Sometimes I have to remind myself of where I am. That probably doesn’t make a lot of sense but being 5 weeks into my internship makes it difficult to keep up with time, let alone the reality of being 5 hours drive from the Pacific Ocean. I am so specific about the time to drive to there because a week ago today I was heading to Seattle at 4:15am, and what a journey it was too. I’m trying to think where I went before my last blog, other than Seattle, of course. The answer is nowhere to shout about, but to anybody reading back home you’re probably thinking “lucky bugger, you’re in the States ain’t ya?” and I wouldn’t hesitate to say you have a point, to be quite honest.
I’ve learnt a few lessons since I’ve been working for PAML already. I’m not going to be specific about what, but personally I am gaining a lot not just in terms of the work I’m doing but working with people and the good management of people’s ability and progress. Seeing how the business world deals with that has opened my eyes, and I don’t think I have the weaknesses I originally convinced myself I thought I had. I am pleased with that. I am working with some great people and it’s a privilege to be alongside such talented individuals.
Anyway, the journey to Seattle started with ‘drive thru’ Starbucks- one of which is 24/7 in Spokane. On the way the first hour is pretty boring, open farmland. Then you make it up into the hills and mountains and pass by the Columbia river, which is huge (see photo). As you go through the mountains and get within an hour of Seattle you can see by the next photo from the car window shows the clouds coming down very low. There’s a ski resort around that area and rain happens often. Sometimes roads close because of small avalanches too.
First, we visited the city of Bellevue, it’s about 20-30 minutes drive from Seattle and has a site called PACLAB - a PAML joint venture. I got a tour of the place while my supervisor (Chief Information officer of PAML) attended a conference (Oh sorry, I didn’t mention that he was driving by the way). Once out we ventured into Bellevue city, which I might add is a very decent place to consider visiting. We soon headed for Seattle and reached there by lunchtime.
The space needle, Pacific Science Centre, Public Market and IMAX theatre were the main places I visited. The view from needle was great, and downtown has a fantastic atmosphere. There was live music going on everywhere around the city. The place really was alive. We got five hours to check it all out, and then the journey back was a long one and being out for 20 hours meant most of Saturday was spent in bed or on the sofa doing nothing.
But to the point, Seattle is a really great city.
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