I'm just a student in my first year, so I don't know many stories, but I know one, that was quite embarrassing for me, but now, seen from some distance, was also quite funny.

Before I started my studies, I did a internship at the local cadaster office. The most interesting days for me where the days when I could go out with a survey crew.

One day we were on a somehow "alternative" farm with many little stables and sheds, partly build from old trailers (and even a big tipi tent). We had to survey the corners of some of this buildings to get them into the cadastral map.

It all worked fine until I accidentally dropped my end of the steel tape onto an electric fence. (I didn't know it was made of steel. I thought they would use some kind of plastic -- until that moment. So at least I learned something from it.)

The survey assistant holding the other end of the tape jumped about one meter backwards.

Afterwards he was a bit angry (understandingly) and I felt very sorry and embarrassed for doing such a stupid mistake, while the surveyor was laughing about this situation, which must have been quite funny to watch from a safe distance.

But than there was the next problem: The tape was now tangled around the electric fence (throwing out little sparks) and no-one could touch it to untangle it. So the surveyor rolled up his map and used it to push the tape away from the fence.

Fortunately the survey assistant didn't bear a grudge, but every time we were working near an electric fence, he remembered me to be careful not to touch the fence with the tape. Of cause I was extra careful.

And I was also careful to touch only the plastic end of the tape in such situations, because I feared a revenge ...