BILL GATES’ SUMMER INTERN BBQ

Assalamu’alaikum…..

Work has been piling up in the worse way these last few days, again, I went from slow to omigod-that’s-fast mode in the shortest time possible. The silver lining? Bill Gates’ intern BBQ yesterday, which me and Anna and a couple hundred other interns attended. His house is HUGE. Massive, in fact. And we probably saw only 10% of his house. Oh, and it has the most gorgeous view ever…. it’s right beside the lake, where across the lake you can see a view of downtown Seattle. Gorgeous. There were people water-skiing and fishing and all that right in front of his house. The food was excellent (of course), the view great, and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. The Man himself was pretty down-to-Earth, considering he is worth 50 billion dollars. Most of the VPs were there, too. There is a huge crowd around Bill G all the time, so I decided to just talk to one of the VPs about possible careers on information technology instead. Very cool guy, I’m looking forward to future interactions.

Aside from seeing The Man Who’s Company I Work For, and the VPs, I also managed to make more friends. Since the girl-guy ratio at Microsoft is roughly 3-7, of course most of the new people I met were guys. In my department, the ratio is probably even worse, I barely see any girls at all, and there are only 2 female interns in the whole building. Weird. Anyway, one of the topics that was brought was of course, the girl-guy ratio, and how people are complaining that the girls have a better time finding dates ‘cause of the abundance of guys. Erm, excuse me? “Abundance of dates”? You’re implying that I have an easier time because I get to choose one pocket-protector wearing dork face over 20? Do you not realize us girls try to not go for the geeks, even if they do have potential to make more money than half of the population in Washington? I’d rather be with someone normal who has time for me than a rich workaholic who lives at the office. It’s a debate that never stops.

Today I managed to annoy my mentor a bit. I brought my normal click ballpoint pen to our weekly sync meeting, and somehow I have this habit of clicking the pen while talking. He had to take that thing twice away from me and even made the simile “Chinese water torture” to describe how nuts my clicking made him feel. I was, of course, thoroughly mortified, but I can understand why it would be annoying, especially in the cramped up office space we were in. Go figure.

At lunch, I had to go see a chiropractor because I hurt my back. He did a few things that involves cracking my bones and a world of pain, but hey, if it makes me better, then bring it on dude! Note to Farah: next time when you kickbox, try not to do too much of the kicking.

Here’s a couple of gems that I got from my conversations with Dan:

1. From the time I was sleepy and wanted to sakat him

Farah l [4:21 PM]:
ngantuk
Daniel [4:21 PM]:
bless you
Farah l [4:21 PM]:
= sleepy (in slang malay)
Farah [4:21 PM]:
hahahaha
Farah [4:21 PM]:
that was so far off
Daniel [4:21 PM]:
:)

2.
Farah [4:09 PM]:
you have 2 monitors now?
Daniel [4:09 PM]:
yup
Farah [4:09 PM]:
cool
Farah [4:10 PM]:
how do you set up 2 monitors?
Daniel [4:11 PM]:
next to each other


Yep, the man is that poyo…

Assalamu’alaikum…..

Note to self: never go to the gym after a night of hookah. Or maybe the note should just read “Never go on a hookah night again”. If you don’t know what a hookah is, you’re better off (no, it’s not weed, do some more guessing. This is totally legal). Dan put together a nice lil’ outing group of Microsoft interns and we went to Zaina’s for food and hookah. Yummm.. fruity, LoL. It was interesting night, the food was just so-so but the café was pretty casual that you can basically just be loud and no one cares. It was a night of cool people and one über bitch who shall remain nameless (mostly because I don’t want to get sued). We got two hookahs (is that the plural of it?), one lime flavored and one double apple, and they were both pretty good. Apparently my hands are always holding at least one of the two tubes, ‘cause someone commented I got “some lungs” on me.

Anyway, so after hookah night, I went to the gym yesterday for my weekly Thursday step class. It was painful. I could do the combinations for only about 10 minutes, and then I have to stop to get some water. It was weird, I was never really that tired before…. Until I remember the whole hookah thingamajiggy. Oops. Although the fruity goodness of hookah is currently unparalleled, I don’t think my poor lungs can handle it anymore… even if I do have some lungs on me. Nyahahah. No more! LoL. I wonder if hookahs are legal in Malaysia?

Fun nights out are always… well, fun, but not to a point where it interferes with my gym time or work. So I’m limiting my nights out to just during the weekend and not so much during the weekdays, ‘cause I don’t think my poor body, or my poor bank account, can handle it.

I got the bulk of my work yesterday, and today is gonna be spent trying valiantly to do some decent research. I have a great mentor, and it’s really, really important for me to try and impress him. Something funny happened on Wednesday, my mentor scheduled a meeting between me and himself, but forgot to send me the invite, so of course after 8 minutes past the meeting time and I didn’t show, he figured something was up and he called me. I had to smile when he explained the mix-up because for years I was always the one who was late for stuff, and it’s funny because now, if I’m late for anything, people would figure out that something must be wrong or there was a mix-up somewhere. Imagine that. I guess I am growing up then :) . But anyway, I’m excited to get out and start interviewing people, and come up with my questionnaire, this is gonna be tough but I shall prevail, LoL.

Oh yeah… the scavenger hunt. It was fun, I got to go to Pike Place market again, which is always cool. I bought some of the fruit sticks that I like. I wanted to find the guy who made my cap for me, since I never received it, he wasn’t there, probably due to the slight rain earlier in the day. Anyway, after the hunt, we went to Golden Park Beach for food and a bonfire, which was soooo much fun. It was cool to meet so many new non-technical interns, and the beach was gorgeous. I really have to go back there before I return to Ann Arbor, the beach is just perfect. I kinda miss home now, I remember the Pangkor and Cherating trips with my family, as well as going to Tioman with my friends. Hopefully all goes well with my plan of coming back to Malaysia in December. Can’t wait. Hakam is in Brunei now, which sucks (hopefully he’ll be back in Malaysia for the December holidays), but hopefully I’ll get to see everyone else.

Waaa… nak balik rumah!

Assalamu’alaikum….

I have a one-pager due for my questionnaire. If I screw up on the sub projects, it’s still forgivable, but this is my major project for the summer. They hired me specifically to work on the questionnaire thingamajiggy. If I ever want to come back and work for the company, I better not screw this one up. But I’m having a bit of a mental block with this particular one-pager. It shouldn’t be that hard! I’ve written 20-pages long papers! 2,000 word essays! And yet this one-pager wants me to tear my hair out.

Anyway, moving on to the fun stuff now. I have a Scavenger Hunt for non-tech interns today in downtown Seattle. Yay! Half a day out of the office! Free dinner! Woo hoo! I’m excited :) . It’s a chance for me to meet non-technical interns, too. I feel kinda weird that I’m lumped in the non-technical group, because I feel like I’m doing technical stuff both in school and out of it, but I guess I shouldn’t bother with the specifics. It’s to my advantage in this case, anyway. I can’t wait for the trip (20 more minutes to go!). I just have to go and buy a sweatshirt first because being the smart person I am, I forgot to bring one, and while that might not matter at the office, it’s kinda freezing outside… with potential to rain. Ah, Seattle. It rains so much I wonder how people ever get the chance to enjoy the beautiful beaches.

Last weekend Lauren, Dan and I went on our normal triple date together. We decided to hit Kirkland on Saturday and see how the nightlife is like. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. Tiki Joe’s Wetbar…. Boring. TJ’s…. a bit better, but I was a bit creeped out when a bunch of 40 to 50-year-old ladies started “boogeying” on the floor to Usher and Lil’ Jon. Erk. It wasn’t particularly fun… and now we know. To make up for a sucky Saturday, we’re going to a hookah place on Wednesday. Yay to that!

15 more minutes to go until I get to skip outta here. Someone else is driving, thankfully enough, so I don’t have to pay for gas, LoL. Plus driving back from Seattle is gonna be horrible with the crawling traffic… so I refused to volunteer to drive, heheheh. I’ve been driving people around all week anyway, when we hit the Taphouse Grill place, and I know more driving will come this weekend, so let me take a breather first for now. Though I do know some people are excited when I have to drive ‘cause they can pile on the Mustang.

I need to renew my passport ASAP so that I can go to Vancouver before the summer ends!!! Aaacckkk!! Hopefully Kong is gonna come and visit me so maybe we can go there together :).

Gotta go back to reviewing those damn emails. Later!

Assalamu’alaikum……

Today didn’t go exactly as I planned. I got in to work at about 8.20am, which isn’t bad considering we have flex hours, but it would’ve been nice to come in extra early when it was quiet and just try and get most of my work done, cause after lunch time, I’m sluggish, and I just don’t wanna do anything. Then I had a meeting where I got lost trying to find the room, then realized that I didn’t have the report we were gonna discuss. Luckily enough nothing major happened.

It’s kinda tough to talk about work ‘cause I have no idea what’s confidential and what’s not, but so far I’ve been very vague about stuff. Just documented my own mishaps in getting lost in the building. Which is probably why I went on and on about the ProSports Club ‘cause that’s the only thing I can really write about without worrying about getting in trouble. But work has been good, went to see a usability test yesterday, then the intern social, and also to an all-girl dinner event afterwards. One would’ve thought that after five years in an all-girl boarding school, I would’ve known better by now, luckily enough for people reading this blog, I haven’t really. LoL. But it wasn’t bad, the food and drinks were good, the location kinda sucked a bit but hey, if I have to get on the freeway just to get to a restaurant, I’d rather have it be that restaurant. Oh, in case you were wondering, we went to the Tap House Bar and Grill, near (or in) Bellevue Mall downtown.

After a week and a half living in the suburbs, I realize that I don’t have time to feel bored. There’s work during the weekdays, then socials during the weekend, and at night, I’d be so pooped from all the day activities I’d go straight to sleep after fighting to stay awake for Isya’ prayers. It’s been a lil’ hectic. On the plus side, I’m better at driving around Redmond now and figuring out where things are, and also figuring out that maneuvering the freeway is the only way I can survive around here.

Lauren, Dan and I are watching X-3 on Saturday. Should be fun, I hope. I liked the previous two movies and I’m hoping the third one doesn’t disappoint. Some of the girls also actually recommended The Break Up, with Jen Aniston and Vince Vaughn. I dunno, it might be worth getting to. Tip no. 1 for me: after last night’s mishaps with directions, I’m gonna look up the address and the general idea of where we’re gonna be headed before I get into anyone’s car. Getting lost is one thing… getting lost in a busy area filled with one-way streets, lots of cars and no apparent ways to make U-turns is not my idea of fun.

I’m not feeling that well right now, something is making me very uncomfortable and I can’t put my finger on it. But the working day is almost ending, yay!

Later!

Assalamu’alaikum….

Haven’t updated my entries for some time now, been really busy with work and stuff. After the interns’ orientation, it was straight to work for all of us. In my case, it involves reading questionnaires and usability reports, which mostly isn’t that bad, but I just get lost in the stuff that I’ve never heard of. On the plus side, I have more of an indication about my Big Project for the summer. Yay!

I’m so sleepy… got in at about 8am this morning, and at 7am yesterday. Kinda early, but it’s all because I have a lot to do and I don’t want to have to stay late to do ‘em. Plus if I get out early, I can go to the ProSports Club and take the free classes they have there. Please note that when I say free, the company is paying for my membership but I still have to pay the tax, which is a pretty good amount of dollars that I’m not gonna say here. The club is beautiful. There seems to be a white and gold theme going on there, and it’s HUGE. Really, really big. They have three exercise rooms filled with elliptical machines, treadmills, TV and an area for floor exercises. They look exactly alike except for one thing: the lighting. One room is really bright, one is dimmer, and one is completely dark. That’s it. That’s the difference. And we’re not talking small rooms here, all three are of equal size and they’re big.

I got my butt kicked in kickboxing yesterday, I haven’t done it since senior year (last semester was devoted to dancing… great fun :) ).Everything hurts, even my neck. I got lost in the women’s locker room.. well more like I lost track of where my locker was, and yes, the locker room is big, too, complete with a lounge area with couches and TV, two tanning beds, a sauna, a whirlpool, rows of showers and bathrooms and lockers as well as a make-up area where you can dry your hair (hair dryer provided for each table) and apply make-up under the perfect lighting. It took me a full 10 minutes to figure out where my stuff was.

It is safe to say that I now officially want to live at the ProSports Club. My apartment is da’ bomb, but the club is so awesome!

Okay, back to work. On to goals and objectives!

Later!

Assalam'alaikum.....

I'm in Seattle!!! I arrived yesterday, at 11.30am Pacific time. Unfortunately, they didn't have my room ready yet, so me and a few other people had to camp out in the key pickup lobby until 3pm. Luckily, one of us had the bright idea of ordering Chinese for lunch. Yummm.... Chinese food. I was pretty bummed at first about having to wait in the lobby, but luckily enough, it was a pretty decent bonding experience, LoL. I met with a few interns and managed to make some friends while eating Chinese food and watching Harry Potter on Chris's laptop. Extremely cool.

Afterwards, I took a cab to my new apartment and met Lauren, my roommate from Tufts University in Boston. She's very cool, which is great considering that we'll be living together for the next two and a half months. We both wanna do the same stuff for the summer, which involves checking out the local gyms, local night life, activities, beaches and of course, the Seattle social scene, whatever that may be. And we were both terrified for our first day. It's a good thing we like each other 'cause now I have someone to go places with. Yay!

My apartment is absolutely amazing. It really is like a hotel. Lauren and I each have our own room and connecting bathroom. We share the living room, dining area and kitchen. The maid (yes, there is a maid... or two) comes once every two weeks to vacuum, dust, change the linens and towels and do some other cleaning related stuff. When I first got here, the linens weren't set up and there were no pillows. One phone call and ten minutes later... poof! Cute guy walks through the door complete with linens and fluffy pillows. He even made the bed, which is extremely cool. First time a guy makes the bed for me instead of the other way around. I was bowled over by the whole apartment. The scenery is gorgeous, there's trees all around, the pool is right behind the apartment.. it was perfect. The only thing I wasn't too crazy about was the fact that it's 15 minutes drive from my office by freeway. And that's where the car comes in.

After orientation today, I had to go to downtown Bellevue to pick up my car. Making the trip downtown was not easy, I wanted to take the bus but missed the right one, there were a lot of conflicting directions and I ended up having to take a cab. So a trip that was originally supposed to cost only $1.50 ended up costing $16 (no reimbursement for this one... darn). I was not a happy camper and was starting to doubt whether or not it was really worth the $360 I'm spending per month for a car. When I got there, I was ready to be told "your car is not ready, you have to wait 30 minutes". Luckily enough, it was ready.... and the car made the trip all worthwhile. It's a white convertible Ford Mustang and is quite possibly the nicest car I've ever driven in my whole life. My jaw just dropped when I saw the black soft top, I had to double check to make sure they gave me directions to the right car, it was insane. No wonder the Avis lady said "Lucky you, you're getting a really nice car." I was happy... until I realized I was stuck in downtown Bellevue with no directions to go back home to Redmond because I didn't have time to MapQuest anything. Lucky enough, I remember the freeway that I needed to get onto, and somehow managed to not get hopelessly lost and got home safely. Of course, it does help when your apartment complex is right off the freeway.

My mentor for the summer is really nice, and I'm looking forward to doing actual work and really applying myself. All these benefits the company gave us are really, really great motivations to an intern :) . I'm just excited, right now I feel like the luckiest person in the world.