Zombie-Mexican, shooting for a turkey & my towed car

It has been a while since my last blog post. You probably would expect that I excuse myself, saying I was so busy and many things happened. Well surprisingly rather the opposite was the case: I settled and a daily life routine has developed.
In the beginning, the first weeks, everything was new, exciting and I took pictures of each and everything but by now I entered the second stage: I am not here on vacation, instead I realize slowly but steady that this will be my life for the upcoming year. My last general update was from mid October, so exactly one month ago. That’s why I wanted to share now some things that I did the past weeks, in my new normal daily life in Oregon…

Fall in West Linn

First of all a quick update from my life at college. I still enjoy my classes a lot and I learned so much from the philosophic discussions we have. Besides the 12 hours of class each week I have to read a lot. Sometimes it seems impossible to keep up with all the reading assignments and then writing a paper about different, very demanding topics. But most of the times I manage to do it and I know that it helps me to improve my language skills a lot. As I already mentioned in an earlier blog post I have to read a lot of the classic writings which I think is so cool to read. Just last week I read the book ‘A New Millennium’ by the Dalai Lama for my ethics class. I was very impressed by it and enjoyed talking about it.
Probably my most difficult class is Cultural and Visual Studies because the readings are very dense and hard to understand but I love how the teachers (there are actually two) combine the classical pieces with contemporary examples. For this class I had to watch for instance ‘Monsters Inc’, an episode of ‘Undercover Boss’ and ‘Orange is the new black’ (I haven’t seen that show before and I liked it A LOT!!!). So even though the readings can be tough sometimes, the teachers do an amazing job explaining the meaning on contemporary examples where we can see that scenarios and theories made up hundreds of years ago can still be found in our society today.
By the way, actually it’s crazy that I already experienced more than half of my college phase and there are just 4 weeks left until Christmas break! That was by far the shortest semester ever!

Marylhurst campus with sunshine

The driveway to the university with beautiful Mt. Hood in the background

Directory for the small campus. I need to go either to St. Catherine for music or B.P. John for all my other classes

St. Anne Chapel at my uni. Marylhurst is a private roman-catholic university and has several small chapels where concerts and masses are held

It’s not about the text, but the different languages: you can kind of guess where foreign exchange students come from at Marylhurst… (and I always thought I knew languages, I have a lot to catch up on!)

Looking back on what I was up to in October, of course Halloween was a big topic. I have to mention that I am not a big Halloween fan. I don’t really like dressing up and I don’t like to be scared, so obviously not the perfect holiday for me. But of course I am here in the USA so I have to join the experience. Before the big day I had to prepare myself and get my pumpkin carved that I picked up earlier in October at a pumpkin patch. Believe it or not, but I have never carved a pumpkin before! So that was definitely a cool new experience. Fortunately I got some very good advises from some real Americans who probably carved hundreds of pumpkins in their life and with the help of a good paper stencil my result was quite impressive, I think. At least I was proud of my work. All in all it took me about two hours and actually I never realized before how sticky and disgusting it is to pull out the inside of a pumpkin. After I was done I felt like I was covered in pumpkin and it was everywhere. But the effort was definitely worth it and with the candle inside it looked reeeally scary 😉

It’s this time of the year when the pumpkins are just laying in the parking lot

Starting the adventure of carving a pumpkin

Done!!!

Halloween came up, obviously on Friday, October 31st. Unfortunately I am too old for trick or treating… My host sisters though got very excited about it. They are 8 and 10 years old and for days they were sorting out what bag or pillow case they could take, printed out lists where they would wríote down how much candy and which kind they get and tried on their costumes many times. They were dressed up as Captain Hook and Peter Pan. I assume their trick or treating was very successful since they have been on sugar for days…

Tori as Peter Pan, Emily as Captain Hook and Susan as a witch

Mr. Skelleton greeting trick or treater at our house

So no candy hunting for me which meant: I needed a different plan. Luckily it was a Friday so it was perfect for going out. Stephanie, Philipp’s host mom, has a lovely bunch of friends who invited us to do a pub crawl through Oregon City with them. Oregon City is another suburban town of Portland just across the Willamette River from West Linn where I live. In the end I had a blast and so much fun that night out. Some people had insane costumes and all in all it was just a great evening. Oregon City is rather small but they have one main street, which is called ‘Main Street’ (duh!) and there it was easy to just walk down all evening and popping into different places and discovering them.
Of course I also had to dress up and believe me, back then I didn’t even nearly realized how ridiculous, stupid and weird I looked. I got my ‘costume’ at a thrift shop. I saw this poncho and thought ‘mmmh I could dress up as a kind of Mexican / Hispanic person’. So I added a sombrero and a mustache. My whole costume cost a crazy amount of $5. I covered my face with some pretty face-paint to become a bit scary and pictured myself as a Zombie-Mexican… Don’t ask, I don’t even know what I was thinking. But here you are, some beautiful and fun memories of my American Halloween 2014!!!

I guess that’s me then…

The bunch of people I spent Halloween with

Some girls dressed up as… I forgot what it was, oops!

Hilarious!

Cute!

Scary!!!

After Halloween, no surprise here, it was already November! With the arrival of the months also the weather changed drastically. Daylight saving time ended and obviously now it’s almost dark at already 5 o’clock in the evening. Despite all people saying, it would constantly rain in fall, we have been lucky because there has been some, but not nearly as much as usually. Instead it became very very cold the last few days. The whole United States were hit by a cold weather front from Canada and I heard from other participants further east around the Great Lake region that they already had a massive amount of snow. The forecast for last Thursday said we would get 5 inches of snow. Since snow is quite rare in Oregon, everyone got a bit excited, besides me. Driving on a steep hill covered with snow is not a good combination. In the end we didn’t get snow, ‘only’ rain which turned into ice as soon as it hit the ground. Everything was covered with a thick coat of ice: trees, cars, mail boxes and of course also streets. It looked really cool, but for daily life imaginable unhandy. So these days I feel winter is here! Temperatures around 0°C (32°F) make outside activities a new challenge. But there is also a positive point to it: no rain means blue sky and a lot of sunshine which makes the nature look very pretty. These days I had several times an incredible view over to Mt. Hood. It’s quite difficult to capture but here are some of my attempts:

Mt. Hood – you beautiful thing!

Waiting casually at a traffic light…

Just a quick look in the side mirror…

Here I got a bit arty and pushed my camera’s abilities…

Taking Tinkerbell and Rover on a fall walk

Ice – covered leaves

On the weekend of November 8th and 9th another participant from the CBYX program, Lukas who is placed in Seattle, WA, came down to visit. The really great thing about visitors is always that it gives you the chance to explore your own city a lot more because you show people around. Actually also the weeks before I already tried to go downtown more often to get a better feeling of Portland. I really enjoy the city and it has some beautiful places and so much to offer. So far I was most impressed by the well-known sights of Portland:
1. Powell’s book store which is the biggest independent book store in the world. The building is huge. One whole block is just the book store! On several levels you can get any book in the world (slightly exaggerating here). There was also a huge section with German books, in German language and the amount of travel guides just of Berlin was insane!

Only a part of Berlin guides

2. The Saturday market (which is confusingly also open on Sundays) is huge and amazing. As you know I love markets and that one is definitely worth a visit. You can buy seriously everything (not exaggerating here though). Clothes, Food, Jewelery, Crafts… The atmosphere on there is just great, even now in the colder season. I picture it to be even more amazing in the summer though!

Unfortunately also this is Portland: many homeless people. This was taken just 50 meters away from the bright and happy Saturday Market

The city center of Portland is divided into two areas: the modern downtown with the big retail shops like Apple, Nike, Macy’s and the famous Pioneer Square and then ‘Old Town’ with a slightly different atmosphere: more breweries, restaurants, bars, small art galleries, independent shops. Right next to it, Chinatown is located. It is actually, I think, a little bit ridiculous to even call it Chinatown because besides a Chinese arch and some street signs in Chinese there is not much of a Chinatown to see.

Here you can even see the lovely rain

Portland is one of the cities that doesn’t have ONE major sight that everyone just HAS TO visit. What I mean is: Berlin – Brandenburg Gate, Paris – Eiffel Tower, London – Big Ben, New York – Statue of Liberty… Portland has nothing like that. The beauty of Portland is maybe not as obvious. One needs to get a feeling for the city and dive into the city’s flow. It’s the small shops, cafes, the food carts and the people. Portland is very different compared to other American cities I visited before, liberal and open – I like that a lot! It’s amazing how many people that I met here have been to Europe. They know so much about it and considering that Portland is surely one of the cities furthest away from Europe in the USA, it is even more impressive. Sometimes I feel like I am a lot closer to home than I actually am.
At the same time Portland’s unofficial motto is ‘Keep Portland Weird’ and I can assure that many of it’s inhabitants are doing their very best to prove that motto every day! Just two weeks ago there were elections in Oregon and the dear Oregonians voted to legalize Marihuana! So after Washington and Colorado, Oregon will be the third state in the United Stated who will legalize it. Just saying…

This reminds me so so much of the Netherlands!!! A bakfiets 🙂

After doing some sightseeing on Saturday, November 8th, I went with Lukas, Philipp, Korbi and his host family to another ice hockey match of Portland’s Winterhawks. Although I never watch ice hockey I really enjoyed it again a lot and thanks to Korbi’s host family we had amazing seats where it was easy to follow the match enthusiastically. They beat the Canadian team ‘Kamloops’ 4 – 3.

But my highlight of that night definitely happened after the match. Fred Meyer, a big grocery store, had a little event going on. All women over 18 years could go down on the ice and try to shoot a goal with the puck. If you made a goal you could win a Thanksgiving turkey. So Korbi’s host mom, Ally, convinced me going down with her and give it a try. Most people know that I am probably not the most talented shooter and I actually never even did it before! But, oh well how often in life do you get the chance to embarrass yourself on the ice of the huge Moda Center in front of everyone, right?

Looking back, I am so glad that I went because it was really cool going down and walking through the backstage area of the stadium and feeling the spirit. It was time to enter THE ice! Ally went first and unfortunately didn’t make it and then it was my turn. The Winterhawks’ cheerleaders tried their best to encourage us and what can I say: I tried so hard and I am not kidding, but I was SO SO SO close. I hit the inner corner of the freaking post. I was so upset!!! How cool would it have been to win a turkey??? I tried to convince the cheerleaders to give me a turkey anyways because I was so close, but no 🙁

Ally’s try and me getting excited in the background

Ally cheering and me getting ready

There we go!

Not sure what I am doing here, but unfortunately I didn’t make it 🙁

Still the experience was very unique and I am glad I got the chance to see the stadium once from this point of view. We ended the great day of sightseeing, brewery hopping and ice hockey at a fun bar with karaoke, dance and drinks in Old Town Portland.
Just the day after, on Sunday November 9th we went right back to the same stadium, the Moda Center which is by far the biggest arena here in Portland. It is located beautifully on the east side of Willamette River, very close to Downtown. Within 20 hours the ice in the stadium was gone and a decent basketball court was shining. We managed to get tickets for a NBA match: Portland Blazers vs. Denver Nuggets. Compared to the ice hockey match the arena was packed and also the very upper seats were uncovered and used. That’s also where we sat; right under the roof. We went for the slightly cheaper option and still had a great view! Despite the fact that the stadium was almost sold out and it was a major NBA match the atmosphere was still quite reserved which I was very surprised about. Although I am also not a huge basketball fan (to be honest I only like watching soccer, so German of me!), I really enjoyed it and our seats gave us a great overview from above. The big screens captured additionally all the important moments. Luckily the guys also explained the basketball rules a bit more to me, so I knew when and especially why they sometimes got 1, 2 or 3 points. I know, kind of embarrassing that I didn’t know before… In the end the Portland Blazers won 116 – 100 and everyone was excited and happy!

A floating Ford

Getting ready…

… and play!

half time…

Lukas, Philipp and myself posing in front of the Moda Center. Rip City is another nickname of Portland in context with their NBA team Portland Blazers

On Friday, November 14th Philipp and I decided to do something rather different and attended the ‘German Society of Portland’. We have read about it in the internet and thought it might be fun visiting their monthly meeting called ‘Stammtisch’. The organization has a beautiful huge villa north of Portland and already the entrance looked amazing and monumental. The event was held in the so called ‘Bierstube’ (ale-house) which was decorated like a good Bavarian restaurant. When we arrived everyone was super welcoming and nice. There were about 15 – 20 members having a beer and German dinner: Sauerkraut, Apfelstrudel and typical German bread. The average age of the members was approximately 75 years. I’m not kidding, we were by faaaaaar the youngest!! But it was just so lovely talking to these elderly people. Some were Germans and left in the 1960s, or later, others were Americans with German ancestors or just Americans who did their military service in Germany back in the days.
It was hilarious hearing them speaking a mix of English with some German words. It was so interesting chatting to them. There was one man who was in Berlin when the Wall was built. He told all the stories about how he lived there and experienced the division of West and East Germany. He then asked me where I was when the Wall came down and how I experienced it… Well, as some of you might know last weekend there was the huge 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall in Berlin which happened in 1989. I was born in 1992. So I had to tell him that no one even knew that I would exist one day. We both had to laugh because he then said that he felt so old. He could still remember building the Wall and I wasn’t even born when it came down.
Another lady heard from a member that I was from Berlin. She came over to me and introduced herself in fluent Berlin dialect which was soooo confusing and weird to hear. She immigrated to Oregon back in 1984 and is originally from Zehlendorf, Berlin and now she just lives 5 minutes away from Marylhurst University, my college! It’s crazy to know that a true Berliner lives so close, so far away from home. Even though everyone was a lot older it was so much fun and I am sure we will go back at some point. There was one younger couple (around 40 years old) who was also super nice and gave us some tips what we could do on that Friday night in North-East Portland…

(Unfortunately I forgot to take photos at the German Society of Portland… Will make up for that at some point!)

We went to a cozy little brewery and had a drink. I met two guys who were on vacation in Portland and actually were from Springfield, Missouri! A city very close to where I used to live when I was an high school exchange student in 2008 / 2009. It was so funny meeting randomly two guys from that small city who also knew the small town, Bolivar, where I went to high school and lived with my host family. No one EVER knows it and I can’t even tell how excited I was having some inside conversations about Missouri, Springfield, Bolivar, Silver Dollar City and all the things that just exist in this area.
It was a very cool night meeting a woman from Berlin and two guys form Springfield, MO within just a few hours… What a coincidence!!!

We then called it then an early night and went back to my car to go back home. Well, that was the plan!
We walked and walked and when we reached the spot where I left my car, the only thing I saw was a gap! Just a freaking gap! I was very sure that this was where I parked. I freaked and paniced. WHERE IS MY CAR!?!?!?!?! I tried to remember if Í was really sure that I parked there, walked around some blocks, but no, it was GONE! Was is stolen, was is it towed??? It was Friday 11 o’clock, -1° Celsius, in an unknown part of the city and I simply didn’t know what to do.
We went back to the bar and fortunately one waiter was very helpful and made some phone calls to help me out because as I said, I seriously had no idea what to do. My car never got towed before. After a few phone calls, I eventually called the towing company and they confirmed that they had my car. The only positive thing in that moment was, that they were open 24 hours and I could pick up my car right away. We took a taxi to this very shady and dark area of Portland in the middle of the night and I was very nervous! It turns out that I parked in front of a fire hydrant. I seriously had no idea. Fire hydrants look different in Germany because they are in the ground and not like here a little column. That was definitely a lesson I learned, though a very very very very very expensive one! It sucks big time! But I try not to bother too much because I simply can’t turn back time and change it. I am sure though that I will NEVER EVER park in front of a freaking fire hydrant ever again!

This is not the original fire hydrant, but it looked similar to this one

What can I say?!

That was quite a depressing story to end my blog with. Even though things like that happen, they just happen, I guess. That’s life! I still feel good though and I am having a wonderful time here in Oregon. I feel more at home every day but of course it can’t substitute my home in Berlin.
Now one of my favorite seasons of the year is about to start, CHRISTMAS TIME!!! I am beyond excited and there are so many parades, tree lightnings, Christmas markets and festive events going on; I can’t wait! Also Thanksgiving is coming up soon. So the next blog post will surely be very festive!
Until then bye bye & Tschüss
Anneke

P.S. After finish writing that post and going through all the pictures, I realized that I actually had quite a lot to talk about! 🙂