A Black Hairy Girl Fulfilling the Diversity Quota in Oregon for a Few Days part 4

Today I started of the morning making my cup of coffee, buttered bread, and watching 3 episodes of "Love" on Netflix (I would have watched more, but I needed to get my black hairy ass out of the house, also great guilty pleasure show!!!). Anyhow, so I walked from my house to the MAX light rail station to downtown to go and check out Powell's City Book Store. The building was amazing, three long levels of every kind of book that you can imagine. You could ask if they had a book about Tuesdays gorcery shopping list and they would probably have it. They, have an entire floor deicated to religion, feminism, Race, and sci fi, it was a book lovers paradise! I would have honestly spent so much more time there, but I needed to save my money. So I bought The Color of the Law and Bad Feminist, which I am really excited to start reading these books when I get the chance. After I bought the books, I started to explore downtown to get a bite to eat. While walking in downtown, through the old brick buldings with bright green moss on the side to the left of me and modern glass skyscrapers to the right, you can see the mass amount of folks without homes scattered around the city. I understand that homelessness is everywhere, but with Portland, it reminded me of New York, where it was not just concentrated in one area, but blaintly spread out across the city. I have seen homelessness a lot throughout my life, but for some reason it hit me hard this past afternoon. I understand as someone who has had a roof over their head her entire life, it is a privilege for me to be upset; for some (if not all), it is their life. I started contemplating if I wanted to go into the field of Urban Planning because I was worried that I would be to much of an empath for this field; I am the type of person that would always feels for everyone, even if they do not like me. However, I realised that compassion is needed in order to fight the injustices of gentrification and the displacement of people. Lastly, I ended the night going to the Alberta Arts District to walk around and ultimatley found Caravan, one of the two Tiny House Hotels in Portland!! It was a s if I stepped into the enchanted forest. All the tiny houses looked like they were parts of a train, detached and turned into little homes!!! The gate was locked ( I tried to climb the fence to enter into wonderland, but I lack the agility!) I took photos of them though! Overall, today was a day of exploration and reflection; reflection of my privilege and what needs to be done. Tomorrow (my last day in PDX), I will visit Portland State and talk to one of the professors in the Urban Planning department and discuss some program stuff, in hopes to help fullfil the diversity quota in the program and in Oregon. Untill next time!!!









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