Portland...gotta love it!

There is a TV show called Portlandia. It's a couple who do a bunch of random skits that show the culture of Portland. You can watch some of their skits on YouTube, and when I first moved here I watched a few of them and laughed and of course assumed that they were exaggerating the truth a bit.
Here is one you need to watch

Funny and ridiculous right? That's what I thought for a while, then one day I was walking down the street and overheard two girls having a similar conversation.

Girl 1: ...and I refused to eat it because they couldn't tell me anything about it. I seriously doubt any of their stuff is local.
Girl 2: I know! That's why you need to try this other place, they do everything local.
Girl 1: Really? Because I refuse to eat any meat unless I know where it's from, what it ate, how it died, and it has to be 100 percent organic and local.
Girl 2: Totally! I can't stand it when....

That's when they turned the corner.

I sat there waiting for the light to turn and wondered how a city not too far on the map seemed like it was from the other end of the universe.

I know a man, a man with the power....

I've had a few people ask me about the world famous Voodoo Doughnuts. Well, I went there this morning. I walked a mile to get there, got my doughnuts, and walked a mile back home. I could smell the doughnuts two blocks away and there was a line outside the door. Somehow just the name wants you to go a get a doughnut. I wonder if it works with everything. I could open up a sandwich shop called Voodoo Sand-Witch. Or I could have a dog walking service called Voo-Doodoo pick-up.

Ok, so those ideas might not make me a millionaire.

Voodoo Doughnuts are very unique doughnuts. Most doughnut shops have maple bars, but Voodoo Doughnuts have maple bars with bacon on top. Other doughnut shops put sprinkles and nuts on their doughnuts. Voodoo Doughnuts puts cold cereal and candy on top of their doughnuts. They even have a doughnut in the shape of a voodoo doll!

I, of course, had to get a voodoo doll. 

And although I had only planned to get only one doughnut, my eye caught a doughnut with cap'n crunch on top. That is my all time favorite cereal. I like it so much that I never buy it, because if I do then I eat the whole box in one day. So, I got a second doughnut. (It just might be my screen, but these pictures are looking a lot darker then they did in photoshop)

Isn't the voodoo doll so cool? There is even a pretzel  representing a pin in a real voodoo doll! And the voodoo doll is filled with a raspberry filling that gushes out when you bit into it. 

There is something about eating food that have heads. It is just way too tempting to bite their heads off!

So I did.

If that's not enough, they also marry people there. I'm not kidding. They even have different wedding packages. For a price they will make a wedding cake out of doughnuts. Forget Disneyland, I think it is every girl's dream to get married at Voodoo Doughnuts. 

If you would like to see a voodoo wedding there are lots on youtube. Just search voodoo doughnuts wedding.

PORTLAND!

I have arrived!
On Wednesday I moved to the beautiful city of Portland. It was a long, but gorgeous drive, well, at least the last couple hours were gorgeous. The trees were beautiful. For those of you who live in Utah and haven't seen a tree in a while they look like this:

See? Trees.

Of course they don't look like that in the inner city where I live. There you just see buildings everywhere. Lots of buildings. And lots of one way streets. Mom and Dad loved driving in downtown Portland!
My apartment is the cutest ever. It is only 1/2 mile away from my school and everything is in walking distance.

This is my air bed. I didn't bring any furniture with me so I brought an air bed instead.

 It is actually really comfortable! 

This is the desk I got from Ikea. More Ikea furniture to follow in the future.

This is my cute little kitchen. If you look close enough you might be able to see my little sushi magnets. 

This is just the other side of the apartment. Not much to see except for the closet and I was not going to open the door for the picture. 

The walls are this taupe/peach color that I'm not sure what to do with. It looks more pink in real life.

Mom and Dad were with me the past few days and we went and saw the sights. We drove all the way to the coast and saw a lighthouse. An honest to goodness lighthouse! They haven't used it since the sixties, but it was still cool.

We couldn't see too far out though because it was foggy and cold. Most of my pictures were just of mist, but here is a halfway decent one of the cliffs:

If it wasn't so cold I would've been tempted to wade in the water.

Near the coast was the small town of Tillamook, land of the yummy cheese. We went to the cheese factory and it was awesome. They had lots of cheeses to taste as well as Tillamook ice cream and Tillamook fudge. It was all very tasty!

We also went to the Portland Temple. It was gorgeous and thanks to this foggy picture it looks pretty heavenly too.

Oregon is different from Utah. I knew it was "eco-friendly" but I didn't realize how much until I moved here. The stores only use paper bags, you aren't allowed to pump your own gas, EVERYONE carries a coffee cup, and recycling is a must. I had to put a list of things that can be recycled on my fridge because I feel like if I do it wrong the recycling police will come after me. There is a general feeling in the air that the world will end if I throw away the wrong thing. I'll have to look over my shoulder every time I go out to the garbage can.