Showing posts with label Seattle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seattle. Show all posts

Monday, May 9, 2011

From Seattle To Taiwan

Park by (一中) Yi Zhong Night Market
Saturday I met up with some married friends from Seattle, here in Taiwan. I met them when I visited Jacob Smith's church. Jacob is not here yet, he will come for the summer term in July. I took them to the park above while also doing lots of shopping in the night markets. 

Friday, March 25, 2011

Seattle: Fremont and Skateboarding


Seattle has a lot of interesting art around. More specifically under the Fremont Bridge they have this huge troll, that is holding a real Volkswagen bug car. Fremont is a very interesting place you can find many different things there that you wouldn't find anywhere else and probably would never want to encounter.

A very controversial statue in Fremont, is this one of Lennon. If I understand correctly this is not an original but a remake from an artist.

If I could only see one thing in Seattle it would be this skatepark. It is the Marginal Way skatepark, 100% built and funded by skateboarders for skateboarders. It is only about 5 years old now and I can still see tons of preparation to build more great things in this park. All the transition on the ramps is super steep and hard to skate.

After the skatepark we took the underground buses back home. No not subways they have underground tunnels for buses. They only drive underground for so long though before they rise back to earth.


After the skatepark we went to Tent City. Tent City is a community of homeless people that receive a permit to live on a piece of land for a amount of time. It is a very safe community their own members police and regulate rules to keep Tent City a safe place for themselves and other homeless people. In about a month their permit ends and they will travel to a new location.

Jacob and I went to help out the church to feed the homeless and to share with them the love of Christ.



This was my last day in the United States so I had to make it worth it. Jacob and I tried to be the most American we could, probably was we really didn't know what Americans did. We went out and ate pizza then got stuck on our plans. Everyone suggested we play baseball or watch TV but it didn't sound like fun to us. Jacob's mom kindly drove us around exploring new areas that we haven't been to. Eventually we got near Seattle and I was able to get this photo from Kerry's Park. The only problem was I didn't have a tripod, except for this mini one the size of a pen with bendy legs. However when using it with a 55-200mm lens zoomed all the way out it doesn't hold the camera very steady. If you look closely you can see that the lights on the buildings are a little stretched out.

The next day I woke up around 7am had my last meal in America, cold pizza for breakfast. At about 9am we left for the airport arriving at 10am for a flight at 1:50pm. When standing in line for my baggage claim I realized that my suitcase didn't feel right, then noticed that I forgot my skateboard. I began to cry...not really but if I was to forget anything that would have been my last choice.

Seattle Market

I arrived in Seattle, WA Saturday night. The original plan was to meet up with Jacob Smith to fly over to Taiwan together. However Jacob has to get surgery and will be coming to Taiwan a month late. While in Seattle he showed me around the city and other places.

The first day that we went to Seattle we visited the Public Market. There is a lot of little things that have some how became pretty famous. First of was the fish throwers. (I am not sure of the official name) When people order fish they grave the fish and throw it over the counter to the man in the back to put together the costumers order.

I am not sure why this pig is famous but everyone seemed to want to get a picture next to it.

The pig is actually a giant piggy bank. The money goes towards the homeless.


One of my favorite things in the Market was this creepy Bo Bo the Clown. (Picture Above). One the same street is the first ever Starbucks. It is a very small place but people would jam themselves in there anyway to say the bought a coffee from there.

If you go down the stairs right behind the creepy clown, you will find a famous wall known for its gum. Many people come to get a picture with the wall or to leave their own slime among the others. (Just don't back up to far when getting a picture)

Also along the ally is some cool graffiti that people put on the walls.
Some cool shops along the docks


The last place we went was the Columbia Tower, which is the tallest building in Seattle. It took us a while to get to the top becuase you had to keep alternating elevators. Plus we didn't want to pay for the viewing deck. So we rode the elevators until we found a floor we could look out the window. I believe the photo to the left was taken from the 36th floor from a Starbucks window.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Journey to Taiwan: Flight to Seattle

A photo from Seattleplace.com 
I have begun my journey to Taiwan. I left March 19th for Seattle to meet up with a guy who is going to Taiwan with me. Seattle is a beautiful city surrounded by mountains. I will share with you more about Seattle in a future blog post.

The past week was a busy week in final preparation for the trip.  I was able to spend some time with most of my family Sunday. I received my tetanus and Hep. A & B on Wednesday, then had some cavities filled the next day, and then discovered a problem with my computer getting that fixed on friday.

I fly out of Seattle on Wednesday to Tokyo and will arrive in Taiwan by 9 p.m.

Please pray for me as I travel. I also still need $400 more in monthly support.