I have the time to update! This will be the first time I get two updates in one Month; this is a major mile marker for me. We'll see if I can keep it up. The last two weeks haven't been super eventful.
Work
I finally got to do some real work on a client project. After a week and a half of training I was able to finally see what people in a big 4 firm do. The fact that they are willing to train us is nice, and it has given us all a good foundation for understanding the firm we are working at, but it's nice to be doing; instead of just sitting and listening. The project I was on didn't have the ordinary kind of work for us so I still don't have a solid idea of what a 'typical' engagement is like, but this coming week I'm on a new client that we do more traditional work for and I should get the feel.
After one week of being on a client, we (the interns) were off to more training in San Francisco, but it was a gathering of all the professionals in the specific division we are interning with, so it was much larger in scale but more focused as far as the scope of the subjects being trained. Again, we had our special intern training, but lots of time to meet and network within the practice. My impressions and feelings so far are still in the middle. I think it would be a great place to get some great experience, but there are still some things I have reservations about. One being 4 weeks in and I've only had one week of actual work, with the rest being training and such. It's hard to form a solid opinion without the experiences. Hopefully the next two weeks will be more typical of the everyday life.
Life
Sharon and her family are all in Iowa this week for a family reunion. I'm sad I didn't get to go out with them. It's been a long week being away from her and I can't wait for her to get back to Seattle next weekend. Before she left we went on our mega date of the summer. It was really fun. We went to the Seattle temple in the early afternoon and then headed into town. We ate downtown at the cheesecake factory then took a stroll through the Pike's Place Market as things were closing up. The main event was the 'Cirque de la Symphonie' put on by the Seattle symphony for their 'summer festival' with the guest performers being jugglers, contortionist, strong men, aerial specialist, and a 'cube specialist'. It was really fun and cool. We could hardly believe our eyes when one man did a one-handed hand stand while another man did another one-handed hand stand on his neck. Here is their website. Go to their gallery and you can see the 'strong men' doing handstands on each other. I couldn't copy the pictures, so you'll have to do some digging yourselves. If they are ever in your area it is definitely worth seeing.
So, I still love Seattle. I can't speak for Sharon, but whenever we talk about it we agree we like this area. Coming home from the long week in San Francisco I felt good returning here and while reflecting on it, I found myself thinking it is a place I would love to 'come home' to and in a sense it already feels that way. With that said we are gearing up to move to Pittsburgh for the next year and a half. Hopefully we fall into place as easily as we did here. We wish you all the best. Cheers.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Washington Days
Well, this update comes from the beautiful city of Duvall 30 miles east of Seattle. We’ve now been here for about three weeks and we love it! We were able to get here on a Sunday evening leaving two days for us to settle in before we got to business. We took a day to get familiar with the area we are staying and a day to go into Seattle and get acquainted with the city.
The Durant Family
We are staying with Sharon’s sister, her husband, and their five boys. I will refer to them as the Durant Family. We were in Chile with them at the time I was offered the internship and they kindly offered to let us stay at their home for the 2 months of the internship. We have enjoyed staying with them and appreciate their generosity. Mr. Durant works at Microsoft which has lead to some good insight and conversation as well as many opportunities to meet and network with other people who work there. I was actually lucky enough to get a whole tour of the Microsoft campus and shadow him for a day. It was really exciting and fun.
Seattle
We figured the bus system out. There is one bus that runs in the mornings and evenings that starts a couple minutes from the Durant home and goes right down town about a block from work. The only possible ‘con’ to the situation is that it takes anywhere between an hour to an hour and a half to get there. If I drove I could probably cut that time in half, but then I would have to deal with some insane traffic at the times I would be commuting, paying parking fees around $35.00/day, not to mention gas. It is pro for me because I am able to finally get some reading in. We stopped by the ‘famous’ Seattle library. It is an amazing glass building right down town. It is actually where I get on and off the bus so I signed up for a visitor pass and can check books in and out and read them on my commute.
Some other fun things we did were, bought a bus pass and some tickets to get into town at the transit center and then walked up to the Space needle just to check it out. We didn’t go up it, or into the EMP (Experience Music Project), but we now know where they are. On our way there we stopped by the Symphony hall and were lucky to catch the noon tour that took us into the hall while they were practicing and we got to hear them play for about ten minutes. Unfortunately they were practicing for their final show that weekend. They do have some cool jazz things lined up for the summer, I don’t know if we’ll make it into any of them.
We also explored where Sharon will be working. She isn’t that far from where I work, she is just down closer to the docks. We were happy to meet the people at the organization she will be working with and get a better idea of what she will be helping with. It sounds like she will be helping them organize grant information an important part of any NGO.
Basically we love Seattle.
4th of July
The 4th of July was fun. I didn’t have to go into to work so we loaded up the car and went with the Durant Family out to Ephrata to spend the day with Mr. Durant’s roommate from college and his family. He runs a big bee business. We got to go out to the bee hives and see how the whole operation is run. It is a fun and interesting business. They recently learned that their honey is what is being used in the new Haagen-Dazs honey flavored ice-cream. It’s a little on the pricey side, but I highly recommend it for anyone interested. It was a good excursion because we got to see the central/east part of Washington and meet some of the good people that live there, they were every bit as nice and accommodating as those we’ve meet in Seattle.
Check back soon because I will be adding pictures
The Durant Family
We are staying with Sharon’s sister, her husband, and their five boys. I will refer to them as the Durant Family. We were in Chile with them at the time I was offered the internship and they kindly offered to let us stay at their home for the 2 months of the internship. We have enjoyed staying with them and appreciate their generosity. Mr. Durant works at Microsoft which has lead to some good insight and conversation as well as many opportunities to meet and network with other people who work there. I was actually lucky enough to get a whole tour of the Microsoft campus and shadow him for a day. It was really exciting and fun.
Seattle
We figured the bus system out. There is one bus that runs in the mornings and evenings that starts a couple minutes from the Durant home and goes right down town about a block from work. The only possible ‘con’ to the situation is that it takes anywhere between an hour to an hour and a half to get there. If I drove I could probably cut that time in half, but then I would have to deal with some insane traffic at the times I would be commuting, paying parking fees around $35.00/day, not to mention gas. It is pro for me because I am able to finally get some reading in. We stopped by the ‘famous’ Seattle library. It is an amazing glass building right down town. It is actually where I get on and off the bus so I signed up for a visitor pass and can check books in and out and read them on my commute.
Some other fun things we did were, bought a bus pass and some tickets to get into town at the transit center and then walked up to the Space needle just to check it out. We didn’t go up it, or into the EMP (Experience Music Project), but we now know where they are. On our way there we stopped by the Symphony hall and were lucky to catch the noon tour that took us into the hall while they were practicing and we got to hear them play for about ten minutes. Unfortunately they were practicing for their final show that weekend. They do have some cool jazz things lined up for the summer, I don’t know if we’ll make it into any of them.
We also explored where Sharon will be working. She isn’t that far from where I work, she is just down closer to the docks. We were happy to meet the people at the organization she will be working with and get a better idea of what she will be helping with. It sounds like she will be helping them organize grant information an important part of any NGO.
Basically we love Seattle.
4th of July
The 4th of July was fun. I didn’t have to go into to work so we loaded up the car and went with the Durant Family out to Ephrata to spend the day with Mr. Durant’s roommate from college and his family. He runs a big bee business. We got to go out to the bee hives and see how the whole operation is run. It is a fun and interesting business. They recently learned that their honey is what is being used in the new Haagen-Dazs honey flavored ice-cream. It’s a little on the pricey side, but I highly recommend it for anyone interested. It was a good excursion because we got to see the central/east part of Washington and meet some of the good people that live there, they were every bit as nice and accommodating as those we’ve meet in Seattle.
Check back soon because I will be adding pictures
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