Place

What is place? Why does it affect some people so powerfully? Why might
we sometimes grow attached to a certain place, as though it were a
friend? Here are a few of my recent experiences with "place".

"The exterior world"
When the class went outside to visit the first place on the list, I
decided to split off from the group, and search for a place of my own.
It took a few days to find someplace I felt was worth writing about,
but it was worth the wait. The place I chose was the loop out in front
of the Riechardt building, overlooking Fairbanks. It was early
afternoon, maybe one-thirty or two, and I just finished class and was
walking back to the dorms, when I decided to stop for a bit and enjoy
the view. It was perfectly clear and brilliantly sunny out, with that
kind of afternoon sun whose painful intensity makes your eyes water if
you don't squint. The brightness was complemented by the coldness of
the air, producing that special kind of bright, crispness so unique to
the Alaskan spring. And of course, there was the view. The Alaskan
range could be seen very clearly that day through the haze given off
by the city, and, as always, it's scale and vastness gave the
impression of an inpenatratable wall separating the crush of
industrial civilazation from the wilderness. Another interesting thing
to see from the overlooking hill were the dozens, maybe hundreds of
small, puffy white pillars of steam and smoke drifting up from the
city below. It was as though the machinery and industry of Fairbanks
could just barely cope with the intensity of the environment, and
gasping for life, coughed up great clouds of steam into the icy air.
I like this place. I've been there a couple times before, and each
time the view has been new, and different, and beautiful. It's one of
the best places in Fairbanks to see the Alaskan range, and it's just a
quick walk away from the dorms. A nice place to stare and think about
things. Of course, it's not the most comfortable place to take in a
view; the benches there are caked with snow, and standing still in the
cold gets old fast, no matter how pretty the vista. Still, it's a
place that people can go to and take in a great view of Fairbanks.

"The interior world"
For our observation of an interior place, we went to the wood center.
The wood center is a big place, with a freakishly high ceiling. You
can do pretty much anything here - get food or coffee, play pool, ping
pong, go bowling, or play the arcade. Or you might take part in those
public events or lectures that always seem to be happening. And, of
course, you can take advantage, as we all have, of it's most useful
feature- it's convenient location between the dorms and the Gruening
building. On cold mornings, the wood center becomes a blessedly
warm sanctuary, and provides a mercifull short break from the cold
when your going to your morning classes. For me, the wood center feels
like the social center of the campus - everyone comes here to do some
thing or another on a pretty regular basis.

"My place"
For my place, after lots of thought and no stunning ideas, I chose the
red route shuttle. It's pretty mundane, I guess, but it was a special
place for me on the day I settled on choosing it for my personal place
subject. We've probably all been on the shuttle, and we all know what
a great alternative it is to freezing your face off. And if you've
ever gone inside one on an especially cold day, you know how warm
they're kept. Well, that day was especially cold, and the day had been
especially long, and that bus was SO warm... I could have ridden it
forever. It was such a relief after a hard day to just sit there in
the back seat, going home, finally free to just sit in the warm and
let my mind rest. It's  not exactly a grand ocean view or a sweeping
mountain vista, but it was a nice, restful place, and at that moment,
I don't think I would have preferred to be anywhere else.

"What is home?"
For me, home can be anywhere In the world, just so long as you're
surrounded by people that care about you.