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SF 3 Roomies

I come to the last night in SF before Erin comes.
My four bed dorm has been a place of change we started off with 1 Minnesota man, 1 French man, 1 Australian man and me. Then we lost Minnesota man, then Australian went to LA, in comes a man from Australia I think, I only hear him arrive during the night and see him when I get up, oh yes and his girlfriend. So sometimes of four bed dorm is more. Then comes Hong Kong man whose opening question me is, have I seen cockroaches? I give him a firm no. He seems to boast tonight he has seen a cockroach in the room. I tell him I did not need to know that and thank God I am on the top bunk unless these little buggers can fly jump or climb I am safe for the last night. If I am not mistaken Frenchman is still with us, I never know until 1 or 3 o’clock in the morning. Tomorrow English man leaves and will be replaced by .............? The Common Room here is like a multinational student room and most people have a lap top of some description. They spend hours in solitary fixation with their screens. And people come and go all daylong from and to all points of the world. These people travel the world like it is a small country with a sense over confident ease. Being here reminds me what a parochial local life I normally live 95% of my life within viewing distance of the Midlands Today. Did young people always do this or will this generation of people see and experience the world in a different way. They shrink it with travel and pull it tighter with their/our instant communication. Their photos are seen by friends and family back home before them or their bills are greeted back into their parochial life.
Tonight before dinner I was coming out of a shop on the corner of Post and Sutter opposite Macy’s and I am greeted by a shouting and whopping. Outside there are hundreds and hundreds of bicycles of all descriptions, all ridden by what seems the full spectacle of humanity. They are part of a group called http://critical-mass.info/ who gathers in cities across the world to demonstrate the power and presence of bicycles on the roads. They are escorted by the San Francisco Police Department on their Harley Davidson’s. You can see why San Francisco is seen as a progressive city.

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