This weekend wrapped up week number 1 in Portland. I can already tell that 12 weeks won't be anywhere near enough to get through all the great things this popular little town has to offer.
Sadly I was robbed of two days of enjoyment due to needing to make an overnight trip to California on Thursday. The key learning for Week 1: for all the things fast about this country, getting around is not one of them. I spent 24 hours either in a plane, in an airport lounge, in a taxi, in traffic or in a hotel room in order to attend a 90 minute meeting. Definitely nothing like getting around NZ for same day meetings.
We made the most of the weekend though starting off with the Portland Farmers Market which is alive with the abundance of early Spring.
We hit a cooking class on Sunday with the theme: Springtime in Paris. We made goat cheese & beet salad, potato gratin and duck breast for our dinner and a lavender & lemon souffle for desert, pictured below well laden with cream!
I've enrolled myself in two knitting classes, we've found a terrifyingly large number of excellent restaurants to patronise and of course, I am here to do work... easy to forget!
At least the work will now be well caffeinated having found a cafe close by serving the perfect Southern Hemispherian style flat white. I learned recently it's never a good idea to openly criticise the coffee preferences of a country in which you are a guest, but those who have spent any time here in the US will appreciate why this is a wonderful sight.
