From the moment you land in seattle, the very first week can be depressing for some of us. You are in a place with no friends nearby, no supermarket aisles you are used to, no car, no family, no cab services or roads you are used to. Its all new. So what do you do, don't panic. It happens to everyone, that sick loneliness gets us all.
To help you with the few initial things, here are my tips:
1) Usually when you land, its past lunch time and airport in seattle has not much to offer. What you can do is order when you take cab. Install amazon app and get any restaurant to deliver for you. It could be the case you are fed up with eating in flight so totally cool if you want to go and sleep off jetlag.
2) Checking in : Most of my friends faced this problem, they were made to wait by aboda rivet. For us, they said your apartment is not ready and we could leave suitcases there, take our lunch somewhere in vicinity. Well, we just had a flight of 22 hours. All we wanted was a bed . Luckily, in 5 minutes housekeeping lady came with key. Just call them ahead so they keep your temporary house ready to move in. On reservation document, you will see passcodes for accessing room key. My pregnant friends waited for an hour in the lobby. If you are going rivet and asked to wait, just ask them to at least take you to community lounge where they have pool table. Every apartment has a place you can see tv relax and lie down too. We all get hesitant but comfort comes first. Just be polite.
3) What to do when you are off flight : Follow people, there is an immigration line, get in the line, keep passports forms documents ready. They will ask questions if you brought any food items. Tell them you got flour spices etc. They might ask for offer letter and just go with it. Don't be nervous, its just a process. Then go down, pick your suitcases from belt , take them to security line, again show passport. They will take suitcases and send them to the final conveyor belt. All you have to do is take the train that everyone takes , go to belt , pick up suitcases and head to cabs. There is directions everywhere, just stay calm and you will realize it was all nothing
Everyone is super courteous and friendly. You can ask airport officials and they will be happy to help. Or just ask co passengers.
4) Fire alarm : We moved in, and just when were about to doze off, fire alarm rang. Go down, follow the stairs and just stand with everyone. There is nothing much you can do here.
5) Rivet or others : Hmm, rivet has its pros and cons. Since I lived just here, I can tell you its good and homely. But they don't have gym, ac, fast internet. Sometimes I can't even buffer youtube videos here. Otherwise, its got nice rooftop deck with pool table and sitting area along with dog park and amazing views of city with lake and the best of all right next to amazon office. Also housekeeping is done once in 15 days which is pretty cool. They leave vaccum cleaner, mops in house so you can do it yourself too. The only downside is gym ac internet and our apartment faced rehab area so sometimes there were homeless people shouting in the middle of night. If you have a big family, ask for a bigger apartment at time of booking. See your options and decide. Post and dimension apartments are awesome with cool water views and fully functional gym. Ava queen anne has pretty cool gym with mind-blowing ocean view. If you are looking for indian friends, rivet could be the best bet. So weigh in, these friends are going to move in different apartments and your husband could walk or take orca card. I would have loved living in post apartment. My apartment was 513 in rivet, it was well lit with lots of windows and direct sunlight but homeless and gym situation bothered me a lot. But then we stayed for 3 months, as you live you kind of get accustomed to everything even if it makes you fatter.
6) Use mailbox : You can change your address to rivet or any apartment by filling a form and keeping in mailbox. Then you will receive all mails there. This is important for ssn, license and bank documents. When you move to your apartment, change address in usps website. You can ask office people for more details. So get your cosmetics clothes delivered right there in apartment concierge. Keep checking mails for nice restaurant offers, coupons. All apartments have mailboxes. In some of them, they even have screens where you can see if you received any packages.
7) Housekeeping services : Every apartment offers housekeeping. You can ask them for cooker, mixer when they come to clean or you can just ask in office. For rivet, they came once every 2 weeks, they change towels clean up house and if they don't change bedsheets ask in office. We did and it seems they never changed so I just washed sheets.
8) Trash chute : All apartments have trash chutes. Just find one on your floor and in some time you will be recycling like every seattle person. Trash chutes are like spaces on all floors marked trash, just go around the floor and find yours. Enter and follow directions. Some apartments need a key to operate them, some don't. Rivet needs key and trash chute starts from 3rd floor.
9) Groceries : Well I asked my friends zillion times and they were just like go qfc or safeway. For your immediate needs, just on the left of rivet there is home deli, you can buy milk egg bread breakfast stuff from there. If you want to stock up, I would suggest safeway online delivery or instacart delivery. QFC is on mercer street, just 10 minutes walk from rivet or queen anne area. Find your nearest qfc safeway on map and walk to it. Safeway signature kitchen 15 grain bread is good. I like vegetables from QFC. Safeway is soooo goood for delivery. Then there is amazon fresh. General grocery bill for two people for 15 days is 150 dollars. You can even try whole foods which is totally organic. On your first order, order dishwashing gel for dishwasher, tissue rolls, paper napkins, salt, sugar, laundry detergent, dish scrub . If you are confused or overwhelmed, go QFC and see for yourself. Grocery therapy never failed. There is bartell drugs too near amazon office.
10) Salon : As an indian, I need salon appointments every 20 days. For threading, I tried e brow lounge sola salon manita. It was good, the shape was perfect for eyebrows. Make an appointment over yelp and try her. Then there is tons of groupon deals for haircut and color. Search on yelp, make appointments and let maps guide you. Be on time.
11) Walk : Seattle is perfect for walks. They have south lake union with museum and beautiful scenery for a peaceful tread. Also near queen anne is olympic sculpture park, gosh its perfect. You can run anywhere. Whenever you have to cross road, just find white zebra line, push button and when white walk sign appears, walk. Even if you want to observe people and follow, its cool. Everything takes time. Also,all museums are free first thursday so try them out.
12) Gym : If you are a gym freak, join 24 hr fitness center near rivet. Or just google and find a good one.
13) Bank : You can choose banks by taking recommendations from friends already living here . Ask your company people and you should be sorted. We took first tech bank cards. While you are at it, get your social security number too from the office. Its all there on google.
14) Phone plan : You can either join someone's phone plan as with more people joining on same line there are few discounts. Otherwise just take your number and go on. For india, they have 15$ plans for unlimited calling.
15) Shopping : Downtown is good for shopping. Every brand is there. Take a stroll and you will end up with shopping bags. There's target, macy, forever 21, nordstorm, columbia every freaking store is in that area. I wouldn't ever go out, but once I did it was a weekly routine.
16) Driving license : 911 driving classes are the best. Don't think about the money they will take, just take the classes. My husband had no problem driving around but when he went for test straight ahead, he failed because he was driving little slow somewhere and little fast in some areas. So you got to practice before you take test. Your indian driving license works for an year. Also if you take learners license here, you don't have to carry passport around with you.
17) Use dishwasher : Use it, stack it up, put the dishwashing capsule or liquid and go for it. In a few days, you will use it like a pro. Its actually soooo cool, who wants to wash dishes when you can just toss them inside a machine that steams them up. Ohh, trust me use it. You can choose any setting, if the dishes are almost clean, use 1 hour option. I am posting few pics to give you the idea.
18) Making food on this new gas : It will take time to adjust to new gas. But you will figure it out. The glass one takes more time to heat up, you have to change settings from hi to lo when you cook chapati. With experience and trying, you will do it. Piece of cake. Gas can be cleaned easily, just wipe it after its cooled down. If you get open coils, put foil inside so it doesn't get messy. Tumeric stains go away easily in 2 days. You can use chopping board as base for keeping chaka belan for chapati which makes it easier to clean.
19) Use apartment amenities, meet people : If you are in rivet, you will meet so many indians. Talk to them, me and my friends met in lift and then we would meet everyday in pool room. Friends in a new place are always comforting. Even if you are alone, its cool. If I was a bit more of a planner, I could have hosted lunches or festival gatherings in the pool room. On karvachowth, I saw at least 5 couples waiting for chand.
20) Netflix : All of them netflix hulu showtime offer free first month subscriptions, try them to find out which your favorite one is. You can take one on your credit card, then cancel and take on your husband's and then on new credit card. Or just take subscription. They even have indian channels on yupptv. After sometime, you will be hooked to house hunters and kardashians.
22) Restaurants : Keep exploring, there is grubhub caviar bitesquad amazon. Everytime you order from someone new, you get coupons. Just make sure you order one hour before. They deliver in one hour or more. When someone calls on phone, just accept and press 9 to let them in for rivet. Seattle eat guide is out there for download too. The portage bay cafe is the best for brunch. Indian places like chutneys, royal palace are all okk. Try and find out.
23) Cab services : Everyone starts with uber. Download the app and they might have problems accepting cards from india. Enter US pincode. If it doesn't work, take yellow cabs or lyft. Best if you can drive, take zipcar. Amazon offers the option of taking rental car or cab. Even public transport is good here, keep maps and catch buses. You can either use orca card or pay when you enter in bus. If you don't know, just ask bus driver.
If you have any questions, mail me baghel.archana@gmail.com
You can use towel to keep washed utensils so the counter is not wet.
We searched for apartments so here is the gist of that too.
http://myfilmilist.blogspot.com/2016/02/searching-for-apartments-in-seattle.html
8) Trash chute : All apartments have trash chutes. Just find one on your floor and in some time you will be recycling like every seattle person. Trash chutes are like spaces on all floors marked trash, just go around the floor and find yours. Enter and follow directions. Some apartments need a key to operate them, some don't. Rivet needs key and trash chute starts from 3rd floor.
9) Groceries : Well I asked my friends zillion times and they were just like go qfc or safeway. For your immediate needs, just on the left of rivet there is home deli, you can buy milk egg bread breakfast stuff from there. If you want to stock up, I would suggest safeway online delivery or instacart delivery. QFC is on mercer street, just 10 minutes walk from rivet or queen anne area. Find your nearest qfc safeway on map and walk to it. Safeway signature kitchen 15 grain bread is good. I like vegetables from QFC. Safeway is soooo goood for delivery. Then there is amazon fresh. General grocery bill for two people for 15 days is 150 dollars. You can even try whole foods which is totally organic. On your first order, order dishwashing gel for dishwasher, tissue rolls, paper napkins, salt, sugar, laundry detergent, dish scrub . If you are confused or overwhelmed, go QFC and see for yourself. Grocery therapy never failed. There is bartell drugs too near amazon office.
10) Salon : As an indian, I need salon appointments every 20 days. For threading, I tried e brow lounge sola salon manita. It was good, the shape was perfect for eyebrows. Make an appointment over yelp and try her. Then there is tons of groupon deals for haircut and color. Search on yelp, make appointments and let maps guide you. Be on time.
11) Walk : Seattle is perfect for walks. They have south lake union with museum and beautiful scenery for a peaceful tread. Also near queen anne is olympic sculpture park, gosh its perfect. You can run anywhere. Whenever you have to cross road, just find white zebra line, push button and when white walk sign appears, walk. Even if you want to observe people and follow, its cool. Everything takes time. Also,all museums are free first thursday so try them out.
12) Gym : If you are a gym freak, join 24 hr fitness center near rivet. Or just google and find a good one.
13) Bank : You can choose banks by taking recommendations from friends already living here . Ask your company people and you should be sorted. We took first tech bank cards. While you are at it, get your social security number too from the office. Its all there on google.
14) Phone plan : You can either join someone's phone plan as with more people joining on same line there are few discounts. Otherwise just take your number and go on. For india, they have 15$ plans for unlimited calling.
15) Shopping : Downtown is good for shopping. Every brand is there. Take a stroll and you will end up with shopping bags. There's target, macy, forever 21, nordstorm, columbia every freaking store is in that area. I wouldn't ever go out, but once I did it was a weekly routine.
16) Driving license : 911 driving classes are the best. Don't think about the money they will take, just take the classes. My husband had no problem driving around but when he went for test straight ahead, he failed because he was driving little slow somewhere and little fast in some areas. So you got to practice before you take test. Your indian driving license works for an year. Also if you take learners license here, you don't have to carry passport around with you.
17) Use dishwasher : Use it, stack it up, put the dishwashing capsule or liquid and go for it. In a few days, you will use it like a pro. Its actually soooo cool, who wants to wash dishes when you can just toss them inside a machine that steams them up. Ohh, trust me use it. You can choose any setting, if the dishes are almost clean, use 1 hour option. I am posting few pics to give you the idea.
18) Making food on this new gas : It will take time to adjust to new gas. But you will figure it out. The glass one takes more time to heat up, you have to change settings from hi to lo when you cook chapati. With experience and trying, you will do it. Piece of cake. Gas can be cleaned easily, just wipe it after its cooled down. If you get open coils, put foil inside so it doesn't get messy. Tumeric stains go away easily in 2 days. You can use chopping board as base for keeping chaka belan for chapati which makes it easier to clean.
19) Use apartment amenities, meet people : If you are in rivet, you will meet so many indians. Talk to them, me and my friends met in lift and then we would meet everyday in pool room. Friends in a new place are always comforting. Even if you are alone, its cool. If I was a bit more of a planner, I could have hosted lunches or festival gatherings in the pool room. On karvachowth, I saw at least 5 couples waiting for chand.
20) Netflix : All of them netflix hulu showtime offer free first month subscriptions, try them to find out which your favorite one is. You can take one on your credit card, then cancel and take on your husband's and then on new credit card. Or just take subscription. They even have indian channels on yupptv. After sometime, you will be hooked to house hunters and kardashians.
22) Restaurants : Keep exploring, there is grubhub caviar bitesquad amazon. Everytime you order from someone new, you get coupons. Just make sure you order one hour before. They deliver in one hour or more. When someone calls on phone, just accept and press 9 to let them in for rivet. Seattle eat guide is out there for download too. The portage bay cafe is the best for brunch. Indian places like chutneys, royal palace are all okk. Try and find out.
23) Cab services : Everyone starts with uber. Download the app and they might have problems accepting cards from india. Enter US pincode. If it doesn't work, take yellow cabs or lyft. Best if you can drive, take zipcar. Amazon offers the option of taking rental car or cab. Even public transport is good here, keep maps and catch buses. You can either use orca card or pay when you enter in bus. If you don't know, just ask bus driver.
If you have any questions, mail me baghel.archana@gmail.com
You can use towel to keep washed utensils so the counter is not wet.
We searched for apartments so here is the gist of that too.
http://myfilmilist.blogspot.com/2016/02/searching-for-apartments-in-seattle.html
Hey,
ReplyDeleteI landed on this page from a link you had posted on redbus. Although it has been a while since I came to US, but I could still related to lot of things you mentioned here. Some things that I want to add:
1. Safeway - They have additional discounts once you take their membership (which is free). You can login to their app and get additional discounts on specific items and based on your purchase history, they suggest you additional items. Furthermore, once you have spent $100 in Safeway, you can get 10c discount on gas from Chevron. Safeway is my preferred go to store for all these reasons.
2. For wholesale items like toilet paper, paper towels etc, Costco or Amazon is preferred. Costco is a paid membership but if you can find someone who is already a member, then you can become their +1 (the rules require you to be in same household but it is loosely enforced). I assume you work at Amazon, so you may be getting better deals there. Also look at their subscribe & save program which offers 5-15% discount and Amazon Wholesale which offers discounts on opened boxes.
3. You can create accounts on USPS and UPS and provide your postal address. Once they verify the same, you can get notifications for any mails/packages coming your way. Helps those who do lot of online shopping.
4. Remember to update address on USCIS website (using AR-11). It should be updated within 10 days of landing US or changing addresses.
5. Once you zero down on a specific bank for credit card or checking/savings account, search online for any available promotions. Lot of times they have promotions going on. In addition, if you know someone who already has an account w/ that bank, let them refer you and they can get cashback.
6. As one starts w/ zero credit history, your first credit card is not the most awesome product out there. Start working on your credit history and building it up. I started w/ Capital One and they increased my credit limit every 6 months. I was able to sign-up for AMEX within a year.
7. Open an account at credit karma. It provides free credit score (no hidden catches) and helps you in keeping track of where you stand.
8. If you do lot of online shopping, open an account at a site like ebates (I can provide a referral :) ), which provide cashback on most of the online purchases.
If I remember anything else, I will add more.
Welcome to US!
Thanks a lot. I didn't know about 4 to 7 points. There is so much to learn since its just been four months. I feel like updating every day. A zillion thanks truly.
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