High-speed internet!
I finally have high-speed internet at my parent's house. After making do with dial-up here for almost 11 years, I finally decided I wanted something better. And taking advantage of Sympatico's first-month-free deal, I hopefully won't have to pay anything for it. My parents are content with dial-up, and so I'll be cancelling the high-speed here at the end of July, just before I move to New York.
And now to celebrate this great leap forward in Schacht-family Internet speed, I'm making a livejournal post, a rare event indeed. It's been about 2.5 months since my last post, so let me do a not-so-quick recap of what's been going on.
After exams, I spent three glorious weeks in Japan with JP, Lisa, and Yuxi. Lisa has done an excellent job of writing about our day-to-day excursions, so I won't repeat any of that, but I will write about some of my favourite things. When I think about the trip, some of the things that first come to mind are the litte things like the vending machines (great for drinks and ice cream), the food trolley on the bullet trains (and the little bow the Food trolley woman would sometimes make when entering and exiting a train car), the huge music stores and how clueless I felt when I would buy something from them (not knowing what the cashier was saying, I would just nod my head or shake it if they seemed to be asking me a question), yummy pork sandwiches that were sold at all the major train stations, and Japanese TV shows (there was a great show about Japanese stewardesses. One of them was so sassy). I could write a lot more about each of these things (and many other things too) and I probably will when I get more time.
Once back in Ottawa, I spent the next couple weeks relaxing around home and doing research on New York apartments. At the end of May, my parents and I drove down to New York to get me an apartment. When I was in New York during the fall, I found an apartment building just being built that I thought would be nice to live in. And that is the building that I will be moving into. It's called The Octagon. Interestingly, it is built on the former site of the NYC asylum. It is on a small, narrow island, called Roosevelt Island, which is in the middle of the East River between Manhattan and Queens. In the 1800's, the island was the home to New York's prisons and other undesirable things. Kind of like a New York version of Alcatraz. Since the 1960's, it's been changed into a nice residential island. From my apartment, my view looks like this:
Immediately outside my window are tennis courts and then beyond that is the East River and Queens. Residents on the other side of the building get a view of Manhattan. I got a 1-bedroom apartment and I plan to get a pull-out couch for the living room, so visitors are more than welcome. I move in at the beginning of August.
Not long after getting back from New York, it was time for graduation. For the past five years, I had been imagining what it would be like and at times I wasn't sure if I would make it. The biggest surprise for me was that I got my degree WITH distinction, even though on Quest, my overall average is less than 80% (and rounding up doesn't get me there as I originally thought). Maybe they included work report marks to get it to distinction level.
The graduation ceremony was pretty good. I did find the speeches a little lacking though. I don't remember much about them now, other than that they wanted us to give them money. Chris Porter's valedictorian speech was the exception. You did a great job, Chris!
When it came time to go up on stage to get hooded, I was surprised how nervous I was. Leading up to it, I kept wondering if they would pronounce my last name right (spelt "Schacht", pronounced "shocked"), but when the moment came, I was so nervous I forgot to listen to how they announced me! I think part of the nervousness came from the fact that I was the first one to walk on stage in my group of three, so I had no one to follow. I shook hands with the university prez, David Johnston, and mubbled something to him about working in New York and then walked off the stage and got my degree. It was all over way too quickly. However, after the ceremony, I was told that Bill Wilson did pronounce my name right after all. Woot!
Picture taking after the ceremony was a lot of fun. So many cameras! And it was quite amusing seeing many of our parents meet for the first time. I was sad to say goodbye to my silver hood. Silver is so much better than red! The SE reception was really great. It was good to see Matt Armstrong again (despite what I wrote about him in 2A-era livejournal posts) and Lisa's origami tribute to SE was stunning. I hope they put it somewhere prominent.
It was around this time when I got a chance to look through the Engineering yearbook. Thanks to all the SE people who worked on it. You did a fantastic job! I was really surprised by some of the pictures that got in there, like one of me taken at around 3am last July in the Voip lab. Those were good times.
The day after convocation was Ayelet's and Chris' wedding. The ceremony was really nice and I enjoyed the speeches by everyone. The food was quite good too. Since it was catered by UW Food Services, I was kind of hoping there would be some classic UW orange cake, but I think its just me, Adam, and Greg that liked that stuff :) Congratulations Chris and Ayelet!
During the following week, I did a whole variety of things. I went canoeing down the Grand River with my dad, I went to the Toronto Zoo with Adam and Yuxi, I went to a Microsoft conference promoting the wonders of Vista, and lastly, Dave Lisa, Yuxi and I went to Wonderland. Yuxi got so wet on the White-Water Canyon ride!
That pretty much brings us up to the present. Right now, I'm slowly preparing for my move to New York. I'm trying to figure out what furniture I'll need and where to get it from. I also have required reading to do. When I start at Morgan Stanley, I go through a 4-month training program, and before it starts, they've instructed all the new hires to read a book called "Stocks, Bonds, Options, and Futures". They also gave us a long list of suggested readings, ranging from financial books to Software Engineering books. The Mythical Man-Month is one of the suggested books, which I think is awesome. New grad hires for Morgan Stanley's Tokyo and Hong Kong offices also go through the same training program in New York, so I'll get to meet people from all over. At the end of the program, we've been told that there's a 1 week mandatory vacation from December 4 - 8. I've been contemplating all the different places I could go during that time.
In a way, this summer seems similar to the summer between high school and university. There's sadness over saying goodbye to friends mixed with anticipation for what is to come in the future.
And now to celebrate this great leap forward in Schacht-family Internet speed, I'm making a livejournal post, a rare event indeed. It's been about 2.5 months since my last post, so let me do a not-so-quick recap of what's been going on.
After exams, I spent three glorious weeks in Japan with JP, Lisa, and Yuxi. Lisa has done an excellent job of writing about our day-to-day excursions, so I won't repeat any of that, but I will write about some of my favourite things. When I think about the trip, some of the things that first come to mind are the litte things like the vending machines (great for drinks and ice cream), the food trolley on the bullet trains (and the little bow the Food trolley woman would sometimes make when entering and exiting a train car), the huge music stores and how clueless I felt when I would buy something from them (not knowing what the cashier was saying, I would just nod my head or shake it if they seemed to be asking me a question), yummy pork sandwiches that were sold at all the major train stations, and Japanese TV shows (there was a great show about Japanese stewardesses. One of them was so sassy). I could write a lot more about each of these things (and many other things too) and I probably will when I get more time.
Once back in Ottawa, I spent the next couple weeks relaxing around home and doing research on New York apartments. At the end of May, my parents and I drove down to New York to get me an apartment. When I was in New York during the fall, I found an apartment building just being built that I thought would be nice to live in. And that is the building that I will be moving into. It's called The Octagon. Interestingly, it is built on the former site of the NYC asylum. It is on a small, narrow island, called Roosevelt Island, which is in the middle of the East River between Manhattan and Queens. In the 1800's, the island was the home to New York's prisons and other undesirable things. Kind of like a New York version of Alcatraz. Since the 1960's, it's been changed into a nice residential island. From my apartment, my view looks like this:
Immediately outside my window are tennis courts and then beyond that is the East River and Queens. Residents on the other side of the building get a view of Manhattan. I got a 1-bedroom apartment and I plan to get a pull-out couch for the living room, so visitors are more than welcome. I move in at the beginning of August.
Not long after getting back from New York, it was time for graduation. For the past five years, I had been imagining what it would be like and at times I wasn't sure if I would make it. The biggest surprise for me was that I got my degree WITH distinction, even though on Quest, my overall average is less than 80% (and rounding up doesn't get me there as I originally thought). Maybe they included work report marks to get it to distinction level.
The graduation ceremony was pretty good. I did find the speeches a little lacking though. I don't remember much about them now, other than that they wanted us to give them money. Chris Porter's valedictorian speech was the exception. You did a great job, Chris!
When it came time to go up on stage to get hooded, I was surprised how nervous I was. Leading up to it, I kept wondering if they would pronounce my last name right (spelt "Schacht", pronounced "shocked"), but when the moment came, I was so nervous I forgot to listen to how they announced me! I think part of the nervousness came from the fact that I was the first one to walk on stage in my group of three, so I had no one to follow. I shook hands with the university prez, David Johnston, and mubbled something to him about working in New York and then walked off the stage and got my degree. It was all over way too quickly. However, after the ceremony, I was told that Bill Wilson did pronounce my name right after all. Woot!
Picture taking after the ceremony was a lot of fun. So many cameras! And it was quite amusing seeing many of our parents meet for the first time. I was sad to say goodbye to my silver hood. Silver is so much better than red! The SE reception was really great. It was good to see Matt Armstrong again (despite what I wrote about him in 2A-era livejournal posts) and Lisa's origami tribute to SE was stunning. I hope they put it somewhere prominent.
It was around this time when I got a chance to look through the Engineering yearbook. Thanks to all the SE people who worked on it. You did a fantastic job! I was really surprised by some of the pictures that got in there, like one of me taken at around 3am last July in the Voip lab. Those were good times.
The day after convocation was Ayelet's and Chris' wedding. The ceremony was really nice and I enjoyed the speeches by everyone. The food was quite good too. Since it was catered by UW Food Services, I was kind of hoping there would be some classic UW orange cake, but I think its just me, Adam, and Greg that liked that stuff :) Congratulations Chris and Ayelet!
During the following week, I did a whole variety of things. I went canoeing down the Grand River with my dad, I went to the Toronto Zoo with Adam and Yuxi, I went to a Microsoft conference promoting the wonders of Vista, and lastly, Dave Lisa, Yuxi and I went to Wonderland. Yuxi got so wet on the White-Water Canyon ride!
That pretty much brings us up to the present. Right now, I'm slowly preparing for my move to New York. I'm trying to figure out what furniture I'll need and where to get it from. I also have required reading to do. When I start at Morgan Stanley, I go through a 4-month training program, and before it starts, they've instructed all the new hires to read a book called "Stocks, Bonds, Options, and Futures". They also gave us a long list of suggested readings, ranging from financial books to Software Engineering books. The Mythical Man-Month is one of the suggested books, which I think is awesome. New grad hires for Morgan Stanley's Tokyo and Hong Kong offices also go through the same training program in New York, so I'll get to meet people from all over. At the end of the program, we've been told that there's a 1 week mandatory vacation from December 4 - 8. I've been contemplating all the different places I could go during that time.
In a way, this summer seems similar to the summer between high school and university. There's sadness over saying goodbye to friends mixed with anticipation for what is to come in the future.