The Northern Europe Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) Summit 2012 was a 3-day event held in Microsoft Ireland. It was simply amazing. [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Our welcome posters!”][/caption] This submit has given us MSPs an opportunity to meet students from all over Northern Europe. Through my stay, I have met people from Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Russia, and of course other parts of UK. I suppose I was the unique one, coming from an Asian background, studying in both US and UK, and people remember me as the Singapore guy, even though I represented University College London (UCL) and UK in this summit. [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Phil Cross giving an introduction about himself”][/caption] We started off the session with a country sharing session, and I felt like I was taking a trip around the Northern Europe then. At first, it was difficult to understand one another as everyone had different level of English proficiency. However, we slowly got used to it, and learnt to speak slower to accommodate one another. Then, we started to learn about everyone’s languages and facts about their country. For instance, the Belgium people spoke 3 languages - Dutch, French and German, as they are ‘forced’ to learn them all in school. The country is also extremely complicated in many aspects, which was actually pretty hilarious if you find out more via this video. [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“458” caption=“Local food for tasting!”][/caption] Also, it was funny how the Northern Lights are such a common thing for those living in Norway, Finland and Iceland, and it was also quite funny how they tried to rival and claim the aurora borealis belonging to their countries. It’s also interesting to hear that in summer, the sun never sets in some parts of these countries, while in winter, the sun practically does not come out throughout the day. In fact, the sun is so precious, that people are given offs to enjoy it while it lasts. Many of our friends also brought lots of their local delights for us to try (for some reason, alcohol seemed to present in almost everything). Simply an eye-opener. [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Learning the Estonian language”][/caption] The highlight was when a lucky 45 of us were chosen to visit the Microsoft Data Center. Well, let’s just say it BLEW our minds away. And since we signed a non-disclosure agreement (and no photos allowed), I shall not talk about it here. But it was quite incredible to know that whatever we saw in that facility supported Microsoft’s cloud and online services for the whole of Europe - and even Singapore! Just imagine the finesse, on top of the amount of power and hard disk space needed to keep everything running, and to protect the data from being stolen. Previously, I was touring people around the mini server rooms in Microsoft Singapore; and that was nothing compared to the one I saw here. In case you’re feeling jelly, maybe this might help you get over it :) [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“A team working hard on the team project”][/caption] After a long day of workshops, coding and working on our game project, Microsoft treated us to the Guinness Storehouse, where we had unlimited flow of alcohol and food at the Infinity bar. This was the 2nd time I visited the Storehouse (yes I visited it on my own just 2 nights before), but the experience was different with the MSPs this time. I also had the chance to make my own Guinness again, but this time round I made one with the Shamrock logo on it! Free alcohol must drink - and being an Asian who can’t take too much, I ended up KO-ed right at the bar, leaving me unable to code for the night, while the rest of the group continued coding back at Microsoft with even more beer (in cartons mind you), in preparation for the final presentation the next morning. Crazy stuff; how can anyone take so much alcohol! [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“UK MSPs at the Guinness Infinity Bar”][/caption] We also had the opportunity to tour around the office, to see how live development of Windows 8, Xbox and Azure took place in the site. Many fresh hires also shared with us their experiences on how to get hired by the awesome company, and Michelle Fleming, the overall coordinator of the MSP programme also took the opportunity to interact with the MSP on the ground, and to hear what we really want from the programme. [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Our Microsoft nametags!”][/caption] This event was a huge blast, and everyone certainly took away with them a fair bit about coding on Windows 8 and the Microsoft technology, and most importantly the camaraderie forged. I’m really thankful for Microsoft for providing such a wonderful opportunity, sponsoring all our expenses, for all the great hospitality, the great food and the planning of this event! :)