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Monday, October 27, 2008

October 16-19... Portland.

First of all, apologies to the emtpiness of this blog as of late. By now, you probably all know about my reluctance to make entries without rad pictures. Unfortunately, I still don't have all of them, but I will do the best with what I have.)


If I could describe this weekend in one word, it would be unbelieveable. There were so many new things that I decided to mush them all into one little blog, one little peek into what can only be described as the craziest and most random adventure. Why? Because I went....
COUCH SURFING.
In Portland.

Impossible and crazy as it sounds, I got offered a chance to spend my fall break in a new place, and took it on a whim. My friend Pete took the wheel, and embarked on an 11 hour drive to Portland.

On the way there, I checked off a few new things... we drove in the city of Boise, Idaho (All I have to say is tractors... lots of tractors...) I learned some Thai phrases to use on my grandma Aree, we drove through Oregon, and I had my first Couch Surfing experience.

I should probably take this time here to explain exactly what this entails. Couch Surfing is a net-based hospitality network, designed to help fellow travelers like myself. Basically, people offer up their couches/air matresses/whatever they have for travelers to sleep on during their trips. Pete, whilst looking for a fun Fall Break vacation, stumbled upon Ashley and David's profile, a couple living in a small studio apartment in downtown Portland. After reading about them, he just knew that he had to go, and extended the invitation out to me. I was shocked at first, but completely excited, and before I knew it, I was wandering the streets of Portland. And that basically explains the weekend.
Some new things I can remember off the top of my head without pictures:
- I visited Pioneer Square and ate a Honkin' Huge Burrito.
- I saw the most photographed dog in Portland.
- I used a morse-code machine in the Wells Fargo museum/bank.
- I ate a Captain Crunch donut at Voodoo Donuts (It's next to the anime porn shop, and don't you forget it!)
- I bought my first used book (The Prince, by Machiavelli) in the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world... Powell's Bookstore. It was radical.
- I tried tea at the Golden Horse in Chinatown.
- I also ate soup with duck in it :)
- I saw a movie (The Dutchess) in a Portland movie theater.
- I ate a delicious biscuit at the Portland Farmer's Market on PSU campus.
- I went to the Saturday Market.
- I wore a Bindi on my forehead.
- I took a real Portland train and walked with Ashley and Pete to 23rd street.
- I walked next to the river and took a picture of the bridges.
- I tried Lebanese food.
- I tried Amaretto gelato.
- I laid in the grass at Couch Park.
- We bought a Portland Lottery Ticket (Ok, Pete bought that one, but I witnessed it)
- I heard the whole version of An American In Paris.

Me, Pete, David and Ashley. They look like they fell asleep, but they were just pretending to hate us. They really loved us.
These pictures are thanks to Pete, who is such a better photographer than myself. But I'm sure it helps to have a digital Sony too :)


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