First Impressions: Pleasant Surprises & Myths Busted of Seattle Living

In my previous post, First Impressions: The 6 Biggest Shockers Of Seattle Living, I shared a more critical perspective on Seattle living. Following up a couple months later, here are some pleasant surprises that I’ve discovered.

It doesn’t really rain that much ☔️

Before coming to Seattle, I was expecting it to rain a lot and I even brought 2 umbrellas with me (apparently the locals know you’re not from the area when you use an umbrella). However, I’ve found that it’s mostly overcast skies (which makes me sleepy), and the occasional light drizzle that is more like a mist. So far, the weather has been around 50°F (aka 10°C). Overall, it’s nice to wear a light jacket and not see much snow around this time of year!

The beautiful nature 🌸 🌿

This spring was the first time I ever saw cherry blossoms, and it was stunning! It was a lot of fun to just walk around and explore the grand University of Washington campus, while admiring the beautiful cherry blossoms. I will definitely look forward to this every year! Seattle is also really green. There’s trees and plants everywhere. The air is clean, and there’s a lot of hiking trails and nature to enjoy in and around the area.

Fast shipping and deliveries 📦

Amazon same-day delivery is actually a game changer! It’s actually so convenient that I can order something in the evening and see it arrive by the time I wake up, or order something in the morning and see it arrive by the evening. This was especially helpful during the past few weeks because I found that I had to buy a lot of random things throughout the move. It also feels like I can order anything and everything now that I am in the U.S. (before when I lived in Canada, it felt like there were a lot of things that I couldn’t order because of customs and shipping challenges).

People are quite friendly 🤝

There’s a social term known as the “Seattle Freeze” which refers to how it is harder to make friends in the Seattle area because people already have their established friend groups. So far, I’ve found that both the locals and expats people here are generally friendly; though many of the people that I’ve met come from outside of the Seattle area. A few people told me that strangers generally won’t go out of their way to hold the door for you and stuff like that, but I have experienced the opposite and people have been really helpful in lending me an extra hand or sharing tips and advice ☺️

Toilet seat covers 🚽

Everywhere I go, there are toilet seat covers… which is great because GERMS 🦠 Anyways, it seemed like back at home only the “nicer” shops and restaurants had toilet seat covers. But here in Seattle, it seems like it is a necessity. I think REI is the only place that I noticed did not have toilet seat covers.

This was a shocker… but here in America, it seems like only the term “restrooms” is well known. There were several occasions when I asked where the “washroom” or “bathroom” was, and got blank stares! I had to repeat myself like I was speaking a foreign language before it finally clicked and they said “Oh! You mean the restroom!?”

It’s easy to find food substitutes 🥗

As someone who is starting to eat a healthier (or at least attempt to), it seems like there are a lot of vegetarian options in supermarkets here. I’ve found that it is very easy to find organic or vegan alternatives at places like Trader Joes, and the prices are fairly similar to non-organic or regular options. There are also a lot of vegetarian and vegan restaurants that have decent food, so I am excited to try more of those.

Note to self: This is your new home!

Although the past couple of months have been rough, I have been acclimating! As I continue settling down, I really look forward to exploring more parts of Seattle. We finally got our car 🚗 so now we can really go out and about!