We both had a really lovely day today! :) It started off with a trip to downtown Eugene here in Oregon. There is some kind of celebration going on at the moment so the centre of the city is all closed off and filled with lots of marquees, bands and food carts! The best thing I've noticed about Oregon is that it is such a vegetarian/vegan friendly place! There's great options absolutely everywhere at good prices. I feel spoilt by having so much to pick from. Today for lunch I had a vegan cheesesteak - Matt and his friend Jake tried it and actually liked it! There was a cool petting zoo with porcupines, ferrets, etc. That was pretty cool.

After we were shown around a bit of the city. We went for a nice drive and also checked out one of the big malls. We were looking to buy some white Ducks tops (the name of the football team here) because we have tickets for the game on Saturday!

We also saw something kind of funny when we were in town. There was some kind of occupy protest going on, but I'm not sure what for. They had a sign saying "Sleep is a human right" so maybe it was a protest for homeless people - but the amusing thing was this black guy shouting around all the tents saying "wake up, wake up, I've got some champagne for ya'll" with a big bottle of alcohol hahaha.

Tonight was really lovely because we had a nice dinner with Matt's host family from when he was here last night! The whole family is vegetarian so I was absolutely in heaven! I got to help make the dinner so I can re-make it when I get back home :) It was vegetarian meatballs with thick, flat noodles, brocolli, salad and a sweet and sour sauce. It was sooo yum and I could hardly move after. For dessert we had these amazing "whipped cream cupcakes". We learnt a very interesting American tradition too. Matt's host parent's daughter's son (phew) was having his first birthday today. So his mum made a GIANT cup cake for him to smash! Matt and I found it quite strange because the cake was stunning and they just gave it to him for him to destroy!

Tomorrow Matt and I are going to head to the university to ask about postgraduate courses and scholarships! Of course it's only a slim chance something amazing will come out, but we won't know unless we ask :) So maybe I won't be back in New Zealand for long next year ;) We have also been invited to a quiz night kind of thing at one of the bars here tomorrow night so that'll be cool. Matt wasn't able to go to the bars here last year since he was only 20. Also we have been invited to Matt's host parents house on Friday night! So I get to meet the 9kg cat and see hummingbirds :D

So basically Oregon is great because we are away from tourist hot spots and are getting to experience daily American life with actual American people!