<p>I'm flying out to Portland next week, and I'm beyond excited. I've signed up for a tour, info session, class visit, and overnight stay. Anyone want to share their experiences with me? I know I'll be alone for part of the night... suggestions for what I should do?</p>
<p>My S and I visited last Spring… he was only a soph… so he will be signing up and doing what you are doing next Fall hopefully. He fell madly in love with Reed last year and it is definitely what has been motivating him to do well in school this year. If you are going to be in Portland definitely go to Powell’s bookstote… it is beyond words amazing… especially if you are a book lover like my S. Also, we went to Voodoo donuts… kind of a legendary place in Portland. My S LOVED Portland… and it was pouring rain the whole time we were there.</p>
<p>If you don’t mind… come back and let us know how your visit and overnight went… we would love to hear it.</p>
<p>Portland = awesome
Reed = beautiful, relaxed
reedies = wonderful</p>
<p>Pacific Northwest = rain :)</p>
<p>5boys, I think you’d be hardpressed to find any prospie who wouldn’t love Powells… I can’t wait to get lost in there. I also can’t wait to eat little man-shaped doughnuts. And of course, I’d be more than happy to post my experiences when I get back. :)</p>
<p>Even though I’ve never been there, I get the feeling that Portland, despite its frequent precipitation, is a really friendly city. I think I’ll mesh well.</p>
<p>Any particularly beautiful/really awesome parts of campus you might not see on a tour? I’m already psyched for the reactor.</p>
<p>Also check out the Columbia gorge, the Rhodedendron Garden and the Rose Garden.</p>
<p>[Home</a> Page - Lan Su Chinese Garden](<a href=“Delta 9 Hemp Flower and Gold IRA Accounts - Portlandchinesegarden”>http://www.portlandchinesegarden.org/)</p>
<p>Here’s a link to the Chinese Garden, which is beautiful beyond description. It is not far from Powell’s, an easy, downhill walk.</p>
<p>I stayed over just last September, and it was an amazing experience. My dorm host actually didn’t leave me alone that much; I just hung out with him and his friends the whole time. Wasn’t a bad thing at all: we had dinner together, played some video games, smoked some hookah for awhile with his friends, went to a party, and just generally chilled. I ended the night with new Reedies though: Guitar Hero at 2 AM XD.</p>
<p>As for what YOU should do…You’ll be provided with a list of admissions-approved activities, and then your dorm host might let you in on a few other things going on. Theoretically I should have also met up with another prospie who was staying over the same night, but that never happened.</p>
<p>Voodoo and Powell’s are the big places to hit. Also check to see if there are going to be any good shows while you are here. When are you visiting? Godspeed You! Black Emperor is playing on Friday, and Best Coast and Wavves are playing on Saturday. The Oregon Zoo in Washington Park is pretty cool. You can also walk along Milwaukee, there are plenty of restaurants and shops there.</p>
<p>Food carts!!! Food carts!!! Food carts!!!</p>
<p>Hey all, I just got back from Portland so I thought I’d tell you what I thought of it…</p>
<p>First off, I was there for five days (not including flying, which took ALL DAY, since I live on the east coast, but it was worth it), only one of which was spent at Reed. The other days were so nice that I didn’t really want to go inside for too long, so we went to Lan Su (thanks for the recommendation, it was SO beautiful), the Japanese garden and the arboretum (which are adjacent), and this park with hiking trails on a hill in northwest portland that overlooks everything. We also went hiking up the Oregon coast, made it up to Washington, and came back along the Columbia. I was really impressed with how well the city is integrated with nature… definitely a big selling point for me. Also the food was universally incredible, always with delicious vegetarian options. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see any live music (I was with my grandfather), but when I ventured out by myself in the Pearl district, I found these two really awesome record stores with stuff I wouldn’t dream of finding where I live (Sparklehorse… awesome). Of course, I went to Powells and spent forever (I wish) in there. I went crazy in the Classics and Poetry sections, and I’m pretty sure I drooled a little bit in the rare books room–not only do they have signed first editions of Howl and Naked Lunch, they have 15th century folios (De Bello Judaica De Antiquitate Judaeorum Contra Apionem). Finally, I’m an… <em>ahem</em>… enthusiastic fan of Elliott Smith, so I visited and got pictures of the Lovejoy columns, the Crystal Ballroom, Satyricon, Division St., Alameda St., Condor Ave. (which was not easy), and 6th and Powell.</p>
<p>But now for what you’re really interested in…</p>
<p>We first went for the info session, which didn’t inform me too much considering the amount of research I’ve put in, but it was nice since Crockett Marr did it, and he’s really passionate about the school. I “knew” him already because I’d interviewed with him last summer. Our tour guide was also nice, the facilities looked great, and everyone was generally happy. Then, I went to lunch with some students and the other prospies (again, there were two vegetarian options and the food was very locally focused, not to mention tasty). The students seemed to really love the school and were happy to answer any and all questions we brought up. The inevitable drug question was asked, and I was happy that the opinions I already had were reinforced. Basically, it’s more open, but things are getting stricter; you can choose not to do drugs and won’t feel pressured; you can’t consistently do drugs and keep up with your work; the school takes care of you. They talked a lot about the safety officers and how they’ll go out of their way to help you. After that, it was time for class visits. First, I went to a Hum conference, and it. was. AMAZING. First off, everyone in the class made me feel really welcome, asking about where I was from and what I wanted from college, and raving about Reed. The class was on Aristotle’s Politics, and they discussed natural leaders and slaves, spent some time defining what in fact “natural” meant in the context of the Romans, whether or not a city-state was natural, was the city-state a whole being, and is the whole superior to the parts, that is, the citizens. Anyway, it was really great because the questions were posed by the students, and the class was run virtually unaided by the professor (he did interject a few times, guiding the class and making really good points). I was also really surprised that they called him by his first name, which constitutes the type of professor-student relationship that I’m looking for in a college. I was also supposed to visit a Cambrian zoology class, but when I went there no one was there :O. Anyway, admissions not only gave me another class to go to, but also gave me a coupon thing for a free drink at the Paradox. I went to the math class happily. Though that class was a little bit more like the math classes I’m used to, it was different in that is was more philosophical math (proofs and things like that) than practical math (solving problems, etc.). What I then got, I think, is a pretty good representation of Reed on a Tuesday night. I met my host (she was really nice), we got dinner and talked, she showed me around (including showing me the band practice room below the dining hall, an egregious omission from the campus tour, IMHO), and then we played a game of pool. After that, she had to go devour some Proust and I was on my own. I wandered around the library, trying to find the most obscure book I could–I did find one on translating Latin scribe’s documents in the calligraphy section, and it was pretty interesting. Did you know that very few words in those documents are written out in their entirety? Makes it pretty hard for a translator… but I digress. I walked around a bit more, but the campus was pretty much dead so I decided by 9:00 to go back to the dorm. My host had a few Reed publications, so I read those, was impressed, and went to bed.</p>
<p>Whew… there you have it, my Portland journey. All in all, I really, really liked it out there. Everyone was friendly and there was no sales tax! As for Reed, I feel like it just might be the place for me. While I was there, my brain wasn’t screaming out, “HERE! HERE! THIS IS HOME!” Then again, it hasn’t been like that anywhere I’ve visited. Fickle brain… but something was there. It was like, “Oh, okay. This is where they’ve been hiding my people.”</p>
<p>All in all, good visit.</p>
<p>That unit was so annoying, lol. Glad you enjoyed your visit, though, and I hope you will be joining us next year. What dorm did you stay in?</p>
<p>I stayed in Sitka. The painter’s tape murals in the common room were awesome! I do know though, the room I stayed in is probably nicer than any room I could get next year.</p>
<p>It’s possible to get a room in The Grove your freshman year. I am a freshman living in Bidwell, and I know that a large amount of the people currently living in Sitka are freshmen.</p>
<p>The tape dinosaurs, city, baby, and face are indeed awesome.</p>
<p>Awesome! I guess I was just being kind of a pessimist. I mean, Sitka was so nice, so clean, and so spacious, I never thought that a freshman dorm would look like that!</p>
<p>Is it hard to get a room cross-canyon? How do they assign housing? I know, kind of premature, but… I’m curious.</p>
<p>Students of all years live in each dorm. While my roommate and I are freshmen in Bidwell, the guy in the room next to ours is a senior, and there are juniors on our floor as well.</p>
<p>Room assignments are done via housing lottery. Unless you request substance-free (which is second floor of Sullivan), you are not more likely to get a room in one dorm than in another.</p>
<p>A little tip: room assignments are revealed to returning students about a month before freshmen find out. I’m sure there is a current Reedie on the Class of 2015 Facebook group who will be willing to let you know your room assignment when the unofficial list is released. Last year the unofficial listings were released on June 30, just as a heads up.</p>
<p>^That’s so close, compared to orientation week! 
I’m excited now.</p>