umbrellas are for transients.

i spent most of today on the campus
of the university of portland for
my interview with teach for america.
the interview process is pretty long
and includes a sample teaching lesson,
group discussion, individual problem
solving and a 45 minute personal
interview. overall, i think it
went really well. now is the fun
part: waiting. luckily, i’ll find
out the results in about two weeks.

now while the interview was all fine
and dandy, being on an unknown campus
was extremely strange and awkward.
my only reference point of american
university life is that of lewis &
clark college. i guess i had never
really realized what a, shall we say,
unique place it is. and university of
portland could not be more different.

all the students i saw were wearing
jeans and sweatshirts and there i
was dressed for the corner office.
the cafeteria service is run by the
same company as we have here at
lewis & clark, but there was nary a
cube of tofu nor a grain of quinoa
to be found. burgers and fries rule
the land. ESPN was playing obnoxiously
loud on the tv and i noticed that all
the tables of students were segregated
by sex {one second you’re sitting at
a cafeteria table together, the next
second you’re breaking 3 cardinal sins
back in your dorm bed}. i was
eavesdropping on the conversation
between two girls at the next table,
who by the way couldn’t have been any
older than me. the conversation went
something like this:
(girl 1): hi, oh my gosh i haven’t seen
you in like forever.
(girl 2 with MASSIVE ring on her finger): oh
i know, ever since i got married i haven’t
seen like, anyone.
(me): jaw hitting floor.
if you’ve been following my blog at all,
you will know how i felt about that little
tidbit.

so after a not so great lunch,
i headed to the library to get
some work done while i waited
for my personal interview. it
is pretty outdated and no macs
to be found, all pc {full
disclosure: i work on both but
MUCH prefer macs}. there also
weren’t any outlets that i could
find near a table, so it was book
only, no internet.

i will say that all the staff i
interacted with were extremely
polite and helpful. students
actually make eye contact and
smile and even say thank you
when you hold the door open.
this was a nice change, but
overall it was just strange
and slightly shocking.

i never ever ever thought
i would say this, but it kind
of made me miss lc.