The previous two days were fun and interesting, but somewhat monotonous as far as events go. I did go to bed very early Wednesday night and ended up waking at 5:30 AM Thursday. I did not set an alarm for this time, but my bedroom does get full on morning sunlight and the sun does tend to rise around that time here. I didn’t really know what to do with my spare time so I ended up watching the latest Game of Thrones (I was able to get my internet issues finally resolved Wednesday morning) and getting to work a little early.

That day I ate lunch on the roof of Dawson with my mentor, Walter. He introduced me to this interesting Eastern European place called Berliner. They serve piles of meat and other stuff in a wrap of sorts. I had lamb with mango and some vegetables in pita.

Yesterday I tried to spend some more time with my fellow interns, eating lunch from a food truck I can’t remember the name of. After work I rushed home barely in time to pick my my boxes that were shipped from Greensboro. In them was mainly clothes, a pair of shoes, and my monitor. I was glad to be able to set up my workstation properly, even though I don’t have a proper desk to set it up at. Then some other interns and I went out for Indian food and drinks, scoping out several different bars in the neighborhood. At one, we got bullied a bit because a very short Stallone lookalike thought we were trying to rob him of his pool table. We moved on and with the help of a bit of caffeine, I actually made it until 11:30 at night until being forced to head home from exhaustion.

Awesome shoes. Got a compliment from a complete stranger on them.

This morning I woke up suitably late at 8:15. There is a street fair going on this weekend all along University Way between 42nd street and 50th, so after making breakfast and doing laundry, I headed out to explore.

The building I live in is on the far left.

I wasn’t all that impressed, although there was some interesting performers out. After walking the length of the exhibition I returned to my apartment, had a banana, and watched the last half of The Two Towers. I will probably return the the street fair tonight and tomorrow, just to see if any of the music is more interesting or the vendors change.

Of course the most obvious thing I’ve done today is set up this wordpress. I hope know it is here helps me to continue writing these posts. I really need to go grocery shopping. I think I will do that now.

Today was my first day at Amazon. I woke up at 7 and spent an hour getting ready, and then about 10 minutes finishing up the entry that I was too lazy/tired to finish last night. I then decided to head out a bit early and just walk around SLU if I had extra time. Turns out a lot of people ride that bus into town, so I was very glad to have the extra time and only ended up at OBIDOS about 15 mintues early.

I hesisted going in, unsure if I was too early but decided to go in anyway, pleasantly surprised to find a short line of interns already formed. They checked my ID and gave me a temporary badge and directed me upstairs. The next three hours was fairly tedious, with a bit of paperwork, picking up my laptop and bag, taking my badge photo, and being talked at by recruiters and former interns (Eden, Brian, and Brian) for about an hour.

Probably my favorite thing they've given us so far.

Next we were ushered outside and waited in a courtyard to be whisked away by mentors and managers. I was located by Walter Lundahl, my mentor, and he took me to my desk.

Note: I’m not totally sure what might violate any confidentiality agreement I signed with Amazon so I’m omitting large chunks of time here and there.

Eventually Walter and I met with my manager, Prasanna Joshi, who is leading up the Junglee Team. He bought us both lunch at a restaurant called Cactus. It was pretty good; I had a chicken quesidilla. I spent the rest of the afternoon meeting the other engineers around me and setting up my workstation. I also met another intern (working for International Expansion) named Evan.

From my office, South Lake and mountains.

Around 6:30 I decided to head out and picked up my ORCA card from the receptionist. Thanks to Evan I found a bus stop that was much easier to get to than the one I waited at yesterday, although being in a building a few blocks further south than I was at before means it is probably further away from OBIDOS.

After I got off the bus I first went to Safeway to sign up for a club card. I bought a few things, namely bacon and PB&J Sandwich stuff, plus more bananas. I walked home, taking a shortcut through an alley. I cooked some of my newly purchased edibles into a small B4D, scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast with raspberry jam. I then sat for a while wondering why Aboda failed to come to my apartment today to activate my internet. I will call them when I wake up tomorrow to find out.

Today was a long and eventful day but it is already 11pm and tomorrow is my first day at Amazon so I will attempt to keep this brief.

The first thing I discovered this morning was the enourmous amounts of morning sun I get in my bedroom. I do not predict this will be a problem given the weather today is not representative of the average weather in Seattle.

The second thing I discovered is that my body had not fully adjusted to the Pacific time zone (although at this point my computer has, even though my internet will not be fixed until some time tomorrow) as it was just after 6 am. I got out of bed anyway and tried to go about a normal morning routine: fixing a bowl of cereal with sliced banana, showering, getting dressed, etc.

Shortly after 7 am I decided to call Aboda about my internet activation deficiency. While their offices opened at 7, the maintenence department apparently did not arrive until 9, so I ended up leaving a voicemail to the effect of my problems. Following this, I just sort of cleaned up and sat around for a few hours, not wanting to leave the apartment lest Aboda call back immediately and want to come over.

Around 9 I realized this was folly and decided to go exploring. I set out on foot east along 50th, trying to vaguely end up near University Village, an outdoor shopping area at the north end of UW campus. It was along this walk that I first realized just how hilly Seattle is. My commute to and from class at App this past year involved climbing the largest hill on campus. This involved 180 stair steps with hills interlaced between groupings of flights. I have not counted the number of stairs along the walking route to U Village but it is not difficult to imagine that it dwarfs my route in Boone.

I arrived at U Village about 15 mintes after setting out, which includes several minutes being a slightly lost tourist. For the Greensboreans reading this, I can only compare U Village to a much smaller and much MUCH nicer Friendly Center. Plus there were infinitely fewer obnoxious preteens around (read: there were none) but this could be attributed to it being 9:30 am on a Monday.

I ended up at the GAP, not planning on purchasing anything but found two pairs of black skinny jeans that actually fit me (thank you helpful GAP employee Jenny) for about 40$ total. After leaving the GAP satisfied with what I was going to wear tomorrow I made a bee-line for Bartlett Drugs.

I was halfway expecting a very down-to-earth classy drug store channeling the 50s but was not all too surprised to find something equivalent to CVS, Rite-Aid, or Walgreens. Here I purchased some hand soap and Nivea after shave balm.

Wow, there is no way this is going to turn out brief.

I headed back home, pleased that I had walked up the stairs in Boone so many times as a form of exercise, just in time to recieve a call from Aboda. They said they would be happy to send someone to fix my internet the next day while I was at work. FINE.

After lunch I decided to try the bus system out and head to South Lake Union where I would have to report for work the next morning. I used Google Maps’s public transit directions to get me to the right bus stop, and after fumbling with my money and claiming a transfer from the driver I sat down. The bus ride was uneventful and took about 25 minutes. OBIDOS was not difficult to find after getting off, it is just a few short blocks from the bus stop and as it was lunch hour, I soon realized the hundreds of people with matching blue badges were Amazon employees and just followed the crowd of hungry lunch-goers.

OBIDOS

After seeing a majority of the campus I walked south toward Denny Triangle. I passed Denny park, and while walking aimlessly I spotted the Pan-Pacific hotel, which my parents will be staying at when they visit in a couple of weeks. I walked toward it and then east ward and found myself at a (the?) US Courthouse. I sat here for a while and just enjoyed the plaza and warm weather.

There was even a wall with Preamble engraved on it in 6 inch letters.

Then I headed northeast toward Capitol Hill, where I was planning on finding some redditors later that night for a board/card game meetup. All the while I was finding Seattle incredibly friendly, easy to walk, and altogether gorgeous. I walked north through what I guess is Capitol Hill and Belevue before finding myself at what seemed like the highest point that I had found yet. I headed west down a street that ran perpendicular to the Space Needle. The point at which I turned seemed in retrospect to be near the same elevation as the top of the Space Needle. I ended up on a street called Melrose, which runs paralel to the I-5, but east of and above it. I walked north along this for a while before turning arond completely because I saw an REI across the highway that I wanted to go to.

I didn't know this at the time, but I work in the right twin of the buildings at the base of the Space Needle.

After backtracking a bit and walking across a bridge that was clearly marked NO PEDESTRIANS I found myself at REI level and tried to find the entrance. I walked around 2 and a half sides of the building which I was now aware encompased an entire block, and was surely the largest REI I have ever seen. I finally found a sign which declared itself as an entranceway. Walking through a small forest / park to get inside a building was perhaps the coolest thing I have ever done. I wandered around this enormous building for a while before getting bored and heading out.

Some buildings have plazas. REI has a forest.

I wandered northwest and soon found myself back in South Lake Union not far from where I had originally got off the bus. I decided to head back to my aparment and relax before going to the board game meetup which was scheduled for 7:30 pm. Due to construction it took nearly an hour of wandering around and re-retracing my steps (and learning in the meantime from a very friendly fellow confused pedestrian that jaywalking is a huge no-no in Seattle) to get to the northbound 70 bus. After waiting a bit and some intial confusion over the pay-as-you-leave policy of northbound routes I ended up back in my ridiculously hot un-airconditoined apartment.

It was barely 3 at this point so I decided to go check out the roof of my aparment building while my cell phone charged. I found it very nice and ended up sun bathing for about 45 minutes before returning inside to find I was sunburned… on my neck from walking around downtown Seattle. I doubt that phrase is stated very often.

I had some time to kill so I watched the last half of Fellowship of the Ring, which I had started in Greensboro two nights prior. I then showered and headed out for board game night.

I ended up waiting for about 25 minutes at the wrong bus stop and watching 3 buses that I could have taken drive by across the street. When I finally got to B&O Espresso it was a little past 8. I sat down with a group of redditors: Steffen (Stephen? How do you spell that name?), Gabby (This could be wrong, too), Katie (Not sure about that either), and Claude (I’m pretty sure about the spelling of Claude). They were playing a game called Ticket to Ride which consisted of trains. I watched them play one game and then joined in for the second, losing horribly. It was great.

After the second game we all went to a place which the my local Seattleite companions referred to as Dicks. Essentially the cookout of the pacific-northwest, but cheaper and not as tasty (but still pretty good). It was close to 11:30 at this point so I decided to catch a bus home and go to bed.

So much for brief.

They set the table for 4 people in a 1BR apartment.

Today was travel day. It is around 10pm here in Seattle but both my body and this computer say it is closer to 1AM. THe former for biological reasons, the latter because I have yet to connect to the internet as the comcast service that supposedly comes with the apartment has yet to be activated. I plan to call tomorrow to try and get that sorted out. For now, though, I enjoy the parallel between my internal clock and my system clock.

I woke up at 7am (EST) this morning to have a quick shower and go to breakfast with my parents. It is also mother’s day so the early meal was pulling double duty as a last meal at home for the summer and mother’s day breakfast. We went to printworks bistro and were able to preempt the mother’s day brunch rush, for which there was a special buffet.

After breakfast we went to Grandview, the newly opened sattelite store for Mack and Mack. The store was not open; we were there for some small matters of housekeeping. Soon it was time to head to the airport (PTI) to catch my flight.

I will not bother here with the minutiae of air travel, but a few interesting things did happen that I may soon forget about, so I will note them here.

In the security line at PTI there was a middle aged man who grew very frustrated very quickly when things did not move at a rate that he was happy with. I found his frustration amusing and probably would have been frustrated myself were I not privy to how ridiculous it looked to others.

Atlanta lived up to its claim of the busiest airport in the world. I ate a ridiculously oily Gyro for lunch in concourse A. I am not proud of this choice.

We were delayed leaving for Seattle for about 20 minutes due to some strange passenger manifest data problem. We made up this lost time in the air, however, and landed on time at SEATAC.

After taxiing to the gate in Seattle, the crew realized there was something fatally wrong with the jetway, preventing it from properly mating with the aircraft and forcing the cabin door to remain shut. This went on for about 40 minutes until the captain decided to take us to a separate gate. The engines were already spun down so they had to call in one of those pusher trucks so it took us about 15 minutes to relocate. I stepped off the plane over an hour after we had touched down.

After deplaning I picked up my one checked bag and headed out to the ground transportation area. I was following signs for the Link Light Rail and Taxis, not fully aware which I would take but knowing I could get a taxi if all else failed. I ended up not even giving the Light Rail a chance (in retrospect, a regrettable error) and took a taxi into town to pick up my key from Metropolitan Tower. Another cab ride later and I was in my apartment at Lothlorien.

I noted on the way uptown how hilly Seattle is, I was very surprised and reminded of those pictures of the costal mediterranean towns where the buildings completely coat hills that end at the sea. It was really really beautiful and I mean to take pictures tomorrow.

After arriving I did some unpacking but then decided to head out to the Safeway grocery store that I knew was around the corner. I spent about $22 on a few essentials, but decided to wait for further purchases until I scoped out the shopping area more thoroughly.

Upon returning I checked my mailbox, really just to make sure my key worked. It was full of mail. I honestly do not know how that much mail was stuffed in there. It appeared to be for a previous tenant. I removed it and placed it inside a plastic bag incase they came looking for it, but frakly I doubt anyone will come looking for it as there is probably 6 months worth of mail there.

It is now about 10:30 (1:30 body time) and I’m honestly kind of bored. I’m really glad I sat down to write this and I hope I can keep up the motivation to do so at least every other day.