Adventures in Refrigeration

Just after Thanksgiving, our refrigerator stopped working. The freezer had never worked all that well, but after noticing a stench that wouldn't go away, we discovered that the entire thing had broken. While we waited for them to fix it, we started storing our food on the back porch and inside our grill (see photos). It was an amusing experience to go out on the back porch in my pjs, open the grill, and take out my yogurt, but inconvenient none-the-less, considering the sub-zero temperatures.

Finally, we got a mini-fridge, but since we were leaving for Christmas break soon, we ended up just eating out a lot. Over break, our landlord said it had been fixed. We started to use it again only to discover that it had reverted to its old ways. At long last, a day later, we received a brand spanking new fridge. And we all lived happily ever after with our cold food!

Finals Week!

The last few weeks of the term were pretty crazy. My finals week basically consisted of me getting up in the morning, working every minute all day, and going to bed late at night. I had several papers and presentations to do, and for some reason volunteered to be the final editor of the paper for most of them. (Never again!) I eventually got through it day by day, then took the weekend to relax a bit before coming home for break. I was originally going to drive home, but the swath of geography I had to drive through suffered a snow storm that weekend, so I ended up flying home instead. I was so glad to be done!

The Fist of Winter Hits - Hard!

These photos and videos are from before my Christmas break, but the theme applies even more now. We had a huge snowstorm just after New Years, and then in the past week or so, we have gone into a deep freeze, along with much of the country. We got even more snow yesterday and today, which makes for fun walking to school at 8:30 am. :-)



This is me in front of my house.

John on the street in front of my place.







My car, buried in snow.

First Snow of the Year

I took a little video of the first snow of the year. This was back right after Thanksgiving out my bedroom window, looking into our backyard.

Thanksgiving

Going home for Thanksgiving was great, as usual, but also too short, as usual! I spent some time at home and in Sperryville, and took a few photos in Little Washington and at my aunt and uncle's house. The camera didn't quite capture the beautiful colors well enough, so I tried to compensate using Picasa.

The Most Miserable Game of the Year

Nearing the end of November (I believe it was Nov 17), Michigan hosted the biggest game of the year - Ohio State! I was really looking forward to the game, and most of all, feeling the over 100 years of traditional rivalry right here in Ann Arbor. Unfortunately, it was the first weekend where the weather turned bad, so it was rainy and cold the whole time. On top of that, neither team played very well. But it was a good experience, none-the-less and I'm glad I went and stayed for the whole game, unlike some of my compatriots. John's parents came into town to visit and go to the game, so it was nice to see them as well.

One of the many house tailgates on the way to the game.

ESPN's College GameDay was there for the first time in years. This was the back of the stands they had set up for the audience. Unfortunately by the time we got there, it was full.

Some of the news trucks that were outside the stadium.

You can see a reporter doing a newscast up on the raised platform on the left.

After attempting to get into College GameDay, we walked down to the pre-game marching band show.

Me at the pre-game marching band show in my layers of maize and blue. (I had on 4 layers, alternating maize and blue.) :-)


Some of the hoards of people walking behind the band, up to the stadium.
We saw these characters just inside the stadium. We didn't know who they were until later that day, when we saw a Snickers commercial. They are the actors from that campaign.

John's parents got me a ticket with theirs in the regular seats. This photo looks over at the student section, where I normally sit.This is looking to my other side, at the OSU fans. There was way too much red there for my taste. :-)

Bet you didn't know I got a Michigan tattoo on my face! Just kidding - it's temporary. :-)

Me in a poncho after the rain started getting too much to handle.

After the game, we had a little Thanksgiving potluck with John's friends. He deep-fried the turkey, which turned out so moist!

Great Googley-Moogley!

On November 13, I flew to Mountain View, CA to do second round interviews with Google. It was quite the experience, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to view the mythical Googleplex. I flew to SFO on Tuesday night and met up with a few other candidates (two from Michigan and one from Wharton) on the shuttle to the hotel. We had fun chatting about the positions we were interviewing for and our respective schools. We stayed at the Sheraton Palo Alto, right across from Stanford. It was a really nice hotel and they had goodie bags for us when we checked in. Nothing too exciting, but we got a pack of gum, a Google-branded ditty bag, and a book on management and strategy.

The next morning, I woke up bright and early to eat breakfast where I met some more MBAs from all over the country. People were interviewing for many types of positions, the largest of which was Finance. The position I was interviewing for was Online Sales and Ad Manager and that group contained 6 people, 3 of whom were from Michigan.

We all loaded onto the Google shuttle to go to the campus. These shuttles were awesome! And better yet, they are one of the MANY benefits Google provides to its employees. The shuttles had cushy leather seats with headrests and were entirely Wi-Fi! Google provides free shuttle pickup to all employees anywhere in the Bay area! The Google campus stretched for a few miles and we were dropped off at the OSO building for our interviews.

First, we had the opportunity to get free drinks and snacks from one of their "microkitchens". Another benefit Google provides is free food and drinks to all employees all day! We then got an overview of the OSO department and then went into our interviews. We had three back-to-back interviews, and mine were with three members of their internal analysis/strategy team. I thought I did alright, but not great. The rest of the day was filled with lunch, an HR presentation, and then a tour of the main campus (the original buildings). The tour was really what I had been looking forward to all day.

Some highlights: seeing people ride around on the free bikes and scooters provided (even inside!). Seeing the beautiful landscaping on a beautiful day, which included seeing people walking their dogs (you can bring them to work) and visiting their children (there is a daycare on campus). Seeing pink flamingos next to a statue of a T-Rex. Okay, that one needs a little explaining. The Googleplex is where Silicon Graphics used to be, the company who did Jurassic Park (hence, the T-Rex). Apparently, some Google employees took it upon themselves to arrange pink flamingos in various patterns around the T-Rex (for example, putting them in a group around the front of the T-Rex like they were going to attack him).

Seeing and almost shaking hands with Barack Obama! Google brings many interesting speakers to campus, and Obama was there the day we were to give a speech. He happened to be arriving as we were getting toured around, and he stopped to shake hands with another group of MBAs. We were approaching to do the same, but just as we got there, he had to leave. Oh well!

As soon as we got back to the hotel, I had to hop on a shuttle back to the airport. Luckily, we got to drive down a portion of the palm-lined drive to Stanford on the way out. It was a quick trip, but definitely worth it. It was an experience that I am so glad to have had and I will never forget!

I Have Survived!

I just wanted to post a quick note saying that I actually survived these past two weeks, taking it day by day! Thanks for all your words of support and encouragement. I have had two dings (rejects) so far on the interview front, with one that I'm still waiting to hear from. Hopefully things will get better and I'll get a job at some point! Anyway, not much time to write -- I just got back from the wedding this weekend in Green Bay and will be flying home tomorrow for my Fall Break. I hope to see as many of you as I can while I'm home, but if not, I'll be back for Thanksgiving too! Time for bed!

Apple Picking

Last Sunday morning, John and I went to pick apples at a nearby orchard. They also bake their own fresh donuts and have hot cider. It was delicious! The donut choices are apple (plain or sugared), pumpkin (plain or glazed), plain (plain, sugared, or chocolate glazed), or blueberry (with maple or vanilla frosting). My favorite were the blueberry with maple frosting - it was just like eating a blueberry pancake with syrup, which is my favorite breakfast item. The hot cider was just perfect as well.

The orchards seemed to stretch on for miles, and they had several varieties of apples. They also had raspberries, pumpkins, and gourds to pick. We had asked which were the best apples for making a pie because that is something we had planned to do. We were directed immediately to the Prime Gold apples. They were by far my favorite that we tasted from the trees. We picked a bunch of those and then sampled one each of the many red varieties. We picked some Rome apples and then picked up a few small pumpkins for table decoration at our respective houses. It was the perfect Fall activity and the weather was perfect.

Me among the apple trees. We were regular Johnny Appleseeds. :-)

One of the best parts of apple picking was sampling the apples from the trees.

Here we are in the pumpkin patch (or I should say one of the pumpkin patches since there were 2). There were some families there with little kids, which reminded me of going to pick pumpkins with my parents when I was little. I can't wait to have kids and take them to the pumpkin patch.

This gourd was actually shaped like an apple!