Oh my goodness, time most certainly does fly . . . My first week at National has gone by so fast.

On my first day my manager was away so I basically spent the day being shown around and meeting all of the other staff in the Worldwide Quality Network at National Semiconductor, of which I am now part. I felt like I should really be doing something productive but I was assured that eventually I would have plenty of work to do and to enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasted.

I have to admit, I was a little dubious about meeting my manager for the first time, we had spoken on the phone and she seemed nice enough but while I was being shown around and introduced to all of my co-workers, as I told each one who I was to be working for every single one, without exception, said something along the lines of “Oh, cool, good luck”. I'm sure it was simply them wishing me well but the fact that EVERY single person had said good luck when they found out who my manager was had me a little apprehensive about the next day when she would return.

My apprehension however was unfounded, my manager Donna seems really down to earth and easy to get on with. She has done quite a lot to make me feel at home and after finding out that myself and Kai, the other intern at NSC, had gone out and bought plates and cups etc. was dumbfounded and has offered to let us borrow anything else we may need for the duration of our stay which I thought was rather sweet.

I started on my main project straight away, essentially going through and streamlining the documentation of all of the National sites as well as a few smaller tasks on the side so my days have been quite busy. The atmosphere here at NSC seems really laid back, there are no real enforced working hours just as long as the work gets done which is really quite cool, the dress code, at least in my department, is also very relaxed. I got 'told off' for wearing a tie on my first day (It was my first day, I wanted to make a good impression!) and quite a few people just wear jeans, a t-shirt and trainers although I generally try to at least wear trousers, a shirt and shoes (Donna is convinced that this phase will wear off and that I'll be wearing 'shorts and flip flops in no time').

The canteen here is rather impressive too, they have such a large selection; there is a grill area and an 'exhibition' area where the chefs will cook your food right in front of you and serve it up freshly made, a carvery, pizza, a huge salad bar, fresh fruit . . . pretty much everything you could ever want.

Since we live quite far from work we have to get a bus to the train station then the Caltrain up to Lawrence every morning, the entire journey takes about an hour so it isn't too bad. We usually leave about ten minutes earlier than we have to so that we get the good bus driver. Each morning he chats away to his passengers over the intercom, regaling us with tales of wisdom, pointing out curious facts about the downtown area, talking about films that we 'should definitely watch' or even, on occasion, imparting medical advice, he really is very entertaining and has been the source of several somewhat epic quotes over the course of the week such as:

“Remember folks, every day is a movie . . . starring you”

“You guys should all take magnesium, it's good for your muscles . . . I told my dad about it but . . . you know . . . I'm just a bus driver” (after a passenger had complained that her ankles were stiff today, the driver explained that it happens to his dad too)

and best of all, after point out a statue of some lions, one of which has two heads for some reason:

“I call this place lion alley . . . that'd be a good name for a movie . . . starring you”.

During the week we are quite busy; by the time we get home we have a few hours to hit the gym/pool, grab something for dinner then it's time for bed, since we don't have a lot of time during the week we intend to make the most of our weekends . . .

On Friday we skipped our newfound fitness regime and headed to the biggest mall in the area straight after work, we didn't really do a lot of shopping but it was still quite cool to have a look around. After the mall we headed over to Santana Row . . .It turns out that an awful lot of very rich people come to Santana Row . . . The shops had security guards on the door, on just the one street I saw two Ferraris, a Lamborghini, A Maserati, an AMG Mercedes CLS and more Porsches than I could count, it was a very cool place.

The next day we took a trip to San Francisco, there was so much happening in the city. We took a walk along the bay, checked out the farmer's market; it had all of the regular farmer's market type produce, fresh fruit and veg etc, as well as some slightly more bohemian (SF is quite well known for being a very bohemian city) products such as home-made soda . . . I'm sure it tasted great but it definitely didn't look too appetising, I decided against buying a bottle.

From there we headed towards Pier 39, one of the main attractions of the city where you can also go on trips to see the legendary Alcatraz prison. Unfortunately for us all of the trips to see the island were fully booked for the day but we could still see the island from the pier and we can always book in advance and come back another time, I don't imagine that this will be the last time we will be in the city.

Street performers line the walkway all along the waterfront, some were genuinely entertaining and very impressive while others were downright odd. There were artists, musicians, dancers, mimes, clowns and pretty much anything else you could care to thing of. In one pedestrianised area there was a guy creating artworks in the street with several cans of spray paint and a wallpaper scraper, it sounds odd but it's the best description that I can come up with There was another guy who had what looked like a large hula hoop and was using it to do what I guess would be termed 'stunts' but it was with more of an artistic, dance type movement and a mime, completely sprayed silver dancing 'the robot' all of this was to the tune of three guys playing steel drums . . . it was quite something to behold.

While we were at the pier we stopped at a sports bad for a bite to eat, Kai and I both had buffalo burgers, yeah that's right . . . buffalos in burger format . . . they were awesome. In fact all of the food that I've had here; the burgers, the burrittos, the tacos (clearly I am very health conscious) has been great and that's without even mentioning the shakes . . .

We went to an American style diner a few minutes from our apartment for lunch on Sunday, I ordered a burger (obviously) and a strawberry shake, it was sooooooo good, it even had tiny bits of strawberry in it!

But anyway, back to San Francisco, once we had polished off our buffalo burgers we set off to see the Golden Gate Bridge, since we hadn't been able to go to Alcatraz we were quite excited about seeing the world's most photographed bridge and in all honesty it was one of the main reasons we were visiting in the first place. While we had enjoyed our day in SF we were beginning to get a bit tired and we decided to get the bus up to the bridge, enjoy the view, have a wander around to take a few pictures then head back. Unfortunately by the time we got there the fog had rolled in, our view of the world famous Golden Gate Bridge is attached . . .

Sometimes when you take a picture of something it doesn't quite do the view justice but this is exactly what we could see . . .

In fairness it was actually quite cool to see the fog rolling over the bridge but it wasn't exactly what we had hoped for, we have already made plans to return when the weather is better to see it properly.

On the way home from San Francisco we jumped off of the Caltrain in Mountainview to check out a few bars that had been recommended by a friend of Kai's.

Since it was still fairly early, around 7-8pm, almost every bar on the strip was inundated with people eating dinner but we eventually found one that was a little quieter and as it happened was one that had been recommended to us so we popped in for a few beers, it was quite a nice place, an 'Irish pub', complete with an authentic Irish member of staff plus they sold bottled German beer which made Kai a very happy chappy.

After a little while we noticed that there were rather a lot of quite large men with 'security' written on their backs just wandering around the place, we thought it fairly odd that such a small 'irish pub' would need so many door staff members, especially in such a nice area but there they were. Eventually we asked a member of staff why there were so many, we were told that at 10pm they turn the who place into a night club . . . An Irish pub that turns into a night club, sounds like a recipe for disaster to me but what do I know.

Since we were already inside we didn't have to pay an entry fee so decided that we would stay a little while longer to see what it was like, I'm glad we did.

It didn't turn into just any night club, it turned into a Latin night club, never before in my life have I seen people ballroom dancing in a club but there they were, it was quite surreal to think that literally ten minutes previously had had been sat at the bar enjoying a beer but now we were thrust into a totally different world. It was quite a large culture change within just a few minutes but it was very cool to see so many people having such a great time. Everybody almost seemed almost 'at one' with the music, it was quite incredible and the dancing was brilliant, even the 'slightly larger' ladies and gentlemen would put me to shame on the dance-floor . . . they could really move.

All in all this week has been packed pretty full, I've had a great time so far and look forward to whats instore . . .