Google Internship

I started my internship at Google this week, along with over a hundred other new employees, mostly interns. On Thursday I rode my bike there and back, and I intend to do that often so that Larisa will have the car. It took less than a half hour each way.

Google is an interesting place. Orientation the first day reminded me of freshman orientation in college. They told us all the fun clubs we could join, and as I walked out of work that evening there was a group of about 10 people juggling on the lawn. That's something you would expect to see on a college campus. There were balloons and candy on my desk the first day. Lydia is in love with balloons, so I surprised her by bringing them out to the car when they came to pick me up. Then I brought more balloons home that my officemate gave me the next day. Now our apartment is full of them.

The food is great at Google, and it's free. Larisa and I even stopped by last night (Saturday) for dinner. I didn't realize that the policy was to only bring visitors during regular business hours, and once I found out I wasn't about to turn around and head home. We enjoyed a great meal including vegetable curry and fish. Other than that, I haven't had dinner there. But I have had breakfast and lunch every day. Wonderful. I always grab a couple of Naked fruit juice drinks on the way out for the trip home. Larisa and I have felt spoiled drinking those while Lydia begs for them from the back seat. She's a big fan of them as well.

Food and entertainment are never very far away at Google. One day I walked to another building at about 3pm to get some cables for my computer and happened upon an unfamiliar cafe. They had big bowls of guacamole, sour cream, salsa, and chips out as well as delicious mini tacos. I had to stop for a bite. Aside from that I have a massage chair, an exercise bike, and a mini-kitchen with fruit, drinks, and snacks about 30 feet form my desk. Interns also get one free hour-long massage from their in-house masseuses. Every floor of every building seems to have a pool table and a ping-pong table.

On Friday I attended my first weekly TGIF meeting. The two Google founders where there along with the CEO. It was fun. The founders were just in jeans and a T-shirt. They told us some things that are going on in the company, many of which will be announced in the near future, as soon as next week. I'm sure they wouldn't trust the entire company with information any more sensitive than that. After all, they don't give us interns very much access to information on the intranet. The meeting is very casual, even thought the whole company is involved. They even took live questions that were as silly as "can we remove the 'i' in 'iGoogle'?"

I sit at a 30" monitor that runs Ubuntu. Good thing I got a little used to that by installing it at home last summer. I also have a Windows laptop that I can dock at my desk, allowing me to simply push a button and switch between the two computers using the same monitor, mouse, and keyboard.

They are planning to have all of the presidential candidates come to visit Google. Several have already been here, including Clinton and McCain. I hope many others come while I'm here this summer. Also, this Tuesday we will be visited by Ben of Ben and Jerry's, and the current mayor of New York will be coming soon as well.

The amenities available at Google seems endless. I've already mentioned the food, but they also have doctors, dentist, optometrists, masseuses, laundry machines (free), dry cleaning, oil changes, bike repair, as well as an exercise pool, volleyball court, and a field for sports. Oh, and they will reimburse your home internet connection cost, and they provide free shuttles to places like San Fransisco with internet connectivity.