Site notes

So in my last post I talked about what I do on site and now I am going to briefly describe what I see. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to take photographs so you all will just have to use your poor old imaginations! We are in the middle of farmland and grasslands. The soil is deep red and the vegetation is pretty thin and low to the ground. There are few trees on site although I am sure that has to do mainly with the "clear and grub" that is done to prepare the area for work. What we are working on now is the earthworks for infrastructure work that will be happening. Basically that means that there is lots of dirt, rock, and more dirt and not much else.

Besides dirt we also have some fabulous creatures. And by creatures I mean insects. And by insects I mean HUGE bugs that look like they are on steroids. The other day I looked out the window and noticed these dark things on the screen. After looking closer, I realized they were giant cicadas the size of my fingers, not my pinky, probably closer to middle... Definitely prehistoric looking. I have also seen beetles the size of my fist and there has been a six foot long snake lurking around. On the upside, we have lots of cute kangaroos and Todd and I saw an emu the other day on the way to work. It is really nice to be working outside and we have made our commute fly by by reading to each other. We have just started Harry Potter, Todd's first time. I have to admit that I may have forced him into starting it but now he loves it! Yay reading time.

Despite my inability to take pictures on site, I promise to get a picture of me in my getup soon!

In a sea of orange

A couple of weeks ago, I craned my neck over our neighbors fence (not really, the fences are short), and could see clothesline after clothesline hung with orange fluorescent shirts. They were in different states of wear, from bright to faded by the sun, but they were all the characteristic of a construction home. Well now we have joined the ranks...

These last 11 days on site have been exhausting, nerve-wracking, fun and extremely educational. Todd wasted no time and threw me into the deep end. I have a variety of duties: general admin stuff (organize registers, send emails, etc), surveying field work, and surveying office work. I have to say that the last two are definitely my favorite. My field work is pretty basic at the moment. I go out with a device that receives GPS signal and a controller for the device to measure points. There are people on site who test the soil in different areas to make sure it conforms to specific guidelines and I go out with them and measure exactly where they do those tests. Make sense? I also helped Todd and Russ a bit with some other field work but it is a lot to take in all at once. 

My surveying office work has to do with this program called Terramodel that Todd is an absolute genius with. Basically I take the points I measured out in the field and import them into the program so they can be seen on the design of the site. Of course I am oversimplifying things a bit, but it is pretty basic stuff and I now have it down pat. Todd is a fantastic teacher and has started me on these basic plans but I am already progressing to learn more and more complex commands. Apparently I am already helping out heaps as he said the other day that I am already more valuable as a surveying assistant than as an admin person and if it was just us, he would have to hire someone else so my time wasn't occupied by silly stuff. Honestly, it is just incredibly fun to learn more about what he does and tackle a whole new industry! It is all part of my plan for world domination, well orange-clothed world domination anyways... :)

Impressions

So we all know that first impressions are very important but I have learned that they can also, often, be very wrong. Because of this, I am going to hold off delving into the details of my glimpse into the construction world and just say: if business offices were run like construction sites, business would fail, Todd is just as brilliant as I knew he was (and more of a leader than he likes to think), and that everyone is just as nice, albeit as crude as I expected. I must say that I only worked on site for one day so far and so after my next stint (10 days) I will let you know more of my impressions.

To further entertain you, Todd and I celebrated our first semi-Passover together apart from my family. Last year we were at the Erman's house for the first night (fun times!), but this year we had no matzah, no haggadahs or matzah balls and no manischewitz. Very sad indeed but we made due with charoset, vanilla flavored vodka in black current juice, brisket and a showing of "The Prince of Egypt" with Russ. Over all, a very fun night :)

Luckily we had this Passover/Easter weekend off so we spent it doing so much needed spring cleaning. Most of it is not picture worthy, but look at this handy earring organizer I made out of velcro and a clothes hanger! Fun brain explosion right there :)