Ang huling araw sa KAO

     We've now come to the last day of our 300-hour OJT in Kao. I still remember on the first few days of our stay in Kao, it felt like a lifetime waiting for that 300 hours to be over, but now that we only have 8 hours more to stay in this plant, I actually felt sad. I know that I will be missing this whole bunch of people we've met here. To convey our message of thanks to them, we (me, Steph, Bob, Nece, Michael, and with the special participation of Russel) brought in some foods to share for which we stayed up all night to make. . .

     It was around 10:30 a.m. that day when sir Aljohn asked us to present our material balance for the Kimeta and Glycerine concentration plant. Sir Aljohn and sir Toto were the only ones present meaning they're the only ones to critique the presentations we made. ^^, Even though they were able to see some loopholes in our presentation, I think it was still a success. The very fact that we've learned a lot is enough for me. (it may sound "miss universe"-like but i'm dead serious!)

     Then guess what follows after our presentation? (Since this is not Dora the Explorer I will not wait for you to answer that question..) Tama! Kainan is what followed our presentation. The first batch to have their share is our beloved supervisors and manager. Di man pud tantong mura mig nagpasipsip bah? We also invited the people who made our stay in Kao a roller coaster ride (if you know what I mean). The cute thing about that tsibugan time was that there were no more saucer left so the others (including me) had no choice but to use the cups plus stirrer as a substitute of the saucer and fork!! Wonderful isn't it? You can really see how people would get very resourceful when it comes to foods!! Well, I'm one of those resourceful people I was talking about.. ^^

     This blog post wouldn't be complete if I won't present to you guys the foods we prepared. The first one I'm about to show is the mango float beautifully prepared by Bob (I'm not sure though if Michael would agree to this... if you know what I mean...)

     We also made spaghetti and chocoballs (which sir aljohn called chipmunks). After around two hours this is what remained of them...

     I know that what we've prepared wasn't that grand at all but I really hope we were able to made them feel how thankful we are for all the things they've done to us. This last picture of the foods we prepared summarizes the message we hoped we conveyed successfully...

     THANK YOU KAO... till we meet again!

my ending up in Kao

     Me having my on-the-job training at Kao was all but a coincidence. It all started when our ojt coordinator posted in facebook that there are 5 ojt slots available in Kao and it's preferable that upcoming 5th year students would take it. Our coordinator then asked to see a list of students interested and only then would he draw lots for the said slots. Being the only 5th years online, me, Russel, and Jennifer commented on the said post to count the three of us in. A lot more from our batch commented minutes later. I was contacted by our coordinator the next day that I am one of the 5 chosen to have our ojt in Kao. Only then did the happenings sank onto me. I thought of three things that made me hesitate: 1. Kao which is in Jasaan is more than an hour of travel from our place; 2. I was told that the training in Kao isn't good; 3. According to our calculation it would cost me P85 for my back-and-forth fare everyday. Well, to make this loooong introduction short, I decided to just take the slot; Together with Michael, Stephanie, Nece, and Bob, we went to Kao and started our 300-hour OJT.

     As my previous blog post would entail, we had a rough start in our OJT, we've met people who'd say not-so-good things about us, people who'd look to us with their "stronger" faces, and people who'd watch our every move. Thankfully, after a month's time we've been very used to this things already that we started not caring what the others would say and how others would see us. We've also met wonderful people during our stay there, and as shocking as it may seem, those supposingly "evil" people proved to have their good sides also. So, we continued our journey in Kao and just went with the flow but still with care of course. 

     The words about Kao's not-so-good training I've heard before have been proven to be untrue. We actually and sincerely learned a lot of things. We may have had a lot of idle or tanga moments but whenever it was time for the serious talks and discussions, it's there that we work our brains to exhaustion. During our stay there, we were taught to use our critical thinking ability, to answer questions using our previous knowledge plus our creative imagination. Due to our lack in actual experience (palusot) we aren't able to give the right answers to some of the questions though. We heard laughs, we saw different facial expressions, and we've been put to not-so-high level of humiliation whenever we give them our wrong answers. At first it made me feel uncomfortable but later on I kinda got used to it already and just laughed together with them and just eagerly listen to the explanation of the correct answer. Presenting and talking in the presence of smart people and people who very much know the field makes me nervous and hesitate to talk at all but hey! if I can learn and be corrected of my not-so-right ideas if I talk and listen to this people then go! By now, I've kinda learned not to take to heart their laughing and everything. Maybe we were just being over-sensitive but these really happen in the real world, right? So I figured we should better have a good feel of this for us to get used to this scene.

     We'll be leaving Kao soon (our 300 hours is almost up)  but with us is a lot of things we've learned inside. This may sound mushy but I think we'll never forget the Kao people we've encountered there during our stay. ^^

OJT-ing

nece, me, and steph busy-ing ourselves with something I can't remember now =)

     If you happened to read my previous post regarding my first impression of the people where I have my on-the-job-training, you'd probably think that the people who work there are very monstrous! Mind you, I thought the same way, but after being there for almost one and a half months now, my views kinda changed now. The "people" I mentioned in my previous post didn't change to being angel-like or whatever - let's just say that I found some other qualities in them that is actually likeable! I'd give it to them, they have their cute side also >.< though only seldom do we see that side of them LOL.

using the white board to make our ideas clearer

     Continuing... we've grown fond and accustomed of the workplace we've been assigned but we're still not letting our guard down. Nerve-wracking questions are sometimes thrown to us randomly and if no "acceptable" answers from us will be heard, we're done for! More often do we not know than know the answers though, and when the right answers are explained to us we'll be just stand/sit in awe (with rainbows coming out of our mouth) of how amazing and bright the question thrower is. We've been kinda used to this situation already but it still makes us uncomfortable sometimes. I've made it to a point though that I should just use this time to learn new things, which is actually the main point of an OJT, right?

solving problems or practicing pen spin? ikaw nece ha!

 

     Whenever there's time, we "scan" and run through the Perry's Handbook for Chemical Engineers and find something that seems interesting and of course something we can understand. I'm surprised though that almost everything in the handbook "seems" interesting that I thought that it was really a waste that i don't read the handbook I have at home. 

     During our stay in Kao, we've been constantly reminded by different chemical engineers that it familiarizing the handbook's content as early as now will help us a lot during the board exam.

     

     We've been going to the field these days but since it is prohibited to take pictures of the plant, I can't post any pictures here. The only pictures I can show you guys are the ones taken inside the control room. This one was taken in the utility control room:

     The supervisor of the utility control room kinda explained to us how this "switch board panel" works but since I can't quite understand the electrical aspect of what he's explained I didn't bother remembering it. I actually tried asking Steph, Nece, ad Michael but coincidentally we did the same! >.< We just studied the different processes under the utility department.

studying the educational documents of the utility department

    See? We've been busy learning and studying during our OJT! We're not just sitting on one corner of the central control room doing chismisan, we're also making the most out of what is given to us! We're so good, right? No need to answer because I know we are! Bwahahaha XD