Last week I took my first trip to the West Coast. I had a training and certification exam in San Francisco. I wasn’t sure what to expect, other than temperatures 40 degrees cooler than what we were experiencing in Texas. I knew it was going to be a busy trip, but I thought I’d like to check out Alcatraz and maybe a few other sights. Unfortunately, this ended up not being the trip for sightseeing.
I got to my hotel at around 7 pm the night before my first class, but my body was still telling me that it was 9 pm. Jet lag really hurt on this trip. I awoke at 5 am after a very restless night, and enjoyed what would turn out to be my last few hours of leisure.
The class and exam were for certification in payment card security, which is one of my daytime job functions. By mid-day it was clear that I was in deep. Going into it, I really didn’t know what to expect with the class or exam. I realized that I was in a room with a bunch of people who had been involved in payment security longer than I and had more knowledge. There appeared to be a lot of rote memorization that I hadn’t done leading up to the class, and I was expected to do it on my own. So after nearly 8 hours of instruction, I went to my room and studied for another 3 hours. The next morning I got up at 5 am and immediately started studying until the class began at 9 am. Another 8 hours of instruction, then back to my room for another four hours of memorization. Then Friday morning, up at 4 am (awake at 3, truth be told) for another four hours of studying/memorization right up until the exam.
Fortunately, all that cramming paid off to some degree. I won’t know if I passed the certification for another two weeks, but at least I don’t feel like I embarrassed myself. I feel like I did pretty fair. Between studying my brains out and praying for peace and perspective, I made it through the stress, jet lag, and sleep deprivation without cracking.
Oh, and two hours after the exam I checked out of the hotel and headed back to the airport. My only first hand impression of San Francisco comes from the airport and the hotel. The airport is too small for the amount of foot traffic going through it. It was very crowded. People were lined up in the halls sitting against the walls because there was nowhere to sit. My hotel, Staybridge Suites, was something of a disappointment. It was an older facility, and somewhat frayed around the edges. The mattresses weren’t terribly comfortable and the shower was a sad little thing. All in all, it was a lonely room. What it wasn’t was small. Because these were suites for long-term stay, I had a kitchen, living room, and separate bedroom.
San Francisco seemed like it might have been pretty. I come from a part of Texas that’s green (when we’re not in drought), but relatively flat. It was a nice change of pace to actually see hills and mountains. Maybe one of these days I’ll be back, hopefully for something less stressful and with more time for sightseeing.
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