So this is it. I'm sitting in my office for the first time - at Microsoft Corporation! After the full morning of a shortened NEO (yes, the first and definitely not last abreviation which stands for New Employee Orientation) we tried to get our badges. They didn't have mine ready and neither I didn't receive my login, yet. After a lunch out of a box I'm rode with my bicycle (a detailed post on that follows) over to building 116 where I'll be working at the CAT team (Customer Assist Technology). I got a good introduction of the overall setting and specifically what our team does. And then at four o'clock we changed rooms to the first dev (developer) meeting.

One thing is to notice: The free drinks can be dangerous here. There is a huge selection of every imaginable soda. I stick to Caffeine Free Diet Coke which is basically nothing than taste (The only contents listed on the nutrition facts table is Sodium with 40mg/can which is I think pretty ok).

I shot some pictures of today which will follow later here.

The flight over Amsterdam was quite hassle-free but rather long. After a taxi ride of about 40 minutes I arrived at the key pickup location. They key wasn't ready yet, so I sat down in the lounge and they had a free wireless hot spot and free coffee ready! After checking the emails I didn't need a phone and organised the everything over email. 20 minutes later a car was here and drove me to my apartment. The location changed again and about that I was a bit disappointed - I guess the jet lag fostered that, too.

The apartment is about 5km up on the same road as my office will be - on the 148 Ave. NE.

Here's the updated collection with the location: http://local.live.com/?v=2&cid=A7BB3C21FCDE202C!166

As you can see I my apartment is situated in a apartment complex. The house consists of only 6 apartments and I live on the second floor, facing both the apartment complex side and with the balcony directly the thick forest behind! The complex has its own pool, fitness center and large, open to use for everyone who lives here!

The apartment itself is a huge one bedroom apartment which we would call in Switzerland a 3.5 rooms flat. It has lots of walk-in closets which I like, a bedroom with a large walk-in closet and a king-size bed, a bathroom with a tub, a living room with fireplace and television, a kitchen with attached washer and dryer room, a dining room with a large dining table and a balcony with a special outside room to store the bbq grill! I will post photos as soon as the light is good - it's a quarter to eight in the morning.

So today, I will start exploring the surroundings and buy a bicycle as fast as possible - the dimensions here are really different ...

I'll be updating a list of interesting locations which I manage in a Windows Live Local collection.

So here's volume one, with the basics:

 

http://local.live.com/?v=2&cid=A7BB3C21FCDE202C!118

 

This is the final flight information:

 

  04 AUG 06 - FRIDAY  
  NORTHWST AIR 8826 COACH CLASS   FOKKER JET                     
  LV: ZURICH             925A     NONSTOP       MILES-  375   CONFIRMED
  AR: AMSTERDAM         1110A     JOURNEY TIME- 1:45               
  OPERATED BY-KLM CITYHOPPER/KLM                    
  SEATING RESTRICTED TO AIRPORT CHECK-IN ONLY.                         

 

  NORTHWST AIR   33 COACH CLASS   332                            
  LV: AMSTERDAM          105P     NONSTOP       MILES- 4886   CONFIRMED
  AR: SEATTLE            215P     JOURNEY TIME-10:10               
  DINNER-SNACK                    SEAT-18B                       

 

  29 OCT 06 - SUNDAY  
  NORTHWST AIR   34 COACH CLASS   332                            
  LV: SEATTLE           1255P     NONSTOP       MILES- 4886   CONFIRMED
  AR: AMSTERDAM          740A     JOURNEY TIME- 9:45 ARVL DATE30 OCT
  DINNER-SNACK                    SEAT-15B                       

 

  30 OCT 06 - MONDAY  
  NORTHWST AIR 8459 COACH CLASS   BOEING 737 JET                 
  LV: AMSTERDAM         1000A     NONSTOP       MILES-  375   CONFIRMED
  AR: ZURICH            1135A     JOURNEY TIME- 1:35               
  OPERATED BY-KLM ROYAL DUTCH AI                    
  CONT. BREAKFAST                                                
  SEATING RESTRICTED TO AIRPORT CHECK-IN ONLY. 

In 4 hours I’ll be leaving home for 12 weeks of the Microsoft internship adventure in Redmond, WA. I’ll be working on the live initiative as a software design engineer.

This will be the place where I publish news about both my internship and life beside that! After I wrote the nycintern.com blog about my internship at Swiss Re in New York on its own domain, a Windows Live Space is THE place for this experience blog.

I tried to use the blog function in Word 2007 Beta 2, but there is an error with MSN Spaces - maybe because of the change from spaces.msn.com to spaces.live.com?

Have fun!