RE: Steven's Request

I think I tend to be more nostalgic for place, rather than specific days. That is to say I often grow nostalgic for a certain period in my life, but rarely for specific days. There are a few: that day in State College was pretty great. The night in Cuba searching for Jesus, trying vainly to get across the Harbor to the Statue overlooking the city and ending up in the Cuban section of Havanna at a saint's day santaria party. Or going out after curfew to survey every city I went to in the Middle East with my buddy Peter, Turkish bath in Damascus, the bulletridden waterfront of Beruit, The Old-city of Istanbul, beer on the beach near Efes (Ephesus)--the Middle East is a much more interesting place at night.

But In general I am nostalgic for certain places or routines. One in particular is the time I spent in Oxford--wake up at 9 or 10, enjoy a few solitary hours in the common room, go out to coffee in a nearby courtyard, class three days a week for an hour, library from 4-9 or 10, eat at a pub or one of the numerous vans that park around Oxford selling Middle Eastern foor late at night, come back, watch TV--Ali G, Monday Night Football, or write a paper.

Also Mexico City--my favorite coffee shop, and one of my all time favorite places, wandering the city, riding the metro, hanging out in the Zocalo, or Chapultapec etc.

I even get nostalgic for things that were awful at the time--second semester of my senior year in college I ws lonely and depressed, I spent 10-12 hrs a day at coffee Plantation, but I still think of it with fondness.