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| Are you from Oregon? |
| I live in or have lived in Oregon |
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47% |
[ 25 ] |
| I plan to live in Oregon in the future |
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7% |
[ 4 ] |
| Never have lived there |
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33% |
[ 18 ] |
| What's an Oregon, I am wondering.... |
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11% |
[ 6 ] |
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| Total Votes : 53 |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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 Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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I lived there for a year, 1995-1996.
I love Oregon.. definetely one of my favorite states, and Portland is one of my favorite cities.
I lived in New York City and San Francisco on my last two 'extended living in the US' times.. and visited PDX from there each time, and each time I wondered why I wasn't in PDX rather than NYC or SF each time.
It's extremely high on my most desireable cities to live list. I was just reading two different sources tonight about how the PDX economy is one of the worst in the nation right now. Maybe it'll be a good 3-5 years before I make that move there.
I think I'd only live in or around PDX though. Visited Eugene, and didn't like it at all - and I had hippie-like tendencies at that time (10 years ago).. I'd probably really hate it now as lost all interest in all things hippy-like-related.
Salem didn't seem that interesting either.. a bit dull and boring.. and even the name sounds bad.
I quite liked the Oregon coast.. Coos Bay area has the largest population.. I know I've driven through it, but can't separate it in my mind from anywhere else on the coast. Curious about it now.
Another place I liked nearby was Olympia Washington.. I could see myself there.. but have kind of a funny attachment to Oregon and the idea of living in Washington seems like I'd be betraying that.
Seattle is way too sprawling and highway-oriented to consider. I once considered Bellingham.. but read some online Bellingham newspapers and the attachment to Vancouver is too great for me - I'm too sick of the US/Canada garbage to live near that border and deal or have to listen to that stuff.
Portland is ideal.
Just curious.. anyone been to MAUPIN? I took a car drive over on the other side of the Cascades.. and that little tiny river rafting town really impressed me at the time. |
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changmee
Joined: 10 Apr 2005
Location: Yongin, South Korea
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| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 2:33 am Post subject: |
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| I'm from Oregon as well! It's a beautiful state! I've lived in Lebanon, Albany, Bend and Portland. Graduated from PSU. The small towns in Oregon are nice to drive through, but definately a breed of thier own. Portland is a great city, I lived there for five years and loved it. I would still be in Oregon if it weren't for the lack of good jobs. Bend is a beautiful high-desert area. It's actually the fastest growing city in Oregon. I definately plan on returning to Oregon assuming the Bush legacy ends in 2008. |
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pollyplummer
Joined: 07 Mar 2005
Location: McMinnvillve, Oregon
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| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 2:53 am Post subject: oregon |
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I am from Oregon. My avatar is a picture of me on the Oregon coast last december. I love the ocean there- it always seems to be grey, cold, fierce, and tempestuous. My mommy lives in McMinnville and I'm hoping to go back soon to sit around the house watching movies in fuzzy bunny slippers and eating lots of dairy. That is my daydream. Oregon has fantastic microbreweries and the best Pinot Noir in the *world*... I love Pinot and have had it from just about any nation that thinks they can grow it, and Oregon is the best, hands down.
Washington is also a beautiful place to live. I've been many times, but one particular time I went up to one of those islands that you have to take a ferry to get to and stayed at a bed and breakfast there. It felt like one of the most peaceful places on earth. I'd love to live on the Oregon or Washington coast. Seattle is definitely one of my favourite cities. The culture is more raw than, say, Chicago, or Atlanta. |
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chi-chi
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 6:17 am Post subject: |
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mods you may delete
Last edited by chi-chi on Sat Jul 30, 2005 5:54 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 9:39 am Post subject: |
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| thorin wrote: |
| bucheon bum wrote: |
| thorin wrote: |
| What's up with Bend? I went through there once and didn't see anyone with more than 3 teeth. |
when were you there? It's had a flood of Californians in the past ten years or so and has a yuppy side to it now. |
I think it was '92. If Bend is gentrified, I bet Truckee is really posh. |
Perhaps not posh, but yeah, it is rather upscale compared to what it was before. '92 was just when things were starting to pick up in Bend. |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:27 pm Post subject: |
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| chi-chi wrote: |
51% of you live or have lived in Oregon?
I feel like I'm missing something (I'm not kidding, I do.)
I heard somewhere that the NorthWest Coast of the US kind of has many similiar things as NorthEast Asia (like I guess Seattle and Vancouver kind of have a similiar feel to Hokkaido?)
Is it true?
Don't laugh at me it's just something I read on here once, I think on the Japan board somewhere. |
I've never been to Hokkaido to know.. but its definetly not like NorthEast Asia.
The only possible similarities might be Pacific Ocean, cold ocean waters, and mountains.. but pretty much stops there.
It would be safe to say there is a 'northeast asian' leanings from the Northwest Area.. Gary Snyder (a beat poet back in the 50s - written about as Jaffy in Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums) is from OREGON.. and he was well into Japanese culture.. and at the end of the 1950s went to live in Japan for 15 years.. he's written countless poetry centered around his Japan and Asia and mostly more politically northwest strong pro-environmentalist leanings. He remains even today a very influential and important poet from Oregon, particularly among poets and beat literature fans.
I also fondly recall one food you can just about everywhere in Portland is Japanese BENTO. Seems to be just about everywhere in that city, and I've never seen any other American city have an obsession for BENTO quite like Portland. Literally all kinds of non-Japanese Portland restaurants throw it on the menu.
There is also a MEGA Japanese (almost Wal-Mart-esque) its so large.. chain that is found in Oregon and Washington. Mostly Wal-Mart-ish as its mostly Japanese and Asian products as well as Asian supermarket.. in the typical American mega-like mode. Never seen that anywhere else but in the Northwest region of the US. |
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articulate_ink
Joined: 23 Mar 2004
Location: Left Korea in 2008. Hong Kong now.
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| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 10:05 pm Post subject: |
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| I lived in Portland briefly, in 2003, before moving on to Seattle. I'd have happily stayed in Portland but personal circumstances required my (then) partner and me to move before we'd finished unpacking our boxes. In my last 6 months in Seattle, I often commuted back to Portland for work and was delighted to be there. That said, I'm going back to the Bay Area if I have to move back to the States. |
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PolyChronic Time Girl
Joined: 15 Dec 2004
Location: Korea Exited
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| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 10:47 pm Post subject: |
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| bucheon bum wrote: |
| thorin wrote: |
| bucheon bum wrote: |
| thorin wrote: |
| What's up with Bend? I went through there once and didn't see anyone with more than 3 teeth. |
when were you there? It's had a flood of Californians in the past ten years or so and has a yuppy side to it now. |
I think it was '92. If Bend is gentrified, I bet Truckee is really posh. |
Perhaps not posh, but yeah, it is rather upscale compared to what it was before. '92 was just when things were starting to pick up in Bend. |
That city is exploding. I left Bend after high school in '96. I returned there for the first time in 2003 and couldn't find my way around...it's almost unrecognizable. I was a little sad.....it turned from a small-town to an OC type of city. Still great though.
I can't believe all you know Oregon. When I was living in the States, virtually no one heard or knew anything about it. Glad to hear  |
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lunalilo
Joined: 11 May 2005
Location: somewhere in-between
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| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 11:59 pm Post subject: |
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Wow, didn't realize there are so many Oregonians here. Hello neighbors!
Yes, Oregon coast is beautiful; though don't care much for Ptl. |
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skookum
Joined: 11 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 7:02 am Post subject: |
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| chi-chi wrote: |
51% of you live or have lived in Oregon?
I feel like I'm missing something (I'm not kidding, I do.)
I heard somewhere that the NorthWest Coast of the US kind of has many similiar things as NorthEast Asia (like I guess Seattle and Vancouver kind of have a similiar feel to Hokkaido?)
Is it true?
Don't laugh at me it's just something I read on here once, I think on the Japan board somewhere. |
Actually, Portland is a sister city to Sapporo. When I visited the latter place, I saw that one of the Benson drinking fountains which are a hallmark of Portland had been installed in Sapporo. When I came back later in the autumn, the fountain had been wrapped in grass to protect it from the cold Hokkaido winters, but still retained its basic shape.....
As for similarities, when I hiked up into the high mountains of Japan I found a lot of plant species similar to ones I'd seen in Alaska and in the Pacific Northwest.
Hokkaido, at least the northern 4/5s of it, was actually settled later that Oregon was - Sapporo wasn't founded till the 1870s. It's still the unpopulated part of Japan - bigger farms, big barns, more open country. This of course is relative 'cause you have twice the population of Oregon in an area that's quite a bit smaller. |
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skookum
Joined: 11 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 7:16 am Post subject: Uwajimaya |
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| Tiger Beer wrote: |
| There is also a MEGA Japanese (almost Wal-Mart-esque) its so large.. chain that is found in Oregon and Washington. Mostly Wal-Mart-ish as its mostly Japanese and Asian products as well as Asian supermarket.. in the typical American mega-like mode. Never seen that anywhere else but in the Northwest region of the US. |
Yeh, that is Uwajimaya - fantastic supermarket with everything Asian under the sun. Well, not everything Korean, but for that there are several Korean grocery stores and restaurants right within blocks of the Beaverton branch. I lived in Southern Oregon where there is not much Asian food available (outside of Thai and Chinese restaurants) and when I'd go to Portland once or twice a year I'd stock up at Uwajimaya's and at the Korean places. |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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For those who WOULD live on the OREGON COAST.. where would you live??
I did a search for Barnes and Noble and Borders bookstore locations in Oregon, you can only find them in the areas of Portland, Salem, Corvallis, Eugene and Bend. Nothing anywhere on the coast. I'm not sure if I could live in an area without proximity to a good-sized bookstore. |
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pollyplummer
Joined: 07 Mar 2005
Location: McMinnvillve, Oregon
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 2:31 pm Post subject: coast |
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| The coast by Lincoln City is not so bad. That's where my photo is from. But yeah, you would have to drive aways to get a good book store. But in Oregon I never feel like driving anywhere takes very long. It's so freakin scenic, green year long. I could do it. Although Washington might be a better bet for finding a decent sized city right on the coast. |
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PaperTiger
Joined: 31 May 2005
Location: Ulaanbataar
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 4:22 pm Post subject: Beer and green flowers... |
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Although I can't say that my three years in Oregon were the most sucessful moments of my life (I remember stating my state of residence as "Pooregon" at the Seattle passport office), there were some of the coolest. Since people are fleeing the skyrocketing cost of living in SF, I think that Portland really turned into a ratrace...getting a decent job there is like trying to find a decent taco in Seoul. Sure people there are a little pretentious and lost (not the yuppies of course, they own million-dollar apartments on the west side) but damned if I could just squish the heels of my Birkenstocks together three times just in time to order a round of beers at the Old Lompoc or land on a collapsed sofa just as the bong was being passed my way.
If only working at Standard Insurance wasn't so deadly boring, maybe I'd still be there. |
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skookum
Joined: 11 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 4:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Tiger Beer wrote: |
For those who WOULD live on the OREGON COAST.. where would you live??
I did a search for Barnes and Noble and Borders bookstore locations in Oregon, you can only find them in the areas of Portland, Salem, Corvallis, Eugene and Bend. Nothing anywhere on the coast. I'm not sure if I could live in an area without proximity to a good-sized bookstore. |
Presence of the big book chains is a sign you are in a larger place. There are no large cities on the Oregon Coast. But you'll find quite a variety of places there, culturally, etc. The south end (Curry County - Brookings, Gold Beach) is pretty conservative. Lots of retirees. Coos Bay area has traditionally been logging/shipping/agriculture ( Big cranberry-raising region, dairy farming). Astoria, also logging, shipping, farming. Tillamook - cheeeeese! Seaside - tourism.
As pollyplummer pointed out the Lincoln City (and surrounding Lincoln County) area might be more interesting to folks who don't like too much rusticity. Newport even had a Korean vegetarian buffet there although, alas, it went out of business before I ever found out about it..... I'm not a big coast person myself so haven't been around there a lot, but did take a trip last year and found Newport to be an appealing place. It's just right over the hill from Eugene and Corvallis. (Well, okay.... it's a looong hill...) |
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