Took these out of the airplane windows between Austin and Portland.
Tag Archive for 'oregon'
The flight to Portland took me through Phoenix. I can’t figure out why the hell anyone would want to live out in the middle of the desert. I guess the last laugh will be on them when they don’t have any water in a few years. Suckers.
From 30,000 feet the Grand Canyon and the Rockies look like toy landscape models. Except if you jump off of either one of them, it’ll kill you.
Flying over Oregon was beautiful. The pilot took us right by Mount Hood. It’s covered in snow now and towers over everything else in the Cascades. I got a nice picture from the airplane window.
Portland has amazing public transit. I took the MAX train from the airport to downtown. The great thing about it is that the train goes directly to where everyone is. There are no train stations or turnstiles or any of that business. You just step into it from the sidewalk. Ticket machines are located everywhere, and there are random inspections, but other than that it’s just based on the honor system.
I approve.
Sarah picked me up near the city center and we lugged all my crap to her apartment. I took a while to unwind, take a shower, and put on some semi-clean clothes. She took me back to the train and we rode up to the hills and walked down through the arboretum/park. Trees! Swingsets! Views!
For dinner we went to a dinner theatre and saw Stranger Than Fiction while we drank beer, ate chips and salsa, and I inhaled a turkey bacon sandwich.
This is life in Portland.
I haven’t even been here for 24 hours and I love it already.
Just a quick update for whoever wants to know:
I made it to Portland, OR. It’s at least 1000 times better than Georgia. No, I’m not kidding in the least. I already love it here and am definitely not looking forward to the day that I have to move back east. One good thing is that at least I no longer have to worry about where I want to live when I finish grad school. I’m already here.
The family that I’m living with is amazing. I live on the second floor of their house and share a kitchen with the step dad who lives on the third floor. I couldn’t have picked a better living arrangement if I had tried. But the best part about living here is the people. Matthew and his wife Tina are two of the greatest individuals that I have ever met. And their five kids are adorable and incredibly smart… I love them already. I’m definitely lucky to be living here for the next 4 1/2 months.
My job seems like it will be awesome as well. I got the grand tour today and start actual work tomorrow. It’s a 15 mile ride, but they are loaning me a truck to use when the weather is bad. No complaints here.
I’ll finish typing up my trip journals soon and also sort through and upload some of my pics.