Third day in Seattle, so far wala pa akong nagagala. Early this morning I went to one of the top 5 places to visit – as recommended by the magazine I found in my room – this one being the Pike Place Public Market. It’s a wet and dry market, with lots of mini-stalls and stores. I really wonder what the fuss was all about. I mean, it’s your typical palengke! Anyway, there is at least one good thing that came out of my early walk to the palengke, and that is to find a store of Seattle’s Best Coffee. Baggy brought home from Seattle a decaf version of their coffee, and it was really great. According to Lai, ang galing ng pagpapanggap niya, akala mo it’s the real version (note that it’s not real to her if it doesn’t contain caffeine, that hopeless addict.) He bought it at the airport, so it must have been more expensive there. I bought ground coffee beans for 9 dollars a pack. I think it is a real bargain. For the same content in grams, the decaf we bought at Starbucks in Japan is around about 1300 yen, or more than 10 dollars. And it didn’t even taste that good.

I am still jetlagged. Today I woke up at 5 am, and couldn’t go back to sleep anymore. I would probably adjust to the local time in a few more days, which would be just about the time when I have to go back to Japan. Perfect. That’s why it’s much harder to adjust when returning home. Bioclock is already messed up to begin with. Plus the travel time is longer. Just one of the disadvantages of living in the far east.

View of the downtown area outside my hotel room.

For the last two days I’ve been paying 9.95$ a day to access internet from my room. Yun naman pala merong complimentary wireless access dito sa lounge. Duh. The connection is pretty good. But I don’t see any AC outlets around here, so I am at the mercy of the laptop’s battery. Also, there really is a kind of privacy when accessing within the comforts of your own room. I could laugh out loud and even do a video conference with Baggy, even if he’s the only one talking, hehe. I forgot to bring the external mic for this laptop, so I couldn’t talk back. I should also have brought a webcam, I realized quite belatedly. Well, this IS the first time for me to be away from the family after a long while.

It’s another cloudy day in Seattle, so I guess I have to postpone visiting the Space Needle (one of the city’s main landmarks) for now. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, so I think I might be able to take a walk early in the morning and climb up the Space Needle for a bird’s eyeview of the city.

The longer I stay here, the more I don’t regret coming here alone. I mean, if Baggy and Aya came with me, what would they end up doing? Drinking coffee in Starbucks (there’s like a store in every block…hayy sobra.)? There’s really not much else to see. It’s your typical American city. It’s nice and clean, lots of high-rise buildings. I think there’s more to see on the countryside, but for that will entail both time and money. We learned our lesson in Jacksonville.

All for now.