What Visitors Think of Seattle – Taiwan (24 F)

This is the first in a series of What Visitors Think of Seattle.  We’re big fans of Couchsurfing. We’ve had the pleasure of hosting over 40 visitors from around the US and Internationally.  Visitors always have interesting observations about Seattle and it’s great seeing Seattle through the lens of a fresh pair of eyes. We profile some of our visitors and noted their comments about Seattle, the US and some of our learning about where they’re from.

“M”(a 24 year old female) was from Taiwan. She was on a work visa for four months and was visiting the US West Coast. She worked at a hostel in Santa Barbara, CA for 3 months, but had to pay rent of $480 to live at the hostel and because she could only get a limited number of hours to work per week, she wasn’t able to save as much money as she would have liked. She did however manage to visit Los Angeles, San Francisco, Yosemite, San Diego during her time there.

She decided to spend her last few weeks in the US visiting Portland and then Seattle before heading on to Vancouver and then home to Taiwan. She actually went to Yosemite with another couchsurfer I hosted and when he found out M was going to Seattle he told her to look me up.

She told me she had no bad couchsurfing experiences throughout her travels in the US, but had a weird one. While in Santa Barbara she met in her words, “a hippie”. She said he got so wasted on weed he couldn’t comprehend anything she said, so she got scared and left.

Her friends in Taiwan don’t travel and think she’s crazy for couchsurfing.

What she did while in Seattle:

Day 1-We met at the ID Link Light rail station and just went back to our place and hung out.

Day 2-Ballard Farmers market, Fremont market, Troll, Theo Chocolates, Kerry Park, Pike Place Market, Gasworks Park, Bol Pho for dinner and beers at Atlantic Crossing.

Day 3-Monorail to EMP. M made dinner for me and another couchsurfer from Slovenia. She cooked a really simple and filling Brazilian meal that she learned from working in the hostel. Karaoke night at Atlantic Crossing.

Day 4-To ID to catch Bolt bus to Vancouver

M’s Questions/Observations about the US:

• She thought Halloween was such a cool holiday that you could wear a costume and “nobody says anything to you or think you’re crazy”.
• Was really interested in the Electoral process. Explained in general, WA/OR/CA/MA/NY are normally liberal and middle states are conservative. Explained the all or nothing process of Electoral voting. Some states can go either way unlike CA, which is always liberal. Explained some of the main differences are in philosophy-abortion, gun control, fiscal, taxes.
• Most Asians visitors are quiet in the US because their English isn’t good, but she likes Americans because “they don’t care”.
• She questioned why the US has a jury of peers to decide guilt and innocence during trials, because in Taiwan the judge decides the outcome since he/she is schooled and should be wiser in making such decisions than regular folks.
• She said that the Europeans she’s met in the US think she’s American because they can’t detect her accent, which is fascinating because she did have a pretty thick accent. I guess if I heard a German person and a non-German person speaking, I couldn’t discern the difference since I don’t speak German.
• I took her to karaoke for the first time and said it was the first time she’d seen strangers all singing together because in Taiwan they only sing amongst friends in a private room. Another quality of Americans she admires is they just don’t care, they’re here to have fun.

M’s Questions/Observations about Seattle:

• In Taiwan, friend circles are very closed off, but in Seattle you can bring anybody to a party and they will be accepted. If you brought a guest to a party uninvited in Taiwan, people would ask, “Who’s that and why are they here”? This was her observation after going to a party.
• The main things she wanted to see in Seattle were the gum wall, the first Starbucks, the Space Needle, EMP and Kerry Park. After visiting the gum wall, she admitted she thought it would stink, “but it smelled quite nice”.
• She thought Seattle was very European after having seen Pike Place Market, Ballard Farmer’s Market and the Fremont Sunday Market.
• Had pho for the first time and licked the bowl clean.

My observations of M:

• She referred to a Southern accent as “cowboy” accent.
• She was interested in taking lots of pictures of autumn leaves since they didn’t have this in Taiwan.
• She understood and spoke English well, but had a hard time getting jokes or what’s going on in some TV shows and movies due to the use of words having a double meaning. She had a hard time understanding the jokes on Friends, but could hear the audience laughing so she’d have to go to Google to figure out what was so funny.
• She asked the reason behind day light savings, which doesn’t exist in Taiwan.
• She asked about the expression, “leaving a bad taste in your mouth”.
• I explained what “hella” meant after she heard people using it.
• During karaoke, she saw the lyrics, “Why don’t you build me up, buttercup, baby”. She wanted me to explain what “build me up”, “buttercup” and the rest of the lyrics of the song meant.

Related articles:

• See what a 36 year old from Japan thought of Seattle
• See what a 30 year old from Spain thought of Seattle
• See what a 28 year old from Utah thought of Seattle
• See what a 36 year old from Korea thought of Seattle