Good memory of portland, finally: my taxi driver to the airport was really fun. We instantly bonded together. He is a jazz musician and drag queen at a club in portland. He explained to me a lot about emotional changes he’s been thru since he started to become ‘queer’ and take estrogen. Also the social confusion to take him as gay automatically. I dont know if it was the airport taxi intimacy but I wish i could have stayed another day to go see his show and listen to more of his stories.

Randy Pausch’s tip for resetting his mind back to child-like state: smell crayon.

What struck me coming here is the number of street people. The gentleman in the picture is carrying his sleeping bag, sitting on the bench looking very lost. Yesterday i saw a guy looking serious wearing a picket that read ‘i want to lose my virginity. Could you help me?’. Probably, the most strange thing is that i see more of the street people than any others. And the contrast between the well constructed, clean street scape and them. * While feeling sick after the overdose of sugar from the chocolate, keeping my post at the corner of the shop watching the shop and the street. Being a good tourist.

Jetlagged and awake since 3am local time, came down for snack (wouldnt call it breakfast) at a starbucks next door. My knees are usually very weak for anything new. So i had to try this chocolate drink even though i was a bit reluctant about its over-sweetness. Yes, it’s indeed super sweet and very thick. Imagine eating a 500g cho. bar- without the effort of breaking into pieces and melting them in the mouth. (so i couldnt finish)

Feeling starving at 6am, went to hotel breakfast. My first question: do you have any different style of egg? (the prepared scrambled egg was in fact a soup of butter with egg). Second question: do you have any bread that is not sweetened?
The first question i was asked: do you want ketchup or tabasco sauce?

A good start of the day.