today i fly to austin for my first ever in person interview of my life. my mistake was getting food from the expensive food court that had very small portions and terrible chicken. i locked in the entire plane ride on the system design question. i used gemini to study for the entire thing. it's better than o3 because it kept things simple whereas o3 and claude kept making things complicated. i liked that the airport here has a designated ride share app pickup zone in a garage. the downside is you have to walk quite a distance.

i spoke with my lyft driver about my interview, and he was a student searching for a job too. i got to citizenM and realized i did not book a hotel here, but at the royal sonesta. i checked in, and then went out to get dinner. it was already 9pm. i went to cava because it was the only affordable thing around, i was excited about a malaysian restaurant nearby but it closed down. this street was very sketchy, i saw a lot of homeless around. i got my order and went back to my hotel. my second mistake today was ordering it with jalapeno sauce, which was the green sauce i innocently ordered, thinking it's just vege. it was burning in my mouth, i started getting heartburn. i had to go out to cvs to get some antacids, and this was around 11 pm. and it was the worst time to be out on these streets. i walked as fast as i could, and luckily there were people around.

i stayed up till 2:30 a.m. to finish up my prep. i went to bed eventually, still feeling unprepared for tomorrow.