I have been working here for 3 weeks now. Living in camp. It's a strange new world to me. Sort of like staying in a hotel.. but with even thinner walls. Apparently this camp is actually pretty nice (according to a lot of my coworkers) but I have nothing to compare it to. I do know that I find it weird that each tiny little room gets their own sink and such yet there is a toilet and shower shared between two bedrooms. You get a little desk a closet and a mini little built in dresser. A bed and a TV mounted to the wall that's about 15 inches. So not all that bad really. Someone showed me a picture of a prison cell in upper Saskatchewan and it actually looked almost the exact same as my camp room. At least there is daily room service to make your bed since we work 10 hour shifts 6 days a week. You don't even have to make your bed before leaving for work! We start at 6:30am and go all day until 5. The only thing I really don't like and yet at the same time love is having to get up and go to the cafeteria for all your meals. It is really nice that all the food is prepared for you.. Just grab a tray and move on through the line and ask for whatever you like out of all the options. However I sometimes like to eat breakfast in morning light on my own in the quiet. Not in a room of 200+ gnarly construction workers who are laughing, talking loudly, farting and coughing up their black lungs. (Not that every guy here is gnarly but seriously a lot of them are.. Plus you put thousands of guys together and leave them with like 5 girls and you obviously are going to have the "MANLY" come out in some of us that may usually have manners..)
Kitimat is a beautiful area. Lush green trees and huge mountains that drop right off into the Pacific Ocean. No beaches really or even shoreline.. Just seriously mountains, cliffs, water. Apparently they get 12-20 feet of wet wet heavy snow every year but apparently global warming is rearing it's ugly head this far North West even.. I have seen snow here, however, it is right on the coast and have mostly just seen RAIN. I actually prefer working in the snow compared to rain. Rain and working outdoors just... sucks.. and everything is a muddy shitty mess. I had to spend $500 on Helly Hansen work/rain gear and great big steel toe rubber boots.. and it still eventually soaks through usually by lunch or last coffee.. Kitimat is a very small town.. Population of 2000 or so. Close to Terrace, BC (about an hour drive) which is a population of 10,000 or so. So if you really want a starbucks or something remotely nice you go to Terrace on your day off (Sunday). the only "chain" stores in Kitimat are Sight and Sound, Dairy Queen and A&W.. Everything else is locally owned and I'm usually into that but it's really fucking expensive and shitty here. Not to just totally rip this town down but.. seriously.. Get your shit together.
Now of course in a population of 2000 there is not a lot of women here either.. Add an extra 2000 or so working men and you have a fucking feeding frenzy on your hands. It's pretty brutal. This saddens me a little bit as I mentioned a few blogs ago that I was recently dumped and treated like a piece of trash by someone I fell completely in love with (and was told she fell in love with me.. clearly not the case..) I am often feeling very alone out here.. Thankfully it really only bothers me on a slow evening. Most days work takes up all my time and then dinner and then I go to the gym for an hour and a half or two hours. By then it is 9:30pm or so and since I have to wake up at 5am that basically makes it BED TIME. It's a pretty good routine. I should lie actually, Saturdays we only work until 3. It's a double time pay work day so they only let us work 8 hours to avoid paying everyone that much more money. So Saturday evening I often go home and relax and or take a mini nap. Then I either go out with friends or game so hard. Either way Saturday night you stay up late because Sunday is the one day to sleep in.
Sunday you either go to Terrace and get your laundry done that evening when you're home (if the machines are open) or you kind of kick around camp and get your laundry done early, kind of kick it and game.. I also usually like to go to the gym for 2-3 hours on a Sunday. I don't drink a lot (which is what people in this town do for fun) so I often ate too many junk foods and gamed too hard on Saturday night.. So I usually feel greasy and gluttonous on Sunday.. :)
There is a lot of stress and sadness that can come with working and living away from home for 6 weeks at a time to return home for 1 week and not have much time to see all your friends and family.. Anyway I figured I better give all you folks a nice big update since I have been so busy lately and haven't written a blog post in nearly a month again. I am off to watch the Canucks play the Devils in an early game and then eat Eggs Benedict at brunch. Everyone enjoy your day/week/month. Much love to you!
xoxo, Dave
