A Busy Week

Thanks for tuning in again. This was a rather eventful week, which I should like to share three particular stores of. First, this past Monday was Thanksgiving, my first one in Canada, and it was nice. I was able to work through one of my assignments and I sat down for a small thanksgiving dinner with a couple of others living at the house I am staying in. On Wednesday while on-site at Banting House, I was working on our Diabetes Ink project when our power went out as a couple visitors from out of town showed up. We asked them if they could wait around or come back in 45 minutes and sure enough, the power came back in 45 minutes almost on the spot and I was able to give them a tour. I am feeling progressively more comfortable with my tours now. I consult my notes here and there but overall I feel as though I have gotten a grasp on the story I am telling visitors. This tour however was interesting because one of the visitors was translating for the other, which I have always had an interest in language and translation, so this was overall a very neat experience for me. The tour took longer than usual but I think it was my favorite one I have given thus-far.

On Friday, we visited the Oil Museum of Canada in Oil Springs to learn about Canada's role in the history of oil. It was amazing, I particularly enjoyed seeing the various digital integrations they implemented into their exhibits, even going as far as to implement Virtual Reality, which I am a big advocate for and fan of. I would love to see what they would be able to accomplish with a bigger budget. We then went on a trip around the properties for the museum and Fairbank Oil. It was amazing to see that they were still using the steam technology and the pull pumps that were used in the 1860's. I particularly enjoyed the sound of the creaking the machines made, almost making something of an old fashioned white noise which gave a strong immersion, almost bringing those who hear it whilst outside of the museum back to that time. The fact that they still had the three-pole derrick for the first gusher was absolutely incredible to me. The cap on this trip was when we were heading back to the van and I found a chain link on the gravel road and Charles let me keep it as a memento. I will post a picture of it below. I hope you enjoying reading about my week as much as I did experiencing it and until next week, thank you again for reading.

Chain link from Fairbanks Oil 1861