欢迎来台湾！

Welcome to Taiwan!

Goodbye America ;.;

Hello Taiwan!

One week ago, I left Seattle for New Jersey and three days ago I left New Jersey for Taiwan. So, within the past week, I went from cool 70s (where I still incessantly wore a jacket) to hot 80s to even more humid 90s. Quite a bit of change. As I'm writing this, it is 5:40am Sunday (still a bit jet lagged).

Mom at Osaka airport

Bro and I goofing off on plane

My family and I are staying in a friend's home in a surburb near Taipei called Sanxia (三峡). Yesterday (Saturday), we explored Sanxia's street market and old town areas eating a lot of Taiwan's famous "little foods" (小菜), window shopping a lot, and of course, helping the Taiwanese economy by buyng many cheap goods (I got a few sundresses for $2 USD each!).

Sister on the metro bus in Sanxia

Brother sipping his mango juice with his favorite goods (Angry Birds) in the background

Right outside old Sanxia

For my foodies out there, a sampling of some of the things we ate (sorry I don't have pictures - was too busy eating):

- Shaved Ice (my brother and sister's first time; they loved it)

- Mango juice

- "Paper-like" pork (a variety of thicknesses from bacon-like to paper-thin)

- Thin rice noodles (米粉)

- Noodles for lunch

- Dumplings for dinner

Noodles for lunch! nom nom nom

I have an Ace of a sister

The weather is quite an adjustment - after an hour outside, my brother starts complaining about feeling sticky. But, so far it's definitely been fun and I'm excited for the next two weeks ahead of us. Right now, we're taking it slowly to allow ourselves time to adjust to the time difference and tropical heat, so we spent part of the afternoon back at the apartment playing Bananagrams, Prez (a cardgame my sister brought back home from CTY), and pool and watching a bit of BBC's Sherlock.

This is my brother and sister's first time to Taiwan and my brother's first trip to another continent, so they've been taking in a bit of a culture shock since we've arrived. Surprisingly, I'm not completely lost here and have been making good use of my freshman Chinese class - reading (or attempting to read) subway and street signs as well as practicing my Mandarin.

Today, my mom's giving a talk at the biggest church in Taiwan and afterwards we'll be hanging out my grandma, great aunt, and uncle. So psyched! Toodles / 再见！

Puzzles, Mountains, Microsoft, O My (Part 3 of 3)

Puzzling the Day Away

The next weekend (Saturday, July 7), I participated in Microsoft Intern Puzzle Hunt with 10 other intern friends. We were given an entire conference room as our personal headquarters and solved all sorts of mind puzzles with different video game flavors (i.e. one puzzle was the sheet music of mario which you had to convert into binary and then map to alphanumeric letters). Although we finished below averaged, I had a great time stretching and challenging my mind (and basically nerding out). This fueled my decision to participate in Microsoft's Intern Games, which is a 36-hour more grueling version of Puzzle Hunt that also has an Amazing Race element to it (i.e. we got to drive 200 miles throughout Washington). But more on that later. Puzzle Hunt was filled with free pizza and good fun. One of the "live" puzzles including reenacting and playing Angry Birds live, where two of my roommates and I filled 10 water balloons and stacked 10 cardboard boxes about 100 feet away from where we had to knock them down. Then, we took turns using a giant rubber slingshot to fling our balloons - I knocked down our structure on our last shot.

Climbing Mountains, O My

After church that Sunday, I also got the opportunity to explore more of Washington's natural structures, namely Mt. Si and the Snoqualmie Falls. It was a hot summer day in the 80s and we were ill-prepared in terms of clothing (I was wearing black sweatpants…), but regardless, I still felt quite accomplished when we summited little Si (a little of 2 miles). Driving along Route 202 from Seattle to Snoqualmie was also quite enjoyable - the scenery reminded me so much of the Disney movie Cars and the grand, natural beauty along Route 66.

Roomie and I at the top of little Si

Snoqualmie Falls

Earlier in June, the Microsoft intern program had planned a trip to Mt. Rainier - a national park and one of the most famous (and beautiful) Washington mountains. However, a few Microsoft full-time employees made a trip the week earlier to scope out the conditions and came back reporting that there was still too much snow for the trip, so they cancelled the trip. I was quite saddened by the announcement because a lot of returning interns agreed that the Mt. Rainier trip was their favorite intern activity. Thus, when the intern coordinators announced that they had planned a trip on an alternative date in July, I jumped at the opportunity. Good thing too, because they only had space to take 250 interns (out of 1000+), and many of my intern friends didn't get a spot on the trip.

Roomie and I submitted Panorama Point!

Loving the snow (and the sights)

Roomie sliding down the mountain (my picture didn't come out quite as nicely)

Great views while climbing down

So, the Sunday after Si (July 15th), my roommates and I woke up at 6am to board onto a bus at Microsoft. We drove for about 3 hours from Seattle to Mt. Rainier, and along the way, our bus broke down. Thankfully, there was just enough room on the other 4 buses to transfer 12 of the 50 people on my bus on to each of the other buses. With the bus brakedown, we arrived at Paradise Peak later than planned at about 12:30pm and had a little over 3 hours at Rainier. The vantage point we wanted to get to was a little over 2 miles away and a 1,700 ft elevation gain, but my roommate and I timidly joined the ambitious and intense group that was determined to reach Panarama Point. We quickly realized we were not part of that head of the pack group and comfortably made our own way up the mountain (and eventually reaching Panaroma Point probably about 15 minutes after the first group). The hike was 95% through snow and fairly challenging going up, but the views were gorgeous - both throughout our climb and throughout our drive. I actually liked Rainier better than the views at Olympic National Park because I got too see a great amount of diversity in landscape in a much smaller area. We saw everything from meadow flowers to glaciers to cascading water falls to cute, fat, chipmunk-like wildlife. But, the best part of the trip was probably sliding down the mountain on nothing more than a trash bag. It was everthing like the pure thrill of sledding with an added dose of adventure (due to the mountain part of the equation). We even "invented" garbage bag shorts, by which we created a hands-free sledding experience.

Sleepless in Seattle

All throughout the last two weeks, a few intern friends and I have been diligently preparing for the Intern Games I mentioned before (the 30-hour Amazing Race meets Puzzle Hunt event) by solving practice puzzles after work. Because I don't have internet at my apartment, we often took over a Microsoft conference room (as well as took advantage of the free drinks and copy room) sometimes until 1am in the morning solving puzzles, skyping friends, playing pool, watching Modern Family/failure of LA fireworks show, and otherwise hanging out. Our team was aptly (or not so aptly) named Sleepless in Seattle because the Intern Games event has us drive a minivan all over the state of Washington. There were definite highs and lows in the trip, but overall it was a fantastic experience.

The Intern Games team: Sleepless in Seattle

Prepping with a pig (part of registration was taking landmark photos)

Driving through Leevenworth

Practice puzzling right before the midnight premiere of Dark Knight Rises

I got to see such beautiful parts of Washington (the drives were great), flex my puzzle solving muscles, and have fun singing in the car and enjoying good company. The people who ran the Intern Games did a great job planning the entire event - from puzzles to destinations. One puzzle involved almost 5 different types of encodings (from braille, to 5-bit binary, to resistor encodings) and another puzzle took us to Leevenworth - a cute, Germontown-like area (it's actually a Bulvarian village). While at times it was slightly discouraging when we got stuck on a puzzle, we stayed a cohesive team and pushed through until the end, having a great time throughout. I definitely encourage everyone to try these types of puzzling activities - it's incredibly rewarding to crack one of these obscure puzzles (and I also think it does wonders for training your brain to problem solve effectively).

Dining in Leevenworth

After a successful ring toss puzzle

In a Leevenworth park

Puzzling away at Stevens Pass

There's no I in TEAM

Looking Ahead

This brings me to this week, which is Signature week for us interns. This basically means there's a bunch of events just for interns this week, in an effort to draw us back full-time or for another internship. So far this week, I've had the privilege to see the Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talk to the interns as well as the Windows President Steve Sinophsky talk. Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be the big Intern Signature Event, which is a private event for all the interns across the country. A few years ago it was a several months early screening of the last Harry Potter, and last year it was a private David Matthews band. The event is kept under tight wraps, but clues have been given out to suggest that it's some sort of concert. Another tradition for Microsoft interns is to receive an intern gift at the end of the signature event, which in the past has included an xbox and kinect. I'm super psyched for the event as well as the other goodies this week brings.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer speaking to the interns

Windows President Steve Sinofsky (front row seats to see my boss!)

While I've been having a blast here so far (and have been somewhat AWOL on the blog and elsewhere), being in Seattle has made me appreciate my friends back at college and at home much more, as well as my family. I've been very grateful to be welcomed by such an incredible church family, to have stumbled upon such fun and agreeable roommates, and to be surrounded by such smart, wise mentors, and living on my own has definitely been a great learning experience (dealing with rent for the first time and renting my first rental cars). Nevertheless, I still feel nostalgic for my mom's (or sister's) cooking sometimes, for the ever-pervasive presence of my blinkies (aka college dormmates), for the comfortable silence (or intense discussions) with lifelong friends. With my family travelling to Las Vegas and Canada (without me) and my sister turning 16, this has been the first summer that I haven't spent with my family, and the three-hour time difference sometimes makes it hard to schedule skype dates with home, so I often miss being a part of their lives. Yet, I always look forward to hearing from them, even if it's just my brother telling me about the latest video game character he adores. So, while I hate the thought of leaving Seattle and the life I've quickly built here, I can't wait to go back home and meet up with my friends and family again. Let's not wait until then though - please, reach out to me if we haven't caught up in a while (even with my lack of internet, I'd love to catch up). May God keep you and your families safe.

Best,

Ruth


P.S. (Thursday) More details to come, but yesterday Microsoft gave each of its 1700+ interns a Samsung Series 9 Ultrabook laptop! I've been playing with it ever since!

#FTW

Mid-point Mark (Part 2 of 3)

Mid-point Mark

The next Thursday (June 28), I had my "mid-point review" with my manager, which is essentially a formal check-in to talk about how I'm progressing through my internship and whether or not I'm on track for the "next" thing, which for me, would be another internship, this time as an intern in one of the three disciplines: PM, SDE, or SDET (see this post for more information about the Explorer internship I'm currently a part of). This marked the halfway point of my time here in Seattle. While it is sad to think of how little time I have left in Seattle, this reminded of how grateful I am for the opportunity to work for Microsoft and interact on a daily basis with such smart, talented individuals.

Reliving childhood classics with the Seattle Symphony

Outside Paramount theatre after Les Mis

That weekend, I indulged in my theater-side and first watched the Seattle Symphony perform all the greatest Disney songs in a "Disney in Concert" special performance (for $10 at the student discount price) and then watched the 5th Avenue theatre perform Les Miserable as part of the 25th anniversary tour of the Broadway show. I loved singing along to my favorite childhood songs (something that many of you know I still do quite frequently actually) as well as watching my favorite musical of all time. I think my co-workers were getting a bit tired of my Les Mis craze that week as I had been listening to the soundtrack non-stop that week in preparation for the show. Both were amazing. The Disney concert was a timeless hit, with attendees such as little girls and boys in costumes to well-dressed adult Seattlers. With my week-long preparation of listening to the original soundtrack, I also really enjoyed watching the fresh interpretation of the 25th Anniversary show. I particularly loved the story of redemption and kindness that Les Mis is famous for as well as the characters Javier and Jean Valjean.

Potluck with friends

In addition to work and church, I've also been going (or trying to at least) to Microsoft's free salsa lessons after work with a few friends. In addition to having an extensive shuttle service that essentially serves as a free taxi ride to anywhere there's a Microsoft building, Microsoft also provides an array of social activities from intramural sports to dance lessons.

Dinner with the Lians (we cooked!)

A True American Experience

Back in high school in NJ, my friends and I would often joke around about my "American identity" (given the fact that I didn't know who John Mayer was and mixed up the Eagles and the Queens before). So, Emma, Kia, and Jess, you'd be very proud of how I spent my fourth of July (I think it was my most authentically American experience yet). I went to a church member's house for a fellowship BBQ (with great food I must add) and spent the day playing volleyball, videogames, and boardgames (all while in a perpetual food coma and state of consumption). I even watched a few minutes of Jackass (which has its funny moments but just got a bit too crazy and disgusting for me). After dinner, I headed to a fireworks show in a nearby small city, Bellevue, with some intern friends and watched the display in a packed park. Catching a ride from another intern, we got stuck in the parking garage because we were parked on the second story of the garage and everyone from the first floor had to get out first. Nevertheless, I had a great time hanging out with people all while feeling proud of my country and the freedoms I'm afforded.

Fireworks @ Bellevue Park (much better than the San Diego fireworks...)

From Seas to Skies (Part 1 of 3)

So, I've been very remiss in keeping the blog up-to-date this past month. My apologies; reflections this past week made me realize that I really need to do a better job keeping in touch with people in my lives, so, if we haven't caught up in a while, please - let's do!

Anyways, a snapshot into the past few weeks:

A Week of Firsts

In my last post, I briefly mentioned my first boating experience as well as my first trip to a U.S. National Park. That Thursday (June 21st), all the Microsoft Explorer interns went out to Lake Union to partake in an "electric boat scavenger hunt". When I heard this, I imagined high-speed boats racing around the lake. Instead, our luxury boats maxed out at about 6 mph. Nevertheless, it was still a great experience.

Me and my chill driver

Technically, you have to be over 21 to drive the boat, but my boat's driver was really chill, so I got to take our baby for a 15-minute spin! After me, one of my roommates took her turn at the wheel. However, just as she was getting her bearing and steering "sea legs", a large yacht came out of nowhere right in front of us! Thankfully, our driver had quick reflexes and halted the boat, but we were less than four inches away from the yacht when both sea vessels came to a complete stop. Needless to say, the people on the yacht weren't the happiest campers.

My roommate soaking in the sun

Boat 8! (the winning boat)

Our scavenger hunt entailed answering trivia facts about Seattle as well as locating various landmarks around the lake. One of these landmarks was the boat house that was part of the set of the classic 90s rom-com "Sleepless in Seattle". We were giving clues like "What fowled the house that never sleeps?" and "What lives at the Living museum?" (to answer the former: Boat houses are often labelled for rent or for sale by a statue of a bird, so we had to take a picture of the bird that "fowled" the "Sleepless in Seattle" boat house; you can work on the other clue).

Me and the Olympic National Park crew

That weekend (June 22-24), I also camped and hiked in Olympic National Park with one of my roommates and two of her friends living in the Seattle area. I simply can not capture the breathtaking views and moments of the great outdoors. Despite the fact that I am a relative "noob" to the whole outdoors experience, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and my company and highly encourage others to adventure into the outdoors. I was particularly impressed with the National Park's Service ability to provide accessible trails for everyone from the week-long wilderness backpackers to the families with small children.

Close brush with deer

Despite an omninous forecast of rain throughout the weekend, we were able to see great views of the Pacific Ocean, the Hoh rain forest, and many cute (and some not-so-cute) creatures. While hiking through one of the rain forests, we encountered a herd of elk just a ways off the trail and stood face to face with some elk no more than 10 feet away. It was literally breathtaking seeing these large beasts calmly eat as we silently snapped photos and revelled in the opportunity.

Just hanging around

Pensive thoughts along Kalaloch beach

More excited thoughts along Kalaloch beach

Sand Spraying fun at the beach

One of my other favorite moments from the trip included our last stop at a beach that let you drive in the sand. We were driving in an four-wheel-drive Suburu and had a blast spinning circles in the sand and even daring to see how far into the tide we could go with the car. It was pretty funny all-around because we left a window open while trying to carve donuts into the sand and a wall of sand flooded our car during one particularly sweet turn. While we enjoyed frolicking in the sand, another car apparently tried to copy our skimboarding stunt and was subsequently pulled over by the beach police for driving in the water. Oops. Anyways, through the fun and laughter, I was reminded daily in the most amazing ways of the beauty of God's creation.

Sights, Scenes, and Spirituality: A week in the life of a _______

Sunday, June 24th

Update: So... I drafted the post below this past Tuesday, but, due to a mixture of not having internet at my apartment and plain busy-ness, I haven't had the chance to put this up until now (5 days later). A brief update since then, this past Thursday, I went electric boating on Lake Union through with other interns from the Explorer internship program (I drove a boat for my first time!), and this weekend I camped and hiked in Olympic National Park. This was a great experience and I definitely encourage all those who have the means to explore the great outdoors - at least in the States, the National Parks have something for everyone - from intense trails for experienced backpackers to short, easy trails for families. Pictures from the past few weeks can be found here. Now onto the actual post (from this Tuesday).


Tuesday, June 19

My roommates and I (minus one) at the Space Needle

Today after work, I visited the Space Needle and the Chihuly Garden & Glass exhibit with about a dozen other interns from Harvard. Thankfully, the overcast clouds from the morning were no where in sight and the weather was on its best behavior. However, I was a bit out of place with my polka dotted rainboats and trenchcoat from the slightly uglier morning. When I flew out to interview with Microsoft on-campus this past spring, I already visited the Space Needle, so that experience wasn't new. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the panaramic view of the different Seattle districts as well as Lake Union and Washington. Yet, the Chihuly exhibit was truly a treat.

Views from the Space Needle:

Microsoft Harvard Interns @ Chihuly Exhibit

This Seattle native who originally studied architecture in university played around with pieces of glass as a hobby. After college, he travelled to Italy, where the art of glass blowing originated from a few centuries ago, to study the art more seriously. Shortly after coming back from Italy, he began pioneering new practices and techniques in the world of glass blowing. Throughout the 70s and 80s, he created countless glass works (enough to fill plenty of exhibits), led RISD's glass blowing program, and even ran his own experimental school for glass blowing. In the late 80s, he was in a car accident that forced him to stop his blowing, yet, still till today, he continues to direct his team to make new works using his techniques and continues to teach blowing to the excited and interested.

Some sculptures from the Chihuly Exhibit:

Needless to say, I really enjoyed his collection and found that it elegantly captured and reflected the beauty of nature. After scaling the Space Needle, we headed over to Dick's - a classic American burger joint that some say is comparable to California's In & Out (I've never been, so I wouldn't know).

This week has been and is filled with many exciting events - plenty to keep me busy. Yesterday (On Monday), I worked a 12-hour day - 9am to 9pm - to finish up my functional spec as well as to clock in enough hours to leave work early for the rest of the week. This weekend, I'll be camping and hiking in Olympic National Park, and on Thursday, I'll be going with some other Explorer interns on an electric boat scavenger hunt on Lake Union.

In terms of work, these past two weeks have been fairly busy: my team has been diligently working on our functional spec - an extensive document that basically details the "spec" (specifications) of exactly what our project is and does. We just had our full spec review today, and I'm proud to say that, though we received a lot of suggestions and constructive criticism, the feedback was largely positive and our project was signed off on! I've been learning how best to communicate my thoughts and needs to my teammates  and mentors. While at a retreat with my local church's college fellowship this past weekend, I realized that I often overworked myself above and beyond the call of duty simply to look good. In that effort, I had not leveraged the aid of my team as much as I could have. It's definitely still a learning process; thankfully, I maintain a fairly healthy work-life balance: When I leave work, I leave work at the office for the night.

Group Picture (normal version)

CG campers!

As I mentioned before, this past weekend I went with my local church to nearby Auburn, WA, on a church retreat called CG Camp (short for Common Ground) for the college-aged church members. While a year at Harvard and now an internship at Microsoft have both been great blessings and opportunities that God definitely orchestrated (more on this later), I feel that I unconciously became a bit disoriented through the process. Attending such a prestigious school and snagging a nice internship right after freshman year, I easily fell into the mindset of perpetually thinking about and prioritizing my future and "success" as benchmarked by the ambitious measures of marks and opportunities. I deluded myself into thinking that I still lived for God, yet truly, my actions were driven by selfish motives: my desire to have options after graduation, to maximize my experiences, and to basically have a good time. Sure, I didn't do the "bad things": I don't drink or smoke or even swear. I even did some "good things": I'd donate to charities and be able to hold a conversation about Christian theology. However, so many things were missing. The first signs were when consistent church attendance and quiet time with God became obligations that I started slipping on. The next was when I began to feel ashamed of who I believed in and started treating my faith in Jesus as a private religion instead of a personal, yet passionate relationship.

Group Games at CG Camp:

"Hide-and-Go-Seek"

Human Etch-A-Sketch of "Aquarium"

Human Etch-A-Sketch of "Video game"

Despite my state, God still prevailed. From the moment I stepped off the plane in Seattle, God began working in my life to get me back into His. As I mentioned in my first blog post, an elder at my local church and his wife welcomed me to the Pacific Northwest my first day and extended to me Christ-like hospitality. Through them, I was plugged into their church from day one and was provided rides to all of their services and fellowships. This accountability was exactly what I needed in order to start having God be a regular part of my life again. Seeing many members of this church demonstrate love in so many different ways, from providing rides at 1am to introducing me to countless Microsoft employees in the congregation to simply making me feel welcomed into their community, God reminded me of what the congregation - the Body of Christ - is really suppose to look like. I had been struggling with spending quality time with God daily in prayer and in His Word, yet God reached me through my favorite avenue: technology. By chance, I began reading Francis Chan's book Crazy Love that I had downloaded on my Kindle a few months ago per a friend's suggestion. Reading through this book these past few weeks, coupled by this past weekend's retreat on happiness & holiness, really pressed me to face the fact that my faith was seriously messed up. For anyone who's currently struggling with a lukewarm faith, I'd highly encourage them to read Chan's book - it's a straight-forward, easy read that explains hard truths honestly. Basically, Chan points out that most American Christians are motivated by things of this world (i.e. career, success, family, etc.) instead of things of God and are only willing to give God a slice of their life, time, and resources. If Christians really took Jesus' teachings literally (i.e. "what you do for the least of your brothers, you do for me"), Chan challenges that we would very palpably see the Christian community pour much more time and resouces into serving the poor and needy as well as a much more noticeable outpour of love. He reminds his readers that the early Christians did not coin the name "Christian" for themselves, but rather non-believers at that time invented the label to describe them. Chan's point is that Christians were known by their actions not their label. This really made me wonder, if my Facebook account didn't say that my religion was "Christianity", would people think me different from my peers? The answer was fairly obvious (no). Chan also pointed out that simply making bigger promises to love God more wouldn't work (I can attest to this point, I've tried applying the "self-help" method to my faith - it doesn't work). The only solution, Chan suggests, is to ask God for help in this area of loving Him and living for Him. So, I've been trying that, that is, trying to lift up my current faith struggle to him and saying, "God, I feel like I literally can't get any "better", that I'm stuck in this spiritual and behavioral rut for life, but I believe you to be the same God that parted the Red Sea and level the city of Jericho, so I'm taking a leap of faith here and asking you to help me love you better."

I still am far from being the perfect Christian, or even a "good" one at that (there are no such things). I've realized these truths, that I don't fully love God as passionately as He desires and that I can't compel myself to anymore than I can compel myself to love vegetables. I still struggle with showing Christ-like love in the workplace and in my home when things are busy and crazy and stressful. Yet, at least for the past few days, I feel closer to God and that my attitude on faith and life has been slowly changing. I'm no longer viewing reading the Bible as a chore and that I can treat my coworkers and roommates well when I keep my mind on Christ and his transformative power. I still feel "PC" (politically correct) about my faith, but even in this area, God is slowly working with me (hey, this is a pretty lengthy blog post about God right?)

Anyways, if you are a fellow Christian, I encourage you to reexamine your faith through a similar lens as well as to pray for me as I continue to trust in God to grow in my faith, that I may store up treasures in heaven rather than strive for treasures on earth, that I may treat each person that I encounter as I would Christ, and that I would passionately love and treasure God. My hope and prayer for you is the same.

Enjoy the precious summer days with your friends and family wherever you are.

Best,
Ruth