Where You Come From

Someone once told me that you learn to respect and love the place you come from once you leave it. And well, I never actually believed that until now. I never thought I would really MISS Portland. To me it was just some place stuck in the middle of rain, and it wasn't until I left this place when I realized that it didn't dampen the city...it fueled it. Once I left Portland, Oregon, I really learned to love where I come from.

When I came to Finland, I had a really big culture shock. But I believe most of the intense shock came to me because of the culture of the city I come from; and I never thought about it that way before.

Other American Exchange Students would ask me, "Are you a hipster, or just from Portland?" And I was completely surprised, because I NEVER in a million years thought I would be mistaken as a hipster, and I certainly didn't believe I looked or acted like one at all!

I never realized how truly unique my city was until my Finnish friends would ask me, "Is that true?!" "Is this a REAL picture?!" And other American Exchange Students would make fun of me for the music I listened to and that I shopped at second hand stores!

 

It made me learn how to REALLY love and appreciate my city.

 

 

 

 

I was so used to thrift shopping and shopping at second hand stores. Not because I couldn't afford going to other stores, but because that was the "norm" where I lived. Everyone dressed differently, and wanted to wear things that other people didn't have. It was always what my friends and I would do together. It was fun to go thrift shopping and buying funky and unique clothes from second hand stores. It was just what everyone did, and we liked it that way.

 

When I came to Finland, I was absolutely embarrassed on my first day of school because I stood out SO much! NO ONE was wearing ANYTHING like I was, and I felt all over the place! (You cant even buy the style of pants I had in ANY of the stores!) I got so many odd looks and stares, and after my first week of school- I went to buy all new pants! (I don't wear any of the pants, and some T-Shirts I brought from home anymore, because I got too many odd looks and double takes!)

 

 

I was so used to people doing their own things all the time. It was totally normal to see people drumming away on the streets and preforming- just out of the blue for the JOY of it. (The money aspect was totally optional.). It just made people happy. I even had friends from school that would go to the city during the Saturday market just to play their instruments and find joy in the people stopping to listen.

 

It was totally normal to see kids running down the street in crazy costumes, and you wouldn't even look twice because you knew it was just something to expect. There never really was a normal day in Portland; and people seemed to like it that way. Everyone just went with the flow of things, and it was expected. You could just be yourself, and you could express yourself through anything you like. (Street art, preforming music...the ideas are endless.)

 

 

 

 

 

The Saturday Market was always THE place to be, if you didn't have any plans. Cheap but authentic Food Carts, Handmade goods, Artists, Street Performers and Musicians on the street...there was always something to see, and it wasn't materialistic or fast paced. It was just for the pure opportunity to show your artwork or the things you created from your own business or hobby and share it with others.

 

There were food carts from all sorts of other countries, and it was always my favorite to look around each cart. You could find musicians on every street, and often they were just locals who wanted to share the music they wrote with those who walked by.

 

Voodoo doughnuts always had a line out the door, and you could spot the pink bricks from a couple blocks away. Book stores you can get lost in for hours, and hours; and one of them even takes up an entire city block! There are 9 color coded rooms that suit every single interest when it comes to the Powel´s Book Store, and every time I go- we all spend almost the entire day just getting lost in everything it has to offer.

 

 

 

 

 

In Portland people just sort of ride the waves in their own way, and it is perfectly acceptable. People are all unique and do their own things, and its seen as totally and completely normal; and I never noticed it before until I left the Portland Area and saw things in a completely different way.

 

And when I first arrived to Finland, it actually scared me! No one particularly stood out from the rest, and people kind of followed one another and they liked it that way. It wasn't everyone doing their own thing with their own style anymore, and instead it was more like swimming with the school of fish, together. It was very different for me and I couldn't put my finger on WHY it was such a shock and so different and foreign to me, until I realized I had suffered such a big shock because of my own city´s culture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the first few months of my Exchange, I was actually afraid to branch off and follow my own stream in the water, away from the other "school of fish". I had never felt so awkward about doing my own thing and being myself, and I had started acting like the other kids and following exactly what they were doing, all the time, because I wasn't really sure what to do. I never felt so weird about doing things the way I used to do them, because of the double takes I would receive from doing them my own quirky way, and branching out too far from the rest! Apart from simply being different because you are the foreign exchange student, because you naturally stand out anyways. :)

 

 I realized that part of an Exchange isn't totally and wholeheartly adopting a new way to do everything. Its taking things, and giving things back. Although I need to respect and adopt all sorts of different aspects from the Finnish culture, I ALSO need to show my OWN culture. And how was I supposed to do that if I didn't be brave and show my different and quirky culture from the area I came from?!

 

Once I really decided to show my OWN culture I have learned from living by Portland, I actually started making MORE friends! People were MORE interested in talking with me, and they were interested in learning about where I came from and why I did things the way that I did them.

 

Its really interesting just how vast and different the cultures in the USA can be, and people would come up to me and ask me WHERE in the USA I was from, because they had never met an American that acted quite like me. And its actually a really cool feeling to know that youre a little different than the rest. :)

 

I miss the aspect of art from Portland. Art taking the form in singing, dancing, painting, and art on the street. Emerging local bands, and performers on the street. I remember actually playing guitar with my friends in the school hallway, and we would sing songs we wrote together and I would have friends who would actually go to Portland sometimes to share their music on the street. It wasn't that you had to be good, because it was just way to express yourself through your own way.

 

There was a water front and record shops; and clothing stores in the city; and of course parks to ride your bike through. Theres also a Chinatown and a Japanese garden in the city center.

 

 

 

 

 

I never really became TOO homesick this year, however I have gained a new appreciation for the place I come from, and I for sure do not think of Portland in the same way as I did prior to my exchange. I even wonder if I will experience reverse culture shock when I return home! :)

 

Before my exchange, I never thought Portland was unique, and I thought it was just a little known town that rained a lot. It didn't really mean anything to me, really! It was just sort of there. But I really DO love my city now, and even though I do not technically live IN Portland- I still consider it my city. The culture of Portland has rubbed off on me, and its what I have grown up around; what I consider normal. And I love every weird and quirky piece of it!

 

It makes me so much more excited to be able to pick up my guitar and get to writing music again, and it makes me excited to be able to go to the food carts again and see how the city has changed and stayed the same over the year. It makes me excited to see everyone swimming in their own sea again, and going down their own road- and I feel mighty special to be in Finland on exchange where the culture is so different and opposite from my own!

 

It makes me really open my eyes to both cultures, and somehow find a beautiful middle ground between each culture. The social and artistic culture I grew up with from Portland, and the more quiet and socially-conservative culture in Finland. :) It has made me a totally different person, and yet still the same in a way; which of course is the beauty of exchange! :D

 

It makes me excited to share just WHERE I come from with others, because the culture really IS so much different than Finland and the culture of my friends. It makes me wish that my friends would come visit me so that I can show them with their own eyes, and take them around my city and introduce them to all of the things that make my city so different and quirky from the rest. But hey, you never know...maybe someday. ;)