Carson City and the Mining Safety and Health Class

Up the street from the hotel

Carson City is incredibly beautiful. I have only ever driven through it and never had time to stop and look. There are many historical buildings and museums and the mountains sourround the city.

View from the front of the hotel

I stayed at the Plaza Hotel. It was a lot nicer than the reviews I read online. I had a little kitchen area, breakfast was included and the hotel had a swimming pool. However, they had no internet. If they had, this place would be close to perfect for the lower priced hotels ($45/ night) I have stayed at.

Safety training is the most boring thing on Earth, and what’s up with having the lights off so we can see the Power Point better, it is only encouraging sleep. Not even the coffee they have saves us from sleeping.

I arrived my first day knackered from the 14 hr drive. I couldn’t keep my eyes closed and I was quite nauseous (which I decided was car sickness). Not only did I have to run out of the room to throw up, but I slepted through the morning. On the plus side, everyone wanted to talk to me and know where I was from. When I told them I had just driven from the Seattle area, they agreed that sleeping was acceptable. Not that sleeping is unacceptable. On Wednesday, a guy fell asleep and was snoring. The man across the room from me (who’s name is Richard…I have met so many Richard’s) started snickering so much he was crying, well that sent me over the edge and I too was soon crying and laughing. I didn’t realize I had such muscle control in my stomach because I never guffawed like I thought I was destined to do.

…it was similar to the time I was in Women Must Weep at Annie Right Prep and one of the girls knocked over the lamp during the play (this is on tape for those of you interested). I could not stop laughing for the life of me, but because I was on stage as the lead, I had to control it by letting my stomach laugh without letting the sound out…

Anyway, it was really funny.

Today (Thursday) I completed the training and got my New Miner’s Surface Safety Certification. Now I can work at a mine, as an archaeologist or any other mining personnel.

I managed to get myself out of Carson City and back to Reno where I visited my co-workers and found out the accommodations for my up coming stint of work. We will be surveying a mine at Battle Mountain, NV, and we will be staying in a hotel that has internet and refrigerators and microwaves…I was so excited.

I checked into The Grand Sierra Resort and logged onto the internet for the first time in 3 days…it seems like it has been much longer than that.

The view from my room