Northwest Adventure Part 3: City Sights

for those of you who read Liz's blog (and i recommend it), just pretend like you haven't seen all these pictures already.

at the Seattle sculpture garden

most of them were pretty abstract

my favorite sculpture there

SSG contemplates both the metal tree & the meaning of life

the space needle

lake washington, view near my aunts' house

Northwest Adventure Part 2: Random People

as SSG & i were waiting for the bus one day, a man will long dreadlocks approached us and said,

Do you have an Eastern European email address?

Ummm, no

Would you like one?

No

You don't want an Eastern European email address?

No

the conversation went on for a while & also included these gems:

Do you want to buy textiles and handbags in Texas? We could take Amtrak or Greyhound.

You don't want to by handbags in Texas?

Which one is the artist?

once we were on the bus, an adorable old man boarded. he was wearing nice pants & a wool suit jacket, a textured wool tie, and a baseball cap, vans, & a diamond stud earring. he was an interesting contradiction. as he boarded, an old lady said loudly, "hi boyfriend, how are you?" they proceeded to flirtatiously discuss betty davis movies. it was kinda weird to watch the whole encounter.

Northwest Adventure Part 1: Riding the Bus

SSG & I went to Seattle/Vancouver for last weekend. We managed to get from the airport to downtown pretty quickly & then proceeded to get confused in the transportation tunnel for about an hour. We figured out which bus we needed and even which station to get it from, but actually finding the stop was a little more complicated (really, it was kinda complicated!). After two conversations with metro transit employees, we finally found our bus stop. I was excited enough to document it.

After meeting two youths of questionable gender & learning how to remember the cross streets of Seattle ("Jesus Christ Built Seattle Under Pressure"), we finally arrived at my aunts' street. Once again, documentation was in order.

The next day we braved the buses again. We boarded Bus 3 near the beginning of its route & headed off to explore the city. We decided on all day bus passes ($4 each). The Southeast Asian bus driver said to put the money in the bus meter, but I slide a bill into the feeder, he yelled, "Oh dear, sweet lord! Was that a $20?" Turns out, the bus meter does not give you change. We needed $12 back so as each new rider tried to put their money in the machine, our bus driver snatched it out of their hands saying, "How much money do you have? Give it to me. The lady already paid for you." By the time our stop arrived, we had managed to make back $11 and provide a mixture of confusion and amusement for our fellow passengers.

As I was trying to keep track of how well we were recouping our $12, SSG was engrossed in conversation with one of the very friendly Seattlites we met. After giving us a long list of places to visit (complete with bus routes to get there), he said, "If you go to Starbucks, I'll be deeply offended. If you must go corporate, Tully's is acceptable. But really, you need to find Pete's Coffee. It is the best." Other gems from this helpful local included: there is good Irish music in Pioneer Square, the "dive-iest" Little Saigon is the best. the others are just rip offs, KBXP is the best radio station. we will probably want to listen to it online when we return to Atlanta, Pagliacci is the best pizza, and the Queen Anne neighborhood is rich but down to earth, which is "an interesting contradiction".

Bonus Notes: We did got to Tully's (it has better pumpkin spice steamers than anywhere else we tried) and Queen Anne, which has a lovely view of the skyline. I am about to try out KBXP right now.

the view from Queen Anne

tragedy averted

well, i was right about Boy. he is alive & well in Albania. he starts training a new missionary this week & is more than a little stressed about it. luckily, he is still sending a steady stream of hilarious Albanian words for me to enjoy. here are some of my favorites, with his commentary.

Filan-someone whose name is not to be mentioned (apparently Lord Voldemort really did hide out in Albania!)

Peshkaqen njeringrënës-great white shark (this one is awesome because the direct word-for-word translation is actually ‘person-eating shark)
Virrake-dark stripe on a donkey’s shoulder (good thing we have this word but ‘learn’ and ‘teach’ are the same word huh?)

Motërzohet-to pledge sisterhood to each other by drinking a drop or each other’s blood

living vicariously

wow. a crapload of things happened to my friends and me today. including (all different people):

1. big car accident

2. new baby boy (9 lbs!)

3. new car

4. finally got health & dental insurance

5. life changing decisions put into motion (sorry, so cryptic. i took a vow of silence)

6. braved a church study group all alone for 1st time

7. something sure as hell had better have happened to Boy b/c he didn't email today & The 'Rents called me freaking out just a little bit. convinced them not to call the mission like they did the 1st time i missed a weekly email.

with all this stuff going on, i was basically on the phone for 4 hours tonight. my ear is tired.