刚刚奋笔疾书了三个小时写的一篇“信息文”，帮助未来的项目的交流老师们更加清楚到这里安定下来的流程。 拖着自己受伤的手腕和还是写不完大理会年末作业的惶恐；在不知下一任是何方神圣的前提下这番掏心掏肺， 肯定是真爱没差了。想我恋爱时也没有这么废寝忘食，水不舍得去喝， 卫生间没时间去上。都不许怀疑，这就是真爱。于其他州的志愿者，同理套用。
Must–knows for settling down in Seattle
For visiting teachers to Pathfinder Yiheng 6/8/2016
House renting:
School will host you for free for the first month and you need to pay your own rent from the second month. If you keep your contract for another year, you will be responsible for your entire second year rent. You can ask school administrators to help you look for a room in American family which will be cheaper and you can experience real American culture. If you prefer to have more privacy, you can rent an apartment which can be pricey because Seattle is expensive in general. You can ask for help or go to Seattle craigslist on which you can find a lot of apartments.However,no matter which way you like, safety comes first! Make sure you consult local people before you rent.If you’re not going to get a car, make sure you rent at a place with public transit to get to school. Along bus 50; 120 and 125‘s routes will be ideal.
Phone Company:
Pathfinder School is located on a hill with poor reception so that I strongly recommend AT&T or Verizon. The one I use during the second year of my stay is AT&T which works fine on campus. You can go in AT&T store to get your SIM card. I like the AT&T Store in downtown. You can also take a look at AT&T plans here.
Social Security Number:
You should go get your social security number as soon as you can. Google:Social security office Seattle; then you will find the closest one in Downtown Seattle.Check the hours and paper works you need to bring before you go.Here is the website of Social Security. They will mail it to you later so make sure you put in the right address.
Banking:
The one I use is Bank of America. I have a checking account -a debit card, in Chinese借记卡; a saving account in Chinese储蓄账户and credit card (信用卡)—Cash back one. I also ordered a check book (支票) so that I don’t have to carry cash with me while online banking helps me get access to all my accounts easily. As for the checking account, you need to make sure you have at least 1500 dollars in your checking account all the time; otherwise you need to pay 12 dollars a month. Or you can set up direct deposit which means you have certain amount of money comes in every month. If so, you won’t need to pay the 12 dollars fee. What I did was setting up direct deposit of my paycheck薪水单.Tell your bank you want to set up a direct deposit when you open the account.They should give you a piece of paper work so you can take back to school and fill in the direct deposit authorization form from Seattle Public Schools. As for saving account, there is also a minimum.Make sure you ask the banker for all the details.Of course, you can also choose other banks.
Transportation:
I take the bus everywhere during my stay. It takes longer time to get around but the public transportation in Seattle is really convenient.City of Seattle belongs to King County and here is the website of King County Metro.You can plan your trip on there, although I use Google maps more often. You can also get your own Orca card to pay for the transit fare in the Puget Sound Region. Here is the website of Orca Card; you can apply it online and get it from the mail once you get here.You can also take the Sounder train to nearby cities. I don’t have a car so I don’t have any advice on that.
Eat:
Get the app“Yelp”;you can find all the great food there.
Authentic Chinese restaurants: Qin Xian Food;Seven Stars Pepper;Boiling Point;Spiced;Dough Zone.Okay ones:King Noodle;Sichuan Cuisine. Other Yiheng’s favorites: ChuMinh Tofu & Veggie Deli;Bakery Nouveau;Molly Moon Ice cream; Top Pot Donuts; Dick’s; Salty’s.
Shopping:
Asian supermarket: Uwajimaya (International District); Hung Long Asian Market (White center) Beacon Hill Market (Beacon Hill); Ranch 99( Edmonds by Qin Xian Food).
Daily grocery shopping, you can go to QFC, Safeway or Produce Stand (cheaper). If you want better food, you can go to Trader Joe’s and PCC.
Clothes shopping:Downtown Seattle.
Make phone calls to China:
Skype: 1. Sign up for Skype; 2. either buy skype credit or subscribe calling China one; 3. you have to have Wi-Fi or data.
Apps:
Yelp; Google maps; Pandora (music); Skype; Airbnb (travelling); planbook.com(online planer); YouTube
Outside School Support:
First one is College Board GTA; second,College Board Webinars; next comes Confucius Institute of State of Washington which will provide workshops and certain amount of money for Moon Festival Event and Chinese New Year. You will also get to meet local teachers through their network.
More tips:
1.Figure out how to go the doctors here-you can check my Jianshu to find out how to use Insurance in States; Find an Emergency Room which takes your insurance card;
2.Take your passport and insurance card with you;
3.Have lunch with coworkers;
4.Learn the map of Washington so you won’t feel left out during theconversations;
5.Have your own computer at home except for work computer at school so thatyou can take your work home instead of working late at night;
6.Use your planner and do the urgent ones first;
7. Ask school secretary before you bring you questions to your boss;
8. Do your job with 100% passion and effort because you get paid to do it;
9.Take good care of yourself.
10.Be independent.
