Advertisement
Published: November 23rd 2007
Edit Blog Post
I woke up early, did a gratuitous hug to Tace as she lay asleep, and hopped on my bicycle all yesterday morning.
It was cold as I rode through Tryon Creek Park and around the outskirts of southern Portland with nothing but a chocolate bar. I wound my way to the other side of the Willamette River and enjoyed a trail I found along the East bank and managed to find a small hiking trail I could climb up towards Reed College.
Arriving at Reed was fantastic. A big green field and majestic old dorms lined my ride in as I made my way to Admissions. In admissions a friendly student working behind the desk informed me that I could take part in some activities as Thanksgiving vacation was still 24 hours away there. I had some chamomile tea, warmed up, and waited for another friendly student to lead me and a few others around the school, which was fantastic and bright. Every aspect of the school was engaging and felt as if thought had been put into it. Along with the fact that running through the middle of the school was The Canyon. A sort of long lake with
paths, fruit trees, and also a living laboratory for some of the science and ecology classes.
The dorms seemed decent, along with the fact there was a co-op dorm, and a cat themed dorm where students could have cats. Each average classroom as well had a conference table instead of desks and a teacher up front, so that students felt more attracted to take part in class discussions. All the striking features of the school left me quite pleased and leaving my tour a few minutes early I went to the ETC building and found the Greek 101 class I had found to be available.
Nigel, the teacher, was a funny guy and didn't seemed shocked that half the class had gone on vacation. I chowed down on some mandarins the previous class had left, and then enjoyed the activeness of the class. As Nigel had forgot the quiz sheets, he just went ahead and spoke out the quiz and the students answered it. Following this he worked with each student over their homework and left a great feel to the class. I went ahead and left early as the class being Greek could only provide so much
St. John's Bridge
the mountains in the background sadly didn't come out. enjoyment for me.
I wrote my last blog entry and then returned to admissions to wait for my scheduled free lunch with two Reed students and 2 other visitors. The cafeteria was fantastic. A number of choices from the coined ol' pineapple pizza to some other not too healthy items were available but I went ahead and jumped in the vegan Asian food line where I had some sort of crazy Vietnamese noodle dish, veggie rolls, pot stickers, some other type of thai roll, and topped with mint sauce. I didn't talk too much with the Reed students accompanying us as I got caught up with one of the visitors, a 16 year old genius from So-Cal who came up to visit, whose eccentricities left me marveled. She tutors calculus to high school seniors.
After wiping my plate clean I followed the others who didn't quite finished their food to the Scrounge Lounge, a spot where anyone who doesn't finish their food can leave it on a counter for anyone to have. I could live off this gourmet leftover station I realized quite quickly.
A final tour of the school with the lunch students showed me the
comic book lounge, the music hall, and few other bright spots. Returning to admissions I asked if there was a German class happening anytime soon, quite doubtful as I was planning to leave, but I was returned with a nod and a decisive note that it was starting in 3 minutes up stairs. I ran up, and joined a class taught by a Hannoverian and even participated, and before leaving early it was remarked my German wasn't bad.
All in all, Reed left a pleasing impression on me but it still remained that I was too close to a city for comfort even if the area didn't show it. I rode back to the Northwest side of town slowly, running through downtown, stopping at Union Station, and eventually to arrive back at Lacey's for Pie Day. A most tremulous day any stomach that can't take amazingly sweet food. Some examples were: Molasses Pecan, Sugarfree Pumpkin Tofu, Sweet Potato, and Apple Cranberry.
Mmm.
Anyway,
Happy Thanksgiving to whoever. I had another bike journey this morning this time north of Portland. It was bitterly cold riding on the way back and I am starting to get a bit
more forward on returning to sunny California sometime. We'll see.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.234s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 16; qc: 72; dbt: 0.0819s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Debs
non-member comment
here it was four cooking in the kitchen
Andrew spinning the tunes, me, Phil and Rose , and later Timmy, cooking up a whirlwind of tastes, delights winning experiments and then we all sat together at the new from thrft store table and chair, contently eating and talking with only the best of T day's behind us, in us and ahead of us. Phuil and I stayed an extra day, the sauna, hot tub and living in th moment was too lovely to resist.......