A quick peek inside Google Campus

Make an intelligent guess on where we went this week. That's right! Google Headquarters at Mountain View!

What's the big deal? Well, it's the first time we ever went INSIDE the company, thanks to Panda's colleague. Lisa's husband, T, works there so we were given a tour. Woohoo!

Pardon the lack of good photos because I didn't want to appear like a dork by snapping everywhere, although I really wanted to. Did you know they have awesome slides inside their offices, so that employees can just 'whee!' their way down? So sad that visitors aren't allowed to try that.

 

What we were able to do, however, was to go inside Building 44, the one behind the famous lawn of giant android mascots and statues. That's the tourist spot. You snap photos of these life size desserts. But to go behind those forbidden doors... you need a status higher than a regular tourist. A visitor pass!

So what did I find inside the Android Building? A toilet hidden behind a wall panel (high tide was the reason I entered the building in the first place), a dysfunction android mascot standing in a corner, and Predator guarding the reception area.

Cool.

During our visit, we saw four topless hunks having a game at the beach volleyball court. We also caught sight of those cute conference bikes, although compared to the omnipresent Google bikes, they were not in use. Pool tables are a given. A pity we didn't get to see the swim-in-place swimming pools or the bowling alley. 

But we did swing by to say hi to Stan, the famous T-Rex skeleton, which had pink flamingos dangling from its mouth.

We had lunch at one of the staff cafeterias. They were serving mussels on the day we visited. Contrary to what some people said, the food actually tasted quite yummy. Or maybe we were just in awe of everything. In any case, free food rocks!



A visit is not a visit without the purchase of Google merchandise at the onsite store! We each bought a Google t-shirt. Panda also got me an infuser water bottle. If we were to stay longer in the States, I would love to have one of those brightly coloured jackets.

It was a short but fruitful two-hour tour, thanks to T! We didn't see all the stuff listed here, but what we saw was sufficient enough for us to add to the cliché:

GET ME A JOB AT GOOGLE!!!