The surrounding area is very pretty with lots of trees. One thing I adore about Seattle is the incredible quantity of trees and hills. For somebody raised in the flat midwest, this is thrilling. The inside is very open, with huge comfy black arm chairs on every landing. One window had a Velociraptor Entry Point sign on it. Brilliant.
Anyway, so I arrived early and proceeded upstairs to the fifth floor to find my mentor. She arrived, exceptionally energetic, and we set out to discussing the project, administrative affairs, and getting started on research. Shortly thereafter I was introduced to my grad student Julie, who gave me a very useful tour of the building, and plopped me into my lab. Julie is very pleased that I run a Linux distro on my laptop and already use Eclipse, so that is all fun and good.
I will be on my own for a few days, since my mentors have a major deadline Wednesday evening, so I will probably be doing administrative stuff, reading background literature, and exploring my new work environment. Today is a half day, so I am going to head home a bit early, maybe do some grocery shopping, etc. Yay science.