Well I’m back in Kirkland, away from the land-o-plenty that is Google HQ. That place is huge. It was every easy to get turned around, since there weren’t any dang mountains to get aligned with. Oh well. Google makes it easy to get from place to place though, by leaving “gBikes” scattered all over the place. Employees can just walk up, grab a bike, and zoom off to wherever they need to. There’s a service that redistributes the bikes so they’re in the right place in the morning, picks up and repairs broken bikes, etc.

Apple had a similar challenge. I think they have roughly the same number of buildings, maybe a bit fewer, but Apple’s buildings were spread out and located willy-nilly. Apple solves the problem by using a huge network of shuttles constantly flitting between buildings. Since Google is so contiguous, they can mostly get by with just the bikes, or walking. Of course, there are more remote locations that do have shuttles, but the vast majority of Google buildings in Mountain View are within biking distance of each other.

Something you can glean from Google Maps satellite imagery, is that Google buildings are very eco-friendly, with many having full roofs of solar cells. The employees are similarly eco-friendly; I’ve never seen such a high concentration of Teslas in one area.

Speaking of cars, the traffic was a nightmare. My first day they had us arrive at 8am, and I ended up missing the traffic. Next day we were to arrive by 8:30, and I almost missed orientation start because I just had no idea how severe traffic got at that hour. On the other hand, when traffic was flowing it was a nice zippy 75mph.

So Monday morning I had breakfast at the hotel, potatoes and bacon. Funny thing, the hotel they put me up in is right across the street from Apple HQ, where I interned three years ago. Anyways, I arrived at the building at 7:50, and stood in a long line that got much longer after me, which ran outside the building. By my rough estimate about 250 “Nooglers” were starting that week. We got our badges, gave our ID for I-9 forms, and went to our orientation room where our computers were waiting for us. Got them all set up, sat through some orientation presentations, and that was basically all of the first day. Had a break for lunch, so I hopped on a bike and went off in a random direction till I ran into a cafe. Can’t remember what I had, but I’m sure it was good. (Oh wait, now I remember, a shrimp salad and flatbread pizza-like things.) Also stuck around for dinner on main campus. Lots of different stations there, got a few different things. Ate with a couple other Nooglers who had been at my table during orientation. They’d gone to school at Carnegie Mellon, and one had interned at Google in the past.

Oh, after the orientation had completed, but before dinner, our managers all came to meet us Nooglers and take us around to where we’d be working. Since I was going to be working in a remote office, my manager had arranged for someone from a sister team to meet up. We spent some time hunting down my car (remember how easy I said it was to get turned around?) and drove together to his building, some ways away. There were a few engineers around, but many had left for the day. We got to chatting with a couple of other engineers who were also doing privacy-related stuff. One of them had started nine months ago, after having graduated with a PhD from Oxford.

Day 2 was pretty much more of the same. I didn’t feel like trying to find my way around campus to grab a quick breakfast before orientation began, so I just had the hotel’s breakfast again. Potatoes and sausage. Oh, during our orientation sessions, there was a Noogler in our group who’s quadriplegic. He’d type on his computer by using a long metal stem, the end of which he gripped with his teeth. His wife was there to help him get set up, but she couldn’t be in the room during orientation presentations, as they were strictly for full-time employees only. His chair was motorized, and allowed him to lean back as well. I was confused on how he was able to control the chair, until I matched his head movements up with something else that had confused me: an electronic cable coming down from his head rest. It seems that he was able to control his chair through controls embedded in his head rest, activated by pressing his head back against it in certain patterns. Very impressive stuff.

For lunch that day I met up with the same two Nooglers I’d had dinner with the previous day, plus five or six more. We went to some place close by that had noodles. Google helpfully color-codes all the items by how healthy they are. These were solid-red. I justified it by the fact that I’d only have access to these cafes for this week. I justified a lot of meal decisions this week through that logic.

We were introducing ourselves, and one of the Nooglers in our group, 22, had done some work at a startup after having graduated college at around 19. Soooo many smart people here. I hear from many people that Impostor Syndrome is very real here. Don’t doubt it one bit.

Dinner that day was a really good wrap, since there was only so much unhealthiness I could justify 🙂

The next morning a pattern began to emerge. For the last long while, my nightly schedule had me feeling a bit tired at 12am, and nodding off around 12:30 or 1:00, ready to start the next day at 10am or so. Now though, I was so dead tired at night, and earlier, that I found myself waking naturally around 6:30. That’s a bonus, I guess, it’ll make getting to work early easier.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were more classes, tailored more specifically based on our roles. The classes we software engineers attended were on how to get up and running in Google’s code base. On these days I didn’t have to be in class until 10am, so I figured I had time to find breakfast on campus somewhere. Ended up having an omelette, though I didn’t catch on until it was too late that I was supposed to indicate what stuff to add into it beyond the standard stuff, so it was pretty barebones. I also made use of their on-site laundry facilities before class; my clean reserves were getting pretty low.

For lunch I met up with the same team member who took me around on Monday afternoon. We walked over to the same place I had lunch the first day. This time it was sushi rolls and more of the salad. We talked about his team, his time at Google, what he was working on and all that fun stuff. He’s from Siberia I believe. While I was getting my food I felt something on my neck and brushed it off to the floor; turned out to be a spider. Maybe I get super powers in the near future?

It was around this time that I started my deal with the devil – Internet service with Comcast. They were the only providers, so I was kind of stuck with them. I wanted to arrange it so I’d have service in my apartment when I got back on the weekend. It didn’t start off that great; I gave them my address and the associate on the phone was confused at the error message the system was spitting back at her. She said she’d pass it on to confirm whether they serviced the area, and that was that for then.

Google campus is such a playground. There are so many little nooks and crannies of stuff to find and do. I found some toilets that had Toto “washlets” installed, the kind they use in Japan. I’ve always wanted to try one. There was also a full-scale replica of SpaceShipOne in one of the buildings.

Wednesday night’s dinner was meant to be a two-fer; I saw a nearby place was serving sweet potato fries, and I got a craving. Nothing else on the menu looked appealing, so I figured I’d swing by, grab some fries, then head off somewhere else. But one of the items I thought was odd turned out to be awesome instead. Some kind of chicken with some green something-or-other sauce on top. I ended up just having those for dinner.

I was beginning to feel a little miffed that I wasn’t gonna be able to work in this part of Google, until I had some conversations with other Nooglers about rent. One had found a place where four people each paid $1500 per month; another had a two-man apartment where they split $3200 between themselves. Both were considered quite good deals by other Silicon Valley natives. Now I don’t feel so miffed that I’m not gonna be able to work in this part of Google.

On Thursday morning, I realized I’d misplaced a sock. I went back to the laundry room where I’d done laundry the day before, and there it was, on a shelf. Thanks, random Googler!

So, more classes. Thursday’s and Friday’s lectures all began with a very strict warning that the content was for Google full-timers only. I had a later start than usual, so breakfast was at the hotel. For lunch I arranged with the same group as Tuesday to go to this place called Baadal, an Indian restaurant where, unlike all other Google cafes, they actually serve customers like a regular restaurant. We had to make a reservation, it’s very popular and there were nine in our group. (One of the group members’ name was Jerome; I didn’t feel the need to mention that we’d named our car the same way.)

There were some fun science experiments in the building where we had classes. Here’s a video of one neat high-speed chain demo.

On Thursday, Google holds an all-hands meeting called TGIF, where Larry Page and/or Sergey Brin talk about what’s going on at the company. They take questions directly from the audience, which is pretty cool. It’s held in a large cafe on Google’s main campus area. People start lining up half an hour before doors open; luckily they reserve the first few rows for Nooglers.

I hadn’t heard back from Comcast, so I tried calling again, and got a different but equally unhelpful response. I was asked to double-check the address, and get back to them. My apartment’s leasing office was closed that day, so I was out of luck.

There was food at TGIF, so for dinner I had another wrap, and watched some Googlers play volleyball.

Thursday evening was my nostalgia trip. I wanted to head back and check out Apple campus, the satellite building I’d worked at, and the apartment complex I’d lived at.

Next up I drove by my old office where I used to work. Now, remember how I mentioned that Google’s buildings were more contiguous so employees could walk or bike between them, but Apple’s buildings were more spread out and so they needed lots of shuttles? Well they’re not gonna have that problem for much longer. You might have read about the “spaceship” campus Apple’s building. When I worked there, they’d settled on the lot next door to my building as the construction site. Well they’re well underway, and it. is. huge.

As for my humble old building, sadly it is now a hole in the ground.

Next up, my old apartment complex. It was great driving past old restaurants I used to eat at.

Now, I have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of some kinds of men, as soon as they get a little law-enforcement authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to intimidate and threaten visitors of old living spaces who just want to head back for a bit of nostalgia. So while I saw my old place, I wasn’t about to take pictures of it; the pool would have to do.

On the way back I backtracked, so I could snap some pics of even more buildings Apple is constructing near its spaceship.

On Friday I realized that Mom would kill me if I came back with as few pictures as I had, so I began snapping pics of whatever publicly-available stuff I could find. I knew she’d want pics of the food, so I disguised my picture-taking by ostensibly reading a news article in landscape orientation, pondering closely, then surreptitiously switching to camera and snapping a pic. Breakfast was a properly-ordered omelette, with broccoli, mushrooms, asparagus, onions, and trout.

Back when I worked at Apple, a fellow intern had a connection and knew a guy working at Google, and arranged for us to go visit him for lunch. Earlier in this week I happened to walk through the very cafe we’d eaten at, so I had to go back for one meal. Lunch was some meat-on-pasta thing. The cafe used to serve noodles, but I guess it changed in the interim.

Class let out early that day, so I decided to go exploring before heading to the airport.

 

While I was enjoying the garden seating, I checked in with my apartment’s leasing office, and sure enough, pebkac all the way. (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair.) I’d been giving Comcast the address of my leasing office, whereas my address was slightly different. I finally got things going there, and will have Internet service on Monday. I’ll be nice to you, Comcast, if you be nice to me. Please.

I’d heard that one of Google X’s self-driving cars was on display in the nearby Computer History Museum, so I thought I’d swing by there before heading off to the airport.

 

 

As I drove up to the car rental return area, I recognized the parking lot where I’d left my car in order to fly back and see Hayden’s mission farewell address. Now he’s all grown up and in college and everything.

There were quite a few Nooglers on the flight back to Seattle. Ended up sitting next to one; we chatted for a bit, then I watched most of The Bourne Supremacy, which is better than I remember; I’d only ever watched it once because I remember not liking the shaky cam, but it didn’t bother me as much this time.

Also, thank goodness for Delta for stocking up their flights with Fresca. I’m gonna have to find a way to get my hands on some over here.

Landed at 9:30, got back to my apartment by 10:30. I hadn’t actually seen my apartment in its current state; when I left a week ago, my folks and I had just finished moving everything in, but it was still very much an explosion. (Mom was up for an unrelated vacation, Dad came up to keep me company and keep me alive on the drive up.) My awesome parents spent a good while giving it a work over, so when I came back it was in great shape. You’d think I’d just hit the sack, but there were a few electronic accessories they’d left the unboxing of to me, and I couldn’t very well leave those till morning, so I got to work on those and nodded off at around 1am. Old habits…

The next morning (today), I did a bit more organizing of random knick-nacks.

A prospective roommate came by to see the place, and we grabbed lunch afterwards. I think things could work out with him. I spent the early afternoon writing this and finishing up The Bourne Supremacy. At 4:00 or so I decided to bike out to the Google campus in Kirkland. It straddles a bike/walking trail that runs up and down Kirkland, and my apartment is very near the head of that trail.

I’d only gone about 50 feet from the exit of my apartment complex before I passed a tiny little walking trail that went off up a small hill. I didn’t remember seeing any sort of bike trail at this location on the maps. I checked again, and nope, nothing. I had to explore. At the top it hooked to the right, but there was a chain link gate standing ajar with what looked like a small ravine behind it. I wanted to get a better look, but all the plants were very prickly, and I had no chance in my shorts and t-shirt. I was about to head back down, until I noticed what kind of plants were causing me so much pain.

They were everywhere! The trail went up some stairs then, so I decided to leave it for now, but I’ll definitely be back soon.

I made it to the trailhead, and started biking along. It’s not asphalt; basically like a very well-worn mountain trail. I looked to the side and… well it kinda puts my previous discovery under new light.

These bushes go for thousands of feet along the trail. Enough to make me some kind of -aholic. I guess if I have to jet off for work before breakfast I can always stock up on these on the way.

The rest of the trail was just amazing. I could see little side trails through more wooded areas. It’ll probably take me a while to explore it all. All up it took me around 20 minutes to get to campus, where I’m typing this now. (Remember, no Internet at the apartment.)

On my way to the seat I’m sitting at now, I passed a mini-kitchen with something called “Talking Water”, a canned beverage that made many of the same claims that Fresca does (no caffeine, no sugar, etc.) “The original sparkling water”, it said. I thought, just maybe, this might be Washington’s version of Fresca. Well, it is kind of like Fresca, just without everything good and wonderful.

So, that’s it for Week One. I don’t think I’ll be having as much to talk about in subsequent weeks, so they should never be this long again, but we’ll see.

I feel so thankful to be here. And for my family – I’m gonna be sure to come back and seen them when I can. I already miss good old Alpine water. And them of course, them too.

Till next time.