I'm planning on transferring to Reed College after one year at a local school, assuming things go well. I've never been to Oregon or much of the Northwest...what are the area/school like?

don't ruin my current happiness by all of this transfer talk.

oregon is awesome depending on what part of the state.

rparis is from oregon

avoid Corvalis

My sister lives in Portland. Lots of stuff going on (pubs, cycling), but the weather is rather dreary. Lots of rain.

dnorwood
contradiction
rparis74

Portland is a great city, and Reed is an excellent school.

Eugene, Oregon = Wicked

I passed through there the year I graduate high school (f*ck, just realized that was about 13 years ago!) and I just loved it.

I was actually just talking to my bf about how I could deal with maybe living there one day. Someone (maybe an Obner) once surprized me by telling me about how insanely high the unemployment rate in Oregon is... guess all those lush forests and hippy towns don't reel in the cash much.

<--- was originally going to add: "wouldn't matter much to me as I don't much like to work anyway".

<--- covert hippy

Buh-bye, Boo? Say it ain't so!

Are there any artsy-fartsy schools CP can go to in Oregon?

np: The Greenhornes - "Hold Me"

Yeah, rparis and I live in Portland. Reed is supposedly a great school. Emilio Pucci went there!

Just a tip about the weather: people go on and on about how much it rains here. I grew up south of Atlanta, and believe me, there are some dreary days during the winter months there too, so if you can handle cloudy, misty days in the wintertime, you'll be fine. It's really not that bad, and it doesn't get very cold here either. The summers more than make up for the winter, with temps hovering around 85 and no humidity. I'm not kidding. No massive amounts of mosquitoes here either. In Portland, you're about an hour from prime snowboarding/skiing, and about an hour and half from the coast-- great hiking in both areas.

Reed College is in a pretty nice neighborhood, called Eastmoreland (I live in Westmoreland/Sellwood), so it's pretty safe over there. You're within biking/walking distance of grocery stores, pubs, restaurants, etc. By bike, you're about half an hour from downtown, but there are plenty of buses to hop on in the area too. Portland, as you may have seen in some of my other posts, is VERY bike friendly. If you've got a bike, bring it with you.

portland is in my top 5 cities in the US. it has its problems (quite a few homeless and runaway street kids, meth issues, some traffic issues) but if you can handle cloudy drizzly weather from November through March, you will be ok. Today is crystal clear blue skies, 75 degrees, Mt Hood, Ranier, and Adams all look like they are a stone's throw away, the flowers are blooming everywhere. i think you will like it. make sure you live on the east side of the river if you come - as Sleater Kinney say, "if you wanna be a friend of mine, cross the river to the east side"

reed is a good school - a lot of reedies at my law school. a lot of the people from there that I know seem to be smart but kind of weird/eccentric.

i'm a wannabe portland-liver.

that is all.

maybe after Mrs. e-stone has her baby, she'll acquiesce to moving here! Unlikely, right? If anything, you guys will probably want to be closer to family.

i lived in portland for most of the 90s, and my experiences encountering someone going to reed was pretty much w/ rodney said. total cyphers. in all seriousness, i'd heard a story about someone cramming so hard for a final that he showed up to in in his socks and briefs. believe it, or not...

i have a "portland liver" - all the microbreweries have done a number on it

my wife had concerns about living here, but after living here for a year or so, she doesn't want to go back east.

man, i wish...but closer to family is more likely. she does really like the NW though. i have to somehow devise a plan to get her parents to move out there, then i'll be set.

we will hopefully be coming for a visit next month though, to check out our friends new house.

Everywhere there is a problem with DAT METH, or there soon will be.

Portland's just on the cutting-edge.



Correcto. The salutatorian, or someone of similar class-rank, from my brother's h.s. grad (West Allis Central '95 -- WHAT!?) went there, and as I recall, she was weird going in, potentially weirder even than Kristen Bachman (who is not to be confused with Kristin Kay Buchman; otherwise, nickisnotdead will kick yr ass), and that says something. If you happen to know Kristen Bachman. You wouldn't want to, though. Anyway, the Reeder, coming out, was even more bizarre. So, watch yourself....

This past weekend, at a conference in Washington, I found myself on a beach, drinking with at least two Reed professors and their undergrads. The evening was punctuated by drinking, more drinking, me deejaying, drinking on the beach, and being caught by the ranger drinking illegally on the beach. Strangely, at the same time as I was sweet-talking the ranger, the Reed faculty were fading away, using their skills of invisibility. Oh yeah, I spent a week in Eugene, too.

My verdict = awesome.

Oregonians, prepare yourself - I'm hoping to spend a month in Eugene this summer doing labwork, and I want to finally meet you guys.