"It's the corner of North and Rockwell, well, it's not exactly the corner. Two blocks west of Western. From the Blue Line stop just walk down to North Avenue and then walk west two blocks.

"I would definitely say when I'm leaving work on North Avenue. I feel like this is my life. Although mostly I feel like an outsider. I think it's that moment of the walk to the car, it doesn't matter the weather, I'm done with my day and it's always the same. I always park within the same block, I can usually park within a block of work. There's always that moment when I leave work and I always have to remember where I parked the car and which direction I have to turn. Like if I should go right or left."

"Take California north to Diversey. Take Diversey east to the expressway. It should be right there by the big Old Navy billboard with the time and temperature on it.

"When you're driving south on the expressway coming down from the north and you see the skyline. There's a closeness with that scene because I remember as a kid seeing that and before I was living in the city, when I was still living in the suburbs, I would see the skyline and it was full of mystery. Like, what's going on over there down at street level in between the buildings. That's how I felt when I was a kid and before I actually moved to the city, coming down here to see friends or something and I would see that view and it was an attraction. I wanted to move to Chicago kind of as a result of that. I was very intrigued by that. And now when I drive along there, I still have the same feeling of it. I'm kind of in awe of it. It also reminds me of the past. It prompts me to remember how I used to feel about the city when I was just out of high school and everything was new. The whole concept of living in the city was new."

"Go up to North Avenue and take the North Avenue bus to Clybourn. Go a little bit to the left for half a block.

"Kitchen and restaurant equipment stores where I know that kitchen stuff can be done with much simpler equipment but people are suckered into spending a lot of money. I've been cooking professionally for six or seven years, so Sur la Table or somewhere like that. There's a chain of them. There's at least one in every city. It's specifically high end kitchen stuff. They have a lot of cool stuff there. Just the experience of knowing what's necessary in a kitchen. Just knowing, for example, that a garlic clove peeler is totally unnecessary. That it would take you longer to pull it out than to just peel the garlic. It's got great stuff for a kitchen and then half of it is completely ridiculous and there are all these people there thinking they need these things. Things that shell eggs and stuff."

"Take the blue line east to the loop and get off at Monroe and take the Monroe street exist from Monroe station. Turn left at Monroe heading east and walk three blocks to Michigan Avenue.

"That would be either in Millenium Park or when I walk through the front doors of the Art Institute. I saw this program the other night, something like Chicago Tonight and they showed this flash of Millenium Park and I said, "Ahh, there's Millenium Park" and I got this really nice feeling when I saw it and there was this moment of connection. So I have a special affiliation with it because I know some of the people involved with its construction and watching it being built over 18 months makes me feel kind of protective of it."

"If you take the Red Line north to the purple line and that as far north as it will take you, you'll end up at the Linden el stop -- the new station. Exit the station to your left, you'll be heading east, and before you have the opportunity to cross a street you'll see a small brown, nearly cubicle building that looks like it's not big enough to hold anything. That's the old train station.

"There are places where I used to feel like an insider but now they've changed so much. Like the Linden L stop used to be a place I felt like an insider but the building I was comfortable in is now a bank. They were going to tear it down, but it was declared a historical landmark, so they built another station 100 feet away. And the old building was so small it's now a branch with no tellers, just ATM's. But when it was a train station there was a station attendant at the window, at a ticket window. And there was also a guy named Leo who occupied half the station with a little shop that sold candy, cigarettes, magazines and fireworks. It was a little kids dream. Leo was a hunchback and he would show us his tattooed numbers on his arm from when he was in a German concentration camp. The fireworks he had were illegal but he would quietly ask us little kids if we wanted to buy some fireworks and show us what he had. So even though I don't know if I would miss anywhere if I went away, I definitely miss some places that have gone away. Maybe it's something about being easily reversible and my choice if I go away -- it's different than knowing you can never go back to a place you love."

"I would take Milwaukee, southeast to Damen, right on Damen, past Division to Thomas, left on Thomas one block, you'll see a neon sign that says Inner Town.

"I had a place that I don't really go to anymore. The Inner Town Pub. I used to go there everyday and I knew everybody there so, yeah, there. I don't go there now, but that's just because it reminds me of a certain time in my life that I don't want to remember so much. Even though it's not a place that's with me now it was very special and so when it ended it was a choice and basically just an artificial end. I miss it and I wish that I had that relationship with another place and I don't."

"It's on Irving Park. You would want to go up Western, take that to Irving Park and then go east on Irving Park a little more than a mile. It's a block before Southport.

"Like maybe Jim's Grill again. I get that comfortable, homey feeling there. Even though the lady there is never that friendly. She's not that outgoing with anybody. I've probably been going there for eight years or something. Yeah, I've been going there for a long time and I always get the same thing. I get Beef Bimbop. It's a little Korean diner thing and they're open for breakfast and lunch, they're open from ten to three or something. But it's a nice place to go with your newspaper and do the crossword puzzle or something. If it's too crowded the food will take a really long time to get because its pretty much just one lady, sometimes there's two people there."

"To get on it from around Fullerton and California you can get on 90/94 at Diversey going south to the Dan Ryan Expressway and then you can go south to 47th St. exit and go west to Ashland Avenue and north a block and a half. THe restaurant is on the east side of the street, of Ashland Avenue, directly across the street from Jerry's certified supermarket.

"El Patio Restaurant on 45th and Ashland feels like home to me. I've been going there for about twenty-five years. My older sisters had a double wedding two doors down from the restaurant. I worked in the back of the yards community where El Patio is located for a number of years. When I go there I reflect on many areas of my life so I like it there a lot."

"Take California north to Belmont and then head east on Belmont until you get to Ashland.

"I would have to say that Belmont and Ashland area is one of my favorite areas although I don't live in that area if I could afford to I would live in that area because of the gym that I go to there, the restaurants. I know all the restaurants up and along Lincoln, the Lincoln corridor, a lot of different ethnic restaurants there. Maybe on this job I travel a lot so I do see quite a few different neighborhoods throughout the city of Chicago. The neighborhoods change from area to area. Honostly, this is just one area that I really like."

"If it were me walking I would probably just walk down Fullerton until I got to the lake and I'd get on the trail and walk all the way south. It would be about twenty-five blocks to 55th and you'd get to the fawn, a statue of a fawn. It's kind of a marker for a drinking fountain and that's at the point.

"I think that Hyde Park was the 1st place where I felt I belonged and it's not anything I can describe. I was raised in Skokie and Evanston and that was my stomping ground. When I returned here I made a pact that I wouldn't live there again. I found when I first moved back I lived in Evanston for a year and I never connected with it. I felt I was always six inches off the ground. Then I moved to Lincoln Park and I never really explored it. When I found Hyde Park I found it was the first place I had found that when I'm there I'm home. There's a sense of belonging and like that I know this place but i don't. I can't wait to get home because I think home is identified by the people that you live with. Hyde Park is like a little pocket of eccentricity so in some ways I feel like I found my tribe. Well, it's such a small radius. Like, Promontory Point. I'll walk that, it's such a great place and discovered in the summer that there's this little section of Promontory Point that's a swimming hole and so I'm walking one morning and there's all these old guys, there probably isn't anybody under the age of 60, 65 and they're all jumping off the point. There were all these languages being spoken. So there was this moment of happening upon it as a traveler and seeing it as a traveler and this overwhelming sense of pride that I live in this place. It's like a secret. It's like, I don't know why people don't want to live there, like why would you want to live anywhere else."

"You can take Fullerton eastward all the way to Broadway and then turn left on Broadway. You can take the Broadway bus northbound all the way to Wilson. That's where Truman College is located. On Wilson and Broadway.

"I feel to be as an insider in the City Colleges and Afghan community here. And I think of myself as kind of a, well, I felt before as a marginalized person because of language, tradition and customs barriers and different attitudes barriers. In the City Colleges I feel a friendly environment and I get along with everyone. Classrooms are the main place, I think. I don't attend any functions or anything. Let's say Truman College. I take English classes there and social science this semester."

"You can take the Red Line "el" to Sheridan stop and then walk north to the corner, that's Irving Park. Take the bus going west about three or four blocks and then get off at the corner of Clark at the cemetery and there's a yellow birck building and that's the Rizal Center.

"We have the Dr. Jose Rizal Center. It was founded in 1974 and that's our community center. We had a different center before that and it was sold and then we acquired this one. It's the umbrella organization. I consider myself to be a neutral personality within the community, I have no reservations about attending events or going to the Rizal Center while some others have their own reasons for not visiting the center. some of the organizations I'm involved with meet regularly there regardless of their political perspective. One of the organizations that I'm with is the Filipino American Senior Citizens Club which is made up of members that go back to the first generation immigrants, men and women. Presently many of the survivors of the first generation are non-Filipino wives who have over the years remained active in the community and consider the community to be part of their homebase. Often when they come in contact with new Filipino immigrants they are met with the inquiry of what are you doing here. It used to be common for English to be the dominant language spoken but now with the new immigrants Tagalog is the main spoken language. People from my generation are more assimilated. They do not visit the center. This senior citizens group meets at the center once a month."