The Google People/Happenings

First up on my list are the people who are at CSSI with me, because that’s how I roll. (There is no ranking system, I'm just listing people as I met them.)

Beth:

I met Beth on the way down here, and that’s a story right there. When I got to DFW Ashley texted me (We had traded numbers on the Facebook page since we were on the same flight) and she mentioned something about a Beth. For the life of me I couldn’t remember anyone named Beth who was a part of the group. Turns out that her name is actually Sarah, but since there are 3 variations of Sara at CSSI she adopted her middle name to lessen the confusion. Well, to continue the story we got magically placed next to each other on the plane. Thanks to our sitting next to each other, we instantly started talking. Before long, we whipped out Where the Wild Things Are and watched it on my laptop. Magically, from that point on, Beth and I became friends. She’s really sarcastic, and actually a really funny person.

Emily:

So, Emily was also on my flight from Dallas to San Jose, except she ended up sitting at the back of the plane, so I didn’t really get to know her at first. However, she and Sarah Edris did in fact wave me down, because I didn’t want to initiate the conversation and have them not be the right people. I wouldn’t have been able to tell you at the time (mainly because I was still semi-nervous about meeting people), but Emily is really awesome. She really likes Scrabble, and so I’ve recently started playing against her in Scrabble via Facebook. Also, she is partially responsible for getting me addicted to Bananagrams. =D Check her blog out at:

http://estumme.blogspot.com

Kasra:

Kasra is one of my roommates, and the first person beside Beth that I actually talked to. Right away I could tell that he was going to be an awesome suitemate. He’s a real funny and laid back guy. He is all sorts of crazy, but definitely a must for a friend. He’s a really nice guy as well, and every time I hang out with him I laugh a ton! There's so much more to say about Kasra, so I'll just let you find out for yourself. His blog is:

http://www.kasrarahjerdi.com

Brittany:

Aside from my roommate, Brittany was the first person who made an impression on me here at CSSI. She was at the table I sat at for the Pizza introduction. She led the talks, and with her outgoing personality she had us all talking and getting to know each other in no time. She continues to be the most outspoken person here, which only makes this whole trip more interesting.

There are a lot more people but, I feel like this is already information overload (ok, I did just think of Katy Perry's song...) and so I'll switch gears to some fun-going ons. However, I will mention Kofi (my other roommate), Ashley, Enrique, Kyle (Harvard), Christian (Aquaman), and Lynn (I will tell you more about them, and even make some more honorable mentions in later posts. =D)

I'm not sure exactly what all to shove into this right now. Most of the going ons are “had to be there” type things. So, just bear with me. On the first Monday we had an ice cream social where we got to meet our “mentors.” We then had a contest to see which group could build the biggest tower out of paper. My group pulled through, and won in the end. However, the first day we were here, when we had the pizza “get to know people” party, I was completely incapable of figuring out that I had Bart Simpson on my back. Just because I couldn't guess that doesn't mean I've never seen the show, but yea. That Tuesday we mingled with the entering 9^th graders who were at some Google thing also. We had to come up with a kitchen product. Our group settled on a “Spatulair.” A spatula that shot air out of it to help with things that stuck to the pan, and to perfectly flip pancakes. That was all Scouch's idea. I promise.

Wednesday we got to hear from Jeremy about street view, as well as Tara about diversity. We got assigned a group project to make posters promoting diversity. I was in a group with Michelle and Valeria. We made an awesome poster, and had a lot of fun in the process. On Friday Damian came to speak to us. He was presenting on presenting, but he was great. One of the best speakers so far. Friday we presented our posters in true elevator pitch style, and then returned to our classroom for the discussion panel with Guy, Tom, Lantha, Sebastian, Brian, and Andrew. That was cool, and I even snuck a few pictures of Tom since he works for EA, and helped with Dante's Inferno. After that we did a True Colors exercise. Ever since then I've been told “William you're such a blue.” a ton. =D

Santana Row was pretty fun. I bought me a jacket, a shirt, and a hat, which was really nice. Other than that we just hung out, and had fun. Saturday we went to Great America, which wasn't bad, but it wasn't Universal, or even Six Flags. It was nice to get to hang out with some of the people I hadn't spent a lot of time with. On Sunday I went to mass at 10:30 with Enrique, and then went to eat with Jessica, Shubba, and Victoria. When I got back to the dorms I changed and went swimming with Christian, Beth, Ashley, Valeria, and Izzy. Christian, Beth, Ashley, Kasra, and I then did our laundry, and worked on our Hangamn homework. We had a nice break, when Carolyn showed up with the pizza, and that was also the first time I'd actually hung out with Lynn and Emily. It's sad that it took me a week to really talk to them. We then stayed up for a while a finished all our hangman programs before staying up really late making amd incalculable number of jokes.

Monday we heard about Google adwords, and I think that's the day Dan came to talk to us. He was hilarious and taught us Anagrable. He also played in Band, and got banned from some colleges, and Delta. Tuesday we had our Geek trivia game. My team, Suave Smooth (pronounced Suave-ay), didn't win, but we had a blast answering all the nerd trivia. Today was just a lot of class because our speaker couldn't make it. Jessica did talk about resumes though.

Well you're caught up, and probably bored to death. Hopefully, since this bad boy has officially been started I'll be able to include more fun stuffs in here since they'll be fresh.

A few inside things before I go:

“I just want to ride bikes with you.” or “I just want to bike rides with you.” - Kasra

“Guys, I think the building next to us is on fire. This one room was flashing, and I thought it was a rave, but 

then the whole building starting flashing.” - Harvard (Kyle)

“Remember that time in Chinar?” Lori and Linda (adopted by anyone making fun of them)

Oh, and today Charles referenced Ariadne while describing how a program works. =D