Epic Journey Log Entry #5 ---Seattle/Arrival

Epic Journey Log Entry #5
Seattle/Arrival

On Monday I arrived in Seattle – pleasantly surprised by the lack of rain and the sun that greeted me!

Upon entering the Sea-Tac airport, I took their light-rail system (LINK) to Pioneer Square and then boarded bus #358…which for some reason my sometimes-dyslexic mind kept thinking was #385 – which really confused people when I asked for directions!

Thanks to Julio, I had an idea of things to do in Seattle (since he lived there for a year until last year). He did tell me that people weren’t exactly the friendliest there, but I seemed to get fairly lucky with people (although living there might be different).

Right away at the bus stop I struck up a conversation with a guy who had just moved there 3 months ago from Chicago. It was pretty cool to talk to another Midwesterner and right before he got off the bus he gave me one of his bus tickets so I didn’t have to pay the $2 fare!

Once I arrived at my stop in Shoreline I went to the computer repair shop that was right next door because (I was very sad about this) my computer got infected with an extremely bad case of spyware the night before! I was extremely frustrated by it and had no choice but to pay for it to get fixed because I needed my laptop for work. However, on the plus side, I’ll be able to write off the expense since I’m an independent contractor at my work.

In Shoreline, which is north of Seattle and an hour-long bus ride from downtown, I arrived at Dayna’s house (she was my couchsurfing host) and she was also hosting a girl named Jessica from Monterrey, Mexico! Dayna was on her way out to a concert so I talked to Jessica a little bit. Since she knew I lived in Spain briefly, she asked if I spoke Spanish and I was pretty embarrassed by how bad my Spanish is now.

I can read and write it okay, but my ear for it has *never* been good and now since I never practice I don’t speak very well either. Note to self: I *must* practice mi espanol mucho mas!!!

So I departed and left for the International District (formerly just called Chinatown but the influx of other Asian nationalities required a more general name). Of course, I didn’t get to see much because it was getting dark, I was alone, and the ID plus Pioneer Square (right next to the ID and where my bus stop was) seemed like it was kind of shady.

Seattle, unfortunately, has a pretty big (it seemed to me) homeless population and while generally homeless dudes are harmless, I didn’t want to take any chances.

When I got back to the suburbs, Shoreline, I stopped at a Vietnamese restaurant near my host’s house and had some awesome Kung Poa Chicken and fell in love with the way that Vietnamese restaurants make their spring rolls – they are wrapped in something clear (seaweed? I forget) and aren’t fried like in Chinese restaurants.

By the time I arrived there was yet another girl who had arrived that would be staying with us (Danielle from Rhode Island via Texas via many other states). She was *real* cool and definitely had an aura of positivity shining above her. She was stopping by in Seattle on her way to the farthest tip of Washington to work on an organic farm that was going to help prepare her for her upcoming Peace Corps assignment in February in sub-Saharan Africa.

Then Steve, one of Dayna’s housemates showed up with his friend Kim and they took us out to a local place to hang out and get out of the house while we waited for Dayna to come back for her concert. So the 5 of us (Danielle, Jessica, me, Steve, Kim) had a great time talking and getting to know each other – it was a very good way to end the night.