We started off the day in San Francisco at 8am by sightseeing at the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked the length of the Bridge at the suggestion of Dr. Jim Jansen.
the coincidental Diversity in our team is surprising
Here we go... across the Golden Gate Bridge
Our next stop was the office of Twitter, which we were all extremely excited about. Dr. Jansen hooked us up with this visit through his connections with Summize (recently acquired by Twitter). We briefly met with the two co-founders of Twitter and had an opportunity to chat with the Chief Scientist of Twitter Abdur Chowdhury. Being able to walk through the physical presence of this legendary web 2.0 beast was an amazing experience.
Dr. Jansen ringing the doorbell to Twitter's office
Conference/dining table at Twitter
At Twitter with Chief Scientist Abner Chowdhury
awesome pearl colored Mercedes we saw parked across the street of Twitter's office
Our impressions of the Twitter office: Surprisingly quiet with a sense of tension in the air. It wasn’t as laid back as we expected for a web 2.0 company. It may have been the fault of a Monday morning visit. The furnishing was fairly spartan, especially the rows of huge plywood desks, and the main lobby area looked like a snapshot out of an IKEA catalog.
Next, we checked out the San Francisco Port area and walked along the bay. It was awesome seeing palm trees which are non-existent in Pennsylvania. The weather was amazing. The morning fog finally cleared up and the California sun brightly colored the sidewalks and skyscrapers around us. At this point I became deeply convinced that I need to move out to the west coast soon.
How can I possibly go back to State College after seeing beautiful sunny lifestyle like this?
After lunch, we stopped by the office of Weebly, the web 2.0 startup founded by Penn State students (two of them who are from the College of IST). Their operation was much different than Twitter. Very relaxed atmosphere with a cozy size. It seemed like a friendly workplace with a lot of energy. That’s the best way I can describe it. I was so caught up with our discussions with Chris Fanini, Dan Veltri and David Rusenko that I forgot to take pictures. :/
After a stroll and dinner around Chinatown (which is much better than the New York Chinatown), a chauffeured van picked up and relocated us to a the Domain Hotel in San Jose. It’s such a cool hotel because the theme is the modern and tech aspect of Silicon Valley. All the interior design is clean and refreshing. All our rooms have varying themes: relaxing with lush green colors and number beds or exhilarating with electrifying blue colors.
cool quote on the wall in our hotel room
Tomorrow is the Googleplex visit. The shuttle picks us up at 7:50am tomorrow so it’s an early start.
The Conversation {3 comments}
Who is that good looking guy ringing that doorbell!
This has got to be an exciting trip for your team. Congratulations on a job well done, and by all means, please keep up with the posts! Dr. Jansen’s a good guy, and I bet he won’t make you walk EVERYWHERE….
You guys are having fun in cali and I’m still stranded with my trip! I’m in Tampa now. Looks like everything is going great. Best of luck.
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