暫居1B1B豪華公寓

One of the coolest things I am experiencing so far as a graduate student's plus one is reallocating with him while he does his internship in another city. Since the internship take place in the Silicon Valley, well know for high housing price and difficulty in finding a short term rental, we were very happy that the company provide reallocation service as part of the internship package. Also, we found that not all company provided reallocation services. We were even more thrilled to find that after my husband told them that the wife is coming along, they have given us a 1B1B apartment, instead of a 2B2B apartment which we will have to share with another intern.

Arriving at the apartment after 5 hours drive, we were pleasantly greeted by the wonderful surrounding neighborhood and even more amazing hotel sweet like apartment. The neighborhood is very much like the science park in Hsin-chu, Taiwan. Our apartment is located within a small neighborhood court, with assigned parking space and a swimming pool in the center of the neighborhood. The environment is nice, neat, quite and green.

I was totally surprised by the luxuriousness of the apartment when we entered.

First, there is the fully equipped kitchen, with fridge, microwave, juice mixer, dishwasher, stove and all the kitchen cutlery and accessories... ect., you name it! Followed by a fully setup, demo-like dinning room.

The living room is connected with the dinning room, creating a very spacious environment. With big windows on two sides of the room, the space is full of light, which I loved very much.

Entering the bathroom scares me a bit. It was equipped and decorated like a hotel bathroom, with mini shampoo and nicely folded towels. That is when I started to panic and hurry to get my camera. I know very quickly, the apartment will be scattered with our mess and can no longer return to the original decorated state :P

Last, it's the bed room. After the bathroom shock, I was more prepared what to expect of the bed room... a bed with nicely tucked-in sheets. In addition to the closet by the entrance of the bedroom, there is another walk-in closet, which I think would be perfect for our suitcases.

After the grand tour in the extravagant apartment, we decided to unpack a bit first before going out to the supermarket and stock up our fridge with food.With big luggage and smaller boxes, it took us several rounds coming back and forth between the car and apartment (on the second floor) to get everything in the apartment. Unpacking quickly messes up the space as expected. We made calls to our families, reporting our safe arrival. The unpacking and settling down extended till late that evening, even after we returned from our shopping.

At around seven, we decided it's time for a break and we head to the nearby shopping center, Milpitas Square, with Chinese chain-supermarket, Ranch 99. Within 10min drive, we arrived. Since it was pretty much the usual dinning hour, it was difficult to find a parking space in the beginning, and quite a few restaurant was packed and with long waiting line outside. We decided to finish our grocery shopping first. I was surprised that almost everything is more expensive (25%-50% more), even though we are shopping in the same chain grocery store just in different location. But the nice thing is that the store is indeed much more organized and clean. Perhaps that is reason for the value added revealed on the price. The check was fatter than usual and thus I begin to sense that I will be the new poor in this upscale area.

Considering the hour, though we are now packed with grocery, we decided have something simple in a restaurant in the shopping center. We had handmade noodles at a place called QQ Noodles. It was pretty good, a 7 out of 10. Being able to get authentic Chinese in California should not be a surprise, however being in Europe for too long, I couldn't help but feel extra happy about this.

After returning home, I happily stock up the now-my-own and too spacious fridge. After allocating most things to their new spot, I gave my sister a grand tour of the apartment over webcam. My sister, who always have a thing about luxurious hotels, is overly thrilled. I know she is exactly the person I would love to share this excitement with first hand :)

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End notes.

The housing though as part of the internship package is not without cost. It shows up on your pay slip under the reallocation package. So, although the company do not directly pay to you an extra amount of money for you to pay for the housing, the company associated this spending under your name. As a consequence, the still poor (low net income) intern may be considered earning a high income in the eyes of the IRS (稅務局) and will have to pay a higher tax rate. Though at first I thought this a bit unfair, I later come to agree that although we did not choose to rent and live in such a over-the-top apartment, we did actually occupy and enjoy the luxuriousness of the space, and thus should pay for it.

One thing that I don't get is, for most of the interns, who work like crazy trying to get a return offer, how and when do they have the time to enjoy such nice place? While spending the majority of the time in the company, do they really need such an extremely elegant place? I guess I am not used to live such an overly comfortable life, especially when I feel I don't deserve it. As for the company, who simply out source such  matter to the reallocation service did not distinguish between those provided to an intern and visiting consultants. In addition, the company perhaps think it is a great chance to show the talented future employee what kind of live they can expect after graduating from the graduate school, a great motivation indeed.