An Expat's Life: How To Make Friends

Childhood friend

When I moved to Seattle in 1999, having only ever lived in the house where I was born and raised in West Valley City, Utah (represent!), I had a hard time making friends. It was the first time I realized both how important friends are as well as the fact that I had no idea how one goes about making them.

Being born and raised in one place, I'd never grappled with the need to make friends because it had always just happened (plus, with no internet, my options were fairly limited). As a kid it's easy and, as you grow, when you don't have to start from scratch, you never really recognize when you're making friends. One day you just have a new person to call or hangout with. But, when you don't know anyone, and everything is new, making friends becomes a deliberate activity.

Seattle friends

In Seattle, making friends was hard. Without any experience, Mike & I faltered and failed more than once. Eventually, however, we wound up with an amazing group of friends. It took about two years before we had any real friends though, and we met those almost exclusively through our various jobs.

In 2010, when we moved to Dundee, we encountered the same conundrum. We went back to our notes from our early days in Seattle, hoping to duplicate our successes and minimize our failures, desperate for immediate results as we didn't have 11 years to cultivate friendships, as we had in Seattle. We were on an accelerated timeline and wanted friends NOW! And, looking back, we were fairly successful. We still have friends from our early days in Dundee, both from my various jobs as well as Mike's school. But, we weren't really successful until we moved to London in 2012.

London friends

In London we discovered the magic of the Yelp community and, with it, our first expat community. Since Yelp was still in its early days in London, most in the community were expats and expats, as we found, are instant friends. Additionally, I wound up working at a stellar organization with topnotch colleagues and became fast friends with most of them too. Within weeks of arriving in London we had an amazing group of friends, both locals and expats.

In New York City we attempted all the tricks we'd picked up in London and prior. Unfortunately, like we've been saying, New York City was hard and what worked for us previously wasn't really working for us there. But, since we maintained our expat skills, and expats are usually open to new experiences, I persevered and eventually discovered the HarlemGo Meetup Group.

NYC friends

Meetup is very popular in New York City and HarlemGo, though not providing us with any long-term friends, provided us with some much needed socialization. Eventually, we also wound up crafting a really good group of friends through our jobs.

When we moved to Taiwan last year we were immediately greeted by a large group of expats, instant friends, because Mike's new colleagues, native English speaking teachers, are all expats. But, we're also keen to make friends with some locals, though our inability to speak the local language is proving a difficult obstacle. Still, as expats we persevere.

Kaohsiung friends

Earlier this month, while revisiting some of our old tricks, I came across Conversation Kaohsiung, a Meetup group of mostly locals wanting to practice their language skills. This group has already proven quite fruitful as we've already gone to multiple events with them or those we've met through them. It's a very promising start.

Additionally, last week Yelp announced their expansion into Taiwan and, though the community is in its infancy, I'm optimistic that it might be able to play a similar role for us here as it did in London. We're also set to begin Chinese lessons in April, which will hopefully help us overcome that pesky language issue.

Our time in Taiwan has already been exceptional and these new developments will hopefully only add to our experience here, no doubt making it that much harder to leave when the time comes. But, if and when we do leave, making friends is no longer the obstacle it once was because of the lessons we've learned from the trials and tribulations we've faced in the past. By being open to new experiences and not afraid of trying new things, we're meeting new people from all around the world and getting to call them friends. Our friends enrich our lives exponentially. We only hope they're getting something out of it too.

October Travels

Our October was filled with travel.  The fall colors have been particularly intriguing to us and we're doing our best to see them before they're gone.  Beyond the changing leaves, the weather has proved very interesting as well.  The month couldn't decide if it was summer or fall, which caused much confusion for the locals.  It'd be 70 degrees (F) and you'd have people commuting to work in their winter coat, boots and scarves because the day before was in the 40s.  Poor confused locals. Mike & I, for our part, are doing just the opposite.  Holding tightly to summer, we're the ones wearing short sleeves and sandals when it's 40 degrees out.  We're awesome.

Bear Mountain Oktoberfest

Our first trip of the month was up to Bear Mountain for their Oktoberfest celebration.  We took the bus up early one Saturday morning, hiked to the top and then celebrated upon our return to the base with some delicious beer and brats.  Bear Mountain is gorgeous and it was such a fun day out.  Definitely a highlight and something I'd definitely like to do again.  If we were staying, this would be an annual trip.

Watkins Glen State Park

Our next trip was up to the Finger Lakes region for Columbus Day weekend.  We were particularly interested in Watkins Glen state park.  We had seen a picture of this park on the subway, as part of the NY tourism campaign, and were so enamored we immediately began making plans to check it out.  It was as amazing in person as advertised.

Ithaca Falls

We stayed in Bath, just south of Keuka Lake. Though we didn't have a chance to explore Keuka Lake at all, we did enjoy roadtripping around Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. We also had a chance to explore Ithaca and the beautiful Cornell University campus.

The Finger Lakes region is well known for its wineries but we didn't have the opportunity to check any of them out. Since we were driving, and the wineries were charging for tastings, we opted against investigating this aspect of the region.  Hot tip: not one of the many wineries we visited in the Sonoma region of California charged tasting fees.  They're samples, folks. One shouldn't charge for samples.  Nor, for that matter, should one be willing to pay for samples.  Greedy vintners.

1999 (left) and 2013

On our return drive from the Finger Lakes we noticed we would be traveling very near where we had honeymooned back in June 1999. Thus, we made a slight detour.  It was fun returning to the area and discovering that our memories were surprisingly accurate.

Oyster Bay, Long Island

Our final trip of the month was out to Oyster Bay on Long Island for the Oyster Festival. Oyster Bay is beautiful and, although it was a relatively short distance from Manhattan, felt like a world away.  It was such a great way to spend one of the last summer like days of the year.

July in New York City

Camping in Queens, Alley Pond Park

July was a lovely summer month here in New York City.  We did experience what one expects from a New York summer (e.g. suffocating heat paired with stifling humidity and the constant stench of stale urine) but, surprisingly, that was apparently an anomaly because most locals were decrying it as abnormal (at least the weather bit; the stale urine bit is normal).  To prove their point, the high heat and humidity only lasted a couple of weeks and the rest of the month consisted of absolutely lovely summer days including something we've missed terribly since leaving Utah, warm nights, no jacket required.  Man, have we missed these warm nights.

Although we found the high heat and humidity very uncomfortable, we didn't complain.  We've loved every minute of this summer weather because it's exactly what we wanted when we moved here.  Heat.  Real heat.  And a real summer.  It's been great!

Coney Island desserts

Besides the lovely summer weather, July also introduced us to our favorite part of New York, Coney Island.  Having just discovered it in early July, we've already been countless times, even forcing a visiting London friend to join us on one of our midweek treks.  (He was just as enamored as us, by the way.)

After discovering the Urban Park Rangers family camping program in mid-July, we've since camped in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island via this program.  We really enjoyed these urban camping trips and they've successfully reignited our joy in camping, which our last camping trip, to Yosemite (a very long time ago), had extinguished.

Enter the Dragon in Brooklyn

Mike accepted a long-term temp assignment in mid-July which has allowed us to start planning holidays and mini-breaks again, something we're really excited about because there's a lot we want to see in this region before we move abroad next year.  With Mike's new job and our new apartment, July is the month where everything appears to be coming together for us.

Urban Camping

Marine Park, Brooklyn

Summer is quickly becoming our favorite season here in New York City.  Overlooking the constant and intrusive smell of urine, and even with the suffocating humidity, New York City is really coming alive right now and our calendar is just filled to capacity with all the free cultural events and outdoor activities on offer.  From outdoor movies and concerts to kayaking on the Hudson, the free activities are vast and plentiful and we're doing our best to experience them all.

Nature hike

One of the highlights of this summer will no doubt be last weekend's urban camping adventure.  New York City Parks and Recreation has this great Urban Park Rangers program which I just stumbled upon because, much like Coney Island, the coolest things occurring in this city are well kept secrets.  The Urban Park Rangers program offers many free, ranger led activities, including canoeing and birding, and this past weekend we got to participate in the family camping component.

The family camping program is designed to expose city kids and families to the experience of camping and occurs in city parks throughout the five boroughs of New York.  Our urban camping experience took place at Salt Marsh Nature Center in Marine Park in Brooklyn.

making s'mores

The program was supposed to begin at 6pm on Saturday night but our subway train was delayed and we didn't get there until 7pm.  Luckily, they waited for us before beginning (the whole night was really friendly and welcoming like that) with a couple of ice breakers for the group of twenty one (though another family of four did join us later in the evening).  After learning everyone's names, we headed out on a ranger led nature hike through the marsh (with ranger-provided binoculars for everyone), including a stop at an osprey nest with three chicks and two very protective parents.  We got back to camp and set-up our ranger-provided tents and had a dinner of ranger-provided MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) before heading out on another, much shorter, night hike to hear the sounds of the night creatures whilst allowing the rangers back at camp the opportunity to set up for s'mores.

Salt Marsh Nature Center (our campsite)

Bedtime was called at around 11pm but the nature center was left open for private use throughout the night.  We were woken up at around 6am the next morning, packed up camp and were home by 8am.  The whole experience only cost us the $2.50 subway ride (each way, per person) and allowed us the opportunity to camp again without having to re-outfit ourselves nor rent a car.  What a great program and what a memorable experience!

Mike & I hope to do at least one more of these family camping nights before the summer is over.  The registration process is via lottery and, though this one was under-subscribed, I get the feeling that's probably not the case for all of them.  If it turns out the program is as popular as it should be then we'll consider ourselves very lucky to have gotten in on our first try.  We had a great time.  Also, those MREs are really quite tasty.

June

Our first mini-break (with a friend)

We've had a very eventful June.  Mike got a job and then quit the job (the same job), we started volunteer teaching our Adult ESL classes for Columbia University's Community Impact, we went on our first mini-break, we were almost killed during Tropical Storm Andrea, we moved to East Harlem and we celebrated 14 years of wedded togetherness. See. Very eventful.

We didn't do much to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  We don't really celebrate it.  We do celebrate the day we met, which happens on July 3rd, though.  The day we wed is arbitrary but the day we met, that was destiny.  Still, we did enjoy a lovely Vietnamese meal of Bun Xuong Nuong to mark the occasion.

Friday at Governors Ball

Tropical Storm Andrea kicked our asses.  We didn't hear any music at the Governors Ball Music Festival on Randall's Island due to the pounding rain and gale force winds but we still had a good time volunteering at the Doing Art Together booth and we'd probably do it again.  Maybe.

After the hardest apartment search ever, we finally found a place to call home.  It's a railroad apartment in East Harlem, "El Barrio", at 1st & 106th, on the 4th floor of a walk-up.  We've now spent just over a week there and our first impressions are that it's much more "neighborhoody" than our old place (sidewalk BBQs, evening conversations lingering outside open shops) with a ton less tourists.  It's also an easier commute to my job at East 43rd and much closer to Central Park (where I've always wanted to go running).

Our new apartment

We went on an evening passeggiata in our new neighborhood the other night but were diverted by our first "salvaging" opportunity.  We wound up grabbing a lovely desk and two chairs off the sidewalk, all solid wood and quality pieces.  Now we have four pieces of furniture to help our new place feel like home (we bought an air mattress earlier).  Hot tip: the end of the month (aka moving day) is a great time for salvaging.

The first half of 2013 has proven to be much more challenging than we had ever anticipated.  But, now that we have a permanent place to call home, maybe other things will begin to fall in to place as well?  Wouldn't that be nice?

Mid-March Update

Here we sit.  It's now March 14 and we don't have much to show for it.  We're still both unemployed.  As I suspected, I failed at my first attempt at my dream job.  Luckily, they saw my potential and offered me the opportunity to interview for another position within the organization.  I had my final interview for that position this past Monday.  Sadly, I won't know if I succeeded this time until next week.  Preliminary reports say I 'interviewed very well' so I'm cautiously optimistic.  Mike's had no luck whatsoever though.  Poor guy.

Brooklyn side of the Williamsburg Bridge

We're continuing to explore our city on foot to help fill our days.  We just discovered that there is pedestrian access on more than just the Brooklyn Bridge so we've decided to walk across all the bridges.  We started this past weekend with the Williamsburg Bridge.  With fewer people than the Brooklyn Bridge, and separate paths for bikes and pedestrians, it made for a much nicer walk across the East River.  It's also somewhat protected from the elements and has the added bonus of being used for the J train.  The pedestrian and bike paths are above the car and train traffic so you get to watch trains pass below you while walking across the river. I thought that was fun.

Bumping into a friend from London in the LES

While walking from Chelsea to the Lower East Side for our Williamsburg Bridge walk this past Sunday afternoon we bumped into a friend from London.  We're just walking down Bowery when someone yells my name.  It was so awesome!  Seriously, what are the odds?

This has happened to me once before though.  We were in Washington DC in 2008, staying at a small B&B in Columbia Heights, when one of the few people also staying there turns out to be someone I went to high school (or junior high) with back in Utah.  Crazy how small this world is, right?!

Anyway, that makes two friends from London and zero friends from the US.  I'm not sure why that's something I'm keeping track of.  I just find it interesting.

Hopefully next week brings good news for our family.  We need some good news.

We're NYC Residents! What?!

Central Park

We made it!  We're back in the States and we're loving every minute of it!

Our journey started on 2 January, around 6:40am.  We took all our worldly belongings to St Pancras train station for the Eurostar to Brussels where we would be spending our last night in Europe.

Our last visit to Brussels, back in June, did not leave us with a favorable impression.  We actually hated it.  But, third time's the charm and, after spending another day and night there, we now have a much more favorable opinion.  However, our recommendation would be to not spend more than a day there.

Our new home

Early on the 3rd we made our way to Brussels Midi station for our train to Dusseldorf Airport where we would be catching our Air Berlin flight to JFK.  Our flight was pleasant enough and we arrived in our new city around 4:45pm.  We took a taxi into midtown Manhattan, seamlessly checked into our apartment, and were home by 7pm.

Our studio apartment is located in the basement of a brownstone in the Meatpacking District / Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.  Our neighborhood park is The High Line, definitely one of our favorites.  We love our new neighborhood.

My lunch spot

We had the weekend to wander as tourists before hitting the job hunt on Monday morning.  True to form, I had a job by Wednesday.  My office is in Rockefeller Center.  I walk past the Today show filming on the street every morning.  My lunch spot is the sunny bench overlooking the ice rink.  I'm loving NYC!

Back In The Game

After our miserable attempt at a day out a few weeks ago, we would have been perfectly content to watch these next four months pass us by from the semi-comfort of our couch.  Fortunately, though, we were forced to get back in the game yesterday when we were invited to a birthday party in Edinburgh.

Since it costs about £30 for two return bus tickets, we decided to make a day of it.  We planned a leisurely day of galleries and charity shops in Stockbridge, a neighbourhood in New Town (versus Old Town) which we have not yet explored.  New Town, having been built in the Georgian era, has not been as appealing to us as the medieval Old Town and, consequently, we have mostly ignored it on our previous visits.  This time though, with planned itinerary and map in hand, we ventured forth.

Upon arrival, we made a quick, unplanned stop at the newly reopened National Portrait Gallery to see Graham Fagen's (one of Mike's tutors) exhibition of commissioned work.  Afterwards, we wandered north, stopping at a few galleries along the way, until reaching Raeburn Place (aka charity shop heaven) where we had a lot of fun zigzagging from shop to shop.  After spending a couple hours working up an appetite, we enjoyed a late lunch at The Stockbridge Tap (pictured) before leaving to explore further afield.

After our meal we grabbed a bus out of town to the new Decathlon, a store we discovered whilst in London and one that is almost as fun as our favourite store back in Seattle, REI.  We used to go to the REI on Yale just for fun, whenever we were bored (usually on Sundays).  Sometimes we'd find an amazing deal but usually we'd just have fun picking through all their cool outdoor supplies (good times!).  While Decathlon proved diverting and worth the effort it was not quite as fun as our REI days used to be.  However, it will be fun having one just a short tube ride away when we relocate to London later this year.

We had a couple more hours to kill before we had to catch the bus to our party and, happily, Decathlon was in a business park surrounded by other diversions.  We felt like we were back in the States, shopping for our house.  We were surrounded by a B&Q (Home Depot equivalent), Curry's (like Best Buy), and Tesco (somewhat reminiscent of Super Target).  I almost expected, when we were leaving B&Q, to find ourselves back in Columbia City.  Alas, we were still in the 'burbs of Edinburgh and now running late for our party.

Although I say I have no desire to ever return to Scotland again, I would not be averse to returning to Edinburgh if the opportunity arose.  Edinburgh is a beautiful city and one I highly recommend.  It is unique and magical and one I would've enjoyed living in.

Summer's Over

It's hard to believe that our four months in London is now coming to an end, but May does feel like ages ago.  On Friday we board the 10am train up to Dundee from King's Cross, first class thank you very much.  We have our flat sorted and I've already had an interview for a proper Dundee job (I should hear something by Thursday, fingers crossed).  All things considered, our second year in Dundee is shaping up to be an improvement upon our first, which is nice.

Our summer in London has been a real treat and it has turned out much better than either of us could've hoped.  Mike has solid experience for his CV and some great contacts for the coming years and I have a bit of my confidence back, so the swagger has returned.  London itself is a great city and we're looking forward to returning though we're not sure when that might be.  It's too early to start planning for next summer but, depending on my employment situation, we may decide to stay in either Edinburgh or Glasgow or check out a new English city (we're hearing good things about Manchester).  We're still really keen on making the most of our time over here, so it makes sense to spend next summer exploring a new city.

Some of the more memorable moments from this summer include seeing The Queen and other members of The Royal Family at Trooping the Colour (no matter how briefly), outdoor screenings in Trafalgar Square and Canary Wharf, park hopping and picnicking in all the lovely parks, and all the amazing markets.  The alcohol laws here offer true freedom (think Las Vegas) and nothing was more fun than sitting in Hyde Park on a sunny day with our picnic and pints soaking up the sun and people watching.

If we were to offer any advice to tourists, come to London in May.  May offered us the nicest weather of the summer (which we're told is typical) and wasn't crowded at all.  If you can't make it in May, September is the next best option (again, we're told) for both weather and crowds.  We recommend doing a few walking tours (we enjoyed the Jack the Ripper Tour) and visiting a few markets (Camden, Spitalfields, and Portobello of course) in addition to whatever other events you may have planned.

Travel Writer?

A few weeks ago I decided to take my first steps toward writing professionally.  I was exploring one of my favourite travel sites, Bootsnall, when I saw their link to 'write for us'.  I read through the information and instructions and decided to submit a pitch.  I really didn't expect to hear back from them, their site basically says that if you don't hear back within 3 weeks you probably won't, but I wound up hearing back within only a couple days.  To my amazement, rather than just an outright decline they were giving me an opportunity to expand on my pitch by submitting a partial draft.

It took me almost two weeks to write my partial draft but I submitted it today and have just heard back.  Although it was a rejection, the feedback was positive; they said the writing was good but it wasn't a fit for a 'feature' though they would be 'happy' to publish it as a guest post, including a short bio along with a link to my blog.

For my first foray into professional writing, I think it's a pretty good start.  I plan to finish the piece and submit it as a guest post.  I've got a few other ideas that I may pitch to them as well and will shop around for other sites also looking for travel articles.  I'm pretty excited about this new direction for myself and really looking forward to exploring it further.

Instant Music

Yesterday, after exhaustive contemplation and careful consideration, we finally made a purchase, adding to our small yet slowly expanding list of possessions. Hopefully, by early next week we should have in our hands a brand new set of £15 Logitech speakers, purchased at www.amazon.co.uk. Seriously, it took us several hours over a few weeks to decide whether or not to spend £15 on speakers, this is how traumatized we are by the whole purging process.

Currently, Mike’s computer acts as both our stereo - our entire music collection is digitized and saved on Mike’s hard drive - and television - all movies and television shows are watched on his large 17” laptop monitor. Connecting speakers to the machine will add a bit more comfort and enjoyment to our lives.

In addition to connecting them to our laptop, we’ll be able to plug our iPods directly into the speakers providing us with instant access to our music.  Previously, it could take up to 10 minutes or so for Mike's computer to boot up and iTunes to open before enjoying any music at all.  This instant access to music is perhaps the most exciting feature of all.

Games

I hate games.  I'm super competitive and I wind up getting really upset, even when I'm winning.  I don't enjoy playing and usually the unfortunate souls playing with me wind up not enjoying the experience either, although sometimes the sadists find enjoyment in how irrationally upset I become.

Lately, however, I've been in a game playing mood.  Mike introduced me to Bubble Buster a few weeks ago, which started it all, and now I'm also playing WordUp and Minesweeper.  I've been keeping it relatively safe, mostly playing solo on my HTC Wildfire while Mike plays separately on his, but last night we wound up playing a two person version of WordUp and, surprisingly, not only did we have a great time but I didn't lose my cool or anything.  This morning, perhaps chancing my new found calm, we started playing Scrabble online.

The last time I played Scrabble was with my friend Jason this past summer.  Unbeknown to me at the time, Jason possesses super Scrabble powers and was well over 200 points really early in the game whilst I sat in the low two digits.  I think he wound up using all his tiles and getting over 100 points on one word when I decided to concede.  Surprisingly, although Jason was annihilating me, I actually enjoyed playing with him.  He taught me how Scrabble should be played and it was a lot of fun, even though I was losing by 250+ points.

I exposed Mike to some of what I learned from watching Jason's mad skills in action and now we're in the midst of an all day Scrabble tournament, feeling like pros.  Not only are we having a great time but my dreaded game hating alter ego has not yet emerged which makes me wonder if I've shaken the beast after all these years.  Perhaps this means I'm ready to start playing games with others without threatening bodily harm?  One step at a time.

Making The Most Of Our Time Abroad

I recently read this article about making the most of one's time abroad and I wanted to share it here since it mirrors my experience thus far on this adventure and also provides me with ideas to combat my latest bout of homesickness.

Much like the author of the article, Mike & I plan on living in many different countries over the next two decades and I'll need to get better at this transition period if I'm to make the most of my time abroad.  Hopefully the tips in this article will help me towards that endeavour.

Meet Your Neighbours - Something we'll definitely need to become better at is putting ourselves out there. We're solitary people whom enjoy each other's company and the company of close friends but we don't enjoy the process of making new close friends.  We're so solitary we can't even bring ourselves to meet our current neighbours.  Beyond awkward corridor greetings we don't really know anything about them and we probably won't make the effort prior to our move in May.  I'm resolving, though, to make an effort first thing upon our return to Dundee in September.  I may even make an effort when we move to London in May.  Maybe.

Establish A Routine, But Don't Get Stuck In A Rut - Our current routine could be described as a rut; work/school, home, laptops, bed.  It's hard to develop a routine when skint but pints at the pub are cheap and we really have no excuse for not going out at least once a week.  We'll definitely look into this.

Walk, Walk, Walk - We walk a lot.

Break Bad Habits, And Make New Ones - We broke the television habit.  I don't think we've picked up any new bad habits yet.  This will also require looking into.  A lot of people smoke here but I don't think that's an option for us.  Perhaps we need to jump on this curry bandwagon.

When In Rome... - I doubt we'll be heading to the clubs or casinos any time soon, and definitely not staying out until dawn if we ever do, but maybe heading out to a football match soon would be a good idea.

Self Improvement

Our continuing quest towards self improvement has us hoping to become fluent in Spanish this year.  Desi has attempted this several times over the past years, via non-credit university classes and at the community college, but none of these efforts have proved successful, so we're approaching this new attempt from a different angle.

la cocina

We initially wanted to buy Rosetta Stone but since we can't afford the ridiculous price we researched their methods instead.  Apparently, they go the 'approach it like a child' route, so we're going to give that a try.

We bought a vocabulary book for beginners, 'First Thousand Words In Spanish,' and are placing post-its around the flat.  We'll try to learn a few words each month to increase our vocabulary.

el cuarto de baño

This method, as expected, will cause us to speak like toddlers ('I walk door, I eat sink, I watch bed') for a while but it'll give us a good foundation and we can improve our grammar as we pick up more words.  At least, that's the hope.

I Wish I Was That Cool

The other day I saw this tweet from @jimicrayon: 'To the man who got on the bus dressed as a wizard who had removed the chip from his oyster card and put it in a magic wand. I salute you.'

Two reasons why I love this statement and can't stop thinking about it:

1) the usage of 'I salute you' as a compliment.  I must use this more.  I laughed so hard I couldn't speak.

2) some dude dressed as a wizard touches his wand to the Oyster Card machine and is magically allowed access.  This would've been incredible to see in real life.  Who is that cool?  Who not only thinks of this amazing idea but also executes it with such style?

I wish I was that cool.

Lonely Planet

We just bought our Lonely Planet French phrasebook online at www.amazon.co.uk for £3.32.  This price is for a new book and includes free shipping.  We'll receive it within 4-5 business days.  We love how everything ships quickly here and usually for free with no minimum purchase required.  Seriously, £3.32 total for a new book to arrive within a week.  Amazing!

We're big fans of Lonely Planet.  Their brand is aligned with our travel style and over the years we've developed a loyalty for their product.  We used Lonely Planet for our Taiwan trip, we own their Scotland guidebook, and Desi used the Costa Rica phrasebook, which was especially helpful, for her trip in 2006.

Although we're travelling without a guidebook this time, we decided to grab a phrasebook for our Paris trip because we recently realized that our combined knowledge of French is very rusty and very small and often confused with Spanish.  Hopefully with our trusty Lonely Planet phrasebook by our sides we'll be able to communicate without causing too much offence or embarrassment to ourselves or compatriots which is always our goal when travelling to a foreign country.

Dundee Favourites

Sadly, and until Mike's student loan is credited and Desi begins receiving a pay check, we don't have much to show for our first month and a half in Dundee.  Happily though we have been able to explore a few local establishments and our heretofore Dundee favourites are below.

The Nether Inn was our first meal in Scotland and as such it holds a special place in our hearts.  We've just recently returned for our second visit and it reminded us how lucky we were to have found it so early on.  It's spacious, fun, and has great deals.  The Beer + Burger for £3.95 deal is one of our favourites within a favourite.

The Globe is near our flat and right next to the university campus.  We've only eaten here twice but the first time was on their opening (er, reopening) night and everything was 75% off and the second time was celebrating Desi's employment success.  This was our first haggis experience and the place where Desi learned to love mushrooms (she craves their fried mushrooms).  The pricing is simple and displayed on the wall with the ordering instructions (order at the bar), two features which eliminate the intimidation of possible cultural miscommunication and allow us to just sit back and enjoy ourselves.

Duke's Corner is right down the street from us and a great venue for live music.  We've been here three times already, all free events, and check their calendar often for upcoming shows.  Though the drinks aren't cheap and the service is slow we haven't found any other venue in town offering this type of scene.  Bizarrely, the Dundee scene seems to be club focused and even though Mike's an undergraduate now neither of us see ourselves entering that scene again.  No one wants to be the creepy 30 year old in a room full of kids, dancing and sweaty.  No one.

Tally's is a new find.  They offer pitchers, or jugs, of cocktails for £6 plus a free burger with a drink purchase of £2.50 or more.  This pub is big and cosy with lots of wood and benches and the free burger is very tasty.  We've been here a number of times over the past two weeks, when we first discovered it.  Additionally, the bartender's brogue is almost unintelligible so we get some language skills training whenever we order, which is definitely a bonus.

Noodle Ranch

The Noodle Ranch is located on 2nd & Bell in Belltown. It is one of a string of cheap eateries that fill this block, next to Lava Lounge, Mama's Mexican Kitchen, and Shorty's. Mike & I were never regulars here when we lived in Belltown but we always wanted to be.

Recently I was reminded of the awesomeness that is the Noodle Ranch happy hour. They're "happy hour size" offerings are generous and their drinks are cheap. Plus, with their location near other cheap eateries, when happy hour ends at the Noodle Ranch one can simply stumble into the neighboring establishment to continue the revelry for basically happy hour prices.

Seattle Happy Hour Favorites

Recent favorites include any place with drink specials and at least one food item containing truffle oil and/or salt.

Troiani - located in downtown Seattle, this lovely new experience includes $5 truffle French fries, $3 flat bread pizzas, and $5 lemon drops. On a recent trip we also discovered their free WiFi. Happy hour is from 1PM to close (seriously!) M-F and 5PM to close on Saturdays, which is perfect for post-show libations. The only downside is the parking situation. But, on a recent weekday visit, street parking was eventually found.

Smash - located in Wallingford, this neighborhood spot has sidewalk dining available, $9 truffled white cheddar macaroni and cheese, $6 fruity martinis, and $5 sangrias. Happy hour is from 5-6:30PM. Besides being in Wallingford (nightmare traffic situation), the only downside to this spot is the duration of it's happy hour.

Noc Noc - located in the seedy part of downtown Seattle, this old standby has no food specials containing truffled anything. In fact, I'm pretty sure if you asked for anything truffled you might get your ass handed to you by both the staff as well as the clientele, as it should be. With $5 PBR 40's, $3 food specials (including tater tots), and $10 bottles of wine, you don't really come here for the class. It's a good time, plain and simple. Huge, comfy booths and amazing people watching. Downside? There is no downside.

Dragonfish - located in downtown Seattle, this is an amazing happy hour spot for sushi lovers. However, there are several downsides. First of all, this place is very popular and there is limited seating. There is often a wait list for happy hour seats. Secondly, happy hour ends at 6PM so it's possible to still be waiting for a table when happy hour ends. Additionally, parking is terrible and the location, right next to the Paramount Theatre, is great for the restaurant but horrible for the customers because show nights make it ridiculously crowded.

Mom & Dad in Seattle

My parents came to visit me & Mike for a few days before we left for Washington DC. Mike & I took them to the Seattle Cheese Festival, which was a total disaster. Seattle is completely useless regarding crowd control and this festival was showcasing that ineptness. But, M & D seemed to have a pretty good time, so that's all that matters.

Mike & I also took them to a couple of good restaurants. They wanted to hit Salty's on Alki for good food but we took them to Ponti's instead. I find Salty's is nice if you want to impress people with a nice view and mediocre food. Ponti's also has a good view, if you can get seated on the balcony, but the food is always fantastic.

We also took them to the Elysian on Cappy Hill for fish & chips but were disappointed when we found out they no longer offer fish & chips. But, we still had a nice meal and Dad enjoyed the beer sampler.