Greetings from my Oracle office! (This will be an extremely long post, with a plethora of photos. Be warned!)
It's lunch time and I'm taking a break to finally update my blog. Since my last post, a lot has happened. I finally made the transition to Oracle last week, and it has been amazing! While I thought my experience at Cisco was corporate, my new experience definitely tops that. I'm getting used to using "Self-service applications" to set up all my e-mail accounts, phone, laptop, etc... without having the access to phone or in-person support. Tough, I know.
Many of my friends have asked...well, what do you do? I'm a recruiting program manager (RPM) in the college recruiting department, which is the only on-site recruiting department at HQ. I work in a team with 5 other RPMs, 3 recruiting coordinators, and a handful of recruiting support staff. Together we reach out to specific colleges to find the creme de la creme of geniuses to induct into one of our company's many tech job openings. I, myself, am in charge of visiting Harvard and Dartmouth this season. I've been armed with a corporate card, have flights booked, and am ready to go!
I love my team and they have been extremely welcoming, especially my director. I feel well taken care of and have already felt the benefits of the many perks of working in corporate. Not to mention, I was given my own personal office! (I know, what!?!)
Of course I have to represent!
View from the window, overlooking Foster City and San Mateo Bridge.
But that's the "boring" part of my life. On the more adventurous note...my trip to Costa Rica was incredible! It wasn't much of a relaxing vacation since I was doing 2 to 3 rigorous activities a day, but I had the time of my life.
COSTA RICA QUEST
Day 1: Flew into San Jose and met my roomie for the trip. We took the afternoon wandering the streets of of the capital, ate some Gallo Pinto (staple of CR), and visited the National Museum. Later that night, we met the rest of our travel buddies, coming from all parts of the world - London, Canada, Australia, and of course a couple Americans :)
Costa Rica National Museum
Yum! First Costa Rican Meal.
Day 2: We headed out on the road towards La Fortuna/Arenal. After a couple of hours in a van, we hopped off to white water raft our way to La Fortuna, down the Rio Toro- a grade 3/4 river. This was probably the most exciting part of my trip. Not only did it rain, shine, downpour, rain and shine...I fell into the river! So much fun!
Rio Toro...yup.
Most of our team...plus some strangers behind me.
Can you see me in the river? My friend is holding my leg...I don't know why!
Was quite the adventure, if you ask me!
But, if you can't tell, I made it out alive! We dried off and headed to our hotel, which had the most amazing view of the active volcano, Arenal Volcano.
Day 3: While my group decided to go ATVing this day, I chose to have a more peaceful approach and went kayaking on Lake Arenal, right in front of the volcano. Later in the afternoon, I went rappelling and canyoneering, which was a first for me!
Kayaking on Lake Arenal.
The best pineapple and watermelon I've ever eaten in my life!
My first rappelling attempt. Scary!
Down a waterfall I go!
Getting completely soaked...like every other day on this trip.
Day 4: Early in the morning we headed towards Monte Verde, where the climate was much cooler - hence my rain jacket in the following photos. This was the most naturist part of my trip, including night hikes and wildlife tours. You can't forget the coffee and sugar cane tour either. Oh! or the ziplining!
A mini pineapple on our coffee tour. So cute!
Ox-cart ride. Did you know, the ox cart is the national symbol of Costa Rica? Now you know!
Making candy out of Sugar Cane.
A cute little tarantula on our night hike.
A hummingbird in it's next! The most amazing thing I've seen yet!
A sloth! Didn't even know what they looked like before.
Day 5: More nature hikes in Monteverde. Saw lots of monkeys in the forest!
Cloud Forest
So beautiful, and serene.
And then we ziplined the longest zipline in the world! 1km long!
Then I swang from a rope, like Tarzan.
Did an 11km mountain bike ride, which kicked my butt!
Day 6: Headed towards Quepos and Manuel Antonio Park.
Saw some crocodiles...
Stayed at the Hotel California...
Ate some fresh Ceviche. Probably ate ceviche 6 times during this trip!
Day 7: Spent the entire day at Manuel Antonio Park's beaches.
Pura Vida is the truth.
Enjoyed the sunset with pina coladas and our sunburns.
Day 8: Headed back to San Jose...and there we ate our final meal and said our goodbyes.
So that's my last 2 weeks in a nutshell. Next post will probably be when I get back from Boston...
More exciting news - I joined another hockey league! So I'm playing in two leagues right now, but my new league is at Sharks Ice! We played our first game last night and the rink was fantabulous. I played on the same rink the SJ Sharks practice! Woohoo! Can't really get better than that.
Til next time!
