On the Move

Hello everyone,

The last month has been a crazy whirlwind of movement. After more or less settling down in Boston and establishing a rhythm, I have been bouncing around all over for the past month and feeling always a little out of sorts which has been a really interesting change of pace. Also, after solidifying a community of people who are more or less in a similar place in life while in Boston, I have encountered friend and met new folks who are in very different places in their lives. the biggest shift was when I started traveling with my sister, and then my family a few days ago. I am excited to settle in Quito for a little bit and try to develop a bit of a sense of place again.

Traveling the US
My travels in the US were strange because I found myself straddling two travel philosophies and putting me in a place I'd never been in before. On the one hand were the typical tourist energies that are needed for short visits to big places, and on the other, my general philosophy of moving slowly and feeling at ease. The general result was that I didn't see nearly as much as one may have expected me to. In Philly I spent large amount of time lounging out at the house. In Baltimore I went on walks and did a lot of reading. In DC I also spent a lot of time inside, and in Chapel Hill I watched several episodes of "Better Off Ted" in a row. I did see some main attraction, But in the end I spent most of my exploring time either at occupations or in bookstores. I absolutely love bookstores and I was looking for some specific books. And the occupations continued to draw me and fascinate me. I had a difficult time connecting in Occupy Philly, Occupy Baltimore, or  Occupy Chapel Hill. I didn't have much time in Occupy Miami (although some random man came up to me and talked for 15-20 mins about the alien conspiracy that the government is covering up). I had an awesome experience in Occupy DC though. I really enjoyed the camp and hung out there for an hour or so. Finally I decided I should volunteer and falling back on what I know, I walked into the kitchen and asked if I could help. They were short staffed so I jumped right in cooking and later serving. Not surprisingly, they have their fair share of interesting characters, but it was one of my first sense of really reconnecting with a group since leaving Boston, however brief it was. It felt really good to know that I had this group to turn to wherever I went.
If you would like so see some pictures from the occupations, you can check them out here:
Picasa: https://picasaweb.google.com/109919356111055367898/Occupations?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOSs04ionf2zfg&feat=directlink
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.542516625268.2034988.9701799&type=1&l=2f617c469e

Many Possible Lifestyles
One of the really interesting things about traveling around outside of Boston was seeing all the directions my various friends have gone in and seeing what they base their lives around. I think it was so revealing because seeing what I was not doing put into relief a little bit what it is that I am doing. I spent time with friends that are leaving school to go work on a farm; that trade corporate bonds; that are living alone or almost alone with a longer term boyfriend, girlfriend, or wife; that are making big permanent purchases; that drink wine every night; that watch reality TV; and that do all sorts of other things that simply doesn't fit into the way my life is looking right now. That is not to say many of them are not also unsure of the near future, or trying to figure out where to go next. It was so strange though to see people my age living life in such a different way and from such a different standpoint. One particular example that stood out to me was when I was a talking to a friend who was fairly put-off by the idea of dumpster diving. I definitely don't expect all of my friends to go dumpster diving, but even four years ago when I first met some folks who made full meals from the dumpster I was very intrigued and wanted to go myself. I guess was was so interesting for me were not the actions but rather the perspectives and attitudes toward different lifestyles. And again, what I found even more fascinating than my friends perspectives on these various lifestyles was how seeing these different reactions helped me recognize my own biases. Being exposed once again to tidy and neat homes with nice furniture and store quality food made em recognize how much at this point in my life I want to be in the middle of a mess with mismatched furniture pulled off of the street eating food that has been reclaimed from somewhere.

I any case, it was a lot of fun to see a lot of old friends that I hadn't spent time with in a long while. One of them I hadn't see in about seven years. I also experienced a lot of amazing generosity form my friends who hosted me and often fed me. And I have profound respect for the different life paths they are all taking and appreciate that I have friends who are taking different paths if for no other reason than just because it helps me to recognize my own.

Leaving the Country
The last leg of the journey from Chapel Hill to Lima was a crazy and long journey. I took a 22 hour train which dropped me off in Miami. I went over to Occupy Miami long enough to realize I did not was to spend the night there and to be lectured about impending alien take over (or perhaps they have already taken over, I didn't pay too much attention). So I went to sleep at the airport, which does not have comfortable seats for sleeping, but has a whole small community that spent the night there (some of which I don't think had a flight the next day). There were obnoxious announcements and music and bright lights all night long, so I spent a good amount of time playing different solitaire games and reading, but a mix of good camping gear and a lot of experience sleeping in public spaces allowed me a fe good hours of sleep. The next evening I got on the very delayed flight to Mexico City where at 1am I caught the flight to Lima. Coming out of the airport, I immediately recognized some of what I will have to put up with while in Latin America. I was barraged with taxi drivers, asking me in English where I wanted to go. My couchsurfing host warned me that taking the bus was very difficult, but I was stubborn and had plenty of time. So I found my way to a street corner by 9am where people told me the buses come, and even recruited an older man to help me identify which bus I needed to get on. Ir appeared I picked peak rush hour time though, because all of the buses had people hanging out of them and no one was going to be patient with a confused gringo with a giant back pack. I had to wait an hour and a half until rush hour died down enough so that I could squeeze onto a bus. an hour later I got off at an intersection that was close to where I needed to go but I still didn't have a good map in my head (and none in my hand) so I had to ask a few people and catch another bus to get close enough so I could find my couch host's house. Finally at around noon after about 64 hours of travel, and after getting charged for my back pack on the bus and getting rear ended while on the bus (not all that exciting, everyone got off to see what happened, then got back on and we left), I had finally arrived in Lima.

My couch host was a photographer who grew up in Colombia, spent a lot of time in Italy, and was in Lima to do some projects he had received a scholarship for. He was very chill, although we didn't have that much to say to each other. I ended up spending more time with one of his housemates, a Chilean student studying abroad in Lima. He hosts all the time, hardly ever refusing anyone, and so when I got there I discovered I would be sleeping in someone's room who was away traveling, because the living room was reserved for a Russian couple ho would be couch surfing. It turned out the person came back sooner then expected, but everyone was extremely chill and somehow there was no problem with me keeping the room (actually an alcove off of the dining room separated by a screen) for the rest of my stay. I enjoyed simply walking around Lima, trying different foods and soaking in the smells, the sights, and the Spanish. The Spanish by the way, came back extremely fast. I think my German and especially my Chinese have suffered a bit in the process, and even after I was speaking fine I would still say "bu" (no in Chinese) a few times if someone misunderstood something I said, but overall things have been great linguistically. The best part in Lima though was meeting up with my friend De, who I met while traveling in China. She lives and works in Lima now and apparently had a day off because of a holiday so she took the whole day and evening before to hang out with me and show me around, as well as tell me all about Lima and Peru history. Not only was this an awesome experience which allowed me to see and learn about many sides of Lima that I would have never had access to otherwise, I also just really enjoyed hearing about her life. Her and her friend who she was traveling with recently opened a small business for the main purpose of employing traditional unskilled workers and but treating them properly. They actually earn substantially less than their workers do, and she was in Lima to work to pay off debts for the business. The whole thought process of how they works through things and the challenges they have been facing was fascinating to listen to.

After a few days in Lima I took a much dreaded 21 hour bus ride to Cusco, which goes through such intense curves that everyone gets a bag before we started taking them. I luckily managed to sleep through most of it so I did not get sick. The bus also had some high quality movies (all dubbed in Spanish, even the really low quality Chinese kids films and Hollywood crap.) I arrived in Cusco feeling less than stellar mixing in the long ride, the beginnings of traveler's food issues, and feeling that 3300 meters of elevation. I mostly laid low in Cusco the first few days, although there was a big festival for some patron saint that I managed to check out at least for a little bit between bursts of angry rain.
Here are some pictures of Lima and Cusco:
Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.542513726078.2034987.9701799&type=1&l=4fbc1863c5
Picasa: https://picasaweb.google.com/109919356111055367898/Peru?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Then after a day and a half my sister and her friends arrived. The following day we left for the Inca Trail, headed toward Machu Picchu. Travel since then has been completely different, traveling with guides, with my sister and her friends, and now with my family. I'll share about all of that and about Machu Picchu next time though because now it is very late and I need to wake up early tomorrow morning to leave for a small Shuar Community in the Amazon.

Deepening Roots to Grow Wings

This past month has flown by so fast. I think one of the main reasons is that I've had an increasingly structured life, and with out the constant change, one week blends into another. And all of the sudden I come to this moment, two days since I've left Boston, and I can hardly believe everything that has formed around me during my time there.

A Weekly Schedule
One of the things that has grounded me most is having a fairly consistent weekly schedule around which I would schedule everything else. I worked full days on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and half days on Wednesday, but I worked in the afternoon so Wednesday morning was just a slow morning. Then I volunteered with Food not Bombs every Friday and Sunday from about 11am to about 6 pm or later. That meant I really only had Saturdays and Mondays off. That is pretty close to full time work, and those of you who have done that know how difficult it is to do much else in that time. Whereas in my first month I was always looking for cool things to do and spending hours at MIT student center more or less killing time, as my schedule stabilized I found myself rejecting invitations to event, sometimes because I was busy, but often because I was feeling burnt out from the day to day and just wanted time off, or time to meet up with friends. To me that signaled a big shift in mentality. It was one defining element that helped to establish that I was in fact settled.

An Update on Occupation
I talked a lot about the occupation last time and about my involvement in it. Since then I have been spending less and less time there, only stopping off occasionally to say hello or take a shift at the food tent. I did make it down at least several times a week to drop off food or pick up Cambros for food not bombs, but usually I was in a hurry and didn't stay any longer than to do the pick up or drop off. My path seems to be the path of many of the activist folk who originally got involved. The sentiment at first was "this is happening now, we don't know how long it will last, so everything has to get put on hold". As days turned to weeks, most of the activist types realized that they have many other things in their lives: school, work, family, friends, and a number of other things that they wanted to dedicate themselves to. At the same time, the weather got worse and worse, and so just hanging out at the occupation or sleeping there became increasingly less comfortable. Some people dropped off altogether or almost altogether like me, while others just scaled back to various degrees. Some people I know stayed extremely committed, which is part of why the camp still continues to function, but a lot of the energy is gone. GAs have gone from pretty big every night to only being held a few times a week and getting small crowds. Marches went from every day to only once or twice a week. So the energy started waning.

At the same time, word spread that there is a place where you can get free food all day long, where you can get a spot under a tent, where you can get free blankets, sleeping bags, socks, and many other necessities. So crowds who are often lacking in those items began to flock there. Some of these people were amazing in their dedication to the camp. Much of the construction around camp was done by folks who are currently homeless and unemployed. Almost the whole security team was and is made of of people who are homeless, and many homeless people take the longest shifts at cleaning or the food tent. However, many people who are homeless have a number of issues chasing them which cause them to land there. Drugs, mental illness, general social difficulties. So there was a new influx of folks who were more interested in the free stuff than in the movement, and brought all of these difficulties with them. As the balance began tipping between people who did not put too big of a strain on occupy resources and were invested their energy in activism, and those people who were just hanging out, the occupation grew less interesting as a place for political expression and became often more frightening and especially at night more dangerous. This in turn pushed activist types away even more.

That's how things are in Boston, I can't speak with certainty about anywhere else, but based on what I've heard, it sounds like most occupations are facing similar challenges (I just visited occupy Philly that seems to be the case there). I hope that as a movement we can some to think strategically about next steps. Many people have brought up that occupation is still very important for all of those who live there and rely on it. I completely agree, but I also think as the energy around it wanes and excitement for it from outside fades, the actual occupation becomes less and less sustainable. It is no longer that helpful for the political message, and just ignoring that it is fading is also bad politically. I just think it would be helpful to shift the activist focus from the actual occupation. Some creative things have come out already, like the daily mic checking of a big name speaker or some company meeting. As I prepare to leave the US and disengage somewhat, I am excited to see what will happen with all of the energy that has already been generated.

Some awesome things have already been achieved no matter what happens. Left/radical/anarchist forces have shown that they can get together and get a lot of attention and support. This has shown the great depth and breadth of disillusionment in society. It has also caused a lot of people to wake up. Many people who thought of the police first and foremost as there to protect us no recognize the degree of their brutalization, and realize that police are first and foremost responsible for protecting non-human people (previously known as corporations). Many people who thought things were more or less ok, perhaps needed a little bit of tweaking, have been exposed to how deep and wide the rotten elements actually go. I was talking to a friend the other day and he said that just last week, all of the sudden everything his anarchist friends have been saying suddenly clicked and made sense. In his words, he realized some small regulations (like raising taxes on the rich) would only mildly alleviate part of the problem temporarily, but that the real problem is much deeper. Finally, many activist were for the first time exposed to consensus process and civil disobedience, whether the philosophy behind it or getting to do it for the first time. I would say that if the occupations achieved nothing more, we can still say that they have been very successful and achieved a lot. And yet I hope to see so much more.

Growing Roots in the Community and Feeling at Home
One of the main goals of my travels is to learn community building. When I say community building I don't mean structuring or cementing communities for other people, rather I mean finding ways to build myself into a community. This involves making one-on-one friends, learn and adapting to the natural activities, flows, and language of the group, and somehow having that magic switch get flipped so that I feel a part of the collective and so that I blend in. I wanted to practice this because I think there is a decent amount of learned skill involved. I have moved to several new places in my life, and the challenge of reestablishing myself in a new location and around new people has been very real every time, and yet i always felt unprepared. These are skills that are always helpful because we are always moving, and that should can be helpful in subcontexts as well like getting a new job or going to a party with many people I don't know. So I decided to practice.

Boston was a very easy place to start because it was relatively safe since I already knew so many people there. However the place and the community where I ended up feeling most at home was not related to anyone I knew before I came there. I've talked before about having really good interactions in the anarchist community in Boston. This community, and specifically the people involved in food not bombs and at the food not bombs house became my group and my family during my last few weeks in Boston.

There are a number of reasons I can think of that helped affect this. One big piece is that starting in mid October, I began staying only at co-op houses that were all part of this community. I decided to stay only in co-op houses for a few reasons. I was still very busy with the occupation at the time, and staying up until four to record the cops busting down the occupy Boston extension or riding out to West Roxbury to do jail support late at night was not always conducive to my hosts schedules. I felt like I was being constrained by that and knew that I would have more freedom with my hours at collective living houses. Also, I was always worried I was burdening my hosts and making them feel like they had to do things for me or spend time with me. I too would feel a certain obligation to spend time with my hosts, but I was getting busier. The cool thing about a collective house is that I could be hosted by the house itself, which meant that no one felt responsible for me, and I didn't feel responsible to anyone. I enjoyed hanging out with people while I was around, but I didn't feel a need to coordinate with them. Doing some dishes seemed sufficient. Since I felt that I was less in the way, I also had less of a problem asking collective houses to take me in for one to two weeks, and that was really nice because I had grown very tired of moving twice a week. And finally I knew I would be surrounded by awesome people doing awesome things, so it was an opportunity to make new friends who are all connected in this community. I also started spending more and more time at the food not bombs house, to hang out with people, to do the regular meals, to do special occupation meals, or to just do other random stuff there. I went over a few times just to bake stuff, like a pumpkin dessert, and went over once to build a bike rack.

Eventually I felt really connected and really comfortable. The food not bombs house in particular, and the people who lived there and would come through it came to be my home. That's what made it so difficult to leave. But it also means that I was very successful in Boston. More successful than I had ever imagined. On my last day, some one asked me "what have you achieved?" while I was in Boston. More than anything this is what I had achieved. This community, being more integrated than I ever imagined I would be. Feeling in some ways more plugged-in than I had felt anytime while I was in Kalamazoo. And all of this in three months. It gives me a lot of hope for my future travels. It's also a little concerning because I have set the bar really high. But if I have anything like this to look forward to, my travels are going to continue to be great.

And that is how I hope to grow my wings, so to speak. If I can learn to integrate in a community somewhere or a few places, than I can learn to do so anywhere, and I can learn to do so everywhere. That means I can feel free to go anywhere, and feel able to know how to manage myself. It also provides me with the concept of back-ups, which is a powerful thing to carry with you. Many of you know that I often struggle with the concept of home. For a long time I used to say that I didn't have a home because I couldn't peg down one place that really felt like where I belonged, that I would naturally use as the answer to the question "where are you from?" Now I instead believe that I ave many homes. That anyplace where I have a strong community is my home. Boston was a place where I once lived and where I had some friends. Now it's another place that I would list among my homes.

Travel Details and Travel PlansAs you know from an earlier email, I have been keeping meticulous records of a number of things while I've been traveling, one of them being expenses. I'm happy to report that I'm still keeping a frugal life style, I've spent one the order of $600 in the last three months. It's important to reiterate that this is only possible because of a whole but of privilege and gifts and generosity from family and friends. You should look back to the earlier post/email all about this if you don't understand what I mean. Health wise things could be better. Considering my circumstances I have been very good at not getting sick, with only a minor cold for about two days. However I have been having some pretty bad back problems, so that for about a week I was barely able to walk or bike. I saw a doctor and went to some physical therapy but there was nothing very productive that came out of either. My back was getting a lot better until today when I was working on a bike and pulled it again. If any of you remember at the very beginning when I talked about how heavy my backpack is and mentioned that if I couldn't get rid of enough stuff I would probably suffer long term back pain. Turns out I was unfortunately too good at predicting the future. I also discovered that I got my first cavities and had to get some fillings.

As for my future plans, I am headed to Ecuador. My route there involved stopping off in Philly, Baltimore, DC, and Chapel Hill, each for a few days, mostly to visit friends, and then taking the train to Miami so I can fly to Peru where I will meet up with my sister and hike Machu Picchu and then fly with her to Ecuador to meet up with my parents and brother. Once there we have a packed itinerary for our family trip. I haven't actually been paying that much attention to what exactly it will be. I have faith hat my parents will choose great things for us and am mostly excited to travel around, be with my family, and not have to worry about taking care of myself for a few weeks. That takes me up to December 31st, when my family leaves and I stay. I have no idea what I will do at that time. I would stay in Ecuador, I could travel around South America, I could go to Chile. I am determined to make it to Panama and visit my host family there at some point. So everything remains open. I'm hoping to catch a birthright trip in the summer, so I'll have to be back in the US before then, but I have no real plans figured out. And that is exciting.

There is so much more that has happened during this time, but this email is already extremely long and if I only write once a month I'm going to have to pick and choose. This is the stuff that came to mind while I was writing, which probably means what I have been thinking about most during this time. I'm always happy to divulge more in personal emails, and am always curious to hear about your lives.

The Rev

A lot has happened since my last update. These are busy tumultuous times. As a result, I'm probably going to miss a lot of stuff in this email, and despite that it will probably still be far too long. I'll try to do the subheadings again so that you can digest in bite sized pieces.

Nickled and Dimed and Privileged
Since I am technically traveling indefinitely as an unemployed person (even though I currently have a job), one of my focuses for this trip has been to see how far I can stretch my money, how cheaply I can live. The interesting trick it, I have been determined to do this while still not terribly constricting my life. I allow myself to buy various unessential items for entertainment or for social purposes whenever it seems appropriate to do so. So far, I have been successful far beyond my initial assumptions, especially since I'm in Boston right now. I allocate for myself an average of $10 a day for all expenses, and I've come in significantly under budget. Not only that, but most of the money that I have spent has gone toward two large expenses: buying a bike and buying a new pair of shoes. Part of being able to live on so little has to do with the standards of living I am willing to accept, but a lot has to do with various privileges that I have, so I want to dig through some of that for a little bit.

The first major way that I am saving money is by not paying rent or utilities. As many of you know. I am couch surfing from place to place. This has not been easy. twice a week, I pack up all my stuff and ride my bike across town with my 80 lbs. backpack on my back. For some of the moves I have been lucky and only had to go one or two miles, but for a few it has been as many as 5 plus. This is especially unpleasant in the rain. Changing houses all the time is also difficult because I end up feeling very unsettled. Although I feel increasingly connected to the Boston area, I think most of us like having a particular place where we can lay out our things and feel at home and know that we can come back to. I generally only have that for three to four days at a time. Also, finding housing with this system is not easy. I am lucky that I have many friends in the area that can host me. But I am also using the couch surfing website, and that requires a lot of time looking through profiles on the internet and sending requests. I would estimate that I have spent an average of at least two hours per couch surfing host sending requests if not more. The most difficult thing about moving from place to place has been the way it influences time. I consider being hosted by someone a tremendous gift for them to offer me. On the other hand, I often don't have much to offer them except for my presence and my stories. As a result, I feel a strong propulsion to make time to spend with my hosts while I am staying with them. This isn't only a matter of gratitude, it also has to do with the fact that one of the best and most interesting things about jumping around is the opportunity to meet and interact with so many people, so I want to make time to speak with my hosts for myself as well. However, I have recently become extremely busy, and I have a lot of friends here whom I want to spend time with, so making enough time for hosts has been difficult. Even harder has been coordinating schedules for the sake of getting into the house. Most hosts don't give me keys, which means I can only get into the house when they are not sleeping and not at work. Sometimes even if they give me a key because of one thing or another the hours when I can come back are restricted. And I almost always feel a need to check in. This second part has been particularly difficult because there are many occasions, such as a birthday party, working at the occupation, or even just hanging out with friends, when I want to stay out later but it is also important for me to be respectful to my generous hosts.

The list of whiny complaints hardly matches up to all of the advantages of living like this. The biggest one for me is the money saved, simply because I would run out of money in half a year if I were paying rent in Boston, and getting a full time job to pay for it would no longer allow me to do what I am doing, so living cheaply is essential. But it has also been a lot of fun to see different people's houses, get a taste for different lifestyles, and through couch surfing, meet new people. My first hose here was a theater student from Taiwan who I have kind of kept in touch with enough that last night he invited me to a dumpling making party. I got to stay in the MIT dorms. And this is a good way for me to make sure I spend time with people I already know here.Another great aspect is that I get to know many different parts of town. There are a few places I go to all the time anyway, but by living out of different areas of town for a few days at a time, I really get a sense of different neighborhoods. It's also really heart warming to experience everyone's generosity. All of my hosts have been exceedingly generous an have displayed it in different ways.

I think it is important for me to recognize that while this system has worked relatively well for me so far, it wouldn't necessarily work for everyone, in part because of privileges that I have. The most obvious is that I am starting this journey with a computer, a cellphone with a plan that I am not paying for, a strong understanding of how to navigate the internet, and knowledge and some experience with couch surfing. None of those things should be taken for granted, and this would not work if they were not all present. I also have a strong network of friends here which reflects a diversity of places I have been and ties that my family has maintained, also something not everyone has to start out with. Being able bodied and healthy so that I can bike around with all of my belongings has been crucial. Being able to travel alone has greatly aided my ability to find housing. That last one references a few things. It references the fact that I have no dependents, be they kids, family members with debilitating conditions, or anyone else that I have to be directly responsible for. It is also a reflection of male privilege. While many women do travel and couch surf on their own, and at least according to reported responses on the couch surfing website, those experiences are by and large extremely safe, we still live in a society that makes it much more dangerous for women to live such a life style, be it being hosted by their own in strangers houses or biking alone at night. So there are many ways in which I am fortunate to be able to lead the type of nomadic life I lead now.

Another place where I have saved a lot of money, and actually been much more successful than I had originally anticipated, is food. In the last month and a half I've spent only about twenty dollars on food. Realistically, after my first day in Boston, I never bought food for myself because I needed food. I found Food not Bombs, which I discussed in the last post. That provided me with 2 healthy meals a week, and I would always pack some out so actually 4 to 6 meals a week. Between meals I would eat bread and peanut butter from FNB as well, and to get a little diversity in, I would eat free food at MIT events, take veggies from FNB and cook them myself, eat food that my hosts would give me, or find free food in a number of other places (I planned which day to donate blood based on which day I wasn't going to get free food so that I could supplement with whatever food I receive after donating). Although this worked for the most part, it involved eating a lot of food that was starting to go bad, and meant that my diet consisted primarily of bread and peanut butter. If things had continued in that way, I would probably be supplementing my diet more, but probably only to the tune of a few dollars a week. What happened instead is that Occupy Boston started. I'll talk more about occupy Boston below, but it's relevant to food because it means that there is a 24 hour food tent in downtown Boston where I can get a healthy meals or at least healthy food whenever I want.

There are a number of important privileges that play into my ability to eat food this way. The most prominent is that I have no allergies or dietary restrictions of any sort, which provides maximum flexibility. Not having dependents is also pretty important, because while I am willing to subject myself to the crazy diets I have undergone here, I would not be willing to subject anyone under my care to them. Computer, internet skills, and prior knowledge of networks had played a major factor. Time has also played a large role. I've spent a lot of time volunteering with FNB to feel ok eating a lo of FNB food, and I have done the same at the occupation. When I was more reliant on free food at MIT, I had to spend time seeking it out and had to make sure I was available when the food was available. Finally, being abel to look like a student has been very helpful in blending in to get food at MIT.

So that was very long, but it give an idea of how I have pushed living cheaply and what privilege I have to help me along the path. I am sure there are many other elements of privilege that have helped me along which I have not recognized yet, privilege by its nature tends to be invisible to those who have it, but I have found it important to reflect on it while traveling around. I think by far the greatest privilege is having no responsibilities. The fact that I have no debt, no monthly payments or bills of any sort, and no individual that depends on my financial or material support, frees me to focus only on what is happening to me in the present, and to fantasize about the future. I wish that everyone were able to do so if they chose, because it is one of the most liberating experiences I can imagine.

Getting Tired
In the last week or so I have been extremely tired, and I have tried to figure out why that might be. I think one major factor is that I am doing more physical exercise than I ever have on a regular basis. I think I may have mentioned last time that I was biking an average of 5-10 miles a day. At this point I am biking an average of 15-20 miles a day, with many days topping 20 and a few reaching 30. Basically I go to the FNB house in Alston almost everyday, and I go to the occupation at south station almost everyday. Those are about five miles apart, so with a couple of trips and a few other stops, it doesn't take long for me to top fifteen miles. I'm sure this is really good for me, but I am not in shape enough for it, and it leaves my legs achy and my body tired.

Another component is that I am very busy. I now have a part time job. I am research fellow at the Sustainable Endowments Institute. I got the job because my friend Rob told me they were looking for someone and put in a good word for me, I wasn't actually looking for work at the time. SEI did the green report card, for those of you who know about that, and now is working on a project called the billion dollar green challenge, which aims to encourage colleges, universities, and other institutions to create or expand green revolving funds. My job mainly consists of staring at a computer screen or making phone calls. It's not bad though, my coworkers are a lot of fun and I think the project itself is really important. I work 20 hours a week, Tuesday-Thursday, so I get four day weekends. But I am sure that adds to my tiredness load.

I also do a lot of volunteer work. I talked a little bit about my volunteering last time, but it has only increased since then. I've been loosely keeping track of the hours I do with different groups. FNB is by far my biggest time suck, and I've volunteered on average 22 hours a week with them. Much of that has been in the past two weeks though, ever since the occupation started. If I count all of my volunteer hours together, it averages out to 32 hours a week. That's getting close to a full time job, especially by European standards. Granted, this is tough to calculate because most of this volunteerism is not at an organization that clocks me in and out. This means that some of the hours I'm counting amount to sitting around and hanging out with friends. But to compensate, there are certain efforts that I decided not to count. Long story short, it's a lot of time. If you throw in trying to be social, and all of the time spent on housing and food hunting that I discussed above, the pieces of being exhausted start to come together. But as you all know, I love it, that's what I live for.

One thing that I dropped form my schedule is my BU class. I was sitting in on a politics of education class at BU in order to still get some college going. The class turned out to be pretty terrible, and the professor regularly said things that don't make much sense. Not only did she go on long tangents that were nto related to class material or particularity interesting, although occasionally humorous, but she also made comments that bothered me. I'll give a few examples that I can still remember. While discussing theories of education, we discussed conflict theory, which splits into the neo-Marxist and neo-Weberian forms, and which argue that we create rank-orders that stratify students (these theories tend to be focused on class distinctions) and create unequal educational opportunities and outcomes. The neo-Marxist theory asserts that communism would resolve this issue by eliminating class distinctions. I think there are many good critiques of this theory, but hers was that we have experienced communist countries and they still had inequality in their educational systems, so clearly the theory is wrong. First off, I doubt any Marxist scholar would concede that we have seen a successful communist country. The first successful communist revolution was in Russia, led by Lenin's vanguard, which was heavily criticized by all of the prevalent Marxist scholars at the time. Lenin pressured other countries to adopt his model in transitioning to communism, meaning most countries were Leninist and not Marxist. The one notable exception is China which deviated even farther from original Marx under Maoist philosophy. Several other east Asian countries that adopted communism took a Maoist route, but no country has undergone a communist transformation that follows the path that Marx set out, so the historical reference is extremely inaccurate. What's worse, someone asked if education systems under communist regimes decreased inequality. The professor said they did, but that they also restricted freedom, so they were unpalatable to us. This is of course a non-sequitur because the question is whether the theory about educational quality and inequality accurately described the situation and provided meaningful solutions, the way those solutions manifest themselves in the rest of society is a secondary conversation. no to mention that she knew freedom was restricted in communist countries because she has seen a few movie about them and they were frightening. People just got snatched off the street and killed. After she mentioned it I recalled seeing that in the communist manifesto. Somewhere between the historical development of exploitation and the call to proletariat of the world, Marx insisted on a governemnt that arbitrarily killed people. It just saddens me that a professor who has taught political science at BU for almost 40 years would have such a ridiculous mentality toward communism. She also made some great comments about "climate change" with finger quotation marks. Apparently what they are actually talking about is global warming. And global warming has been happening since the last ice age. That day we left class after she posed the question to us, "do you want to go back to the ice age?" Anyway, I decided this was not a fruitful use of my time and stopped attending.

Revolution
Most of my time and energy in the last two weeks have been devoted to Occupy Boston. I hope all of you have heard at least something about the occupy movement, which started with occupy wall st. and has spread around the world. There are many many things that I could say about the occupation, so I will try to pick and choose.

One of the random things I have really enjoyed has been terminology. First, the terminology of occupation has been really interesting. Occupation usually has a negative connotation in these circles. This has led to some entertaining signs and chants. Those who realize the word overlap have done things like create signs that read "Occupy Boston, not Palestine". On the other hand, during an anti-war rally, we would sometimes go back to back on with chants like "all day all, week occupy wall st." and then "money for jobs and education not for wars and occupation". Another fun part has been all the people who have been referring to this as the revolution, or "the rev" for short. It's pretty much all in jest, but I enjoying talking about how I did this or that right around when the rev started.

One interesting thing has been talking to people about messaging. A lot of people feel that the movement doesn't have a clear message or doesn't know what it wants, and that this is legitimizing. I have several responses to that. First, I think there is a clear message. The clear message is a demand for equality. If you want it slightly more fleshed out, here is a cool one page description of what many occupiers would agree on: http://mediamattersaction.org/message/onepagers/201110110001
If you read through it, you will see that there are still no clear demands. I see that as a good thing. I think it's time to move past clear demands. I think it should not be our responsibility to come up with the clear demands. I think Jon Stewart did a great job of demonstrating how insane it is to expect us to present the outline for the future (6:30-8:30, although I recommend watching the whole sketch). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/06/jon-stewart-compares-occupy-wall-street-tea-party_n_997825.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
Some people worry that the protests won't lead to anything if they don't have clear demands. I disagree. I think they raise awareness. I think they make clear that we will only stand for so much. I think they demonstrate that there is a real contingent ready to fight for these causes, politically and otherwise. To see others who are more versed and eloquent describe it, check out these two articles: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/whose-side-are-you-on-the_b_1000157.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/opinion/panic-of-the-plutocrats.html?_r=1&src=tp&smid=fb-share
This is also not about giving a suggestion for a bill that may or may not pass through congress and will somehow magically fix all of our problems. Part of what we are doing is creatively imagining the world we want to live in, the society we want to create, and communities we wish to nurture, by actually living. This demonstration is not only a lashing out against unjust systems that have failed us, but an attempt to build new ones that serve us better. At a march the other day, I saw a sign that said "demand nothing, occupy everything". We are tired of asking and not interested in demanding. We are creating. and two that end I give you a video of Van Jones and transcription of a speech made by Naomi Klein who seem to think in a similar vein: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QobC-o3CkOg
http://www.thenation.com/article/163844/occupy-wall-street-most-important-thing-world-now

And that leads to the part that has been most interesting for me. Those of you who know me well know that for the most part I tend to be rational to a fault and attempt to do politics within the realm of realistic achievements. While I see that work as very important, I have grown tired of it. It is time for me to take a turn with radial idealism. And when I say radical, I mean at the root. I mean looking at the system and saying it is fundamentally broken and needs to be replaced even if I don't know how to do so or what to replace it with. I mean advocating for an oppression free society even if I have time imagining one in a world where oppression is so entrenched. On a march the other day, one of the chants was a call and response chant: "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!" Someone I was marching next to was mockingly chanting different words: "What do we want? Gradual change. When do we want it? Whenever we get it." That has been much of my mentality for the past few years of activism. And in that time, most of the things I have worked on have digressed, with the one possible exception of drug policy reform. But my current problem with working on activism rationally and realistic is not its effectiveness. Radical idealism is not often described as effective. It has more to do with honesty. Dealing with political realities involves a lot of lying to myself and to everyone I talk to about what truly matters. It means advocating for changes that I don't like, changes that may even violate some of my deeper values, simply because they are better than the status quo. That work is important, and I have the utmost respect for those willing to engage in it. But I want a break. I want to take the time to advocate only for what I truly believe in. To harshly criticize the better of two evils for still being evil. To reject an improvement to the status quo that doesn't reach far enough because it further entrenches the idea that how far it goes is acceptable. I don't expect any of my ideas to be enacted on a societal level. I don't expect to see any of the transformation I am hoping for. But this way I am at least truly advocating on my behalf. And maybe because the message has greater appeal, because the basis for it is not corrupted by political realities, more people will be drawn to it, and will begin advocating for real change as well. Maybe then what will be agreed on, somewhere in the middle, will be that much better. But that's not the point. the point is that for at least a little while, I refuse to sell out.

In solidarity,

Arriving in the City

I've only been out for a few days but already quite a lot has happened so I thought I would send out my first update. I'm going to try to give some titles to sections in case you want to skip around, but I've never been very good at that.

Leaving Kalamazoo
I ended up being a lot less sentimental about leaving Kalamazoo than I had originally expected. There were some sad moments to be sure, but I think the long summer with a fun but monotonous job, and the slow trickle of friends leaving Kalamazoo so that by the end there were only a few friends left, made it easier to pick up and leave. What also made it easier is that I transitioned to a couple of days near Detroit at my friend Ellen's house, so I was still with my best Kalamazoo friend for those two days. All that being said, I was very on edge the whole day, in part because of leaving what had become my home, but also because I hadn't slept much at all the past few nights, and I was very nervous and excited for what was to come. Luckily my time in Novi, the small town outside of Detroit, was a perfect transition where I could be calm and collect myself before I departed.

Journey to Boston
Part of why I was nervous is that as of the day before I got on the bus, I still didn't know where I was going to sleep for the first few days after arriving. I wasn't too nervous because I had several friends who reassured me that if I couldn't figure anything out I could stay with them. But it turns out the beginning of September is the worst time to come visit. September 1st is moving day in Boston, where everyone moves and there is general chaos, but also many of my friends were moving, meaning they were busy with that endeavor. Also labor day weekend is a popular time for people to visit Boston or for people to go out of town, so many people were either not going to be home or already had other friends staying over. This is why all of the couch surfers I talked to were not available, and why it would have been very stressful for me to stay with many of my friends.

I had a half-baked plan when I got on the bus, but by the time I got to Pittsburgh it had fallen through. After a few more phone calls I finally knew where I was going the next day and where I would be sleeping. I was in Pittsburgh because I took a series of three mega buses: Detroit - Pittsburgh - Philadelphia - Boston. Some highlights from the bus trip include: walking a mile with my 85 pound back pack through Pittsburgh to get to a park to hang out during my 4 hour layover and having someone ask me if the little encampment under the bridge belonged to me. The bus from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia was delayed a bit and I arrived in Philadelphia 5 minutes after the Boston bus was suppose to leave. Luckily it had a few problems and hadn't left yet so I made it, but I almost got stranded in Philadelphia at midnight. Otherwise the ride was fairly uneventful and I mostly read or stared out the window (for almost 23 hours).

Bikes Are the Greatest Thing Ever
Most of what I have done in Boston so far has been related to bikes, and I love it. Within five hours of getting off the bus in Boston I was inspecting a bike I had found on craigslist, and within six hours I was riding it around, getting hopelessly lost and making it all the way to the southern part of East Boston (which for those of you who don't know Boston, is this relatively disconnected part of Boston that people hardly ever go to unless they have something specific to do there, or live there). After biking over to the library I started looking up all of the cool bike organizations I could find for Boston, and quickly discovered the Boston Cyclists Union. They do these great Bikes to Market mobile clinics where they set up some stands and have volunteers provide free tune-ups for anyone who comes. (This is similar to the mobile clinic Open Roads does at Bank Street Market in Kalamazoo for those of you who are familiar with that). One of the cool things they do is try to get a broad reach, so instead of going to one Farmer's Market every week, they try to go to all of the markets in the greater Boston area once a month. This is awesome because they can reach a much wider audience, but is difficult because the volunteer schedule is crazy, since markets happen at different time on different days. As a result, they have a hard time getting enough volunteers every time, so when I sent an email to the organizer asking if they still need help he immediately responded with an enthusiastic yes.

I went to my first Bike to Market clinic on Saturday and it was wonderful. First, I really enjoy working on bikes, so it was great to have five hours to just do that work. But also, I still have a lot to learn as far as bike mechanic work goes. The BCU had a master mechanic at the clinic, so I had many opportunities to ask him questions and learn from him. I learned about as much from five hours of working with him as I had from a year of tinkering around HUB (the bike collective at Kalamazoo College). It was also an opportunity for me to fix up the little problems my bike had when I bought it (the fate of buying a bike really cheap off of craigslist), and to top it off, the other mechanics were super friendly, and I even got contact info from two of them to possibly stay at their place if I need to along my way. Another amazing aspect was working with the people who came to get their bikes fixed. Not all of these mobile clinics are in low-income neighborhoods, but this one was. I realized that I really haven't done very much direct work with low-income communities, and when I have it has always been at a distance or as a service that I provide for people. This organization was deeply focused on making the work cooperative. The purpose was to teach basic bicycle maintenance as well as fixing the bike, to improve mobility in the community, and to connect and build community around bicycles. There was a very friendly and tension free atmosphere the whole time even though we had people from many backgrounds interacting with each other. I realize part of having privilege in a situation is to more easily be able to ignore any tension, so perhaps things were not as smooth as they seemed to me, but they certainly felt smoother than any time I have done something similar in Kalamazoo or Portland.

Bicycles will also be leading me into another few groups in the near future. Jamaica Plane has two bike collectives, Bikes Not Bombs and Community Spokes, each of which has a volunteer night once a week that I plan on attending at least sometimes to help out and meet people. And I just learned about another biking co-op in Allston that I am hoping to get involved with. So it looks like bikes will be my main form of community building in Boston. Which brings me to a suggestion to any of you moving to a new place. I have found that it is really helpful to pick something I like and form communities around that. You meet like minded people very quickly, and even if you don't become friends with them, you may become friends with their friends. My good friend Jenna does this with Ultimate frisbee. I'm not very good at ultimate frisbee and have never found ultimate a great place for me to connect with people, so I'm doing it through bikes, but really there are tons of avenues that you can take, and it's the best way to find the things that will interest you most in a city really quickly.

And let's not forget the greatest thing about a bicycle, it makes it so easy and cheap to get around! Especially in a city like Boston where the farthest trip single trip I would ever want to make on a given day is only about 7 miles, and most trips don't run longer than 3 or 4 mile. Also in a city like Boston where public transit is slow, traffic is slow, and bikes have decent infrastructure but no expectations so they can weave through traffic and run red lights. I can usually get somewhere faster on bike than I could almost any other way, unless I get lost, which has happened many times so far. Yay bikes.

Young Friendly Anarchists
Another community that I have begun connecting with is the anarchist community, which has been really amazing so far. A note to you political science majors out there, the anarchist community does not conform to the standard definition of anarchy, at least not the one I remember learning about. They mainly tend to be anti-capitalist and non-hierarchical in their small groups. If they are anti-governemnt, that certainly doesn't come across in conversations and actions I've seen them partake in. The main goal is to create and open, equitable, sharing community.  With that description I think it's easy to see why I am drawn to it. I'm still not sure I really fit in, but I enjoy hanging out with them.

The first group I connected with is Food Not Bombs. FNB is the first group I looked up when I got into Boston. For those of you who don't know about FNB, they are a group that started up in the early 80s as a creative anti-war protest. the idea was to focus less on yelling and sign waving, and more on creating the world they want to see, that is, free food for everyone. The way they operate they by collecting free food (sometime that means dumpstering, sometimes that means having connections with farms and bakeries to get day old goods). Then they cook it and go somewhere public and hand out free meals. Boston apparently has the original chapter and the group here is very organized, does two meals a week, and just got a house dedicated to FNB. One reason I looked them up right away is because they do amazing work and I wanted to get involved. Another is that as many of you know, I am traveling on a small budget, and a free healthy vegan meal is too much to pass up. If you are interested in FNB or want to find one near you, check out http://www.foodnotbombs.net/

One of the really cool things about FNB is that their primary goal is not to feed the homeless. Their goal is to provide food for everyone. Therefore there is nothing wrong with taking food even if you have the means to pay for a meal. There is a donation jar if you feel you are able to pay, but the food is available to everyone for free, that's a part of realizing the vision. This creates another opportunity to interact with lower income communities in a more equitable way than I ever have before. At first I do stand behind the food with gloves and serve it to them, but them I have someone serve me the same food and sit next to everyone else and eat it with them. It's a moment where we are all people doing something very human: eating food.

The organizers are also really friendly people. I went back to the FNB house  yesterday to help with clean up, and not only did I walk away with zucchini bread, a beer, a bag of veggies, and many loaves of bread, but also an invitation from someone to crash at their place anytime I would like; an invitation she extended 30 minutes after she met me. This is what I mean by an open sharing community. There are some interesting clashes between some of the older folks when they come to the meals though. One woman got into a bit of a tiff with one of the organizers, and started yelling at her about how she didn't know what she was talking about and how FNB had been around since before she was born. the organizer was asking her not to do something, at which point she told her she can do and say what she wants and said what for me was the quote of the night: "This is an anarchist organization". I realize, especially given my description of the anarchist community, that this is not entirely oxymoronic, but it was still very entertaining at the time.

Some of the bike groups I'm getting involved with also fit into the anarchist community mold. On Saturday, after fixing my bike, I was riding around and my back tube blew up. When I wanted to fix it on Sunday, Wes, my friend who I am staying with right now, recommend this house down the street that runs community bike stuff (it turned out to be community spoke which I mentioned above). He told me where the house was and said to just go around back and let myself in through the back door. When I went, they told me none of the bike people were home, but they still let me into the shop to work on my bike, and after she opened the shop, this woman told me they were having brunch inside and I was welcome to join them when I was done. I tried to fix my bike but it turned out the tire had ripped, so I gave up and went inside to eat and hang out, trying to plan how to get a new tire. After some talk, someone gave me the phone number of one of the bike people who said I was welcome to take a tire from inside the shop for free.

Later, because these communities are usually fairly small and have a lot of overlap, I ran into someone from that house at FNB, as well as one of the organizers for the conference I went to in St. Louis in August.

Building Community
It has been a whirlwind four days. I'm hoping that as my housing situation stabilizes a little and I begin to get my bearings on where I am and what I want to be involved in, I can start to build up my communities. I've had a lot of fun hanging out with friends from my past so far, and look forward to meeting more of them, and I've enjoyed discovering new communities that I hope to get acquainted with.

I hope you all enjoyed your labor day weekends. For those you coming back from LandSea today, welcome back. For those of you who just started school or or about to begin, good luck and have fun. And for the rest of you, I hope you had a wonderful summer and are looking forward to a nice fall (except for the ones in the southern hemisphere, just change that to nice winter and looking forward to spring).

I'll be in touch in a few weeks

Introduction

I just finished college and will be wandering for an undetermined period of time. I have two principles that I will try to follow while traveling: I plan to go slowly, so as to absorb as much of my surroundings as I can while moving through different places. I also plan to carry everything on my back as I move around. Therefore, I picked a turtle as my mascot for this journey.

This will be my first blog. Although I am personally not a big blog reader, I understand that for others, this is the best way to keep up with what's going on, and that blogs serve as an important resource to the greater community. Hopefully this is useful for some people and serves as a way for people to keep up with what I'm doing.