An out of office experience
This week I am mainly attending a class on how to write ridiculously complicated SQL queries for Oracle. I was somewhat surprised to find that this is a sufficiently popular topic to hold a class on, let alone regular classes, but apparently so.
The instructor is a mad Serb called Sasha who is energetic and rather enthusiastic about the subject matter, to put it mildly. I suppose this is good, as we'll benefit more from too much enthusiasm than too little. He has a disturbing way of asking "Are you with me on this?" before going on to a new topic. It comes out sort of like "Arjoowidmeahndiz?" and the first time he said it I just COULD NOT figure out what the hell he'd just said, and stared in helpless puzzlement for a long moment. Ironically, I had been with him right up until he said that.
Everyone in the class that I've spoken with has been very nice. I seem to be the most extroverted person there (apart from Sasha, obviously), which is exceedingly odd, and I am one of 2 or 3 people whose native language is American, which makes the whole thing rather entertaining. My heart sank when I saw that we'd be sharing PCs, but the guy I'm sharing with is very sharp and happy to let me type (as I can spell tricky American variable names with the greatest of ease).
It is very refreshing and liberating being out of the office. My lead only called me on my cell phone once today! And that was after I'd called her to see how things were going. So you could say I started it.
The only down side is having to get up Even Earlier. I am rather sleepy to say the least. At least the coffee there is free and not entirely abominable.
The instructor is a mad Serb called Sasha who is energetic and rather enthusiastic about the subject matter, to put it mildly. I suppose this is good, as we'll benefit more from too much enthusiasm than too little. He has a disturbing way of asking "Are you with me on this?" before going on to a new topic. It comes out sort of like "Arjoowidmeahndiz?" and the first time he said it I just COULD NOT figure out what the hell he'd just said, and stared in helpless puzzlement for a long moment. Ironically, I had been with him right up until he said that.
Everyone in the class that I've spoken with has been very nice. I seem to be the most extroverted person there (apart from Sasha, obviously), which is exceedingly odd, and I am one of 2 or 3 people whose native language is American, which makes the whole thing rather entertaining. My heart sank when I saw that we'd be sharing PCs, but the guy I'm sharing with is very sharp and happy to let me type (as I can spell tricky American variable names with the greatest of ease).
It is very refreshing and liberating being out of the office. My lead only called me on my cell phone once today! And that was after I'd called her to see how things were going. So you could say I started it.
The only down side is having to get up Even Earlier. I am rather sleepy to say the least. At least the coffee there is free and not entirely abominable.