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So my last day at Seattle was spent having fun, since all my interviews are over for the year. Went to the MS company store to buy some Christmas gifts for my cousins, almost bought a MS Wireless Optical Notebook Mouse….actually still thinking about it. Company Store sells it at $25USD, and I went to Fry’s later that day and saw it for $40USD. (CC sells it for $50 CAD) They actually have the laser notebook mouse on sale at the same price, but my friends told me the pickup is quite horrible – can’t even pick up on a white surface. GG laser.

In the afternoon I went around Redmond looking at housing. Apparently there is a law that the City of Redmond is not allowed to build tall buildings (more than 5 floors or something?) so no apartments can be found in Redmond :|. Sooner or later I’m going to be faced with the choice of renting or buying (mortgaging). Buying seems like a better option – since it feels dumb to pay rent and you get nothing at the end, although mortgaging is slightly more expensive, and you’ll have to care about maintenance and crap…but at least you have the peace of mind that you don’t have to move around and such. (Most rental communities/housing give you cheap rent for the first year contract and bump it up like mad when you try to extend the contract). Mm and I don’t want to live too far away from work either. When I was an intern I literally live acrossed the street from Microsoft and I really enjoyed that – I could go home for lunch, or drop by house anytime I want to pick up a package from management office, or wake up at 8:30am for a 9:00am morning meeting. So ideally I would be no more than 20 minutes away from the Microsoft campus.

This leaves me with two options – and I have groups of friends that are actually taking one option or the other now. Price is approximately the same. 1) Live in an apartment in Bellevue, which is 15 minutes away from Microsoft on the highway – it is sort of like Scarborough and Markham. The area is more populated and urbanized. Also seems like apartments are easier to take care of. 2) Live in townhouse/apartment communities up north in Redmond, which is also 15 minutes away from Microsoft, but the area is very residential – seems like Aurora a bit. More of these community homes are available for both rent and buying.

Ah so much to consider. Establishing your own home is a lot of work.

Anyhow, the rest of my day is just going to Fry’s to buy the GPS Bluetooth Adapter, eat dinner with the rest of my intern friends, and drive to the airport for a red-eye flight. Still exhausted from the flight.

To end of my trip blogging, let me post some pic’s…
(I organized them into a photo gallery now, so make sure you click next when you hover over the top right corner of each photo)