4 weeks in Portland
Fri 28 October, 2011
Emily and I have been in Portland for 4 weeks, and it's flown by. At times it feels surreal, and there's one sentence both of us have uttered (usually whilst walking down the street, or picking a restaurant):
This is it. We're in America!
It's one of those things I never really believed would happen. I mean, nobody just decides to live in America and manages it, do they?
Well, we did and now Portland Oregon on the charming Pacific northwest of USA is our home, and the first impressions are that it's an awesome place to live. It's just so damn American!
Ektar 100 film | Yashica T5 Emily on 19th & Marshall
Life is so comfortable here. To get treated well by the friendly locals all you have to do is get up and leave the house. Everybody's so accommodating and polite, of course it never hurts to naturally charming accent; they love it.
Things I don't miss about London:
- The mad scramble for the Tube (armpits)
- The dirt (bogies)
- Buses (too hot or too cold, always smelly)
- Landlords (constant shaftings)
- Commuting (sure, I'll spend 15% of my waking hours getting A to B)
- Topping up my fucking Oyster card (FFS)
- Accepting rudeness ("It's London mate")
I know I don't miss them because Portland improves so drastically on what I figured was just 'normal' city life. Drastic means a 60 minute commute is reduced to 6 minutes, or instead of using Foxtons to find a flat we just walk into each purpose-built residence and ask the leasing office to see the empty ones (taking our pick).
In case someone calls me out on it, I know we lived in Portugal for ages but that was different. London and Portland are easier to compare because they're both cities -- the goal is to balance financial security, career progression, and enjoy the things I love (in no particular order, promise). Quality of life, mate. That's what this is really all about isn't it?
Ektar 100 film | Yashica T5 Quiet and carless on 11th Avenue
The 'baseline' quality offered by Portland is so high that you rarely have any reason to complain. The result is that people don't really complain, and so the majority of the populace here are happy. As a Londonder who was so worn out by London that he ran, lady not far behind, to Portugal for recovery -- I can't tell you how nice it that is to be in a happy city.
I don't have a huge arseache getting to work, I just walk. The guy in the coffee shop always says hello and asks how work is, and how we're settling into Portland. We found a perfect apartment a few days after we started looking. We got cable installed for free the very next day after calling even though Comcast are supposed to be bastards.
As we settle, we know that Portland will have even more 'baseline' to add for free. It's only an hour from Mt Hood for skiing and snowboarding; a little over that to the surf. Seattle, San Francisco, Vancouver, Los Angeles and San Diego are all under 2.5 hours away on a domestic flight, and it'll be so awesome to start going away for weekends and exploring some of these fantastic cities.
We could take a drive to the coast in a car like one of these:
Ektar 100 | Yashica T5 Classic American cars spotted in Portland
In fact, I think we could do anything here. It'll just take a little time.