The Oilfield Palace

As for the inhabitants, they hailed from over two dozen countries around the world, representing every single continent except Antarctica—probably because people forget Antartica exists. These candidates convened here to learn about their specific segments (of which there were over two dozen) within the oilfield industry. The drillers had their own section towards the North. The pathfinders were towards the south. The fracking teams had stations towards the West. My segment, wireline—the underground equipment, radiation, and explosive specialization, was at the center.

I felt utterly lost as I scanned my surroundings. I could not find the dormitories.

“One of the staff said it’s the nice brand-new building,” stated Rendhi, the Indonesian colleague I had met on the bus.

I scanned the surroundings. “They’re all like that. Very helpful, Rendhi. Did they also tell you it’s the one with the doors?”

“You’re welcome. I believe there should be doors. It would be weird if it didn’t have doors. How would we get in?” replied Rendhi, unfamiliar with sarcasm in the English language.

We decided to wander a little more and came across one of the largest swimming pools I had ever seen. To my great dismay, I learned later on that, among the stifling desert of Abu Dhabi, this colossal pool was not for swimming. Even though there were sports fields, basketball courts, and game rooms, there were no other pools at all—mostly because the country’s customs made it squeamish when it came to scantily clad individuals gallivanting about. This giant pool’s primary purpose would be for analysis. Let that sink in for a second (yes, I said “sink”). They were so wealthy they built a larger-than-Olympic-size pool just for analysis. It was used only 1% of the year—and that 1% was not for swimming.

Giant Non-Swimming Pool

Realizing that we would not be able to explore this entire campus in a day, we returned to the center of the campus.

I pointed to a multistoried building with many windows. “How about that one? It’s far away from the equipment…I also saw some cute girls walk in there.”

“Are you sure it’s the right one?” Rendhi asked.

I shrugged. “Even if it is wrong, it’ll be all other kinds of right.”

“What? I don’t understand.” Rhendi started scratching his head as he winced.

“Huh? Oh,…hmm…I’m saying I think this might be the building we’re looking for,” I answered.

I learned shortly after that class was at 8 am. Apparently, I had graduated from the college classroom and found myself in another classroom, thousands of miles away in a foreign land. So much for that.

I walked towards the elevator. “At least I get paid this time to sleep in class.”

Rhendi again scratched his head and winced. “Why would you sleep in class? Learning is how we improve our minds.”

I patted Rhendi on the shoulder and said, “I improve my mind with sleep, not boredom.”

We were in awe once more as the elevator took us to a far more elaborate floor. It was far more massive compared to its exterior, expanding further and stretching along the walls of the campus perimeter.

“Everything is so big and new and shiny!” Rendhi said. “It’s like some type of…of—”

“Palace?” I answered.

“Yes! A palace!” Rhendi’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“It sure is, Rhendi. What have we gotten ourselves into?”

Continue this story with The Oilfield Palace Part 2: Beautiful Prison.