First Month in Santa Clara ☀️
As much as I hate the phrase, there is something satisfying about being on the other side of “Cali or bust”. I landed in SFO on May 7th, flying out of YYZ with little fanfare. Most of the flight was just me and a few Darknet Diaries episodes, which honestly felt nice to catch up on after exam season.
Ah yes, California 🌴
Santa Clara’s been good to me so far. The weather has been near perfect: clear skies, gentle sun, and an occasional cool breeze. It’s exactly the kind of environment you’d want after a long winter term.
But the traffic? Brutal. Getting anywhere during rush hour requires either patience or a podcast. Preferably both.
My first couple weeks were a little hectic. Getting all the J-1 related items (including getting an SSN) had some bumps, but everything was handled relatively quickly. While sorting out my long term housing, I stayed in a hotel and then an AirBnB.
NVIDIA — First Impressions 🖥️
The reason I’m in the Bay Area this summer is, unsurprisingly, because of my fifth co-op. I’m incredibly fortunate to be working on NVIDIA’s Autonomous Vehicles System Software Team.
A part of me is thrilled simply because I get to work out of their newest building, Voyager (which you can see in the video above 😏). Honestly, all of NVIDIA’s buildings are pretty nice, but I think Voyager is my favourite. I’ve also been really impressed with how smooth the onboarding process has been. And I’m not just talking about the swag and the free lunch, though those are definitely a plus. What stood out was how quickly any issues I ran into were handled. I never felt stuck or unsure about who to talk to. My coworkers have been great so far; very friendly and very humble.
A few things I want to call out:
- The cafe in Voyager has some genuinely great food. It’s relatively healthy and a lot cheaper than eating out.
- The auxiliary staff (cleaning, cooking, and so on) are very kind and friendly. I’ve noticed that places where the support staff are happy tend to be great places to work overall.
- No surprise here, but NVIDIA encourages everyone to use AI tools. There are a bunch of internal models available for coding help. I don’t have a smooth workflow setup yet, but knowing me, that’ll change soon.
Random Highlights ⭐
- I got my grades back from last term. My marks for every class was higher than expected. A surprise, but a welcome one nonetheless.
- I caved and finally bought the Meta Ray-Ban’s (V2). They are a lot nicer than I expected. I think the idea of this kind of smart glasses is really appealing to me (consider I’ve been dreaming of having something like this since I was 10 years old).
- I spent the Saturday and Monday of the Memorial Day weekend at Lake Tahoe with some friends. Definitely has some impressive views that just can’t be captured on camera well (or maybe it’s because I only had my iPhone and 50mm 💀).
Top Tracks of the Month 🎵
- Can’t Stop - Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Just Give Me a Reason (feat. Nate Ruess) - P!nk
- Cooler Than Me - Single Mix - Mike Posner
- Hotel California - 2013 Remaster - Eagles
- Don’t Stop Believin’ (2022 Remaster) - Journey
Some More Pictures 🖼️
