Yang's First Day

Sign that you're in Washington DC: at the quick orientation today (the full 2 day orientation will happen in 2 weeks) the HR Lady points out that President-elect Obama's oldest daughter goes to school literally a block down the street, and that if you're going to McDonald's and see a bunch of secret-service looking guys over there, just turn around and go somewhere else because you are not eating there that day. The HR lady has been there for 18 years, so she remembers when Chelsea Clinton was there as well.

The Metro is pretty nice. Like Seattle, I now get to do a little bit of reading during my commutes. Also like WaMu, Fannie Mae provides subsidy for people to take the Metro so that's kind of nice.

The weather is a bit chilly but not too bad as yet- there is a cold snap coming with the wind chill-adjusted temperature of 0 degree. I went to get some extra cold gears so let's see how I pan out.

I managed to find a place to live so I won't be homeless by Sunday. The place is a year old and is build on top and next to a shopping center, sort of like the Grove or the Paseo. Here's a what the place looks like from the official website.

They put an iceless ice rink at the middle of the town square for the winter. It is the oddest thing I have ever seen. They have these plastic tiles that you can actually skate on using regular ice skates. I'm not sure if you can actually play ice hockey on it but the kids skating on the rink seem to have no problem at all. Given how a bunch of ice rinks in Southern California have gone out of business (it's expensive to maintain an ice rink- it's an energy hog), I am totally rooting for this technology. I also hope the plastic material is not toxic or anything....