The past few months went so fast, but I've also gotten so much more experience so they also seem to be more than just a few months. In January, I did a month long internship with the Amsterdam Fire Department. What an experience! Not too much fire (just a lot of trash cans), but so much fun to be around 'the guys' and see how they live and work.
After this, a new section of the training program started. We trained to become the fire-fighter-in-charge for the crew in the fire truck. This means: learning to think ahead, anticipate what you're going to encounter when arriving at the scene, making a temporary plan on how to deal with the incident, and all of this while not even hearing yourself think (with the sirenes screaming) and being thrown around in the truck because of the somewhat reckless driving of some of the drivers. When arriving at the scene, of course you need to talk to the spectators, the police and most importantly, make sure that your team is safe! As a result of a lot of intensive training days (as shown in a few of the pictures below), all 24 students in our class passed the exam and we are now ready to move on to the next level: being in charge of several fire trucks and other vehicles. This means being in charge in bigger incidents, being responsible for more people and coordinating with police and ambulance as well. We'll see how that goes!
Of course, we're not always playing outside. Lots of days are spent in the class room learing about financial management (not my thing!), human resource management and how to prevent fires by judging building plans and issueing permits. In addition to this (it seems like we can't get enough of eachother), the whole groep organised to take part in a big running contest: the Roparun. 8 runners took turns to run from Paris to Rotterdam in two days (and nights). An amazing accomplishment! Unfortunately I couldn't be there during the race. However, we decided to also participate in the Dam to Dam race (16km) in September (still can't get enough of each other, it's a miracle!). I have agreed to run this time, so I started training right away. As much as I hate running, I wonder why I signed myself up for this. But it's a challenge and I'm actually looking forward to it.
So what are our days like (not very interesting information):
· Get up at 7.00 or 7.30
· Eat breakfast in the restaurant between 7.30 and 8.30
· Drink coffee and chat until 9.00
· Class (or practical training) between 9.00am and 12.30pm
· In between (especially when we're in the class room): drink lots of coffee (or tea, once your stomach starts to get upset)
· Then lunch and afternoon classes
· At 6.00pm we have diner (for which we have to be all dressed up in our suits)
· And after 7.00pm we are free to do what we like, sometimes it's studying, meetings, shopping runs, doing some sports, watching tv etc.
· At 9.00pm, the bar opens. Lots of fun to hang out until about midnight. There are occassions (relatively frequent) that the paryting goes on a little longer than midnight. About a week ago we had a big Italian party. Unfortunately, somehow, the party was a bit boring, nobody really danced and I was about to go to bed. However, some of us decided to spice up the party a bit and got out the foam! How lucky to have all these fire trucks available. Some fires (liquid fires) can only be extinguished with foam, so every truck has lots of it. Before we knew it, everybody was wading through a knee-deep layer of white foam. The mood suddenly got lots better and it turned out to become a memorable night!
We'll that's about all there is to tell for now. I included some pictures to make it a bit more lively! |
