But back to the beginning...
I arrived mid-afternoon on Monday. I got something to eat, then grabbed my camera and went for a walk. I discovered Millennium Park where there’s this unusual wading pool/fountain thing that kids play in. I took a bunch of pictures.
Then I continued walking and found another park where “A Taste of Chicago” was going on – a street festival that’s all food. I walked, took pictures, didn’t eat, though, since I’d just eaten. Sigh.
I got back to my hotel (Club Quarters is more like dorm rooms, kinda), then went to see WALL-E by myself. I had a small adventure finding the movie theater. This is downtown Chicago, which is like downtown New York – skyscrapers, lots of noisy traffic, lots of people, many tourists. It turns out the that movie theater is in an urban mall, on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors. I didn’t see any signs outside, so ended up walking around the block before I found it.
Tuesday I had a yummy breakfast in the restaurant attached to the hotel, then wandered over to the office, which is about six blocks away (long blocks %^}). I met the other fellows I was going through orientation with, and our trainer (Tory). We stopped for lunch, which was about 12 kinds of pizza which we ate with many of the Chicago office staff.
They have an orientation tradition. Each new employee stands up and tells something about themselves, including an embarrassing story. I told two stories, one of which was about giving a talk to a job club and taking off my shirt to show my tattoos. Yes, I took off my shirt again. The HR lady gagged, everyone else laughed. It was memorable. One of the other guys told about taking a hip-hop dance class, and participating in a recital. We were treated to a YouTube video of him! It was hysterical!
Last night my new friend Chris Kozak (27, from Detroit, going to Pune with me) and I came back to the hotel, dropped off our stuff, and then went to the “Taste of Chicago” and ate some stuff and wandered around for a LONG time. I took a lot of pictures again. %^}
Today Chris and I met for breakfast, went to the office, had more orientation, lunch in the conference room where we were orienting, and then I started getting in touch with folks about the other trips I’m planning (Toronto and Calgary in August, San Francisco in October, LA in November) and trying to figure out what I’ll be doing. It’s quite an adventure.
This evening Chris and I had Chicago deep dish pizza in the restaurant here – one of the best in town, I’m told. Chris’s friend Justin and Justin’s wife Tracy came to meet us, then the three of them went off to see Hancock. As much as I want to see it, I wanted to pack and relax and do email and stuff.
ThoughtWorks has some cool benefits – they’ll pay for part of our home Internet, part of my cell phone bill, something towards my gym membership (or massages or anything else that contributes to my health and wellbeing), and a bunch of other stuff.
I continue to be impressed with the people and excited with the opportunity.
Tomorrow we go to the office to hang around and talk with people, and leave from there at 2:30 to go to the airport. Our flight to Mumbai leaves at 6:30. We arrive just before midnight on Friday (somehow I had been thinking it was Saturday, although Friday is bad enough), then have a 3 – 4 hour drive to Pune.
We’ll be staying in apartment suites with people coming in from Australia, China, the UK, and other parts of India, and will be in training M-F both weeks. On the weekend, they will plan one trip for us and leave us to our own devices the other day. I have a good friend from pcOrder who lives in Pune, and he’s invited me to his home for dinner.
Chicago pictures here.
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