Seattle: I took the bus from this city to Portland in the afternoon and we hit standstill traffic right away. Normally, I wouldn't care except a) the wifi, while present, wasn't very fast (ever tried to watch a movie where most of the time you're just waiting for it to load in three-minute portions?), and b)I was due at the university for a banquet that night. Oh, well. At least my belly was full of good, and plenty, Seattle Chinese food and I had snacks for the bus.
Portland: Got to Portland around 17:30 instead of the 17:00ish that most of us were anticipating. Factor in my getting lost easily and, well, it was almost half an hour before I got on the right MAX and headed toward Hillsboro. Also factor in my getting unsure of what stop I was at, alighting way earlier than necessary, and then finally getting back on track, and I didn't make the registration or banquet that night. I think I'd reached Cornelius before I admitted that it being around 19:15, I just wasn't going to make it to Pacific and it was time to turn back. The icing on the cake was that I didn't realise I was waiting on the wrong side of the street until the bus came and I saw its sign, and also that I was about ten minutes too late to use my transit ticket from before and had to shell out another $2.50. When I finally got to my intended station, insert another solid dose of not knowing which way to go and walking a quarter mile in each direction to figure it out (it's hard to do in the dark, m'kay.)
Forest Grove: The next morning, Saturday, went a lot better as I knew which way it was to the MAX station and all I had to do was wait as I just missed the MAX train. Arrived at what was possibly the most beautiful university I've seen so far (U of T, while having amazing architecture, sits on a campus that, in comparison, sucks) on a street lined with cherry blossoms, I met another student who was looking for Marsh Hall and we set off together.
Lunch was okay- the food was good, but I was sitting next to a girl who just wasn't very chatty and kept checking her phone. She was there with her mother and at least her mother was more polite and engaged me in conversation, but it was still one of those meals where I couldn't wait to get up from the table. I was in the next paper session and eagerly headed over to Rm. 212 and found the room decently filled. Not overly so, but enough. The first guy to go was a French-Canadian from McGill...who kept his head down the entire time and just read his paper aloud! The next person to go wasn't there so the chair asked me to present, and I strutted to the front, pulled out my notes, stood, and explained my paper. I even injected some intellectual humour when I said, 'Had it not been for my class, Wittgenstein's Tractatus might have continued to sit on my bookshelf, collecting dust- amirite?' It was over pretty fast and I was just relieved that one person's question afterward led to a great conversation in which I felt comfortable enough to admit the fact that I'm a Platonist.
Since there was only one paper session afterward and Google Maps was telling me it'd be almost two hours back to where I had to go in the city, I headed out and bid adieu to the sleepy, pretty town of Forest Grove. Whilst on the bus back to Hillsboro, I got a good sense of small town values both in how this little kid said, 'Hi!' to every. single. person who got on the bus...and they each responded! In Toronto, the kid would've been lucky to get one response and the rest would've been snarls. But nope, not here. And when one couple's baby basket thingy kept setting off the bus's exit indicator, one guy automatically said, 'You can just keep it over here.' Get outta here! People are nice and they talk to you and they don't wait for buses like it's a meat market on the last day!
Oh, and whilst waiting for the MAX at Hillsboro, a guy asked me how long it'd be to one station XD I love this, appearing like I'm from the area and people asking moi direction questions. The irony is also not lost on me, and I get the biggest kick out of it.
Portland: By the time I finally got into Portland, it was just about time to check out the Ezra Weiss sextet at Ivories...and get lost again and again and again. I don't know if I could ever move to such a rainy city and not be able to tell the time/direction from the sun most of the time. Looks like it's Riyadh or Phoenix for me!
Not much else to say about Portland other than I had a super fun night last night and look forward to a busy day today.
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