Hey guys, so I thought I would do another post as I haven't done one in a while. I was thinking about talking about my trip to the USA Embassy in London. I am going to start by a quick overview for those who may not understand why I would go there. Cadets from my company and most others are sent for a USA Visa, this is so you can work and earn money in American waters, unlike all other countries you have to go down and have a interview with them (quick chat) just so that they can look at you I suppose. All other countries you fill out the paperwork and that's you done simple.
Anyway, so before you get to go on this wonderful trip you have to fill out an application, make an appointment with them, print out all sorts of different documents and take them with you. I hated filling out the paperwork, they want to know everything up to what you had for breakfast that morning, it had the usual stuff where your from, where you where born etc etc then it wanted to know allll of your education, allll the places you had worked, then it really got in depth the company sent us 4 A4 sheets with the info we needed to put into this form. I would have been lost without it there was so many different addresses and names and places and reasons and much more I can't even remember. So after that I made my appointment, the office sorted travel as I didn't have a clue and didn't want to go over spending. I went in May, my mum dropped me off at Glasgow Airport, I managed to find my way without to much trouble since I had not bags it was very easy. I got onto the plane and found myself to be the only one not wearing a suit, I was on a plane full of suits, I stuck out like a sore thumb oh great, I got myself to the back of the plane to try and hide away. Once I got to London, I didn't hang about I headed straight for the DLR this is basically a train service with no drives just a computer, then I got 2 different tube trains, it was rush hour 9am ish personal space doesn't come into it during this time. I can't even remember the place I got off to walk round to the actual building, so anyway I was walking round a very fancy looking place, there was shops with very expensive cars in the windows I stopped to stare in and dream for a minute then continued walking. Then found myself at the side of the building and noticed a very high police presence and not just any police, it was police armed to the teeth with guns, lots of them, this was new. You are not allowed any electronics in the building either you can only take you and your paperwork and a book if you are smart enough to have brought one (I didn't), so then I got ripped off and stored my stuff in a local chemist for £3 and I joined the queue to get in, there was a stand with some staff on it checking if you had everything with you before entering, they where sending people away who did not have what was required. Once you get past them you go through basically airport security again, though with more guards and again more police with guns. So finally I was in after flying down 1 train 2 tubes and a short walk round and through tighter security then at a airport.
Once you get inside you are given and number and its basically Argos all over again but much longer. You wait to be called up for the first time (this took over an hour). I spoke to the women, handed over my paperwork, she scanned my fingers asked a couple questions then gave me a new number and asked me to take a seat again. There was a small shop in there, I must have spent about £5 in it for drinks and chocolate, I think I resorted to reading the empty wrappers and cans I got that bored. I was sitting for hours, I arrived at 10am and was still there around 3pm my flight was 4pm if I remember correctly, safe to say I missed it, I waited around for hours to go back up answer 2 questions and have my visa granted. I was free. finally. Now I could go and get my phone and all my other stuff, I phoned the office and they moved me onto a later flight to get home and that was it, on the flight home it was all suits again, this time I didn't care I was going home I was shattered. So that was that, all for a small page to be put into my passport but it's done now, just gotta go do it again in 10 years when it expires oh joy.
Wednesday 8 February 2012
Thursday 2 February 2012
College and Halls
Right so I thought I would talk about the college for a bit, as I mentioned before I am at South Shields college, the college has a history of 150 years of maritime excellence which was celebrated last year which is great. The college is a fair size, I was still trying to work out how to get to places 2-3 weeks after starting or in other words I followed the group (still do). The college doesn't just teach marine students either, you see all sorts of other classes going on. The teaching quality is good, if you don't understand anything it is easy to get help either from the lecturer or your class tutor who you get a hour with each week and from what I can tell they are all ex merchant navy to and can answer most questions. I am in every day, 4 days in class and 1 day in workshop, lessons are 90 minutes long with 15 minutes breaks between then and you get a hour for lunch. The college has good facilities, I don't know actual figures but I know there's a good few workshops, bridge simulator, engine control room simulator and a marine plant workshop. When I arrived they where busy finishing off a refurbishment they had just carried out over the summer so the place is still nice and fresh from that.
Ok the halls, I want to try and cover the basics and talk about things I wanted to know before getting here. The halls are named the Dr Winterbottom halls and have been here a long long time I believe, it is split into blocks A through to F, in my block we have a room each (they used to be doubles) there is 8 rooms on each floor with a common room in the middle, there is 2 showers which some people would think isn't enough for 8, well I have never had to wait for a shower so it works ok and there is toilets on every floor. These all got refurbished recently to. The common room has a kettle, microwave, fridge and a T.V. In the rooms you get a single bed, desk, sink and enough space to store everything and a mini safe if you choose to use it. The doors are key card entry so is the main door on the block, rooms are cleaned daily and hoovered weekly. There is wifi but it can drop out at times and has a filter running all the time.
Food: Depends on what your used to really, I hear people complaining all the time and yes I have had a few dodgy meals but some nice ones to its all down to your taste I think, they do a decent breakfast aswell you can have a fried breakfast or the healthy option.
Around the college: On the campus there is the 1861 club it has a quiz on a Wednesday which I can be popular, it also has darts and pool and football on the when there's a game. Locally there is 2 pubs the Westoe and the County, the County does good food at good prices. There is also a sandwich shop close by, it does big stotties for £2 and will fill you up. The town centre is about a 15 minute walk and you will find everything you usually find in a town centre.
Ok the halls, I want to try and cover the basics and talk about things I wanted to know before getting here. The halls are named the Dr Winterbottom halls and have been here a long long time I believe, it is split into blocks A through to F, in my block we have a room each (they used to be doubles) there is 8 rooms on each floor with a common room in the middle, there is 2 showers which some people would think isn't enough for 8, well I have never had to wait for a shower so it works ok and there is toilets on every floor. These all got refurbished recently to. The common room has a kettle, microwave, fridge and a T.V. In the rooms you get a single bed, desk, sink and enough space to store everything and a mini safe if you choose to use it. The doors are key card entry so is the main door on the block, rooms are cleaned daily and hoovered weekly. There is wifi but it can drop out at times and has a filter running all the time.
Food: Depends on what your used to really, I hear people complaining all the time and yes I have had a few dodgy meals but some nice ones to its all down to your taste I think, they do a decent breakfast aswell you can have a fried breakfast or the healthy option.
Around the college: On the campus there is the 1861 club it has a quiz on a Wednesday which I can be popular, it also has darts and pool and football on the when there's a game. Locally there is 2 pubs the Westoe and the County, the County does good food at good prices. There is also a sandwich shop close by, it does big stotties for £2 and will fill you up. The town centre is about a 15 minute walk and you will find everything you usually find in a town centre.
Wednesday 1 February 2012
Spelling and all that
Ok, so it has been brought to my attention by a few college friends that I have commas and full stops in the wrong places, well they are right, I am hopeless at punctuation and my spelling isn't great either. I try my best to proof read these and still find myself going back to them to sort faults already had to remove 3 extra e's that I had added to the word story. I am now about to try and re proof read my blog posts and fix these errors to the best of my ability. I also find it hard to type and think at the same time, you have all probably all experienced this, your brain races you have lots you want to say and everything else flies out the window, only to return once you have finished bashing at your keyboard. So bare with me and if you find any faults please let me know so I can fix them. English was never a strong point anyway it goes as far as standard grade english and even then I was bad at spelling and punctuation. Now to fix everything well try to and still have it a mess. Enjoy. :) .,?:;@'"!*#
Many Thanks
Duncan
Many Thanks
Duncan
Why Engineering
Hey folks, thought it was time for a bit of a side story to add to what I have told you so far. As the post title suggests I am going to talk about why I picked Engineering or as some people would tell me off, it's Marine Engineering and not just Engineering. Anyway this is a bit of a weird one really. To start with I had no interest in Engineering. The Sea Cadets offer it as an area you can learn, but I wasn't bothered with it well not to start with anyway. I wanted to be a Warfare Officer in the Royal Navy, so why would I need to know about engines. Then one night when I was in the unit a bunch of my mates where booking a Marine Engineering 3rd class course at H.M.S Gannet (This is where the Northern Area Marine Engineering school was) and I had my arm twisted and said I would go to. I went along thinking I would be quite bored, I wasn't interested in this field but I went along with it anyway. I think this is the point the interest started, I scored well on the course, even though the course was very basic it was still interesting. Though I still left it thinking I wasn't fussed with it all. Then everyone decided to book onto the 2nd class course the next level up, again my arm was twisted to go.
Now remember within the Sea Cadets it was based on Marine Engineering and not just Engineering so its more relevant, so I attended this course, well the two weekends as it was a longer course and was split into Mechanical and Electrical sections and I passed with good marks again, so now I was really interested in what was going on as we got more in depth and I wanted to know more, along with the 2nd class we also got our RYA Diesel Engine course as we covered the same stuff so that was another string to my bow. So when we got back, me and my mate booked onto the 1st class mechanical course as I was more interested the mechanical and since it was a higher level again each section was a week long course and it became 2 qualifications, so we spent a whole week learning the mechanical workings of an engine, got to take bigger engines apart and where given projects to either fix or report on which was very interesting stuff I was loving it. After starting out not bothered, then to being really into it and fairly confident with it as well. I didn't manage to do the 1st class electrical course as it was cancelled due to low numbers.
As for engineering after this, when I did the car mechanics course it was mainly on engines and the systems that feed them like cooling, fuel, lubrication etc, I remember we where put into pairs and given a work bench and on this work bench was a 4 cylinder car engine that had been cut out a scrapped car, our job was to take off all the hoses and rubbish that comes with them and get it to the bare bones. Once we had completed that we had to strip off the parts as if we where going to do a repair job (so this means remove the belt without just flicking it off with a screw driver as someone had decided to do (not me)). We took it totally apart, further than I had ever got to with the cadets, we removed the cylinders to, completed measurements on things like the cam shaft and crank shaft then put them together again. Although we put our pistons back in and had to strip it again 3 out of 4 pistons where round the wrong way. Yes they had arrows showing you what way then where put in and yes we didn't notice them and yes we messed it up everyone does at some point. The arrows should have been pointing 180 degrees in the other direction.
So this brought me to the choice of wanting to do engineering, I love getting stuck in. I like to take things apart and fix or clean them and put it back together, I like to see I have made something work after it being broken or faulty. Although on top of this, it is a good thing I picked the engineering department over the deck side as I can work round my eyesight weakness, with deck I would have no chance so I am just glad I can still do the job I picked.
Now remember within the Sea Cadets it was based on Marine Engineering and not just Engineering so its more relevant, so I attended this course, well the two weekends as it was a longer course and was split into Mechanical and Electrical sections and I passed with good marks again, so now I was really interested in what was going on as we got more in depth and I wanted to know more, along with the 2nd class we also got our RYA Diesel Engine course as we covered the same stuff so that was another string to my bow. So when we got back, me and my mate booked onto the 1st class mechanical course as I was more interested the mechanical and since it was a higher level again each section was a week long course and it became 2 qualifications, so we spent a whole week learning the mechanical workings of an engine, got to take bigger engines apart and where given projects to either fix or report on which was very interesting stuff I was loving it. After starting out not bothered, then to being really into it and fairly confident with it as well. I didn't manage to do the 1st class electrical course as it was cancelled due to low numbers.
As for engineering after this, when I did the car mechanics course it was mainly on engines and the systems that feed them like cooling, fuel, lubrication etc, I remember we where put into pairs and given a work bench and on this work bench was a 4 cylinder car engine that had been cut out a scrapped car, our job was to take off all the hoses and rubbish that comes with them and get it to the bare bones. Once we had completed that we had to strip off the parts as if we where going to do a repair job (so this means remove the belt without just flicking it off with a screw driver as someone had decided to do (not me)). We took it totally apart, further than I had ever got to with the cadets, we removed the cylinders to, completed measurements on things like the cam shaft and crank shaft then put them together again. Although we put our pistons back in and had to strip it again 3 out of 4 pistons where round the wrong way. Yes they had arrows showing you what way then where put in and yes we didn't notice them and yes we messed it up everyone does at some point. The arrows should have been pointing 180 degrees in the other direction.
So this brought me to the choice of wanting to do engineering, I love getting stuck in. I like to take things apart and fix or clean them and put it back together, I like to see I have made something work after it being broken or faulty. Although on top of this, it is a good thing I picked the engineering department over the deck side as I can work round my eyesight weakness, with deck I would have no chance so I am just glad I can still do the job I picked.
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