Week 4: Getting Dirty and Educated

One thing that is not my favorite is the various activities covered in Civil Engineering. At Southern Utah University I have to major in Architectural/Civil Design, because they only offer three architecture classes, but if I could I would just do architecture.

This week, I followed my dad on his various jobs to see what he did on a daily basis. First we gathered soil on a new lot for testing. There was another guy there who dug up soil in three different areas, and to my surprise, showed us three different types of dirt. We filled three lidded buckets with them, and my dad tried to inform me on what they were. Unlike me, he can just feel it to know what the soil is.

When we first started I asked, "We just gather up the dirt and leave?" Although that's how it appeared, he was checking the bottom of the holes for water, taking notes that I could not understand without studying for a few minutes, and feeling it for various materials.

After that, we went to a client meeting. The client was a restaurant owner, so we met there, and he fed us. I expected the meeting to be very professional, but it was oddly conversational. They were just talking about what needed to be done, joking with each other, and eating.

All in all, my shoes went from black to brown (until I washed them), my expectations for the working world dropped a little bit, and I learned a lot about the company I would some day inherit.