We Really Go To the Beach

Arverne on the Sea, NY, USA

From Rockaway Beach

This time we didn't take any chances on meeting in the city where we might be distracted. Instead, we met towards the far end of the L line, halfway to the beach.We meant to go to Rockaway Park Beach, but missed our stop and ended up in Arverne On the Sea instead.

Ultimately, that was probably fortunate. The beach was almost empty when we arrived, more birds and mussels than swimmers. A woman we met while jumping waves said the beach down at Rockaway Park is much more crowded, shoulder to shoulder. This beach, with ocean waves and laughing toddlers, was just perfect!

From Rockaway Beach

We Don't Go to the Beach

Manhattan & Staten Island, NY

The plan was for a friend, her sister and I to meet at All Souls and go to Brighton Beach after church. That was the plan.

From Not the Beach

But when we got to church, a group of the young adults organized a spontaneous gathering in Central Park. I've been going to Central Park every Sunday after church to take in some sun and revel in the grass, and in the last few weeks I've found myself there with ever larger groups of young adults. This Sunday, our plans notwithstanding, turned out to be no exception.

Then someone suggested getting lunch, and we were hungry. At the end of lunch, a visiting Canadian asked if anyone wanted to join him on the Staten Island Ferry. My friend and her sister thought that was a great idea, so off we went.

Our new Canadian friend Chad Pratch is a Fine Arts major (check him out at chadpratch.com), and a guy, so naturally he started building things on the beach: found object sculpture. The girls really got into it, creating ever-more-intricate sculptures from driftwood and other materials laying around. It wasn't the beach, but it was fun.

From Not the Beach

"You're so patient!"

Brooklyn, NY, USA

Today I was teaching some Yemeni and Sudanese women useful language for making an doctor's appointment. We had a dialogue that I had read with one of the students, and we were going through it sentence by sentence to practice pronunciation.

Some of my students didn't have the soft /th/ sound in their native dialects, so I showed them how moving their tongues from behind their teeth to between their teeth changed the /s/ sound to the /th/ sound. Then I had them practice blending words, like the way we don't say "Do you want to make an appointment?" but instead we shove it all together into "D'ya-wanna make 'n-appoin'ment?" I had them repeat it over and over, first together as a group, then one at a time, again and again.

"You have such patience!" said one student in Arabic.

After I'd taught her how to say the same sentence in English (and showed them how it was not quite the same as a "patient" at the doctor's), I said, "That's because I've learned several languages, so I'm sympathetic."

"You know exactly what it's like!" she agreed.

This is what I love about teaching. We laughed so much that two hours just flew by, and these women not only learned what to say and how to say it, but I could see them gain confidence from the beginning of the lesson to the end. One woman, who was only going to stay a little while until the citizenship class started, was still there at the end of the class, glowing with accomplishment.

A few months ago, when I was hating my job and wishing I could just give up working altogether and become a stay-at-home Mom, a friend said, "We just have to find you a job that doesn't feel like work." I found it. Unfortunately, it doesn't pay any money....

May Day NYC

Manhattan, NY, USA

From May Day NYC

When I first came to New York City, I told myself I wouldn't get involved with activism in my first year. I was teaching full time, going to graduate school at night, and the teaching alone was all the activism I needed in my life.

Then I left teaching and graduate school. For the first weeks of my unemployment, I moped and was miserable and sat at my computer all day long looking and applying for jobs ... any kind of job that seemed remotely related to my talents and would pay the bills. Over time, I became more and more involved with All Souls UU Church's young adults, for fun, networking and plain old human contact. Last week, I realized that even that was not enough.  I needed to get out more, to volunteer for something, to do more fun things with people. With lingering Socialist sympathies from all my years in Europe, and a life-long interest in civics, I asked around the church to see who was doing something for Occupy Wall Street's General Strike on May Day.

That's how I found myself on Union Square this afternoon with Occupy Faith. Their intention today was to bring a message of peaceful nonviolence and be witnesses to whatever might transpire. Several among them have previously been arrested and detained for their participation in a variety of Occupy-related demonstrations, while standing as examples of nonviolent civil disobedience. (I don't believe any of us were today, but apparently one never knows....)

In our march down Broadway to Zuccotti Park and Wall Street, we saw a lot of signs for a lot of different campaigns and issues. We sang songs and chanted. When we passed people watching from balconys and windows, we chanted, "Don't watch! Join us!" In the shopping district, we chanted, "Don't shop! Join us!" When construction workers and other union sorts paused their work to come out on the sidewalk and salute us, we cheered them on. It was a lot of fun. Here are some of my favorite images, with more in the WebAlbum:

From May Day NYC