Reflection #7

It’s still surreal that I’ve been living in Seattle since this summer. I’m not saying that I don’t want to be here, but not until I walked out the airport gate then I realized that this was real.

Everything in Illinois seems to be so far away. I can barely recall how my room looks like. I can barely remember what I do and what I eat back in Champaign. It feels like I’m having a new life. This happens each time I moved to other places.

I enjoy my work here. All of my team members are nice, especially my mentor and manager, who are really supportive, and I’ve learned a lot from them. During the internship, I need to build the project from scratch. I’ve went through the design process and currently I’m on the implementing side, but there’s still some design improvements I need to work on.

The dining halls are amazing! At first I was a little dissapointed when I learned that we have to pay for our lunch, but the variety of choices covered the down side. You can get burgers, sandwiches, fried rice, spaghetti, almost any type of food, even boba! One of the best thing in workday is to try new dishes with new people every day. The chicken sandwich and fish sandwich are soooo good.

There are lots of intern events for us to attend. I’ve been to the speed networking event, maching learning talk event, lunch and learn event (free food!), and there are even more in the future. Although social events drain my energy and I need time to recharge after that, I enjoy meeting and talking with people.

There’s also some interesting stuff to do out of work. I didn’t know that I will go hiking every weekend. Seattle has accessable mountains and seas, just hop on a friend’s car (lol) and an hour drive, you’ll be at beaches and hiking trails! This makes me remind of Taipei, where mountains and seas are also accessable, except that Seattle has snow mountains here.

I didn’t know that so many friends of mine are also in Seattle. I’ve met friends from UIUC, from my undergrad, from my high school, and of course friends of friends. It’s been a huge transition that as I grew up, I’ve found myself more interested in connecting with people. I think it’s because I want to hear more stories and perspectives from other people to gain insights and help me plan my future.

Also it’s interesting that I started writing regularly. Although I’ve been writing something since college, I think the reason I write is different now. I write for the moments when I look back at what I’ve written previously, and see how much I’ve grown.

To sum up, it has been a great start to the summer. I’m really grateful to be here.