In an attempt to see more of Seattle before we left, Adrian and I participated in a Savor Seattle Food and Drink Tasting Tour. We all wore wireless headphones so that we could hear our guide above the noise, and were given a rare behind the scenes tour of Pike Place Markets.

We ate doughnuts from the Daily Dozen, drank tea at MarketSpice, drank soup at Pike Place Chowder, went behind the counter to sample Chukar Cherries, ate herbed curds at Beecher’s, sampled Piroshky-Piroshky pastries, and finished with Etta’s triple coconut cream pie.

In addition to sampling some delicious Honeycrisp apples at Frank’s Quality Produce, we also learnt that if one wants eggplants with fewer seeds, one should choose the male eggplants with the small round navel, rather than the female eggplants with the long wide navels.

But most exciting of all, as we were savouring the smoked salmon at Pike Place Fish Markets, the fishmongers threw me one of their giant fishes, and I caught it! I smelt like a fishwife for the rest of the day, but it was well worth it for such a quintessential Seattle experience.

Last night we held our Belgium-themed farewell party. We had waffles, fries with mayonnaise, chocolate cupcakes, and fourteen different types of Belgian beer. Many of our friends from Seattle were able to join us, and our tiny house was filled with noise and conversation. So many people came up to me during the night, telling me how sad that they were that we were leaving, and how much they will miss us. I have made so many wonderful friends over the past twenty months, and it will be strange leaving them all behind. I made sure to tell them that there will be a spare room waiting for them in Brussels if they come to visit.


We have four more weeks of work, and then we are leaving the USA. Work is so busy that I rarely have time to contemplate this fact. My time as a US resident and researcher at the bench is coming to an end.

We spent last night at a university pub, watching the vice-presidential debate, cheering Biden and yelling at Palin. I realised that I had probably been a little too harsh during my last post. So, in order to be fair and balanced, I present ten aspects of the United States of America that make me happy:

1. Technological innovation. I live in the home of Microsoft and Boeing. This is the country that brought me the internet, Roomba, and my iPhone. I was able to go to the Apple keynote and see Steve Jobs in person bring out the MacBook Air.

2. Online shopping. These days, if I go shopping in a mall, it’s for fun. For all the non-fun purchases, I have safeway.com, spud.com, drugstore.com, etsy.com, ebay.com, and of course my beloved neighbour amazon.com with free super saver shipping.

3. Ice-cream. Ben and Jerry’s is available everywhere, so whenever I need a hit of chocolate chip cookie dough ice-cream, a pint is always waiting for me in the freezer section.

4. Natural beauty. On many days of the year, the first thing I see as I step outside is Mt Rainier, towering over the Seattle skyline. The USA has stunning landscapes ranging from sandstone formations to lush forests to immense glaciers.

5. Movies and Television. I must say, I get excited every time I get to watch Gossip Girl and Grey’s Anatomy and Dexter. I loved Bring It On, Clueless, Veronica Mars and of course Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Daily Show over breakfast is a great way to start the day. And there is Disneyland on the west coast, and Disney World on the east coast.

6. The Constitution. The US constitution contains such progressive ideals as the separation of church and state, all individuals (well, men) being equal, the right to a fair trial, freedom of speech, requirement of probable cause before arrest, no cruel or unusual punishment. Of course, the right to bear arms was not such a great idea, and it did take the 19th amendment in 1920 to give women the right to vote.

7. Squirrels and Chipmunks. These creatures are so cute! I get to see a squirrel nearly every day, and they never cease to fascinate me. I love the way that they hold food with two hands, and glide fluidly across the path. Chipmunks come out begging when we hike, and perch up on rocks with their stripes and bright eyes.

8. Philanthropy. When many Americans become billionaires, they pour a lot of that wealth back into the community. From Bill Gates to Warren Buffet to Rockefeller, many of those who have succeeded in America’s capitalist environment have made significant charitable contributions to the world.

9. Halloween. What a fun holiday. Dressing up and eating chocolate. I wish we had this in Australia while I was growing up.

10. NASA. From Teflon to the Moon to Spirit and Opportunity to the Phoenix Lander, NASA has brought us into the space age. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has made space-exploring robots a reality.

At the beginning of 2007, if someone had asked me where I would most like to live in the world, I would have said California. A land full of sunshine, shopping, Apple keynotes, determined cheer squads, and inspiring vampire-slaying heroines. What more could I want? It turns out, I would also like to live in a land with carbon awareness, civil liberties, minimal poverty, adequate education, compassionate immigration laws, bountiful public transport, human rights, health-care, foreign policy, stable banks, and an intelligent and progressive government. That land is not the bizarre, arrogant, and insular USA.

We experienced an extreme of this culture on Saturday night, when we attended our first and only American sporting event – the university football game. The 70 000 seat Husky stadium dominates the campus, and it was at around 80% capacity when we arrived. The Huskies are ranked 118 out of the 119 college football teams, and they have yet to win a game all season. Yet, around 55 000 people came out to see them, paying anything from $16 to $127 to join in the event. Even more strangely, as we walked through the parking lot, we saw people sitting under purple and gold marquees, watching the game on television right outside the stadium.

Due to new stricter criteria, football players for the University of Washington now must meet the same admission and grading requirements as the rest of the student body. They must keep a relatively high grade-point average throughout the semester, and are removed from the team if they fail too many courses. Thus, the ranking of the team has plummeted because the players are now spending more time on their subsidised education at one of the best public universities in the USA. Naturally, fans are outraged at these new requirements. Yet somehow, the whole audience was convinced that the Huskies were the best team in the world, and cussed at the referees for every penalty that was given to the home team. We left at half-time in disgust, and caught a bus home with a freshman dressed head-to-toe in Husky purple, who declared that she wished that she had never come to UW, and that she had gone to a place with a better football team so that she could be proud of her university.

At half-time, 3000 students from high school marching bands around Washington gathered to play the Husky theme song “Bow down to Washington”. It was quite a spectacle. 

The time has come to leave “the greatest nation in the world” and to find a home that is more in line with our values and our ideals. Next month, we will be spending three months in Australia, before starting our new home in Leuven, Belgium.