CSSI Day 2: Google Kirkland!

Today, we got up early to take a shuttle bus to Google Kirkland, where we will be staying and having classes for the week. As soon as we got there, it was breakfast time, where we got our first taste of food at the Google offices! We went to Sudo Cafe, one of the two cafes on the campus; unsurprisingly, the food was fantastic; we were all fueled and ready for the day. But first, pictures were necessary around the offices. 

We got a tour around the buildings before classes began; the really great thing about the offices is that they encourage collaboration through having many open spaces to work, along with offices where you are always working in close proximity to others. Furthermore, there are so many facilities available to employees, including a fitness centre, massage rooms, treadmill desks, and even a rock climbing wall! Not to mention countless micro-kitchens and cafes, always in sight. Even the interior decorations were so creative; the buildings have certain themes for naming the rooms on every floor, including crayon colours and a Game of Thrones conference room! We all felt awestruck throughout the tour.

Every building had a Google Maps pin
in front of it!

Rock climbing wall! Open at all times to
all employees.

Umbrellas to eat outside in the fantastic weather!

Stepping into the classroom, we were greeted with goodies including a backpack, hoodie, water bottle, pen, and notebook, all Google-themed! Then, it was time for our first class of CSSI, Intro to the Web: HTML/CSS. The class was taught by Nick and Larry, along with many TAs; they were all extremely helpful and explained the lesson really well. From Intro to the Web, I learned a lot about how HTTP and HTML work to enable web requests to go through to return a webpage when users enter a URL. 

Then it was time for HTML/CSS, where we created our own profile pages. As I had some previous experience, it wasn't too difficult to get back into the hang of things and pretty soon I was able to make page look aesthetically pleasing. After returning to Sudo Cafe for lunch, we continued working on some of the more intermediate aspects of HTML, including creating forms, tables, and the CSS box model. The entire day seemed to go by so fast, but in the end we tackled web design, created a really nice profile page, and re-learned a lot of the basics. 

We ended the day with dinner at the office, before returning to our dorms. The Google Kirkland campus has been great, and all the people are really nice and encouraging. Tomorrow we'll be tackling part 1 of Javascript, which I have no previous experience with, so I am really excited to continue learning more!