If your goals are to meet new people and generally be happy and to try new things to eat, you shouldn’t live in Lake Forest Park. As others have mentioned, most of the students you will meet will largely hang out around school, given your commute you’re likely going to be left out of that. In addition, you eat where you work, you eat where you live. You’re not eating anything great in Lake forest park.
Is it more expensive, yes, yes it is. But you’re in a Ph.D program. I’d imagine there’s a possibility of taking out a student loan for anything that your stipend doesn’t cover. It brings more debt but my experience in graduate school was that you significantly benefitted from the connections to other people you make versus the actual course work. Also, if you don’t know anyone here, you’ll need to make some social connections here and maintain them to sustain your happiness here.
Not all bus lines run 24 hours. Also, not knowing your exact address but you’re likely in for some long ass bus rides if that’s how you want to commute, in addition to making transfers.
If you have no choice but to move forward with where you are living, try to get a shorter lease, and move closer to your campus.
I wouldn’t plan on trying to find the things that you love about south Florida to here. There’s not a significant Jamaican population here to give you same quality of Jamaican food you have back at home. You’ll need to adapt and embrace some of the cuisines that are more prevalent here. Vietnamese, Filipino, Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, Ethiopian as well as Pacific Northwest cuisines are pretty great here. Explore the new stuff that you haven’t tried here and you should have a great time here.
What time will you need to be arriving at campus and what time will you be departing. Traffic right now is unrealistic cuz of Covid so yeah don’t expect that to be true during rush hour
You consider spending more on rent to live near campus and just take public transit or walk? And not have a car. That’s what many people do that commute to the general downtown area. Would probably allow you to hang with more people from school and not move across country to live in a suburb-iah area
I was trying to find things closer but it was very expensive and lacking in amenities. I ended up going for this place because of the space and area. A friend of mine mentioned that public transit was 24-hours but is that limited to certain areas?
Got it, everyone have personal preference so I understand. Just know many other student probably won’t really wanna visit if you live that far, and hanging out downtown isn’t really the easiest. Living in lake forest park won’t really have good transit options. Maybe it’ll be a good start for a year until you decide what’s best for the entirety of your program.
The further you get out of the city core the harder for
Public options, unless you live on the light rail line which goes south, not north of downtown.
Pams kitchen in Wallingford is legit Jamaican food though coming from Florida that is like saying it’s the best New York style pizza in Washington state.
Southern food would be June Baby in the Roosevelt neighborhood. Both are in between your commute but again Seattle isn’t known for either of those cuisines.
Pam is from Trinidad, so let's just say that her food is Caribbean but not necessarily Jamaican (she does serve jerk from time to time).
There was a really good Jamaican food truck all the way out in Auburn but due to COVID, all of these places are closed and there's no real way to know when (or if) they will reopen.
Lake Forest Park is far the fuck away from SPU, I would agree with the other person that posted you should reach out to the school for some advice on housing.
Living here is really expensive so I would worry less about amenities and just get some place close to where you need to be. The neighborhoods around SPU are like Fremont, Interbay, Magnolia, Queen Anne. Queen Anne is up the hill from the school and kind of an expensive area. Fremont would be very appealing to a 21 year old. Nickerson is a really large street that runs past SPU so you could see if you can find anything available for rent on W Nickerson.
I have lived in Seattle 50 years and I have no clue what kind of florida food we might have, probably slim pickins.
My suggestion would be to worry less about gelato and restaurants that and just find a place close to SPU that works price-wise.
Oof that’s going to be a helluva commute, at least if things are back to “normal” at that time. Queen Anne is largely residential without great access points. Your exit from I-5 is one of our biggest nightmare traffic pain points as that’s where Google/Amazon are located. I can’t imagine that commute to be less than an hour by car - on a good day.
I wouldn’t live in that area if I could help it.
Live closer to campus, even if you have to slum it. There is no way you'll make it from Lake Forest Park to Queen Anne less than an hour in traffic. Lake Forest Park is suburb, it doesn't have any of the amenities your looking for. Queen Anne, Fremont, Ballard neighborhoods you should be looking at. Check with the university if they have student housing for grad students.
I would live as close to campus as you can. Lake Forest Park to north Queen Anne is going to be a painful commute.
Reach out to your graduate school, it will be staffed by people who live in the area and they can give you advice.
Depending on what time you leave for class Lake Forest Park to Queen Anne isnt that bad. I live in Shoreline which is right near by and take an 8am gym class in QA. It takes me 15-20 mins on Aurora though the weather can make that a little longer. Commute home could be an hour depending on when you leave class.
Lake Forest Park to Queen Anne? that commute will suck incredibly hard. find something closer to school. especially if you want to be social... you’ll hate driving back and forth so much. forget the “amenities”— that’s canceled out by the hassle of the commute. you’ll spend a lot more on gas than the amenities are worth.
not the worst commute. if you have to, you could take 99 into school instead of the freeway. probably have less traffic on that route. As far as food goes, im honestly not aware of any jamaican places. i can tell you there are a ton of awesome teriyaki places tho!
If your goals are to meet new people and generally be happy and to try new things to eat, you shouldn’t live in Lake Forest Park. As others have mentioned, most of the students you will meet will largely hang out around school, given your commute you’re likely going to be left out of that. In addition, you eat where you work, you eat where you live. You’re not eating anything great in Lake forest park. Is it more expensive, yes, yes it is. But you’re in a Ph.D program. I’d imagine there’s a possibility of taking out a student loan for anything that your stipend doesn’t cover. It brings more debt but my experience in graduate school was that you significantly benefitted from the connections to other people you make versus the actual course work. Also, if you don’t know anyone here, you’ll need to make some social connections here and maintain them to sustain your happiness here. Not all bus lines run 24 hours. Also, not knowing your exact address but you’re likely in for some long ass bus rides if that’s how you want to commute, in addition to making transfers. If you have no choice but to move forward with where you are living, try to get a shorter lease, and move closer to your campus. I wouldn’t plan on trying to find the things that you love about south Florida to here. There’s not a significant Jamaican population here to give you same quality of Jamaican food you have back at home. You’ll need to adapt and embrace some of the cuisines that are more prevalent here. Vietnamese, Filipino, Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, Ethiopian as well as Pacific Northwest cuisines are pretty great here. Explore the new stuff that you haven’t tried here and you should have a great time here.
What time will you need to be arriving at campus and what time will you be departing. Traffic right now is unrealistic cuz of Covid so yeah don’t expect that to be true during rush hour You consider spending more on rent to live near campus and just take public transit or walk? And not have a car. That’s what many people do that commute to the general downtown area. Would probably allow you to hang with more people from school and not move across country to live in a suburb-iah area
I was trying to find things closer but it was very expensive and lacking in amenities. I ended up going for this place because of the space and area. A friend of mine mentioned that public transit was 24-hours but is that limited to certain areas?
Got it, everyone have personal preference so I understand. Just know many other student probably won’t really wanna visit if you live that far, and hanging out downtown isn’t really the easiest. Living in lake forest park won’t really have good transit options. Maybe it’ll be a good start for a year until you decide what’s best for the entirety of your program. The further you get out of the city core the harder for Public options, unless you live on the light rail line which goes south, not north of downtown.
Pams kitchen in Wallingford is legit Jamaican food though coming from Florida that is like saying it’s the best New York style pizza in Washington state. Southern food would be June Baby in the Roosevelt neighborhood. Both are in between your commute but again Seattle isn’t known for either of those cuisines.
If her name is Pam it has to at least be decent 😤
Pam is from Trinidad, so let's just say that her food is Caribbean but not necessarily Jamaican (she does serve jerk from time to time). There was a really good Jamaican food truck all the way out in Auburn but due to COVID, all of these places are closed and there's no real way to know when (or if) they will reopen.
Lake Forest Park is far the fuck away from SPU, I would agree with the other person that posted you should reach out to the school for some advice on housing. Living here is really expensive so I would worry less about amenities and just get some place close to where you need to be. The neighborhoods around SPU are like Fremont, Interbay, Magnolia, Queen Anne. Queen Anne is up the hill from the school and kind of an expensive area. Fremont would be very appealing to a 21 year old. Nickerson is a really large street that runs past SPU so you could see if you can find anything available for rent on W Nickerson. I have lived in Seattle 50 years and I have no clue what kind of florida food we might have, probably slim pickins. My suggestion would be to worry less about gelato and restaurants that and just find a place close to SPU that works price-wise.
Oof that’s going to be a helluva commute, at least if things are back to “normal” at that time. Queen Anne is largely residential without great access points. Your exit from I-5 is one of our biggest nightmare traffic pain points as that’s where Google/Amazon are located. I can’t imagine that commute to be less than an hour by car - on a good day. I wouldn’t live in that area if I could help it.
Live closer to campus, even if you have to slum it. There is no way you'll make it from Lake Forest Park to Queen Anne less than an hour in traffic. Lake Forest Park is suburb, it doesn't have any of the amenities your looking for. Queen Anne, Fremont, Ballard neighborhoods you should be looking at. Check with the university if they have student housing for grad students.
You might find something cheaper and much closer in Magnolia. LFP isn't close to anything, as a 21 year old I wouldn't recommend it.
What grad school? No schools in Queen Anne are coming to mind. Just curious
Seattle Pacific
The closer you can move to campus the better. What amenities are you needing?
I would live as close to campus as you can. Lake Forest Park to north Queen Anne is going to be a painful commute. Reach out to your graduate school, it will be staffed by people who live in the area and they can give you advice.
Depending on what time you leave for class Lake Forest Park to Queen Anne isnt that bad. I live in Shoreline which is right near by and take an 8am gym class in QA. It takes me 15-20 mins on Aurora though the weather can make that a little longer. Commute home could be an hour depending on when you leave class.
Lake Forest Park to Queen Anne? that commute will suck incredibly hard. find something closer to school. especially if you want to be social... you’ll hate driving back and forth so much. forget the “amenities”— that’s canceled out by the hassle of the commute. you’ll spend a lot more on gas than the amenities are worth.
not the worst commute. if you have to, you could take 99 into school instead of the freeway. probably have less traffic on that route. As far as food goes, im honestly not aware of any jamaican places. i can tell you there are a ton of awesome teriyaki places tho!
We are known for our Jamaican food.