Play this song while you read this, no seriously, do it.

San Francisco.

This is it, this is the dream of every CS kid.  And here I am, doing an internship in the heart of Silicon Valley with AdRoll Inc., a start-up company that does advertisement re-targeting.  I feel like a character from a TV show, specifically the show Silicon Valley. On the road to the airport I remember my mom talking to me, but I was phased out in third-person, watching the events unfold like a TV show: the story of 3 rag-tag friends going to San Francisco for internships and hoping to jump start their careers.

Our chat group is aptly named “The Three Musketeers of San Francisco” (it’s a lot shorter in Chinese, “三藩三枪手”).

I’ve only worked a week, and I already like everything.

I don’t mind the bus rides, they aren’t much worse than Toronto. I don’t like the smell of piss on the streets, but I can always walk around it. My company is great, everyone is so friendly, and I’m really happy to be working again.

My office is pretty amazing, and I’m working with people much smarter than me.

I like it here, and I think I deserve just a little bit of a break after all the stuff I had gone through. I can’t think of a better place to rest other than the sunny city of San Francisco.

I will try everything in my power to stay here.

I’m going to stay here.

-Tao