Rediscovery

The last few days have been tiring, exciting, busy, and grey. Rediscovering the Seattle I so love has been interesting and sometimes shocking. Shocking is the amount of change...until I realize how long I've actually been gone. I forget that I haven't been in Seattle for over a year. I didn't remember that little fact until I ran into an old friend on the street and had a moment of "wow, I have absolutely no idea what's going on your life because I haven't seen you in, how long?" And even then, in that moment realizing I've been back in America for over two months! Time is rushing by much too quickly for me.

And then there's the streets I walked almost every day to and from classes, the neighborhoods and streets that have been the backdrop of time here, where now new condos, bars, restaurants, and construction sites have popped up. "Neighborhood staples" that suddenly I don't recognize the name of. But that's also a fun and exciting aspect of the rediscovery, especially now that I'm 21 and a whole new part of the neighborhood is open to me. Last night I got to take advantage of the happy hour wine special at our favorite French spot, Café Presse, while I reminisced and reconnected with a fellow Grenoble student. I'm excited to continue the friendships that started half-way across the planet.

The Space Needle...from afar

My search for employment continues (so if anyone out there has any connections, hook me up?), which means lots of walking. The resume dropping-off and schmoozing is punctuated by jaunts through adorable residential streets or a quick glance of the Puget sound perfectly framed between buildings.

Back to the Northwest

The view from my apartment

It's been a long few days and I'm now back up in Seattle. We left Friday evening and arrived Saturday afternoon in what was a long and lightning filled drive. The about 2-4am stretch through Southern Oregon was during a pretty large storm that sporadically lit up the whole sky.

It was a nice drive with my dad and uncle. We drove through the night and stopped in Portland for breakfast before the final three hours to Seattle. We got lunch in our neighborhood before my drivers decided to start it all over again. I'm really happy to be back up here. The weather has been fantastic and I've been enjoying walking around seeing old favorites and discovering everything that has changed. But, the pressure is on now: to find a job! So that's what will be taking up the majority of my time for the foreseeable future. Allez, courage!

Gilroy Garlic Festival

The pyro chefs of gourmet alley

I'm about to turn on the hometown pride, beware. Last weekend was the 35th Annual Gilroy Garlic Festival! My family is normally pretty involved in the festivities, but this year even more so. Not only was my mom a sous chef on the Garlic Cook-off stage, but her art won her 1st place in the official poster competition. A win and by a local, even better!

Mahi mahi lau lau

Her contestant on the cook-off stage made mahi mahi that was absolutely delicious. The perks of having family on the stage is getting plates sneaked to you off to the side. When we weren't cheering on mom or her contestant we were sampling the garlicky food and (now that I'm 21) getting into those beer gardens. A successful day at one of the most classic of food festivals. 

Mom's (Sheryl Cathers) winning poster

Reminiscent Summer Mornings

This whole summer seems to be going by in a blur. I'm only weeks away from going back up to Seattle and I honestly can't tell you what I've been doing these last two months. Lots of sleeping I guess? Well, I've finally kind of gotten my life together to start working on the paper I have to write as a reflection on my time in Morocco. So far, I think I've maybe written two paragraphs (of around 15 pages...) but it's something. With only two paragraphs though, I see that everything is slowly but surely fading from my memory. Not as a whole, but the little details I expressly told myself I wanted to hold onto.

Anyway, this all prompted me to break out the journals and sketchbooks and stacks of mementos of my whole year. In that stack I found the letter my friend Josie wrote to me while in London. She typed it out on the old typewriter she had just bought somewhere in town as I lay on her bed, eyes-closed, exhausted, and finding the repetitiveness of the loud typing soothing. I love reading and rereading this letter because it so succinctly sums up my feelings at the end of my time abroad, especially in the last few lines:

"'God willing'- as your favorite Arabic phrase goes, we shall enjoy tomorrow....Today we couldn't believe we were 21, almost done with college and a year away from being responsible for ourselves. We couldn't believe a year abroad was almost over. Here's to another day we can't believe happened...and the future that is impossible to plan and will according to our designs- a future we can only hope for, to reach out across the water towards a future we greet with the words 'God willing.'"

Portland

A whole series of pictures from my time in Portland. I've been doing a miserable job being productive and actually blogging this summer. But, I had a lovely trip and leaving was very hard. The 4th of July weekend was a great but bittersweet reunion for our group of friends- knowing we won't be together like this again for a very long time. 

Hippo

I spent my first day in Portland wandering down Burnside towards downtown, stopping for coffee and pastries and to peruse Powell's City of Books.

Portland's many bridges

The Fourth of July was great. We ate, we drank, we blew off fireworks (okay, we mostly watched), and made friends. Alana and Ian, our Seattle friends, joined us that afternoon. With them we went to a shindig in Southeast and then ended our night at the impromptu celebration that happened at Thea's mom's house. It was hilarious and a helluva good time.

The steel bridge and Northeast

 One of my favorite activities was our day-long bike ride on Friday. We started at Thea's mom's house in Northeast Portland and rode down to and crossed the Steel bridge, crossed the esplanade, rode back up the Hawthorne bridge and stopped at the Waffle Window. Probably my new favorite food establishment, the Waffle Window is exactly what it sounds like. Delicious waffle-y concoctions passed out of a small window off Hawthorne. Naturally, we went back for seconds.

Bike riding on the esplanade

So delicious.

The Waffle Window

 From there, we rode up to Mt. Tabor Park where we eventually stopped next to a reservoir that overlooked downtown Portland and laid in the shade before riding all the way back home.

Mt. Tabor park with a view

 We were exhausted after the ride, but still somehow got ourselves together and made our way over to the Doug Fir for the All the Apparatus show (which was excellent!). I got to order real alcohol at a real bar and got past the bouncer all legal and such. It was nice. The show was fantastic, featuring the sounds of Kithkin and The Horde and the Harem, Seattle bands, as openers. We danced all night long and I definitely slept like a log afterwards.

Doug Fir

 On Saturday we went to the river to enjoy the sun, eat some good food, and swim. The plan was originally to go somewhere in the Columbia Gorge and them go swimming in the Columbia River...but we requested a hike, with no incline, not too far, and with a view. A bit much to ask in a gorge, but we were still trying to physically cope with the previous day's adventures. Thea decided on the Sandy River to avoid the hiking. There was minimal trekking to the river bank where we positioned ourselves.  We stayed for a few hours and when as we left decided that night would be a bring-your-own-steak night. We feasted on steak and potatoes in the backyard and then met Thea's dad for drinks and more food out on Alberta before calling it a night.

The Sandy River

 Sunday was Thea's grandmother's birthday, which we celebrated with a large family brunch in the backyard. All of us friends helped out with the party prep and then got to hang out with the gem that is her grandma for the whole afternoon. Alana and Ian left that afternoon, pushing the reality of the impending end of the weekend on us.

On Alberta

We made pie, walked around, talked, ate even more, and hugged. There was so much hugging. It's nice knowing soon we'll all be a lot closer- once I'm back in Seattle, living with Alana and able to go only 3 hours to visit Portland, but it was still so sad leaving the people and the city I've truly grown to love these last few years.