From NYC to Seattle - Culture Shock?!? (Tacoma, Bellevue: renting, buying)

[xmavrekx]

RotseCherut - Definitely not moving to Seattle for the food. I don't think I love food to the extent that I would ever move anywhere just for the food. If I love a type of food and can't obtain it locally I will try and get it and make it myself, to the way I like it. Having said that I appreciate the heads-up and will take into consideration that I might be cooking a lot lol. I have thought of Portland but I've never been there and I don't know if they have the aerospace industry like Seattle. I may move to Seattle, love it and remain there. Or I may move there, try to get situated in the aerospace industry and my career path and move somewhere else. I'm going to quote myself here, "I did too (fall in love with Seattle) but I know love at first sight is different from actual love". I don't know what Seattle is going to be, however I'm done with this area that I live in now and am willing to try something else. I've already explained to my wife if we don't like it, we don't stay and we'll try somewhere else. I'm not moving with the idea that I'm stuck. If I moved from NY to Seattle (approx. 2800 miles) I can move anywhere else at that point. It's a matter of where... Also I don't mind the "lack of diversity and culture". I knew someone from Europe that one time told me American's have no culture... Obviously they don't know what the word culture means. I like that Americans assimilate to one another and yes, you are going to lose some of your foreign culture as you assimilate to a new culture (American culture). That, to me, doesn't mean you're lacking culture. I think a problem with some of America is that there's becoming too much cultural segregation in the sense of people not assimilating their culture into society and forming little cliques of ethnicity.

[xmavrekx]

Being it's been shown to me by everyone who knows we're planning to move to Seattle..., I would like to know how people in the Seattle area feel about this whole "Impending tsunami disaster" which is supposedly imminent. The east coast gets hurricanes but we have plenty of notice of it's arrival.

[xmavrekx]

Originally Posted by west seattle gal

You are going to miss all of the things you are leaving ten-fold.

Would you elaborate a little more?

[perigee]

Dogs can sense if they can get away with certain behaviors. I love animals and all of mine are trained with positive reinforcement. Heck, I have even passively trained my friend's dogs with this method. That being said, I have waded into dog fights and have ended them quickly and unscathed. Dogs will respect an alpha, even if that alpha is only an average sized human. Ugh, and I hope no one thinks I am referencing that whole alpha vs beta people thing, I just mean humans should be an alpha to dogs.

On a whole, I find the dogs in the Seattle area, well behaved, the occasional overeager one responds well to a stern down command. They can sense the meaning behind the word, even if they were never trained, but like I said I find those encounters the exception, not the rule.

As for our impending doomsday, *shrug* it may happen or it may not happen in our lifetime. When I head to tsunami areas, I keep an eye out for the evacuation route signs. Retrofit your home, keep basic emergency supplies and I like going to the USGS earthquake map.

One thing that big article missed was that when The Big One hits, it could strike anywhere over a very very large area and that could mean anything from Seattle not feeling it, to a worst case scenario. The plate stretches all the way down to CA, while the article says that earthquake=everything west of I5 is gone, which isn't a given. Also, it did a poor job on letting readers know that the Sound would have a mitigating effect on a tsunami.

It did make very, very valid points, but like all things journalism today, it had to stray into sensationalism.

No place is safe from mother nature, it's half a dozen up and six down. We just get to pick our poison.

[Renton13]

Originally Posted by pete98146

I grew up in DC so when I moved to Seattle back in 1985, I did experience culture shock. I say this tounge in cheek, but there is definitely some truth to it: Folks from the east coast can be as*holes when you first meet them but once you get to know them, they become good friends and are very loyal friends. Folks from Seattle are the complete opposite in that when you first meet them they are very friendly but once you get to know them, you find out that they are selfish as*holes that could care less about you.

Is this legendary Seattle Freeze that everyone swears does not exist? Or also called the Scandinavian Freeze?

[Gardyloo]

Originally Posted by xmavrekx

Being it's been shown to me by everyone who knows we're planning to move to Seattle..., I would like to know how people in the Seattle area feel about this whole "Impending tsunami disaster" which is supposedly imminent. The east coast gets hurricanes but we have plenty of notice of it's arrival.

Seattle is in next to no danger from tsunamis - Puget sound is too narrow and too deep for tsunamis to form. Out on the Pacific coast, 2-3 hours' drive from Seattle, it's a different story.

The recent big kerfuffle around here was caused by an article in the New Yorker about how the region could be devastated by a giant earthquake at some point in the next 1-50,000 years. We're in an earthquake zone, and have a couple of active volcanoes within a couple hundred miles. But so is Naples. And the fact remains that since 1900 more people have been killed by lightning than by earthquakes. But nature happens pretty much anywhere - Katrinas and snowstorms on the east coast, tornadoes in the heartland, hurricanes in Florida... remember Dirty Harry's question about luck.

[bloom]

Originally Posted by xmavrekx

Is the traffic as bad as Cali? I've been on I think I-5 or Route 1 returning to the airport from a friend's house in Camarillo. The highway was 6 lanes, with regulated ramp merges and was still gridlocked.... I hope it's not like that haha.

...

Don't call it "Cali".

[pete98146]

Originally Posted by xmavrekx

I'm sure not the entire population is like this though correct? I had tons of friends as a kid and teenager. My move to the suburbs reduced that and my judge of character has reduced it even further. I can count the number of true friends on one hand... And the rest of people I associate with are family... I've kind of grown fond of a smaller yet more honest and respectful group to associate with.

likealady - I worried about that as well. Especially since we like to see our family for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Of course I'm generalizing. Not all folk from Seattle are this way. But you see enough who fit this pattern that it makes you scratch your head and ask why. Like you, I've cultivated a small group of friends over the years, but interestingly most of my close friends are all from out of State.

I do have friends that are native to Seattle and I'll hear from them once or twice a year. We'll go out for dinner or grab beers, get caught up and then we won't see each other for a long period of time.

Now I compare and contrast of how life used to be back in Annandale VA (Washington DC suburb) and the entire block used to gather for block parties, bbqs, snowball fights..really any excuse to get together and have fun in a large group. Virginians really pride themselves on their hospitality and they are outgoing, fun and welcoming. I realized a long time ago that Seattle is different. If you can accept that Seattle is socially different then you'll be ok.

[pete98146]

Originally Posted by Renton13

Is this legendary Seattle Freeze that everyone swears does not exist? Or also called the Scandinavian Freeze?

I personally think the City of Seattle is nirvana for a certain type of person. If I were to build a "Joe Seattle" Robot, he would have a very high IQ, be a definite type B personality, shy, intellectually snobby, be very tech savvy and nerdish, he'd be working 65 hours a week at Amazon, have 3 or 4 tattoos and vote Democrat. Joe the Robot will care very little about sports and is happier playing video games/surfing than chasing women.

I'll give you another example. Have you ever been to a Seahawks game? Most of those crazy, wild, loud, face-painting mega fans come from Kent, Renton, Auburn and out in the burbs. Let's face it they are fun and the life of the party types. Very few of these fans come from Capitol Hill or Fremont. Joe the Robot would live in Fremont.

So naturally I'm having fun here but anybody who has spent any time in Seattle would admit there is a smidgen of truth here.

[BATCAT]

I feel it would be very strange to go through life thinking that people's differing neighborhoods, cities, states, or countries correspond to these huge differences in people's attitudes. I've lived in quite a few places both in and out of the US, and visited many others, and while cultural differences exist, I have found that people are pretty much just people everywhere you go.