Another night, another state.

The drive back from Olympia was quite nice. We stopped at Centralia, a town of factory outlets, and found a Levi's outlet. I bought myself a nice pair of jeans for US$27 inc tax, and Kev scored two pairs of jeans and two t-shirts for about US$80 all up. We can already see that we’ll have trouble packing everything into our already expanded suitcases and bags, though from the looks of things it won’t be because of all MY purchases… I will be doing some shopping during this trip though since the more clothes of my own I try and wear, the more I see that my stuff is too big for me now. I’ll just have to be careful of the cost – I’m hoping to stick to factory outlets etc., like the Levi's one so that I am actually getting good deals on things. Meanwhile the weather has been quite warm, too warm really, so I can live in skirts – they take longer to become ‘too big’ so they mostly still fit. I am running out of t-shirts and shirts fast though.

Getting into the city of Portland was a bit mad because we were running late for Kev’s 1pm tutorial (we’re in Portland so he can attend the OSCON = Open Source conference = geek orgy). The blocks in Portland are tiny so what I thought would be a good 10 minute drive down the freeway took about 2… And then we had to make our way up through the city, which is peppered with one-way roads and sporadic construction areas. But we got to our hotel shortly before 1pm, got all checked in and deposited our baggage, before Kev fled off to get the tram out to the conference centre (at the Lloyd Center for those of us who might want to look it up). I was left to entertain myself for 4.5 hours.

I looked at a map, saw that Chinatown was close to our hotel (Embassy Suites, very awesome, I feel like a cashed-up bogan) so I wandered up. Yeah, um, not so much Chinese, a bit more of a lean towards Dodgy-ese… Lots of strip clubs, strange blank buildings, odd looking men very keen to say hello… So I did a bit of an about-face after a few blocks, got back to the main road near the hotel, and opened up the map again.

A guy pushing his bike saw me staring at my map, and came over to ask if I was lost. I said I was “just browsing” but he didn’t hear me cos he was on his phone via hands-free (which I didn’t immediately realise, causing a moment of “oh yay another nutter ESCAPE!”). He asked where I wanted to go, and since I didn’t really know I was all like “uh, shopping or whatever” and he was all like “shopping for what?” and I said like “like clothes and stuff, whatever” and yeah. So he said, “Well, I can point you to a shopping centre, actually I’m going there now so I’ll walk you.” Considering the scariness of Chinatown this guy was relatively harmless so I went with it.

He had a strange accent, so when he said his name I pretty much missed it. It was something like Ronaldo, so let’s call him that, shall we? We chatted as we walked, with Ronaldo pointing out interesting things like an Irish pub and dropping in anecdotal tidbits such as “On St. Patrick’s Day they close off this entire street and it’s a huge party. Sometimes people die, like the real Ireland.” I giggled, but he didn’t notice… He asked me about myself – he was surprised when I said I was from Australia, revealing a hearing aid which had stopped him picking up my accent. I told him I was learning to be a drama teacher, which for some reason inspired him to start gushing about Plato’s “The Apology” for about 5 minutes. That tangent is as yet unjustified…

We reached the downtown shopping centre area where we had to part ways. Before we awkwardly said goodbye he managed to slip into the convo that he often sold items via ebay to Australia, especially when he sells Vietnam war memoriabilia. And then he reveals that his latest sale involved a Nazi war helmet, and admits that maybe it wasn’t an appropriate sale to make… With that he removes his bike helmet to reveal a kippah… Yes, ethics, interesting.

I say farewell to my lovely deaf Jewish ex-Mexican friend Ronaldo and walk pretty much straight home to the hotel as the heat is exhausting. I decide that since I’m already sweaty I may as well check out the fitness room at the hotel. I enjoy impressing a couple of 50 year old business men by performing sit-ups while brandishing large hand weights , but the rest of the session is dull as the machines are squeaky and the weights machine is hard to adjust. So I go back to my room and shower.

My final adventure for the day was to go to a nearby Subway. The lady behind the counter was inspirationally bubbly in a very focused and intelligent way. I love those people. She comments on my accent (I’ll eventually get used to people finding it so interesting… and then I will use it to manipulate them). I delight in confusing her by asking for ‘capsicum’, but the man in line behind me explains that I’m really asking for “green peppers, capsicum is what they call it Down Under.” The woman is overjoyed in learning a new word. (Kevin has gone to the same Subway for dinner tonight, I’ve worded him up that if he is served by the same woman, he should order capsicum and watch her response).

On my way home, I saw a transvestite. A bad one. Askew black bob, black halter dress that barely covers his underwear, really rough face… And the grumpiness of his expression made me wonder whether this was a life choice, or perhaps this was the American equivalent of a “nuddy lap” after losing a game of pool.

So this is Portland. I’m here for 3 more days. I think tomorrow I’ll go do some Uni study in the famous Japanese Gardens.