March 25, 2009 at 9:46 am | blabbing, Portland.

• There are a lot of strip clubs
• Lots of places don’t take credit cards. You can fill your parking meter with a credit card but they don’t take credit cards at the DMV
• The ratio of people to garden centers is much higher than normal
• There is lots of recycling and people care how it gets done. Don’t mix your recycling up. You will get scolded by the nice garbage man who waves when he sees you.
• People generally seem to be in a good mood
• People read. Books, papers, magazines.
• The amount of taco trucks and lunch carts in this city is amazing
• For the amount of mexican food places, it seems strange that people think that the mexican food is not that good.
• Goodwill shops are big here and there are lots of them. They are the size of regular department stores.
• Cars will wait for pedestrians to cross the street.
• The buses are nice and there are poetry snippets on the wall. Surprisingly there are not that many people on them.
• People say “Thank you” when they get off the bus. This happens more often than you would think.
• Cars drive slower
• The driving test is hard. Well hard for me, not for “Mrs. 100% correct A.C. Risse”
• In mid march people still have their snow tires on. This makes me nervous.
• When you order a coffee they will ask “You gonna stick around?” instead of saying “Is that for here or to go?”