GOODBYE, PDX

Ah, City of Roses, I will miss you! After a rather flurried week of farewells, my sister and I drove out of Portland on Saturday July 31 (is that already two weeks ago?!) I'd like to say we drove off into the sunset with the top down, but as we were headed east towards Minnesota (in a car with a roof), the romantic version of cutting town isn't quite the right picture. It is a bit ironic though, that Mpumalanga, the province to which I am ultimately headed to in South Africa, means "the place where the sun rises". So perhaps leaving Portland is not a matter of anything really ending, but rather of many new things beginning.

PDX is an amazing city and certainly will hold a special place in my heart this year that I am away. Rebecca and I managed to squeeze in one more trip to the Rose Garden before we left, and I sadly watched Mt. Hood recede through the rearview mirror as we headed east through the Columbia River Gorge. I will miss my bicycle and the organic food and the "It's Portland" attitude that pervades everything. I will miss the weather and the friends and the community I have called home for five years. I will miss you.

After many days on the road I have arrived in Minnesota and am spending some quality time with family and friends before departing for Chicago on August 18. I will spend a week there in orientation with fellow participants, then board a plane on August 25th for a life-changing adventure!

It has not been easy to say good-bye to the things and people that I love in Portland. Over the next few weeks I will say good-bye once again to friends and family in the Midwest.

Goodbye, PDX; Hello, Rainbow Nation!