Recordings of Life: Watford City, ND

Departed from Houston at 11.45am on United Airlines. My assigned field work is to be in a place called Watford City which is roughly 43 miles south east of Williston. I will be here for 3 weeks to work with the crew and also get enough information on my topic. I was the only one lone person to come to this town whereas some of the others have company. Shifa was assigned to Louisiana along with Omon and Wen Ting, Shangar to Alaska!, Alvin to Oman and Jocelyn offshore in a vessel... So.. yea, need to pay friggin' $15 for check-in luggage! I'll tell you why later that is so unjustified...

Anyway I reached Denver International Airport, CO at 1 something (my watch says so) and the airport is huuuuge! I walked around trying to look for something nice to eat. Didn't want to just go anywhere, being the cheapskate that I am so I can avoid tipping hehehhehe.

Ended up in a Mexican restaurant. I ordered Taco Salad, where they took some kind of deep fried shaped bowl and started tossing salad, chicken and beans in it with some spicy sauce. Didn't taste all that good :( I think it's the beans though.

Anyway I finished my lunch and took out my laptop to go online, at 3.45 I checked my watch and decided to head for my next flight to Williston which is to be boarded at 4:20. Was confused along the way with the train and terminals (airport damn huge! Wait, I said that already?) At 4:15pm I reached the gate and enquired about the flight and the lady said sure 4:20 will board, so I went to the loo and drank from the water fountain and went to the gate again. The lady repeated, sure 4:20 only board and I said, yea, well it's 4:30 now. The lady looked at me semacam and said, no ma'am it's 3:30. Aiyoh!! Damn stupid didn't check the local time and rushed to that bloody place. I apologised hurriedly and backed off to use my laptop again...

At about 4:40 (local time) the was still no announcement for us to board the plane and all of us kept waiting and waiting.... Finally an announcement came but it was to say that our plane were having some problems and we need to wait for a while. About 30 minutes later, it was announced that we may board, hurray! That was about close to 5:30pm already. So all of us walked through the terminal outside (it was freaking freezing cold!!! Everyone was shivering) and into the plane. The plane was so puny! It has only 2 columns of seat, 1 column on the left and 2 columns on the right with about 10 rows. Settled down and I was seated to a black fellow whom I found out to work in Williston for another oil company and he's from West Africa! We talked for a bit and the whole time the plane was still stationary.

10 minutes later, the stewardess apologised for the wait and told us that there were some problems with the gauge or some sort on the plane so all of us have to collect our stuffs and wait in the terminal. WTH!

So back through the cold and in the terminal we went... All of us were looking moody, but apparently there was another plane to the same place at 6pm. After a bit my name was announced to approach the desk at the gate. The lady in charge there told me that they are going to put me in the next flight and asked me if it's alright I take the flight but my luggage will have to wait till the next flight cos they can't put it in. I was adamant about having to separate from my luggage and told them no, I need that luggage so they said ok, I'll just have to wait for that initial flight to work out and in the mean time my seat will be given to someone else.

So, there I go... waiting again. The reason I need my luggage? Well, all my stuff like my contact lens solution and so on are in there. Not to forget that I'm going to a cold, cold place and I am sure as hell to need whatever extra clothes I can have!

Waited and waited and waited.... Finally at 7.30 they announced that we are getting into another plane in about 20 mins! Which was a good thing as I will very much feel unsafe in that initial plane that was not right... Went to the main part of the terminal and grabbed a sandwich there.

Oh yea, while I was there, I had my first encounter with a brunette bimbo. She was dressed in this leopard print jacket and was right in front of me in the line. I recognised her as a girl who approached a man sitting beside me while I was waiting at the terminal. She asked from the man whether she can use his phone because her phone went out of battery.

Anyway, it was her turn at the line and she was so goddamn indecisive on what to order! She was like, errrmmm, what's the chicken like, oh, and the turkey? Damn stupid, in the end she made up her mind and was going to pay but she didn't have enough cash (after taking some time to rummage her purse), then she took out her credit card (which took some time to process right) but that too didnt work so she turned around and asked me if I could borrow her 64cents. I was already damn pissed and on the point of wanting to go somewhere else cos she was taking such a freaking long time and her request threw me off guard and I just obliged lah what to do. Damn idiot... Then later as I was about to order she had the nerve to ask the lady behind the counter whether her sandwich has cheese and whether there is extra charge. Stupid.

So we took off on that puny plane. I was just sitting right behind the wing and my, the engine roars!! Damn loud that you couldnt even really have a proper conversation. Anyway, my seat could not be adjusted to an angle because the seat behind me was close to the emergency exit :( so you can imagine the discomfort I had to bear with throughout the whole journey...

Reached Williston close to midnight (local time ahead of Denver, same with Texas) and when I collected my luggage, found out that the bloody airline damaged my bag! The stopper was completely pulled off with only screws left there that the bag could not 'stand' on its own and can only be carried with its handle... Dammit... Another guy from the same oil company as the initial black enquired the staff there (which consists of only 3 people, it is a smaaaaall town.) and she said that since the damage was external they couldnt do anything about it and she just handed me a flyer with the airlines address to submit my complaint to. Frustrated, the black guy offered me a ride, if I need cos he said it's not safe to stick around plus the airport is gonna close. Wth? The airport also can close ah? He just smiled and say well yeah it's a small place and I looked around which was enough to cover the entire 'airport'. It was only about the size of 2 shop lots... oh yea and when I got my luggage you can actually see the staff manually carrying them over to an elevated counter, nope, there was no conveyor belt or anything fancy like that.

Outside waiting was my crew manager, Craig and he certainly didnt seem happy to be waiting for so long... not my fault alright, I already informed him that the plane was delayed. Anyway he was totally quiet along the drive (took us more than an hour to reach Watford City) which isn't something I am used to since the friendly people of Houston.

Picture of the terminal in Williston, covered in snow in some areas and shovelled clean in others. Freaking cold!! My first encounter with snow too!

Got to our hotel and it was already snowing. My hotel room #'s 32. Was too tired I just turned on the heater and took out my contact lenses then plunked to bed.

Pics of the current place, Roosevelt Inn... definitely not as great as Hilton :)

View from my window... my room is actually half buried underground hehheheh...

Next day, got out to feel the snow! This is me trying to create the fog effect to catch on camera but I ended looking like I'm in pain...

And my hair's all limp cos I haven't showered for more than 24 hours.... :)

Walked over to the nearest restaurant, the Dakotan. Oh, did I mention that Su Jen actually told me about this place, although I saw it the night I arrived but after Su Jen told me only it rang a bell in my mind that yes, it's near and oh, that as isolated as this town might be but the hotel as wi-fi? :D

I took this while I was waiting for my order of chicken drummies hehehhe... 6 pieces to be exact.

Doesn't look like it but the drummies are damn tiny lor!! I finished 4 in one go and left 2 for dinner... but during tea already hungry and finished all... Anyway at night I went again and got pork chops (with baked potatoes and salad sides) and Veg beef soup. Pictures bottom, please scroll. Anyway for that dinner, I sort of planned to get extra so I can leave some to reheat for lunch/dinner tomorrow. Mana tau! 3 quarters into the veg soup and I already felt damn full! So the pork chops were left untouched...

Pool area which smells strongly of chlorine. It's indoor and heated though.

In and around the inn... it's pretty cute with loads of trinkets and old stuff all around the place.

I showered and see my hair all nice and fluffy again!

Here goes the pork chops :D

So anyway I only managed to finish one half of the pork and half of the potato lol. Not bad eh the whole porkchops/soup/salad costs $16 can last for 3 meals.

You know why I feel so full before even finishing the soup? There's too much tuber in it...

I texted Craig on day3 and told him that I would need some groceries and water! Well next day who came knocking on my door.. it wasn't Craig... it's a huge fella called Felix. He's pretty funny and he brought me to get groceries. And lol, he drives a CGGV truck and he says he never turns off the engine. Even when we went to get groceries. Even when we have lunch. Lol.

President's Day on Monday 16th Feb! Flags outside every shop.

Can you spot the deers? :D Felix says that the factories there manufacture corns so that's why the deers are attracted to the place. This place is just across the road from Roosevelt Inn.

Fall in love with the view.... I'm having this on my desktop background now :)

Stuff I bought: These water containers are pretty handy! Just pull the cap and water will flow. They don't look big but the label says each are 2.5 gallons (9.45litres!)

Bought stuff to make sandwiches (to bring for lunch at the field) and mostly instant meals...

America is a land of instant stuff, I swear. Everything is so simplified just pour hot water, or open and just microwave. It's madness... what happened to health conscious people? TY will be so mad if he sees that I am eating stuff like:

Or drinking hot coffee from styrofoam cups. Well, I really had no choice... the hotel only provides those disposable stuff :(

That pink stuff is my turkey ham, then there's the iceberg salad for my sandwich, apples which I havent touched yet and flavoured water which Felix said it's good... it tastes like soda although he says it's actually water. I only bought it so I can use the bottle.

This is me in my thermal wear lol.

It;s Tuesday and it's snowing! Btw, I only start to work on the field on Thursday hehehhehe. I took the chance to take pics of the snow... and they really are gorgeous! See the icicles up close...