Hello Family!
We know it has been a while, but it has felt like ever since we got to Seattle we have been running around being so busy! Here are some of our observations so far about Seattle:
* First of all, everyone was right, there is soooo much to do here! We've also noticed the cost of living is higher here, but we know we need to take advantage of the time we have here and do fun stuff even if it costs money. (Like spending $2.39 on a hazelnut truffle from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory...)
* Seattle is one of the greenest cities we've been to. It's like the Garden of Eden here, no joke! Utah is going to seem so barren when we get back!
* It does rain here, but it doesn't rain hard. It is almost misty-like. We also came at a good time, and don't think we will have near as much rain during the summer.
(This was taken right by Pike Place Market)
* People here are really trendy. They dress trendy and they are really into "health foods" and love organic stuff. We went to this one super market called "Metropolitan Market" and as Trevor put it, it's "yuppie" and very expensive. It's like Trader Joe's meets Albertson's. They've got organic stuff, regular stuff, and a lot of store-made artisan stuff. It's kind of fun! We'll head back when we have a craving for their $5 three-inch cheese cakes... (We hope you know we're joking...)
* It's been really nice to live downtown because we have a great view of the ocean and we can walk to a lot of our destinations. That's good because it costs money to park anywhere downtown (parking is really scarce). Downtown buses are free so we can ride to our work for free that way (just make sure you listen for your stop or tell the bus driver your stop or you'll end up in Mercer Island... ask Lindsay...)
* The city does have it's panhandlers, but overall it's not somewhere you'd be afraid to take your kids to.
* There are so many cafes and most of them are Starbucks (there are a hundred Starbucks within a 5 mile radius of where we live!). You can probably buy coffee within two minutes of wherever you are... We figure that Utah's replacement for cafes are creameries.
* There are also a lot of people with dogs. People are always walking dogs wherever we go. (There's even a dog park three blocks from where we live!)
* Seattle is very culturally diverse. Lindsay and I like to go on walks through the city, and last Saturday we stopped by a mall to get lunch. We were surprised to find an Indian food restaurant in the food court! We settled with some tasty Caribbean food.
* There are a lot of different events going on in Seattle. Last Saturday, we went to the Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market. We have never eaten so much and so many different types of cheese before! People were there from all over the world I think--They all had accents at least.
(Me in front of Pike Place at the Cheese festival)
* We're also happy to find that there are a lot of hiking and places to explore close by where we live. We drove like 15 minutes north to a place we'd never been to in Seattle to a public park the likes we'd never seen. It was like a mini national park. We were driving through a neighborhood and BAM! suddenly we were surround with lush green trees and thick plant growth.
The park has day hiking trails, a beach and even a spot designated for flying model airplanes! We walked through the forest there and were in awe at the landscape.
Another piece of good news, Lindsay FINALLY got an internship!!! It only took hours upon hours of searching, but networking helped tremendously. She is going to be working at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center--specifically with the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. She's just so excited have this experience and work with Ph.D's, MD's, MPH's, and other MS's! The lady that interviewed her said she publishes around 10-15 papers a year! She starts work on June 4th.
I'm (Trevor) about to start my third week here at Amazon.com. It's been a really fun experience for me. For one thing it's interesting to experience the work culture and how a big company functions. And on the other hand, it's like no other company I've heard of. It's very lax here. No one wears a suit and a tie, everyone just wears whatever they want. The company believes in being frugal, so they don't own any of the buildings they use, and the furnishings they use are very minimum. The funniest part is that all of the tables at Amazon that are used for work (computer desks, receptionist desks, conference tables etc.) are made out of doors! I'm serious! There aren't door knobs sticking out from the top and bottom, and the latches haven't been carved in the door. They're just sturdy lightly polished flat wooden doors. I'm working with the subscriptions team. We're in charge of all of the services that manage any product that has a subscription attached to it (for example, Amazon Prime and Unbox). I'm really enjoying myself and like my culturally diverse coworkers. (More about them later...)
Well, we should probably get going now. We hope everything is going well with everyone. We will write again soon.
Love,
Lindsay and Trevor
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