Yesterday was my 11th day offshore. I have till 22nd July.
It was also the tipping point of me breaking down into a complete mess, face slobbering full of tears and snot gushing down onto my coveralls, which were already stained all over with lube oil.
I spent 40 minutes crying and speaking incoherently down the phone to Kiat, channeling all my inner fears, doubts, failures, fury, and shame.
I don't even know what the hardest point is.
Whether it is struggling to understand normal BM spoken in a different accent, or a completely different BM dialect, which contains multiple words that I don't understand.
Whether it is having only theoretical knowledge of how things work, and having zero idea on how things actually work.
Whether it is being looked down upon by a crew of men that I'm supposed to command, because I know nothing. And the reality is that I blatantly accept and admit it, hoping that I'll get some leeway and some forgiveness, hoping that they'll give me time and room to growth, but no, expectations are high. The younger they are, the less forgiving they are.
Whether it is having not a lot of interest in things that I'm actually doing, that even though I understand and am fascinated by it, I still see it as a clear line of me switching into a zone where I work, instead of switching into a zone where I learn.
Whether it is being verbally harassed by rude men and having a really rude stranger barge into your room to hang his clothes, and say things like it would not take him 3 hours to drive me back to KL but 24 hours instead because he would first take me to a hotel, only to report these things to the OIM and be told why don't you just lock your door instead.
Whether it is the initiative to learn and to spend your whole day on site, and when your men are done with work by 6pm, you continue your office work till 11pm, yet all of these go unnoticed and instead you receive comments like sibuk, kononnnya.
Whether even your own personal life gets intruded and people doubt that when you go to the gym you actually work out, and say that you're just there to arrange the weights back instead.
Whether it is due to the AC having broken down for three days down and the fan in your room is not working, and the person who lent you his fan made you return it every morning to his office even though he's not using it.
Whether it is running out of toothpaste, or my face breaking out, and I don't even have the time to put a face mask on.
Whether it is the food becoming so repetitive, oily/fried, cold soft-boiled eggs in the morning, rice with gulai/curry every day, yet those are all the choices you have.
Whether it is the strong winds and the orcas on a nearby platform indicating bad weather is coming, and they already cancelled boats back to land and replaced them with choppers instead, making you wonder if you'll make it home on Monday.
Whether it is the fact that is this all really worth it for my job, that I've missed a reunion with one of my closest friends who only come home once a year, and I missed celebrating her birthday with her and just talking and catching up, in general.
.
When I was done and tired with crying I went and took a hot shower and spent 2 hours to myself Youtube-ing. That was yesterday night.
It's a new day.
Thursday, July 18
Tuesday, July 9
Love It If We Made It
Listening to this song on loop again has me quite nostalgic. It reminded me of the early days when Kiat and I were still in the courting phase and I was seriously addicted to this song and had it on repeat. Fast forward nearly 9 months in, and my life has taken a whole turn.
Currently offshore for the 2nd day of my 14 day trip and feeling pretty emotional. Feeling pretty stressed out due to work because of my workload and having to juggle multiple people's emotions and leaving no room for myself. Feeling pretty down because food is terrible. Missing home a whole lot. Thinking about friends who are already/going to be back and that I'm not going to be there and then be like fml is this really worth it.
Mentally prepared myself for this 2 week trip, which is my first one btw, because I really, really wanted to see if I could do it, and also this is probably the most worth-it 2 weeks I'll get in a while. It involves changing out the engine and gearbox unit of one of our turbine generators, a Solar Centaur 50 to be exact, and it's actually pretty exciting. The preparation to go into this was immense - it involved a lot of sitting down with experienced people to know what parts I need to order, what tools are needed, shipping things onto the platform, making sure that the containers are tested for their 6 monthly tests in time, making sure that the containers make it on the platform in time, making sure that whatever jobs that are before this job is cleared in time, making sure that whatever job is going to be happening after this job will also have sufficient parts, making sure that the correct people needed will go on the platform at the right time, making sure that their offshore passports and competency certificates have not expired, making sure that the construction team onboard knows that I need them to help me build a scaffold at the right time, making sure that all the work orders and purchase orders and paperwork needed for this thing is in place, making sure that my 50 page workpack is all in order with the correct procedures and hazard analysis and job schedule and job method statement yadayada is all intact and approved by three layers of people, and so of course I had to be here because something's bound to go wrong and then everyone will be yelling at me.
At the same time I'm also still doing this while a million other rotating equipment have problems on the platform. I think everyone should skip this paragraph except for lml. There's a firewater pump service maintenance going on right now and they couldn't find some parts. Then the boss wants me to find the right people to check the check valve in the discharge line to make sure that it is passing in the right direction just because some other fucking platform had a problem with theirs so all of a sudden we have to check ours as well. Then one of my glycol pump units bearing housing burst and the shaft got stuck and the standby unit in the same train is still being repaired in the workshop. Then one of my gas turbines that drives my compressor unit was just undergoing a routine maintenance and suddenly they find like 30 blades being chipped off and now I have to answer a million bosses at the same time about why this is happening, how we're going to mitigate it, whether this unit is being declared out of service, or do we have to send this fucking engine all the way back to klang. Then my bladders for my condensate pumps are bursting at a rate of once per month and they cost fucking 30k each and my budget for the year has already burst. My air compressor still has to wait for the vendor to send some fucking rubber material to repair the mounting while they only discovered the problem with the mounting when they were done with the repair for the machine itself after 6 fucking months.
I'm ranting. I know. I'm sorry.
This was all happening while i meet yet another fucking creepy guy on the platform and the last thing I told Kiat was, this is the least of my problems now. At least I can push it aside because the only person I have to answer to is myself, because the only thing that is compromised is my emotions.
Person A: Qiu you pernah naik kereta Syafiq?
Me: *turns around and face them halfway through dinner* Aaah ya.
Person A: Ok ke?
Me: Ok je ambil 3 jam camtu. *turns back and continues eating dinner*
Person B: Wa kalau saya yg ambil Qiu bukan 3 jam saje 24 jam la.
Person A: Aaah kan bawa naik hotel semua.
I don't think it hit me until like 2 hours later what they said. Person A is the same guy who was staying in my room before this and accidentally left his shirt in my room. When I asked him if he wanted it back he said boleh nanti la. Saya ada pasang CCTV kat baju tu.
Its a lot. Especially when offshore, you have to deal with bosses who don't really know how to act around women sometimes and they try and get your attention by demanding that you answer directly to them or create problems out of nowhere for you. Or when someone steals your coveralls from your room and kept them for himself.
I just needed to get this out of my system.
Currently offshore for the 2nd day of my 14 day trip and feeling pretty emotional. Feeling pretty stressed out due to work because of my workload and having to juggle multiple people's emotions and leaving no room for myself. Feeling pretty down because food is terrible. Missing home a whole lot. Thinking about friends who are already/going to be back and that I'm not going to be there and then be like fml is this really worth it.
Mentally prepared myself for this 2 week trip, which is my first one btw, because I really, really wanted to see if I could do it, and also this is probably the most worth-it 2 weeks I'll get in a while. It involves changing out the engine and gearbox unit of one of our turbine generators, a Solar Centaur 50 to be exact, and it's actually pretty exciting. The preparation to go into this was immense - it involved a lot of sitting down with experienced people to know what parts I need to order, what tools are needed, shipping things onto the platform, making sure that the containers are tested for their 6 monthly tests in time, making sure that the containers make it on the platform in time, making sure that whatever jobs that are before this job is cleared in time, making sure that whatever job is going to be happening after this job will also have sufficient parts, making sure that the correct people needed will go on the platform at the right time, making sure that their offshore passports and competency certificates have not expired, making sure that the construction team onboard knows that I need them to help me build a scaffold at the right time, making sure that all the work orders and purchase orders and paperwork needed for this thing is in place, making sure that my 50 page workpack is all in order with the correct procedures and hazard analysis and job schedule and job method statement yadayada is all intact and approved by three layers of people, and so of course I had to be here because something's bound to go wrong and then everyone will be yelling at me.
At the same time I'm also still doing this while a million other rotating equipment have problems on the platform. I think everyone should skip this paragraph except for lml. There's a firewater pump service maintenance going on right now and they couldn't find some parts. Then the boss wants me to find the right people to check the check valve in the discharge line to make sure that it is passing in the right direction just because some other fucking platform had a problem with theirs so all of a sudden we have to check ours as well. Then one of my glycol pump units bearing housing burst and the shaft got stuck and the standby unit in the same train is still being repaired in the workshop. Then one of my gas turbines that drives my compressor unit was just undergoing a routine maintenance and suddenly they find like 30 blades being chipped off and now I have to answer a million bosses at the same time about why this is happening, how we're going to mitigate it, whether this unit is being declared out of service, or do we have to send this fucking engine all the way back to klang. Then my bladders for my condensate pumps are bursting at a rate of once per month and they cost fucking 30k each and my budget for the year has already burst. My air compressor still has to wait for the vendor to send some fucking rubber material to repair the mounting while they only discovered the problem with the mounting when they were done with the repair for the machine itself after 6 fucking months.
I'm ranting. I know. I'm sorry.
This was all happening while i meet yet another fucking creepy guy on the platform and the last thing I told Kiat was, this is the least of my problems now. At least I can push it aside because the only person I have to answer to is myself, because the only thing that is compromised is my emotions.
Person A: Qiu you pernah naik kereta Syafiq?
Me: *turns around and face them halfway through dinner* Aaah ya.
Person A: Ok ke?
Me: Ok je ambil 3 jam camtu. *turns back and continues eating dinner*
Person B: Wa kalau saya yg ambil Qiu bukan 3 jam saje 24 jam la.
Person A: Aaah kan bawa naik hotel semua.
I don't think it hit me until like 2 hours later what they said. Person A is the same guy who was staying in my room before this and accidentally left his shirt in my room. When I asked him if he wanted it back he said boleh nanti la. Saya ada pasang CCTV kat baju tu.
Its a lot. Especially when offshore, you have to deal with bosses who don't really know how to act around women sometimes and they try and get your attention by demanding that you answer directly to them or create problems out of nowhere for you. Or when someone steals your coveralls from your room and kept them for himself.
I just needed to get this out of my system.
Sunday, May 12
Perhaps the mundane rhythm of it, or the constant upheaval of your life every weekend, or maybe even the non-ending question of where to eat?, or maybe it's everything that makes Kerteh bearable and unbearable at the same time.
Six months ago when I chose to embark on this journey of moving my life halfway across the peninsular I didn't think it would be a big deal. I started on November 18th, so it's 5 more days till my half year anniversary, crazy innit.
But it is a big deal.
Being kind of close yet kind of far makes you want to travel back every weekend, yet the journey also wears you out. I've gotten to a point where door-to-door from my office in Kerteh to my house in KL on Thursday afternoons take me less than 3 hours. That will be 2 hours of 160km/hr on LPT, an okay speed on Karak for roughly half an hour, and then 15 minutes to tackle the MRR2 from Gombak all the way till home ground. The 2 hours are boring and makes you want to sleep, the Karak stretch is strenuous, despite having driven it both ways for more than 10 times now I'm still weary every time, of a sudden car spinning in front of me or surging past me or the downward slopes that never seem to end.
I do it because there's nothing in Kerteh to do. I do it because I miss my family and Seng Kiat. I do it because I miss food in KL. I do it simply to keep my sanity, let's put it this way.
I'm ever grateful to mum for sorting out my laundry situation every weekend. Ever grateful to my parents who are always there for me. Ever grateful to Seng Kiat who deals with this kind of long distance but not really. Ever grateful for being back at home.
This past weekend was Rice's commencement ceremony. Can't believe it's been a year since I ran down the bus in my full graduation gown with a bus full of black women cheering for me while I stripped my heels off and sped across the lawn, right in front of a bunch of professors because I was severely late for graduation.
It's too fast.
Six months ago when I chose to embark on this journey of moving my life halfway across the peninsular I didn't think it would be a big deal. I started on November 18th, so it's 5 more days till my half year anniversary, crazy innit.
But it is a big deal.
Being kind of close yet kind of far makes you want to travel back every weekend, yet the journey also wears you out. I've gotten to a point where door-to-door from my office in Kerteh to my house in KL on Thursday afternoons take me less than 3 hours. That will be 2 hours of 160km/hr on LPT, an okay speed on Karak for roughly half an hour, and then 15 minutes to tackle the MRR2 from Gombak all the way till home ground. The 2 hours are boring and makes you want to sleep, the Karak stretch is strenuous, despite having driven it both ways for more than 10 times now I'm still weary every time, of a sudden car spinning in front of me or surging past me or the downward slopes that never seem to end.
I do it because there's nothing in Kerteh to do. I do it because I miss my family and Seng Kiat. I do it because I miss food in KL. I do it simply to keep my sanity, let's put it this way.
I'm ever grateful to mum for sorting out my laundry situation every weekend. Ever grateful to my parents who are always there for me. Ever grateful to Seng Kiat who deals with this kind of long distance but not really. Ever grateful for being back at home.
This past weekend was Rice's commencement ceremony. Can't believe it's been a year since I ran down the bus in my full graduation gown with a bus full of black women cheering for me while I stripped my heels off and sped across the lawn, right in front of a bunch of professors because I was severely late for graduation.
It's too fast.
Monday, April 29
It has been more than 6 months since I've posted anything. Probably my longest stint away from blogging, ever. Didn't realize how much time had passed until Cass asked me if I'd moved my blog to somewhere else.
Work has been consuming me. I've updated most of y'all but just a refresher anyway - I started work in mid November last year, and then got transferred to the Rotating Machinery department. Probably the most mech heavy department imaginable. My job is to deal with any rotating machinery on a specific platform (Resak), including gas turbines, turbine generators, gas compressors, reciprocating pumps, triplex plunger pumps, diesel generators, etc etc. We mostly do maintenance - ie. when something breaks down on the platform, I get notified by the operations team, and then I allocate the suitable manpower to the platform to fix it, plan for the dates and activities for that to happen, purchase the parts needed, and basically also equip myself to know what's wrong. It's a lot of administrative, coordination work, alongside learning technical knowledge.
I try to go on board as frequently as possible. The bedding provisions on Resak is pretty limited as there isn't a specific female room, and I practically have to beg every time to be let on board as I'm wasting another bed space if there's no other female on board (the rooms come in double deckers). I've been on three times, the longest stint being 12 days, the shortest being 5 days.
I got pretty stressed out the first couple months with adjusting to work, adjusting to a new place, adjusting to new people, etc etc. Got admitted into the hospital right after new year, travel around like crazy - take for example last week, drove from KL to Kerteh on Sunday morning, then back to KL on Monday evening, then back to Kerteh on Wednesday evening. I had to come back to KL for a meeting, and couldn't take driving back again to KL on Thursday (for my regular KL returns) so I carpooled. My journeys take about 3 hours+ typically, depending on what time of the day you drive, how jam it is, etc. Two hours of it are straight, lengthy roads on LPT, and coffee is regularly required.
Moving houses was stressful, and Kiat helped me out all three times I moved. I also lost a lot of weight after the last time being sick, and threw up twice in a day before moving. FWH has been the recipients of my sick records, and I myself have lost count of the number of times I got sick. Thank goodness Petronas comes with health insurance. Lately it has been a lot a lot of nosebleeds that last for 20 minutes on average.
So complaints apart, things with Kiat have been going really really well. 6 months in and we're still pretty happy. :)
Sunday, October 21
the flutters
It's a weird feeling.
I haven't updated since I was in Canada. Wrote multiple drafts but never posted. Opened a whole new domain on Wordpress but never shifted.
I guess this weekend was finally a solid enough trigger to warrant a post.
It's the strangest feeling ever, when you've closed off emotionally to anyone for the past three years of your life. I've tried to rationalize it to myself multiple times and it has always made perfect sense to me. I don't think I can ever put in enough words how much pain it was, trying to wrap my head around how I let something of that magnitude blow my life apart. I switched back and forth between blaming Lok, Ian, and myself. I went through phases of relief, sadness, longing, over and over again.
I gave myself 3 years. 3 years to close it off, to seal the deal, to not bring any baggage into the next one. The timeline was of course, due to my biggest priority in life - to complete my degree.
Meeting Seng Kiat was the most unexpected thing ever. We met in Toastmasters, and barely saw each other for more than three times. According to his words on Saturday, you caught my eye. And that's all I can say. I brushed aside his fb message to me before I flew off, caught in the dilemma and fear of yet another pursuer popping into the scene, further angering Lok - this was 2014, when my love life was probably the most eventful it had ever been.
I followed him on Facebook occasionally. He's an avid poster, with strong views on several things, but intelligent views. I was attracted and intrigued, but nothing ever pulled me strongly enough to approach him, until that post about (anti)feminism.
And then the conversation started. We have several common views, and I think it was intellectually stimulating and refreshing for both sides. Was going to meet up with him last Saturday, but that didn't work out because he had to work in Penang. Pushed it to this past weekend with him promising let me make it up to you.
I also love the way he used words.
fondly. viscerally.
ah whatever.
We met up at Medan Pasar. And then set off for dinner at cho cha. Shared three entrees and talked forever. From me being in the States to him being in the UK. From my engineering classes to rowing to urban sociology. From him cooking to his architecture program to his stint in Invoke.
I normally am very insistent about paying on my side but somehow he beat me to it. And you know what it's a first date, fine.
We then walked to PS150, unbeknownst to me. He remained firm that I should not know about where we're going, and I played along with it, glad that someone was planning an entire evening for me. We left PS150 after he checked with me whether it was okay, and I decided that I really didn't wanna stand at the bar for the rest of evening (because we didn't make a reservation).
We then went to The Attic. Was equally nice with an okay view. He liked my choice of whisky drink and I didn't like his choice of tuak lychee. Nevertheless we kept talking and talking while my face grew red and he laughed at my Bologna pomodoro story.
And then we took a walk and I brought him to Laman Tun Perak, which is still my favorite Think City project and one of my favorite spots in the city. He was pleasantly surprised and I took pride in knowing about the place hahaha.
Showed him where Omakase was, as well.
And we finally walked back to Pasar Seni, and parted ways.
Met up again the next day to watch A Star Is Born and it fell into the same, easy going manner as the day before.
I'm not here to describe about my dates, but here to say how I felt.
I'm hesitant and happy at the same time. Terrified of letting myself go again, terrified of being vulnerable, yet recognizing that I have to be so in order to move forward. It's a matter of time before I come clean and tell him about my fears and insecurities, but until then I guess I'm contented.
To just ride the wave, to get to know a new friend and potential partner, to open myself up, and be vulnerable once again.
I haven't updated since I was in Canada. Wrote multiple drafts but never posted. Opened a whole new domain on Wordpress but never shifted.
I guess this weekend was finally a solid enough trigger to warrant a post.
It's the strangest feeling ever, when you've closed off emotionally to anyone for the past three years of your life. I've tried to rationalize it to myself multiple times and it has always made perfect sense to me. I don't think I can ever put in enough words how much pain it was, trying to wrap my head around how I let something of that magnitude blow my life apart. I switched back and forth between blaming Lok, Ian, and myself. I went through phases of relief, sadness, longing, over and over again.
I gave myself 3 years. 3 years to close it off, to seal the deal, to not bring any baggage into the next one. The timeline was of course, due to my biggest priority in life - to complete my degree.
Meeting Seng Kiat was the most unexpected thing ever. We met in Toastmasters, and barely saw each other for more than three times. According to his words on Saturday, you caught my eye. And that's all I can say. I brushed aside his fb message to me before I flew off, caught in the dilemma and fear of yet another pursuer popping into the scene, further angering Lok - this was 2014, when my love life was probably the most eventful it had ever been.
I followed him on Facebook occasionally. He's an avid poster, with strong views on several things, but intelligent views. I was attracted and intrigued, but nothing ever pulled me strongly enough to approach him, until that post about (anti)feminism.
And then the conversation started. We have several common views, and I think it was intellectually stimulating and refreshing for both sides. Was going to meet up with him last Saturday, but that didn't work out because he had to work in Penang. Pushed it to this past weekend with him promising let me make it up to you.
I also love the way he used words.
fondly. viscerally.
ah whatever.
We met up at Medan Pasar. And then set off for dinner at cho cha. Shared three entrees and talked forever. From me being in the States to him being in the UK. From my engineering classes to rowing to urban sociology. From him cooking to his architecture program to his stint in Invoke.
I normally am very insistent about paying on my side but somehow he beat me to it. And you know what it's a first date, fine.
We then walked to PS150, unbeknownst to me. He remained firm that I should not know about where we're going, and I played along with it, glad that someone was planning an entire evening for me. We left PS150 after he checked with me whether it was okay, and I decided that I really didn't wanna stand at the bar for the rest of evening (because we didn't make a reservation).
We then went to The Attic. Was equally nice with an okay view. He liked my choice of whisky drink and I didn't like his choice of tuak lychee. Nevertheless we kept talking and talking while my face grew red and he laughed at my Bologna pomodoro story.
And then we took a walk and I brought him to Laman Tun Perak, which is still my favorite Think City project and one of my favorite spots in the city. He was pleasantly surprised and I took pride in knowing about the place hahaha.
Showed him where Omakase was, as well.
And we finally walked back to Pasar Seni, and parted ways.
Met up again the next day to watch A Star Is Born and it fell into the same, easy going manner as the day before.
I'm not here to describe about my dates, but here to say how I felt.
I'm hesitant and happy at the same time. Terrified of letting myself go again, terrified of being vulnerable, yet recognizing that I have to be so in order to move forward. It's a matter of time before I come clean and tell him about my fears and insecurities, but until then I guess I'm contented.
To just ride the wave, to get to know a new friend and potential partner, to open myself up, and be vulnerable once again.
Thursday, June 28
Travel Rants Part II
Parks.
How could I have forgotten about parks?
Made it a point to visit at least one park in every city I've been to, for Quebec City, I've positively visited at least three.
I think it sort of became a thing that grew with age. I no longer mind walking an hour to my destination, as long as I get there in the end. And then I need to have a really long break in between stops, e.g. sitting for an hour or two at a coffeeshop or bring my coffee to a park, and just close my eyes while listening to a podcast half asleep, or read another book.
Quebec has been great, really. I've grown rather fond of both cities - Montreal and Quebec City, each has its own charm.
Saw so many things today and yesterday, and I half wished that I made it a point to bring a small notebook with me so I could write things down wherever I go. I saw Henny's favorite artist yesterday, of all places, at la Petit Champlain.
Texted her super excitedly and we had a small little chat. (Henny was my ex-supervisor at my workplace before she got so fed up and quit).
Apparently she moved out from Dr. Englebertson's house and has moved into Ute's house. Henny's house was damaged last August during Hurricane Harvey (same one that took our dock away), and she's been staying with friends ever since, thanks to her wide network throughout Rice since she's moved across so many departments. Funnily enough, I know most of the people that she's worked with, and have had funny encounters/stories with both Dr. E and Ute.
Harrison - an Asian American whom I've grown rather fond of as a friend, but will never date - once teamed up with me on an engineering design project. I think I've made a mini rant about this before, of how Harrison, Mikaela (definitely mentioned her a long time ago about how whatever she's done in Rice is what I strive and failed to be, ie I'm pretty jealous of her achievements, but in hindsight I think I've done rather well as a sociable person in comparison), and I teamed up as an engineering project yada yada in the end I ended up with just Harrison. We approached Dr. E for ideas to our color sensing glove, and ended up leaving feeling pretty embarrassed because there's already better products with the exact same idea that we had existing on the market with affordable prices, we just hadn't done our research. He chastised us, of course, but overall I've still heard pretty amazing things about him as a linguistics professor and wish that I'd taken a class with him.
Ute, on the other hand, works at the school post office. I have zero idea till today on how to pronounce her name, thought she was Russian instead of German, and am eternally grateful towards her. She sent out a rather unofficial email to all Rice students about how mailing through the school's UPS office would be cheaper since we have student rates, and told us to email her if we had specific questions. I emailed and asked her (I thought she was a him at that time), to ask her about international shipping. The quote she gave me was much, much cheaper than what I would have had to pay if I went to the post office, albeit still rather expensive.
Long story short, I went to the post office, shocked the entire staff for a bit with my rather heavy book box (it weighed 110 pounds, so roughly 50kg), and Ute just smiled and said its okay, I'm a book lover as well and I understand. I'll make sure that I wrap it up nicely for you.
Henny told Ute about Elizabeth, Maddy and I (we were all her student assistants) when we graduated, and Ute actually remembered my book box and told Henny about it. I'm not sure to be flattered or embarrassed but here you go my long winded story.
I have so many stories like this. They're rather pointless sometimes but to me they have so funny little bits in them that make me rather fond of them, and they're probably what I'll remember for years to come.
Also told Harrison that I'm following his 3rd instagram account because Instagram keeps bugging me. He has his main account, his second account for his van (he modified an entire van to be a movable house, basically), and then his third account is for textures - like wooden surfaces.
Finally flying back to Toronto today, and then home tomorrow.
How could I have forgotten about parks?
Made it a point to visit at least one park in every city I've been to, for Quebec City, I've positively visited at least three.
I think it sort of became a thing that grew with age. I no longer mind walking an hour to my destination, as long as I get there in the end. And then I need to have a really long break in between stops, e.g. sitting for an hour or two at a coffeeshop or bring my coffee to a park, and just close my eyes while listening to a podcast half asleep, or read another book.
Quebec has been great, really. I've grown rather fond of both cities - Montreal and Quebec City, each has its own charm.
Saw so many things today and yesterday, and I half wished that I made it a point to bring a small notebook with me so I could write things down wherever I go. I saw Henny's favorite artist yesterday, of all places, at la Petit Champlain.
Conlon. He makes little frogs like this out of metal. Super adorable.
Texted her super excitedly and we had a small little chat. (Henny was my ex-supervisor at my workplace before she got so fed up and quit).
Apparently she moved out from Dr. Englebertson's house and has moved into Ute's house. Henny's house was damaged last August during Hurricane Harvey (same one that took our dock away), and she's been staying with friends ever since, thanks to her wide network throughout Rice since she's moved across so many departments. Funnily enough, I know most of the people that she's worked with, and have had funny encounters/stories with both Dr. E and Ute.
Harrison - an Asian American whom I've grown rather fond of as a friend, but will never date - once teamed up with me on an engineering design project. I think I've made a mini rant about this before, of how Harrison, Mikaela (definitely mentioned her a long time ago about how whatever she's done in Rice is what I strive and failed to be, ie I'm pretty jealous of her achievements, but in hindsight I think I've done rather well as a sociable person in comparison), and I teamed up as an engineering project yada yada in the end I ended up with just Harrison. We approached Dr. E for ideas to our color sensing glove, and ended up leaving feeling pretty embarrassed because there's already better products with the exact same idea that we had existing on the market with affordable prices, we just hadn't done our research. He chastised us, of course, but overall I've still heard pretty amazing things about him as a linguistics professor and wish that I'd taken a class with him.
Ute, on the other hand, works at the school post office. I have zero idea till today on how to pronounce her name, thought she was Russian instead of German, and am eternally grateful towards her. She sent out a rather unofficial email to all Rice students about how mailing through the school's UPS office would be cheaper since we have student rates, and told us to email her if we had specific questions. I emailed and asked her (I thought she was a him at that time), to ask her about international shipping. The quote she gave me was much, much cheaper than what I would have had to pay if I went to the post office, albeit still rather expensive.
Long story short, I went to the post office, shocked the entire staff for a bit with my rather heavy book box (it weighed 110 pounds, so roughly 50kg), and Ute just smiled and said its okay, I'm a book lover as well and I understand. I'll make sure that I wrap it up nicely for you.
Henny told Ute about Elizabeth, Maddy and I (we were all her student assistants) when we graduated, and Ute actually remembered my book box and told Henny about it. I'm not sure to be flattered or embarrassed but here you go my long winded story.
I have so many stories like this. They're rather pointless sometimes but to me they have so funny little bits in them that make me rather fond of them, and they're probably what I'll remember for years to come.
Also told Harrison that I'm following his 3rd instagram account because Instagram keeps bugging me. He has his main account, his second account for his van (he modified an entire van to be a movable house, basically), and then his third account is for textures - like wooden surfaces.
Finally flying back to Toronto today, and then home tomorrow.
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