In Seattle
The DukeEngage Seattle program is made up of eight students working at various non-profits across the city. We've been here for a little over two days now and work starts tomorrow.
Our first days here in Seattle have been filled with heaps of walking throughout the city; to the tourist spots and the less glamorous corners too. Yesterday we went with our advisor, Peter, to scout our workplaces and hopefully make for a smooth Monday morning. Then we took a long ferry ride for reasons unknown. Fact of the day, draft beer, wine, hot soup, and various fried foods are available on Seattle Ferries, who knew?
Today we set out on our own, first heading to Pikes Place to see the flying fish before heading to the Fremont Fair to rub elbows with Seattle's granola-loving masses.
Yesterday, while several of us were relishing our first experience with Seattle's coffee. I looked at the tattooed and holed face of a girl sitting at a nearby table. I realized that I have perhaps never been more non-conformist, and that non-conformity has never looked so plain. The streets of Seattle are rife with inked people clad in artsy t-shirts and tight jeans, topped with nuevo mullets and wayfarers, embellished with organic kefir every shade of bubble tea. The culture shock of Seattle has been that my look, Duke t-shirts and JC Penny shorts, is the outlier. How funny. Hopefully I can draw on those DukeEngage seminars and figure out how to communicate with these strange people. I wonder what they think of me?
My obnoxiousness aside, the people here have been wonderful. I have been pleasantly surprised that the bus drivers here are polite and helpful, novel. Also, while touring the fair today, I spoke with the vegans, radicals, etc. manning assorted booths and tables. There was a polite, reasonable, calm possessed by the various advocates; not the militant spite, snobbery, and disgust I had expected.
I guess I should mention my internship…I will be working at Hate Free Zone, a group that works to bring the civic engagement to immigrants and vice versa. I don't know what my day-to-day will look like, but from what I can tell the organization is made of talented and focused people who know how to engage the immigrant population of Seattle.
So far no rain, jinx.