1/3 done + Seattle

It's really hard to believe that I'm a third of the way done with my time here in Portland. I start seeing subjects for my research tomorrow, which I'm really excited about. I'm a little nervous, because I still don't feel 100% comfortable with the protocol that we're using, but I think it'll get easier as I see more subjects.

This past weekend, M, L, and I went up to Seattle for the weekend. We drove up early on Saturday morning, and spent the late morning and afternoon exploring. We started at Seattle Center, and took the monorail downtown so we could check out Pike Place Market, and the original Starbucks. It was really busy, which I expected for a beautiful Saturday in June. I got the Pike Place dipping herbs from Herbn'Farm NW, which were delicious! It was irresistible after trying it. I'm so excited to try them out, although to be honest, I probably won't get a chance until I go back to New Jersey.

[ I haven't been doing a lot of cooking, other than making breakfast in the mornings. We mostly eat out or get takeout from one of the food trucks. On nights that we don't go out/get takeout, I snack or warm up soup. Not the healthiest way of eating, but I'll live, I think. ]

After exploring the market, we checked out the gum wall, which I actually added to. I don't think I did that on any of my previous trips. There's photographic evidence, but it'll have to wait until Megan downloads her camera pictures.

We met my friend E for lunch at the Pike Brewing Company, another first for me. The food was ok, but the beer was good. :) I haven't seen E in about three years, since I left Washington, so it was really fun to catch up with her.

After lunch, we headed back to Seattle Center to go up on the Space Needle! It was a gorgeous day to be up there, since everything was visible: the Olympics, the Cascades, Mt. Ranier. I had forgotten how incredible the scenery is in the Pacific Northwest, and I didn't realize that I missed it.

After coming down from the Space Needle, we had to get ready for the Mariners game!! That was the one thing that I really regretted not doing while I did my AmeriCorps year in Washington. It would have been better if I could have seen the Red Sox, but the Astros were a good substitute. Safeco field is enormous, and our seats were phenomenal. 2nd row off the field, on the first base line. I could have reached out and touched the field, we were that close. It was a fun game to watch, made more enjoyable because you can actually go watch the bullpen. The players were close enough that they could come up and high five the people watching them, should they so choose. The mariners won, and it made me think that I'd really like to go up for another game if I can this summer. I'll have to see if any of their home games align with my free weekends.

Sunday, we woke up, grabbed breakfast in Federal Way (never thought I'd be going back there, it was very bizarre), and then drove back down to Portland. It bodes well, since the three of us are flying down to San Diego for Fourth of July weekend. We now know that we can travel together, so that's a plus.

Overall it was a good weekend, ending with a random concert that I caught in one of the parks. Apparently yesterday was Make Music Day, and there were concerts and performances scheduled all over Portland. I had gone out to do a couple of errands, and heard music on my way back, so I detoured to check it out. It was the Mike Curtis Jazz Project, and it was awesome!! It was definitely a fun way to end the weekend.

Expect a separate post with pictures, since I took almost none this weekend, and plan to steal L & M's.

More soon!
Anna

End of Week 3

It seems so strange that I've been in Portland for almost 3 weeks, which is a quarter of my time here. I feel like I just left New Jersey!

This past week was busier at the NCRAR. I finally got my badge, so I'm officially a WOC (without compensation) employee! I thought it would take forever to get my information corrected, but apparently it only took a couple of days. Now all that's left is to get computer access, which should be early this coming week. We've had meetings with the different investigators, which have really cool. They're all doing different kinds of auditory research - blast exposure, noise exposure, hearing aid use, OAEs, evoked potentials, wide band reflectance and more. We actually have a mini seminar this week on the wide band reflectance equipment, which none of us have seen used before. I'm excited!

As for explorations, we stayed pretty close to home this week. M & I hit the gym a couple of times, but I think we were both pretty tired! I went to the farmer's market this morning with L, which was fun. Once you've been there a couple of times, it's pretty easy to get in, do your shopping, and get out. But it was a beautiful day to be out, and I got some delicious berries and some beautiful peonies!

Unfiltered version of the peonies. They're just as pretty without the filter!

Filtered version of the peonies (Thanks instagram filters)

We've been trying to find bars where there are actually people, so last night (Friday) we did go out. We had dinner at an Irish pub in the Pearl district, with good food and a beer that I finally liked enough to drink more than a few sips. Then we hit a couple of different bars, but neither was very busy. Lots of bars had DJs or music, but there were very few people actually out! Apparently Portland is not a "bar" city. Tonight M & I went out to dinner, and the original plan was to go out again, but we were both exhausted, so now I'm home, blogging, and planning to be in bed before 11.

Poutine at dinner tonight

The only beer I liked enough to have more than one.

So much for that!

Well, so much for posting twice a week! I didn't even make it once last week. But we've had a busy first couple of weeks, and it's been fun.

Internship wise, things are basically on hold. My paperwork had a major error (my birthday was wrong) so it got kicked back to my sponsor, and now we're waiting on that to be corrected and sent back to HR, so that it can then be sent to the Department of Homeland Security for my background check. At the rate things are going, I probably won't get clearance to actually do anything before the middle of July, at the earliest, but my research mentor has said that we'll work around it somehow. As things stand, I've been reading a lot of background articles, getting to know the other T-35 interns and the 4th year students, working on protocols and study design, and playing a lot of Tetris on my phone. We've been meeting with each of the researchers to learn more about their backgrounds and past and current projects. We also had a research ethics class that turned out to be far more interesting than I had expected. Research ethics has a lot of twists and turns that just aren't considered in a clinical setting, and our instructor was really fun to get talking, since he works with the auditory systems of birds.

Exploring Portland-wise... Wellllll, I'll probably just put up a slideshow of pictures. But the Rose Festival was this past week, and I kicked it off last weekend by meeting up with an AmeriCorps pal and her parents (and their friends) for the Starlight Parade. There were some fun floats, and it was cool to see the entire city just shut down. Plus it was good to catch up with my friend, since I haven't seen her in almost a year. I hope we'll have more time together over the summer!

The people here are very nice. I have a suitemate, R, who's very nice, and we've hung out a few times. There's also L, who lives down the hall. M & I have also hung out with J & A, the other T-35 interns, and a few of the other students/audiologists from the NCRAR. Tonight we went for ice cream with a bunch of other interns from our floor. I think they're all doing some kind of Christian ministry internship, but I didn't ask for details. They're also all really nice and also very Southern. I will probably have acquired a touch of Southern accent by August if I spend much time with them. The people on our floor seem nice, for the most part, if a little aloof. Some people have their doors open a lot, others I've never met.

We've hit the farmer's market twice - delicious, if on the expensive side; the Saturday market - I may have my Christmas/birthday shopping done for the next year by the time I leave in August; the east side of Portland - very artsy; and explored Downtown a lot. We also visited the International Rose Test Garden, which was in full bloom and absolutely stunning, as well as the Japanese Garden, which was so quiet and peaceful. I'd really like to go back on a day when there aren't a ton of people, and spend more time wandering through it.

Tonight we went to Salt & Straw, which is an amazing ice cream place. They have some really strange flavors, but they also let people try everything. I ended up getting a split scoop - way cool! - of Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache and Coconut with Petunia's Salted Caramel Bars. It was amazing, and just perfect after a scorching 93* day.

Slideshow of our last couple of weeks below!! I'll try to be better about posting - that is why I downloaded the app on my phone.

More soon!
Anna

Beer flight at Fat Head Brewery

Beer flight at Rogue Brewery

Mt. St Helens from the Skywalk at OHSU

Mt Hood on the walk home

Purple cabbage at the PSU Farmer's Market

Panoramic of the Rose Garden in bloom

International Rose Test Garden

Japanese Garden

The Sand and Stone Garden in the Japanese Garden

I survived!

I survived my very first day of my research fellowship! Even if I didn't realize I was expected to be there at 9 and showed up at 10:30 instead. But everyone seems very nice, and very relaxed, which I'm quickly realizing is the prevailing Portland attitude.

I don't have a lot to report. Today was mostly orientation, going around and meeting everyone, getting a tour, and acquiring articles to keep me busy until I can officially start research.

The NCRAR is part of of the Portland VA Hospital, which also shares a campus with OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University). It's enormous, so I've only seen a very small part of it, but I'll be here for three months so I'm sure there's time to explore it all.

The general recommendation is to take a bus to the VA and then walk down the (enormous) hill and take the bus or walk home from the bottom. M and I ended up walking home and stopping at the food trucks for dinner on the way. I have every intention of going back, since it was delicious and reasonably priced. Plus there are ten more trucks to eat at!

This was the view from the VA, as we were walking home. It's really a beautiful view from the top, and it was a nice day for a walk, if a little warm. I'll have to remember to stick sunscreen in my bag so I don't get too burned.

 

More to come soon!

Anna

Day Two

I doubt that I'll actually number my posts by day, but this was easy, since it was my first full day in Portland, and there was a lot of exploring done!

I woke up obscenely early (5 am; thanks, Eastern Time) and rolled over until 7. M and I decided to go get breakfast at the Brunch Box, and if I eat like that for breakfast for my entire stay, I'll weigh 400 lbs when I get back. It was delicious, though. Then we hit up Target for supplies: hangers, basic kitchen supplies, and some groceries. The perk to living in the PSU dorms is that we have kitchenette access, but we have to provide all of our own supplies. I think I bought enough to survive on for the summer, but I guess we'll see as time goes on.

We met another research intern, J, for lunch at Fat Head Brewery in the Pearl District. There may have been a few too many beers consumed for lunchtime, but we got some fantastic recommendations for local bars and restaurants from our waiter. I'm really excited to check them out! The beer was good, and the quinoa sliders were fabulous - sorry, no pictures! I was too busy eating. We wandered around downtown, hitting up the visitor's center to get some ideas for our stay, and back to Target for me to get a couple of forgotten items, then killing time until meeting up with our fourth intern A for dinner.


Dinner was at the Laughing Planet, which has dinosaurs on display! I had a delicious lemon sugar cookie, due to still being full from lunch, but A's burrito bowl looked good, too, so I think I'll definitely be heading back there to eat.

Dinosaurs at the Laughing Planet Cafe

M & I spent some of tonight hanging out with her suitemate (we share bathrooms and kitchenettes), who's from Brazil and seems very sweet. It'll be fun to get to know her through the summer!

Portland seems to be a very manageable walking city, at least so far. The Pearl District, which has most of the touristy stuff (Powell's, breweries, shopping), is about a mile from our dorm, and is a good walk when it's nice out. We haven't explored too much beyond that, but it was only my second day here, so I'm sure we'll explore further out soon.

-Anna

Day One

I have arrived! In Portland, obviously. My flights went well, thankfully. I hate having delays or issues, but today went smoothly.

I spent most of my Albany-Las Vegas flight chatting with the RPI engineering student sitting next to me. He was fun to talk to, adorable, and very ambitious, even if I can't remember his name now.

Las Vegas is definitely on my list of places to visit now. I mean, slot machines in the airport! I played $2 and lost, but it was still fun.

Portland awaits tomorrow! I'm so glad that I'm finally here.

More soon!
A

Intro

I've decided to start this blog to catalog my adventures while doing research this summer in Portland, Oregon. I need a place to document all the fun I plan to have! Plus this way I have a place to point people when they start asking about my summer. :) 

This is the deal:

I'll be doing research all day, every day, five days a week, for twelve weeks at the National Center for Rehabilitative and Auditory Research (aka NCRAR) in the incredible Pacific Northwest city of Portland.

My goal is to blog at least once a week, hopefully twice, depending on what I'm doing.

My partner-in-crime for most of the summer will be M (whose permission I need to get before plastering her picture and name all over the blog). 

Hopefully I won't talk too much about my research, because while I happen to think it's fascinating, I've definitely seen people's eyes glaze over when I get going. 

So this is what I'm bringing to Portland. Two completely stuffed suitcases, a backpack and a tote. I'll probably (definitely) be repacking/reorganizing/eliminating before I actually fly out on Sunday, but it definitely helps having somewhere to start.

Thanks for following along - hopefully you'll enjoy my adventures as much as I do!

-Anna