Portland experience #1

After a 10 hours flight from Amsterdam, we arrived to the rainy north Pacific area. My first impression of the city of Portland

Portland with its Mt. Hood.

was that it looks like any other urban area in the USA. But looking a bit closer and starting the first observations I have noticed that the people are different. The Portlanders seem to be calmer and you can actually tell that they are more environmentally friendly. A lot of people that visit Portland say that it resembles more an European city than any other in America (maybe together with San Francisco). For instance, Portland has the highest share of people using bicycles in the USA. It amounts up to 6%, while other cities do not get through the 1% level.

We were very well hosted not only by the organizers, but also by the people living in Portland. As it is quite a distant place they don’t get much visitors from Europe. Everybody was very interested in talking to us, asking question and just changing experiences. We were mostly talking about sustainability issues, because this was the focus of our study trip, so it was very interesting to hear the North American approach. I will describe this issue in my next post. For now, I would like to focus on other thoughts I had during that trip.

Even though American society derives mostly from the Europeans, one can notice very easily that it is a completely different society culture and behavior wise. The core is the same but the small details are making the difference. As we were visiting all those companies and organizations to hear their approach towards sustainability and environment friendly solutions, I got inspired. Maybe it is not some great discovery or any new innovation. I felt as a global citizen more then ever, because I realized that there are people all over the world wanting to make a change. I felt that it is our planet and we all have room for improvement, no matter where we come from, no matter where we work. During our free weekend some of us (including me) went to the Olympic National Park, which was definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. All the four of us agreed that we are “in the middle of nowhere”.  While we were admiring the amazing landscapes being almost alone, it occurred to me that it is a key mission of any person to do whatever they can to make sure that future generation will also be able to admire those landscapes.

The Fantastic Four

Some other thought that I want to share, is how people feel and behave being out there, in the nature. We are used to living in the cities, which makes us totally disconnected from the rest of the world that surrounds us. In my opinion people become more human being “out there” than being closed in a concrete jungle, where they fight between each other for no particular reason. What we also saw is that people are so much nicer in the nature. They smile to each other, want to help, respect their environment and so on and so on. I believe that some changes should be made in order to change people’s behavior and the way they spend their free time. I realized that being “out there” in the nature and doing nothing, just living is more educational than doing tones of stuff in the city.

2 comentarios / 13 Mar 2012 por Piotr Adam Lubiewa-Wielezynski
IMSD /

Comentarios cerrados.