Eating my way through Portland...

So I feel very intellectual right now. I’m sitting in a coffee shop / bakery, sipping hot cocoa, with my glasses on (which always make me feel either intelligent or grungy), typing away on my tiny little laptop. And a very weird sensation has come over me, because I’ve realized… today is the day. I mean, THE day. The day I’ve been counting down to since 107 days ago. The day I’ve been daydreaming about since April. The day that, at some points, felt would never come, and I impatiently wished to just fastforward to. But now that it’s here… boy did that seem fast! I was so busy living in the future the last few months that sometimes I forgot to appreciate the present. But it is just as useless to live in the past as it is to live in the future, and now more than ever it’s time for me to live in the moment… and guess what? I am SO freaking excited!!! Today is the day I’m off to Cambodia.
But first allow me to recount the past week in Portland, Oregon - because I love it here. I’ve spent the last six days eating my way through this city… it’s ridiculous, really. If there’s one thing that is any competition for my love of travel, it’s my love of food. It’s been especially great because for the past couple months at home I had been eating really healthy. Don’t scoff at me - I lost 9 pounds! (That in-between amount which isn’t really noticeable to anybody but me and maybe a few others, but I’m still able to appreciate it.) Although, I have to admit, as much I love eating, I kind of miss having some inhibition and awareness about what I eat, rather than just stuffing myself with ungodly amounts of food every day. Nevertheless, Portland food is amazing: from the fancy restaurant Wildwood that Sky&Marissa work at, to the gelato shops downtown; from the organic “fast food” Burgerville, to the bread and cheese we buy from Whole Foods. Food has certainly been a focal point of the trip.
BY the way, for pictures of food, and all the other Portland pictures, check out the album on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=121504&id=692865946 (Facebook is the main site where I upload pictures, by the way. I’ll probably just add a select few to the blogs.)
And of course spending time with Skyler, Marissa, and Jenny has been awesome. I kind of want to strangle them, but in a loving way. [: Actually, surprisingly I haven’t gotten in a single fight with Skyler - I think after 17 years I’ve finally found a way to avoid it (which is more I can say for Marissa or Daddy.) Or maybe he just loves me the most. :P Jenny I could never ever fight with, she’s like my BFF, hehe. And Marissa and I… well, we just love each other so much that we can’t help but constantly be at each other’s throats. So, summary: I love them all to death.
Marissa and I have spent a lot of time people-watching, which I love doing in the first place, but love like a bazillion times more in Portland. Just picture all the cool people you see around Burlington, multiply the amount of them by 100, multiply their coolness by 20, and you have the people of Portland (same equation for thrift stores, by the way.) Everyone just seems so down to earth and friendly and fun. I guess I’m mostly judging by appearance, which may be considered shallow… but I really appreciate people’s style here. You have the hipsters, the hippies, the hipster hippies... and just the unlabelable. It’s hard to give you a real picture of what people look like in general, because everyone seems to have their unique style. We also made a brief stop at Lewis&Clark College, which was also a good people watching zone… I just wanted to make friends with every single person there. :P Lewis&Clark is definitely an option for my future… but unfortunately it’s damn expensive.
That seems to be the problem in general, actually. I really do love the idea of living in Portland… except for that whole living expense deal. I’m just too cheap, and especially after getting used to Cambodia costs, it would just about give me a heart attack to pay for rent, food, even public transportation. (Marissa spends $8.50 on a half gallon of organic orange juice. Who does that!?) Well… at the end of the day, I’m keeping the same attitude about my future: Who the hell knows where I’ll be next year, in 2 years, in 5 years? I’ll figure it out.
Hmm, am I getting off track? I feel like I’m blogging more about what’s going on in my head rather than what’s going on in my travels. You really can’t tell a teenage girl to keep a journal (private or public) about her life and expect her not to ramble on about her feelings, emotions, and sentiments. Plus I feel like my “adventures” this week aren’t much worth telling about… lots of fretting about the irritation in my eye that makes the left side of my face look like I’m a sleepy zombie along with the pimples near my mouth that cause Marissa to call me “calamari lips.” Lots of relaxing - picnics in the park, hanging out with the little kids that Jenny babysits and helping them sell lemonade, playing with Skyler & Jenny’s cats, taking pictures in the photobooth. Constantly dreaming about both home and Cambodia - apparently my subconscious is still having trouble living in the present.
Overall this has been a great transition period. Away from home - but not too far away - with family time and a chance to relax before the busyness of the Cambodian school year starting, Plus I shouldn’t be hungry again for a good month.

T minus 7 hours…

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