Sunday, July 6, 2008

An A-maze-ing day in Portland

Currently reading: Spirituality at Work, StengthsQuest:Discover and Develop Your Strengths in Academics, Career, and Beyond, The Wisdom of Father Brown

So it was a busy week and weekend, but ultimately a lot of fun too. We had off for the fourth, so a bunch of us from the program went up to one of the second year's (he's a Portland house guy) parents house in Olympia. I've never been to Olympia, but I really liked it. His house was right on a lake, so we went swimming (even though it was NOT warm enough to do so) and rowing in a rowboat, and they had a hot tub too. It was a pretty relaxing day, which was nice after two weeks of classes. We just kind of hung out, eating and drinking and chatting. We also played a card game that never ended, which wasn't my favorite card game ever. At night we sat down by the lake and watched everyone shoort off fireworks from their docks. As someone who grew up in a state where this is illegal, it was mesmerizing to see people shooting firework show quality stuff, right in their backyards. I also had my first ever sparkler, which we took pictures of. Then we slept over and drove home the next morning. It was just nice to relax and hang out with everyone, because we're normally all pretty busy and stressed out.

And then yesterday I met up with Ruthann in downtown Portland at the Saturday market. It was definitely an adventurous day. I took my first ever ride on Public Transportation in the city, and made friends with the busdriver, who walked me through the whole thing and where to get my connection and everything. Her nephew did AmeriCorps, so we quickly became friends over that. When Ruthann got to the Saturday market we just wandered around for a bit and she did some shopping while I just browsed. (I don't have any income currently, so I'm trying to be careful and only spend money on food.) Then we met up with various members of her family and walked a few blocks to Powells, which is the largest bookstore in the country, and they sell used and new books there. It's pretty amazing. It was really crowded there though, which was kind of a bummer. I think I'm going to go back on a weekday and see what it's like then. It's so big that they give you maps. Then we met up with all the rest of Ruthann's family in Powells, before splitting off again in separate directions because Ruthann and Andrew wanted to go to this chocolate stand and buy some really fancy chocolate. It was a lot of walking, but it was nice, because I got to see a good bit of downtown Portland.

After Ruthann left, I wandered down to the waterfront, where there was a blues festival. I was waiting for some friends from the program to come down, and it took a little longer than I expected for them to get there, so I just sat on a bench facing the river and made some new friends. The first was Jeremy, who teaches abroad and also helps teach yoga and breathing workshops as part of some mystic Indian religion. He invited me to one they're holding downtown, so I politely took a flyer and then listened to some of his stories, which were really interesting because he's pretty well traveled. His parents are from Paterson, so we bonded over the New Jersey thing. He invited me to a vegetarian dinner with him and some friends, but I declined, saying that I was going to the Blues Festival with friends. Eventually he had to go meet up with his Indian mystic friends, so I made a new friend.

His name was James, and he was sitting across from me selling hand drawn mazes, which really were pretty incredible. They were only 50 cents, which was nice, so I bought one to send home to Genna and Rosie. I didn't have enough cash to buy two. We talked for a while and he was telling me how he had also just moved to Portland from California, and he was selling mazes so that he could make enough money to eat, because he didn't want to pay taxes because all the money just goes to killing people. So we chatted about various things and he asked me if I wanted to go to a party later with him and I said no thank you because I was going to the blues festival. Then two kids came up on bikes, and while one was looking at the mazes, the other muttered to me, "hey would you be interested in mumble mumble mumble?" I couldn't tell what he was offering, but I got the gist, so I again politely declined. My new friend James made a purchase, and I thought perhaps it was time for me to move on from my spot by the river. This thought was confirmed when James offered to share with me. I thanked him for the conversation and told him I was going to meet up with my friends. So I walked away and wandered until everyone got there, and then we went to the festival, which was loads of fun. Perhaps if I have time I will write about that later.

I'm off to church...no Portland adventures there I hope!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

heh,

sounds like portland is a party kinda town...

Crystal said...

im so glad you're making so many friends! it makes me laugh to think of you being surrounded by the people you described. i cant wait to tell you about the characters i work with.