Since I had flown inside of the US so many times on Southwest, I got a free flight out of them. I chose to take a trip up to Seattle to visit with everyone there.

After reasonably uneventful flying, I got picked up from the airport by Greg, the guy who I homestayed with when I first arrived in Seattle. I’ve kept in touch with him and it was great to see him again and have a catch up. We had a few meals together over the course of my stay, and I crashed on his couch for the first couple of nights. Thanks, Greg!

Actually, quick story about the travel. While I was in Nashville on the way there, I looked around and saw the other people on my flight to Seattle and thought “these people look like they’re either from Seattle, or they belong in Seattle!” It was the weirdest thing to be able to recognise a “look” for people from Seattle. Very amusing. Also, when I was flying in and driving with Greg back to his place, I had a nice sense of “it’s good to be back”… it was peculiar having that feeling for somewhere other than New Zealand, but I do really like Seattle and could easily see myself living there for a few years down the track.

First day in Seattle, Greg was off busy at a course, so I went onto campus to have a look around, see if I couldn’t send off some emails to get a hold of people, make a few calls, that kind of thing. I was greatly amused when I arrived at the HUB (Husky Union Building, basically the student center), my student card still worked and bought me a drink and my login still worked and got me on the wireless. I managed to get in touch with Jenny, and we went to the quad so I could take some pictures. I didn’t manage to get any pictures of the cherry blossoms last spring, but the weather was gorgeous and I managed to get some this time. ^^ We also went for a walk up the Ave so I could get some Husky gear, which I did. I got a cap, some basketball shorts and a training shirt.

After staying with Greg, I stayed with Jenny for a few days. She had other things she was doing as well, so I did manage to see a bunch of other people as well. I had lunch with David, the guy I know from Bungie – he ran the animation production seminar that I went to in the Autumn. I bussed over to Kirkland, where the Bungie offices are, and we walked up to a little Japanese restaurant called Blue Fish. It was good to see him and have a bit of a catch-up, let him know what I’m doing, that kind of thing. At the bus stop on the way back, there was this very, very strange person that hassled me while I was on the phone, then accosted several other people before taking a swing at another guy. It was at that point that some people called the police and he bolted.

For dinner that night, I caught up with Joe and Donald, my flatmates from my Autumn quarter. We went to Agua Verde, this little Mexican place around the corner from where we used to live (and they still do… or did, Joe’s probably moved out at this point). It was great seeing them again and catching up on what they’ve been doing. Joe’s finished his degree now and is looking into what he’s up to next.

Jenny was out doing her swing dancing thing that night, so after that, I went and caught up with Sean, a friend of mine from the Anime Discovery Project, the UW Anime Club that I attended while I was there. Sean and I went out for bubble tea much like we did with the whole anime crew. I surprised myself by having my loyalty card for the bubble tea shop and got one for free! Wohoo! Afterwards we went back to his place and I got to catch up with his girlfriend, Dora, and briefly with Kari, another friend from the ADP.

Next morning I had coffee with Lindsay, the administrator who looked after me from the CS department at UW and Magda, my advisor for my last quarter at UW. We just sat and had coffee, chatted for a while about what was going on at CS, that kind of thing. After that I sat and did email for a little while back in the HUB, trying to make sure I saw everyone while I was there. After that I went back to see Lindsay to talk to her about the reasons I was not admitted back to UW in a bit more depth. Turns out it was for a bunch of reaons, really. Some were somewhat frustrating, like my recommendation letters not being in the manner that they were expecting. Others, like not doing as well in my quals courses, were due to a whole bunch of reasons to do with my dealing with my workload (the more than challenging requirements set by Canterbury), shifting countries, moving out of home, my awful insomnia, etc. It sounds a lot like excuses to me, in some respects I guess I just wasn’t good enough. The general gist of the advice I received was that if I wanted to come back, I had to go somewhere else and distinguish myself through research and publication, then apply again later. Ah well. That or I try and do a different degree!

After that, I went and hung out with Joe for a while, had some dinner, chatted, that kind of thing. It was good to just chill with him for a while. Somewhere during the course of the visit, I managed to drop my passport as well… not so good. Luckily for me, someone turned it into the RA, who looked me up on Facebook and sent me a message! That evening, I sat down and chilled out with Jenny and watched some movies: The Incredibles, Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2. During the course of the evening we also looked it up, and yes, they’re making Rush Hour 3!

With more grey, mildly on-and-off rainy weather very typical to Seattle the next day I picked up my passport and Jenny and I went to lunch at Jimmy John’s, the sandwich place I had so much of when I lived in Seattle (since they delivered!). After that we went and saw TMNT, at which I found myself once more pleasantly surprised. The plot was fairly thin and I have to say I preferred the turtles as live action, but overall I quite liked it. Maybe I just have an ability to turn my mind off and enjoy awful movies. I don’t know. Anyway, after the movie we went back to her place and mucked around for a while, did some email and stuff before we went and had dinner (Chinese). Jenny went out and met up with her friends after that, but I was pretty buggered so I stayed in.

Next morning I tried (vainly) to get in touch with some people, then went out to the quad for a photo shoot of the ADP. This also meant I got to see a whole lot more people that I hadn’t seen already from the ADP, since they’d been rather busy. After taking a bunch of photos in the quad (the weather graciously decided to be sunny for a little while), talking crap and catching up, the whole group of us went and had food, something of an early dinner. I also got to meet a few people I hadn’t before, friends of the current members (and previous members). I then went back to Jenny’s, packed up my crap and headed to Joe’s place. There I talked more bollocks with Joe about World of Warcraft (which he’s gotten back into) and other general stuff. I might make a simple website for his WoW clan. Maybe. I then did a bit of work and crashed out on the couch.

Joe and I (continuing tradition) had breakfast at Cafe Allegro at the College Inn, then did some more work on my computer back at his place. After that I headed back on campus and went down to the ADP office. Since the term was starting again that day (previously it had been their Spring Break), it was bound to be open and full of people. I got to catch up with more people, including Jessie and Claire, both of whom weren’t at the photo-shoot the previous day.

I’m hoping now that I kinda got in people’s faces, they’ll remember to email me now and again, as I would hate to lose touch with everyone in Seattle. As an aside, right after getting back from Seattle I started having email problems from hell… I still have issues, just not as bad right now.

Anyway, after hanging out there for a while, I went over to the CS building for coffee with Armin, my classmate (and groupmate) from Germany. We chatted in his office for a while, then moved up to the terrace on the top floor, which had some lovely weather for us to do so. We just talked about bits and pieces, it was good to see him again.

After that I went down to the GRAIL, the graphics lab at UW. I chatted with Kevin for a while about what was going on (turns out Noah was away at a conference or something). I also chatted with an undergrad who’s working with the GRAIL people at the moment… I forget his name. I’d seen him at a bunch of things, since he was the representative for a few of the CS organisations (like IEEE and such, I think) and talked to him as well, just never anything really more than that.

From there I went up to Suporn’s office and grabbed her. Suporn was in some of my classes while I studied and is generally good fun. We went over to the HUB and had some ice cream (ice cream Rolo for me! We chatted for a while and had a catchup, then went back to CS so she could get back to work.

Earlier in the coffee room I had run into Anna, another friend of mine, but when I went up to her office to try and catch up with her a bit more, she had already left for the day. Since this was my last (full) day in Seattle, this was a bit disappointing. Ah well. Turns out there were a few people I just couldn’t get in touch with, or were away, or whatever. Such is life, I guess. Maybe next time I’m in Seattle.

After that I went back to the HUB and chatted to Jenny for a bit, then went out for dinner. I had dinner with Aidan and Kyung, my flatmates from the first time I was in Seattle. It was fun to hear what they’re up to (Aidan’s going to be working for Microsoft!) and to just catch up. After dinner I went and hung out with Jenny for a little while longer, then went back to Joe’s. We talked for a couple of hours or so, then I crashed on the couch.

In the morning I forced myself into “awake” enough to get my stuff together and leave. I got some change from the Cafe Allegro at the College Inn (thanks!) then caught the buses out to the airport. I got there a little earlier than expected since I got to the bus stop a little early and managed to get earlier buses. After going through security and all that jazz, I had a little over an hour to kill, so I did some work. Did more work on the flights back, and a bunch of Sudoku.

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