The Land of Port

Well friends...I'm out of Portland. I'm at a McDonald's right now eating lunch and using their Wi-Fi. I love wireless internet. On to things I don't love: when a video takes more than an hour to upload (still hasn't) after a 3 hour export, 2 hour edit (starting at 5:10 a.m.). I'm frustrated but the video will soon be up.

In the mean time I'll be flipping off YouTube for taking so insanely long to upload my video.

Please be patient. I'm not.

Portland was a great city. It was the kind of city I think could live in for a little while. It's not really 'me' per-se but that doesn't make it a bad thing.
On thing I found very refreshing about Portland (as my friend Kate pointed out) everyone there is cool with everyone else. I mean it's a very accepting culture. We went (as you will see in the video) to 4th Thursday and there were flamers and flame throwers, bikes and dikes, young people, old people, hippies, homeless, small dressed, well dressed and so much more. I never got the feeling that people were looking at me and judging me. I would have 100% done that to the people I saw there...had it been pretty much any other setting. You just become a part of the accepting nature of the culture. It's kind of refreshing. I don't agree with most of the way people there that night seemed to be living their life but I could (and did) talk to pretty much any of them without feeling like they were making fun of me or talking about me. It was weird.
The local government is really in touch with the people of Portland too. The Mayor bikes to work sometimes (TONS of people ride bikes in Portland). I think this "in touchness" is what has led to pedestrian friendly streets (side note: cars stop for you about anywhere...cross walk or not--insane!) and a beautiful city that is led by leaders who fit the city too. Another great example of this was the fact that when building the 10 or so bridges that cross the Willamette River around the main city each has it's own unique art style and look. This is a governement thing and it's to be applauded.

(the thoughts of the author are completely representative of the owner of this blog)