So I’m writing this post in the SeaTac (Seattle – Tacoma) airport because I have some down time before my flight. I should be able to cover the last week and a half that I left off on even though it was pretty jam packed.
Sept 12-13 – On Saturday Juliane came over and we went to Drew’s place to watch the UCLA-Tennessee football game. Looking at his place made me really want to graduate and start making some money. The house was awesome, 3 bedroom, 4 bath, 3 story house with a massive TV that was made for lazy Sunday’s watching football all day. The game was amazing, the people were awesome, Drew and his roommate graduated from UCLA as well, and at halftime we got a little hungry so we went to a little bakery. I got a chocolate croissant- the entire summer I’ve been having an insatiable chocolate craving. When we got back we finished watch the game that had an amazing ending, except for our starting (actually decent) quarterback not being allowed to play for 3-4 weeks. We then went to a tapas bar they had in Wallingford. It was pretty pricy but I finally ate a good pollo molé. We had another 20 minutes to burn before the next bus came by so we went with Drew to a local record shop and I finally got a hold of a Blue Scholar’s CD.
On Sunday, Drew came by and picked us up at 7:30 or so in the AM for a hiking trip. We dropped of Juliane on the way there because Issaquah was directly on the way. A ½ hour further East we got to the hiking location at about 8:30 and I was prepared with a PB and J sandwich and a bottle of water. I was ready for the planned 8 mile, ¾ mile vertically up, approximate 4 hour hike. The problem is that I came along, and whenever I go into nature, people get lost. We were along a trail the entire time, but missed the turn point for Granite Mountain. The view we had was pretty spectacular (see attached photo) but it was at this lookout that we found out we were going the wrong way. We decided to turn back and when we found the correct turn we had already gone 7 miles. Of course we wanted to keep going. So with half my sandwich left and half a bottle of water we began our ¾ mile vertical hike (the other hike included much less of an elevation difference). After a torturous 2 ½ - 3 miles we sat at one of the few shady spots near the top of the mountain. At this point I realized that I couldn’t go any further. Well…I could have made it up but I would not have made it back, and I’m pretty sure I’m too heavy for Drew to safely carry me down. 14 miles, 7 ½ hours, 1 sandwich, 1 bottle of water, and countless stops on the way down later, we finally found the sanctity of the gray Prius. We were both beat, me definitely more so than him, I am very much out of shape. But we stopped at a Jamba Juice on the way back and then got some more delicious Hawaiian BBQ in U-district. After that trying weekend I sat back on the couch, watched some football and ate my leftovers in peace.
September 16-19 – The final week of work was successfully eventful (weird but fitting adjective). On Wednesday I drove out to my final day at the site. This was my third day of training Carlos, from our LA office, on what to do at the site and introduce him to the right people. Carlos is an interesting topic to write about as well. He reminds me of my dad in a more extreme extent. He has a hard time understanding and conversing in English but understands that he needs to improve and is trying as hard as he can to do so. He also does not comprehend things very quickly, he knows the basics of what he is doing and knows what he needs to do but doesn’t always connect the dots and make a logical assessment of the situation. Anyways, on Wednesday I went to lunch with Gordon Hale (no relation to my roommate I found out) who is the Project Manager of the entire massive site, Glen who is the head of the excavation contractor and a few other contractors. It felt good to be invited to this lunch and just talk with the people. There is nothing they could get out of me and they weren’t trying to bribe me with anything but just wanted to thank me for my time out there. They aren’t even the ones paying me and all I actually do is tell them that they need to cut out more soil, take more time, and spend more money. But they were still happy with my work out there. Again, it felt good. Then I went to pick up another employee who transferred from the St. Louis office for a few weeks. (I am now on the flight from Oakland to LA, so close!!!) As I was showing him around the site all the contractors were convinced that they replaced me with two people (the Port of Seattle actually asked for two, but I didn’t have to bring that up). Luckily that day ended early at the site, we went back to the office and talked and wrote up our report.
On Thursday I expected to be in the office all day talking to people and just learning about my potential future. At about noon my boss walks in and asked me if I wanted to go to the Mariner’s game that day. Of course I couldn’t say no. So me and the last remaining intern cut out of work early and saw the Mariner’s vs. White Sox. The game was actually really good again. Mariner’s came back from a 2 run deficit in the 9th with 2 home runs and won it in the 14th (although I had to leave early for dinner, top of the 13th). As we walked out, near Pioneer Square, a pleasant-mannered 19 or so year old walked up to us and asked “Do I look intimidating?” Not really sure of what was going on we both said no. Then she asked it again in a much more aggressive voice. After that a friend of hers showed up and we talked about what are leadership skills and how to convince people. When we finally got down to it we found out that they were from Children International and were trying to figure out good ways to get more people to donate. I was unfortunately rude because I was already running late, but kept the conversation going for a little bit. In a different situation I would have kept going for much longer, they were not bad looking at all. But I left, ran up 1st street for about 10 minutes, found Juliane and we went to a Moroccan restaurant that was recommended to us. The place was pretty cool, small one room (sat about 25 people) and they had a belly dancer and a cool waiter. The food was just amazing. The one I remember most, besides my main meal of Couscous, is the baklava textured crust with chicken inside and powdered sugar and cinnamon on top. After that we walked around for a bit and then headed home. I, as tired as I was from the long week, fell asleep on the bus. Normally I wake up in time to get off, this time I ended up on the opposite side of the 5 freeway 36 blocks North and 3 blocks West of my house…at 12:15 in the morning. I was pretty scared, but the adventure of it got me excited as I saw all the different neighborhoods and random people outside.
And Friday was a very fulfilling day. I worked the morning hours in the lab with the weekly Friday morning bagel. After hanging out with the lab guys who are extremely entertaining, I had lunch with my boss that I was working with for the field work. He was very complimentary of my work and asked me to consider working for Shannon and Wilson after graduation. It always feels good to be appreciated and I love the company so I’m all the more convinced to highly consider this opportunity. Then at 4 I headed out to the annual company BBQ (I left on the perfect weekend). The weather was beautiful, the food was pretty good (would have been better if I ate the delicious looking steak), and I got to hang out with all the people I interacted with over the whole summer. The highlights of this afternoon were joking with my boss and with the VP I’ve been close to. Also, on my way out as I said my last goodbyes I stopped where the president and the VP I know were finishing up cooking on the BBQ. We talked for maybe a minute and I said something…all I remember is that the President said “I like this guy’s sense of humor” and (from the VP) “We’re trying to recruit him”. It was a satisfactory end to a great summer with the company. I got back and started packing but really was just slacking off for a while and watched a movie online. In my excitement to come home I ended up with 4 hours of sleep even after such a long weekend, but its all good, well worth the time.
This morning, Saturday, I finished packing in a bout an hour and Drew picked me up. We went to the Blue Star restaurant which he had heard was good for breakfast. We both got the most appealing item on the menu (even though all of it looked good), Eggs Seattle. It was a biscuit with Wild Salmon on top and a cooked egg on top of that with some spices which I didn’t recognize. It also came with cooked potatoes on the side. We devoured it so fast, it was amazing. In addition it was raining. So I came to the conclusion that I left Seattle in a typical Seattle fashion, rain and fish, I just didn’t get any coffee and wasn’t reading at the time. He then dropped me off at the airport, I got on a plane and here I am now. Only ½ left in the flight a couple of things I wanted to note.
The rain in Seattle is a drizzle that falls somewhat consistently. There are patches were the sun comes out and it rarely rains pretty hard. It would be nice to live in a place where real seasons actually exist; it would be weird but something I feel I should be able to get used to. The only real impediment the rain would put up is the inability to play outdoor basketball anytime besides summer. But I think I can find a gym with an indoor court and there is still plenty of things that can be done while it rains. As long as you have friends and an urge to explore and go on adventures there are plenty of things to do in Seattle.
Also, there was a situation that came up a couple of weeks ago that really pissed me off. I will not name names but I’ve come to the conclusion that certain Indian ideals and cultural beliefs need to come to an end. They still seem to be under the assumption that people who have “lesser” jobs are not worthwhile enough as people to treat them decently. They will still consider those people as “inferior” or as a “servant” and will not give them the courtesy or respect of normal people. You would imagine that after spending a year with a family that family would allow that person to say goodbye and not just randomly decide to go away on the last opportunity to meet. I understand that there may have been other exterior circumstances but the mentality behind all of it just leads to the assumption that some people do not deserve the proper respect of others because of their current occupation.
Now….all I have to do is figure out where Seattle is on my list of where I want to live after graduation.
