This is Jules’ photo, but it was so nice I grabbed it myself to post here. :3
I suppose it’s not fair of me to deprive you any longer of stories of this trip.
The overarching feeling I got from the whole experience was one of comfort. The main hope I had for Jules being here was that he would get to see what the city is like (well, what *America* is like!) and see how well he fit in here. From my perspective, it felt totally natural. Having him here, in this place, with me…it felt right. That is really important to me, perhaps even more important than I can properly express, since this is the place we’re planning to live once we’re married. I want him to be happy and comfortable in this environment. I think it helps a lot that Seattle is a very international city, so it’s not unusual to find immigrants of all types in just about any place you go. That’s not to say we didn’t run into our fair share of amusements with him trying to communicate something to a service employee. X3
Some highlights in that area:
We went to a Korean restaurant and he asked the guy for a glass of water. Now…granted, at the time his cold was in full effect, so it was hard to understand him anyway…but the guy had absolutely no idea what he was saying. I had to translate after the guy confusedly asked if it was Korean tea he was after. o.o
No Americans seemed to have any idea what capsicum is…since we only have *peppers* here…ordering a chicken “fillet” from a hispanic KFC employee doesn’t quite work since we have “filets”…hee. Very cute and endearing.
Those things aside, like I mentioned before, after he’d been here a few days he started developing cold symptoms, and sure enough a few days after that I did as well. That basically kept us from being able to do a lot of the things we would normally do since we were both tired and miserable. I was working a lot while he was here (I did take two days off but otherwise I went to work every day) so he had a lot of time on his own to go exploring or working on the art for his game. For part of the time Jon was here, and after he left, Kang (Qiang) arrived. Since I couldn’t be with him during the day I was glad he had someone to be with. He seemed to enjoy his time with Kang a lot, so that made me happy.
Our place was pretty hopping for those two and a half weeks. When I wasn’t sleeping or at work I was interacting with everyone, so I had no time to do anything else. I didn’t manage to finish my Harry Potter book before it was due (yet *again*) so I had to return it. I didn’t do any crocheting or anything since Jules was always attached to me whenever possible (hee.) :3~~
We went out to eat… a LOT. I think I gained a few pounds in the process. ~_~ Oh well, it won’t take much to get rid of it considering the way I normally eat. This was quite expected as this is how it always is when we have guests…the variety and quality of Seattle restaurants makes it hard to resist. :D
We did a lot of touristy things while people were here…we went to the Pike Place Market a few times (and got some coffee at the original Starbucks where we struck up a conversation with a random (and rather attractive) woman about Battlestar Galactica amongst other sci-fi things!) We took Jules into the “Down Under” (which is a bunch of shops below street level) and made tons of jokes about the association with Australia (which he didn’t seem too amused by.) Despite Will’s reluctance, we finally went up the Space Needle and looked around. He felt the $14 charge was a bit steep but I reckon it was totally worth it to do it once. It was an absolutely stunning view (how could it *not* be with all those mountains and water and such a lovely city below?) The photo in this entry was taken there (as was the one in the previous entry) and for that reason alone it was worth it. :3 The same day we went to the Science Fiction Museum and the Experience Music Project, both museums located in the Seattle Center near the Space Needle. I really enjoyed the SciFi Museum, as they had a ton of props and models and manuscripts and the like from movies and shows and books I absolutely adore. I think all of us really appreciated that. :D I managed to take some photos there although Kang informed me a bit through the tour that we weren’t supposed to be taking photos at all. o.o Oops.
We went to see the famous Fremont Troll and the statue of Lenin (both in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle.) Lenin is only a short walk from the Chicken Teriyaki Chicken Chicken Bowl where we ate lunch. :3 The day we did that Jules was feeling particularly crappy so we didn’t do as much as I was hoping for, but we did go to the beach for a bit, which Jules seemed to find a bit uncanny since everyone was dressed warmly and no one was in the water. X3 It is winter, after all. :D
The best day of all was last Friday. I took off work for the day and Jules and I had a bus adventure, which was something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time but never had anyone to do it with. I got to use my bus pass for the first time ever, which was strangely exciting for me. (hee) We rode into the city and spent the day walking around, exploring, browsing shops, making fun of the touristy items in the shops (which, to be fair, are nowhere *near* as cheesy as the ones in Australia!) We took our engagement and wedding rings into Nordstrom to have them resized and cleaned and retipped. I had no idea what size my finger was so it was a fun adventure trying to discover that I’m a 7. :3 I’m really excited to be able to wear his ring at last…the idea of having this symbol of commitment and devotion always attached to me, for others to see that I have found the person I am going to spend the rest of my life with, is such a romantic and attractive notion for me. I can’t wait till I can go pick the rings up! (Hopefully this week.) We had lunch in the Pacific Place mall downtown and then sat in the park next to the Pike Place Market and looked out over the water at the mountains, just clinging to each other. We rode back home and later in the evening we rode the bus into the University District for dinner and shopping. (This is where we had the confusion in the Korean restaurant.) After dinner we went into a bubble tea joint which was packed full of college students. It was after discovering a Jack Chick cartoon book and a bible verse on the wall that we realized it was a Christian store. o.o Heh. When we got home we watched Mirrormask together. :D It was just a really, really wonderful day…what I would consider a perfect day. I want our lives to be filled with days like that…there’s something so lovely about the simplicity of casually exploring one’s environment, browsing shops, eating meals, and just generally enjoying the company of the person you love most in the world…ahh, it’s just so heavenly. I love being out in public with Julian, for others to be able to see I am with this amazing, beautiful person and that we’re so in love. :3 That was probably the most blissful day I’ve had in my whole life. :D
Other things of note…Jon, Jules and Chad helped me build my new PC. Of course, when I say helped, I mean they did everything for me. XD I definitely could have done it myself but I know that’s something all of them *love* doing, so it was nice to let them collaborate on that. It was great to have a livingroom full of computer parts and geeks. The evening most of the assembly took place, we watched all the season 1 episodes of Look Around You. Chad seemed particularly tickled by it. :3
We didn’t get to hang around with Chad too much while the guys were here, but we did go out to dinner with him a few times. We went to curry once with him as well as the Japanese restaurant Will hates, and The Cheesecake Factory. Jules got to meet Tony and Max as well, which was great. Jules and Max had a Posh-Off without realizing it was happening (basically they talk to each other and I melt into guu by listening to their accents, and that’s about it.) They seemed to get on really well since they had a lot in common being foreigners. Max is from the UK and Jules has been there a few times so they had a lot to talk about. It was very delicious to hear Jules’ accent become more pronounced when he talked to Max since it is pretty subdued when he talks to most of us Americans.
Last Monday night we went to see Stereolab play at the Showbox. Their opening band, Hot Chip, was pretty awesome. It was really full and crowded and standing room only, but despite that I could actually see all the musicians the whole time! It was fantastic. I was clinging to Jules during the entire performance, and it was just so heavenly. That’s the sort of thing I dreamed of doing with him for so long.( My feet hurt a lot, though, which influenced my later decision to get some new shoes.) The most fun part of the night was the fact that Kang forgot his passport and Jules only had his driver’s license on him, so we couldn’t get into the place. We had to run back to the apartment so they could get their IDs and when we got back the first band still hadn’t come on, so it worked out quite well. :3
That was pretty much the gist of it…the guys played a fair amount of fighting games, during which time I usually worked on my email job or went to bed. Jules and I watched a little of Dead Like Me which he seemed to enjoy (yay!) and by the time he left we’d bought quite a few CDs together.
The day he left was interesting. We all got up really early and Will drove him to Vancouver since he couldn’t get a bus up there and I had to go to work and couldn’t go along. :\ They ran into a bunch of trouble along the way, the biggest problem being them crossing the border. I guess it’s a bit suspect when you have a car full of people from different countries trying to cross the border of a country that none of them is a resident of. It almost sounds like the opening to a joke: “An American, a Singaporean, and and Australian try to cross the border into Canada…” Apparently Kang was not allowed in since he didn’t have his Visa inside his passport so he had to stay on the American side while Will drove Jules into Canada. :( Jules also left his light jacket behind although I tried to get it back to him before he left. I’m now wearing it instead of my trench coat. X3
It was hard being away from him, not hearing from him, while he was traveling home. I was worried about his comfort on the way back since he had a sore neck and such a nasty cold. At least his trip was broken up a bit by having to stop in Singapore and Seoul, but it still isn’t a delightful experience being on a plane for that many hours in a row. :\ It helped having Kang here to keep me distracted and focused on having a good time rather than dwelling on the idea that Jules had gone home.
Yesterday was Kang’s last day here and we ended up having a shopping spree. At REI I managed to find the most perfect pair of shoes ever. I had been thinking about getting a new pair since the ones I’ve been wearing are about 6 years old, the soles are pretty much worn out, and I only paid $3 for them in the first place. X3 The ones I got yesterday were about $80 but I figure it’s probably worth it for the quality. They have some sort of super soft material in the insoles that conforms to the shape of your foot (it feels like those foam-filled stress relievers that you squeeze and they stay in the smooshed state for a bit before slowly reforming into their natural shape. I mean, ZOMG, they are *incredibly* comfortable. I got a really comfy pair of pants as well, and Will got a pair of hiking boots. We also had Dim Sum (and thanks to Kang’s mad Chinese skillz, we were able to communicate with the waitstaff. (Will and I were the only whities in the joint, which we’ve sort of decided makes the restaurant a good one, and not a poseur place. X3) It was *delicious.* Much more shopping was done in the afternoon: Kinokuniya Bookstore, Uwajimaya, Best Buy, Target, Kicks Hobby Japan, and Fred Meyer. I tried on pretty much all of the glasses in Target Optical, and only found *one* pair that didn’t look totally hideous on me. What do you think? Are they okay? I will probably get some new ones in a few weeks once I sort out my insurance stuff. I got a cheap espresso/cappuccino machine, which I’m rather excited about since it’ll save me a bunch of money on buying gourmet coffee. :3 I decided to hold off on getting a nice one until Jules can pick one out with me, but this one seems like it’ll be good enough for now. I now have to learn the proper way to froth milk. ~_~
Today Will is going snowshoeing with Andrew. I was invited along but I figured that considering how bad my cold is and the fact that I haven’t had much time to rest since I got sick, it’s probably in my best interest to take it easy today. I’m not quite sure what I’ll do but I’m quite Keen to wear my new shoes. :3~~
