International Orientation Day

After a few kind of slow, yet exhausting days of research and other things and hanging out at the UW with some Germans and other international students , today was going to be exciting again!

Today I have been in Seattle for two weeks!

I took my bike up to University and it was really nice and sunny. The Burke Gilman-Trail is awesome and goes right along Lake Union, passing the Skyline of Seattle in the distance.

When I got there, I was faced with about 800 people from all over the world. We were in a huge ballroom with yummy bagels and lunch, loads of coffee and a couple of interesting and not so interesting talks about what’s ahead of us.

Unfortunately, the most dull talk was given by a German member of the Student Board of FIUTS (the “let’s get all the internationals together-people”). So much for cultural embassadorship.

However, I met so many interesting people today from Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Morrocco, Iran, Sweden, Togo and of course the German crew was there, too. Table 16 Rocks! ;-)

Now, some of us had read in the Daily’s “Welcome Issue” (University Newspaper), that it was a myth that we were going to sit under these cherry trees with a bunch of people from all kinds of different nations and discuss world literature.

But right there, I started doubting this would remain a myth. And if it doesn’t happen by itself, we’ll just have to found a club for it (if there isn’t one already). After that we headed out for a tour of Campus and the University District.

I skipped the Udistrict though and went to the library.
The rest of the day I spent researching and almost got locked into the library when it closed at 5pm(!). Except for opening hours when there are no courses though, the library is awesome. Yo can check out books for almost three months
(“this will be due December 4th” – “Excuse me, did you say December 4th?” – “Yes, but you can get an extension if you need more time” - *jaw drop*)
and you can loan books fro libraries on the other side of this country (“Hey there, New York Public Library”) for FREE! Did I mention I like the library ;-)

And for a finish, just a little teaser for the weekend at Eatonville near Mt. Rainier:

Attack of the Killer Racoons & Bike Swap

So yesterday was a pretty slow day. I did some research, laundry and cooking and stayed around the house all day, desperately watching craigslist for a new bike. Then, suddenly and without warning, there were was a rumble and some loud squeeking and grunting noises outside. The dogs barked and the noise grew even louder. When I looked outside, I was face to face with a pack of middle sized dog large racoons that were climbing fences and shack roofs.

They were not scared, although I wasn't more than 2 meters away from them. The flash of the camera finally made them flee though.

So today I got up really early to go to a bike swap at a bar / grill parking lot near the Boeing airport. Not a pretty sight. BUT I finally found a bike that I like, so I can now scratch that off my list and try to safe the money that I've been handing out that last week. YAY!

I rode my new bike back home, since only weired people seemed to be on the bus today: One bus pulled over and stood there for 10 minutes until the three passengers that were about to start fighting (literally) for a seat in the bus got scared by the driver calling the cops. Nice neighborhood near that airport ... real nice neighborhood.

I rode over the bridge crossing Lake Union however and that made up for all the trouble. The deep blue water was very inviting and I'll have to go down there some time!

Just one Day in the Emerald City

So, after yesterday was kind of unexciting (I opened a bank account,did some shopping AND I got my new lenses from bhphoto before I cooked some tasty pancakes), I decided that after a week, it was finally time to go downtown:

The place to start is of course Pike Place Market, the huge market down at the waterfront that serves to catch all the tourists

with loads of seafood (and occasionally flying / thrown fish),

flowers

and all other kind of food and nitbits. Some "artists" like Parrot Guy,

who trained his parrot to drop dead when one points at him with his finger and shoots, are of course trying to get a share of that tourist money coming in.

From there, my trip went to the International District. In Chinatown I had some really yummy Honey-Sesame Chicken,

before I left to walk towards Pioneer Square. I definitely need to do the Underground tour again, because that was so much fun last time! On Pioneer Square I caught another guy with his birds... but it doesn't look like they are trained... or even tame.

For friends of Celtic (or Scottish) tradition, Pioneer Square has a (new I guess?) fantastic store. Utilikilt. It has kilts of all kinds and an asortment of shirts to go with them:

I refreshed myself in one of the numerous Starbucks (you might just think that stuff was invented here ;-)) with a Chai Tea

and went on towards the REI store and could just keep myself from falling into a shopping frenzy. I finally got a new sleeping bag, though. Onwardsw I went, to the Seattle icon: the Space Needle.

I didn't feel the need to go up, I'll be having plenty of time when I'm being visited, so I went on to the waterfront to Peer 70 for another beautiful sunset. There, I also found Seattle's version of the Manneken Pis...

only it seems he has been holding it the 300 years that Brussels was faster building the statue.

With a last shot of the Skyline, I roamed the city in search of my bus and finally found it, some time after dark (glad to be out of town!)

Constructing a New Life

So, today has been much better than yesterday. I went back to the UW, but I tooks things a little easier and got a lot more done. In between I had time to relax and enjoy some... eh.. interesting campus art:

On my way home (with a short stop at the Mall to finally buy my watch), I finally got a chance to take a picture of why Americans are so terrified by any major disruption of the weather like hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and what not. To quote an infamous and unknown German but kind of foreign constructor: "Ich nix bauen Haus, das fressen Maus".

Speaking of the weather: sunny days so far: 5; really cloudy days so far: 1; rainy days in the city where it is supposedly raining all the time: ZERO!

The Sistine Library

Today I went to the UW to get to some offices and do the check-in.

My overall day felt pretty useless, but I did encounter some more of UW's gorgeous facilities. Check out the reading room of the main library - or as I am tempted to call it: the Sistine Library. It could however use some marble on the floor!

Labor Day

Labor Movement - "the guys who brought you the weekend".

So most people are supposed to not work on this day. Gives them time to draw funny signs I guess. Or maybe that's very deeprooted "American" culture?

Anyway, since I still don't have a bike on my own, I borrowed Elaine's to use the day and go to the local locks that connect Salmon Bay (fresh water) and Pudget Sound (salt water). From there I went to the harbor and was just fascinated how perfect this city is concerning living conditions.

Funny enough travel sickness caught me and I just longed to take a boat out to the ocean. Then of course I had to go back to Sunset Hill again, just for it's awesomeness.

Sunset Hill

Just when I thought this would be a day without a post, beautiful Sunset Hill came along. I'm not commenting any further, the pictures tell the story:

The park has an awesome view on the Pudget Sound bay and you can see all the Olympic mountains on the Olympic island. It is beautiful.

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