ohh.. the places you'll go!

in this world of sights and sounds we catch glimpses of other cultures and livlihoods. we are invited into the homes of people who speak in strange tongues and they feed us strange foods that don't seem that strange too them. and when we travel we get lonely. we look for love and comfort in the shapes of things we recognize and smells that smell like home. but as my backpack sits in the corner of my cold bedroom i marvel in the way that it soaks up the scents of incense and dirty clothes in hopes that enough will be absorbed when i travel again. it has become like family to me. sometimes in strange faraway lands i use it like a pillow. at airports where i have no friends i act like i am looking for something to no avail then i ask the stranger next to me if they've got the time. i once woke up in the airport at las vegas to find three beautiful women giggling at me and how i apparently talk in my sleep. my hair was greased to a sloppy mess on one side and i had lines on my face closely resembling those of the straps of my bag.

i think of places i've been and i smile thinking of how much they've changed over time. i think of the huge buildings in shanghai and how they have surely doubled in size over the year that it's been since i've visited. i think of the bridge that was under construction in apia promising to increase commercial affairs to the samoan capital and how it is definately finished by now. i think of this strange village i once saw in haiti and i think about how poor the people were there. i wonder if anything has changed. i think about a man named mika from tokelau who i met on a faraway ocean and i think about how he has been living the same life as a talented fisherman for years and i wonder if he is still out there hunting delicious oily unicorn fish with the greatest of ease.

so this makes me look from my window into the pending nastiness of detroit winter and i toughen up a little bit. in reality of all the places i've traveled to detroit is the craziest. have you ever been here? our parties are dirty and smokey and they take place in old warehouses and industrial centers beginning at 2 in the morning. we have no laws here and that is not always a bad thing but it is defiantely not always a good thing either. whereas life has thrown me a sidewinder and asked me to spend another winter here before i take a great plunge into the mediterranean early next year i have chosen to embrace it.. and enjoy it. i love this city and i cannot hide that whenever i travel i take with me a piece of my hometown with me. for now i walk through the cold dirty halls of my strange city's strange buildings and i laugh about how people are affraid to come here. and they should be.