Yesterday was my travel day for my month long centralized training session in Northern VA. Today was our first day of classroom training and I have 17 more days of class to go (30 days including weekends).
The facility we're staying in is...interesting. It's an "all inclusive" place, so we eat, sleep, and train all in the same place. When I first arrived the person at the front desk told me to go to the right, take an elevator DOWN one floor, go down a really long tunnel labeled "Alaska" then take the fork left until you come to an elevator. Then I was to take the elevator UP and find my room. It didn't really make sense to me to go down to go up, but whatever. I still haven't figured this place out. After about 20 minutes of pushing an extremely heavy luggage cart that I couldn't steer through a half mile of tunnels, I finally found my room. Once I made it back to my car, I had to park it another half mile away. There is a shuttle, but I chose the path through the woods to get back to the facility, where I also saw 2 deer. Awesome.
My room is nice, but extremely small. Thankfully everything fits in here, so it doesn't really matter how big it is since I'm not in here for most of the day. I do have a decent view out of my little window, so that's a plus.
Another plus is that so far the food is really good. They have lots of options and it's really easy to eat healthy(ish). Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any water fountains so I have to stock up on water whenever I go to the dining area. There is a $3 bottle of water in my room, but I'm not about to drink that (darn you, Dave Ramsey!).
The classroom training today was alright for it just being the first day. Everything was mostly a review of things we already knew, but that was to be expected. I'm just hoping that I will actually learn something so that I won't be going away for nothing, but it wouldn't surprise me if that were the case. One good thing about the training is the breakout stations, which are stocked with an unlimited (and free!) supply of "Starbucks" coffee, Tazo tea, and snack foods. MMM.
Last night I managed to get to the fitness center, which is larger than it usually is in most hotels, but it still has a lot to be desired. It's also about a half mile away through a confusing maze of tunnels underground, so I didn't have to warm up much once I got there. There are only 4 treadmills, 2 of which are a foot away from a white wall. So as if running on a treadmill wasn't boring enough, you can also stare straight at a blank white wall for an hour. Awesome. Today we actually got out of class 15 minutes early so I was able to rush back to my room, change, and go running outside on the 1.3 mile loop around the facility a few times before it got dark. Unfortunately I think the weather might prevent me from doing that on quite a few days (like tomorrow - I think it's supposed to snow).
One thing I am thankful about is that I am relatively close to home, and also close to my sister. There are some people here from as far away as Anchorage. Yikes! At least I can see Andrew and my sister on the weekends!
Well, I think that's all for now. But don't worry, I will have
plenty of time to keep you updated, though I may run out of things to write about...
