Seattle, January 2006

Jet lag is a bitch. It’s 5:45 in the morning Seattle time but of course my body thinks its 8:45. This might be an ongoing theme as we continue to move west, chasing the setting sun. But to be honest, I love the early morning hours. The world is still very quiet with sleep and darkness, but the mind (at least mine) is clear and alert.

I’ve just finished a very brief but insightful round of yoga. Brief because the space is not the best as they are no sticky mats to really get good grip. The session was insightful because during the 15 minutes stretching and breathing, my body berated me for ignoring it the last 6 months. There is really no excuse besides laziness. So as we begin our adventure abroad, I begin a series of lifestyle changes, including more yoga, more walking and bike riding, better diet, and less alcohol (i.e. beer). Because my body has been slowing down a bit and my mind is a little more stubborn to change as I grow older (I turned 30 this year), I believe this is a very crucial time in my life to re-develop good living habits and rid myself of the bad ones.

The trip has been going fairly well so far. We left Atlanta and the relative comfort of my mother’s house on Thursday the 5^th. We had been living there since May to save as much money as we could before leaving the country without a secure job (yet) or any grant money (yet). The accommodations were nice but cramped. I find it refreshing and necessary to occasionally reduce your life down to the bare essentials and in this case that was 1 ½ rooms – our bedroom, a small bathroom and part of an office. We should expect nothing more from our Tibetan housing, so it has been a good exercise in simplicity.

The only thing (well, really two things) that really bothered us living with mom was her smoking and her failure to reduce, reuse and recycle. Her smoking is going to kill her. It has already begun. The coughing and the scratchy throated voice have gotten noticeably worse even in the time Leigh and I have lived there. It deeply pains me to see my mom, the most important woman besides my wife, slowing destroying herself – not only physically, but spiritually as well. Smoking doesn’t just kill the body, but interferes with and disorients the spirit, the chi, as well. When I’ve tried to talk to her about it, I only met stubborn resistance to change and sad acceptance of her habit. She unfortunately does not think she can quit or does not want to quit. Either way, it is very depressing to witness. Her failure to reduce, reuse and recycle is not really her fault (although she has had ample exposure and training from me). It is more a cultural thing that sees this type of thinking or behavior as alternative, and is especially ingrained in the southeast, east and mid-west. For Leigh and I, this has only reinforced our decision to live in a community where this is not the alternative but the norm. Where respect for the environment and good stewardship is not sacrificed on the alter of profit or convenience (as it seems to us in Atlanta, where developers run wild with chainsaws, sewage regularly dumps into the rivers and creeks, and one has to fight tooth and nail to get a bike lane established).

Honestly, I am quite curious about moving out of a consumer based, Capitalist economy into something more Socialist, utilitarian and Spartan. Even if that means after 5 months I come back praising the land of Liberty and the almighty dollar, I feel the need to experience something different. I realize there will be many, many things I find more disturbing, more destructive or more unjust about living in China, but I need to experience them for myself, to see them with my own eyes, and ingest them personally to form my own opinions.

I feel that is such a big problem currently with the majority of people – they form opinions, make decisions and judgments without ever having experienced it themselves. They get their information from friends, parents or pastors (who are just as ignorant) or they listen to or read the mass media (who have bottom lines and special interests). These opinions, which can be reverently held, are the reasons for war, greed, injustice and in large part poverty. You have two sources of action – fear and love. Ignorance is the son of fear and main tool for abusive power.

But I digress into personal opinions which, as I’ve just said, lead to conflict.

We drove from Atlanta to Winston-Salem to visit Leigh’s parents and her sister and her husband (our brother in law) came down too. It was a very pleasant visit, we had good weather and fortunately I get along well with Leigh’s whole family. Her mother kept us well fed throughout the 4 day visit and we returned in kind with helping them with little projects they haven’t been able to tackle since moving into this new house – like hanging pictures, installing lights, moving boxes in the basement and putting a new birdfeeder up. The extended weekend passed quickly with laughter, good company and long sunset walks. On Sunday, her parents drove us the 30 miles to Greensboro Int’l Airport where we said the second round of our good byes (the first being in Atlanta with all my family).

Of course there were some major overweight baggage fees as we both have two large bags stuffed to the gills, plus our carry-on bags and each our ‘personal item’. All in all, I think we have around 275 pounds of luggage with us! It’s insane how much stuff we have. But when you consider we are moving to the other side of the world to live AND work, it’s amazing we could get our entire 30+ years of life down to 3 bags each. I’m sure there are many things we think we’ll need, but won’t use, and many things we have forgotten. I am going to keep a running tab on what we are using and later evaluate how successful or overzealous we were with our packing. Right now, after hauling it around 2 airports, I definitely think we brought too much!

Can I just say how much I dislike Delta? If I never have to fly them again, I’ll die a happy man. The flight was late leaving Greensboro, both of our seats were broken (mine wouldn’t lock up, her’s wouldn’t recline back). The so-called ‘meal’ we had listed on our printed itinerary was cheese and crackers with a very small bag of granola. And the movie was just awful. Some Cameron Diaz crap about good girl and bad girl sisters. Blah! If not for an angel of a flight attendant giving us some extra snack packs, the whole flight would have been a wash. Did I mention the overweight baggage fees? Ouch.

It is Monday morning and we are now in Seattle, staying with an old friend of Leigh’s (who is generous enough to give us a bed and taxi from the airport). Her condo is to the east of Seattle and is built on stilts over Lake Washington. It is a pretty nice view over the water to the other shore sprinkled with house lights, but it is also fairly typical January weather for Seattle – cool, grey and overcast with a light drizzle. The house is beginning to stir…as is my empty belly!

January 10^th

The wind is roaring outside this morning. It has been constant and strong for hours. Seemingly no rain yet, but let’s wait a minute….it’ll show up soon. I should say that the rain, though heavy and oppressive at times, keeps this area brilliantly green, clean and very fresh. There doesn’t seem to be any trash or debris anywhere because I assume it all gets washed away. The effect to the inexperienced eye is a city decorated with green – mosses, grasses and conifers are simply everywhere. It has a very pleasing affect on the mind, all the green, it is quite calming.

But I don’t think it quite makes up for the lack of sunshine from November till April. To compensate, SeATLiens overcompensate for the constant gray and drizzle with caffeine. In one ½ mile stretch, we passed 8 different coffee shops…and only 2 of them were Starbucks! (Though we did pass 5 in 10 minutes at one point yesterday). From little espresso drive up shacks in the parking lots of hardware stores where you can get your shot for the road to airy all wood corner store establishments where the bar itself is longer than most boats.

Seattle is a city wired. And as you know, wired people like to talk. During our day, Leigh and I had long conversations with complete strangers about omelets and warm coffee (of course), the differences and similarities between Target and Fred Meyer’s (both one stop shopping), and the use of character versus plot in Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Herman Hesse. It was great! But I find it very interesting that the combination of gray and coffee somewhat counter-act each other, so in a way, people here drink so coffee (or tea) to just stay sane. Coffee as self medicating therapy….I could get used to that.

Yesterday was a very pleasant day of just driving around and exploring the greater Seattle area. Fortunately, we had a car loaned to us. I say this because I’m afraid that Seattle, like Atlanta, is a car town. There isn’t a Metro or Subway at all, everything is buses (and there are a lot of them), but everyone seems to drive everywhere. Seattle is a little spread out too, basically settled around Lake Washington and the Puget Sound, so there are islands (and therefore bridges) everywhere as well. That and the winter drizzle makes for a difficult journey on a bicycle.

We started our day with nice mile walk along the shores of Lake Washington to a greasy spoon diner down the street from where we where staying. Our first coffee stop. It was run by Greeks and as friendly and good a breakfast as one could ask. I just don’t think Seattle sells bad coffee. Even the greasy spoon had coffee better than Caribou’s or Charbucks. Walking back we were amazed at how many waterfowl there are here. We counted 6 different species of duck, Canadian geese, cormorants (sp?), and Great Blue herons (though not a waterfowl, a water bound bird). And the flora was very different too. From yellow limbed weeping willows to 100 foot tall cedars, we were constantly asking “Wow, what is that beautiful thing?!”

Our first stop was the Golden Gardens Park, which is on the west side of Ballard (slightly north of downtown Seattle). A Puget Sound shoreline and some restored wetlands gave us some nice windy and rocky beach time and the opportunity to see some big cargo ships heading down from the Juan de Fuqua (sp?) Straight towards the port of Seattle (one of the largest in the world). We also watched some extraordinarily large fishing vessels heading out to the Pacific. With cages the size of Mini Coopers, I gathered they were looking for lobster and giant crab. Experiencing the wind, the cold and the sting of the salt water, I tip my hats to those fisher-folk. That is a hard, hard life they led hauling a livelihood from those big, dark waters.

After wishing we could bring home some beautiful stones and driftwood found on the beach, we headed down to the Ballard locks, which separate Lake Washington from Puget Sound. The locks work on exactly the same principle as the great Panama Canal locks (which we’ve seen by the way!). Boats line up going one way inside the locks. The locks close and then fill or release water (depending on which way) so when the locks open again, the water level is the same and the boats keep trucking along. They are large enough to accommodate the larger shipping vessels, but today there were only recreational boaters – sailboats and yachts, with a couple tug boats thrown in for spice.

Filling up on our second coffee stop shortly after the locks, we headed into the city for a mandatory stop at Pike’s Market, the open aired public market located right on the water almost directly downtown. Yes, it is rather touristy, but for good reason. The place is really, really cool. You can buy everything from fresh seafood (best and biggest fish I’ve ever seen – 50 lb salmon not uncommon, halibut the size of small deer), to fresh produce (raspberries the size of golf balls), to cheap Chinese fake leather purses, to small sculptures “Made from St. Helen’s Ash”. Unfortunately, it was closing up when we got there, but we still managed to enjoy the brief but colorful hour we had to peruse, taste and gawk.

Some random visions –

Cargo ship stacked high, skirting through the fog, far out on the horizon….

A barking Monk fish (fisherman induced joke) making my poor wife jump nearly thru her skin….

Giant crab legs as large as baseball bats….

Iridescent black and blue herring on ice hauled from the sea not 6 hours earlier….

Not a single Bush sticker to be seen…

The neon blue arches of Qwest field…the closest thing I’ve seen to a UFO here since….

The towering Space Needle….

Dark maroon seaweed pieces mixed with beautiful red, green and black stones…

Meticulously landscaped yards, most with pools or fountains (like there isn’t enough water here!)…

Stumpy red tugboat with a stumpy, yellow-slickered captain….

Fat little Buddha on a slinky spring bouncing along on a car dashboard…

A thousand variations of gray….

Broken clouds racing across the sky…

The burnt sienna of Cedar bark complimented with the deep green of the Cedar leaves…

Barnacled encrusted rocks washed up on the shore…

Rotten wooden stump reminders from a pier or dock long gone beaten from the waves ….

Large gray squirrels that look they could scrap with any cat…

Long lines at bus stops…

Double buses attached with the accordion middle…

Wind whipped waves crashing against the condo’s stilts….

A Cocker Spaniel sitting regally at the bow of a large yacht waiting to pass thru the Ballard locks…

Reasonable traffic at 5 pm….