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For professional reasons I moved around a lot and I lived in different cities around the world.
Originally I'm from Rome and the first city where I relocated was Sydney in Australia.
I admit that Australian experience totally spoiled me, IMHO Sydney is really the best city where to live in thi planet, fantastic weather, vibrant culture, very cosmopolitan, extremely friendly people, great professional opportunities, laid back environment where people really enjoy life without being career obsessed. So the bar was set very high for the next cities...
After Sydney, I lived in Auckland, London, Vancouver and finally Seattle.
I hated the London weather, the city is very diverse culturally, very fast paced and you can meet great people if you belong to the "right" circle.....London parties are legendary.
Vancouver is beautiful scenery wise and I been attracted to it because I thought could be some similar to Sydney....unfortunately it is not the case.
I really underestimated the effect of dull boring Northwest weather had on me in the long run. I found people in Van very unfriendly and reserved and not being direct in telling you what they think..the social scene was pathetic IMHO and it was hard even to get a date....recently things started to change and Vancouver is becoming more vibrant and cosmopolitan...I enjoyed it quite a bit last time I visited.
Then I came to Seattle. The reason imoved here is because I met my wife, which was born and raised in Olympia, so she is a purebred Washingtonian.
I'm sorry if I'm going to pop some people's "Seattle is so beautiful" bubble but I really cannot wait to get out of here.
Seattle, IMHO has all the minuses of Vancouver without having the pluses...the social environment is EXTREMELY boring, I barely know my neighbours, even my wife, which is a handsomely paid professional well connected in the city, has few friends.
Our rare social engagements, here and there, end max at 10:00 PM even on Friday or Saturday because people has to go to bed...my goodness...
The word "aloof" I think was born here...I do not know if it is because of the city large Scandinavian heritage.
In my experience, people here have friends based on hobbies (biking, running, etc...)..outside of that eveybody is on his own..i have no doubt the city attracts a lot of outsiders...the antisocial type here feels at home....I actually met peopel that told me that they moved here because of the more "reserved" environment....
The long weeks of overcast weather really gets me and 3 weeks ago on a snap decision me and my wife we got few days off in Aruba..it was getting unbearable.
Yes beautiful forests, nice scenery and abundance of water, that's about it.
The city itself is actually quite ugly (Alaskan Viaduct, cranes, etc..) compared to Vancouver. Public transportation is inadequate at best.
Great outdoor activities when doesn't rain.
Eating out is a joke, not many good restaurants out here (I admit being fussy when it comes to food being an Italian), I was appalled at the quality of food and the preparation in some very expensive places...
All the great job opportunities here I think are a bit overblown (look at cost for housing), in any case I would gladly give up some $$$ for more social and weather sanity.
I really cannot stand this latte sipping environment anymore.....
Sorry for the long rant but I wonder if there is someone else that feels like me....
Even my wife told me last month that she may consider moving...we were thinking about San Diego, we go there often and we absolutely love it...one of her clients moved in Cal last month (Santa Barbara) because, admittely, she could not longer stand Seattle.....
My dream would be to go back to Sydney but it will be extremely hard to convince my spouse....
I realize that a lot of people have to "convince themselves" of how nice is to live here because they either have no choice and/or they do not know better....but Seattle has a LONG WAY TO GO before can be called a World Class city.
I'm sure i'm going to get a lot of flack for this post but I really needed to vent, especially in this (March 28!!!) snowy day....
Any other like me around?? Estranged in Seattle????
You sound like me with Portland, I moved here several years ago. Much of what you describe is what I see and feel here. I fortunately made the decision to leave in 2009, and Im comfortable with that and it makes it easier being here now. I just look for any pluses I can find here and there are some, but all and all its just way too introverted, lack of any economy really, and too dreary a climate for me to live here. Good Luck.
Exactly why I'm planning on leaving, though I'm not anywhere near retiring. I just know I want to spend my years having fun, not being depressed and stuck in traffic.
I was born here and I can't stand the rain or people. It's not just transplants that have these problems.
You can't stand the people, but you want to move to Tokyo, which is 10x more introverted and reserved?
Location: Originally Fayetteville, Arkansas/ now Seattle, Washington!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jenbar
We are 4 hours away from the Ocean. That's pretty close. As close as the Seattle area is to the coast.
Course downtown Seattle is on Puget Sound, which is part of the Ocean. You still have the seagulls and Ocean smell in the air and beautiful ocean water. Also some nice beach area Seattle is not quite that far away from the actual coast either.
You can't stand the people, but you want to move to Tokyo, which is 10x more introverted and reserved?
I just downright despise the weather, moderately hate the traffic, but actually don't mind people being introverted much at all. It even has its pluses sometimes. No place is perfect, but I don't think Seattle could be more imperfect for me.
You know, the good thing about threads like this is, without them, all people would read are opinions (some of which sound prozac-induced) about how wonderful Seattle is and get "move here immediately, you won't regret it!" or "follow your heart and it will lead you to Seattle" type of advice.
Meanwhile the people responding don't know the poster asking the question, what their personality is, etc, but immediately respond that you must be the worst type of malcontent to not be consumately in love with Seattle.
Likewise, if all people read was the griping, some people for whom Seattle would be ideal would be unfairly discouraged.
I hope that people who read these things, if forums like this influence their decision, can interpret it however they think is best.
Anecdotally, before moving to Seattle, all I heard or read about were good things, including the write ups in newspapers about how cerebral, progressive, safe, family-friendly, etc Seattle is compared to other cities (in 2004, you had most literate, best educated, most family friendly, etc, etc -- good press year for Seattle, really).
As such, my expectations were high.
Now that I've been here, I rate it mediocre on many levels and have observed an almost pathological need for some people to brag (and be defensive) about Seattle.
I give it a B- (sometimes a C+) myself.
Last edited by HistoryAficionado; 04-01-2008 at 10:55 PM..
It was just the opposite for me. Everyone and every forum kept saying I would hate it, it rains 10 straight months a year, the people are crazy and hippy-like, the traffic is aweful, its too cold, no black people and so on.
Maybe that's why I love living in Seattle. Not only did it not rain 10 straight months, the city was remarkably clean and beautiful, I found the people to be cool, meeting lifelong friends, it wasn't nearly as cold as where I left, neighbors were actually pretty cool and it had a sort of laid back feel to it. It certainly isn't a perfect city but its a big improvement from where I came from and its much more than I ever expected.
It was just the opposite for me. Everyone and every forum kept saying I would hate it, it rains 10 straight months a year, the people are crazy and hippy-like, the traffic is aweful, its too cold, no black people and so on.
Maybe that's why I love living in Seattle. Not only did it not rain 10 straight months, the city was remarkably clean and beautiful, I found the people to be cool, meeting lifelong friends, it wasn't nearly as cold as where I left, neighbors were actually pretty cool and it had a sort of laid back feel to it. It certainly isn't a perfect city but its a big improvement from where I came from and its much more than I ever expected.
Pwright...not trying to turn this into a negatively racial thing, but I'm curious. Do you find that the people that you meet and become lifelong friends with are AA? I have a hard time believing that the freeze affects blacks given that it is a supposedly Scandinavian thing, even tho technically it might rub off onto others.
I brought this up on the freeze thread, and although I'm not sure if it has merit, I wonder if the reason that we don't notice it as much is due to this observance. I don't find that most of my friends have this attitude, but most of my friends are black, white/black, white (involved with blacks), or hispanic.
I'm more than interested if anyone else wants to chime in.
Pwright...not trying to turn this into a negatively racial thing, but I'm curious. Do you find that the people that you meet and become lifelong friends with are AA? I have a hard time believing that the freeze affects blacks given that it is a supposedly Scandinavian thing, even tho technically it might rub off onto others.
I brought this up on the freeze thread, and although I'm not sure if it has merit, I wonder if the reason that we don't notice it as much is due to this observance. I don't find that most of my friends have this attitude, but most of my friends are black, white/black, white (involved with blacks), or hispanic.
I'm more than interested if anyone else wants to chime in.
That might be true. Come to think of it none of my friends in Seattle are Scandinavian or of that descent. My friends and co-workers I hang out with are Asian, Latino and Eastern European.
How could anybody here know the ethnicity of a caucasian person? Even assuming that most native Seattle natives are Scandanavian, first of all who is to say that they don't also have other ethnicities mixed in them like German and Anglo? And second, who is to say that Scandanavain was their cultural upbringing regardless of their ancestry?
Again, all this talk of ethnicity is another attempt at nitpicking. If people in Seattle take a little longer to warm up to you maybe that is simply a matter of regional culture and not because there is some large disease floating in Seattle's air. Ever consider that?
And one more thing I must point out. This has been in the back of my mind for a while but I'm finally going to say it.
Most, if not all of this "freeze" talk I hear comes from this forum. I always talk about how none of us know who these people on here really are in real life or what kind of personality they have..but now lets really take that into consideration.
If you look at the people on here who promote the "freeze" thing the most; then look at their join date vs number of posts or even their average posts per day; it is safe to say that a majority of THEIR time is spent on a computer posting around on an anonymous internet forum.
So who are these people? Could it be that maybe it is THEM that lack the social skills to make true friends? Sure, they can comeback and tell us how they are the life of the party and social butterflies....I could also tell everybody how I am a nobel peace prize winner and a close personal friend of Al Gore but how much of that is true?
Thing is; I believe the truth is in the pudding. The amount of (excessive) time most people spend on this forum is a clear indication of how little time they spend interacting in the real world. And most of them don't even live in Seattle anymore so that is not an excuse. In fact most of the people who do still live in Seattle average the least amount of posts on here.
Take into consideration the source of many of these opinions. Then ask yourself: who are these people, really? A person who wants to make friends will do so regardless if they are living in Seattle, New York, Tokyo, Lisbon, or Nairobi. The only difference between anybody is culture.
Some people are more friendly and open on the surface then back away from true personal relationships. That is the predominant culture of the South. In the PNW it predomininately the other way around where it takes a little longer for people to warm up to you but when they do it is the real thing and not some superficial friendliness. Despite that I have never had any issues making friends quickly and meeting open people in Seattle. And they were of various different races and from various different places.
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You still have the seagulls and Ocean smell in the air and beautiful ocean water. Also some nice beach area 
Seattle is not quite that far away from the actual coast either.
