So it's another one of those posts where I start out saying "It's been way too long" but whatever.
It's been way too long since I last posted but these last two weeks have left me with a lot on my mind and much that I want to talk about.
So I visited Eugene, Oregon last summer and told myself that I wanted and needed to live there for a variety of reasons: It's bike friendly, is a relatively big city with a small town feel leaving you not so overwhelmed, nice school, affordable apartments in amazing locations, and is very close to a large number of great places to visit including the Pacific coast, mountains, forests, Portland etc.
Now I've lived here for a total of 13 days and my impressions are as follows:
Jobs. I thought I'd talk about this first since it's pissing me off the most. While actively looking I've been into a countless number of stores asking if they were hiring. Most of them have told me no and were either unhelpful and very adamant about their not hiring situation. Some places though weren't so grim and encouraged me to apply anyway saying "Well we aren't hiring yet but might be very shortly," or something like that. There are about fifteen places (I think, I might be forgetting some) I've applied to and have I think five or six more that I am going to apply to very shortly. Next Monday I'll go out and follow up on all the places again and look for even more places to ask about jobs. I've yet to receive any call back from any employer but am optimistic (at least almost most of the time) that with my efforts I'll find something.
School. The school is everything I've thought it'd be so far but my interaction with it has only been with a small number of people. A professor signed a form that allows me (and he did it just for me personally) to sign up for his class even though it had already been filled to maximum capacity. Not much else to say about school since classes don't start for another two weeks.
Sights. The town is beautiful, at least for the most part, and it only takes driving ten minutes to reach large pine forests on the skirts of town high up on large hills or small mountains. Many of the buildings are new and really nice looking and even the shabby looking places are full of character. Which leads me too...
City. You can walk, bike or take buses pretty much anywhere here. Also, the city is full of amazing shops of all types and I keep on finding more and more amazing places. I'll be writing separate paragraphs for the shops here that have left a large impact on me.
Emerald City Comics. One of the first places visited was Emerald City Comics (obviously). When looking for it the first time I was a bit confused. I followed the directions exactly to the building but found a glasses shop instead. I then saw a tall narrow yellow sign (with spiderman painted on it if I remember correctly) nailed outside of the glasses shop. The sign informed people on the street that Emerald City Comics could be found on the second floor of the building, which could be accessed through a set of unmarked double doors. So immediately upon going into the doors you are greeted by stairs and once up the stairs things got even cooler. On the left is the comic shop and on the right is a new and used book store (which are absolutely everywhere in Oregon). The comic shop isn't that big but is armed to the teeth, so to say, with nerd merchandise. Board games, comics, manga, RPG/Gaming books, CCG's, Some tabletop gaming, and a very very large selection of anime (which can be rented $2 for 2days). The guy who is always there running the place is not the owner but just the manager of that location. He was crazy helpful with helping me set up my subscriptions over the phone while I was still in Texas, and was just as helpful and nice when I got into the store. He confused me a little too with how nice he was to me compared to how he talked to other customers. Then I realized that he gets a little cross when people ask him stupid or repetative questions. That made me laugh a little. Anyway though, I've been there four or five times now and today had a semi-long conversation with him about anime. He's into some pretty bad ass stuff (and some...not so bad ass stuff) and even had imports of Ghibli movies that hadn't come out in the U.S. His knowledge was so vast that I believe (though I'm not positive, I'm only making an assumption based off of context clues) it is because of this man that the store even offers anime for sale and rental (the other location does not offer this). The conversation left me feeling a little happier since I had just made somewhat of a friend, or at least acquaintance. Now to back track a little...
Smith Family Bookstore. This is a somewhat small bookstore, or at least appears that was when entering the building. across from the comic shop. I went into just to see what kind of selection a book store would have while only a few blocks away from a massive university. When I went in to the small-ish shop I realized that there was a narrow hallway or corridor that lead to a back part of the shop which is not visible when just glancing in. That back part of the shop is absolutely massive and has so many books that they had to start stacking the extra copies on top of and in front of the shelves. The size of the bookstore at that point was, in my opinion, large enough to please most anybody. Then I realized that the building is actually three stories tall and the book store also occupies that third floor. Ridiculous. Three out of the four textbooks I needed for my Japanese history course were here used, in abundance, and in excellent condition (at least the ones I picked out were).
Eugene Public Library. This place is four floors all of which is filled with books. They have over 40,000 DVD's and even offer music CD's for checkout. The rules on getting a library card is more strict than I'm used to and it needs to be renewed yearly. A bus station literally runs through the libraries sidewalk and people can always be seen here crowding together and talking while waiting for their bus.
Big City Gaming. A place where you can go to buy new games, sell old games (even NES and SNES stuff) and pay to play games on their very large wide screen TV's. Perfect for holding gaming tournaments. They even have a console repair shop. The weirdest part about the place is that even though you have the typical annoying "I'm gonna pwn (pronounced Pown) me up some n00bs" nerds hanging around, the people who work there are very nice, friendly and everything but the typical douche bag video game shopkeep. I'll be going back to sell my extra copy of Secret of Mana for good amount of $.
Trader Joe's, Fred Meyer, Market of Choice and many others. Way too many "green" or "health" food stores but it makes for some interesting browsing. Trader Joe's is a store that has many more locations in Portland but has one in Eugene. it's relatively small but has a nice eclectic selection. Market of choice is like a larger Trader Joe's. Fred Meyer is owned by Kroger and is like shopping at a massive Wal-Mart if said Wal-Mart was clean and didn't leave you feeling downcast and guilty afterward.
J-Tea. Josh Chamberlain runs this shop independently. He is probably the nicest (though there is a bit of competition with that) person I've met while here and left me with a crazy experience. The shop is, surprisingly, the only place I've been able to find in town that sells loose leaf tea (or at least a good selection), but this man sells the hell out of it (and not in a car salesman kind of way). I walked into the shop, which looks like a house (I guess because it is a house) and looked around for a moment before a man who looked to be in his late twenties or older thirties came running into the shop from outside with a laptop in his arms. He said hello, but with a little effort because he was out of breath, walked behind the counter and bagan pouring Gina and myself tea into little cups. Conversation quickly started up and started off just being about tea but after not too long strayed into many different topics. Every time he would pour us a cup he would tell us about the tea. To give him a little background, the man went to UO and graduated but didn't know what to do with himself. He worked many random jobs in town trying to find something pleasing to get by and ended up working for a Taiwanese airline in Portland or Seattle, I don't remember which. He enjoyed this more because he had taken a year of Chinese language courses in school and had wanted to use this skill for awhile. He finally decided to go to Taiwan one day and ended up living there for five years. He worked teaching people English but it took such a little amount of money to live there he only needed to work a few hours everyday to get by. He learned a ridiculous amount about tea (and apparently the Taiwanese are very serious about their tea. They hold annual competitions and give the first and second tier winners their own line of teas sold under the competitions name.) and began working extra to start up his own tea shop. He traveled all around Taiwan building relationships with the tea farmers and learning all he could about their techniques and methods. When he got back to the U.S. he went to his home town in Eugene and started up his tea shop. All of his tea is imported from Taiwan and the price and qualities range drastically on what he sells, starting at about $5 an ounce (which make about 15-20 cups of tea) all the way to $50 dollars for the same amount. Josh visits Taiwan yearly now told continue his dealings with the farmers. I ended up spending an hour or more sitting in the shop talking to him, with him continually pouring us cups of tea (some of which was the more expensive kinds) while he told us about all the best places to go in town where you can spend the entire day keeping busy and having fun without ever having to spend a penny. He told us the best ways to meet people, the best bike shops to go to, about how the Chinese food here is lousy but there are many good noodle houses, and much more. I will definitely be going back not just to buy more tea, but also just to talk with this very unique individual. I could go on for so much longer on this (oh yeah, like about how he wholesales to many other large tea shops since he goes out of his way to import ridiculously fine quality stuff) but will instead just link you to his online store where hopefully one of you will be able to enjoy this tea, which tastes way better than any other tea I've ever had while just shopping at H.E.B. or Kroger or anywhere for that matter. www.jteainternational.com
Enough with the shops.
This is an amazing city that is unfolding in front of me. I've never had an experience like this and want to discover more. I don't know if saying I've developed a wanderlust is going to far but this certainly is one of the greatest things I've ever done.
Now if only I could get a job.
