My Portlandia

OY to the VEY! I cannot believe I haven't even been here for a month. Really, I can't believe that. Jonathan and I decided that it feels like I've been here since I visited in December. 

I'm figuring out my job a little bit easier now. I've been able to write lesson plan for the next few weeks so I don't have to think so hard about it every day. It was gorgeously sunny and in the upper 40's this week so I took my kids outside a lot. They only get 12 minutes of recess every day! 

I'm kind of getting in to my routines now. I'm usually pretty tired after work. Keeley and I have started running in the mornings but I think we'll switch it to after work since it's getting a lot lighter. We're training to run the Shamrock 10K in March and we've got a lottt of work to do. 

I did my first bike ride as a way of transportation yesterday! I'm still using Diane's bike which is fine but I want a lighter, more road-friendly bike. Hopefully I'll be buying one within the next couple of weeks! Since its been so pretty out lately I've gotten really excited about being able to ride instead of taking the bus. 

So far everything is really going well. I'm at such a healthier place than I thought I could be after only 3 weeks. I just cannot believe how easy things are with friends and acclimating to a new life. 

I'm crossing my fingers that Alissa may be able to visit for 10 days starting next Friday. OMG it would be so so amazing if she could be here for that long because we wouldn't have to rush around so much AND I'd get to show her everything that I know and love so far about this city!

Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading!

Love,

Steph

My lovely children doing blind follow the leader type of activity that they ask me to repeat every single day. :)

Keeley! She's writing down our "get in shape and be healthy goals"

My living room!

From the front door.

The dining area looking from the living room.

You can see the kitchen through there too.

My bathroom that I share with my roommate. All of the houses around here are craftsman style which means they have cute archways and these awesome built-in's. I love the look of them. Man my HGTV skills have never been used so well before. :)

Downtown Portland!! God, she's such a beautiful city.

This is looking down Broadway, my favorite street downtown.

My friend from FL and I took a walk across one of the main bridges and got a great view of the city.

Awesome sign.

That's the MAX, our light rail. Very convenient!

Big ropes to learn

Today marks two weeks since I've been here but I feel like it's been so much more. I know I always say that in the beginning so I'm trying to keep that in mind. :)
It has been a very very full and fun 12 days since I last updated. I started Americorps on Monday the 10th! We had a long week of orientation and trying to get some clue as to exactly how we were supposed to reach our very general goals by the end of the year. They didn't give us much direction as to how to plan for or run our classes. Not much guidance on what to expect or a vision that they have for how the program will run. Lucky for me I guess was that everyone else was just as confused.

Listening to tons of information and filling out lots of paperwork last week was not the most fun I've ever had but getting to know 15 other incredibly talented and diverse people was great. We have such a good team and once we all figure out what the heck we're doing then it we will be extremely successful!

I made a few good friends in the group. Keeley lives just a few block from me and has been great in helping me with getting to and from work. Her elementary school is just minutes from mine so when our schedules coincide then we go in together. It's such a relief to have that off my back for the most part. I really don't mind commuting because I can get to school at 10 and do work on the way over but it's a little bit unsafe so until I have a bike I can easily tote on the bus and max (light rail) and ride the few blocks to school then I'll keep riding with Keeley. However, I am looking forward to getting a light and nice commuter bike so that I can enjoy one of the best biker-friendly cities in the nation!

Keeley and I planned a few nights out so that our team would have a chance to get to know each other a little better. About 10 of us went to happy hour on Friday after our last day of orientation and I saw a few the other nights this weekend.
Nancy, Keeley and I went to the Columbia River Gorge. The river separates Oregon from Washington. It's a state park up there. There are tons of waterfalls. They're enormous! It seriously felt like a fairyland. There was beautiful bright green moss growing on the trees and the mist was heavy coming from the falls so you were just surrounded by this sense of magic. I was so happy to be there! However, I almost didn't make it out there because we had an electrical fire in the basement that morning! Right when Keeley pulled up to my house to pick me up the 6th fire truck was arriving. It wasn't a huge fire but they sent 6 fire trucks and the rescue truck thing. It was so crazy. An electrician was rewiring our house so that not everything was on the same circuit. He drilled and the lights flickered. He drilled again and they went out. Then he was yelling to my roommate from the basement that there was a fire and that we needed to get out! The 911 operator asked if everyone was out of the house. We hadn't seen the electrician come out so I went to check to see if he was in the back yard. He wasn't so I walked up the back steps to yell into the basement. I had to yell from the bottom step outside because there was so much smoke and a horrible plastic-burning smell coming out. Luckily he was fine.

I only stuck around long enough to take a few pictures of the fire trucks. I didn't need to stay and be subjected to the smoke all in the house. Luckily nothing smells or was damaged. I know it could have been really bad. We were lucky.

Productivity is rewarded....with a night out!

What a productive day I had! I met Jonathan early this morning to apply for food stamps. Hey, I'm a volunteer....that does not equal the big bucks! I was lucky to get an appointment and get it all finalized today. I also registered to vote at the Department of Human Services. Then I went to the library and got a library card and got myself a nightstand book (Oprah's biography--don't judge) and a bus book (a bus book is something that weighs less than 1.5lbs and can be easily stored in my bag and is small enough to hold on to while juggling a wallet and bus pass, gloves, and either a rain coat or an umbrella).
I finallyyy finished organizing my room. I'm hoping my box that mom shipped with some more home-y stuff will get here tomorrow so I can put more pictures up and have a few more things to decorate with. This is the first time in my life though that I have not filled up every crevice available to me! Former roommates--you know how much "decorative" stuff builds up and becomes junk in my room.
Hope you like the changes to my room! I love it and am so cozy and comfortable in it. I'll take pictures of the house soon so you can see how adorable the rest of it is.

I'm going to my first meet-up group tonight. The group is for those new to Portland. It looks like there should be about 15 people there. From looking at the profiles of the people that RSVP'd yes there seem to be a lot of other people brand new to the city so I'm a little less intimidated to go alone. YES I am an independent, single woman! An I plan on embracing that. :D We're going to a bar downtown, about a 25 minute bus ride from me, to have drinks and listen to live music. I think it will be a good time.


Big hugs across the country and across the pond!

Just wanted to show it with the lights off in this one.

This is from the door. You can't tell but the room is really big. Probably about the size of my room in the Tallahassee townhouse last year, minus the little alcove and the bathroom. I feel so lucky!

Steph

Credit card usage....

....has been too frequent the last two days. I flew in yesterday at noon, rented a car, and began my shopping extravaganza. It was not intended to be an extravaganza but it turns out that things are expensive! And when you get a lot of things your credit card gets overheated.
I went to my adorable 1920's house to drop off my suitcases. I had two enormous suitcases, one carry-on size and one backpack. Plus the three jackets I was holding. So I lugged those all inside and resisted the temptation to go to sleep. Nope! I went to Target....and didn't leave for 3 hours! I think target can suck your life away almost as fast as TV can. Sad but true. However, after having spent 6 weeks in South America, I am oh so thankful to have the ability to spend 3 hours in a Target (Sarah S, you know what I mean).
Then I went to pick Jonathan up from work only to make him my servant boy for the rest of the night. He's so useful! We went grocery shopping and he helped me find all the cheap food and then got me $13 off with his Safeway card. I'm definitely getting one of those. Once we got back to my house and talked to my roommates a little bit we got to work on my room. We moved furniture back and forth and back again for a long time before finally deciding on a layout. The room is pretty much done. It just needs to be cleaned and some things need to be hung (oh Jonathannnnnn.... :)

Today he and I went boot shopping, to no avail. Boots are all on sale right now, which is great, but that means that the only sizes left are 10s and 11s. We're going to go downtown this weekend where there will be more places to look. I need boots! My toesies are cold. On my way back from dropping the car off at the airport I spent a good while in Ikea. Oops. I've never been in one before but I've always heard people raving about them. I looked around for a while. Things were cute but I really wasn't that overwhelmed like everyone else always seemed to be. That was until I asked where something was and I was told it was "downstairs". Downstairs?? What?! And that's when the damage happened. I found some cute icicle-type christmas lights for my room finally! I got a couple beautiful picture frames that will look great in my room. It was a good trip. Besides the hole that's now in my pocket I'm happy I went!

The shot of my room right when I got here. I'll post the changes once its all put together.

My helpful and fantastic friend...meet Jonathan!

Shopping for boots and thinking of our friend Snoop.

About to go in.....bad bad idea!

So far everything is going great. Yes the bus seems to take a while to get me anywhere but I'll adjust. I'm happy right now and I plan on staying that way for while while I'm out here.

Big goodbyes and big hello's

Here we are again. Thanks for joining me on yet another journey. This one will be longer than I have ever pursued before. It's hard to say if it will be more challenging, more fun, or more fulfilling than my adventures over the last four years. Nothing may beat the freedom felt from my first time let loose in Costa Rica; nothing may bring me back to childhood and joy the way my first, second, and third summer at camp did; nothing may challenge me to be completely independent of anyone like studying abroad in Italy did; nothing may stimulate me like my senior thesis; nothing will convince me that my sister is in fact my best friend like Panama did and nothing may make me more sure of who I am the way South America did. But at the end of 2011 I'll be coming back to this paragraph, to a new January 4th, and adding to my list of nothings that can beat me. I am moving to Portland, Oregon in two days to begin a new life, a new job, a new me. I'll be welcomed by friends that I know and friends that I don't know. From what I've experienced and heard Portland is one of the best places I could be going. I bet you that I'm going to gain more than one nothing from her.

It was hard to say goodbye to Mom and Dad and it will be hard to say goodbye to Alissa on Wednesday. My family is my rock. As much as I give Florida a bad name I know I'll miss her sunshine and laying out on the lawn in the winter to keep my tan up. ;) I'm going to learn to love the cloudy and rainy Portland days just as much though. It will make the sunny ones that much brighter.
Though I am nervous for this new adventure, as I always am, I am ready to begin. I am ready to begin a challenge for myself and a challenge for the community I'll be working with.

That's Mount Hood in the background.

                                                  Longest ski season in the country!

I'll be living in the Alberta Arts District. They are very colorful!

Again, thanks for coming along. I hope we have a great year.