Day 1

So today was our first day on Google's campus (yeah, like a college), and campus is somewhat like a college, but with more fun things to do. we took a tour and saw all the awesome things they can do. we got up early (i was surprisingly less jet-lagged this morning than i was last night) and caught the shuttle to Google. We got to eat breakfast in the cafe and take a tour. Google is definitely not your typical office building.. it still has the typical office building carpet, but there are random large circles of bold colored carpet thrown in and brightly painted walls to match. we started off programming in python, and using mercurial. If I'd known about version control software last year my spectops project would have been infinitely more manageable. Thanks, Mr. O'Bryan. But I guess its still nice to know now too =P.

We had an ice cream social where we got to meet our mentors and build large stand-alone structures out of paper. Let's just say some of us were more successful than others, haha, but my mentor was really nice, and we have some things in common. We're having lunch next Tuesday!

One of the most awesome things about Google though is the food! Not only was everything we ate in the cafes/restaurants good, but there are food/snack stations all over the buildings. So we can walk outside our classroom and there's a little glass fridge, like the ones in the grocery store, filled with Odwalla drinks- the Pomegranate Limeade is awesome. There are so many different vegetarian things to eat for all meals, so I have plenty of options. I had a bunch of different "salads" for lunch, all of which were delicious, and some lemon verbena iced tea that Leigh would have loved! Plus, there was delicious Pure Corn Soup for dinner. Liquid corn on the cob, but better. yummm. I'm definitely not going to go hungry while I'm here.

On Google's campus there are bikes that you can just get on and ride around. I'm definitely going to bring my camera to campus tomorrow, although we aren't allowed to take pictures inside. They have little bikes that are Google colors, and normal bikes too.. and we got to ride them after the ice cream social back to the building where our classroom is. It was definitely one of the most exciting bike rides I've taken.. we were quite a sight biking through Google's campus.

There are fun things all around Google to do.. who knows how anyone gets any real work done. There's a croquet set right outside our classroom, and they offer so many different exercise and dance classes for employees. There are whiteboards everywhere covered in doodles, signatures, and digits of pi, and Google-colored balloons and lollipops for all of the new employees starting today. There's also a scrolling live-search projection in the main lobby of current searches going on all around the world. yeah, the wikipedia article doesn't lie. I think I could stand and just watch the searches scroll all day. We also saw a globe app that one of the software engineers designed that shoes where the searches are coming from and what the volume of searches is for each region.

The weather here is awesome. Its actually pretty cold if I'm comparing it to Louisville's 95-degree weather with 70% heat index? Yeah, the weather is amazing. It makes me want to move here.. if only it weren't so far away from home! I wore jeans and a jacket, and I was still a little cold in the shade. Beautiful =).

My roommates are awesome, and the suites we're living in are far nicer than what I'll have next year. I definitely can't get used to this, haha =P

Until next time,

Lynn