Conway, Conway, where for art thou, Conway

So here we are at the end of the Kellyville training experience (kind of a decent band name there...) and we are all preparing (and by this I mean drinking by the pool) to head out to our locations. I am basically done packing and I have taken the Canadians to Braum's (they don't have it up there) so all that's left is for me to join the merriment down at the pool. I plan to play it pretty low key because I agreed to drive one of my fellow Conway-bound interns to the airport in the morning at the early hour of 6:30 (I'm so nice), but I can't skip out entirely because somehow, in three weeks, I have become friends with these some odd 70 of us. Who'd'a thought (who'd a? who'd of? who'd-a?...whatever)?

Brief recap of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday:

All you need to know about Sunday is that Toy Story 3 changed my life. I'm normally stone faced in any movie but I was a little misty at the end of this one. I'm crazy--I've accepted it. It was just that good.

Monday was a long and boring day of learning about D&M (drilling and measurements)...we basically sat around and waited for the bus between 3 and 5... so fun. Monday night we went to The Melting Pot for birthday fondue (Anna's birthday to be exact). It was AMAZING. I've never had a dinner of multiple courses or one that was mostly fondue style. Delicious!

Tuesday was even more boring that Monday (I didn't even think that was possible)--at least in the morning. The afternoon proved more enjoyable as we got our summer projects assigned to us. My project (drum roll please) is to come up with a volume chart for a new tank in Conway. I'll basically be dusting off what calculus I retained and integrating for volume and correlating it with the depth of the substance being stored. Feel free to be impressed (or vomit...either way). I can't quite decide if I'm excited about this or not. It's totally doable and practical which I like but it does have that element of calculus (the devil's work) to it. We'll see how I feel about it in the morning and in the coming week.

Now tomorrow I head to Conway to really get down to business. As excited as I am to get to work and really apply the things I've learned (how to lift heavy things properly), I'm going to miss hanging out with all these crazy interns here in Tulsa. The good news is that I'll see a lot of them in Houston in August for wrap-up. *Sigh*

A bunch of sweaty interns...

So yesterday we learned about cementing. Cementing wells is an interesting endeavor. It's kinda complicated but it was presenting in a simpler way than our fracking class. We also talked about how the oil spill happened. It's really complicated to try and type it out without a proper piece of scrap paper on which to sketch this situation so if you ever see me in person and want to hear about it, I'll try. I'm glad we talked about it though because I was having a hard time getting my head around why you can't just plug up a hole that's not more than a couple feet wide (if that...it's more like a foot). Ok I'm still kind of struggling with that one but I get it a little. Anyway...

The practical part of cementing consisted of a brief tour of the equipment but that's about like any noisy plant tour in that I heard almost nothing about the stuff they were pointing at and so I learned little from it. We also did some more stuff that was "practical" but didn't involve our PPE--simulations! They were kind of fun... one was strictly computer screen and it was mostly just for kicks but the second was dummy equipment that ran water and it was pretty interesting.

Last night, we were again wined and dined (I think they are trying to cloud our judgement about their balls to the wall lifestyle with booze) at an (I kid you not) oil themed steakhouse. It was good but I've eaten better (judgement still in tact). I got to sit with Jennifer and Rifaah two of my new fun friends (Rifaah was in the hat picture and Jennifer is from Vanderbilt. Also she's hilarious and generally awesome) and we had a good ol' time ordering drinks and being sad for poor vegetarian Rifaah who couldn't eat any of the appetizers (or Land Survey's as the menu called them) because ribs and bacon stuffed mushrooms are not acceptable for vegetarians. Don't worry they brought bread and he's a good sport. We decided that the life of a recruiter is pretty much as good as it gets... you get to hang out with a bunch of college kids and get them drunk and they'll hang on your every word because they want you to hire them. Not a bad gig. Anyway...76 drunken interns later... today begins...

Today we had the most enthusiastic instructor ever: Oliver. He talked to us about sand control. I know, you're riveted already. He was seriously good at teaching and we had the most fun practical section ever. We went out and used the dummy equipment to run 16 gravel pack jobs (pretty literally since there was water and sand flowing freely in this situation...) so that we each had a chance to run all of the five parts of the job. I rocked at most of them. We all did but that's beside the point. We got to wear radios complete with headsets just like the ones they have in Nascar (I know because they had some name on them implying they were the radio of choice for racing sports). We also happened to be the first group that did this class so that meant we had to "rig up" the equipment. This means we carried and connected the giant hoses that link all the parts of the equipment (the tanks of water to the "little monster" diesel pump to the slurry mixer to the giant pump to the manifold that pumps the slurry into the ground...). These hoses are huge. It takes three people to carry them safely. Also you get to use a mini sledge hammer to tighten the wings on them which is kind fun. We spent 4.5 hours outside in our NOMEX, boots, and hardhats rocking out this gravel pack job (16 times) which means I came in from "down the hill" super hot and sweaty. A hot mess, if you will. We all were though so it's ok.

Tonight when we got home I promptly showered to attend our little tuna tetrazini dinner party (Jennifer cooked tuna helper for Victoria and I) which also included a bit of the hockey game (we weren't really THAT into it but that's what all the cool kids were doing). Now that I'm fed and showered I am accepting that I am exhausted and I'm excited to go to bed. Tomorrow is supposed to be a big day: we'll learn about coil tubing and tomorrow evening we are apparently going to the park for sand volleyball and a picnic. I need to rest up and get my game face on.