Chicago Chicago

I had a quick trip to Chicago last week. It was a solo trip, meaning I'm traveling by myself. I love solo traveling. I have a lot of good memories of solo trips I've had. Planning for this one I wanted to change it up a bit. So, instead of trying to find a nice hotel to stay in, I chose to stay at a hostel. I'd be sharing a room with 7 other guys. I've tried a hostel style hotel twice. both were with friends and we occupied most of the space so it wasn't that uncomfortable. I was really excited for staying at this one. I read great reviews and it didn't disappoint. The hostel was neat and clean. Every room had it's own bathroom and shower. Aside from the bigger gym style bathrooms and showers in each floor. The hostel had a community room that you can relax in, eat a snack and surf the web. It has a tennis table and a pool table and people were playing with them a lot.

Chicago is a huge city. It's skyline is way taller and denser than what we have in Seattle. Walking in the street you can feel the scale of it's buildings. Some of downtown's streets are huge, you feel you're taking toooo long to cross the pedestrian line. It's a very busy and touristy city as well.

Most of my time was spent going around the city looking at apartment buildings. I also went to my university, DePaul University. I'll be studying at their downtown campus. I walked around the building and looked inside the classrooms. I found the "Game Research Lab" which is a room filled with video games and students play and research game development in it. Maybe I should "research" there as well haha. 

I had some free time at the end of my trip so I decided to at least do some touristy stuff. So, of course, I went to try the famous deep dish pizza. I went to the closest Giordano's restaurant and ordered myself a personal deep dish pizza. And what a delicious treat it was. I now know why it has all this reputation.

After that I went to Millennium Park to see the iconic Cloud Gate. This Chicago bean is bigger than I thought. And the reflections in it's surface, especially in the bottom of it, reminds me of the weird shaped mirrors you find in amusement parks. You know, the ones that make you: tall, short, slim, fat. Those ones. I continued walking around the park when I found a huge crowd of people gathering around an outdoors theater. After asking around I found out there was a free orchestra concert that will start soon. Having the privilege of being super free I decided an orchestra concert would be the perfect epic ending for this day. and so I got myself a seat among the crowd and ended the day with a bang.

50 City Walk: Queen Anne

For my 50 city walks, I chose Queen Anne as my destination. First, because of the high reputation of the neighborhood and second, well, it's closer to my home. Queen Anne is a very steep hill. To start our walk I had to take bus 13 which went up the hill for several stops until it reached the top. At the top, there wasn't any crazy uphill walking thankfully. We started our walk at Macrina Bakery, a small coffee shop bakery. The walk recommended we get snacks from there but we already had lunch so we just got cold drinks and continued on our way.

The walk took us through Queen Anne's streets where fancy houses were aligned one after the other and views of the Olympics, Puget Sound and Magnolia neighborhood were amazing us along the way. One thing I liked is the different kinds of houses there was: modern, classic, huge, not so huge. But they were all fancy houses. The views were spectacular as well. The first thing I thought of when seeing them was how lucky the home owners are for having such an amazing view to wake up to every morning. 

The next stop on our walk was the Betty Bowen Viewpoint. At it you can enjoy a 180 degrees view of the Puget Sound. It has benches to relax in and enjoy the view and some art installments in the ground from Northwest artists. 

Just aside Betty Bowen Viewpoint was our next stop, Parsons Gardens. A tiny park in the corner of this beautiful neighborhood. One specific thing I liked in the park was a lonesome bench in the middle of the trees and flowers. It was like a place from a romantic movie, a perfect place for a proposal scene haha.

Our final stop was the famous Kerry Park. With one of the most perfect views of Seattle that I've seen. Space Needle in the foreground, Downtown in the background and Mount Rainier in the far distance. The perfect place to take pictures, which I did. It was the perfect end for this very joyful afternoon I spent walking around a beautiful neighborhood.

Skeleton Ramadan

The ninth lunar month of the Islamic calendar is the holy month of Ramadan. It's a month of worship, charity and the betterment of one's self. In that month, social gatherings with family and friends are a daily routine. The biggest of those gatherings is at sunset when all Muslims break their fast and eat the Ramadan feast.


Back home, all of my family gathers around. We wait for the sound of "Athan" from mosques that echoes into the sky signaling the end of fast for the day. Around the meal we'd be talking about our day, laughing and enjoying each others' company. We'd be praying and thanking god for successfully fasting that day and for the people around us.

In Ramadan, there's a special atmosphere. You can feel it the moment they announce it's start. People, places and even food are all different. Streets and shops are decorated with festive colors and decorations. The "Hilal" or the new moon is the symbol for Ramadan that is used in most advertisements and decorations related to the month, in addition to traditional Islamic motifs.


Living here in Seattle, Ramadan is different. I might even say nonexistent. There are no decorations, no echoing mosques and no family to gather around at sunset. My daily habits are divided between sleeping, playing video games and other time-killing activities. Seattle has a loooong day time during Ramadan. After coming back from school, instead of having around three hours until sunset, I have six! So, killing time is a habit that I've learned. My breakfast is less festive as well. A simple Mediterranean meal with dates is my normal go-to meal in Ramadan. Also, I have become a night owl, staying up all night until the time I start fasting. That is to make sure I am consuming food to the fullest all night long before I start to fast again.
It's not a bad thing though. I'm living a new experience, enjoying my surroundings. I know I will appreciate Ramadan back home even more now.

My Seattle

Last weekend was the July 4th weekend. I went with a friend to Gas Works park, the biggest and busiest place that celebrates the 4th of July in Seattle. The place was packed! There were a lot of people filling the place. They had tents, picnics and kites! And well .. my friend and I didn't go that prepared. We didn't think it through. So we just sat on the grass and enjoyed the view. It was a long wait until the fireworks started. It was not an easy wait. That day was cold and it started raining! Despite all that, we had a really enjoyable time. Because we killed time talking with each other all day. This event made me think. It's all about the company. Wherever you go, whatever you do, it's always the company that makes the experience good or bad, so when I think about 'My Seattle,' I think about my friends here. I will think about a fun walk around downtown on a sunny day, a warm cup of coffee on a wintery day chatting with a group friends in a cozy corner coffee shop and a crazy July 4th weekend walking with friends among 40,000 people.

My Seattle is a Seattle of people, where every corner holds a connection with someone special.

Introduction

Hi! my name is Moe and I'm an international student living in Seattle. I moved to Seattle in December of 2013 and it's been an amazing experience so far. I come from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which is, not surprisingly, warmer and dryer than Seattle. Riyadh is the capital city of Saudi Arabia and so it's the busiest; don't get me started on the traffic jams.

I'm the 4th child in a big family consisting of 5 boys, 5 girls and 2 loving parents. I believe I'm really blessed being a part of a big family. It never gets dull living in a lively home like ours. Back home, I spend my weekends having late dinners with my brothers, early breakfasts with my parents and just being surrounded by loving souls. 

In my country, I worked as a Software Engineer for more than 5 years. I graduated with honors from college with a Bachelor's degree in Information Systems from KSU, Saudi Arabia's largest university. Here in the US, I plan to continue studying in my field. The US has a lot of great schools that provide top graduate programs in my field. I'm lucky to have the opportunity to continue working on my education here.

In my spare time, I'm a gamer, a podcaster and a Japanese content consumer. I have played video games most of my life and it's one of the things I'm most passionate about. Podcasting is a really interesting way of sharing thoughts and ideas in the internet. I't a radio show for the internet era. I worked in podcasts for more than 3 years as a host and a producer. As for Japan, the Japanese culture is one of the cultures I'm most interested in. Growing up with Japanese video games and anime helped grow that interest in me. I've already traveled there twice and I plan to go there many more times.