Wow, where to begin?
June 11, 2013 12:07 pm Leave your thoughts
Wow, where to begin?
I guess that a quick synopsis of my summer so far is as good a place to start as any. So here goes:
In the past 40 days I have traveled more kilometers than any other point in my life. From the University of Western Ontario to the Colosseum in Rome, to Edmonton Alberta and finally the Town of Slave Lake, Alberta, I have literally traveled across the globe.
I flew out of the Toronto Pearson International airport on June the 1st, and arrived in Edmonton Alberta around 6:00pm Mountain Standard time. Being that the furthest west that I had traveled in Canada up to that point was Timmins, Ontario, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. For years I had imagined Alberta, for all intensive purposes as being a forested wilderness with a sprinkling of small towns amongst the trees. Part of my visualization was correct, as I would find out later on my 3 hour bus ride up to Slave Lake. But when I stepped out of the airplane in Edmonton I was blown away by how new, large, and urban everything was.
I spent the night in Edmonton, to accommodate the only departure time for slave Lake the next day. The drive started off as I assumed it would. The bus passed through the odd small town, much like the ones I was accustomed to seeing in Northern Ontario, with the intermediate spaces filled with intermittent forested areas. However, once the bus passed through the town of Westlock, all traces of civilization abruptly vanished. And it remained that way for what must have been one and a half hours of constant travel, nothing but the asphalt in front of the bus and the wilderness surrounding it.
Finally after 3 hours of travel there it was my final destination and the first semblance of an urban center I had seen in countless kilometers of woodland, the Town of Slave Lake.
I am currently comfortably moved into my residence room at the Northern Lakes College in Slave Lake and have just completely my first week of employment at Slave Lake pulp as the Summer Engineering Coop Student. I have learnt rather quickly that the working environment at Slave Lake Pulp is extremely welcoming, engaging, and dynamic. Because all of the employees are extremely personable, knowledgeable, and helpful my transition into a new position has been rather seamless.
It is already quite clear to me that my job responsibilities extend past the expected technical and administrative aspects of an engineering internship. For instance, last week using a go pro camera mounted to an RC car I preformed a culvert inspection. The car was used to remotely and safely analyze the extent of blockage in the culvert. Dependent on the depth of the blockage, the best course of action for solving the problem was to be determined.
I don’t necessarily know what I will be doing tomorrow or the day after, but that is what makes this internship so intriguing to me. No matter what task I am assigned in the workplace or the adventure that I have outside of the workplace, I am making memories and learning new skills that wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the Green Dream Internship.
Keep an eye out for my next blog!
Cheers,
Mark Pipher