| Friday, October 17, 2008 |
| The Other Side Of Portland |
I hopped on the shuttle at 1:49 and headed down to Pioneer Square for the kind of exploration and discovery that doesn't make me loathe Lewis & Clark. Upon my arrival, I started walking north to check out Chinatown. I made sure to wear my headphones at all times to try to deter the young hustlers on the corners trying desperately to get people to give a shit about some cause by signing something or donating money. That didn't stop them of course, and when walking by them I would pause my music to see what kind of slick game they would try to spit. "You look familiar, don't I know you from somewhere." Really? Lame game. I shake my head with a look of disappointment and walk on by.
I keep walking north until I hit those nice gates welcoming me to Chinatown. I'm hoping to walk through and check out some stores and cheap restaurants. But right when I pass under those gates I catch a different vibes. Everything is grittier. I see almost no white people, and not even many Chinese. Everything either smells like a concoction of piss, vomit, and rain water, or piss, vomit, rain water, and street soap desperately trying to mask a permanent stench. I see no smiles and hear no laughs. As I pass by a white lady on the sidewalk covered in stains and trash she clutches her purse like a runningback protecting the ball. I turn around and frown at her. Was it my appearance and age that made her think I was going to snatch her purse, or the neighborhood we were in? Either way, I've seen enough of Chinatown. I always trust my vibes and Chinatown gave me bad vibes. I turn around and head back south, passing a strip club that smells of stenches I don't even want to guess. As I'm heading back I see an old couple who look lost and are looking at their maps trying to decide which way to go. I wonder whether I should intervene or not, and whether they would even accept my help. I give it about twenty seconds and they still seem lost, so I take off my headphones and ask if they're lost and need help. "No, we're fine, thank you." Oh well.
The farther south I walk the nicer everything is. The sidewalks get progressively cleaner and the people get progressively richer. I decide to go west and towards Pearl District. It sure is a lot different than Chinatown. The streets are so clean that you could eat off them and the people are simply yuppies. Is there a relation between class and sidewalk cleanliness? Do poor people show disregard for their environment? If so, why? Or maybe richer districts just have more money to pour into public workers and the like. If so then that's some bullshit. No one should have to step in piss, no matter how much money they have.
After being equally disgusted with the Pearl District and Chinatown I head back towards Pioneer Square. I got the munchies, so I decide to check out this crepe food stand I saw earlier. Snow White Crepe Cart. Honestly, I was expecting a french man or woman, but instead there is a Chinese woman from the province of Hubei (she told me later). I order a strawberry & nutella crepe. First she prepares another guys crepe, and I stand there with my headphones off, eavesdropping. They engage in an interesting conversation about how she manages all the food in her stand. I take my headphones off to eavesdrop more efficiently, and probably more obviously. After about ten minutes of them talking, ending in the vendor asking the man how his wife is, he goes to sit down (he seemed anxious to eat, she seemed anxious to keep talking) and she starts preparing my crepe. Now we start talking. We talk about Lewis & Clark, and I vent to her how our school milks us dry of all our money. She is surprised that beside our huge tuition they charge us for everything from laundry to snacks to classes. I explain to her how they're doing it because they know they can. We're stuck in a trap because we're looking for a liberal arts education that is looked for generally by people with money. We talk about the meal plan a lot, and she convinces me I should buy my own food next year and not have a meal plan. Good idea, but I'm not sure if I have the energy to do that. I realize I've been talking to her for around thirty minutes, and I still haven't eaten my crepe. I tell her I need to catch my shuttle (a good excuse) and bid her farewell.
As I'm leaving I marvel at her stand. Besides her $5-8 crepes she had at least 40 bags of chips and candy and around 15 different kinds of soda. It's amazing to me how somebody can come into this country with virtually nothing and make a living. It's all about work ethic, and frankly people from other countries tend to have harder work ethic than Americans nowadays. Anyways, I hop on the shuttle back to Lewis & Clark, and am sitting near three office type adults. I already discussed how much I love to eavesdrop, and this was a good conversation to eavesdrop on. They start off talking about how one of their coworkers got caught doing porn. Then they take turns trying to impress each other with their identical takes on politics. I'm glad to hear the busdriver chime in and express his conservative beliefs. "I think he's a republican" one lady whispers to her friend. I crack up at how silenced and agitated they are at his views. Closemindedness plagues people from all backgrounds. Whether your sidewalk smells like fresh Oregon air or fresh crackhead piss, we're all equally discriminitory.
(by the way, could you count this for like four entries cause it's so long?) tight.
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posted by MaSh @ 1:07 AM  |
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