seattle log

[lackingdaze]

missed doing these travel logs but also they're really time consuming but also they're fun to read back on.....

anyways i somehow convinced my school to give me money to go to seattle! on paper it's because i was there to attend the awp conference (comic con for writers and publishing people, which is just as awful as it sounds) but really it's because i wanted free vacation. sorry in advance for all the clapped pics i've been influenced by tiktok photos n_n

day 1

📸 photo dump

actually day 0 was driving from socal > bay area because my friend m and i were flying out of sfo! awp ran from wednesday to sunday but i cut my attendance short because i wanted to attend my little brother's school performance thing.

i woke up early (like 6..) because i had internship work in the morning. though i just used that time to pack lol. we got to the airport early but almost missed our flight since the gate changed last minute and we weren't checking. the plane ride was roughhhhh btw like that was the worst landing i've experienced in a hot second.

first business in seattle (which was so cold) was taking the light rail to our airbnb in caphill! and then we grabbed a late lunch at ramen danbo which was nearby. i was surprised how affordable the prices were, but idt the ramen was anything to write home about. i did also order a light broth though, so maybe that's why?

after late lunch, we decided to take a short break and then walk around caphill. we went to twice sold tales, which was really cute! but i didn't think it had a great selection of used books... meandered some more around the area and got milk tea at don't yell at me, which i thought was very mid considering the hype/aesthetic. i ordered an osmanthus jasmine milk tea with no toppings, yet somehow also got random tea chunks in my drink that i did not enjoy.

for some reason, m and i couldn't decide what we wanted for dinner, so we kept going back and forth between this korean supermarket called m2m mart and whole foods. i acquired bananas and almond milk for my overnight oats (yes i did pack my own oats + chia seeds + dates), and then we decided on microwave purple rice and packet miso soup for dinner. which was actually fine because i like purple rice! the miso soup had onion powder in it though, which was weird.

then watched physical 100 and went to sleep

day 2

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this was our big exploring day, since the conference didn't really start until thursday. started the day off with my overnight oats and the corporate grind 🙏🏼

then we went to wunderground coffee. they specialize in mushroom (???) adaptogenic whatever coffee which sounds like one of those health placebos things that people who shop at erewhon make up TT-TT i got a decaf vanilla latte bc i can't have a lot of caffeine, and it was prob the best decaf i've ever tasted since i think decaf tastes sad in general. m got the mushroom coffee and said it tasted good but also a little like dirt.

wunderground was in this cute alley/plaza that i wanted to explore more, but we wanted to do some shopping so we headed towards downtown/pike place. spent 2 hrs at a uniqlo for some reason.....but i got a $16 hoodie so it was kind of worth. then went to pike place where i made the executive decision to forgo my stomach and try PIROSHKY(S?). m and i split a beef & onion piroshky and a potato & mushroom piroshky...i liked the former more but they were both very good and remind me of vietnamese pate so with meat fillings. stomach def hurt but i'm glad i tried it 😌

this was also the day m's friend (and my acquaintance i guess) l was flying in to stay with us. so after a quick run around pike place, we went back to the airbnb to meet up with l. we took a break and then we went to glossier LMAO.

m: wow i've never been to a glossier before
(20 seconds later)
m & l: *are sitting down in the designated dudes who got dragged along section*

mainly i wanted to buy a gift for my friend, but also i think glossier stores are cute even if their products are overhyped. snagged a cloud paint + generation g lipstick sale combo, and then sprayed some of the glossier you perfume on me as i walked out. honestly i couldn't even tell if it smelled good? we also stopped at elliot bay book company since it was close by. i got a garth greenwell book?? bc of twitter.... haven't read much but i think this guy's writing is weirdly resonant despite (?) the fact that he just writes about gay sex.

l used to go to udub so we then took the lightrail to udub! we went to a gyro place bc l said it was good but i just ate my leftover piroshky n_n. then i convinced them to go to tea republik bc i saw it on shakti's log! asked the cashier for recs and ended up getting a hojicha milk tea with oat milk, which was fine but kind of watery. i think i ordered the wrong thing....but it was nice to drink something hot when it was so freaking cold outside. i was also surprised by how many boba places there was on the streets around campus.

walked around udub campus with l as our tour guide. it's really pretty tbh......but by the end i couldn't feel my face from how cold it was. can u tell i live in ca.

after we made it back to the airbnb, everyone was very tired so we ordered takeout from bai tong thai. i got khao mun gai, which 20% had to do with moonlight chicken priming, but was mainly because it's one of the few things i could eat on the menu 😭 it was actually hella bomb so a win...u literally can't go wrong with ginger rice and steamed chicken.

passed out after more physical 100.

day 3

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conference day! l and m left early because they wanted to catch some panels. i had a meeting in the morning and work, though after an hour or so i decided i wanted a snack....which led to me going to intl district alone to try hood famous. haha.

(pov ur trying to buy a train ticket to downtown when a biker comes up to u and is like "i'll watch over u while u buy ur ticket so u don't get over the head and mugged. bc that happened to a dude last week who was standing right where u are.")

i got lost on the way to hood famous and had to reroute...then fucked up my order at hf by forgetting to ask for oatmilk in my ube latte. the latte was still really good and the dairy didn't fuck me up completely? i also got an ube cookie, a cardamom sticky bun, and a mango peach empanada. i ate the first two when i got to the convention center for the conference, and donated the empanada to my roomie. they were really good, though i think the sticky bun was a little too sweet for me.

attended two panels, one on asian americans and tech in writing and another on asian americans not writing about race (which still somehow related to race?). the first one was more interesting, and i became franny choi fan fr. and then the second one introduced me to preeti vangani who is sooo funny.

everyone was all conferenced out by 5, so we did a group dinner with other friends at din tai fung. then walked to pike place for piroshkys (again) and realized the market had already closed down. we were trying to kill time before the keynote address at 8, so i roped people into trying out nana's green tea. it was super crowded, but we all shared a hojicha parfait + a black sesame parfait. the hojicha ice cream was perf...at this point i was concerned by how much dairy i was consuming but i was also trying to girlboss thru the (anticipated) pain

then went back to snag seats for the keynote address. i liked pachinko and minjin lee is kind of baddie!!! her fit was perf...and i liked how straight forward/no bs she was.

post address, we somehow all wound up back in caphill and then this random bar. i didn't order any drinks (bc i can't rlly consume alcohol) but it was still pretty fun sober. after bar, we went to dick's, which is just seattle in-n-out with an unfortunate name. and then i somehow went to bed at 2.

day 4

last day ^^ at this point i was excited to go home bc i was tired.....have i mentioned that i was airbnbing with two straight guys who are dudes.

didn't get to do much, other than work + meeting in the morning, then heading to wunderground again bc i wanted some food before heading to the airport (ordered another decaf latte and a slice of pumpkin tea cake, which was fine). i regretted booking a flight for 3 pm when our check out was at 11 bc dragging around our suitcases was not it TT-TT

overall haul
- uniqlo dark purple (but it looks like brown) zip-up hoodie
- cleanness by garth green well (elliot bay book company)
- uncanny valley by anna wiener (so annoyed i got this book bc the ppl at the n+1 table were like we can get u a super steep discount. which was nice bc i got this in hardcover for $17 but also i only bought it bc i thought a friend liked it and then when i asked her about it she said she hated that book. so i'll just suffer i guess.)
- glossier cloud paint in haze and generation g lipstick in leo (this was a strangely efficient shopping exp bc the sales associate went up to me the moment i came in, which was nice bc i was looking for help but also intimidating otherwise bc i felt compelled to buy things. but i've also been a sales associate before so ik its rough... anyways the blush looked amazinggg on my friend and then the lipstick was mlbb on her so a win i guess)

overall thoughts
- best meal: beef + onion piroshky
- best drink: wundergound decaf vanilla latte with oat milk
- best snack: nana's green tea hojicha ice cream parfait
- idk the whole time i was in seattle i was like "wow this is just like the bay with seasonal depression" even if it wasn't really??
- i thought i didn't like the sun but being in a place where it rains and is cloudy all the time made me realize that i missed sunshine
- every time i travel somewhere new i always wonder if i would like living there. and i think i would be okay in seattle?? but i also can't see myself wanting to live there
- i was really anxious leading up to this trip because i was worried about what i could eat in seattle but it definitely was a lot better than i thought! i would say though that my planning + excessive research paid off. my health weirdly fluctuates and thankfully my body soldiered through the trip but it did take a bit of a toll on me post-trip. i don't regret the piroshky tho....
- also i think the worst part of the conference was being asked by people if i'm a writer and what genre i write which is ASHDBAJSHB. bc i wanted to say no but then convos would get awkward so i had to say yes i write fiction even when i kind of hate writing now and can't wait to be done with my degree. but we digress