Greg Steward’s Miscellanies

FOCUS Associate, Kevin Chan, came up with the excellent idea of offering new international students at PSU a walking tour of Portland.

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Twenty-five new international students headed off from the PSU park blocks, walked down Broadway to Pioneer Square, and took the MAX to PGE Park. From there we walked to Eat Pizza. (Kevin must dine there often.) There was a demonstration of pizza-making and then, courtesy of the owner, we feasted on five pizzas.

We crossed Burnside to the Nob Hill district, walking along NW 23rd to Lovejoy, where we caught a Trimet street car to Jamison Square in the Pearl district.  There we enjoyed some ice cream at Cool Moon Ice Cream.

Then it was on to the first FOCUS Coffee House.

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Imagine going to a foreign county and moving into an empty room. Do you just hop in your car and head to the store? What car? Which store? Where? Each year as part of new student orientation, FOCUS and Greater Portland Bible Church sponsor a giveaway for the new international students.

Don’t quote me on this, but each year I think we have around fifty to eighty students take part in this event.  We pick them up at PSU, take them to GPBC, lay out a few ground rules, and then let them go find what they need.

Items are donated by various individuals. Unfortunately, FOCUS has no warehouse space to collect items throughout the year. As a result, we ask anyone with items for donation to hold on to them until the week of the giveaway, normally the last weekend in September, just prior to the start of classes. Often in June, we have students contact us and want to give items back to FOCUS, but we have no place to keep them.

Organization of the event is led by Russ and Claire Rusunen, FOCUS Associates and GPBC members. Hats off to FOCUS staff Andy Peloquin and Jonathan Guest who did a good job of organizing the transport of goods (along with students) back to campus. As usual, the event is the work of many people.  Thanks to all.

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This year almost 500 new international students came to Portland to study. Fortunately, not all of them contacted FOCUS to pick them up at the airport; but 83 did request an airport pickup.  The two busiest days were the Saturday and Monday before PSU’s New Student Orientation.  There were approximately twenty pickups each of those two days.  Curiously, only one requested a pickup on that Sunday. Thanks to FOCUS Associate Karen Mundt for coordinating this effort and to all the FOCUS drivers.

Some stats:

Date distribution

18 – Aug 7 – Sept 12
20 – Sept 13 – Sept 19
41 – Sept 20 – Sept 22 (Saturday – Monday prior to Tuesdays orientation at PSU)
4 – Sept 23 – Sept 24

Countries

32 – China
24 – India
12 – Korea
4 – France
3 – Japan
2 – Taiwan
2 – Thailand
1 – Turkey
1 – Ecuador
1 – Nigerai
1 – Vietnam

It really is a lot of fun to be there with a sign and welcome these new arrivals. Lately I have been taking a slight detour on the way back to campus, going over the Steel Bridge and doing a short tour through Old Town/Downtown before heading to campus.  It doesn’t add that much time and the students seem to enjoy it.

One of our events for the new international students each year is the BBQ and Square Dance.  For the past couple of years, this event has been held at the Aloha Grange. The evening begins with some traditional BBQ fair (hamburgers and hot dogs). Then we head upstairs. The square dance caller starts by getting everyone in a circle.  This allows him to teach some of the basic moves. When the basic moves have been learned, the students are formed into "squares" of four couples each. As you can see from the pictures, the event proves to be a good time. After some cookies, we take them back to campus.

Little Zigzag Falls Trail follows Little Zigzag Creek to Little Zigzag Falls.  The trail is about 1/4 mile long.  The trail is mostly easy, but there are a couple of stretches that are muddy and require you to take a short detour to avoid the mud. To reach Little Zigzag Falls you take 26-39 off of US 26.

See some family shots taken here and at Trillium Lake at Steward Family and Life.

Trillium Lake is on Mt Hood.  You can camp there as well as use the day use area. There is a path around the lake that is approximately two miles in length.  The trail is fairly level and not hard to walk.  There are occasional water faucets, but the toilets are all “pit” toilets (non-flush).  You will have to pay the day use fee.  That fee was $6.00 per car in 2008.  For pictures of the family on this trip, see Steward Family and Life.

After Trillium Lake we made a short stop at Little Zigzag Falls.