Sat 11 Oct: dim sum, drive to the north

Dim Sum at Chinatown
Met Michael for Dim Sum over brunch. We went to Jade Garden at Chinatown. Initially I had reservations about parking there - safety and price. Turns out Jade Gardens is a short walk from a very quaint commercial parking compound located under the flyover.

The parking compound is essentially this huge area of parking lots. At the center of the lots is this letterbox-like thing:

To make payments, slot your money into the slit that's associated with your lot number. Notice Michael using a Metal Thing to push the money deep inside so no-one steals your money. The Metal Thing itself is tied to a string.

Every x minutes or so an attendant will come and tally up parking vs payments. If you do your math you'd realise that you a little more time than you paid for, depending when the attendant comes.

Dim Sum is probably the local's best association with Chinese food. If you ask them if they had Chinese food, they'd be thinking Dim Sum. That and Ding Tai Feng if they ate there before. Ding Tai Feng is located in Bellevue, and short drive out of Seattle. I had eaten most of the food before I remembered to take pictures. This is Michael's special order of Chee Cheong Fun wrapper over fried fitters.


Apartment hunting
After brunch we set out to view some of the apartments up north. For those coming to Seattle for the first time - especially those who have never stepped foot in the US before - it's highly advisable to view the apartments in person. Most apartments will have a web site. But the pictures are usually inadequate, and does not give you an accurate picture of the actual situation. For example, you need to:

1. Check out the interior of the units. How old the appliances are, how clean, wardrobe space, storage space, heating etc.
2. Safety of the neighbourhood. Some apartments are right beside complexes designated for lower income people.
3. Neighbouring amenities. Look out for shops that can make your living a little easier

We went as far as Shoreline, which on the map feels far. Having reached there, I was excited about the possibility of living beside an (albeit small) lake. Right beside it! It's easy to please the typical Singaporean with such simple pleasures.