The Journey to USA (Part 4)

Hii again,

Long time, right ;)?

Any way before I continue, here you're some news:

I created my technical blog on msdn blogs at:

http://blogs.msdn.com/mmeshref

Also you could access the both blogs after that through:

http://www.mmeshref.com


Now let's continue :)

Last time I stopped in Friday, so next day we went to pick up my rental car, and as expected, we lost because Iam not good at reading US maps, so instead of going for 5-6 miles only to my car pick-up location, we went for about 14-18 miles to found ourselves in Seattle :D!!!!

Any way, we enjoyed the day there, and visited a lot of places and played in the Game World, here you're the photos:

http://www.mmeshref.com/album/USA%20Relocation/index3.html

Now, it's the time to return back, but there's a problem, we don't know the way back home, also the way to pick up the car, so what's the solution?!

The simple solution is to get a GPS, so we went to radioshak, and I got a very nice GPS which is colored and has a speaker system which will guide you through voice in addition to normal maps on the screen to any place you want to go, also it contains tons of places in which Iam using now every day to go to any place, as example if I want to go to a cinema, I open Cinemas sub-directory and told him to find the nearest one to my current location, and then choose the type of route whether shortest time or to avoid high ways (good in rush hours) or 2 other options, then route, also if I miss any route, it'll re-route the path to a new route depending on my current location, so it's dynamic routing instead of static one, also all these combined with that its screen is touch screen, so I could use both the buttons or touch the screen whatever is easier for me.

Here you're my GPS:
http://www.magellangps.com/en/products/product.asp?PRODID=1038

Really it's cool, up till now I don't even know how to return home, I just open the GPS in any place Iam currently in, and open favorites and click home->route->shortest time.
Then back home, isn't it really cool ;)?

So we used it and went to pick up the car, and then went back home.

In the evening Mostafa was going to meet a guy also I went to meet some people I knew here at MS, so when we came back he told me that he has met with Chris and Mohamed Helal, so in the next day we went with them to a kind of restaurant and also Khaled Aggad and Mostafa El Ehmali were there.

Next day it was our NEO, and this is the next and last episode in this series, so, just wait for it ;)

Stay tight ;)
To Be Continued.....

The Journey to USA (Part 3)

Hii Guys,

I know that this post has taken much time more than the previous two, that's because as you know that yesterday and the day before were the weekend days here, and so I went with friends to some really weird places (which if found sometime and intension I'll post about them).

Also, there is something which is really amazing, it was snowing last Thursday, I wasn't having the camera at that time, and when I arrived home I have just taken one photo in the dark for the snow when it was in its way to vanish:

Now back to the old topic, let's resume what we've cut in the last part :), last time we stopped at the moment we put our feet outside Sea-Toc International Airport.

After we've picked the car, we went to the key pick-up location which we were having the map for it, for those whom don't know the meaning of key pick-up location, it's simply a door with numerical keypad in which we've a secret number to use on this keypad to open the door and pick up our key and apartment information, here you're a picture for how it's looking like:

After we've picked up our keys, we found that our apartment location is exactly beside the key pick-up location, here you're some photos for the apartment:

My Room (a little blurry)

Mostafa's Room

Washing machine and dryer room

Dinning room

Kitchen

Another photo for the kitchen


One more photo for the kitchen :D


The TV and DVD Player


Living Room front image

Living room rear image

Our apartment door is the one under the stairs, its front window
(actually my room window), is the one in the far bottom left side


Another view for out living location from outside.

View for our living location (note, between the trees in the far viewing distance, is located our working place which is building 35, so as you see, we can just walk for less than half a mile to reach our offices :) )

After that we discovered that we're really hungry, so we went to search for some food, and we lost until we found chilis so we entered and eat and then went back home to get some sleep to be ready to make any thing new in the next day which was Saturday :)

That day was really amazing because a lot of things have happened in that day in which were really fun :), but why to jump into any details about them?!

Just wait for the next post to know more about them, so...

Stay tight ;)
To Be Continued.....

The Journey to USA (Part 2)

Hii Guys,


Here you're the part 2 from the journey, where I've stopped last time?!

Yes, on the very weird thing that has happened, you know what is it?

Simply when the pilot has left the gate, we have moving with the aircraft for about 8-10 min on the ground until we get to the run way which was really sooooooo far from the location we were.

So we stopped and wait for the taxi, and we waited and waited and I noticed that many aircrafts are coming and leaving and we still remaining in our place!!

Till the pilot announce that the aircraft is facing some technical problems and we need to head back to the gates location to fix it!!!

Then ok, we went back and waited for about one hour, and then he said that they haven't made any success till now and they will try for another 30 min and if they succeed, then we'll continue, otherwise we'll be routed to another aircraft!!


We waited for the additional 30 min, then he announce that the problem is in its way to be solved, and we waited for another 20-30 min and then he announce that it's fixed and they are gonna re-fuel again because we wasted a lot of fuel, funny huh :D?

Any way, we left and we have most of our flight over dead regions, really no way that any creature could be living on these locations, here you're some samples:

This picture was over Island where it seems to be dead as you see.

Also this one was over Island too.

This one was over rocky mountains.

Rocky Mountains too.

We continue flying for more than 10 continues hours until we reached Washington state (for non-US aware, there're two Washingtons in the United States, one is Washington DC which is the US Capital and it's located in the east, and the other is Washington only which is located on the Northwest and this is the one Iam referring to).

WA from air was really cool, I saw MS campus from there but I haven't got the chance to take a photo for it, but any way, here you're some photos for Seattle (WA Capital) from the air:

Ok, that's enough for today :)

Next time I'll be talking about our first impression about US and our first steps in US :)

Stay tight ;)
To Be Continued.....

The Journey to USA (Part 1)

Hii Guys,


As I promised you before that I’ll post my journey details on episodes, so here you’re the first episode written from inside my office in building 35 in Microsoft Redmond HQ.


Let’s start from the moment I left my house and jumped into the car heading to the airport.


We arrived to the airport at nearly 12:00 AM, March 03, 2006.

I’ll skip the moment of saying goodbye to my family members because those moments were the hardest moments in the whole story.

Any way, after that I headed with Mostafa to the airport to wait for KLM flight which is supposed to leave at 2:50 AM.


Then we’ve waited will 2:40 AM, and then we went to the gate, and as usual, in Egypt airport, the flight which was supposed to leave on 2:50 AM, left on about 3:30 AM.

Any way, we’ve taken off, and the flight was good, and the best service I’ve found on both KLM and Northwest Airlines, is the Games & Video on Demand system, in which you could choose to watch from tons of movies and TV series which are all new, and the movies were sometimes on the cinema on the last season (some of them were still in Egypt’s Cinemas till that time), also you could play games, send SMS, watch news, and many other services, here you’re a photo on how the system was looking like (Click to enlarge):








After that, we landed into Amsterdam International Airport, with a temperature of Zero (it was the first time for me to see the sky snowing), and then we stayed in Amsterdam Airport for about 5 hours, and here you’re some photos for Amsterdam’s Airport:

Mostafa in the Airport.

It's me this time :)

Some Cool cars we've found in the Airport:

Our Northwest Airlines Aircraft which was going to take us to US.

Any way, after the 5 hours period, we went to the gates again (by the way I forgot to tell you that Amsterdam Airport is really hugeeeeeeeee, it contains about 60 different gates or more), and then we got our normal interrogation about our visit to US, why and to whom, etc.

Then headed directly to our aircraft where something very weird has happened, you wanna know what is it?!

Wait for the next episode ;)

Stay tight ;)
To Be Continued.....

Live From Redmond (Part 1)

Hii Guys,


Today it's the first time for me to post any thing in this blog from a place which is outside Egypt (except for Amsterdam's comment).

Any way soon (as soon I buy a new laptop and get some time), I'll post every thing, but for now, I'll leave you for some pictures until the moment I write the next post and comment on every sinlge one:

http://programmingplanet.net/album/USA%20Relocation/index.html

C U soon :)

Final Count Down, Day Zero

Hii Guys,

Again this is my final post before posting from another Country :D

Any way I did many things in the previous days, and I'll just mention them here as points and may discuss them later when I get some time:

1. Change money from the Bank.
2. Buy a lot of things (many of them are really weird!).
3. Meeting a lot of people and making a lot of family visits.
4. I don't remember what else.

The most thing which is really amazing, is the way we'll pick up the keys for our house when we arrive to US.

But this is another story, I'll post it as soon as I arrive and have internet access with tons of picutres.

Stay tight ;)

On the way to Redmond 1

Hello all,

Starting from now and until I find my-self out there in Redmond, I'll write a new post every couple of days to discuss what I've done during this period before traveling, now let's start with the first one.

So, from where I'd start?!

Let's start from the last time's end, in my previous post regarding this issue; I stopped on the embassy interview.

After that with 3 days, I received my passport with the visa stamped in it, so during this period I called the shipping company to ship my goods and stuff, they took my passport to make some arrangements with it in the Airport (I don't know really what are these arrangements), and returned it back to me and I told them that I'll call them again as soon as I decide to ship my stuff.

Then I send to my candidate move specialist to reserve me my seat, she sent me a word document containing a lot of questions about my preferred seat position, my preferred food on the plan, my preferred place to leave my temporary car for me, if I prefer to have a hotel room during the period between my arrival and going to my housing, my preferred housing and how many rooms I want, etc.

I sent her the document with all these questions answered and asked her to reserve the next seat with me to my friend Mostafa who's traveling with me and who's working with me in the same team, and also asked her to make the travel date and time any where beyond March 02, 10:00 PM GMT because I've a special event which I need to attend.

Then I got an email from her telling me that she has reserved the seats and this is the confirmation email and I'll receive the tickets by DHL service within several days, so my travel date and time has been reserved to be March 03, 2:55 AM.

I'll go first to Amsterdam through KLM airlines in a trip which is taking 5 hours and stay there for about 6 hours and then through Northwest Airlines in a trip which is taking around 11 hours directly to Seattle.

After that I went to make the international driving license, and after spending around 2 hours (and paying additional money to get it finished quickly, as you know Egypt ;) ), I got it.

I was thinking about it to be something like the local driving license, I mean good and small license covered and looks clean, but here you're what it's looking like:

After getting it, I went to the "El Shahr El Akary" (Don't know its meaning in Arabic) to make a general permission to my father "Tawkel 3am we shamel" to use it in any thing here in Egypt which is in need for me without my physical existence.

After that I went in a small outing with my friends (college friends) into Pizza King El Mereland and spent some time with each others.

Next day, I went to the Army to get my travel permission, and I really admit that this is the first time in my whole life to find that making a paper in the Army is the easiest part in this whole post, it was really so easy and so quick, I just filled a paper with my info, pay the fees, and wait for about 10 or 15 min and get the permission!!!
Really it's nothing when compared with my old adventure in Hykesteb ;)

And here you're a photo for how the Travel Permission is looking like:

That's all for today, soon I'll continue talking about what I've done next, also I hope if I could get an entry visa during my transit in Amsterdam to visit the City in this 6 hours.

So stay tight ;)
To Be Continued.....

The final countdown to Redmond (Part 3)

After I got there, I found a very very very long queue of people, actually there were 2 queues, one for those whom supposed to enter to the embassy at 9:30 am, and those like me whom are supposed to enter at 10:00 am.

It was about 9:40 am, so I found my place in the 10:00 am queue, and I have waited for about 15 min till someone got out from the embassy and told us to show him the photos we've.

Once she has seen the photo I've, she told me this is an invalid photo and I must get a photo of 5x5 cm size!!!

At this point I didn't know what shall I do, shall I get another interview time or what?!

Until she told me that I've 30 min only to get a photo and come back, for my good luck, there was a man very near to the embassy who's working on this type of photos only, so I went there, and found as much people as any one could imagine waiting there to take a photo too!!

After waiting for about 45 min (at this point I was sure that I missed the interview time), and after paying the big fees (when compared with any photographer in whole Egypt, it's about 2x, I went back to the Embassy and found that the 10:00 am queue is about to enter in few seconds, so I got my self a place with them and entered into the embassy.


Without talking with more details about how many queues I have found inside the embassy and how much time I've spent inside and how many interviews, let's skip all this to the final interview, it was so simple, just few questions about what I'll do in Microsoft, and when I've joined it, and when I've been graduated, ..... Etc

The final question was about my base salary, when she knew about it, she told me ohhhhhhh, toooo much money!!!

It was the first time for me to know that envy is not a special feature in the Egyptian culture, it's exist too even in someone who's working in a very good position in one of the embassies for the biggest country all over the world :D
Really weird :P

Now, what I'll do next:

1. Get my travel permission.
2. Get an international driving license.
3. Ship all my stuff with the moving company MS has provided me with.
4. Send them an email to book my flight for me.
5. Enjoy my time in Redmond inside MSFT :D

Stay tight ;)
Catch You Later.....

The final countdown to Redmond (Part 2)

After that the process for my training visa (H-3 Visa) has started, and at the same time I have scheduled an interview with the US Consulate in Cairo in February 09.

Few days (exactly at February 03), I got the visa petition approval notify, on February 08 mid-night, I knew that the visa package has arrived to the airport, and so I need to go there to pick it myself to be with me in the next day in the embassy, so I went to the air-port, take the package, went back to home, open it and oopppssssssssss all the papers surname is meshref and my surname in the passport is Moshrif, ohhhhhhh my God, what shall I do?!!

I picked my mobile phone and called Lori the attorney for my case in US, and for the continues bad luck she was away, so I left here a message on her answer machine to call me back.

Few moments later, I went back to my papers, I noticed something, only one paper has this phrase:
Surname (As in Passport)
And the rest aren't having the same phrase, also I noticed another paper which has this phrase:
Surname (list all different spellings)

So I think I got it, in the first paper I changed my surname to be Moshrif like in passport, and in the second one I put Meshref and Moshrif, and left the rest as they are.

After that it was about 4:30 AM, so I put all these papers aside and went to my bed to take some sleep because I must wake up at about 8:00 am, so I have slept and then woke up at 8:00 am, then left at 8:45 am to the embassy.

After I got there, I found .....

But this is another part, stay tight ;)
To Be Continued.....

The final countdown to Redmond (Part 1)

Hii all, Iam back and ready to blog again, I've just group all things together and post them after I finish them all because Egyptians are very good on Envy and such bad manners like no other nation in the whole world!!!!

As you you noticed all from the title Iam finally in my way to Redmond, but how this happened?

Before any thing, I knew from weeks ago what shall my position in MS be, it'll be working on the SQL Server Engine Performance Team, that's for my position as FT employee in the SQL Server team, But, I got an email from MS telling me that my new H-1B visa won't be ready before the end of the year as usual (as US system stated), so I've two options, either to leave to US at the early begining of March with training visa to attend a training program there (but with the same benefits plan like the FT position), and after completing it at the end of the year, my new visa should be ready and then get into my FT position again, or I could simply wait till I get the FT directly.

When I heard the word training, I've decided at first not to accept it, but after knowing that this "Training" is like a full post graduate diploma which is containing very amazing topics and very good Syllabus which made me accept the offer immediately :D, also I'll have the same benefits plan, and every thing I was gonna get in the FT position from A to Z.

After that ....

But this is another part, stay tight ;)
To Be Continued.....

And finally I got the green paper :D

Ohhhhhhhhhh, it has been sooo long since I have written in these blog, but I have tons of things to discuss later because I was really too busy in many thing, and soon I'll post every thing about the previous days, but when I get some time because Iam still busy :D (It's a matter of 3 or 4 weeks at most).

Any way, so what's the green paper?

The green paper which I mean is the postponement paper of the army, after getting this piece of dirty paper, I can now renew my passport and travel to any place in the world, live my life and forget all about those black days :D:D

I hope best luck to my friends too.

Soon I'll post all what happened in the previous days in the form of episodes again ;)

Keep in touch

Catch you later.....

Live chatting from Redmond

It was very nice, really very nice, but what's it?!

Today I have a nice chatting with my dear colleagues who had already traveled to Redmond on early Friday 23 at 3:00 AM Christian and Mohamed Helal, it was really nice to chat with them knowing that every thing is ok with them out there, and that the life is awesome out there, soon Chris will post all images for the first and second day on his blog, please feel free to visit it to have a good understanding for how every thing look like.

Finally I hope to finish my H1B papers soon to catch them asap because it's getting boring and boring every day and every minite :S

Catch you later.....