phone call from the East

I finally got my phone call!!!! ... and I'm nowhere closer to a departure date... :S

They have submitted my name to Petro-Canada and Husky Oil.. standard procedure, they have to approve me. Should take another week before the OK stamps arrive.
They are trying to find a place in Montreal where I could do the survival training, so I don't have to go to St-Johns. Once this is done, I have to do another medical (tell me why again I did all this in Aberdeen?) and then some more training in safety and procedures...
THEN I'll be allowed to work.. except that I wont exactly be working :P...

They have a new big project coming in January, which means all team will be reorganized and I'll have a permanent spot on one. 21/21 on rigs, 28/28 on vessels. For good... or until I get an offer from Mr "Jack Sparrow" Burt in Florida ;)

Until then, I will be on a team, but only to shadow operations and practice playing with the controls so I can learn :) I'll be working with a Magnum ROV (one of the puppies in the pics above).
I wont have a fixed schedule, I'll know 2 to 6 days in advance when I'm going somewhere, and not necessarily for 21/28 days at a time. Between trips, there's a legal minimum of 7/14 days off I have to have, but after that period, all bets are off on when I leave again.

They also want to send me to Morgan City, Louisiana, Nov 3-14, for another electronics course! :D
I've never been to Louisiana... I really want to go to Louisiana!!! weehee! (or yeehaaw?!)

They also provide all clothing! All I have to bring is my steel cap boots... the coveralls, shirts and winter coat(!) are conform to regulation (visibility and fire retardant) and free of charge :)

And, to top it all, they pay all my expenses, door to door. When they send me somewhere, for whatever reason -course, training, work-, I get paid for it, the plane and hotels are paid in advance, and they reimburse me all food bills! (Ok, I know it's standard for most business.. but I've never had that before and I'm excited :P)

And another good news: all their rigs and vessels have women on it... but I'm the only rov girl in the company. Which is just perfect. That means I wont be treated like shit for wreaking an all-boy environment, but will still get enough attention to flatter my over-sized ego :P
(plus I wont have to share my room with a smelly neanderthal hehehe)

The Oceaneering superintendant's wife was a pilot at some point, but it was a while ago. So the guys know it's possible for a girl to be interested in rovs, but there's never been one on the rigs. Sounds like an Animal Planet show "They know women pilot exist, but they've never actually seen one". I'll be the first... poor them... ;)

So all n all, lots of answers. I feel much better knowing I'll be in full training mode for a while, before jumping in for real.
Only down side is that I can't plan anything in advance until next year :S Can't buy the Riviera Maya vacations, show tickets or Xmas Florida trip cause I have no way to know where I'll be when for the next 3 months. Hopefully they'll be able to tell me my fixed Jan rotation quickly, so I can at least reserve the Mexico gig more than a month in advance and save some $ :P