Blogs from Seattle, Washington, United States, North America - page 89

Welcome to my first Travel Blog! Tonight I received my Peace Corps staging kit in the mail ("staging" is the two-day orientation in the States prior to departure to the host country), and I am officially beginning my Peace Corps training on June 7, 2006! I am going to finish up my classes here, fly home to York, PA on June 2, and then drive to Philadelphia to begin staging! But let me back up a little bit... My name is Steve, and I am a Peace Corps Masters International (PCMI) graduate student at the UW Evans School of Public Affairs in Seattle. For the last 9 months, I've been taking classes in Economics, Statistics, Management, International Affairs, and Development, working towards a Master of Public Administration (MPA) and preparing myself for the Peace Corps. I ... read more

Our breakfast arrived, brought in on a linen covered table once again. We had ordered Vegetarian Benedict - two poached eggs with roasted vegetables and a jalapeno cheese sauce with breakfast potatoes nested on homemade brushetta. This was accompanied by tomato juice for Gail and grapefruit juice for me and a hot drink. It was very delicious but we were still full from dinner yesterday so couldn’t fully appreciate the breakfast. Once done we called the porter to collect our baggage and car. The car packed we headed off to the ferry port in the rain which was a couple of minutes away from the Empress. While waiting for the ferry we had to proceed through US immigration before boarding the ferry to Port Angeles, Washington. Seemed rather strange that it was done on Canadian Soil ... read more

Rental car = exlpore time. Viva International District! Also known as chinatown - but there are so many other asian cultures represented cant be Chinatown Wikipedia has a great description/history of the International District. http://wikitravel.org/en/Seattle/International_District Lots of history in seattle with a clash of all cultures here. Based on current events seemed like a good place to visit. Perfect place for me to go get lost. I like to travel by getting lost and seeing what I can find. Each block seems to be it's own culture from Asia. Vietmanese, China and Japan (by way of huge shopping center) are the most respresented. The Danny Woo Community park is where locals can do small gardens. Seems to be common in big cities and even madison has a couple. I got lost in the large new Japanese ... read more

The most common question I get asked after "funny accent where are you from?" is by far: "Soooo, you quit a great job and went traveling around the world, why?". Since I'm not exactly sure what the answer is to that question, I usually pause for a bit which generally means that the person asking the question tries to find an answer himself: "What are you running away from?", "Are you trying to find yourself?", "Are you writing a book?", "Have you recently divorced?" and so on. As a traveler you meet all kinds of fellow travelers. The funny thing is that although I have only been on the road for about six weeks, I have already met hundreds of people and in fact met all of those people mentioned above. I have met the recently ... read more

This week is concert week for me. I was suppose to go to Coachella, but alas with my current work travel schedule and lack of time with the doglets in AZ - i will see most of the bands I want to see in Seattle. Tonight i met Bruce at Matt's in the Pike St market area. This little place has had rave reviews, small menu and reservations are a must. After the black cod special, we were off. Well ok a Bombay Saphire and Tonic pit stop and we were off to the Paramount. Paramount Seattle is an old theater, and I am not much for one of theater shows, but my latest lust is Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. We hit the bar, but alas they wont let us out with our ... read more