What a crazy first week I've had! Maker Faire last weekend, then the first week on the job, going out, getting lost a lot, riding my bicycle on crazy hills, Carnival in the Mission.... where do I start!
Let's start with the reason why I'm here in the first place: my internship at VMware. Firstly, their Palo Alto campus is larger than Disneyland and is ... amazingly beautiful.
The User Experience team has put the summer interns into an empty conference room that they have affectionately called "the hive". Since I'm the first to arrive, I basically have an office all to myself... I'm hoping to be establish myself as queen bee of the hive. ;)
I am really happy about the coworkers on my team. They are awesome. They've been so welcoming of me since day one ... no, even minute one, they have made me felt like I belong (which, is a far cry from the experience I had in some of my previous jobs). I had gotten a really great vibe about VMware's culture while I was interviewing and it has been a huge relief to have my hugely outrageous expectations being lived up to! I'm getting solid mentorship and advice not just from my manager (who is my official mentor) but from everyone on the team. I just can't think of enough ways to say how incredibly thankful I am for the work environment --- I mean, within hours of showing up some of the younger folk had organized a happy hour at the local dive bar The Nuthouse
But because I don't live in a fairy-tale, not everything is perfect: the commute from SF to Palo Alto everyday is quite possibly killing me. Honestly, it is like SF Transit System: 5, Nikki: 0 this week. To take public transit I have to take a bus (Muni) to the Caltrain to a Palo Alto local bus .... which Google Maps tells me should take only 1.5 hours......... if you make every connection. It took me over 2.5 hours each time I tried last week. Ugh. Then I tried biking to the Caltrain and biking from the train to the office, which was awesome until I hit Hillview avenue, which my office is on. Double Ugh. I tried to be a smart alek and take a different route back, but only ended up on a bigger hill and riding across a freeway! Yikes!
I know this is just a learning curve and I'll start to get use to getting around here - but I've been completely overwhelmed by how hard and expensive it is to get around SF. I'm so thankfully that Amanda was able to loan me a bike, but I'm still pretty intimidated of getting stranded between some insane hills and too tired to get back. It doesn't really help that I'm shocked at how expensive it is to get around by public transit. (sigh) I'll figure it out, but in the meantime it certainly has put a damper on how awesome my internship is.
But so we don't end on that note, Amanda and I spent the morning at the San Francisco Carnival, which was running through the Mission this morning. It was a lot like the Carnival in Brooklyn: bright, colorful, and full of danceable music!
I should also give a shout out to the fourth "roommate" Maugi (Swahili for "killer"). He's incredibly adorable, exceedingly demanding of attention, and the clumsiest cat I ever met... which makes for a pretty awesome feline companion if you ask me. Here he is playing with one of his toys. Expect more cat pictures and hopefully a meme or two to come out of this summer with Muagi.
Let's start with the reason why I'm here in the first place: my internship at VMware. Firstly, their Palo Alto campus is larger than Disneyland and is ... amazingly beautiful.
The turtle pond
The User Experience team has put the summer interns into an empty conference room that they have affectionately called "the hive". Since I'm the first to arrive, I basically have an office all to myself... I'm hoping to be establish myself as queen bee of the hive. ;)
The Hive
I am really happy about the coworkers on my team. They are awesome. They've been so welcoming of me since day one ... no, even minute one, they have made me felt like I belong (which, is a far cry from the experience I had in some of my previous jobs). I had gotten a really great vibe about VMware's culture while I was interviewing and it has been a huge relief to have my hugely outrageous expectations being lived up to! I'm getting solid mentorship and advice not just from my manager (who is my official mentor) but from everyone on the team. I just can't think of enough ways to say how incredibly thankful I am for the work environment --- I mean, within hours of showing up some of the younger folk had organized a happy hour at the local dive bar The Nuthouse
Out for drinks on my first day with the UE team at The Nuthouse
But because I don't live in a fairy-tale, not everything is perfect: the commute from SF to Palo Alto everyday is quite possibly killing me. Honestly, it is like SF Transit System: 5, Nikki: 0 this week. To take public transit I have to take a bus (Muni) to the Caltrain to a Palo Alto local bus .... which Google Maps tells me should take only 1.5 hours......... if you make every connection. It took me over 2.5 hours each time I tried last week. Ugh. Then I tried biking to the Caltrain and biking from the train to the office, which was awesome until I hit Hillview avenue, which my office is on. Double Ugh. I tried to be a smart alek and take a different route back, but only ended up on a bigger hill and riding across a freeway! Yikes!
I know this is just a learning curve and I'll start to get use to getting around here - but I've been completely overwhelmed by how hard and expensive it is to get around SF. I'm so thankfully that Amanda was able to loan me a bike, but I'm still pretty intimidated of getting stranded between some insane hills and too tired to get back. It doesn't really help that I'm shocked at how expensive it is to get around by public transit. (sigh) I'll figure it out, but in the meantime it certainly has put a damper on how awesome my internship is.
But so we don't end on that note, Amanda and I spent the morning at the San Francisco Carnival, which was running through the Mission this morning. It was a lot like the Carnival in Brooklyn: bright, colorful, and full of danceable music!
I should also give a shout out to the fourth "roommate" Maugi (Swahili for "killer"). He's incredibly adorable, exceedingly demanding of attention, and the clumsiest cat I ever met... which makes for a pretty awesome feline companion if you ask me. Here he is playing with one of his toys. Expect more cat pictures and hopefully a meme or two to come out of this summer with Muagi.
"I demand your attention!"
