First Weekend Escapade to Seattle and Beyond

With a three-day weekend and a sunny forecast, I was really excited for my first weekend in Seattle. At work on Friday, it felt like half of my co-workers had already checked out for the weekend (half of my mentors had taken the day off to spend with their family), so by the afternoon, every other office was already empty.

One of the great things I've come to love about Microsoft is how open and accessible everyone is. My mentors keep encouraging me to reach out to other Microsoft employees and find out about what excites them. Another great thing is how nice everyone is and how my co-workers have worked to really include me and the other interns into their team. Every Thursday, people from the office go off-campus together to each lunch, so this past Thursday, we went to Taj Mahal for a great buffet of Indian food. Similarly, every Friday they have "beer 'o clock" at 4pm with beer and boardgames in the common room of our floor, which is decked out with couches, video games, and a dartboard. Given that I don't drink, it was quite the scene as I was sipping my Mango juice at beer 'o clock. Nevertheless, I really enjoy and appreciate their company and have been amazed by how smart and talented each of them are.

On that note, my PM mentor Kevin is quite musical and is heavily involved in Seattle theatre. When I told him that I'm also interested in theatre, I recommended a few theatre companies for the type of shows I typically enjoy and I found out that he was actually directing a musical this weekend, so my roommate, another intern, and I went to see an adaptation of Beauty and the Beast Friday night at one of the local community theaters. Though the theater seated at most 80 people, the six-person cast did a great job bringing a unique story to life (the adaptation takes place in the Jane Austen British setting).

Walking through the Financial district in downtown Seattle

This weekend the annual Northwest Folklife Festival took place in downtown Seattle and is a big part of Seattle culture, or so I've been told. So, on Saturday, after going grocery shopping (thanks to a lovely family from the local church that lives in our apartment complex and drove us there), I took the 545 bus from Redmond to Seattle (Microsoft provides each of its interns and employees ORCA cards that serve as passes on any King County public transportation minus the ferry). Then, I headed towards Seattle Center and met up with a Harvard classmate Julian.

The Space Needle @ Seattle Center (our landmark to find each other)

We saw some interesting characters and couldn't resist a photo opportunity!

Protesting for the 1%

One of the many performances

Oppa! (?)

Having fun at the various stands!

It was great catching up with him and hearing how his school year and summer have been so far. We spent a few hours at the festival, eating over-priced food, listening to and watching all sorts of folk music and performance groups, checking out many hipster/hippy tent shops selling everything from eco-friendly baby clothes to handmade tea. The festival was huge! With several stages, many food stands, and countless tent shops, it probably spanned over one square mile. If you're ever in Seattle on Memorial Day weekend, I strongly suggest checking out the folk festival - definitely a very unique and fun experience!

 @ Pike Place Market

Along the pier

The view from Capitol Hill

After the few hours at the festival, I took another bus and met up with my roommate here and her friend at Pike Place Market. Walking along the pier and through the market, we enjoyed the warm weather and good company. We then proceeded to walk a few miles eastward towards Capitol Hill - the hipster part of downtown. After wandering through Capitol Hill (and making a few wrong turns along the way), we headed up in Volunteer Park where an African festival was taking place. After enjoying the view of Seattle from there, we ate at a nearby Mexican joint and then went our separate ways, with my roommate and I heading back to Redmond by bus.

Upon arriving here, I was a bit disappointed by how far apart everything seemed. Coming from Boston, I was used to ubiquitous public transportation, convenience, and closeness, and forgot what it was like to live in suburbia without a car. However, this weekend I was pleasantly surprised with how good the King County bus system is as well as how far I can get on bike alone (more on that later).

On Sunday, I went to Evangelical Chinese Church's Eastside campus with the local family that lives in my apartment complex. Before and after the service, I was warmly greeted by various members of the congregation and felt truly welcomed by the community. Afterwards, I went out to eat lunch at a Vietnamese place in Redmond with some of the young adults from the church and enjoyed more of their good company there.

With the great weather still persisting, after hearing my roommate talk about her 30-mile biking trip during the week, I ventured out of my comfort zone and agreed to bike with her to Coal Creek Park. We ended up biking along the Sammamish Lake and passing through several other parks (including a beach park and a few hiking trails) before getting to our final destination. At one of the parks, we actually hiked up a non-trail (I was wondering why the greenery was so thick); only on the trip down did we realize we actually made a wrong turn going up and instead blazed our own trail! The views were breathtaking and - though there were a few portions of the road that we had to walk - the uphill climbs were totally worth it. At Coal Creek, we biked through a trail meant for hiking, so there were portions of the trail that we were carrying our bikes up stairs! 

My roommate Yifan and I @ a local beach park!

Some pretty wild flowers along the road

On the Coal Creek trail

Mission accomplished! ~20 miles of biking

Our final route

Starting off from our apartment around 3pm, we separated at 8pm, my roommate to bike back, while I made use of the bus system. All King county buses have bike racks mounted to the front, and - after struggling with my bike the first time I used the bike mounts - I slimmed down the process of mounting my bike to about 30 seconds! Unfortunately, after I got off my last bus and was just a few minutes away from my apartment, I took a stumble on Bel Red Road. Racing downhill, I was being careless and cut a corner onto grass while making a turn. When I tried to get back onto the sidewalk, my wheel clipped the edge of the sidewalk and spun out. Thankfully, besides a few cuts, I'm no worse for wear, and - thanks to my lovely roommates and the neighboring family - I'm happily patched up with bandages and Neosporin.

With still a full day ahead of me, I'm planning on enjoying Memorial Day leisurely, reading a bit, catching up on work, and skyping with my family. At work, this week will be crucial because we have to nail down the specific direction of our project and furnish a few presentations and written specifications. Again, I'm still a bit nervous, but I'm excited and thankful for the opportunity. This upcoming weekend, my Harvard roommate Meredith will be visiting me from Georgia, as well as another Harvard classmate Michelle. Hopefully the weather will be equally as pleasant then as it has been today.

I hope you and your family are enjoying the long three-day weekend in appreciation and memory of the men and women who faithfully serve our country. Had I been born in another country, I most likely would not have had the opportunity to be here in Seattle today or possibly even the freedom to write this blog. May you enjoy this precious time with your loved ones.

God bless; over and out!

- Ruth

First Days of Work! Exciting and Stretching

Tuesday was my second day at Microsoft and the first day of "real work". I'm working at Building 27, Office #2000-something with two other interns and, after spending a few hours in the morning in more orientation, I met the manager that I'd be reporting to and my mentors. I was really surprised by how helpful and inviting everyone was; people from the Windows 8 "HDX" (Hardware Development Experience) team that I'm a part of really made an effort to introduce themselves and talk with me - the lowly intern.

After eating lunch with some of the HDX team at Microsoft's newly opened cafeteria 40, my pod mates (the two other interns on my specific project) and I began the arduous task of assemblying our desks. For those tech geeks out there, I've been converted to Microsoftism simply based on the lavishness of the machines they gave us: Each one of us got two machines - one for development and one for testing. The development machine had three hard drives (2 1TB drives and 1 500 GB drive) and the machines were equipped with 6 gb and 12 gb of RAM respectively. We were also given two wide screen monitors, a telephone, and a switchboard for our monitors/machines. 

About two hours and a several boxes later, we got our systems up and running and began downloading the latest pre-release of Windows 8 that hasn't launched yet. (because of this - I'm not allowed to show you pictures of my desktop, instead above is the "mid-way"). 

That day we also found out about our project, which is to create a diagnostic tool for Windows 8 metro-style device app developers that pinpoints potential problems with the app on a macro-level (i.e. issues of connectivity and communication between the various actors - device, driver, metadata, and app). I'm really excited about it because we'll be working on an ambitious project that device companies like HP and Cannon have been requesting for a while. I'm also fairly nervous about it because it's pretty "big" and we're still working out how exactly we're going to tackle it.

@Microsoft Commons - collection of buildings with stores (from guitar to bike shops) and plentiful cafeterias (much better than the average college fare)

This past two days (Wednesday and Thursday) have a bit a whirlwind with highs and lows. I've basically been a sponge with a firehose pointed at me, trying to absorb a wealth of information about my project and related parts. At times, I'm thrilled to be sitting in on company meetings and even running a few myself. Other times, I'm overwhelmed with the task at hand and work to do. I've also been enjoying continuing to meet other Microsoft employees and finding out what they do. After attending an extended orientation session this afternoon about "10 Intern Tips", I realized that my mentors - while purposely vague in order to challenge us - have really gone above and beyond the call of duty to prepare and think through an awesome project for us.

Coming off of college, where you spend 24/7 with your peers, the greatest adjustment to life here for me has been forming friendships with other interns. Microsoft is a huge ecosystem and besides New Employee Orientation on Day 1, the interns are scattered throughout the campus. Being the socially awkward person that I often can be (circumstance-depending), my "ramping up" of friendships has been a slow yet steady process. Nevertheless, I'm grateful for the people I've become acquainted with so far and am excited to continue to meet people.

As a three-day weekend approaches, I'm psyched to go out to Seattle and explore more of the city (plus, the forecast is sunny!). There's a great folk music festival going on downtown then and hopefully, I'll be joined with a college friend in the festivities.

Hope all is well with you and your family wherever you all.

Over and out,

Ruth

Safe and Sound

Hello Friends!

My adventure to Seattle started in the wee hours of the morning this past Sunday, when my awesome dad chose to drive me to Newark airport - even when Microsoft would pay for my taxi fare there - to help me with my luggage (thanks Daddy!).

Having only caught a few hours of sleep the previous night, I slept throughout the entire five-hour flight to Seattle. To my dismay, when I woke up, I realized that I had left a temperate mid-70s Jersey only to arrive at a cold, raining Seattle.

Fast-forward past a swift, hiccup-free baggage claim and a thirty-minute cab ride to my new home for the next 12 weeks: 16544 NE 37th Street #V1064, Redmond WA 98052 (yes, please do write)! I'll be sharing this apartment with three other Microsoft interns, but for now I'm the only resident (a private yet somewhat lonely situation).

Being the wide-eyed, bushy-tailed freshman that I am, my new abode is an unfurnished one (a fact I found out quite recently). With the rain postponing my plans to buy a bike, it looked like I would have a solitary day in the apartment; however, through my ever-connected mommy, God sent two angels to save the day.

After spending one hour unpacking and the other hour going back and forth between reading Learning WPF in 24 Hours (for internship) and Pride and Prejudice (for pleasure), I ventured out into the great unknown city of Redmond and walked thirty minutes to the local grocery store Safeway. Just as I arrived at Safeway at around 4pm and was wondering how I would bring bags of groceries back home, I received a call from an Auntie Marilyn - the wife of a brother of a woman who's husband my mom calls "the Chinese Billy Graham". My day really picks up when Auntie Marilyn and her husband Uncle Peter offer to pick me up from the Safeway, drive me and my bags of groceries back to my apartment, and treat me out to dinner.

After helping my bring in the groceries, Auntie Marilyn took one look at my empty apartment and immediately began rattling off a list of items that she would give me for the summer. So, after enjoying a nice meal at a local Chinese restaurant and learning more about this kind, elderly couple from a local Chinese church, they drove me to their own home and began loading their car with everything from a microwave, table, and chairs to furnish my kitchen to Cerane wrap, sandwich boxes, and toilet paper.

Once we arrived back my new home, I thought the day's adventure concluded. However, it really only had just begun. We spent the next hour or so driving around the Microsoft campus, getting lost, laughing at the GPS shortcomings, and looping back and forth between Microsoft and my apartment complex - all in an effort to try to figure the best route for me to get to Microsoft's Building 92 (where I would have my first day's New Employee Orientation; with over a hundred buildings, it really was quite the challenge!). In the end, we came to the mutual agreement that taxi-ing the first day would be best and I bid a sad farewell to them around 9pm.

Though I've only known this couple for a day, I already hold them in the highest regard and in close friendship. Introducing me to another church family living in my apartment complex that offered to not only drive me to church but also take me on their grocery runs, showing me all around Redmond, and pointing out all the grocery stores and Chinese restaurants, they truly opened their arms and kindness to me and turned my first rainy day into a bright, cheerful memory of fun and friendship.

To speed up this narrative, today was my first day of work! For sitting through a day's worth of orientation, I earned a Microsoft shoulder bag and my very own Microsoft photo ID. Although orientation was not the most exciting affair, I had the opportunity to meet some of the other 300-some interns starting their Microsoft experience with me (this summer, there'll be over one thousand interns working at Redmond alone!).

After work, I also purchased a bike (my new best friend) and rode home. After settling back in, I decided to explore the apartment complex a bit more and stumbled upon the "Clubhouse" - a pool, gym, and (best yet) lounge with free wifi access (from which I'm writing to you right now).

This afternoon, I also heard from two college friends (my Harvard roommate Meredith and my Chinese classmate Michelle) planning on spending a few days in Seattle and was excited to write back and begin planning weekend escapades with them. Another nice surprise, I just found out that one of my roommates is arriving tonight! (Originally, I thought I'd be alone for this first week.)

So, I'll conclude this lengthy post with a AACF tradition - "Rose, Thorn, and Bud": I'm thankful to God for the wonderful and timely companionship of Uncle Peter and Aunt Marilyn; I'm still adjusting to the Seattle weather (though a Microsoft HR person promises that it does get better); and I'm excited yet nervous to build relationships with my fellow interns.

Tomorrow, I'll meet my manager, mentors, and team members and find out more about the project that I'll be working on (all I know now is that I'm working for the Windows 8 Device Drivers team). I'm most nervous about doing well on my project, so I'll spend some time tonight doing my recommended readings.

Thanks for staying with me and being invested in how I'm doing - I've been really encouraged by the supportive emails and messages I've gotten from y'all. I hope all is well with you and your family, and I'll update you (in a more succinct manner) soon about how I'm doing. Until then, God bless!

- Ruth