The Past

Before I settled on running a blog, this is the email I send out recapping my first week.

Hi, So, this summer I haven't set up a blog, so I'll try to do a periodic email update. If you'd rather not get these emails, or if you know someone who'd like to but isn't on the list, let me know. I'm likely to write quite a lot, so don't feel bad if you just skim the emails, or check that they keep coming so you know I'm alive :-)

Sunday: I spent most of the day flying from Boston to New York to somewhere over the North Pole. On the first flight, I was sitting in front of two really cute Chinese kids. On the second, I was sitting behind a huge choir group w/ parents and kids. A stewardess complained to me that the kids were better behaved than the parents (b/c at the beginning of the flight the parents didn't sit down right away and so it took us longer for everyone else to find seats, so we were a little late leaving.) The same stewardess also tried to steal my stuffed Tiger and hold him for ransom. There was a large crew... about 16 I think. Continental Airlines rocks. They not only still give you real meals, they even give you silverware. And they've got a very new set of planes, with lots of nifty things. For instance, touch-screens on the back of the seat in front of you that let you watch movies, tv, and short programs, listen to music, see information about the flight statues, etc. And numerous and well-designed bathrooms, providing free pads and tampons :) As I said, we flew over the north pole in the middle of the night (based on original time zone). It was really beautiful. At first during the flight, before the north pole, all I could see was brilliantly white clouds out the window. Over the north pole the view was also brilliantly white, but with bumps and noncontinuous lines indicating drifting snow and cracked ice (or frozen snow). Eventually the stewardess who had been talking to me originally asked me to put my shade down, because she said that it made the passengers less anxious and excitable when the lighting was dimmer. There really was a lot of sun reflecting up off the snow. I was extremely lucky and somehow managed not to have anyone sitting next to me, despite the fact that the flight was declared 'full.' So, I curled up on the seats and read some, slept some.

Monday: Much of Monday (by Beijing time) was also spent on the plane. It was quite enjoyable. I watched some Kimpossible, as well as giving half my attention to the movies Juno and Enchanted (well, just the first 10ish minutes of that one; enough to sate my curiosity) I finished going over the first book of the 6 in the Lord of the Rings. From time to time I would be fed or sleep. Eventually we got to Beijing and went through security, changed money, and collected luggage. I got a map from an info desk which has proved quite useful since. I also helped a bmx racer from Texas whose name I forget get around. He sort of showed up at the info desk seeming lost. Seeing that the info desk guy didn't speak much English, and I was talking to him about how to get to my hotel in Chinese, the guy seemed to decide that I was more useful than the info desk. :-) I took a taxi to the hotel, which was about an hour's drive across the city, and rather uneventful. On the way I saw a person riding a bike with a heavy cloth scarf over their mouth, which I had heard of but not really expected. It's very dusty and smoggy in Beijing. Of course, the vast majority of the multitude of bikers weren't wearing scarves. I also saw several women carring umbrellas, presumably to keep their skin from the sun? I would think carrying an umbrella around constantly would get annoying pretty quickly. The taxi driver and I had basic conversation about the hot and muggy weather, and how we both prefer hot weather to cold. He didn't know the place I needed to go, so we stopped a couple of times to look at the map and ask directions. Cabs in Beijing are pretty well organized. They say how much they cost per unit distance (plus an initial fee, which is slightly higher at nighttime) on the outside, with the more expensive cabs being generally nicer cars. I had a cheap cab, but it still had air conditioning. We eventually found my hotel, and I checked in (which required showing my passport and visa) and was taken to my room on the 4th floor, with the owner of the hotel carrying my suitcase for me. It was a fairly standard double hotel room, smelling slightly of smoke (that cleared up after a day or so). I put my stuff down and walked over Microsoft to check in. Check-in was fairly standard. I filled out an NDA and my Contract and stuff like that, was given a book about Beijing, a t-shirt and a badge holder, and taken to my workstation. Which at that point consisted of only a monitor :) That was fixed by the next morning. I met my supervisor and some of the other interns who sit near to me. I sent out an 'I'm alive' email from Yin's computer. Then he went with me to dinner at the Chinese place in the basement (which also has several other foods, including Japanese, and some European and American stuff, as well as a cafeteria and a gym w/ a pool). After that he walked me back to my hotel. I was really tired, and decided to quickly shower and then sleep. I was unfortunately surprised to find that the shower temperature ranged from luke cold to very cold. I cut my shower quite short and went to bed. Tuesday: I woke up only 6 hours later (I didn't know what time it was, but I turned my clock on before going to sleep, so know time relative to then). I suppose it was maybe 2 or 3 am. I tried and failed to withstand the cold shower again. Then I spent some time sleeping, some time reading my books (Beijing guide and LOTR) and sleeping when I was able, until it was light out and the birds were chirping. I eventually found the time by flipping through tv channels. At work on Tuesday I set things up and settled in. My new email address is v-kidiet@microsoft.com , if you'd like to send something to me there. I now have office supplies and am able to access the printer and use the copy machine and know where to get snacks and all those good things. I went to a talk by Yin. I met with my supervisor to talk about projects, and then he arranged for me to meet someone else to talk about working as part of his group. After work I went out to a hot and spicy Cantonese restaurant w/ my advisor and several other interns. We each ordered a dish, and they were put onto a glass circle in the middle of the table which is free to spin so that everyone can take from all the dishes. I've seen these turn-tables before, but this one moved more smoothly than I've seen before. The food was indeed quite spicy, so spicy it left my lips numb and tingling. After the restuarant, I went to Tiananmen square. I was supposed to meet Sarah Proehl there, but since the dinner went later than I expected I didn't get there until 8 minutes after she'd left (as we figured out the next day). There were a lot of people out, at the Gate, (mostly Chinese) some to look at it for the first time but many just to enjoy the warm night. There were vendors selling souveniers and toys, and a ridiculously cute little Chinese boy dragging around a toy fish. The subway system that I used to get to and from Tiananmen was extremely clean and efficient, and had announcements in English as well as Chinese, presumably in preparation for the Olympics. Also cheap: only 2 yuan for a ticket, which is the equivalent of thirty cents.

Wednesday:Went to work again, met with the guy whose project I might work on again, but didn't have much to do yet. Watched some lectures online. After work checked out the gym in the basement. There was a really nice ayi-like attendant in the changing room. The changing room had squat toilets, which really confused me because my office's toilets are western, and these weren't cheap squatting toilets, they were high-quality materials, and besides, it's Microsoft. What makes it really funny is that I had had a conversation with Aviv about an hour before I left work about squatting toilets (Since he saw them in Singapore), in which I told him I hadn't seen any yet in China and didn't expect to. So, I take it back Aviv. The gym was pretty nice, smallish but with a lot of specialty stuff, eg a rowing machine. Also, there's a basketball court and a swimming pool (so I hear). After the gym I went to a small smoky restaurant. The waitress helped me choose something off the menu, and brought me water without me asking. Hot water, of course, which is what's served everywhere... at the hot and spicy restaurant, even at water coolers -- they have a hot and a 'cold' output, where cold really means lukewarm. I've discovered a water heating device in my hotel, which I use to boil tap water before I drink it. There was a table of 10ish very drunk guys in the smoky back of the restaurant with piles of Tsingtao beer bottles around, which the waitress would occasionally carry away handfulls of. Their cheeks were all pink, and they still kept egging each other on to drink another round and buy more beer. Then I got mildly lost in the dark for a bit on the way back to my hotel, since I had used the back exit of Microsoft and gone off to the restaurant. But I found the hotel again fairly quickly, and had a brief shower before bed. I still can't bring myself to use the full force of the water.

Thursday:The sky is blue today! For the first time since I've been here! There was also a nice breeze as I walked to work. I talked to Kevin for awhile, then I went to another talk this morning, by a guy from the UK who's got really superb Chinese. Then I went to lunch, which was good, because I starving. I had a conversation with a guy who really wants to choose an English name for himself but doesn't want it to be too common. Apparently in their English classes in school the teachers just randomly dole out common names: Bill, Tom, Fred, etc. He's thinking about 'Richard' for himself. Change of topic: I got accepted into the speech group! I'm going to be working on tts (text to speech) stuff. And that's about all I can say about that. At our 3pm fruit break today there was this really strange cross between a kiwi and a watermelon. And somthing white. This thing had the shape of a watermelon, but the rind was bright bright pink, and the flesh was white. The seeds were spaced as they would be in a watermelon, but shaped and sized like those of kiwis. The taste also most closely resembled that of kiwis, although the water content seemed higher. Tonight I'm going to meet Sarah (aforementioned) and Erik Fogg (another MIT student) for dinner and exploration on Beijing.

Friday:Yes, I know this hasn't happened yet. :P Buut, I thought I'd tell you that it's a company holiday and Microsoft's anniversary, so I'm going to go to what promises to be the coolest company picnic ever! No, really. There are go-carts. And something that seems as though it will resemble laser-tag, or something. And a long list of other things, such as parenting classes and a rummage sale and many many arts and crafts. Saturday:I'm sure it will be awesome :-) Ok, so that's my week. What about yours? (No really, keep me posted on what you guys are up to too!) Kim