memorial day long weekend by.cristina
mon.may.29

we started the weekend off with a drive to seattle's international district on saturday, to get some lunch. we ended up at a restaurant in "chinatown" called isami, that served all sorts of asian cuisine. peter had opted for a vietnamese dish and i, a thai dish ... both, though obviously bastardised versions (as peter would say hehe), were quite delicious!

lunch at "isami"

after lunch we explored "chinatown" a bit more and decided to do some grocery shopping at uwajimaya - the largest asian grocery store i've ever seen! it must have been more than twice the size of a typical woolworths or coles grocery store back in sydney. peter and i were glad (though not surprised) to find that they stocked all of our favourite vietnamese and filipino ingredients. as we walked further in we discovered they even had a little food court at the back and to my delight, a shop that sold bubble milk tea! :-D

we then headed for seattle's pike place market (a cross between sydney's fish market and paddy's market) which is very close to the waterfront. it was quite crowded and as we made our way through the masses .... oh.my.gosh. peter and i spotted the huuuugest(!) lobster tails ever! we had to photograph it ... and it seemed so did every one else around us as flashes were going off all over the place! back in sydney, my mum would often cook lobster tails for us, which we already always thought were quite large ... but mum! you gotta see these ones!! the pic below doesn't even do its size justice!i i definitely can't wait for mum to visit and cook us these ones!

at pike place market

look at those lobster tails! they're jumbo alright!!

enjoying the view...

after taking in the view of the waterfront right behind pike place market, we ventured out on foot towards downtown seattle's main shopping area. memorial day weekend sales were going on, which probably explained the large crowds. it's amazing how inexpensive clothes (brand names mind you) are here ... i wouldn't be surprised if people never had to wear the same outfit twice! we checked out pacific place (mall) and did quite a lot of walking that day, and to convince me even more of the difference orthotics make, we returned to the car and drove to redmond town center (a large open-air mall) and did some more walking/exploring! i'd ask peter throughout the day if he was tired yet and wanted to sit down and he'd always reply with an energetic "nope!". hehe ... trung's a genius!

on sunday we thought we'd try bellevue's factoria mall, which was a lot less crowded but also quite big, and surprise, surprise, more sales were going on! 50-75% off!! i must say i was actually able to resist the temptation to make "impulse purchases" quite easily ... despite peter's insistence that i go ahead and buy myself anything i wanted ... but nope! i didn't falter hehe. why? ... hmm, i think the impending home purchase is bringing out my responsible (stingy?) side ten-fold haha ...

peter then suggested we see "x-men:the last stand" at the cinemas so we drove to lincoln square in bellevue. we had arrived to find that the nearest session time of x-men was already sold out so we bought tickets for the following, as they were running sessions of it every half hour. we bought our popcorn and drink, found great seats right at the back and enjoyed what was a thoroughly riveting movie, even for a non-comic fan like me :-).

we got home around 7pm to some chicken thighs that i had defrosting in the sink and various asian sauces (thanks uwajimaya!) that i had sitting out on our kitchen counter. my mum had emailed me her chicken & vegetable stir-fry recipe the night before and i decided i'd tackle it that night. i've tried my own versions of stir-frys many times in the past and have failed miserably at them every time! miserably i tell you!! the meat would always turn out so dry and chewy and the sauce would be ... bleh. so this was a big deal for me :-P. i brought my powerbook downstairs to the dining table and had mum's email up on the screen. as i read the recipe i had a couple things to clarify so i emailed mum (thank you wi-fi) and within minutes mum was on the phone to me hehe. so i began as soon as we got off the phone ....

yes i'm domesticated :-P

about 30 mins later ... tada!! - sitting on the table was my attempt at my mum's chicken & vegetable stir-fry, on rice, in a bowl, waiting for peter to take the first bite. now poor peter (lol), i know he must of been a little reluctant seeing as he's had to suffer from my previous failed attempts at stir-frys. he has in the past even responded to my "what do you want for dinner" questions with "baby, anything but your stir-fry" answers hahaha. but the brave soul still took in a spoonful ... and then ... i detected a smile ... and then i got a nod ... then a "mmmm it tastes good!". now i know peter has always been honest when it comes to my cooking, but in this case i had to try it for myself before i believed him. so i did and ... woohooo!! the meat was soooo soft and tender and the sauce was delicious!! now much thanks goes to my mum, who never ever measures ingredients when she cooks, but has started doing so to pass on to her culinary-challenged daughter!! :-P

driving towards downtown seattle...

today peter and i drove back out to downtown seattle, scored free parking because it was memorial day, and headed towards the seattle aquarium. when we reached the ticket booth, peter flashed his prime card (given to all microsoft employees) which got us over 75% off the entry fee :-). my favourite part of the aquarium visit was by far seeing the sea otters who were too adorable for words! they kept floating on their backs whilst washing their tummies, cheeks and the tops of their heads! apparently they do this not only to keep clean but to keep themselves warm. i just couldn't tear myself away from them hehe. i jokingly said to peter "baby, i want one", at which point a lady nearby turned to me and said "so do i! but my husband said no" hehehe. there was plenty to see at the aquarium, from fur seals, to aquatic birds, sharks, an octopus and all kinds of strange looking fish (love the puffer!). as peter and i were at the tank that housed some clown fish, we were startled by a loud squeel ... "i see neeeemo! i see neeeeemo!" came from a little girl (no older than 3) who had just reached the same tank, and was in the arms of her dad. peter and i couldn't help but laugh and the little girl's parents gave us a look that was half amused/half apologetic hehehe. our god-daughter lizette suddenly came to mind. gosh, we miss her! particularly the way she responds/reacts to things! we know she'd love this place!

after the aquarium visit peter and i went on search for a place to eat lunch. we stumbled upon a french café called maximilien that had a spectacular view of the water. as we were looking over their menu peter decides that he and i will be having their three course special today. ok then. hehe. peter went for the soup and the mussels, and i the salad and steak. baskets of bread with butter were served, and then we ended with delicious crème brûlée desserts. boy, were we stuffed! unfortunately(?) our camera battery had died not long after we reached the cafe so we only managed to get evidence (one pic) of peter's indulgence hehehe ...

lunch at maximilien french café

after our huge meal all peter and i wanted to do was go home and take a nap hehe. so we did! haha how bad is that? ... ahh, t'was definitely an enjoyable long weekend! :-D

 

vista beta 2 launch party by.peter
wed.may.24

Today was another eventful day for me at Microsoft. It started with me kicking off a build of Longhorn server early in the morning, which I think is still running as I type. From what I could tell from the task manager, building Longhorn on your machine doesn’t actually use much processing power but it certainly keeps the hard disk spinning fast. Any faster and I’m certain the space-time distortion would have caused light to bend around my machine. Feeling a little irritable at my machine’s lack of response to other applications, I decided to set up the spare machine I’ve had sitting next to me the last few weeks. It’s no surprise that each of the developers actually have 3 or 4 machines each. The rest of the morning was spent reading more documentation about the build and setup process whilst the build was happening in the background.

The next exciting thing happening today was a presentation about Anders Hejlsberg, the creator of Turbo Pascal and the C# language. Anders was going to be available after the presentation for questions and given my keen interest in compiler writing, Anders was a person I had to meet. The presentation was held in the West campus which wasn’t in walking distance from my building, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try out the Microsoft Shuttle system. It's basically an internal bus system that allows employees to travel between Microsoft buildings and campuses. I used the shuttle to get to the presentation (which went on for an hour an a half) and then back to my building.

As soon as I got back, I noticed people were making their way over to building 26 for the Vista Beta 2 launch party. Everyone involved with Vista was invited. I don’t know the exact numbers but there was likely two to three thousand people who turned up. In fear of rain, the party had been moved to the parking lot under the building which gave it a Zion sort of feel. There were large white and orange balloons and orange lights flashing around, as well as a band that was playing on a stage. Tables were set up with food and drinks which you could help yourself to. Soft drinks, beer, wine and champagne were flowing freely. I filled up my plate and wandered around to see what else was available. There were arcade machines with classic games like Pacman, Frogger and Galaga, pinball machines, foosball tables and even table tennis. They even brought in masseurs! In the middle of the party, Brian Valentine and Jim Allchin interrupted the band on stage to make some short speeches about the Vista Beta 2 launch and give a reminder that there’s still work to be done before it can be released to consumers. Soon after I headed back to my office but the party went on well into the evening.

our shipped belongings by.cristina
tue.may.23

we were informed today that the rest of our belongings (furniture, kitchenware, decorative items, etc.) that were getting here from sydney by shipping have arrived. peter told the moving company that they could go ahead and put it into temporary storage (1 month is paid by ms) since we don't need any of it until we move into our permanent housing. although our corporate housing has been more than adequate, i do look forward to being amongst all our own furniture again. nothing beats sitting on your own cushy couch and sleeping on your own bed with that favourite pillow of yours. i think now i'm even more anxious to find us our own place to call "home" as soon as possible. hey, i may just even expand my tolerance range of colours/designs hehe. umm. ok. maybe not. :-P

 

blessings in disguise by.cristina
mon.may.22

because of the delay in receiving peter's social security number (which we can't do much without - like buy a car, or a house, etc.), ms has granted us an extra two weeks with our rental car (phew! coz it was due to be returned in two days), as well as an extra two weeks in our corporate housing! that means we have this townhome for about another 6 weeks. yay! they also said that if peter's ssn doesn't come in the next two weeks then we may be granted another two-week extension. how's that for blessings in disguise eh? at least this will give us some extra time to house-hunt, but i think we're done with the car-hunting ... peter appears to have decided on the exact car for him (us? lol). personally, i would've gone for the vw beetle (lol) but ... err ... poor peter looked horrified at the suggestion hehe...

don't you think it's cute?

 

property on the brain by.cristina
sat.may.20

there's a lot of talk going on around me about property at the moment. my parents bought a new apartment recently which they're finally getting the keys to next week, my brother and sarah have also bought a new townhouse which is due for completion next month, and peter and i are currently looking for property to purchase here on seattle's eastside. we're all at different stages of the purchasing process but all equally excited i think :-). i'm really having a ball looking for property here ... there seems to be so many new properties coming onto the market every week. our realtor, connie, mentioned that because of the way the tax system works here in the u.s., most americans sell and upgrade their homes every few years as their salary increases, in order to make the most of the tax benefits. i guess that explains the abundance of listings.

peter's opted to leave the house-hunting mostly up to me, mainly because he's got work to concentrate on, but also because i think he's not too fussed about what we get hehe. the only criteria he wants met is that the location is good (ie. close to microsoft, easy access to public tranport, close to shops and restaurants, etc.). peter wouldn't mind if the place had fluoro walls, and was numbered 13, on 13th street (eek!) - if it had a good location, he'd be willing to pay top dollar for it in a heartbeat. i still remember when we were about to inspect our chatswood apartment for the first time ... we were outside walking towards the complex, and when peter realised it was right across from the building his company was about to move into, he blurted out "baby, i want it!!". and oh he was serious, despite the fact we hadn't even seen the apartment yet!! lol ... luckily the apartment was actually nice :-).

but well, i guess i'm a different story :-P. ok, i can look past wall colours (it's difficult for me but yes i try), but things like carpet colour and tile design? ... that's asking a bit much! peter and i aren't exactly what you'd call the "handyman" type (ok laugh - we actually hired painters for our first apartment :-P), so we don't really have the mindset that we can always change/renovate anything with ease, unless of course we fork out the $$$ to get the pros in (which we learnt on our strathfield apartment how costly that can be). of course the most important thing to me is the layout of the property. i like the open-plan feel, where i can be cooking in the kitchen and still feel like i'm in the same room with peter whilst he's on the couch watching tv. but that kitchen countertop i'm working on and those kitchen cabinets i'm opening and closing must have colours/designs that fall within my tolerance range. bright colours are a no-no. in fact, most colours are a no-no. i need my neutral shades. i know what contributes most to the feel of a home is the decor in it, but i much prefer to work with a blank canvas than one that has all sorts of colours and designs all over it already.

this is how it's been happening so far - first connie sends me photos and descriptions of properties to look at via email, then i narrow down which ones i want to go and have a look at, and then we organise a time for her to pick me up and take me to them. when i step into the property, i usually know within 5 seconds of walking in whether i like it or not. sometimes after further inspection, i'll find something that makes me stop liking it, but never the other way around, where i don't like it and then i do. if i don't like it in those first 5 seconds, most likely there's nothing i'll see next that can change my mind.

on our first house-hunting day with connie about a week ago, i overheard her say to peter that she plans to take me out to look at some properties whilst he was at work, and that we'd let him know if there were any ones that were worth him coming out to see. then i overheard peter say, "it's ok, i trust cristina's taste. if she likes it i'm happy." okay ... that right there scored peter maaaajor brownie points hahaha ...

 

house and car hunting by.cristina
wed.may.17

While I was at work today, Connie was showing Cristina more properties that were for sale in the area. They inspected 4 properties, the last of which was a block away from Microsoft. This one seemed like it fit our criteria, with a reasonable asking price and close proximity to Microsoft. It was also very close to the PRO Sports Club where Microsoft pays membership for its employees. Since it was so close, Cristina called me up at work and asked if I wanted to come and inspect it also. I did and I liked what I saw but we were told that a number of people had already shown interest in the same property and that we should be prepared for competitive offers. In Sydney I would have suspected this to be a real estate agent ploy but considering its proximity to Microsoft it’s likely Connie wasn’t exaggerating. In order to even be considered though, Connie said we needed to have a written pre-approval letter from the lender to submit along with our offer by tomorrow noon, which was the deadline for receiving all offers on that property. Unfortunately, this wasn't going to be possible because I'm still waiting for my Social Security Number (which is taking longer to arrive than expected), which the lender told us they need before a pre-approval letter can be given to us. I guess it’s out of our control and we just have to wait. We may have missed out on this property but I'm sure something else will come along.

When we were done with the house hunting, we then directed our attention to car hunting. Now car hunting is less of a hassle than house hunting because you’re not competing against anyone. This is the USA and if there’s plenty of anything it’s cars. There are makes here that I’ve never seen or heard of before and even with the manufacturers I do know, like Honda/Acura, there are more models available here than Australia. This would be a car lover’s dream. But I’m not a car fanatic like some of my brothers. My first car was the Honda Civic Coupe that I had for 6 years, which I sold to my younger brother. Oh, Tan…yeah…a sale usually involves the exchange of money ;). Take your time, I was only going to use the money to buy food :P.

Anyway, now that I’m getting older, I have to move on from a coupe to the more mature sedan. Next, I intend to buy a razor hehe. I did some research on the internet about various cars but I keep coming back to the Subaru Legacy (Liberty for Australians). Cristina’s brother has driven two models of the Liberty for a number of years and I’ve always been impressed with its performance, particularly on the highways. So we decided to take a visit to Eastside Subaru in Kirkland to have a look at their showroom. The sales guy at the dealership was extremely friendly and allowed us take the Legacy for a test drive down Highway 405. We also had a chance to look at the GT Limited model. We were walked through some numbers and we were informed that Microsoft employees were entitled to some special deals. That’s not going to stop us from bargaining further though – but we’ll wait for the right time to strike. They don’t call it car hunting for nothing and this caveman has spotted his mammoth! ;)

By the time we were finished at the dealership, dinner was overdue. While we were talking to the sales guy, he recommended an Italian restaurant nearby called Olive Garden. We took the suggestion since it was also an opportunity to explore more of Kirkland. We didn’t regret it at all. The food was great, probably the best eat we’ve had in the US yet…wait, second best…Cristina made me her world-famous tacos the other day! :)

 

 

At "Olive Garden" - the second best eat in the US!

 

bellevue botanical garden by.cristina
tue.may.16

it turns out peter's up for leisurely walks after all, so when he got home from work today i suggested we visit bellevue botanical garden, which i'd found on one of my "things to do in seattle" internet searches hehe. it was only a 5 minute drive from us and we arrived there to find young families having picnics, some people sitting on benches engrossed in their books, and other couples walking around hand-in-hand. it was a very pleasant atmosphere :-). so yes peter and i got to do some walking ... but then we got a tad distracted along the way ...

playing around with our shadows hihi :-P

the grass felt like a soft rug!

and then ... well ... we got a little snap happy :-)

bellevue botanical garden (9 images)

 

an empty tank by.cristina
mon.may.15

i found these in our collection of photos and thought i had to show you guys hehe. here's peter at our very first visit to a petrol station in seattle ...

... now can you tell which one was taken before the attendant had explained to peter how to operate the pump? :-P

 

a couple of night owls by.cristina
mon.may.15

it's 2am right now and peter and i are both still wide awake. yup, peter's sleeping pattern is definitely back to "normal" heh. he's "adjusted" to going in to work later like most of his team do, waking up at around 9am on weekdays, sometimes even later than that. quite a luxury huh?

peter's always been a night owl, even before we met, but i actually used to be a "morning person" who would sleep early (around 10pm) and wake up early. that's definitely changed since being with peter, unintentionally mind you. i guess maybe my body's synchronised itself to maximise the amount of time peter and i are awake together hehe. now if that's not love, what is eh? :-P

hmm ... i think peter and i have become tv-show addicts lately. i'm (almost) ashamed to say it but on the weekend i think we watched about 6 hours worth of television together ... *cringe*. that's it, no more! (well to that extreme anyway heh). i think we'd benefit from morning jogs or long afternoon walks in the park (or in a mall, same thing lol) instead. the weather's been perfect for it lately. question is, will peter go for it? ;-)

 

 

house-hunting by.cristina
sun.may.14

Yesterday Cristina and I met up with Connie (a realtor) to have a look at three properties that she had found for us. Two of them were in Bellevue and the other in Kirkland. Cristina and I liked the one in Kirkland most, but it's still early stages yet and we want to see more properties before making any decisions. So Connie and Cristina will be looking at more properties next week while I'm at work. What I did notice is that all the houses in the area were made of a type of pressed plywood....

 

There is not a single brick, concrete or fibro home. The roofs were also made of some thin, light material instead of ceramic tiles. Homes often come with a fireplace or heating system but no air conditioning. I think it’s starting to hit me that I’m in a foreign country.

During one of our conversations with Connie, the subject of Bill Gates' home came up. We learnt that he lives in Medina, an affluent city also on the eastside of Seattle, in a house overlooking Lake Washington. Since Medina wasn’t too far from where we lived I decided to do a little more research. It seems that the place we’re staying at right now lies directly between the Gates home and Microsoft's main campus...

Now, if I recall correctly from New Employee Orientation, Microsoft has always espoused the virtues of car pooling. Car pooling is good for the environment, relieves traffic congestion and frees up parking on campus. So Bill, any room left? ;-)

On the topic of houses, i looked up Gates' $US125 million house (value as of 2006) and found some interesting pictures and information.

 

an amazing woman by.cristina
sat.may.13 (may.14 in aus)

 

just wanted to say by.peter
sat.may.13

Happy Mother's Day to my Mum & my Mother-In-Law!
(Sorry, i'm not as creative as Cristina hehe)

 

now that's service by.cristina
fri.may.12

our corporate housing came furnished with all the details you could think of. inside the kitchen cabinets were everything i could possibly need, from pots and pans and cooking utensils to even things like a chopping board, a measuring cup, mixing bowls, a strainer and a can opener heh. we arrived to find toiletries, dishwashing liquid, laundry detergent, paper towels, and sponges, already provided for us. we were glad to find an iron and ironing board in the laundry, hangers in the closets and even a dvd player by the tv. it was like they had thought of everything! ... but it wasn't long before we realised there was something we needed that was overlooked - a computer table. peter ended up mentioning this to them (ms' corporate housing provider company) as a side comment (lol) - and it resulted in yesterday's delivery of a computer table, along with a computer chair and table lamp :-). this was within 48 hours of peter's "comment" hehe. now that's service eh?

did i mention our air freighted belongings arrived four days after we touched down here? so we didn't have to wait long at all for those seven boxes filled with all our clothes and shoes, and of course, peter's darling computer (lol). the reunion between peter and his computer was touching, but alas, no video camera :-P. so anyway, now that we have a computer table, we no longer have to use cardboard boxes as a substitute :-).

i got a nice surprise this morning when the manager of our housing complex came to our door and handed me a welcome gift card (US$50 value) to use at the local grocery store hehe. how nice! i love little suprises ... and i'm sure peter will like this practical one ;-P.

 

buying vs. renting by.peter
thu.may.11

This morning, before I left for work, we were visited by a realtor, Connie, also provided by Microsoft as part of our relocation assistance. Her role was to help us with our search for permanent housing after our temporary housing ends. Not only was she going to help us find the actual place, but she was also going to help us get financing for the property if we decide to buy a place instead of rent. Connie explained that normally a person who has just moved to the US would not be able to get a home loan for quite some time because they wouldn't have any credit history. It would take 2 to 3 years of good credit history before finance institutions would consider giving you a loan. Lucky for us, another one of the perks of being a Microsoft employee is that a few financial institutions have a nice little arrangement with Microsoft. This arrangement includes overlooking the lack of credit history of their employees as well as some discounts on the interest rates. There was also the added peace of mind that we could sell the property any time in the future without incurring penalties.

Connie also explained to us the benefits of purchasing over renting a property and we were surprised to find out how different it was to Australian property tax laws. In Australia, you can claim tax deductions for an investment property but you can’t claim them for your primary residence. Over here, you can claim tax deductions on the interest and tax for your primary residence but you can’t if you’re renting. To make it worst for the renter, if you’re renting you end up getting hit at the end of the financial year with another tax. So it seems the wise decision is to buy a place. We still have both our properties in Sydney so of course we had to take those financial commitments into consideration. Fortunately they're both tenanted so our outlay isn't too stifling. Considering Microsoft is expanding its workforce substantially in the coming years, it might not be a bad idea to buy here since demand is expected to increase accordingly.

Before Connie left, she put us on the phone with the financial institution and we were getting estimates on how much they could lend us, how much we would need to provide for the down payment and the possible monthly repayments. That gave us a good idea of what was within our budget and which areas to look at. Connie is now in the process of searching for homes for us to look at, so I guess next week we’ll be house hunting. Cristina's so excited! :-)

After all that was done, I headed into the office at 10am, grabbed a hot chocolate and checked my emails. I got a notice that my Smartcard reader had arrived and the two text books I ordered from the Microsoft library were waiting for me at reception. Everything delivered to you at the click of a button - how’s that for service? Le had taken half the week off to travel to Las Vegas so I had the office to myself. I also got another reminder that I had an appointment with Josh, our relocation consultant, at 1pm. Josh was going to bring me to the Washington State Department of Licensing branch in Bellevue so I could take my driver’s license knowledge test. Here’s a practice test for those of you interested. Luckily I gave myself some time to study the booklet last night because there were definitely some differences to Australian rules. Here are some interesting rules you don’t see in Australia:

Here’s the complete Washington road rules which you can compare against the Australian road rules. So having passed the computer and vision test today, the next step is to take my actual driving test. Watch out citizens of Washington! :-P

 

it's like magic by.cristina
tue.may.9

i was in bed on my powerbook when our doorbell rang at 12:30 this afternoon. i opened the door to find two maids that had arrived to clean our place ... *grin*. apparently maid service is an inclusion in our corporate housing package and they'll be coming every other week. so for the next hour, carpets were vacuumed, surfaces were wiped, bathrooms and the kitchen were thoroughly cleaned, and bedsheets and towels changed. it was like i looked away for a moment and when i turned back ... wala!! all clean! i'm used to doing all that myself (with offers of help from hubby of course lol) ... but hey, i could always get used to this too! :-P

 

a shamefully lazy weekend by.cristina
sun.may.7

yes we had planned to visit some seattle attractions this weekend but it ended up being a lazy, sleep in 'til noon, stay in our pjs, watch tv all day sort of weekend hehe ... and oh the shame but we loved it! :-P

friday night was a different story however. peter and i were headed home after having spent the first half of the day with our destination consultant, josh, and the second half shopping in renton and at the nearby "southcenter mall". this was around 7pm and we had planned to eat dinner at home, but a wrong turn left peter and i heading straight for downtown seattle! peter calmly said "what the heck, let's just keep going!" (lol) and i nodded in excitement. so we drove right into the city and got a taste of the seattle night life for the first time. we had bought a street directory our first week here so we weren't (too) concerned with getting lost hehe. we found a place to park as we wanted to go on foot to explore the area. we checked out some "touristy" shops that were still open, and found that downtown seattle wasn't as crowded as we thought it would be. we were getting peckish so we headed towards the waterfront and bought dinner "to go" from a seafood place and sat at some tables right by the water ...

dinner by the water in downtown seattle

maybe for some couples making a wrong turn or getting "lost" would lead to an argument, but for peter and i, we've always turned it into something fun! it's usually led to long scenic drives or new experiences for us like friday night. so yes, i'm looking forward to our next wrong turn ... :-P

 

neo: new employee orientation by.peter
fri.may.5

A large part of NEO involved explaining all the benefits we get as members of the Microsoft family. Some of the benefits include:

• Free public transport
It’s like we’re back in school! We get a sticker on our employee ID tags that allow us to use local public transport for free.

• Great discounts from various businesses
Discounts at some local restaurants, retail stores and even discounts on mobile and internet plans. I hear that I can get my internet bills reimbursed since I will be working from home some days.

• Paid membership to local gyms
Microsoft pays for the upfront cost of gym membership but I think we have to pay the tax equivalent of the membership. Still a good deal for us though.

• Unlimited soft drinks and various other beverages
The kitchen stocks all several brands of teas and coffees, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices, flavoured milks and hot chocolate. I’ve been having the hot chocolate in the morning and Nestea lemon iced tea throughout the day :-)

• Subsidized lunches
$3 can get you a decent meal in the campus cafeterias!

• Discounts at the Microsoft Store
I have to check out what the store has but employees can buy Microsoft products for personal use at massively discounted prices. I think I heard them say 90% discount on many items. Too bad it specifically forbids reselling items on eBay :P

NEO reminded me a lot of the university orientation week experience. I met a lot of new people who didn't necessarily work in the same team or even the same field as myself. In fact, of the 15 people I did get a chance to talk to none of them were SDEs (Software Design Engineers). In all, there were 140 new employees and this is about the number of people Microsoft hires every week! No wonder they had to develop an orientation program. There were people joining the marketing, sales, HR, law, research and development departments. I even met someone who was joining as an environmental specialist! I don't remember the last time I worked for a software company with an environmental specialist.

After NEO, we all went our separate ways to locate our respective managers. There are so many levels of management I'm still not sure how it all fits together but so far I know I am joining the CFS (Core File Systems) team within Windows Server Group. The rest of the day just involved getting my computer set up in my new office. Actually, I can't really call it my office because I have to share with another person. It seems Microsoft has expanded its people faster than its office space and some people have to share. I hear they are building more offices but I have no idea when it'll be complete, so for now my cellmate is ...

test engineer, Le, also from the CFS team...

Wednesday was my first real day at work. I left home at about 8am and arrived at work in about 10-15minutes. I parked underground and took the lifts up to my floor. I grabbed myself a hot chocolate from the kitchen and made my way to my computer to finish setting up software for my computer. The place seemed pretty quiet. No wonder, it seemed the average time people turned up for work was between 10am - 11am. I'm going to have to force myself to sleep in to make that timeslot. However, I discovered on my way home why people come in and leave late - to avoid the dreaded traffic on the 520 freeway. A trip which should have taken no more than 15 minutes took me 45 minutes to get home. Apparently, Seattle is rated as the third worst city in the US for traffic jams. We were warned about this at NEO. I guess the good views of the mountains and greenery are a consolation. Perhaps that's why the drivers aren't suffering road rage...

Thursday was my second day in the office. I finished off configuring my environment, responded to e-mails and started reading through some specification documents. There's a lot of information that needs to be absorbed before I can start to do any real work. I finally got authorization to access code. However, before I even had a chance to touch any of the code I was reminded by Outlook that there was a team activity (bonding) event scheduled for the second half of the day in downtown Seattle. It was being held at some sort of bar which had pool tables, table tennis and darts. Free drinks and lunch were also organised. Not bad for a first week of work ;). I actually got to meet some of the guys on my team for the first time. I got a lift with another developer, Wei, whose driving I think belongs more in Sydney than Seattle. I learnt that 60mph actually really means 70mph. 75mph if you're careful. There's only one thing worst than being stuck on the 520 crossing Lake Washington and that's being on the 520 crossing Lake Washington at the same time as Wei :P. According to Wei, who is originally from Vancouver, people from Seattle don't know how to drive. Also according to Wei, the worst drivers are 50 year old Chinese women driving S-class Mercedes. I felt very much at home in the passenger seat :).

I had today scheduled off to meet with our relocation consultant. Thus ends my first week of hard work at Microsoft ;-).

 

the bellevue area by.cristina
fri.may.5