It’s impressive to step off the elevator and into the lobby of Google, where a large flat screen greets you by randomly displaying images from Google Maps, which zoom in and out so fast you start to get a little lightheaded. And as you walk up to the front desk, Google Searches are being projected across your feet onto the scoured concrete floor. I watched in awe as the name of my study abroad program in China scrolled up. What are the chances?

Witnessing both of these things is quite intriguing, but the most fascinating part is taking a seat on one of the new age, bubbly sofa chairs, and being able to observe the people in the elevators who don’t have have the coveted privilege of stepping out on this floor. I was definitely ‘feeling lucky.’

It’s a quarter after nine on a Wednesday morning, and people are gripping their requisite grande Starbucks cup, blearily staring at the walls, doors, ceiling of the elevator, anything to avoid making eye contact with each other. But then one or two people, amidst their practiced elevator shuffle, accidentally catch a glimpse of the glaringly primary colors of the Google logo, those six simple letters that have changed and continue to change our world as we know it. Suddenly their eyes bulge and their necks strain as they try to take in whatever they can in the brief moment before the doors lazily slide closed again. This is the real life version of the portal through which they experience the online world.

It becomes obvious which people work in this same building, because they already know that *this* floor, *this* is the Google floor, and when the doors open, their eyes are already wildly darting around, searching for something, anything. And more often than one would expect, the doors slide open to this floor and nobody gets off — yet the curious voyeurs are there, with their faces eagerly pressed up against some invisible piece of glass, looking like a child whose breath fogs up the window of a candy store as they longingly look at the colorful goodies inside. And such is Google — this beloved portal is the candy store of information for us adults.

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