First Days in Portland

After a couple hectic days of packing and preparation, my flight to Portland on Tuesday went off without a hitch. I had a 3-hour layover in Seattle, which has a very nice airport and very nice people. On the final leg to Portland I met someone who grew up in NJ but had been living in Cleveland for the past 6-7 years, and we know some of the same people...such a small world!

Sarah met me at the airport (so good to see her!), and we took the MAX (the above-ground rail) back to her new apartment, where I'll be living until Feb. 26. It's in the Old Town/Chinatown part of Portland, which is in the NW quadrant. Portland is divided West-East by Willamette River and North-South by Burnside Street, making 4 quadrants (NW, NE, SW, SE). We dropped my stuff off and then walked to Fred Meyer (a really nice grocery store) to do some grocery shopping and pick up some things I forgot. We made a lovely dinner and hung out at her apartment, which is really nice and clean and spacious and bug-free and has a balcony and a dishwashing machine and lots of closets!!! Most of these things would be completely unaffordable in Brooklyn. I will post pictures once I take them!

Yesterday (Wednesday) we spent most of the day wandering around the Pearl District, which is in the NW and is filled with cute little shops and restaurants and bars and galleries. Sarah says it's Portland's Park Slope. If I had to pick one word to describe Portland after being here for a very short amount of time and after seeing not very much of it, I would pick the word "cute." Everything is really cute. We got lots of supplies for collage-making, some dishes, and a coffee table that is low to the ground. Thrift stores in Portland aren't as good as the ones in Ohio but are so much better than the ones in NYC...and you don't have to worry about bed bugs!

One really awesome and unique amenity that exists here (and nowhere else?) is the pub theater. It's exactly what it sounds like--a movie theater where one can consume beer! What a novel idea! So we went to one in the NW that's called Mission Theater to see "The Men Who Stare at Goats" with George Clooney. I (a little bit surprisingly...) highly recommend it to you (Momma and Poppa, I'm talking to you! I think you guys would get a kick out of it...). It was really cheap, too; we got admission, a burger, and a beer for 11 bucks or something.

Today we went to the Portland Classical Chinese Garden (a.k.a. the Lan Su Chinese Garden) because they're having 10 days of free admission in celebration of their 10th anniversary. It's the most authentic Chinese garden outside of China's borders, and it's so beautiful! I wish I could see it in the summer when it will be brimming with life and flowers. I did take some pictures here, which I will post as soon as I put them on my computer. I thought about my trip to China many times when we were walking around the garden, even though I never went to a garden when I was in China. I really want to go back...Chinese culture, art, and philosophy are beautiful...so different from Western ways of life. I'm thinking about getting a tattoo of the yin-yang on my inner forearm. It's such a beautiful symbol that carries so much weight.

After lunch/dinner over the movie "Le scaphandre et le papillon" ("The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"...also really good...receives the Jenna-stamp-of-approval), we headed over to Backspace, which is a really awesome coffee shop/bar/gallery/show space that's really close to Sarah's apartment. Actually, EVERYTHING is really close to Sarah's apartment; she found a great spot! I'm still at Backspace...I've been here for a while and am quite caffeinated! Also, there just happens to be an art opening here tonight! It seems like there is so much art here! And so many artists! Okay I'm going to go get some sushi with a new friend...more soon!