I suppose the trip could be called successful. The training sessions went well and several people came up to me or to the site person who arranged it to say how good the training was. The fact that in some cases their commendations were phrased as "Wow, I thought that would be much more boring than it was!" doesn't make me any less proud. There was remarkably little head-bobbing as well, though the fact that the training only took half as long as expected probably had a lot to do with it. Law of human nature: training a very large group take less time than training a smaller one because many fewer people will speak up and there won't be any dialog. I encourgae people to ask questions and there were a couple, though in one case it was (according to site personnel) "the guy who always wants to make trouble", and fortunately, it turned out my response to his comment on conditions at his site was almost exactly what the site leaders would have said. The best I could do with this group was to get them laughing at some points, or nodding their heads, so that at least there was some interaction. For me, and I think for a lot of people, it's just not possible to pay attention for long if all the information flow is one-way.
Oh. I just noticed, when I get to thinking about ways to training and communicating with people, at least in my head it begins to sound like Elizabeth Bear or Sarah Monette journaling about writing fiction. Not in "quality"-meaning-how-good-it-is, because I think they're better writers than I am a trainer, but in "quality"-meaning-what-kind-of-thing-it-is. And that applies to the whole range of that subject: talking and writing, design of slides and usability of websites, when to take breaks and when to use humor and so on. When I write about writing I don't sound that way at all. I think that says a lot about what I know, but it just might also say something that gets me a little closer to what my Proper Job is supposed to be. Closer, but not there; it's to do with teaching and training and mentoring and communicating, but it's not teaching kids. It might be teaching in a university, but that's such a complex system to break into and then you only ever get to talk about one subject. Corporate trainer, maybe, but I want to be involved with knowing the information and putting it together, too, not just transmitting someone else's information. I don't know, but it's something to percolate.
At any rate, the socializing part of the trip went well too; I got to meet up with a couple of people I've known from online lists for much of a decade, but had never met in person. They looked pretty much as expected, because I'd seen pictures. They didn't sounds as I expected, because even when I know someone is from New York, I don't hear that accent when I read her words. We went out for Chinese food and conversation. I was expecting the Chinese food to be much better than here, but I don't think it really was - the conversation, on the other hand was superb. We discussed people and books and conventions and lives. I also enjoyed the drive out; one friend picked me up and we drove out the the home of the other, who lives in a region of big single-family traditional houses. There were some jaw-droppingly beautiful ones on the way.
What didn't go so well was the aftermath of that dinner. I had planned to teach my class and then meet up with one of the friends to go to a nearby aviation museum. Instead, I woke up at 3AM with my stomach burbling and grumbling and spent the rest of the night returning to the bathroom every little while. I wasn't nauseous, but I was definitely uncomfortable. Once my stomach was empty I felt a little better and had evolved a plan by morning. The plant is fortunately right close to the hotel; I went out and was able to teach my remaining two class sections with no problems; one nice thing about stomach issues, for me at least, is that a good enough distraction can make them call a temporary ceasefire. Afterward, I returned to the hotel, where I'd been able to get a late checkout, and rested. (Note: Hilton's HHonors program apparently allows you to check out as late as 3PM without fee.) I ordered up some tea and toast, because I was worried about getting dehydrated or lightheaded if I didn't eat or drink at all, which would make things even worse. I was able to eventually nibble down a slice and a half of the toast, and was feeling a bit better by 3, when I had to leave for the airport. Traffic was mercifully not too bad for the drive there, and with almost no food in there my guts behaved well on the drive, the airport and in the airplane. I picked up some Powerade in the airport and slugged down that, some water, eventually some ginger-ale, and half a Clif Bar during the course of the two-hour airport wait and the five+ hour flight, and that all seemed to work out just right. So far today I'm doing much better; I've had my normal breakfast of a clementine and a little dry cereal, plus half a sandwich and a few fries I couldn't resist, all without mishap. I'll continue to eat more lightly than normal for the rest of today, and hope I'm in shape for the planned light row with the Cubemate tomorrow. Catching up on sleep should also help, because by the time I got to bed last night I'd been up for 22 hours. Oh, well, could be a lot worse.
Posted by dichroic at March 31, 2006 01:08 PM