Once you go King Crab Do You Ever Go Back?
Jun/090
I’ve never had Alaskan King crab before today, I’ve never interviewed seriously with a large corporation I could potentially be working at for several years before today. Today I caught a glimpse of a potential future for myself and I was quite shaken.
Yesterday I caught a flight out of Hartford, a layover in Chicago and my final destination being Seattle. I didn’t pay for the flight, in fact I didn’t have to book the flight it was all taken care of for my on behalf of a large computer software company. This experience was unique to me, not because I haven’t flown to Seattle before (I have, check previous blog post) but rather it was the first time I was courted by the money, experience, and life of corporate culture. Recently I had planned a trip to the Florida Everglades, and myself and classmates spent hours scouring the Internet for the very best flight and car rental details we could find, our objective was to minimize cost. Now this software company believed It was a good investment for them to spend a certain amount of money to fly and arrange for all my travel and housing accommodations while they interviewed me. The contrast between the two scenarios was unbelievable, and the simplicity of the latter was very enticing. I find myself wondering if it was worth my time to find the cheapest flight to Florida, or should I have a bit more and thrown a wad of cash at the problem?
After completing my obligation and interview with this company I was given several taxi vouchers to go explore the Seattle areaa. Now I have been there before, but I was given a certain allowance for food, I might as well experience what the city has to offer.After paying a 30 plus dollar cab ride with a coporate voucher I eventually found myself at Fisherman’s Restaurant where I inteded to purchase a fine dinner for myself. Being seated outside I had a clear view of the sun setting behind the Cascade mountain range, the commericial docks of Seattle and from behind the restaurant rose the sky scrapers of Seattle. The Cascades are a given, but the latter were a result of someone choosing to create them, and working very hard to build them.
SISG08 around the world
Jul/080
I recently attended the Summer Institute of Statistical Genetics which was held at the University of Washington in Seattle. The school attracts students and professionals from around the world and instructs them in the latest techniques in a large variety of areas. I traveled from Connecticut with my lab mate Jorge, and I was scheduled for 2 modules taking 6 days with a weekend in the middle. I also added an extra 4 days onto the end of my stay to allow for sight seeing. Many of the attendees elected to stay in a dorm because it was the cheapest housing available, Jorge and I choose this route.
We began to hang out with several of the attendees and by the end we were good friends. The variety of people was amazing. There were professionals and students from Uruguay, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Columbia, the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria, Austrailia, Denmark and England. Early on a large number of us, maybe 20 or so had dinner at a brew pub creating a table the size of the entire room. It was such an awesome moment because so many people, with no connection got together and had a great time. We found differences and commonalities in our work, social experiences and politics. In fact if you wanted a new perspective on politics, or a world event you only needed to pick up your beer and walk to a different part of the table. It is interesting discussing revolution with people whos country has recently gone through one in the past 50 years, where as its a much more abstract discussion for Americans.
After leaving the bar, I suggested that several of us try and walk to the shore. Severall people agreed and I picked a direction and lead the group. I really had no idea where we were going but I found my way and we made it to the water eventually. We were able to spend the nights and weekend of our stay exploring downtown seattle and the surrounding areas. It was a very relaxed atmosphere as most of us had put on hold our daily responsibilities for this trip, a very rare situation in which to meet new people. We celebrated a fellow compute programmers birthday who was from Denmark by all packing into a sushi restaurant where you can pick your dish off of a large conveyer belt, and finished off the evening awkwardly remembering our childhood piano lessons in the dorm.
All good things have to come to an end, and slowly we began loosing members of the group as they finished up their courses. I luckily had a few extras for my first north western adventure.