The first 24 hours

We got into our neighborhood just in time to meet our landlord. As usual with apartment leases, we had tons and tons of paperwork to fill out. She is an incredibly nice lady and I'm glad that she and the maintenance worker both live in the building and are easy to contact.
This is what our building looks like:

After about an hour and a half of paperwork and a tour of the building, Zach and I start unloading the car.
Street parking here is $4.00 an hour! Yuck. For lunch we went to this little Polish place across the block from us called George's Sausage & Delicatessen for $5 sandwiches that our landlord recommended to us: yes, they were very good. The place also sold a lot of Polish food that I had never seen before, most of them with labels in Polish. Moving everything in and unpacking what we could took up most of our afternoon and evening. After we exhausted our energy on the studio, we followed through with our plans to go see Prometheus at 9:00pm. We only got a little lost on the way there. After that it was obvious to our bodies that we needed to pass out; so we did. It was a beautiful sunset that night:

Saturday, this morning, we had to move the car before 8am because there was only free parking until then. Unfortunately we had to pay to keep it in a lot all day. We're trying to sell it; not only do we just not want one, but it's also very expensive to have in this city, not to mention useless. Gas here is $4.20 right now. Day and monthly parking are hardly deals; we were looking into renting a storage unit maybe an hour out of town and sticking it there. I think we're ultimately going to decide to sell it ASAP. Traffic is not only sucky, but scary, and even if we kept the car for convenience I wouldn't want to drive it around here.

Our plan for the day was 1) get to a thrift store 2) grocery shop 3) spend time in library, mostly for Internet sake. We found a thrift store not a few blocks from Seattle University called Value Village. They were pricy, but I shouldn't have been surprised since everything is a little more expensive in big cities. We got a decent stool/chair for our breakfast bar (so happy to use that thing) as well as some other necessities for the place (garbage can, plunger, etc). After dropping them off at our studio we took off in the opposite direction to Pike's Place Market to grocery shop. Of course, things seemed a little spendy again, but we were buying fruits and veggies after all. On the way back home we stopped at a convenience store and bought a big bag of rice.

Inside the top floor of the Seattle Public Library where we were sitting

Now, we're in the library working on updating things, browsing Craigslist, and applying for jobs. We won't have Internet in our place until Thursday 14 June (which is also my first day of class!). I have an Interview for a job on Monday and the director of the Student Development Administration program at SU said he'd show me around campus early next week. I have lots to do, including get a student ID card before class starts.

So far I've been using Google Maps a lot to get around the city. I have a good sense of direction, but there's just so much here, it's overwhelming. In fact, I've become overwhelmed and anxious many times since arriving here. The noises, the busy streets, the customs; I just want to understand it all so I can stop worrying about looking stupid or something bad happening. This sheltered, quiet, midwesterner is just going to have to get used to it all. EDIT: I just read this great article called 15 Things You Should Know About Seattle that actually consoled me a bit.

It has been a little over 24 hours that we've been in Seattle, but it's been 9 days since we've really seen anyone from St. Cloud. I really miss you guys. It's so different here and nothing would make me happier than if you all were to come out here and live with us.

Side note:
I've mentally began preparing a funny list of things that I must accomplish in order to call myself a Seattle local, these being:

• Climbing neighborhood hills without panting all the way to the top
• Not being afraid to shove through tourists at Pike's Place Market to grocery shop
• Getting a WA driver's license 
• Knowing how to use ORCA (public transport) without looking stupid
• Become friends or at least be on a first name basis with two or more local shops/eateries
• Having a go-to bar
• Giving directions
• Seeing a big name concert at the Gorge Amphitheater 
• Becoming hipster (just kidding, folks, just kidding)

The Next Step

My husband Zach and I had a discussion yesterday about what we're doing after we graduate in May 2012.   I've been considering graduate school for a while now, knowing for sure that I wanted to further my education, but not exactly sure in which field. Until recently, when I decided I want to work on a college campus, I figured out that I was particularly interested in college student life and development.

It makes sense- I'm incredibly involved on campus: active in several student organizations and receiving payroll from 4 different departments.  I'm passionate about organizations benefiting students as they should and I also go out of my way to encourage and help my fellow peers the best that I can. I thought about it for a long time before I realized any department in student affairs would be interesting to me: career services, education abroad, student activities, advising, et cetera.

After a lot of research into dozens of universities across the country, I decided that Seattle University has just the program I want. It's part College Counseling and Student Development, and part Higher Education Administration (two degrees offered by St. Cloud State.)  They offer Master of Arts in Student Development Administration, and the course load looks incredible: social justice, leadership, multicultural perspective, adults in education.

As soon as I get back from a mini road trip at the end of the semester, I'm going to start filling out my application for Seattle U as well as some for several graduate assistantships on the campus.  With my involvement and good academic standing, I'm not incredibly worried about being denied entrance into the program. That doesn't mean I'm going to slack at all on the application, though!

I'm excited! I really feel good about this, and I think its really going to give me an advantage to graduate with my masters degree so young. It'll make me marketable when I start applying for jobs because I'll be relatively young and fresh :)

As for Zach, he is going to find work in the city somewhere while I'm in school. I know that Microsoft, Google, and Nintendo have headquarters out there, so I'm sure he is looking for positions in those companies. He is very intelligent and versatile, so I'm not too worried about him finding employment. I am a little worried about getting burnt out, but summer is usually a sufficient break for me, and I know that come August, I'll be itching to be in a classroom again.

What will I ever do when I am "done" going back to school in the fall?
Maybe I won't. At least the field I'm going into will keep me on campuses.
I certainly love learning.

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives. 

~Clay P. Bedford

Less than 6 months from now, our lease will be up, and we will be preparing to leave St. Cloud. 


Now its time to focus on the present. I have about 50 pages of papers to write in the next two weeks, and they aren't going to write themselves. Tonight, I'm tackling my group therapy implementation methods to prepare for implementing it on Tuesday, as well as some research (en español!) into how Don Quijote de la Mancha still has significant effect on modern art and is present in modern art culture. Maybe after homework I'll touch up my hair to make it look closer to THIS again: