It’s been about 9 months since I’ve been in Seattle, and it’s been great. Life & people in America are fascinating (just as life & people in any other place) and here’s my brain dump on that.

A portrait of the average person I see

Seattle is probably the biggest city in the Pacific Northwest. It’s also a tech-hub. Most people I see are probably not from here. For some people, people really like bouldering. If I had to paint a portrait of the average person in their mid-late 20s, I see in Seattle, here’s how it would look like:

  1. A jacket - probably Columbia, TNF, Cotopaxi or … Arcteryx
  2. Hiking Boots - most likely Merrel Moabs
  3. Hiking pants - something from REI
  4. No umbrella. No seriously, I cannot stress how everyone here will tell you how an umbrella ‘is a sure-fire sign of a tourist in the PNW’.

This is however distinct from undergraduates at UW. That profile would be:

  1. Hoodie/Sweatshirt
  2. Sweatpants
  3. Sneakers, a 70\% chance they’re AF1s.

Climbing

As opposed to hiking or mountaineering (I know right?).

Cafes

I happen to really like coffee and that was (I admit this is irresponsible of me) probably the biggest reason why I choose UW. So naturally, I had to explore as many cafes as I could in Seattle. Here’s an ever-evolving map! Here’s what I observe in Cafes: firstly, for folks from India, Starbucks in Seattle is exactly equivalent to your roadside chai tapri (tea shack). It’s too commonplace, cheap and mediocre at best.

Capitalism

Trader Joe’s holy sh#%.

Cars

Go-karting.

My favorite Seattle trivia

It’s so good I don’t want to give it away. And … I won’t. I’ll only tell you the first half, and ask me to finish this when we meet!