Mountain View: Week 0 [Pre-Departure]
As most of you know, this is an unusual summer for me. For the past six summers, I’ve gone to Lille, France with my mother’s study abroad program and spent the majority of the summer abroad in Europe. This year, however, I’m in Mountain View, California (Silicon Valley, near San Francisco) and am spending my summer working as a summer intern for Microsoft. This journal has fallen into disuse, but I’m hoping I can revive it to chronicle my summer.
Relevant Disclaimer: Any opinions I state in this journal are completely my own, and do not reflect the view of my employer. No, I’m not going to disclose confidential Microsoft information, if you’re looking for corporate secrets you’re out of luck. [Can you tell I recently watched the legal training videos?]. Even so, I may make these journal posts protected. I’ll put up a test protected post after this one, and if you can’t see it post and let me know.
So-those who met me in the week of exams knew that I was freaking out a bit because all my Microsoft plans were in flux. I was originally scheduled to start May 17th, then in February Microsoft let me know I could only start on the 10th or the 24th, so I selected the 10th, which meant I had to fly out just over a day after my last exam. This was rather stressful, since I had to take my last exam, see Wicked (which was great, by the way), move out of my dorm, pack for California, and leave for the summer in a matter of two and a half days. However, that week before I had a call from my Microsoft recruiter (who seems to have adopted me in a sense, because I don’t think she’s UNC’s college recruiter, but I met her at my second-round interviews and she was my link with Microsoft ever since) who suggested that it might be valuable for me to end a week later then I was planning as the interns would be working on group projects and I’d be able to finish with my team (since I’m going on vacation for a week, even though I was starting two weeks earlier I was ending only one week before the others). We discussed it and I eventually suggested that they push my start date back a week (to the 17th, as I originally wanted) which would make me end the same week and also have a week to repack and prepare before I left for the summer.
Early that week, I electronically resigned my offer letter (now revised for the fourth time!) and then waited nervously for my relocation specialist to redo my flight and also to let me know where I’d be staying for the summer-while I asked to stay somewhere that I could get to work by public transit I wasn’t absolutely sure they would take that into account and I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to actually get to work.
However, it all (eventually) worked out and I found out that I’d be living in a studio apartment within walking distance of work (on a trail, no less), a grocery store, a CalTrain station and local public transit hub, and downtown Mountain View (with a library, bookstores, and restaurants). This was all rather exciting for me, and I started using Google Maps and the Internet to make lists of places I wanted to visit. (Why Google Maps? It has a ‘by public transit’ option. Bing Maps ironically doesn’t even have the trail that runs from my apartment complex right to Microsoft in its database, even though I asked for ‘walking’ directions, and has no public transit directions to speak of).
The week between school and Microsoft was spent relatively productively-I visited campus a couple of times during the week. I spent most of Monday as it turns out working on ITS matters, finalizing the tech resources flyer I had spent so much time working on (which ITS is printing and distributing to all incoming students at CTOPS!), having lunch, a crêpe, and a tour of ITS-Manning with my friend Andrew (who was my Tech and Web co-chair this past year), and then talking to the director of user support about general thoughts on support and on the support ticket system we use and how it could be better. That evening, I played a round of Dungeons and Dragons (or simply “D”, as we call it) with Noah, Mandy, Stanley and Zenik. Wednesday, Michael drove me to campus and I had lunch and games (both board and Wii) with Mary and Michael, which was a lot of fun, then went to a farewell party put on my grandparents. Thursday I went back to Durham for another round of D (and even drove part of the way there, at the urging of my parents-and I learned if I want decent driving directions whenever I go someplace I’d need to make them myself, even if I’m not the navigator)-a bit bittersweet as it was enormously enjoyable but I wouldn’t be able to rejoin my friends until the end of the summer, missing further escapades into the Labyrinth and into the world of d20 Modern they had already started planning.
Throughout that week I had been slowly packing to leave and organizing the storage boxes in my room, some of which date from high school. Many of the boxes are filled with books (I have an odd aversion to selling back my textbooks and always want a mobile library with me, even if I never read the books I bring) and I managed one day to clear off a couple of shelves worth of books from one of my bookcases I knew I wasn’t going to read again, then filled in several years worth of textbooks and assorted books I had bought over the past years. Before I left, I carefully labeled each box, letting my dad know which boxes I wanted for school, which ones I might want materials shipped to me from (since Microsoft will reimburse shipping costs!), and which ones were meant for deep storage (the attic).
The trip itself was somewhat eventful-the plane out of RDU was delayed, causing me to worry I’d miss my connecting flight to San Jose, especially when the AirTrain system in Houston partially broke down and I was stuck in the wrong terminal for a bit, part of an enormous throng of people trying to get between terminals. I managed to make the flight, then became a bit frantic on arrival as a combination of luggage that was a bit slow to arrive, one bar of signal in the baggage claim area, automatic and manual calls from Super Shuttle asking where I was and my trying to tell a Super Shuttle representative over the phone who didn’t speak English well that I was waiting for my luggage, but it eventually worked out and I arrived at my apartment complex safe and sound. The security guard who checked me in gave me a key that didn’t work (and no mail key, as it turned out), but eventually I even got into my apartment.
And this seems quite long enough for an installment, even though it only covers up to last Saturday and none of my actual trip. I’ll try to post the next installment covering the past week soon, and please do post below if you have comments and questions.
* The first revision was because my end date was incorrect (they marked a twelve-week period when I had agreed on a thirteen-week period with one week of vacation), the second was to republish it with my name properly hyphenated, the third revision was when they changed my start date to the 10th, and the fourth revision was when they changed my start date back. The onboarding logistics people probably are sick of me.
Relevant Disclaimer: Any opinions I state in this journal are completely my own, and do not reflect the view of my employer. No, I’m not going to disclose confidential Microsoft information, if you’re looking for corporate secrets you’re out of luck. [Can you tell I recently watched the legal training videos?]. Even so, I may make these journal posts protected. I’ll put up a test protected post after this one, and if you can’t see it post and let me know.
So-those who met me in the week of exams knew that I was freaking out a bit because all my Microsoft plans were in flux. I was originally scheduled to start May 17th, then in February Microsoft let me know I could only start on the 10th or the 24th, so I selected the 10th, which meant I had to fly out just over a day after my last exam. This was rather stressful, since I had to take my last exam, see Wicked (which was great, by the way), move out of my dorm, pack for California, and leave for the summer in a matter of two and a half days. However, that week before I had a call from my Microsoft recruiter (who seems to have adopted me in a sense, because I don’t think she’s UNC’s college recruiter, but I met her at my second-round interviews and she was my link with Microsoft ever since) who suggested that it might be valuable for me to end a week later then I was planning as the interns would be working on group projects and I’d be able to finish with my team (since I’m going on vacation for a week, even though I was starting two weeks earlier I was ending only one week before the others). We discussed it and I eventually suggested that they push my start date back a week (to the 17th, as I originally wanted) which would make me end the same week and also have a week to repack and prepare before I left for the summer.
Early that week, I electronically resigned my offer letter (now revised for the fourth time!) and then waited nervously for my relocation specialist to redo my flight and also to let me know where I’d be staying for the summer-while I asked to stay somewhere that I could get to work by public transit I wasn’t absolutely sure they would take that into account and I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to actually get to work.
However, it all (eventually) worked out and I found out that I’d be living in a studio apartment within walking distance of work (on a trail, no less), a grocery store, a CalTrain station and local public transit hub, and downtown Mountain View (with a library, bookstores, and restaurants). This was all rather exciting for me, and I started using Google Maps and the Internet to make lists of places I wanted to visit. (Why Google Maps? It has a ‘by public transit’ option. Bing Maps ironically doesn’t even have the trail that runs from my apartment complex right to Microsoft in its database, even though I asked for ‘walking’ directions, and has no public transit directions to speak of).
The week between school and Microsoft was spent relatively productively-I visited campus a couple of times during the week. I spent most of Monday as it turns out working on ITS matters, finalizing the tech resources flyer I had spent so much time working on (which ITS is printing and distributing to all incoming students at CTOPS!), having lunch, a crêpe, and a tour of ITS-Manning with my friend Andrew (who was my Tech and Web co-chair this past year), and then talking to the director of user support about general thoughts on support and on the support ticket system we use and how it could be better. That evening, I played a round of Dungeons and Dragons (or simply “D”, as we call it) with Noah, Mandy, Stanley and Zenik. Wednesday, Michael drove me to campus and I had lunch and games (both board and Wii) with Mary and Michael, which was a lot of fun, then went to a farewell party put on my grandparents. Thursday I went back to Durham for another round of D (and even drove part of the way there, at the urging of my parents-and I learned if I want decent driving directions whenever I go someplace I’d need to make them myself, even if I’m not the navigator)-a bit bittersweet as it was enormously enjoyable but I wouldn’t be able to rejoin my friends until the end of the summer, missing further escapades into the Labyrinth and into the world of d20 Modern they had already started planning.
Throughout that week I had been slowly packing to leave and organizing the storage boxes in my room, some of which date from high school. Many of the boxes are filled with books (I have an odd aversion to selling back my textbooks and always want a mobile library with me, even if I never read the books I bring) and I managed one day to clear off a couple of shelves worth of books from one of my bookcases I knew I wasn’t going to read again, then filled in several years worth of textbooks and assorted books I had bought over the past years. Before I left, I carefully labeled each box, letting my dad know which boxes I wanted for school, which ones I might want materials shipped to me from (since Microsoft will reimburse shipping costs!), and which ones were meant for deep storage (the attic).
The trip itself was somewhat eventful-the plane out of RDU was delayed, causing me to worry I’d miss my connecting flight to San Jose, especially when the AirTrain system in Houston partially broke down and I was stuck in the wrong terminal for a bit, part of an enormous throng of people trying to get between terminals. I managed to make the flight, then became a bit frantic on arrival as a combination of luggage that was a bit slow to arrive, one bar of signal in the baggage claim area, automatic and manual calls from Super Shuttle asking where I was and my trying to tell a Super Shuttle representative over the phone who didn’t speak English well that I was waiting for my luggage, but it eventually worked out and I arrived at my apartment complex safe and sound. The security guard who checked me in gave me a key that didn’t work (and no mail key, as it turned out), but eventually I even got into my apartment.
And this seems quite long enough for an installment, even though it only covers up to last Saturday and none of my actual trip. I’ll try to post the next installment covering the past week soon, and please do post below if you have comments and questions.
* The first revision was because my end date was incorrect (they marked a twelve-week period when I had agreed on a thirteen-week period with one week of vacation), the second was to republish it with my name properly hyphenated, the third revision was when they changed my start date to the 10th, and the fourth revision was when they changed my start date back. The onboarding logistics people probably are sick of me.