Times Square Wave

Sorry, I meant to blog this last night so when you woke up this bright morning you could read it. Things got awesome, and then we were tired, since it was 2 AM so we just went to sleep. Shhh...

I left a few things out of the last post. Mainly the gifts I received for my birthday. Lynn made me strawberries, so I would always have some, and Emily got me an awesome Marvel shirt and a copy of Nintendo Power.

I think that's the biggest thing I left out of Monday's post.

Tuesday was a loooong day as well. I didn't want to get out of bed, because the beds at our hotel are super nice, but the allure of Google and everyone there pulled me out of my bed. The walk was fun and such, but the real fun took place at Google itself. We had breakfast, which was super great (Google food is always good). =D

We had a supppper duppper awesssome class on Tuesday! We got to listen to this guy from Poland teach us about HTML5. It was one of the coolest slideshows ever. If I get the chance I'll show you, I just don't want to post a link without knowing I have permission first. Haha, I learned something from last year. =D

We ran over, which most of us were ok with, and ran to lunch when he got done. It was fun, and I got to talk to Isa and Cat a lot more. I always like getting to talk to people about what they do, and what they like about it. They're really awesome people too, which is sweet! =D

Then we got split up into groups. I have a really great group, Shachaf, Faye, Anna, Namita, and Victoria. We did some icebreakers with our group, we were stuck on an island and everyone had to bring one thing that best represented them. I went with a superhero, because I was a nerd. Then we had to create a story that used all our items. Our story was as follows:

Our ship mysteriously crashed on this island that was inhabited by some cannibalistic natives. Anna was a kite-charmer, and Namita brought a kite, so Anna played her flute to control the kite. My superhero loved kites so he was following it, and he pulled the Pegasus which we were all on, and Faye sat on the back with her knife protecting us.

It was interesting, and I really like my group. We then had to start to brainstorming for our group project while they handed out Xooms. They only had 2/3 of them, so I haven't gotten mine yet, but it's alright. I'm interested to see what our final project becomes, because we didn't really have much to go on during our brainstorming session.

We then got to listen to Adam (Another Googler) talk to us about the interview process, and give us tips for resumes and how to go about the interviews. He was easy to listen to, and a lot of what he said made the process seem less daunting, but the idea of getting asked a question and having to write out an answer is still scary. They then took us out to do mock interviews in our groups, which gave us an idea of what it would feel like. The guy asked us 3 questions, which he had us answer like we were in an interview, and then just walked through how to optimize the problems we had. He was super awesome, and actually knew Isa back in Australia.

We came back, and there was a lot of pizza, and most everyone was already eating so we got some food and drinks and sat around and hung out while eating. They waited for a bit before telling us to get back with our groups because we were about to start the scavenger hunt. The lady in charge got up in front, and told us all to grab a lunchbox. Inside was a phone, a camera, an envelope and instructions. She walked us through the different types of missions, and then told us to start.

We had to run to Times Square, and on the way get someone to trust us. We ended up getting a picture on some guy's motorcycle. He was nice enough to trust us on there. Haha. We then made our way to Times Square pretty seamlessly, which was good. Haha. Once there we had to run around and do things, one of which included talking to this guy who was doing the cup game. It took us a bit to realize there was a ball under each cup, but once we got that we got it. We asked the guy if he was a Googler, and then got a picture with him before running off. My favorite thing we did was this one mission where we had to get as many people as possible doing a synchronized dance of some kind.

I saw all the people on the steps in Times Square and thought, "We should try to get them to all do the wave." Everyone decided that since I suggested it I should ask. 5 of our member went and sat in the crowd, and Shachaf had the camera ready.

*Slowly stand up on the back of the statue in front of the steps.*
"HEY EVERYONE!! WE'RE HERE WITH GOOGLE DOING A SCAVENGER HUNT!! WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO HELP US OUT BY DOING THE WAVE AND LETTING US RECORD IT??"
"YES!"
"THANK YOU! OK, WE'RE GOING TO START ON THE LEFT AND THEN GO TO THE RIGHT AND BACK!" *Turn to Shachaf* "Ready?"
"Ready!"
"ALRIGHT! LET'S START!" *Point to the left side, and slowly move to the right as people do the wave. Then go back to the left.* "OK, ONE MORE TIME!" *Motion from the left to the right one more time.*

It was crazy, and I'm pretty sure I'll never forget it. I'm not that outgoing, so yelling at a bunch of people is way out of the ordinary for me.

We had a ton of fun running around Times Square and taking pictures and videos, and I'm looking forward to heading back so I can spend more time at the Disney store and several other places. It's going to be so epic, and I'm probably going to spend way too much money there. =D

We ran into Lynn and Beth's group on our way back to Google, and went into the subway to come back. There was a mom getting mad at her daughter for coming back out of the station, so I offered to pay for her daughter since I got the card for free, but she just looked at me like I was stupid, so I apologized and walked off. Inside the station there were a ton of Harry Potter posters, and I tried to take as many pictures as possible.

We got back, and did some voting on the pictures/videos. It was fun, and there were great pictures/videos. I think everyone did a really awesome job. Lynn's team won first overall, and there was much rejoicing and picture taking and such, haha.

Seriously, there have been a ton of pictures, and I plan on getting my hands on as many as possible. Haha.We left after that to go back to the hotel because it was like... 10 or so. After we got back, Lynn, Emily, Tanay, and I went to CVS and then we came back to the hotel.

Emily started a hangout with Tasha, Ashley, and Enrique. It was probably the most exciting thing ever. We got 7 people on Emily's side of the hangout. We were loud, but Ashley and Tasha could barely hear us... Haha. We spent several hours talking, and it was around 1:45 when we stopped talking with everyone and called it a night.

Wednesday has been just as fun, and we went bowling and shopping in Times Square. I'll tell you more about it in a post that isn't already a mile long.

Love you guys, and...

Adios. =D