i am sitting at the intersection of liberty and mathilda, almost exactly where i was two weeks earlier. then, choke and i were inside of a bus stop waiting for john to pick us up in his shiny lincoln towncar. we observed the horrible driving abilities of pittsburgh citizens and how these streets had no meaning to us. i commented to choke how i had no i idea where i was in this city and how i had no clue which direction led to what, not even knowing the direction of north(it was cloudy and late afternoon, no sun). now, in fourteen days time, so much had changed: for example the bus stop was gone, somehow uprooted while i wasn't looking. my most significant thought is that i now know where the streets take me. being lost, or unfamiliar with my surroundings, is such an uncommon feeling, yet one that i seem to crave, love, desire. finding myself lost in the unfamiliar.

  for almost two weeks, i rode a bicycle constantly, sometimes alone, but most often with geoff who familiarized me with the routes to the east-end food co-op, mr. roboto, and rachel's house in wilkinsburg. i discovered that penn avenue was the artery leading me up and down through the city, taking me to most of the places i needed to go. baum took me to the winter palace, millvale to cmu, and braddock to the abandoned steel mill and also to rachel's school where she works with crazy happy kids who like to play on ice pathes on the playground and who give great names to the class pets--'climber claw' to the black gerbil and 'button'-something to the black rabbit with white feet. after two weeks, i have found myself with aim and purpose. i have fallen out of my monotonous chicago routine of class-work-home, of never really fulfulling my desires to be more involved in the community: teaching, volunteering, fighting for some better life than being stuck in the lower rungs of a capitalist society (another example of my activist brainwashing). i feel at home in pittsburgh with two week friends who offer their houses for shelter and their food for sustainence (and bikes for transportation!) i feel at home with these friends.

 

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