This week's theme: A place you'd like to live
Okay, so I feel like the most obvious city for me to put here would be Montreal. Anyone who's known me for the past couple years knows that Montreal is my favorite city and my dream would be to live there (mais je ne parle pas française...), so I'm going to try to be a little more interesting by talking about somewhere other than Montreal. A city I've always dreamed of living in that I've never been to before: Seattle, Washington.
To be honest, I don't know a ton about Seattle, in terms of, like, what I would visit if I went there on a trip or anything like that, let alone lived there. There are definitely some cool museums in Seattle and some iconic landmarks, but I've basically just wanted to move to the Pacific Northwest since high school. I think it has to do with the climate and vibe in general. Rainy weather, cooler temperatures, and lots of green spaces, the dream. And a seemingly more laidback, earthy crunchy vibe than metro Boston really has to offer.
For a while, I wanted to move to Oregon. I did a project in my high school Spanish writing an itinerary for an imaginary road trip from Missouri to Oregon (the whole Oregon trail). I was really into Sufjan Stevens' Carrie and Lowell album all throughout high school and throughout the album, he describes some of the scenery of Oregon in this really vivid way that I found really appealing. Plus, Portland is a cool, artsy town, and Elliott Smith lived there, and I've always wanted to live in a port city. So for a long time, Portland was the place I dreamed about relocating when I was an adult.
In the last couple of years, it's shifted more to Seattle. I can't really say for any particular reason that I think Seattle would be more desirable to live in than Portland, maybe just because it's bigger. Or, probably, just because everyone I've met who's from Seattle (or even just lived in Seattle for a little bit) is really cool (it's only, like, a five person sample size I'm working with, but I'm 5/5 so far). Plus, Washington state has its fair share of beautiful places, too, like Olympic National Park and Mount Rainier. I don't know that the public transit is all that (I really do value living somewhere with a metro system if I can), but it could be nice to get a taste of a city without a metro. Plus, Seattle's got cherry blossoms.
Anyway, maybe those aren't all that deep reasons, but I'd like to get a change of scenery for a while in my twenties if I can. To be honest, I imagine myself probably settling down back in Massachusetts or somewhere on the East Coast when I'm older, so it'd be nice to get a taste of what the west coast is like.
My friend and I have been talking not very seriously about trying to move there in a couple years. Here's hoping? Who knows what'll happen at this point. So it goes.
Seattle does seem to have a nice chill vibe. Like Rachel mentioned that's where iCarly is set so whenever I think of Seattle I think of Spencer with his giant Newton's cradle. If you ever move to Seattle you should get or make a giant Newton's cradle!! Also idk if I made this up or if this is just another iCarly association but I feel like Seattle has a cool art scene that you would vibe with.
@ naoni: woah it's better than how you envision?! not many places I've been to live up that status
@ erin: Do you have to have read Infinite Jest to get this title? Also have you watched Portlandia? I get the feeling you have? It's funny though bc in that show the mayor is always looking down on Seattle. Even though that's where iCarly is. When I think of washington state I get twin peaks vibes. Clearly I base a lot of things off of TV...
Seattle does seem like an ideal place scenery and climate-wise, I can see you living there for sure
Just you watch though, in a couple years/decades Boise will be the new hotspot :D
Seattle is also where Kurt Cobain is from (well technically he is from Aberdeen but he ran away when he was young and lived in Seattle, so basically he’s from Seattle right?)!! So make that list 6/6 for cool peeps coming from Seattle. Anyway, idk if you remember Patricia but she came from Seattle and she loves it up there. She says, that Seattle is just like you envision in your dreams but better because you are actually living that dream. But I can see you living there, the Northwest is definitely Erin land :)
I’ve never seen the painted mountains they are stunning! I too wanted to live in Seattle and Portland but decided against it for cultural reasons, but I would love to hear some more of your thoughts on why Montreal is your dream place as well. You talk about the metro, but what are your more concrete reasons? 🤔