Seattle! How is it now? Are there jobs? Should I move there?

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Zora, you'll be here for the Capitol Hill Block Party. Kayaking/canoeing the cut, exploring the arboreteum, visiting the Mohai (Museum of History and Industry), all within blocks of campus. Eating at Thai Tom, as often as possible, checking out the University Bookstore (which usually has some good readings scheduled too) and Twice-sold Tales and Half-price Books, movies at the great old Neptune movie house, also the Varsity theater and fantastic rentals at Scarecrow Video. Again, all within walking/biking distance. Saturdays, the U-district farmers' market is up at NE 50th and the Ave. Great produce, breads, cheeses, fish, pastries.

And, croquet FAP!

― Jaq, Sunday, 6 May 2007 20:43 (seventeen years ago) link

but does anyone have any tips on how to spend it?

call and complain about your dormitory accomodation. if you work your way up the beauracratic ladder, our lxy will eventually get your call. then say "LOL IT'S AN ILXOR!"

there are a million bazillion things to do in the summer, with some great ideas on this thread. the best couple i can think of, without copying jaq, are: walk walk walk the city, between your neighborhood and downtown, see music, fap with us. okay, one copy. no wait two. ah jaq...

― jergïns, Monday, 7 May 2007 09:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Thanks guys. The more I read about this workshop I'm there for the more I think I'll be lucky if I have time to sleep, even, but croquet FAP sounds like a must!

I'm sure the university accommodation will be superb, if there's an ILXOR responsible... oh wait... I know what ILXORs do when they should be working...

― Zora, Monday, 7 May 2007 09:27 (seventeen years ago) link

haha

― jergïns, Monday, 7 May 2007 17:06 (seventeen years ago) link

my uncle works for boeing, lives in bellevue, and is never home. he is offering to me, my BF, & my little sis a place to stay rent-free. although things are wonderful here in arkansas, a change is welcome! too, no rent is a hard offer to pass up. obvious perks: proximity to seattle & canada. please tell me good things about bellevue!

― Ai Lien, Monday, 7 May 2007 20:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Uhm....it's not far from Seattle! You can ride a bike or walk across Lake Washington on the I-90 bridge. It's got a nice urban skyline in the downtown part. You'd be close to the Cascades. Crossroads Mall is great, very non-mall-like with a giant chess set in the food court, which is full of non-chain fast food places. It has almost 100 parks.

― Jaq, Monday, 7 May 2007 20:08 (seventeen years ago) link

is public transport between seattle & bellevue decent? the cost of living in little rock is pretty low. i imagine that if rent is being paid for, the cost of living in washington isn't much different? i'm pretty excited about this. we have a year to work it out as we just renewed our lease. but it'll give up proper time to scope it out, etc.

― Ai Lien, Monday, 7 May 2007 20:18 (seventeen years ago) link

also, i'm very excited about the vietnamese population - i'm 1/2 vietnamese myself. there is hardly a community here anymore.

how far is seattle from bellevue? 20 mins? i've been to bellevue before, i just can't remember. oh! i'm looking forward to camping, too.

― Ai Lien, Monday, 7 May 2007 20:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Good bus service between the cities as their in the same county (King). Time between depends on where you are in Bellevue - 20 min from downtown B to downtown S in moderate traffic is about right. Car insurance is higher here than in Arkansas, and gas too I'm sure due to taxes (it's around $3.40/gal for 87 oct.), but if you take the bus, that's no worry. Electricity's cheap in WA, sales tax is high (8.9%). No state income tax though.

― Jaq, Monday, 7 May 2007 20:34 (seventeen years ago) link

my experience with bellevue is pretty limited, but it seems pretty upscale and blah to me. I had no idea about the 100 parks thing, though, and it's definitely possible that there's more to the place.

no rent is a tough offer to pass up! you should totally do it.

― Myspace Password Admin, Monday, 7 May 2007 20:51 (seventeen years ago) link

re: vietnamese community - I think Seattle's is still the 6th largest in the country. There was a great Tet celebration at the Seattle Center this year.

― Jaq, Monday, 7 May 2007 21:01 (seventeen years ago) link

uh oh, i've been outed. :)

but really, zora, please do let me know if you need any assistance with negotiating campus or your accommodations.

campus recommendations: The henry art gallery is one of the best art venues in the region, and the burke museum (natural history) is good too. there are a number of very nice sculptures around campus, and aside from that the campus is very beautiful. of course depending on your program (i would guess fred hutch based on what you've said?) you may not be on campus much at all, except to sleep so....

i do hope you have time for some exploring and socializing.

where are you coming from?

ai lien, there are a lot of vietnamese restaurants and markets in seattle, all over really but with a large concentration in the central district. some friends just moved to that area and one of them works in bellevue, so i don't think it's too difficult to get from one place to the other.

― lxy, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 04:20 (seventeen years ago) link

I've been to Seattle a couple of times now, for a couple days at a time. I've mostly spent time mostly in Ballard, Capitol Hill, Greenlake, the International District, Belltown, downtown, the U district, and one sojourn to Rainier Valley.

Other than Queen Anne, which I seem to have skipped, what else is worth checking out? I'm kind of curious to see what I imagine to be the more residential neighborhoods, like Alki and West Seattle.

― joygoat, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 07:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Bellevue is, yeah, close to Seattle. There's actually a lot of amazing food in the eastern suburbs, Indian and Thai and Vietnamese, since so many recent immigrants (from hb-1 microsoft visas to former boat people) have ended up there.

There's actually starting to be some interesting architecture there. starting. watch me use GIS to make Bellevue look sexy:

http://www.brightworks.net/images/projects/bt.jpg https://www.ehmssl.com/towers_images/pic.jpg

― jergïns, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 09:46 (seventeen years ago) link

what else is worth checking out?

great thing about this city: there are still more neighborhoods to explore. first i would say phinney ridge, mostly cuz that's our neighborhood. it's a nice walking street, shops and etc., just above the zoo. the thing that really recommends it is that on a clear day you can see both the cascades to the east and the olympics to the west. mountains on both sides!

other neighborhoods not mentioned above: ravenna (cute, yuppie/hippy, old houses and cafes and bookstores, quiet), yeah alki (fish and chips, great views back to the city, beachfront), columbia city ('up and coming' or whatever, an old southern neighborhood, not too gentrified, yet). all of these are pretty residential, and worth exploring.

― jergïns, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 09:53 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm certain we'll move there. my uncle really had us at 'free rent'. it'll about a year, though, before we get there since we just renewed our lease. i'll probably keep my eye out on this thread, though!

we should have a soiree. i've heard about jaq's cooking!

― Ai Lien, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 13:53 (seventeen years ago) link

a year in the planning

― Ai Lien, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 13:56 (seventeen years ago) link

her cooking is worth waiting a year for.

i'd move to bellevue for free rent. no problem.

― jergïns, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 15:27 (seventeen years ago) link

What I love about all the neighborhoods in Seattle is that they each have their own little downtown - a strip of 2-3 storied brick storefronts w/ eclectic mix of shops. Columbia City has a fantastic old school barber shop, a nice bakery, pubs, a wood-fired neopolitan pizza place w/ great gelato. Madrona has a cupcake shop, a custom cobbler and hatter who display the most over-the-top awesome things in the window, and a small winery.

We are currently living down in the far south end, south of Rainier Valley and Columbia City - it's a neighborhood in complete turmoil due to construction of the light rail and the hugely shifting mix of immigrant populations. I'd recommend a walk around the Seward (as in the Seward of Seward's Folly) Park neighborhood, including the 2.5 mile circle around Seward Park where the trail is bordered on one side by Lake Washington and on the other by the forest of the park. Other great lake shore walks - Magnuson Park, especially when the blackberries are ripe or for a few hours on Kite Hill (if you brought your kite) or a little while in the Soundgarden. If you walk north along the lake from Seward park, you first come to Rainier Beach, then to the marina at Leschi (more great little shops and cafes), then to the old Madrona Beach bathhouse where in the summer a barbeque stand is set up.

The Arboretum is lovely and has a small Japanese garden, but down in the south end is the Kubota Garden which is a treasure. The new Chief Sealth trail is opening next weekend - it runs through the south end and along Beacon Ridge. The Burke-Gilman trail runs from Ballard for miles up around the north of the lake to, like, Bothell. Summer in Seattle is so beautiful; it's a great place to be outdoors. REI, Greg's, and lots of other shops rent bikes and gear.

Actually, that reminds me - Lingbert, REI also rents camping equipment!

ai lien, we'll try not to use up all the fun before you guys get here =D

― Jaq, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 15:37 (seventeen years ago) link

aw jergins making me blush....

― Jaq, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 15:38 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh yeah, Phinney Ridge - we ate breakfast at Mae's last time I was there. I saw Lakes Union & Washington simultaneously, but not the mountains. But I've only seen Rainier once in the maybe 12 days that I've spent in Seattle, and only like two of those were cloudy and rainy.

The downtown strip in each neighborhood is what I really like about the city, which probably makes sense because at least a couple neighborhoods used to be separate towns, right? I know at least Ballard was, based on the little history page I saw in Archie McPhee.

― joygoat, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 17:42 (seventeen years ago) link

i second ravenna even if i broke myself there. phinney ridge seems nice. i like the "lawns" of residential capitol hill, the more vertical and unkempt the better.

― gabbneb, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 17:52 (seventeen years ago) link

oh guys, i'm sorry. i've been mal-informed. it's renton, not bellevue. bellevue is where my gran & aunt live. sorry!

― Ai Lien, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Ah, well, Renton's in my current neck of the woods, the far south end. Bus service comments still apply. There are some nice watershed trails, but it is a bit more industrial/suburban. Still - it's close to Seattle proper and it's free rent!

― Jaq, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:41 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah! it seems a little more 'down to earth'. make sense? i can't wait to see those trees!

― Ai Lien, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:42 (seventeen years ago) link

but really, zora, please do let me know if you need any assistance with negotiating campus or your accommodations.

campus recommendations: The henry art gallery is one of the best art venues in the region, and the burke museum (natural history) is good too. there are a number of very nice sculptures around campus, and aside from that the campus is very beautiful. of course depending on your program (i would guess fred hutch based on what you've said?) you may not be on campus much at all, except to sleep so....

i do hope you have time for some exploring and socializing.

where are you coming from?

-- lxy, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 05:20 (16 hours ago)

Thanks!

The workshop is Clarion West. I'm not sure where the classes will take place; CW hires a sorority house to accomodate all the attendees. I know from reading diaries of past students that it's going to be a very, very intensive six weeks. Erk!

I'm coming over from the UK, Manchester to be precise.

― Zora, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 20:57 (seventeen years ago) link

oh, sorry zora. i'm afraid i don't know anything about that program, nor about the sororities... that's all totally separate from my area of "expertise." it looks like a great program, though!

and of course it's the same campus, same great resources, etc. and us! check back here for summer goings-on, and let us know if you need anything.

― lxy, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 04:06 (seventeen years ago) link

I've only seen Rainier once in the maybe 12 days that I've spent in Seattle

There used to be a sign on the I-5 north, just north of Lacey, that said "In the distance, Mt. Rainier." I probably passed that sign 30 times and never once saw the mountain. They took the sign down last year.

― jergïns, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 09:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Clarion West = geeky SF writer heaven.

I don't know anything about sororities either. What is a sisterhood doing on a campus and why does it get a house? I assumed it just meant female-only accommodation, but we'll be mixed when we're in it so, uh, no need to smuggle the men into our rooms I guess.

I'll keep an eye out here for news of that croquet FAP! I wouldn't want to miss it.

― Zora, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 10:24 (seventeen years ago) link

i'll remember and email you.

the sororities are across the street, just off campus. some of the buildings are impressive, in a fake neoclassical/animal house way.

― jergïns, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 10:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Apparently the house has a baby grand in the front room ^^

― Zora, Thursday, 10 May 2007 19:56 (seventeen years ago) link

and thanks.

― Zora, Thursday, 10 May 2007 19:57 (seventeen years ago) link

The Seattle Cheese Festival is this weekend at Pike Place Market.

Mmmmmmm - cheese!

― Jaq, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 15:27 (seventeen years ago) link

OH MAN!

― Ai Lien, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 15:32 (seventeen years ago) link

We are going to the cheese movie on Friday! The cheese race, with the Granite City Curling Club, sounds very silly.

― Jaq, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 16:18 (seventeen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

CROQUET FAP II is on

Saturday June 30th, 4:00 p.m.
Lxy's yard, same as last time

Croquet
Drinks and food
post-game downstairs drunken dance music

Bring food and drinks. There's also a grocery store up the street. Email me if you need directions or information or whatever: jergins at gmail dot com. Lurker, you should come.

Rain or shine.

― jergïns, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 00:45 (sixteen years ago) link

YES! Mallet in one hand, drink in the other. Such a fine time.

― Jaq, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 01:23 (sixteen years ago) link

you were the epitome of style last time. we all followed your lead: "oh, that's how you do it...you can drink and play at the same time!"

― jergïns, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 04:30 (sixteen years ago) link

jaq is always the epitome of style.

― lxy, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 05:02 (sixteen years ago) link

Hey, if anyone's interested, Matos and a bunch of others will be celebrating my birthday with me on Saturday at the Canterbury, starting at 8.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 09:13 (sixteen years ago) link

Is it this Friday for the Sign O' the Times film? I want to see that.

Rrrrricky! Another gemini! See you Saturday!

― Jaq, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 13:36 (sixteen years ago) link

^^^^^^^^^^
e

― Jaq, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 14:09 (sixteen years ago) link

Good God, the Canterbury! I was the bartender there, ages ago. it's haunted. it really is!

― aimurchie, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 14:24 (sixteen years ago) link

Their ghost makes a mean grilled cheese, let me tell you! :)

― Jaq, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 15:22 (sixteen years ago) link

Ned, when are you coming to Seattle this summer? It seems like every time we plan a FAP you're arriving three weeks before or three weeks after.

― jergïns, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 23:16 (sixteen years ago) link

I'm going to make that amazing vegan eggplant/mushroom chili experiment for CFAPII - it will make a great dip.

― Jaq, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 23:38 (sixteen years ago) link

!!!

― jergïns, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 23:40 (sixteen years ago) link

I'll be plotting my cooking for the next week, at least :)

― Jaq, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 23:44 (sixteen years ago) link

should i move to seattle y/n

― river wolf, Thursday, 7 June 2007 00:53 (sixteen years ago) link

YYY

― jergïns, Thursday, 7 June 2007 00:57 (sixteen years ago) link

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