Portland

Under the fog of a Phil's hangover, I woke up, packed, and returned my rental car. Joe met me at Enterprise and drove me to Toronto's Pearson airport - the gateway to a new phase in my life.

I have been quite nervous about US customs because I needed to acquire TN status in order to work in the country. TN is like a work visa, but easier to acquire. My new employer helped me with the paperwork and my application was accepted without problem - oh yeah!

The flight was long - nearly eight hours in the air, interrupted only by a layover in Phonix to grab a Whopper value meal. The highlight of the flight for me was definitely the delicious iced tea - the Phoenix airline served Arizona iced tea.

James was waiting for me when I arrived in Portland. He's taking good care of me while I get acquainted in Oregon. Him and I have lots in common: a Saskatchewan upbringing, a UW education and now a career in Portland. I'm really lucky to have him to show me the ropes!

I got a quick overview of Portland from James on the drive from the airport. The city is very different than my expectations!
  • The city is built inside a lush green forest. The shrubbery everywhere makes it dramatically different than the sterile metropolises that I'm used to.
  • There's mountains on the horizon. Apparently one of James' buddies was skiing today, on the 29th of May!
  • It's only a few hours to the Pacific! I can put my foot in the same water as Jodie, thousands of kilometres away.

    James and I decided to play nine holes of golf as our evening entertainment. My golf game was improved but I still have a lot of things to learn. Hopefully when my parents are up next week we'll all get a round in!

    Some other random comments:
  • The units are different. km/h vs. mph, deg. C vs. deg. F, USD vs. CAD, etc. This is a communication barrier!
  • I did a horrible job of packing
  • My Ontario buddies showed me off in fine style. More on that later!
  • James' girlfriend likes listening to System of a Down really loud. Awesome!

    It's going to be a lot of work to get settled in my new digs, but I'm psyched!

  • 1 Comments:

    gram said...

    Hey Jesse.
    After that Phils night, I was drunk until about 1 in the afternoon.

    THEN I was hung over.

    'round 6 (when I got off work) I was pretty much recovered.

    I'm really glad I wasn't on the plane with you as I think I would have been both really bad, and smelly company.

    10:55 PM

     

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