FNN Explores the Pacific Northwest: "The Conference and the Tram"

Students “enjoying” the hike to the tram that travels to the top of the mountain to the Oregon Health Sciences University to witness the beautiful view of the city, Mt. Hood, and Mount St. Helens. Our travelers (with revealing comments) from front to back: Darin: (photographer not pictured): This shot is gonna be famous! Karlton: Ugh, I’m soooooo bored… At least my hair is awesome. Shaquanda: Where’s that cab? Courtney: OMG! Look at those puppies! Ms. Kaufman: Oh! I hope don’t look fat. Maurice: Hold up, is that the new DS in that car? Day 2: Friday, April 16, 2010 Read more entries from the Pacific Northwest Blog!

First day, actually getting a chance to get out and explore this wonderful city they call Portland. After our first sessions at the convention center we made our way to the MAX train system and took it from our side of Portland to the tram and up to a hospital where they have a scenic view of the Oregon horizon. From there we saw Mt. Hood, which is the highest mountain in the state, with a snow-capped mountaintop. After leaving the lovely vista we made our way back to our hotel and went shopping at the mall across the street from the hotel, where I blew about $80 from shopping at Hot Topic. Topping off the night at the student dance, I was the hype man for the DJ and helped get the party jumping and pumping! I met some new people and exchanged Facebooks and numbers. I love Portland (so far)! -Darin Davis

This is where things got interesting. D.C. could learn from this state’s positivity. Portland, Oregon, is so green, quiet and positive. Everything D.C. is not! Just by walking outside, you can tell the air is much cleaner here! *Sniff* *sniff* “Just lovely! Right, Ms. Kaufman?” The people are just as positive, so it felt very good and welcoming in the actual convention, and the learning began…

With just a few hours there, I walk away with Oregonian knowledge, of their mountains and newspaper (which I didn’t get from school), such as some key knowledge about freedom of speech. -Karlton Chapman

Man, talk about worth it. Portland, Oregon, is definitely different from D.C. The look, the feel, the smells and the people -- everything is simply different. I love that difference; it’s such a breath of fresh air I might want to stay here longer than a few days, lol. Anyways, our point of coming to Oregon is to partake in the Journalism Education Association conference. To simplify, we’ve come to gain knowledge on how to better our craft in such things as understanding our rights, photography, writing and designing pages. When we first got into the convention we were attracted by this eccentric game, called Whamboozal! The object of the game is to beat the opposing team in a team-versus-team match. To achieve this, you move your team’s respective light by answering a series of charade-like challenges where you have to draw or act a phrase or action. You answer knowledge or spelling-based questions. The Rated-T senior staff stepped up to the challenge. We answered questions correctly, moved on the board, then lost horribly even when given a second chance. However, we got a second chance to play again AND almost lost again. But we conquered and finally got our light-up sticks. YAY!!!! Though we lost, we had fun, laughed and retained some great memories. Just goes to show going somewhere else can be good for the soul. -Maurice Williams

The first day in Portland was very interesting. The weather was hot but had no humidity so it was cool as well. When we arrived at the conference I saw a lot of students with their newspapers, magazines and yearbooks. After the conference we decided to go on the tram. I was scared to go on the tram because I have a fear of heights, but I faced my fears and went. And it was beautiful when we got to the top. We saw all of Portland and saw two of the mountains that are a part The Ring of Fire… Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens. After that long trip we came back to the hotel, went shopping and went to the dance. -Courtney Shackleford

Today was our first day at the convention. We went to a very good session on student rights. I learned that I have more freedom of speech than I think I have. After that, we took a long, confusing trip to the tram off the bridge of Portland to travel the top of the hill to the hospital to see the famous view. From there we could see Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens as well as the beautiful city. Then we went back to the downtown area, did a little shopping for the dance… Only we didn’t go to the dance because Courtney didn’t feel like going… -Shaquanda Noble