Portland, here I come!

Oh, and Chicago too. O and I bought the plane tickets for our trip to the US this summer. We are going for a couple of weeks at the end of June/beginning of July. We're going to Chicago first for about 5 days. Neither of us have been there, but we hear it's a great city. Plus I know a few people here who have lived in Chicago, so I'm sure I can get some good tips from them on what to see and do.

Then we go to Portland for about 9 days, including for the 4th of July. On O's first trip to Portland (and the US), he actually arrived on the 4th of July, and rather late too, just before the fireworks would have started. But he was too overwhelmed and jet-lagged to notice much about it. I do remember though some bottle rockets going up near I-205 as we drove from the airport to my parents' house.

O keeps teasing me about having to go back to Portland again, he's been so many times, moanmoan, but there is soooo much I want to do there when we go back. I feel like 9 days won't be enough. I want to eat at tons of diners and restaurants, and see parts of the city I haven't seen in so long or have never gotten around to seeing at all (like Mt Tabor). By the time we're there in July, it'll be over 2 years since we last visited Portland, and during the last visit a lot of our time was spent showing O's mom and brother around. So I miss a lot. I already have a list a mile long of things to do, places to go, food to eat, things to buy and stuff of mine to bring back. Poor O. Maybe if we move elsewhere someday, he'll understand what it's like when you're somewhere that doesn't have oliebollen at New Year's and you can't just bike everywhere and how you can miss that stuff like crazy. Though I have developed in him unnatural cravings for Taco Bell. Hey, if there's one thing to miss about the US...

On a sort of related note, yesterday I came across the blog of a Dutch guy who is dreaming of the day when he and his girlfriend can move to the US. Dude... What the hell? I do not understand these Dutch people (and I know there is quite a few of them out there) who have a warped idea of the US as a perfect country where they can follow the American Dream. Do they not read the news? Have they not heard about all the Americans wanting to move to Canada? Do they not see what it would be like to really live there? In this blog, the guy talks about how the Netherlands is going downhill, things are changing for the worse, there was a poll of Dutch people asking their level of optimism for Dutch society and it rated only 38 out of 100, blahblahblah... So, obviously, the US must be where it's at. Gah. I had to respond to the guy, so I left the following comment on his site:

But why go to the US of all places?!? I'm American, and I am so thankful I don't have to live there, esp in the current political climate. I'm not happy with the NL either, but the US is a definite step down. Are you prepared to have no job security? To have only a couple of weeks holiday (and be so much further away from any other countries to visit)? To deal with things being so censored to PROTECT THE CHILDREN, but still allowing tons of violence to be shown? To have such strong homophobic measures in the govt? To have to drive a car (unless you are lucky enough to live somewhere where you can bike to work, but it may be very dangerous)? I know the NL aren't the answer, but you're European, you can go anywhere within Europe, and you'd rather go to the US? I don't get it...

Not that anything could change his mind, but I thought I'd point out some of the reasons I wouldn't want to go back. Maybe he just has different priorities than I do (and considering he admires the amount of religion in America, I think that might be the case).