West Virginy

Well, I have been sent to WV to learn how to work on an assembly line. I will be here for two weeks. I am not sure I will live.

We decided to drive rather than fly to allow for more flexiblity. Oh, yeah, my dufus coworker is with me again. We drove down seperately. Although unbeknownst to eachother we left at the same time.... We had different directions (directions differ with each internet map maker) , I drove some back assward way where I had no reception for about 2 hours. I made it in 5 hours. I took a lot of 2 lane roads and went through many small towns. I was glad that my rental corolla has amazing gas milage because gas stations were few and far between. It was neat to see the towns.... but mostly Ohio is a very boring place to drive through. As I got in the mountains things became beautiful... and dark. The last 30 miles of my trip was in the dark where the roads were not lit, with heavy truck traffic.... and the only businessed on the road had "ADULT" on the signs. I was happy to finally find my way to the hotel.

Dufus (who is knicked named Queso at work and that is what I will call him too) who had slightly different directions snd is directionally challenged, made it in 7. He took 2 wrong turns.... or maybe he really stopped at one of the nudy bars.

Today I started working at the plant. The morning consisted of touring the transmission line, 4 cyclinder engine line, and the 6 cylinder engine line. The afternoon then consisted of 3 different people taking us for tours of the lines we toured in the morning. I have learned a lot but I think my learning my quickly be exhausted if everyday is as repetitive as today. I probably should mention that the Plant didn't really know that we were coming until friday. Our 2 week schedule has many holes. I think we will start building engines on Wednesday. I think it will be a challenge. Everyone is so quick on the line, but I don't think it will take me 10 days to really get full benifit... Have you grasped that I am not really into this whole assembly line thing... I would not have gone to college for 6 years if I wanted to do it. The highlight of the day was the last 2 hours... which consisted of "work conditioning" basically we were learning to work the muscles required for assembly work and the stretches that help soreness. Most people go for 3 full weeks of "conditioning" but we will only get 2 hours. I anticipate much pain in the near future. Luckily everyone is super nice here. It is weird.... people were all so nice. Maybe it is the south... or maybe it is just Toyota..... THe worst part of the assignment is the hours... 5:30- 2:45. I can't believe people are alive during those hours! Let alone working!

The hotel is much worse than Japan. Today i had to go to K-Mart to get some items to help my life here. The room is next to smoking rooms so it smells like smoke too. The carpet feels funny to my princess feet... so i went and bought potpouri and slippers! I hope these will improve my stay.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.... I hope my time goes quickly. I will go to see dog racing this weekend! What a neat life experience....