So I have officially moved out of the small town of Redmond, OR to the big city of Portland, OR. While some may be sitting there saying..."what's the big deal?!", just trust me. There is a big difference! Yesterday was day one at my new home, which in two weeks will include going to school at Western Culinary Institute for the next 15 months. Being from a small town, I knew that this culture shock was going to occur whether I liked it or not. Luckily to assist with not getting lost in this large city was my handy GPS navigator, who I have decided to call Marge, leading the way and always getting me home in one piece. So throughout my travels yesterday I found that there were five things that every person should know should they move to the big city.
1. Know how to parallel park: I used to take this for granted since there was only two major streets that you had to do this on but now you better know how to do it if you want to part anywhere close to the place you are going. If you don't know how to parallel park....get used to taking the bus.
2. If it's 4pm, get home!: About 4pm every person seems to start converging on the streets and traffic is incomprehensible. Sitting in traffic, at a complete stop on I-5 makes you wonder how people do this each and every day.
3. Just because the walk sign comes on to cross the street, it doesn't mean people will stop: Crossing the road to get to the first Whole Foods I could find, I assumed that the flashing light that said I could walk gave me the right of way. Well, some people might argue that. People were turning left and right just trying to get somewhere but they weren't very patient to stop for people crossing the street. Keep an eye out at all times or when you are crossing the street... run!
4. There are 20 choices for everything you need: No longer is there one McDonalds, one Starbucks, or even one Fred Meyer. Now there are one on every street corner and each have their own little quirks. It's almost overwhelming!
5. Stores aren't always one story: So my husband and I are at Target picking up a few last minute things for me for my room. We walk around the whole store looking for sheets for my bed and we can't find them. There was no way that a Target wouldn't have sheets! So it was at that time that we look to the middle of the store and notice an escalator. What the?!? So we push the basket over there to the escalator to find that not only is there a second story but there is a handy thing between the up and down escalators that moves your basket for you. It was at that moment I turned to my husband who was fascinated by this newly found invention, and the only thing I could think was "We're not in Redmond anymore!".
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