Seattle Bewilderment Blog

#9: More giant men than I expected.

24/11/2017

Apparently it's due to the region being settled by Scandinavians.
It might sound strange, but when there's a change in your height relative to the people you're surrounded by, you notice. I'm 5'10" (178cm). In Australia and the UK I'm average male height, in Japan and Vietnam I'm a giant, and in the Netherlands, the world's tallest country, I feel small. Here, as in South Korea (Asia's tallest nation), I feel normal height but I keep noticing giant men. It's weird. I'm assuming noticing these things is normal, right?

Also attributed to the region's Nordic ancestry, people in Seattle are also a little harder to befriend. It's called the Seattle Freeze.

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#8: Buying things. (And their expense.)

17/11/2017

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Moving to a place that doesn't do furnished/equipped rentals is expensive. You have to buy everything, and as a new resident, I had no (and therefore poor) credit history, so was not eligible for a credit card, so no extra warranties, insurance, cashback rewards or points to offset the cost. I suppose traditionally people live at home until marriage, wed early and fill their home thought their wedding registry.

While people acquire items over time, I did the calculations and it's cheaper to sell and give items away and buy new again than to ship items from Europe or Australia to America. Try it yourself. Look at your books, appliances, furniture, clothing, whatever, and see if it’s worth bringing or replacing at £3 / AUD$5 / USD$4 per kg (about half that per LB).

By contrast, I lived for a couple years out of my suitcase in Japan. Just look at the size of my central Tokyo apartment in the video below. I happily lived out of a small sized backpack when I backpacked around Asia and lived in Hanoi, but I knew that was all temporary, so I paid a premium for furnished homes. I had no sympathy for my friends who complained they had too much junk. I was busy envying them for having useful everyday items I simply didn't have.

One friend living in her third country who loved living light occasionally played a game called "10 Things," where she would go around the house and get rid of 10 things she hadn't used in a while and didn't really need. Try it yourself, it's great!

Edinburgh was frustrating though. I was reluctant to buy anything to ease my life, knowing I was there for just a few years. Purchases would be a waste, and disposal a hassle. But an American/European couple in Edinburgh whom I was friends with when we all lived in Tokyo put it to me this way: if I do end up buying something, best get it early on, as later purchases will get less use. So I did buy a few things, and was all the happier for it. And that's how a friend was gifted a lovely air-fryer when I departed.

Being able to buy things in the US, while painfully expensive doing it all at once, also felt great. I am finally able to have practical home items, from a blender to a giant shoe horn, and all sorts of things. Owning more than two pairs of shoes still feels weird, but I'm still constantly appreciative of all these little things I wanted for years, and I'm still good at not acquiring junk. And no, I still don'd have any sympathy for people who complain they have too much stuff!

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#7 Tipping and Tax

10/11/2017

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Before moving here I assumed tipping was the same across America, at a flat 15%. It turns out it is...
0% if you're poor and mean, or just mean.
15% as a bare minimum if the service was below-average. Some people just do this all the time though.
20% if it was good.
Up to 30% (and beyond) if it was amazing.

Tax is never included when listed in the advertisement, label or menu. It is layered on at multiple levels, and sometimes invoices show this. Here the taxes are:
Washington State: 6.5%
King County: 3.5%
Seattle city: 0.1%
Total: 10.1%
(Supermarket raw ingredients are not taxed, which is normal in the other places I have lived.)

This makes calculating tips in Seattle easy - just double the tax on your bill. However travel outside the Seattle city zip code (e.g. go to a satellite city), county or state, and your tax, total at the till, and the tip you must calculate change.

It's all become a bit much for me and I've resigned myself to just paying whatever the new total is.

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#6 Buying second-hand here is expensive.

3/11/2017

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It's really weird how used items are not discounted much here.
People often list goods on Craigslist and other noticeboards just 25% below full retail price, and yet items go quick. But savvy shoppers like me can get the items brand new from a discount retailer for the same price.
I actually returned some of the kitchenware I bought at the Goodwill (second hand) store because I found the same brand new, brand-name products for the same price on sale at normal retailers, or at discount retails at the city outskirts.

In fact, there's a more upmarket competitor to Goodwill here called Buffalo Exchange (mostly selling clothing).
Mind you, in Tokyo second hand stores of all tiers and specialties were popular, all the way up to an eight-storey second-hand luxury brand department store called Komehyo in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
A Google Image Search for Komehyo captures the store quite well, actually. From last year's luxury fashion, to jewelry and more, the place was surreal to browse, and a place I insist all visitors to Tokyo visit.

Getting back to my original point, I think the reason Seattle gets away with having a second hand market that doesn't discount much comes down to the rapid growth of the city, both with Amazon, and rotation of students attending the large university. Interesting to me, nonetheless.

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#9: More giant men than I expected.

#8: Buying things. (And their expense.)

#7 Tipping and Tax

#6 Buying second-hand here is expensive.

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