Pondering Portland, Longing For Buenos Aires

I'm spending the summer in Portland, Oregon along with Tom and our daughters. We decided to converge here--the girls have been working and taking classes at Portland State, I've been finishing my book, Tom has been working on a new project--in order to have plenty of opportunities to spend time together despite varied schedules. It's been great!

I've come to appreciate things about both Argentina and Portland (and the US at large) during the last couple of months. That's always a good thing.

I haven't been back in Portland for two years, so there have been a lot of changes. I think the biggest one for me has been so much more talk about the economy, global warming, and the world in general. To be honest, it's a bit of a downer, but then, we've needed a reckoning and it's about time we all started seeing things a bit more clearly. That being said, I don't think this is the time to feel gloomy--instead, we need to kick things up a notch in terms of our own personal awareness as well as our communal efforts to get creative in order to move forward in positive ways.

I wrote most of my manuscript while living in Buenos Aires, and I didn't realize what a blessing that was until I came back to the US. Just walking into Powell's (Portland's famous block-sized bookstore) about gave me a heart attack. So many books! About so many things! How will anyone even FIND mine, let alone read or buy it? It's been great being in BA, where the only English bookstores are tiny and quaint. I have been free to ignore things like competition and critics. Unfortunately, new-author fear is cranked up a notch for me here in terms of being aware of the bazillion books on the market.

I feel a sense of greater urgency because the headlines seem to be shouting (only to me?) about the student loan crisis, families worried about sending their kids to college, twentysomethings weighed down by huge student debt, the crucial need for foreign language and experience abroad, etc. It's going to be hell sitting on my hands for the next few months while I wait for my book to be published--it's due out in spring by Random House, which doesn't like to put out new books during election time, resulting in a sort of backlog that slows down the process for all authors.

I guess a bad economy is good for my book, which tells students and parents how to get an outrageously relevant global education that doesn't cost a fortune. Still, I wish the book would magically appear in bookstores this fall--I worry that I'm failing a whole year's worth of students who feel they have no choice but to follow the well-trampled path to college via high-stakes testing, big student loans, and a sense of no control over the whole situation. I want to shake them by the shoulders and say, "Wait! You don't have to do it this way! There are some really amazing options that are cheaper, faster, better, more fun and far more advantageous!" But I can't.

I've had a few conversations with parents and students and have been stunned by the fact that they really have NO IDEA WHATSOEVER about the options I'm talking about in the book. Honestly, I was thinking they'd have picked up some info along the way. Nope. And it's because of the panic: when we're afraid, we do what everyone else is doing without looking at the options. So, I do feel like the info will be extremely helpful and save families THOUSANDS of dollars--if they take the time to read it, that is!

While I AM enjoying Portland and environs, the truth is that I really, really miss Buenos Aires. I miss our friends, our neighbors, the pace of life there, the friendliness, the late dinners, the long hours in cafes. I miss the lengthy and passionate discussions--people don't seem to have as much time for those here, even in Portland, land of sustainability, bicycling and people who Get It.

I miss my expat friends who know what it's like to choose to create a different life for themselves. Every day, I meet someone here who, upon hearing that I live in BA, will launch into a wistful reverie about how they used to dream of doing something like that but then gave up. Those can be interesting conversations, but I far prefer the ones about actually DOING it! Tom and I get emails from our expat friends about gatherings, parties, fun dinners and all manner of events that make us long for our BA life. Can't wait to return September 9th!

Though our family has been car-free for three years now, it's just not that easy here, even when you're staying downtown like we are. We've had to rent zip cars here for a couple of hours about twice a week. They're actually pretty great: $9 an hour includes gas and insurance! And there's one parked right outside our building, so it couldn't be more convenient. Though the public transportation is outstanding here (compared to many US cities), it's hard to get a group to various suburban outposts to visit family and friends---yes, we could take the MAX and then the bus and then walk a ways, but for four or five people, it's easy to justify renting a zipcar for a couple of hours.

I even took a Greyhound bus to Newport to visit my mom--something I have not done since college. Most of the passengers were Latino, so at least I felt at home listening to the Spanish! (The next day, I read in the news about a crazy Greyhound passenger in Canada who went berserk and cut off his seatmate's head with a butcher knife. Most of my fellow passengers were napping or listening to their iPods, fortunately.)

This month, the girls are all heading to the East Coast. Teal leaves on Saturday for Nova Scotia, where she will finish her final term of college, graduating in December. Tara, who has been studying at Portland State the last year or so, will be heading to NYC for an internship during her last semester of college--she also graduates in December. Talya leaves in a few days for New York, where she will be transferring as a junior to a college upstate. Taeko is already in NYC--she came out to Portland for a couple of weeks to visit, but is now immersed once again in her clinic work and master's program. Tara will be living with Taeko, which they are both so thrilled about. Tom and I will be empty nesters in BA, but we've got lots of things going on so we're not viewing it with sadness. We're in touch with most of the girls every day and love getting their exciting updates.

That's it for now. Love to everyone in BA!