fought the traffic, and after the appetizers and a few beers, of course, my bosses boss walks in and sits two seats down from me. He never asked me about work or said anything awkward, and for the rest of the meal we enjoyed the food and many drinks. At about 11 o’clock the part was winding down, the majority of the people had to work the next morning at 6am. However, one guy, Jason said that he wanted to go out and if I wanted to come. Of course I did!

There were four of us that continued on to a small nightclub about a 10 minute car ride into town. We had fun until about 4 in the morning, and after having only an hour of sleep the night before, I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

1 pm came fast that morning and when I woke up, I was not in a good state. I meandered down to the cafeteria and the cook made me some fries and pork chops. I did some work that afternoon, and at dinner the guys that I had gone out with the night before invited me to go play poker with them. Poker was fun, there were about 7 guys plaing and I ended u splitting the pot with another guy so the game didn’t go on forever. I went back to my room at around 11:30pm and couldn’t sleep until 4am. Stupid Jetlag!

Sunday is a half-day for expats in Angola and at 3pm we all went down to the beach where there was a nice bar called Miami Beach (lol). We drank until sunset then walked back to our rooms. It was good to be in this staff house where the majority of the people are my age and everyone hangs out a lot. Too bad Im only here for another 5 days, then on to Cabinda.

I think that this map below shows the approximate location of the staff house (green arrow). http://maps.google.com/maps?q=-8.770088,13.253817&hl=en&ll=-8.806199,13.24419&spn=0.085243,0.132093&sll=-8.770191,13.253417&sspn=0.021313,0.033023&vpsrc=6&doflg=ptk&t=m&z=14

My 1st hitch off and my 1st day back in Luanda, Angola

My first hitch of days off have come to an end. It was a good time with friends, family, and lots of vacation! After coming back on Sunday from Saudi Arabia, Chelsea had arranged to throw me a surprise party with lots of friends and family to reunite after 10 weeks of being away! It was a great night. Thanks Chelsea!!!  The following day I spent in Bakersfield and got to see our good friend’s babies, Payton and Hudson, as well as many more family and friends. Then on Monday night we left to go to Tulum, Mexico for a week’s vacation with Hillary and Greg, my sister-in-law and her boyfriend. The resort that we stayed at was incredible and all-inclusive; needless to say after spending 5 weeks in dry-Saudi, it was just what the doctor ordered. It was great to get to know Hillary and Greg better, but after a week we were headed back to Bakersfield. We spent Monday and Tuesday in Bakersfield, but by Wednesday the itch to travel was starting on us both. We talked that afternoon about going to Paris and by nights end we had booked tickets for Thursday afternoon to make the 5 day trip.

Paris was really fun and it was so cool to see first hand all of the tourist attractions you see in movies and pictures. Chelsea and I visited the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Palace of Versailles, the Arch de Triumph and many more places! It was a very fun, and romantic, trip. My only regret/advise is to avoid doing tourist things on Monday, 75% of places are closed on Monday. However, there was a two day pass to most all of the museums that we purchased that was very useful and we were able to use it for more than two days. Also, learn to like bread. I thought the food here was so-so, but the baguettes were incredible (and cheap)! We got back to LA on Tuesday and stayed in Bakersfield for about 2 weeks until I went to Denver for a bachelor party and Chelsea went to Wisconsin for a wedding. (same weekend)

The bachelor party went down without a glitch. There were some funny moments, we seemed to have gotten the only limo still in service that was made in the  1970’s and was literally falling apart from neglect, but we laughed it off and made the best of it, it added character to the trip. After the bachelor party I met Chelsea in Wisconsin for the long weekend and one of her close friends took off a few more days to spend with Chelsea and I. We both had a great time in Wisconsin, it is beautiful there with lush grass and tree’s everywhere and every meal we had was superb! Claudia’s buffalo chicken cheese dip was especially fantastic! While we were in Wisconsin, we got to visit the Leinenkugel’s brewery. The third oldest and fourth largest handcrafted brewery in the country, of course we had beer tastings at the end of it, the Leine’s Berry Weis was Chelsea and my favorite! We brought back 10 bottles.

I was home for another week, and then Chelsea took me back down to LA to drop me off at the airport for what we prepared would be a very stressful day! Since the Angolan consulate only issues visa’s to enter Angola within 72 hours of its issue, it makes the trips and flight paths difficult. At 3pm my passport (and visa) was released from the consulate in Houston, then a courier took it to the airport and put it on a plane to LAX that was supposed to arrive at 8:15pm, and my flight was at 9:00pm. So I was going to check my bags with my second passport, then pick up my passport with the Visa and then return to the airport and try to get through security as fast as possible. Maybe it was all the praying, but the courier was able to get it on an earlier flight that landed at 5:30pm in LAX! Crisis averted! Little did we know…

Chelsea and I love eating at a restaurant called Gyu Kaku. It is a small Japanese BBQ restaurant in West Hollywood. There is a small grill in the middle of the table and you can choose from many meats to grill. The meat is so hot as it comes off the grill and the experience so unique that this has been my favorite restaurant on the planet for about 2 years! It never gets old to me, even though in essence you pay to cook your own meat. Before we ate we got a GREAT parking spot right outside, and since the meter said “monitored 10am to 4pm” we didn’t even have to pay as it was 3:51 and there was 9 minutes left in the meter! Once we were done with a great linner we walked back outside and our car was gone! After walking to the corner we say the sign “Anti-Gridlock Zone 4pm-6pm, No Parking, Violators will be towed.” It was 6pm and since it was after hours, the city would not pick up to let us know which tow company had our car. We started calling every tow company in West LA, and luckily found the car. It was only a block away from the restaurant so we walked it. We were both sooo happy to see our car (with all my work luggage inside) that we didn’t care at that point how much it cost. That didn’t last long. About 5 minutes after we started driving, we realized there was a ticket under the wiper for $170 to the city on top of the $225 (125 of which went to the city) we had already spent to get the car released!! HOW IS CA BANKRUPT!?!

We carried on to Pinkberry, Chelsea’s favorite place in LA before picking up my passport and dropping me off at the airport for an otherwise uneventful remaining trip. I had gotten upgraded on the long flight to Paris (yes, the exact same flight we had taken 3 weeks earlier) to premium, which is basically old-school first class seats, which was really nice.

I had never realized how truly nice the airport lounges were until I took a shower in the Air France lounge after my long 11-hour flight! I forgot to take a picture, but this will definitely be my M.O. from now on when I have layovers in Paris!! I thought that I was going to get equally lucky on my flight to Luanda, I had gotten a exit, bulkhead row with no one sitting in the middle. BIG SCORE. I took a 1 hour nap, then when I woke up, there was this big guy sitting in the middle seat, equally as broad as myself. We elbow wrestled the rest of the trip. Clearing immigration in Luanda was  breeze, but then when I went to get my baggage I waited, waited, waited, then the conveyer stopped! Crap! I went over to lost and found and filled out 15 minutes worth of paperwork, thinking I would never see my bag again. Then when I left, there was my bag sitting like a present right outside the lost and found area. I still don’t know how it got there, and I don’t care.

I went outside and breathed in the unhealthy Luanda air and waited for about an hour for my ride to the staff house. Meanwhile, this Angolan guy was talking to me for about 40 minutes. Ultimately, he was hustling me for a cliff bar, he said he hadn’t eaten for days and he looked like he could be telling the truth. I gladly gave him a cliff bar, then he scampered off…

I had forgotten how crazily the people and drivers are in Angola. When you step into a car, its like you are getting ready for battle to see who can beat who on the streets. Sidewalks with pedestrians, dirt fields with HUGE potholes, or driving into oncoming traffic, anywhere is fair driving grounds. Unfortunately, we drove on all the mentioned ground plus more I think. We also got stuck in one of the huge potholes. I had to get out and help push with 3 more Angolan passerby’s to get the car out. The trip really got my blood pressure up there.

Finally arriving at staff house 6, they assigned me to room 22 for the week. My duffle that I had left was conveniently in this room, but I was sad that my friend, Mr. Patrick was not here, but I was happy to take his room.

After trying to get transportation for nearly 2 hours I finally made it down to the head office to submit my passport to Immigration. I had been instructed that I will remain in Luanda until I get my receipt from Immigration, a process that has taken up to 8 weeks before. The visa lady told me it should only take a week, but we will see. I will lay low and work from the comfort of my room until I get the receipt. At dinner, I was not overly talkative but still this guy from Australia was prodding me to see what I was all about. After a few minutes he said that he was the district manager for Cabinda, my bosses, boss. He told me that he would see me at work tomorrow…

Days Off #1

Once the clock hits zero (previous blog), I will have landed in LAX and my 37 day vacation will officially begin!! This marks my first commuting vacation, excluding the time off after Canada, which was different. Sunday will mark my 71st day of work and I have noticed a trend in my performance. I have made a graph that shows my performance over time. (see below) The amount of actual productive work that I do every day is plummeting over the last ten days (similar to my stocks over the same period, Halliburton -22%!! FML) so much so that I actually have done "negative work" the last two days. How is this possible you ask? By distracting others from doing their own productive work to not only have zero productive work for myself but decrease theirs as well - misery loves company.. All this to say, Im ready to be done working... =)

I should get home on Sunday at 11am, then maybe Chelsea and I will go to Gyu Kaku - my favorite restaurant in Los Angeles, then Pinkberry because I know she likes it so much - and even if I did like/love it myself, I dont think I could admit it... Then we plan to go home, see friends, and wake up early Monday morning and hopefully go with Ashley and Ryan and meet their babies! Maybe get some motorcycle riding in, then off to the dentist. Finally, at 11:45pm we will get on a plane to Cancun, which we are already upgraded to first class too, then meet up with Hillary and Greg for a 5-day all-inclusive vacation!! Since alcohol is outlawed in Saudi, I havent seen a drink in forever. The all-inclusive resort could be an amazing-terrible combination!

As for the rest of our vacation, I have a bachelor party for my good friend Dave S. from Sept 2-4, then I will meet up with Chelsea in Wisconsin until Sept. 8th, then back to Bakersfield for 5-6 days before leaving for Angola. We are also tossing around the idea of maybe going to NYC for site seeing, Rhode Island to see my buddy Matt, and Delaware to see family. We will have to see how the babies are doing when we get back from Mexico and if I will need more time to recharge before going back for another 35 day stint.

I wish I could have the discipline to tell all you good people about our travels while on vacation, but its just not gonna happen right now. So goodbye for now, you'll be hearing from around mid-September! 

When it hurts...

I now have until I am finally home after 10 straight work weeks!! I have never been more ready. The distance is starting to get to me and I’m starting to realize that commuting sucks when special things happen at home. Hopefully, this next week will be an easy week due to Ramadan. I had to change rooms one more time because of another guy coming and I found a place that gives a mean haircut and shave.

When it hurts the godfather...

This last week was a great week for Bakersfield. Our close friends gave birth to a boy and girl, Hudson and Payton! We are so happy for them, and I cant wait to meet them myself. Ashley did great and the babies came out on rails. The two are slightly underweight so they are still in the hospital, but they should be out soon! Using my aircard, I was able to skype with Chelsea the whole time and see pictures as soon as they were born, which is incredible in its own right, but doesn’t replace an in-person experience. I guess comes it with the position, but this has been the first time that I really hated being away from home for a specific moment. (On that note, it is worth pointing out, that if any “life-threatening illness or sickness needing aid” happens to any family member, the company will put me on the next flight out of the country with the most expedited path – regardless of the cost.) What makes this even more exciting? Chelsea and I are the godparents of Payton! We are both so honored and excited to be a part of their lives.

Ramadan...

Tomorrow is the start of Ramadan, and even though I am not Muslim I will get to experience the month of fasting since eating and drinking are both not allowed in public in Saudi Arabia. Aside from the eating, my life will be mostly the same with a few additional “perks.” The normal working ours for Ops people have changed from 7am-5pm to 5am-11am, allowing the necessary rest for the fasting and to try to work during cool hours. The 6 hour work day will be awesome, and just what I needed going into week 10…

Haircut...

Inside the Eurovillage I found a gem! There is a barber shop with two guys, one from Pakistan and the other  from Somolia. I coincidentally was there for something else when he looked at me and said, let me cut your hair. I asked, “Do you shave too?” he did! He was a funny guy who showed me how many different styles I could have, he wet my hair and combed it back and said “see Italian” then combed my hair from one side to the other and said “German” (Hitler). I got a head massage to start, then the haircut, then a proper old-school shave, then another shave, then two more. By the end, it was the closest shave I have ever had on my face – I couldn’t feel one prickle. LOL After the shaving, he put a hot cloth on my face, took it off, sprayed me with a squirt bottle with freezing cold water, then put the warm cloth back on. All-in-all it was the most complete haircut/shave I have ever had! How much you ask? $7 then tipped him $3!! Crazy.

As far as locations go, Saudi is one of the best. You get your own car, the food is good, its close to a city, and the rooms are awesome. The only downside is that it is 30-60 minutes away from the workshop. It sets the bar high and now Im going to be spoiled when I go to Angola. =(

You Dont Realize How Good You Have It...!

I have now been working for 59 days, and still have 12 days left. I have never been so ready to be home in my life. At the end of all this I will have been away from my bed, my dogs, and my wife for 71 days! Depending on how you look at it, that’s 10 weeks, 1700 hours, or 20% of a whole year! We are definitely going to go on a loooooooooong vacation when I get home!

I am currently on a job that has been going for 30 hours and I haven’t been able to sleep yet. I am babbling, and really slaphappy, so I apologize in advance if this blog rambles. Since I don’t have much new to tell you about, I’ll share with you whats on my mind.

You never realize how good you have it until you experience the contrast between your way of life and someone else’s. The Arabian world is so different I thought I would point out some of these differences and share them with you.

Religion/Prayer

In Saudi Arabia 99% of the population is Muslim and religion is something that greatly impacts everyday life. First off, prayer is done 5 times a day, once before sunrise, another time at high noon, another time at 15:30, another time at 1830, then one last time at 2030. Before each of these prayers they stop whatever they were doing – businesses even close during prayer times, and can be shut down permanently if they don’t – then they wash their hands, face, head, mouth, nose, feet, and arms with water. Finally, they pray for 10-15 minutes… In my opinion, this is an amazing display of faith, discipline, and priorities. I think that we can all learn something from this in our own religions.

Saudi Arabia is one of three countries that has religious rule (the other two being Afghanistan and Pakistan). Islam and the Koran dominate the way their government is run, the laws that are in place, the way family is managed, and their economy. It is a very strict and criminals are dealt with harshly. Sex before marriage and drug trafficking have death tolls, stealing costs you your hands, etc. Furthermore, women are to take care of the family and once a women is married they “belong” to the man. The black dress “Black Ghosts” is a stretch of this rule. No other man should be able to look at another mans wife, so no part of their skin can be seen…

The Kingdom

Saudi Arabia, the area, started with many tribes of people who believed in a few religious men. The old king befriended and gathered the religious people and developed the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is still known as the Kingdom. The king is seen as the protector of the two holy cities. Coincidentally, to my knowledge, the laws aren’t really applied to the king, as he controls the power.

Freedom Rights

“Rights” that we consider as god-given or second nature are not necessarily acknowledged here. Killing, lying, adultery, etc. are against the law, but freedom of speech and expression are definitely not protected. Moreover, gays are put to death, women cannot drive (maybe they did something right =), drinking is forbidden, and women may not go out without a chaperon who must be a brother, father, husband, or son.

My Opinion

I think that in many areas Saudi Arabia needs to evolve into a better nation; however, I also think that its conservatism is great for raising the family, religion, hard work, and discipline. In my opinion, I think that the biggest problem with America today is that we lack discipline, we leave our kids to raise themselves (or have someone else do it all together), or we give in to mediocre-“luke-warm” faith’s. All of the problems we have like corruption, morality, crime, laziness, obesity, etc. etc. are linked to these three issues. For that, I think we could learn something from Saudi Arabia.

I know that I may have offended some of you, I am sorry, but it is also your right to have your own beliefs. Also, I am not saying that we should treat our women or people like the Saudi’s treat theres. My only point is that no one is staying home to take care of the kids anymore and very few people have visible strong faiths in the western world. I am one of these western people. But I will try harder...

Video Calling - $1 per hour!!

Great news! I finally have internet in my room and can use skype outside of work. I purchased a USB aircard that is really fast (5mB down – 3mB up) for only $30usd. Once all the calculations are done, it costs about $1 per hour of video calls, which is incredible so I can talk to Chelsea from my room. I can also use the internet without going through the companies firewalls, so that means I can watch YouTube, download songs from iTunes, and get on Facebook. Awesomeness!

My roommate, Nour and Salim are really nice, fun people, from Egypt and Algeria respectively. They think that I am crazy (literally) and frequently ask why I don’t ask to stay in Saudi. We have already started to become good friends and I feel like I can talk to them about “sensitive” issues. I have already had good talks with them about the culture, the religion, and the politics in the Middle East. I do not side with them on many issues, but the issue of the US/UK continuing to fight wars that do not “belong to them” is hard to argue, especially when the US/UK do not worry about disputes in non-oil rich countries…

The food continues to be good here, and I have played basketball with the Chinese guys 3 more times. They all work for the same company, Sinopec that does contract management and construction, organizing all the services companies for Saudi Aramco and constructing anything ranging from pipe-lines to advanced office buildings. Their schedules are not very good, living here for six months and then days off for one mopnth!!! One interesting fact I discovered is the biggest construction company in Saudi, who is closely related to the royal family, is “Bin Laden Co.,” the family company that allowed Osama Bin Laden to have millions of dollars.

Since my last job things have settled down here a lot. Most everyone has checked out their tools, trucks, and personnel. Now we are waiting for the next wave of jobs, which seems to be in 2-3 days. It looks like we will have 4 jobs all at once!! Until they start we are slow and I fill my time on travel sites, finance, Wikipedia, and eBay. I need to get a hobby.

With the position in Angola and the visa process being complicated, many times your scheduled days off don’t come through on time. This makes it hard to plan vacations since many times and reservations must be made months in advance. So instead of having Chelsea or I decide we are going to (blank) and planning the vacation for (blank), I have started working on a planner that allows us to choose by activity, month, or location for all of the places that we want to visit, highlighting food, activities, and sites for each. Ideally, we will be able to go many of the places just at the end of their peak seasons when availabilities are high and costs are low. With that said, today I focused on ski trips. It seems like there is always snow somewhere and the logical destinations are Chile and New Zealand in our summer/fall, Wyoming, Colorado, and Canada in our winter, and Switzerland, France, and Italy in our spring.

That’s enough rambling for now.

While you were sleeping...

The time difference between Saudi Arabia and the West Coast is +10 hours. So when it is 12:00 noon here, it is 02:00 in the morning in CA. Hence the title.

Well, once again I fail to deliver on time to the blog. However, I now have some good pictures from Saudi Arabia that include some scenery, architecture, friends, shop, and the Eurovillage. Enjoy.

A Camel running by our truck

One security entrance to Eurovillage - where we live.

This was $8!!! =)

These high-rises used to hold the US Navy from the 1990's to 2003.

Getting my operators hyped up for the job

The guy in the back was hard cat to crack...

The roads look like this for across the majority of the country.

This guy had his truck breakdown for a weak, bummer dude.

Sand blown onto the road

This was in the middle of nowhere, tons and tons of camels!

Exit to the shop, hardcore security just outside the gate

The hospital in Khobar, the corner has a cool shape

Weird looking balloon building

The entrance to my apartment

Nice doors and pillars

The following pictures are of my new room. I didn’t have a key and called a security guard to come open my door, and when we walked in I said, “Are you sure this is Hibiscus 1???” I couldn’t believe how nice the rooms could be at this facility. Im kind of angry because you don’t realize what you don’t have until you experience it, and now I will always think – well its not as nice as Saudi – about the rooms I get in other locations. The apartment is so over the top, it is about 1800sqft. and there are 2 other people that I share it with. There is 8 person table, full kitchen, laundry room, 3 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, and a huge living room. The rooms are also unnecessarily large, I never even walk in the back half of my room… All of the floor and walls are marble.

Entrance way

Living room

Kitchen and table

My bathroom

My room - again, I clean for no one! =) (sorry chels)

My puppy friend, seen this guy for about 3 days now.

Overview of the compound architecture

Ambulance and Hospital in Eurovillage

Gym

Market to buy general things

Most of our trucks are unmarked like this one...