portland: through the eye of a fish

bridge city. pdx. rose city. stumptown. rip city:

we've claimed our residency with you for one year now. it's funny to think of how lost/freaked out/excited we were when we pulled up to our apartment that warm august afternoon a year ago. we walked into the apartment seeing it for the first time and signed the lease on the kitchen counter. i remember blowing up our air mattress (that we slept on for five months) looking at the empty walls and thinking "well, this is it."

since then, we've learned that yes, it does actually rain in portland (how naive we were). we've also learned that it requires the rain to keep our surroundings so beautiful, and are learning to embrace it. we've learned that sunshine makes the world go round, and that we will drop everything and anything on a sunny day to go outside and play.

along the ways, we've learned  to properly prounonce the cities and street names around us, and try not to shake our heads when we hear the locals pronounce "aloha, astoria, and couch street," far different than we would.

we've fortunately made a handful of great friends, figured out the grocery stores, found new restaurants to love, can give proper directions to visitors, and don't use an umbrella like the rest of the natives.

i love that we've chosen a city that will hopefully be where we start a family, get college degrees, and start proper careers. and while it doesn't quite feel like home yet, it's starting to feel familiar, and that's a start right?


see other cities we've lived in through the fisheye found  here and here.