It's Saturday, I think I'm in love

Obligatory post jet lag update on the beginnings of life at Reed and I could definitely waffle on forever. It's almost unimaginable that so much living has been squashed into the last 48 hours. From saying goodbye at Heathrow

(it was like 4am, I'm allowed to look rough!)

 to sprinting to make my connection at Amsterdam and finally touching down in PDX after a full 20 hour door to door journey life has already been turned upside down!

What's been the funniest so far is how absolutely clueless I am about the little things. Things that crop up in casual conversation like, what the heck is a comforter or whippets, required immediate googling and definitely took me by surprise. My two attempts today at boarding a bus was also met with amused smiles.

But anyway back to yesterday. I've made the wild assumption that people who travel are 100 times more friendly than people who don't. I never thought planes were such chatty modes of transport! In a mere hour and a bit (actually with the panic inducing hour delay (baring in mind I only had an hour and 15 to make the connection) it was more like 2 hours) on my way to Amsterdam I spoke with a guy who'd been on army selection, had bee delayed an extra two weeks and was flying to Johannesburg to get to his sister's wedding where he was best man ( I asked, his best man's speech was in his carry on rather than his suitcase), and a woman on route to Rowander for training (I wish I'd asked for what) and then heading down to Mali. It makes me smile now thinking how far apart we all are now and yet for that one brief little flight we got to intersect in each other's past. My long 10 and a quarter hour slog to Portland was less eventful but after spending the entire time avoiding talking to one another, I finally got chatting to the girl I'd been sitting with who was on route with her family from Burnley to have a huge family gathering at a lake in California, who then sort of adopted me until we'd got past passport control (incidentally who were very chill and relaxed, not like the East coast!)

I had the epiphany moment, realizing what I was about to do, on the plane, triggered, would you believe, by a cheese sandwich. Crappy American processed cheese and the magnanimity of what lay head suddenly hit me. But then as we were landing and all I could see were beautiful lakes and mountains I knew this was going to be something. Something good.

The rest of yesterday passed in a manic sleep deprived blur, surviving for 48 hours on only 4 hours sleep was sadly reminiscent of that crazy 40 hour stint in the Library with Sophie and as anyone who saw me after then remembers, was not a pretty sight. Gay, my host family was absolutely lovely and hit me up with a care package of all American delights, as did Aunty Ruth who had beautifully sorted out and sent me my phone and some bits (sitting here typing this I have to confess to demolishing half a huge bag of cheetos... oops).

(ignore the stuffed cat hiding behind my pillow)

 My room

is actually a step up from Norfolk Terrace! It's really big and thanks to Anna and Sophie (my lovely lovely saviors who went to Reed on exchange last year), pretty cosy from all the lovely bits they left. The windows open out onto the great lawn and I can see Old Dorm Block in the distance (you can just make it out between the two trees in the photo above).

The only downside is that I'm right next to a pretty busy road which is pretty loud and I can hear the light rail trundle past every now and again (saying that, I heard it once at about 6am so it could easily have been sleep induced! UPDATE: definitely just heard it again - NOT going crazy... yet) and there might as well not be walls or doors as you can hear absolutely everything on the floor (no word of a lie I heard a girl cough at the other end of the corridor). But my HA is lovely, she's a 4th year economics major, and one of the girls on my corridor is a french exchange student from Lille, Anais and we seemed to click pretty well. No-one else is here yet so we have the run of the floor so at the mo the noise is not an issue. It's definitely been really friendly in Macnaughton. The only down side is living literally next door to Anna Mann, which is why I think it seems worse than it is.

I realize that these look exactly like the ones I posted before but I actually took all of these ones!

 I have to admit as I finally crashed at half 8 pacific time, I was suddenly overwhelmed and terrified, now being here in the flesh is definitely different to sitting in bed in Swansea Road and google imaging. But, as I was in the shower this morning, the excitement returned in full force, just in time for my first trip to Portland. From the tiny few measly hours we spent downtown today I know I'm in love. It may have been the two hours in Powell's - the world's biggest bookstore and a little slice of utopia on earth that helped me know I was in the right place. I may have spent my first US dollars... I know I know, it's not like I just got a nexus as an early 21st birthday present but  feel like every ebook has to be offset with a real one to maintain the karmic balance. Or something.

After hitting Sizzle Pie for pizza and falling in love in Powell's I got to visit Stumptown, a coffee place I've been dying to go to. So yes it's so hot I had ice tea rater than coffee but it still counts. Yes, it was lush. In our little group I got to meet Neil and Sam, two of the other brits from Sussex and Nottingham who are really chill. Apaz there are 5 of us and I happen to be the only girl - yes for having the only cute female british accent on campus! As Sam's in the co-op I think we're all planning on cooking together there once the free campus food runs out (he's also veggie which is sweet) and he also runs so I won't have to brave the mountain lions alone! What I've definitely noticed already is the intellectual charge around Reed. Not in a pretentious way but conversation naturally starts revolving around really interesting topics like, how the world is imagined by humans as an object of consumerism which everyone involves them self quite animatedly. It also made me smile how going to Powell's wasn't even a choice - we were all kids in the candy shop. It's a nice difference.

Am definitely excited to spend time in Portland and get to see more of this incredibly beautiful city and even just explore all of campus. I haven't had a chance to get to the canyon or the lake or even the other side of it as we've been so busy! Hope y'all are all good back home, it seems like another lifetime rather than just a couple of days since I was there! x x x