6 min read
Today was the day of the end-of-internship celebration as quite a few interns supposedly are leaving this week. I was debating on going to begin with since it was 5:30 to 9:30 PM, meaning I would be missing out on 4 valuable hours of study time. I'm not concerned about whether or not I'll finish my project on time (since it's certain I will), so that is no longer a time issue.
For some reason I just wasn't excited about going. After the event at the Frying Pan, I was a little skeptical about going since this was also another boat event. Except that was just a regular boat (with no AC), and the one we were going on this time was supposedly a yacht. Although I felt somewhat indifferent about going this afternoon, I decided I'd probably regret not going and decided to go anyway. Besides, all the CLs I had sent out review weren't coming back anytime soon with comments.
I scootered around at 5:15 trying to find the intern crowd that was supposed to be walking as a huge group to Pier 59. I ended up just going with a small group composed of the other interns on my team and a couple others. It was a pretty short walk to the pier since Google's only a couple blocks from the Hudson. I'm not sure exactly how many interns are in our office, but it seems most of them showed up as we waited on the green dock.
The Atlantis (apparently a megayacht since it's 150' long)
There were ominous clouds overhead as we waited and even a few fat raindrops fell from the sky but thankfully it didn't start pouring. We were supposed to start boarding at 5:30, but that was delayed by 15 minutes for some reason. It took a while to check everyone in since they had to find everyone's name from a paper list to check off. If you wanted to drink and were old enough you'd have to show valid ID and get a special wristband, so that took extra time too for the boarding process. Since I'm still a month from being legal I got to go in the fast line to just get checked off from the list. Pretty soon I got my lei (the theme was luau so they were giving those out), and boarded The Atlantis.
The dining area on the first level
I met up with some friends and we went exploring the yacht. There were staff members dressed all in black walking around offering small appetizers on platters.
The dance floor on the second level
We eventually made our way up to the sundeck to check out the view. We didn't leave the dock until a few minutes after 6 to start our cruise around Manhattan.
The sky deck on the third level
After eating probably 5 or 6 appetizers, we went downstairs and got in line to get caricatures on the second floor. I was impressed that it's possible to draw so many people back-to-back... all while being on a boat rocking back and forth on the water.
There was a bit of a line but while we waited a group of like 10 of us formed into a circle and bounced beach balls around. We kind of ended up hitting the lady doing the caricatures in the head with one of them, but she didn't get mad or anything. We went pretty far while waiting. At one point I looked out to the starboard side and saw the Statue of Liberty off in the distance. Eventually it was our turn and we did one in a group of three except we had to sit in the chair one by one. I went last so I was kind of squeezed into the picture.
I like how green my eyes came out
After that we got some non-alcoholic drinks and dinner since it was being served on the first floor. We had what I think was vodka rigatoni, mashed potatoes, and pineapple ham. Afterwards, people started dancing on the dancefloor as the music blasted, but we went back up to the sky deck to enjoy the view. By now the sun was just starting to go down as we cruised up the East River.
We hung out there for a while and then saw some people down at the front of the boat enjoying the view so we went down to the first floor. By the time we got there they had already left so it was just the three of to gaze out at the skyline. After a while some more people saw us at the front of the boat and joined in.
There was a better photo of me at the front of the boat gazing off
into the distance with a wine glass, but I'll have to add that later
I regret that I took so many photos (a lot more than shown here) before the sun went down because even though I boarded the boat with over 60% for my phone battery, it was at 10% before I knew it. I wasn't able to get all the good shots of the city lit up at night from the water.
A nice shot another intern took since my phone was practically dead
Only as we were turning around and cruising back down the East River did I realize I probably should have just put my phone into airplane mode to save battery when getting on the boat since pretty much all I did was take pictures anyway. After doing this, I locked my phone and waited for some of the battery to come back (it's not very accurate at determining how much percent is actually left).
Eventually we went back up to the sky deck for the rest of the cruise. Others who didn't have encrypted Androids got to take all the awesome shots of Manhattan at night. I just enjoyed the view. We even cruised out close to Liberty Island to get a good look at the Statue of Liberty lit up. That was the closest I'd ever gotten to it. I've only ever seen it from a far distance in the office. By then it was 9:20 and time to head back to the pier.
Normal person's reaction to seeing a flying roach for the first time
As we made our way back my phone decided to gain back enough percentage for a few last photos before it really was too dead to take anymore photos. We actually got back to the pier faster than I expected. Just before disembarking, we saw the first floor had desserts out on tables so I quickly stuffed my face with chocolate eclairs, cannolis, brownies, and chocolate mousse tarts. It was good but I almost instantly regretted eating so much so fast.
Overall I'm glad I ended up going on the cruise. It was my first time being on a luxury yacht and a well-deserved break from working so hard during the past 11.5 weeks of my internship. It's still not quite over yet though.