Of shopping, tuna and basketball

Day 06, 11th Feb 2009:

Today's class was solely focused on marine acquistion. Interesting how there are so many more things to consider for a 3D marine survey. The positioning system used for each streamer alone is quite staggering. Then there's the matter of controlling the streamers so they don't get tangled up with each other, which lines to survey first, etc...it's just amazing what technology can do these days. Wide azimuth survey as opposed to the conventional narrow azimuth survey is another new thing which i don't think i have fully comprehended yet.

After the session, Scott (one of the lecturers) took us to a store specialising in outdoor gear, kinda like a hypermarket for outdoor clothes and the sort to help us buy the stuff we need for the field trip. It was mostly to help those going to the colder locations like Canada, North Dakota and of course Alaska (Shangar, i feel for you man :P). I ended getting another pair of shoes as well, this time hiking shoes. I guess i didn't want to take the risk of losing the whole outer sole when i get to Oman later. The whole thing looked like it could peel off anytime. I guess that's what you get for keeping a pair of unused shoes for 8 years :)

That's Scott in the foreground.

Inside the Bass Pro Shop

We were supposed to meet Francois (the programme manager) and Alain (another lecturer) for dinner at 7.10pm but everybody was too busy shopping until we forgot about the time and poor Scott was also hobbling around trying to look for everyone (he had hurt his foot a few weeks back). By the time we reached Babin's for dinner, Francois and Alain had been waiting a full 20 minutes. We definitely need better organisation but it's not easy with a group of 17.

Babin's was a seafood restaurant (in the western kind of sense of course) and Alain was treating (which was really really nice of him). I ordered a tuna something, can't quite remember what it was called (gulf coast market or something like that) and had it pan-sauteed. Man, i didn't know what i was getting myself into. When the food came, i opened the fish up and found that it looked rather pink (almost like it was still raw). The waitress noted my moment of hesitation and asked if i would liked it to be cooked a little more, which i gladly consented.

The tuna with a side dish of baked sweet potato (i had already finished the caesar salad)

During dinner, we were discussing about where to go in Houston for the sights and the matter of basketball came up. Turns out Alain is quite the hoops fan and it was suggested that we all go for a match between the Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs on March 14 after our field trip. Can't wait to experience a real NBA game :)