Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Manual Labor, Macaroni Grill & Yreka
Gold 1 just arrived back in Sacramento from Portland. When we first drove to Portland we did it in one day…but this time we took two days. We ended up staying at a pretty nice Best Western Hotel in Yreka (why-reek-ah), CA. Yreka is an absolutely beautiful small mountain town. It is right by Mt. Shasta which is the 2nd tallest volcano in the US. We walked around their small town and ate at a nice semi-tacky place called Grandma’s House.
Our last week in Portland was tiring but fun. We attended a housing dedication for our Borthwick site, continued working on both Borthwick and Wasco, dug a rain trench for a house in New Columbia, helped at the Habitat office and we started to organize the Habitat storage unit. Basically a LOT of physical labor…on top of physical training in the morning about every other day.
We did find things to do in Portland on our days off. For instance, Portland has a HUGE Saturday market downtown that is open everyday until Christmas Eve where many of the local artists come to sell their products. There were so many booths ranging from knit hats to jewelry to wooden sculptures. Did we mention before that Portland’s public transportation is one of the best? We are now MAX (light rail), bus, and streetcar experts. The city is set up in zones; if you stay within one zone then your light rail ride is free!
Portland is a really great city…no tax, beautiful mountains, clean streets, hardly any ‘shady areas’ of town, amazing places to visit, not far from the ocean, great public transit, very liberal in general, artsy people, very environmentally friendly, and an overall safe city where you don’t feel like you’d get mugged. On the downside…they have a set city limit that you can’t build houses/businesses beyond so as the population grows more people are crammed into the city limits; that means prices for houses are HIGH (even when you aren’t downtown). A decent looking 2 bedroom/2 bath house would start at $300,000…and that is still a small house. Typical 1 family homes are being phased out and duplexes, town house, apartments, and condos are coming in. Even though it is nice that you don’t have to pay sales tax on anything, funding for public schools is almost non-existent. Locals told us how many schools have to fundraise just to be able to stay open. It also rains…a lot! We hear it is just the season we are in…but nonetheless it still constantly rains. One local told us that the rainy season is from October to June.
On our last night in Portland, the owner of the Macaroni Grill franchise treated our entire team to a complimentary dinner: appetizers, entrees and desserts! We all dressed to the nines…at least with what clothes we had. When can you order absolutely anything off a menu and not even have to look at the price?
We are now on Holiday break! Check out the blog in January for our next update.
Love,
the Amandas
Our last week in Portland was tiring but fun. We attended a housing dedication for our Borthwick site, continued working on both Borthwick and Wasco, dug a rain trench for a house in New Columbia, helped at the Habitat office and we started to organize the Habitat storage unit. Basically a LOT of physical labor…on top of physical training in the morning about every other day.
We did find things to do in Portland on our days off. For instance, Portland has a HUGE Saturday market downtown that is open everyday until Christmas Eve where many of the local artists come to sell their products. There were so many booths ranging from knit hats to jewelry to wooden sculptures. Did we mention before that Portland’s public transportation is one of the best? We are now MAX (light rail), bus, and streetcar experts. The city is set up in zones; if you stay within one zone then your light rail ride is free!
Portland is a really great city…no tax, beautiful mountains, clean streets, hardly any ‘shady areas’ of town, amazing places to visit, not far from the ocean, great public transit, very liberal in general, artsy people, very environmentally friendly, and an overall safe city where you don’t feel like you’d get mugged. On the downside…they have a set city limit that you can’t build houses/businesses beyond so as the population grows more people are crammed into the city limits; that means prices for houses are HIGH (even when you aren’t downtown). A decent looking 2 bedroom/2 bath house would start at $300,000…and that is still a small house. Typical 1 family homes are being phased out and duplexes, town house, apartments, and condos are coming in. Even though it is nice that you don’t have to pay sales tax on anything, funding for public schools is almost non-existent. Locals told us how many schools have to fundraise just to be able to stay open. It also rains…a lot! We hear it is just the season we are in…but nonetheless it still constantly rains. One local told us that the rainy season is from October to June.
On our last night in Portland, the owner of the Macaroni Grill franchise treated our entire team to a complimentary dinner: appetizers, entrees and desserts! We all dressed to the nines…at least with what clothes we had. When can you order absolutely anything off a menu and not even have to look at the price?
We are now on Holiday break! Check out the blog in January for our next update.
Love,
the Amandas
Friday, December 14, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Portland...rainy days are not a myth
December 4, 2007,
Well we have survived our first week of work, PT, consecutive rainy days, and living in a house of 13 people! The week has been very exciting in which we have learned how to construct a roof, how to deconstruct the roof after we have made a serious, but correctable, mistake, and how to navigate through the city on their public transportation system.
The team has also been busy having been given team positions. The grocery POC’s have had to work hard in shopping for the team twice a week while sticking to a tight budget. However, our team has bought enough wedges of cheese for, as Holly says, “a small army of rats to take over China with.”
During this week, half of the team also volunteered at the Jingle Bell run for Arthritis in which we were able to stand outside while cheering on all of the participants of the race. After the run, the organizers learned the budget that we are living on and they donated 200 granola bars (which is a drawer-ful), 100 bagels (which is a freezer-ful), and more than a dozen bottles of water and Gatorade.
Gold 1 has also been given the opportunity to work at Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore which gives the low-income families of Portland a chance to shop for many of their home needs while sticking to their own financial plan. It has been interesting working here since it has allowed Gold 1 to learn more about the community that Habitat for Humanity serves.
XOXO
Addie
We posted more pictures...
---> More were added to this album
---> Here is a new album
Well we have survived our first week of work, PT, consecutive rainy days, and living in a house of 13 people! The week has been very exciting in which we have learned how to construct a roof, how to deconstruct the roof after we have made a serious, but correctable, mistake, and how to navigate through the city on their public transportation system.
The team has also been busy having been given team positions. The grocery POC’s have had to work hard in shopping for the team twice a week while sticking to a tight budget. However, our team has bought enough wedges of cheese for, as Holly says, “a small army of rats to take over China with.”
During this week, half of the team also volunteered at the Jingle Bell run for Arthritis in which we were able to stand outside while cheering on all of the participants of the race. After the run, the organizers learned the budget that we are living on and they donated 200 granola bars (which is a drawer-ful), 100 bagels (which is a freezer-ful), and more than a dozen bottles of water and Gatorade.
Gold 1 has also been given the opportunity to work at Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore which gives the low-income families of Portland a chance to shop for many of their home needs while sticking to their own financial plan. It has been interesting working here since it has allowed Gold 1 to learn more about the community that Habitat for Humanity serves.
XOXO
Addie
We posted more pictures...
---> More were added to this album
---> Here is a new album
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