Second Day in Portland

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Woke up at noon because I don't have a phone charger and it was dead. I still have a cold, but it's not real bad. Just sniffling. Found out my passport is being processed! Yes! That means it should be at my house by mid-December. I'm going to want to avoid the holiday travel rush, so I'll probably head to New Zealand around mid-January. But I can at least start working on my plane tickets again! 😊

Woke up, took a shower, worked on the laptop for a bit, went through my email, at a bagel, went to a few stores and bought some stuff I'm missing. Still need a thicker lock for the lockers, but I think that's the only item I'm missing now. Except for maybe food. On the street I donated $25 to a environmental conservation group. Went to the coffeeshop, got some coffee and read some of my first book - "Chess with a Dragon" by David Gerrold. Then came back to the hostel. Cold and rainy weather is annoying, especially when you are sick.

Oh - one neat thing about this hostel - they have an 'ecoroof' - it's roof with plants on it that effectively uses the rain that happens here instead of letting it go as runoff water and causing erosion. I'll post a picture of it soon.

One thing I'm starting to pay attention to is lowering my consumerism (is that the right word?). Basically, I want to buy less stuff and reuse more. I started doing this a bit in Seattle, but I'm going to make it more formal by writing down my expenditures for awhile - just to make myself more conscious of it. Oh - and non-expenditures as well. Here we go:


* Bagel and butter for breakfast - free
* 2 books (should be able to trade for free in other hostels after this) - $10.90
* Donation to "Environment Oregon" - $25.00
* Sleeping trunks (should have been bought earlier) - $14.99
* Phone charger (should have brought one with me) - $12.99
* Sudafed (got sick) - $4.79
* Tylenol packets - $1.29
* Coffee at coffeehouse - $2.95
* Bus fare - $2.50
* Burger, fries, and drink - $6.99
* Beer - $5.00
* Bowling - $6.00
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* Grand Total - $93.40 ... should have been about $25.00. Ick.


Later, I went bowling with a bunch of people from here at the hostel. Happy, Mara, Joel, Chloe, and Maomi. It was some generic fun. Happy is a pretty fun guy... the type that seems to rally people easily. On our way back all 6 of us crammed into Naomi's car WITH all the stuff she has while moving. Chloe and Happy were on top of the stuff in the back while Joel, myself, and Mara were all crammed in the passenger seat! HA!

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