you'll be happy to know my knuckles are a bit cut up from yesterday's boxing class. that's right. just call me gina carano! if you don't know her, google her.
on wednesday, for lunch i met with a person with whom i'd working on the craney island project in Virginia last summer. harald lemers. he was the wison downhole CPT operator. we would pick him up every morning, and he would be carrying a loaf of bread and a jug of milk. it all makes sense now. he was always walking everywhere and i think he even bought a bike while we were in virginia. in the middle of summer. its so hot and humid there no one does anythign outside. all the wierd things he used to do, now it all makes sense!!! he's dutch!! i don't recall him drinking coffee all the time though.
so i met harald for lunch down in the cafeteria and it was my lucky day!! pea soup!! my favorite! i got two bowls :) harald and i talked about his upcoming offshore work and the upcoming sinterklass festivities. he lived in delft almost his whole life so he gave me some local knowledge as well. we'll get together for lunch again sometime in the next few weeks.
in the afternoon, i went to Utrecht to a presentation of the Statnamic pile load tester. its the first time its been used in holland (or europe i think). its sort of a cross between a dynamic and static pile load tester (axial loads only), hence the name Statnamic (static and dynamic combined). when i arrived in Utrecht, there was a powerpoint presentation, and luckily i was actually able to follow some of it. Flip had explained to me how the Statnamic worked last week sometime so i already had a basic knowledge of the system. there were about 100 people there. 95% men engineers. some from other nearby countries. this is apparently a major event to unveil the statnamic.
after the presentation, we go across the street where they have the pile test program set up. we wait about 10 minutes, then there is a grandiose countdown, and then a huge bang and a puff of smoke as the statnamic delivers the specified energy to the pile. the entire test is recorded electronically. if i had to give a description of the test equipment, it kind of looks like the thing in the movie Twister that they try to deploy into the tornadoes. inside of the cylinder there is something equivalent to a rocket engine. when the 'rocket' is fired, the thrust reaction delivers the energy (load) to the pile. from the test, we can evaluate if the pile, as constructed, is adequate for the anticipated design building loads.
but, i only had about 1/2 glass of champagne, becuase i had to drive to amsterdam for my dutch class!! that's right. 2 nights per week, monday and wednesday, i'm taking dutch language classes. my class is located near the WTC (world trade center) and the old olympic stadium (the olympics were held in amsterdam sometime in the 60's i think). there are 3 other girls in the class, 2 americans and one belgium/swedish girl i'm not sure. we didnt have much time to get to know each other, but next week we will have more time. the instructor is so funny. she's a good teacher. i'm hoping i can learn quickly. the small class size is great and our group gets along really well. i 'll need to study every night, but i'll get to practice with my co-workers so that should increase the rate of learning. the sentence structure is quite different than english. i think this will be the hardest thing for me to learn. the pronunciation is tough as well.
well its after midnight and i'm still not in bed. again. when was the last time i was in bed before midnight??? not since i've been in NL i think. i really need to get into bed by 10 or 11. i need to make that a priority. well, it's not going to happen tomorrow night. or friday. or saturday. maybe sunday???
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