Published in the New York Times

Well, this post is for blog subscribers who don't yet know that my urban camping 'stuff' was mentioned in Penelope Green's "Surfing the Worldwide Couch" for the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/garden/20couch.html

It's an experience to see yourself squeezed in amongst others with similar interests, to be part of a zeitgeist or a phenomenon. I received an email from Amanda Deutch who also marveled at this experience.

House-sitting in Paris at the moment, she said she found my blog by getting distracted while reading the NY Times online. She exclaimed, "So there are others like me out there!"

She is a poet and left the States a year ago for a three-month writer's residency in Acores. She's been traveling ever since, making new families and becoming a part of new communities as she goes.

She left a comment on the Where do you live? post and later shared a story of how, in the house where she is currently house-sitting, she came across a book of haiku and essays/journals from Buson, Basho and Issa. She said, "What I hadn't known before is that there were 'itinerant poets' in Japan in those days. Issa was one for several years. I didn't realize until I saw 'The List' how many other writers live like this, like me."

We exchanged emails, both mentioning how challenging but amazing the experience can be. She said,

I never intended to choose a radical lifestyle, but somehow by following my heart and taking a big dive into life, I did and now there is no turning back. Really. My life has quite clearly changed. And most people who surround me now have no idea how very radically this kind of travel alters everything. I set out from America looking to see different philosophies and approaches to living and how other artists lived elsewhere. I expected I would find it directly from people, but soon realized I have become the very thing I was looking for by trusting myself and the world and letting go.

Thanks for sharing Amanda (and come visit me via www.couchsurfing.com ... Rotterdam is only a 4 hour train from Paris!)