So here’s finally a post about my recent trip back to the States. I won’t go into the surprising homesickness I felt upon having to return to Germany, other than to say that this trip has reconfirmed that for me, home is so incredibly relative that it can refer not only to a place, but almost more importantly to a person. I had known this before, but this time it really hit home (no pun intended) that I will spend another five months away from that home. This is a difficult prospect to face.
However, the trip you ask, no mushy-mushy please: it was fantastic. David and I spent a wonderful two weeks together. The first week he had to work in Beaverton, so three of those days I hitched a ride with him and spent time in my old summer stomping grounds: the GSP and my boss’ house. The GSP is the German-American School of Portland, and my boss’ house is home to one of the most inspiring families I have encountered in my life. The first day I was at Susan’s we spent the whole day chatting over coffee in her kitchen, catching up on each others’ lives. The second day I went I was able to actually help her prepare lesson materials for the German Saturday School of Portland. The first week was actually quite nice, although halfway through I caught a cold which lasted through the beginning of my second week.
Friday night, at the end of a long day of work for David, we drove his family’s hybrid from Portland up to Seattle. I drove most of the way, which we’d agreed on, as long as he drove through Seattle to our friends’ apartment. Dan and Max, two of our good friends from high school, were waiting for our arrival and we enjoyed a pleasant evening catching up with each other.
Saturday Max had to work, he’s an intern/box office worker for the Seattle Children’s Theater, so Dan, David, and I went down to the International District to enjoy the Chinese New Year celebrations. We met up with a friend of Dan’s from his graduate program in Japanese studies at the University of Washington and enjoyed watching the Japanese drumming performance. Then, after being thoroughly fascinated (and at the same time scared) by the fireworks that the dragons set off in front of each shop in the district to scare away the evil spirits, we said goodbye to Steve and his girlfriend Chica and walked through Pioneer Square to the Pike Place Market where they make fish talk and then throw them. After buying some mediocre apples at the market, seeing (but not buying) the donuts that the Amateur Gourmet wrote about, pushing through crowds of tourists, we finally made it to what I thought was the same shop the AG recommended: the spice shop. It smelled heavenly in there! They had all kinds of spices and teas, and although we didn’t buy anything, it was a great shop to browse. In retrospect, I don’t think it was the same (at least his picture doesn’t look like the shop I was in at the market). So it’s probably good I didn’t make a purchase and just continued on.
Our next stop was heaven: Gelatiamo. This was the best gelato place I have been to outside of Italy. The staff there was really nice (they gave each of us as many samples as we wanted while we figured out which flavors would fit together best). The chocolate noisette was probably the best frozen chocolate I have ever eaten: it had such a rich, complex flavor and was scattered with small hazelnuts that made it taste like a luxury, frozen nutella. The pear, which Dan had, was a very light gelato, with a subtle, delicate pear aftertaste that made you want to appreciate it all by itself. The raspberry and the tiramisu were the only slightly disappointing ones. The raspberry was your traditional smack-you-in-the-face acidic raspberry flavor, and the tiramisu had too much espresso. However, the straciatella made up for it, and so did the frozen metal dishes our gelato was served in, which developed a white frost while we devoured our treats.
Our next stop was the Seattle public library, which I have to say just might have been the coolest attraction while I was there! Prepare to go and be dazzled by the architecture and weird quirky building. However, I have to admit, the building almost seemed to say: we can’t lure you here simply because of the books, so let’s make it a funky building for you to explore and perhaps you’ll stumble upon some books while you’re at it. We didn’t stumble upon books, but we did accidentally stumble upon Steve and Chica again. What are the chances? They had mentioned a Japanese 100-Yen store that had recently opened as a dollar-fifty store, and so we all decided to treck together to see what wonderful treasures it might behold. It was in the big, ritzy mall right that is the other end of the disappointing and expensive monorail. We had a fun time digging through the stuff, and I thought that it was good I don’t live in Seattle and can’t waste too much money pretending to buy useful things for my apartment there.
After a bit, we met up with Max because by that time it was evening, and went to the Japaenese restaurant Dan used to work at. We had a delicious meal – I had teriyaki salmon that was to die for. All of their salmon, Dan said, is cooked incredibly well. I have to agree that this was probably some of the best salmon I’ve ever eaten. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture. Everyone was happy about their food – David had udon noodles, Dan also had salmon, and Max put together a vegetarian meal with a deep-fried tofu appetizer and vegetarian sushi. We had wanted to check out Tula’s, a jazz bar, but were so exhausted we ended up going home and indulging in the geeky pleasures of watching four episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
I won’t bore you with the details of the rest of the trip – this post is long enough. Suffice to say that we had a wonderful time exploring Seattle, catching up with friends, and discovering its beautiful different parts of town. On our way back, David and I hopped on a ferry to Bremertown and drove down the Olympic Peninusla, which was a beautiful drive. I highly recommend it to anyone who has a bit of extra time on their hands and wants to experience one reason why the Pacific Northwest is so special.
The rest of my trip went by much too quickly, and too soon I was saying goodbye to David at the airport, the security agents were confiscating my priceless Tom’s of Maine toothpaste (and giving it to David who was waiting to wave one last time to me), and I was protected by the powers that be and made it through Chicago and Boston during a weekend of heavy snowstorms. The best part of the two-day trip back to Germany: seeing Kait and my other college friends during a super-long layover in Boston. Overall, I had strong mixed feelings coming back to Radeberg and while I enjoy my work, and I enjoy my friends here, I am excited about what events may unfold in the upcoming summer and next year.
Gelatiamo can be found on the corner of Union and 3rd streets in downtown Seattle, across from Benaroya Hall. Also on the web at http://www.gelatiamo.com/
