Week One of Pre-employment Training

Well, I've successfully managed to survive my first week of pre-employment training. Surprisingly, the crazy early starts hasn't killed me, and I doubt that it will ... althought getting up early in the middle of winter is not at all pleasant.

But what have I learned this week?

The first thing that pops into my mind is that the lifts in the building where the program takes place are really unpleasant to go up and down in; they're like a the Giant Drop at Dreamworld. The unpleasantness isn't helped by the fact that the doors open before the lift stops moving. It's surprisingly alarming to see the floor move as the lift rapidly comes to a halt.

Yeah, the lifts there are not my faveourite ones in the world. In fact, they're probably at the bottom of my faveourite lifts list ... that is, if I actually had such a lift.

What else have I learned this week?

Coffee is an amazing invention, and a total life saver (probably the reason why the crazy early starts haven't killed me).

But if I'm honest, I already knew this about coffee.

I guess I rediscovered this little fact, and could appreciate just how amazing it is.

I also learned that I DON'T LIKE CHANGE!

I should probably explain that ... or should I not, and let you try and figure it out?

Hmmm

Because the two training groups that started this week were both so small, it was decided that the two groups should become one group on the third day. A decision that pleased no one when it was first announced to us ... apparently it was made during the break after both groups did an exercise together. But I reckon that little exercise was done to see how we'd all interact as one group.

Luckily, no dramas arose from the merge. Although the instructor has got to be regretting it, since we all seem to bounce off each other and get really loud. It took less than an hour for us to be labeled the "loud group."

So it would appear that everyone's concerns about the merge were groundless.

Phew! *wipes sweat from forehead*

Then there's my discovery about the Subway on Colins Street; it's not a good place to get lunch from at lunch hour. Today's sub was mediocre at best. It wasn't helped by the fact that they put pizza sauce on it when I specifically asked them not to (I only discovered this when I started to eat it once I was back in the classroom). Definitely won't be going back to that Subway.

But the most surprising thing I learned today is that it is, in fact, possible for a class to be interesting enough to keep me awake when I am so very, very sleep deprived.

In the past, if I only got a few hours sleep (like I did last night), I'd struggle (and usually failed) to stay awake in class.

But not today!

Today the closest I came was feeling lethargic during one of the group exercises. Otherwise, I was wide awake and buzzing. But this can possibly be attributed to the number of large coffees I drank the moment I arrived in Melbourne this morning ... and maybe sniffing the scented textures helped as well (there was a full set of textures with different food scents was lying in the middle of our table. Naturally that meant we had to smell all of them and discuss which ones smelled the best and worst ... the mint one was the definite loser).

So I'd say this week has been a productive one ... at the very least an interesting one. I hope the next four weeks are just as good as this one.

But at the same time, I'm glad my week is over. Now to enjoy the weekend.

FOUR DAY WEEKEND, BIATCHES!!