There and Back Again

We Finally Get Snow

2012-01-20T02:41:00.002+04:00

There was no white Christmas for us, sadly. But finally the snow has begun to fall. We've had about 2 inches since this morning, in addition to several inches last night. There was about a foot of snow in Olympia. It's predicted to continue to snow until Saturday. Yay!

Christmas and other stuff

2012-01-09T05:03:00.000+04:00

Bonnie and Ryan came to visit from Virgina. I was very happy to see them. Alex and Noelle came over with her children. It was an enjoyable holiday. I spent time with Steve and his children, as well. The only thing that would have made it better was if Jeremiah could have made it home. Yes, Jeremiah, that's a mother's guilt trip!

This is Number One Daughter and her boyfriend. They are students at Idaho State University in Pocatello.

Number One Son and Number Two Daughter. Number One Son is going to North Idaho College and Number Two Daughter is in high school.
Skiing is going well. At least from my perspective. I was afraid to ski down the cat trails by myself. Too dangerous! Who thought of this sport anyway? I think someone in Norway invented it on a dare. "Here - here's two boards, strap them to your feet and go down that hill! Dare you!" Now the cat trails are no longer a challenge, but I'm afraid of the blue trails. So I'm progressing.

Me in front of the caterpillar that grooms the cat trails. This weekend was the first weekend that I felt confident enough to just have fun and not worry about form, where my feet were, carving, my body stance and all the other things you have to think of. Now all we need is more snow! I'm looking forward to it.

Lunar Eclipse

2011-12-11T03:15:00.001+04:00

This morning the moon was eclipsed by the earth. Fortunately for me, my bedroom window faces West. I set my alarm for 4:45am, hoping the skies would stay clear as they have been the last week or so. The skies were indeed clear and the moon was setting. I sat up in bed, looked out the window and watched the eclipse. Then I snoozed a bit, and looked again. After totality, I went back to sleep. I didn't see it turn red or pink. I didn't take a picture, either, though I did look at it through binoculars. Go here for some nice pictures, including ones from Palm Desert, CA and Phoenix. Click here to see what Deanna might have seen if she were up so early.

Dinner at the Davenport Hotel

2011-12-03T06:58:00.001+04:00

The Davenport Hotel opened its doors in 1914. It's a lovely building. Now. When I first moved to Spokane, it was a run down place that had leaky pipes and was causing environmental problems. In 2002 a local developer decided to restore the Davenport to its former glory. His company did a beautiful job. It is now a AAA four diamond hotel. I've never stayed there, but my parents honeymooned there in 1950. According to my dad, it didn't look like this at that time.

Both the Davenport's Fireside Room and the Davenport Tower's Safari Room has a special $15 dollar "happy hour" dinner. I don't want to say "early bird" special, because eating at 4:30 in the afternoon is what old folks do and we're not old!

The fireplace of the fireside room.

Steve and I met some skiing friends Ivan and Jeri. Later they went to a play. But Steve and I just played. To benefit the Spokane Symphony, the Davenport raffles off donated trees and gifts.

This one had several pieces of jewelry worth more than I can afford.

I think this one had $4000 cash in addition to other gifts.

This one had a queen size bed, all the bedding, a dresser and lamp, gift certificates to restaurants and $1600 cash. How about after dinner drinks in the Peacock Room?

It was a lovely evening with lovely friends. And I hope I win one of the trees!

Skiing Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-11-28T18:39:00.001+04:00

Usually the resorts don't open until the first week of December. But this year all the resorts were open Thanksgiving weekend. I went up with Steve on Friday and Sunday. The ride up to the top of Silver Mountain takes about 20 minutes.
I stayed on the bunny hill all day Friday and did too much. By the late afternoon I was tired and falling down a lot. On Saturday I went to yoga class to recover.

Sunday was better. I felt more confident and not so afraid. Yes, I was afraid on the bunny hill. All you skiers can go ahead and laugh now. In the afternoon, Steve felt I was doing well enough to go on the cat trail. "Cat" is short for caterpillar. They groom the trails with the caterpillar, but I suspect cat is short for catastrophe. He said the cat trail was just as steep as the bunny hill. It is not. It is much steeper. With his encouragement I managed to get to the bottom of that long and winding road without dying. The next challenge was the chair lift. Why is everything so scary? Well, I lived through that, too. I got on the lift without accident or injury. The wind was blowing a bit, but it wasn't too cold.

On a different note, it's Christmas at the Davenport Hotel. The Davenport is the hotel my parents honeymooned at in 1950. An extensive renovation was done a decade or so ago. It is a beautiful building.

Steve and I plan on having dinner here on Wednesday with another couple. Each year the Davenport sets up Christmas trees and gifts to raffle off to benefit the Spokane Symphony. Maybe I'll win one this year.

Getting Ready to Ski

2011-10-30T21:55:00.000+04:00

Despite my children's misgivings about my athleticism, I agreed to try skiing this winter. I think I'm just going to see how many times I can stand up. Because Steve is an avid skier, he accompanied me to the Mt Spokane Ski Swap where I could get good gear for cheap. I thought I'd model my new snow gear for you!

Is this jacket purple or gray?

Oh, yeah.

I'm skiing!

I think I missed my career as a supermodel.

Baby, it's cold out there!

Since I know nothing about skiing or snow clothes, Steve advised me on the best stuff. I think it's good. It's certainly kept me warm while I took these photos.

The Months of Fishing

2011-10-29T18:13:00.000+04:00

September and October are good months for fishing Kokanee salmon.

Kokanee are small, pan sized fish. They are delicious smoked, baked or fried. I wasn't allowed to touch the fishing pole because I don't have an Idaho fishing license, so I drove the boat while the fish jumped onto the hooks. The end of September and October were beautiful. The weather was clear and the air was warm until the sun went down. Lake Coeur d'Alene is beautiful.

They say that work is for people who don't know how to fish. This month I'd have to agree.

The Trip Home From Oman

2011-10-27T06:27:00.004+04:00

A long pictorial of my long trip home.

Flying out of Doha

Man-made islands in Qatar

Qatar

Kuwait

Tigris River

Fields in Iraq

Mosul, Iraq

Mountains in Turkey

The Black Sea (up at the top of the photo)

A coastal city on the Black Sea. I'm not sure which, perhaps Ordu or Samsun.

Moldova or Ukraine

Warsaw

The Baltic Sea

Iceland

Greenland
After Greenland, it was cloudy, so I couldn't see the ground. I landed in Washington, DC and had a short visit with Bonnie. Then flew the rest of the way home, getting into Spokane around 11pm.

My School, such as it is

2011-09-10T19:29:00.010+04:00

I work at a school in the al-Hail neighborhood, hence the name of the school is al-Hail. Last year all the grades were in one building, but this year the enrollment has increased so much that the lower grades are now in their own building(s). School is in a villa complex. This is apparently what most schools do until they can build their own building. So classes are in the living room downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs. We have four classrooms in a villa. Two are for English teachers and two are for Arabic teachers. We each teach a period or two, then switch classrooms. In this way, students receive Arabic and English teaching. In moving from one school to the next, most of the resources and supplies got lost. You know how it is in a move. Last Tuesday was the day before Nursery and Foundation students started. The central courtyard, which will be used as a playground and PE space, was torn up. The workers were installing large poles upon which will be attached a large canvas tent. It is essential, in my opinion, to provide shade during recess here, as temperatures can reach as high as 45C at this time of year. The teachers were very concerned that the parents would see this mess, with holes in the ground and not be pleased. Fortunately, most of the holes were filled in by Wednesday morning. Thursday and Friday are the weekend. I was hoping the workers would be working all weekend, or at least on Thursday. Today there were poles in the ground but no tent.

That is my head teacher, Lesley, a wonderful Scots woman, who is stressed out beyond belief. She cries every day.

Last Wednesday my classrooms had nothing in them. Today was different. Today I had a whiteboard and a bulletin board. I had made some decorations to hang up, but don't have anything else.

This was the first day the buses brought the students. That seemed to go fine, but after school was another story. The students have name tags with information on them but the information does not include their bus numbers. The bus drivers drove onto the courtyard (which I hope does not happen again), then milled around calling out the names of students they had on their bus list, while teachers tried to find the right bus for the students. It took only an hour and a half to get all the students on the buses.
UPDATE: Today was the first day for my students. Believe it or not there was a lot of complaining by the parents. I told them they should tell administration, which they did. I reckon this was not a good day for admin. My parents were shocked their students had no desks. This is, after all, a private school and parents pay tuition for their students to sit on the floor. Our villa is supposed to have two English teachers' classrooms and two Arabic teachers' classrooms. One Arabic teacher saw his classroom had no desks and left. I don't know if he came back or not. Most of those students went into Jonathan's room. He was a real trooper, but he has the living area for a classroom and can accommodate 30 or more students easily. I had two of his fourth graders in my third grade class until we got desks and he could take that class because the other Arabic teacher took Jonathan's home room class. One other hitch in our collective get-along is that the toilets don't work in most of the villas. I thought mine did, but found out at the end of the day they did not because there was a stench coming from the bathrooms. The bus routine remains "carnage" as my car pool mate says. Today, though there were more students, it took only a hour and 10 minutes to get almost all the students on the buses. One of my students didn't know what bus he was on, we couldn't find out, the women in admin reception kept walking out instead of helping us, and the buses all left without him. It's Sunday, the second day of my week, but feels like Wednesday, the last day of the week! It's carnage indeed!

My Little Kitchen

2011-09-04T17:54:00.006+04:00

You know the old saying "If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen?" Because my kitchen gets fairly hot when I cook, I often don't cook. It has two fans in it. One is an exhaust fan above the sink, the other is a... well, a big fan. Yes, that's my kitchen. All of it. It's up to date and modern. It has granite countertops. Who decided it was a good idea to put this big ole fan in this little kitchen? When I turn it on, it blows out the flame on the stove. By the way, I was cooking spaghetti sauce. With Indian beef. I guess those cows aren't all sacred. I'm taller than my refrigerator.
Here's a few random tidbits: Did you know that Arabian numbers, the ones we use, aren't used in Arabia (or Oman)? I live in the region where coffee originated, yet I'm drinking instant coffee. Coffee is expensive, but gas is cheap, about 120 baizas a liter, which works out to roughly $1.25 a gallon.

The White House

2011-09-03T11:46:00.000+04:00

Ok, I know I'm overdoing it today. I thought I had blogged about the White House, but I guess not. The White House is actually Safa House and I can't find out anything about it. Not much in Oman goes on the interwebs. I'm fascinated by this house.

It's surrounded by a wall, as most houses are. There is a brown brick house right near the entrance inside the wall. A guest house? On one side, the neighbor is the residence of the Ambassador of Morocco. The other neighbor has a beautiful house more in the Omani style.

It has nice gardens planted with oleander and bouganvilla.

That's Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in the background.

Sun going down over the Ambassador's house.

Niches in the Grand Mosque

2011-09-03T10:37:00.001+04:00

Along the side corridors are niches. Each of the corridors have different themes, but each niche in the theme is different. They were quite beautiful. They were decorated with gold, mother of pearl, lapis lazuli, tile, marble or bricks.

This is a detail of the previous niche. It is lapis and mother of pearl.

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

2011-09-03T10:06:00.000+04:00

This is the Women's Prayer Hall

This is the Main Prayer Hall

You can't really get an idea of the size of this room from these pictures, so I stood under the chandelier. It's a little blurry, but I'm in there somewhere.

Read about this mosque here. This mosque really is grand.

Eid al-Fitr

2011-08-31T20:13:00.000+04:00

Ramadan, as you probably already learned sometime after 9/11, is Islam's holy month. The people fast from sunrise to sunset. It is based on the lunar calendar and is ten days earlier each year. It begins with the sighting of the first crescent sliver of the moon after the new moon of the ninth month. The end of Ramadan is with the sighting of the first sliver of the new moon of the tenth month. So Ramadan can be 29 or 30 days long. The end of each day of fasting is celebrated with iftar, breaking the fast. The end of Ramadan is celebrated with Eid al-Fitr. People go to mosque first thing in the morning, then visit relatives and friends, then eat a lot. This takes all day. Prior to this morning, I knew none of this.
I woke up at 5:30, unusually early for me. I have been off school because of the holiday. I sometimes will take a walk around 9am. By the time I get back to my apartment, I am soaked in sweat, red in the face and really hot. Today I decided it would be good to go walking early. Did I think about Eid? I did not. In Korea, there are churches on every corner. Here there are mosques on every corner. I passed three during my 6km walk. I was wearing my exercise clothes: a purple T-shirt and black pants. They aren't particularly tight, but they are not loose, by any means. The first mosque I walked past was not doing much business. It was early, I suppose. There was a sign on the road saying Bait al Mahar was 2km away. Next to the words was a drawing of a castle. Oh, I thought. I'd like to see a castle and 2km is not far. So I continued walking. Expensive cars were driving up to the second mosque. The parking lot was full and cars were parking on the street. The mosque attendees were all men, all in sparkling white dishdashas, all standing outside. I thought this was for morning prayer, which is every morning. I kept walking. The third mosque was more humble. The men were walking to the mosque, although there were a lot of cars parked nearby. There were also children there. Little boys in their clean, white dishdashas, little girls in colorful clothes, with medallions on their headscarves and henna on their feet. I walked on to Bait al Mahar, which was not a castle. I think the castle icon means "neighborhood." As I passed men on the way to mosque, they were greeting each other merrily. "Salah! Eid mubarak!" And they smelled good.

The men all looked at me, but none of the looks seemed to be lascivious, although I was very aware of what I was wearing. Modesty requires women to wear loose clothing, covering everything but hands, face and feet. It is the same for men.
Around noon, Nate, Laura and I went to Amna's mother's house for Eid. This was a pleasant little get together with Amna's family. Amna was born in Mombasa, and raised for part of her life in Nairobi. Some of her family moved to the UK, but her immediate family came back to Oman. They do not speak Arabic. They speak Swahili and English. I don't think this family is the typical Omani family. They have traveled a fair bit, as well, so I believe they are more wealthy than most Omanis. Since Amna came back here as a child, she has learned Arabic, but her mother's cousin complained of being treated poorly in the UAE because she looks Arabic, but cannot speak Arabic.
The men went into another room and the women stayed in the living room. It was nice to see the women wearing such beautiful clothes. Most women who choose to wear an abaya, wear black. Sometimes it is embroidered or has sequins on it, but usually is plain. Under the abaya they may have colorful clothes on, I don't know. They may wear a colorful headscarf. But seeing their lovely clothes with sequins, elaborate embroidery and colors was nice. Anma had her hands decorated with henna.
After visiting for a bit, we ate a lunch of rice, meat and potatoes in a wonderful brown sauce and salad. With our hands. No chopsticks, no silverware. I found it difficult to eat rice with my fingers. And not get it all over my face, front of my shirt and the floor. But somehow I succeeded. I think the key is small bites and use all your fingers. Then we visited some more. The television was on the entire visit. It was tuned to a religious children's channel. The programs were in English, and most were cartoons with dubbed voices. For instance, it looked like the Prince of Egypt, but the dialogue and names were different. Instead of Moses and Aaron, it was Musa and Harun. The cartoon figures spoke whether their mouths moved or not. In between the cartoons were shots of the Hajj in Mecca with a sermon voice over. This prompted talk of Islam and the Quran. These women are serious about their faith. They mentioned more than once that they (Muslims) get blamed for everything. We had tea and cookies, then took our leave. We had been there for five hours! It was very tiring, even though the women were very hospitable. Eid continues for another four days, then back to school.
I have been here 10 days. I was off the first three days, had one day of orientation, off two days, had three days of orientation, and now have five days off. Sounds like a good schedule to me!

Stuck in the Apartment

2011-08-29T18:45:00.000+04:00

I'm spending a lot of time in my apartment because I don't have a car and you can't get far without a car in the outback of Oman. My latest occupation is watching the foreigners construct the building behind me. These ten men are putting up this building by themselves without power tools. One day I watched them hand rebar up to the top floor, one by one, floor by floor, without gloves. Here is another amazing thing. They had to get some gravel to the roof so they filled a bucket and pulled it up with the help of a pulley.
They did this repeatedly until they had enough gravel. I can't quite figure out if these guys ARE the construction company or workers hired by the construction company.
My school is in al-Hail, which is a half hour drive away. Most of the way is freeway. When off the freeway, there are usually roundabouts instead of stop lights. This particular intersection has stop lights and decorations. I guess if you run a red light, they shoot a cannon at you! All the Brits complain about how the Omanis drive through the circles, as they call them. Omanis, it seems, are not aware of the correct British way of driving through circles. They asked me how Americans drive through circles. I said, "Circles?"
I have been hobnobbing with my neighbors Nate and Laura, who are American. On this particular occasion we got together for lunch after school with another teacher, a Brit, named Alex. She would not allow me to take her picture, so it's just Nate and Laura. All the teachers in the apartment building are nice and we get on well. Now we'll be celebrating the end of Ramadan with Eid al-Fitr. This will last for five days. We return to school on Sept 4.

A Village of Villas

2011-08-25T11:23:00.000+04:00

A villa in Oman is a very large house with a central courtyard. The "village" I can see from my sand dune is a community of villas. Take a look.

And as always, it seems in Oman, there are more under construction. Meanwhile, the migrant workers from India and Pakistan live in plywood shacks behind the construction site.

My Sand Dune

2011-08-25T07:45:00.001+04:00

I live in an apartment house in front of a sand dune. The other night I climbed the sand dune (surprisingly steep) in order to see what was on the other side. The apartment building on the left is mine. On the fifth floor, the three windows on the left is my apartment. As you can see, there isn't much around here, but a lot of construction is going on. I really will have to get a car or car share in order to get anywhere.
This is looking to the north from the top of the sand dune.
This is looking to the west. If you look at the mountain in the background you can see a road with lights on it. This road was just completed. At first I thought it was a mining area because the mountain had been cut so. But that's just the way they carved the mountain to cut the road. Before this road was put in it took about an hour to drive around. The road is very steep and somewhat dangerous, but the drive is now only half an hour.
I saw lizard tracks, bird tracks and dog tracks on the dune. Curious, because I have never seen any of these animals.
Nate and Laura and I decided to go to the American Embassy even though we had registered online. That involved a drive into Muscat proper. We live in Boshar, near the airport, about 20 km from Muscat. It was exciting to drive along Embassy Row. It is right on the coast, so we could see the Gulf of Oman. Every embassy has ocean front property. The Embassy was staffed by people who were not American and we couldn't go in unless we had an appointment, which we didn't. I've never tried to go to an American Embassy, so this surprised me a bit.
Next, we drove down to the Muttrah Corniche. I thought there was a cruise ship docked there, but it was the Sultan's Super Yacht. The brown boat in front of the yacht is a dhow.
These are pictures of Riyam Park. That structure is an incense burner, but it looks like the UFO house in Pensacola Beach to me. We didn't go to the park, but the internet says from the incense burner there are beautiful views of the Corniche. I liked the sidewalk tiles.
There are more trees in Muscat than out here in Boshar, so it's slightly more green.
Yesterday we had our first orientation. Afterwards, I got an earful from some of the teachers who have been here a year. I think I'm going to al Hail school, but I'm told that is a half hour drive away, which doesn't make sense. There is another school al Khwheir which is about ten minutes away. Tonight we'll have a teacher dinner, then Saturday (which is Monday here) we start work on curriculum and classrooms. And I finally slept through the night (mostly). I was awakened at midnight by four 4-wheelers running up and down the dune.
Weather today: 28 degrees (83F), 82% humidity.

Arrival

2011-08-22T16:12:00.000+04:00

Whew! That was a long trip! I left Spokane at 8:30 AM on Friday, Aug 19. I arrived in Muscat at 5:30 AM Aug 21. And I didn't cross the international date line! It really was a 34 hour flight. I had a four hour layover in Chicago and a seven hour layover in Amman, Jordan.
I took advantage of the seven hour layover, got a visa, hired a taxi and saw some of the sites in Amman. Since I arrived as the sun was setting, there wasn't much to see. I told the taxi driver I could only be out for four hours. He said he thought "two hours were enough for Amman." He was right. I admit my knowledge of Amman is scant. I didn't know Amman was built on hills or that there were Roman settlements there. We stopped at two Roman ruins, an amphitheatre and the Citadel. The amphitheatre was built between the years 130 and 161 AD. The Citadel was built about the same time.

We also went to the al-Husseini Mosque, which was built in 633AD. It is a gathering place in downtown Amman, as well as a place of worship. Then, perhaps because it was nightfall and it is Ramadan, the taxi driver took me to Habibah for some knafeh. Habibah is the place for the best knafeh in all of Jordan. Or so my neighbor who grew up in Jordan tells me. I thought knefah was a cheese dish, but it is dough with cheese spread on it. It is very, very sweet, but good.
Even at 6AM, it was hot and humid in Muscat. My principal picked me up and she said it wasn't so humid today. Well at least I arrived at the end of the summer. Everything is brown here. It looks dry, but we are on the coast, which would account for the humidity. My apartment is quite large, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. I have a bathroom attached to my bedroom and a king size bed. The floors are all tiled. I wear my socks indoors because of the fine dust everywhere. I live in front of a sand dune.

I haven't seen Muscat except for the LuLu HyperMarket. There are no sidewalks here and things are spread out, so it looks like I will need to get a car.
Sunday was a frustrating day because I couldn't get internet, I couldn't get my SIM card in my phone and jet lag. I felt pretty emotional, but today things are better. The internet works, I bought a new phone, visited with the neighbors and am more rested, though still tired. Wednesday we have a teacher's orientation meeting when I will find out the location of my school. There are three locations.
Now I think I'll take a nap!

Going to Oman

2011-08-16T02:11:00.001+04:00

I have accepted a teaching position in Muscat, Oman. I'm thinking "There and Back Again" should have a more clever name, such as "Oh, Man! Oman" or "Muscat Meditations" or "Kimchi in the Middle East." Any suggestions?
Oman is a fairly large country. I hope to be able to dive, drive in sand dunes, camp out, see camel races, climb a few hills, explore some archeological sites, see the stars closer to the equator, and make some Omani friends.
But right now I need to pack and clean.
Stay tuned for updates!

Empire State Building

2011-08-05T01:06:00.000+04:00

The Empire State Building, built in 1931, was the tallest building in New York for many years. I love the Empire State Building. I can't take enough pictures of it. New Yorkers don't necessarily feel the same way. Laura says she hates the Empire State Building. I think she says that because I tell her I love it. Finally, I got to go there. It was very crowded.
People irritated me by acting like they were the only ones wanting to take their picture at the top of the Empire State Building. Lower Manhattan. That's New Jersey in the middle right of the picture. The Chrysler Building Looks like SimCity
The Empire State Building can be seen from many different parts of the city. Here are a few of the pictures I've taken.

My time here is coming to an end. I take a group to the Guggenheim tomorrow, pack up on Saturday and leave Sunday morning. I've been to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Brooklyn Bridge, Prospect Park, Brooklyn Heights, Central Park, Coney Island, the Guggenheim, Greenwich Village, Ground Zero, Madame Tussaud's, MoMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Natural History Museum, Soho, Chinatown, Little Italy and Wall Street. I learned to navigate the PATH and the New York subway system while herding cats that don't speak English (aka my students), I only lost one student for 25 minutes, made some great friends, and suffered through students having footraces in the hallway at 11:15 at night when they should have been in bed. I've tutored 82 students of varying abilities, from false beginners to fluent. I've learned about the cultures of Kazakhstan, Italy, Russia, became reacquainted with Chinese culture, and realized again that kids are kids no matter what culture they're from. This summer camp has been a very enjoyable, worthwhile experience.

This and That

2011-07-31T05:06:00.000+04:00

The girls from Kazakhstan have been at the school for a month, which is two weeks longer than anyone else. This means they have repeated some excursions, but one place they haven't been is the wax museum. They are leaving on Sunday, so I said I'd take them before they left. It was fun for them and for me, too!
Dana (pronounced Donna) could be a model. She's tall and she always dresses like this. I've seen her in slacks once.
Aiza (pronounced Eye-za)is very intelligent, speaks English well and is somewhat difficult. But who knows? Maybe she can run the country.
Farida and Aiza are cousins. She is very quiet, but can speak English well, also. At the museum, she really opened up, laughed and had a good time.
That night our activity was a garbage bag fashion show ala Project Runway. The kids were given a garbage bag with stuff in it - plastic plates and bowls, felt cutouts, glitter, ribbon, tape and other bits and pieces. They were told to make a garment using as many of the items as they could. Then the "judges," aka all the teachers, scored them as they did their runway walk.
Manfredi (Italian)
Belinda (Chinese) Begium (Turkish) Chaun (Turkish) And then winner is.... I don't remember. We had 18 contestants. I think they all had fun with this project and we teachers had fun judging them.
Today was back to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We were treated to some skywriting by five planes. They spelled out: "Geico Not just car insurance" It was backwards and upside down to our view. Later, back at the school, the kids pulled out their souvenir T-shirts and began autographing them.

This impressed me because the Chinese and Europeans don't mingle. I thought perhaps this was the start of some friendships. The only way they can communicate with each other is to speak English. Score!
One last picture: This is me with Kareem Abdul Jabar and Willie Shoemaker. Maybe I should have been a jockey???

Brooklyn Heights, a pictorial

2011-07-27T05:19:00.000+04:00

When I grow up, I'm going to live in Brooklyn Heights. Delightful neighborhood. It's hard to believe it is five minutes from Manhattan.

Jersey City

2011-07-27T04:41:00.000+04:00

I have been going into Manhattan and Brooklyn several times a week. I have not done much exploring of Jersey City, though. Sunday I planned on going to visit the United Nations and Grand Central Terminal. I walked down to the subway and then just kept walking.
Jersey City is an interesting mix of peoples. Now there are a lot of Muslims. I see women with head scarves on pushing baby carriages. In one neighborhood the men also dress traditionally with flowing clothes, called salwar kameez and headgear called kufi. Usually the men dress in western style. I passed the Catholic church graveyard which was filled with headstones with names like Van Reyper, Van Winkle, and Van Horne. These people died in the 18th and 19th Centuries. I walked a bit farther and came upon another cemetery, this one with names on the headstones such as Spagnolli, Piazza, and Neri. These people died in the 20th Century. I turned down another street which was festooned with red, white, and green banners advertising the Italian Festival in August.
Historic Downtown is a throwback to the 1960s before there were malls. Shops, restaurants, and sidewalk cafes line the streets. People are out walking. Grove Street is the site of the monthly Groove on Grove music festival. There is plenty of street art.
From my dorm room window, I can see part of the Manhattan skyline and the Goldman Sachs Tower, which is on the waterfront of Jersey City. But dominating my view is the old medical building, now condos. They are a complex of beautiful art deco buildings. I'm not sure how they changed a hospital into condos, but they are nice.

Las Vegas may have the Hard Rock Cafe, but Jersey City has the Hard Grove Cafe on Grove Street!

Downtown street

Street art

And my favorite - the 99 cent store. Sort of.

I'm lagging behind in my blogging

2011-07-20T21:41:00.000+04:00

The classes and excursions continue...It's been clear and hot in New York. Yesterday it was HOT! Our excursion was to Central Park. Patrick and I were leading the pack. We let the kids go to explore Central Park, but they went shopping on Fifth Avenue. Two students stayed with us. We just walked around and then sat for over an hour, because the boys were hot.

On Saturday evening, Bonnie graced me with her presence. Although she has lived in DC for almost 6 years, she has never been to the Statue of Liberty. The tour stopped in Ellis Island as well. Later we went to Hoboken, which has a very lively downtown area. It was very nice. I don't care what they say about New Jersey, I like it.

On the 15th, Stephen and I took a group to Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Prospect Park is quite a large park, although we didn't have time to go in and hang out. Someone named Frank Bailey funded a fountain at the entrance to the park in memory of his wife. The fountain is a bit odd, so I'm not sure what that says about his wife.
The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial was built in 1880 or thereabouts as a memorial to Civil War veterans. There are statues of Lincoln and Grant inside the arch.

We also walked past the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Public Library, which both had imposing edifices. We walked through a brownstone neighborhood where you can rent a house for as low as $5000 per month. The upscale one went for $18000 per month. Yes, they were lovely.
We also stopped at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens that day. They were lovely, but not as lovely as Manito Park. Also, Manito Park is a lot cooler.
And now you're caught up!

Jersey City Waterfront. Not the Jersey Shore

2011-07-15T05:06:00.000+04:00

Looking down Broadway at the Chrysler building. I think you have to look closely to see it.

A lamppost in the East Village. There were several of these. The decorations are tiles, broken dishes, pieces of glass and other bits and things.
Yesterday I was supposed to be on campus doing activities with the kids. However, they were not thrilled with this idea and since the administration has heard of their unhappiness via their parents, we took them back to New York, mostly for shopping. We let them go with a pre-arranged meeting place and time.
Laura, who lives in New York, then took me on a guided tour through Little Italy, the East Village, Greenwich Village, Noho and Soho. Soho stands for SOuth of HOuston (pronounced How-stun not like the Texas city) and NOrth of HOuston. These are neighborhoods, not something touristy. Laura has a favorite dessert place. It is called Rice to Riches. They only serve rice pudding. They have many flavors, such as cheesecake, caramel, strawberry and rocky road. They offer toppings, too. Also you get to keep the cool tupperware type container it comes in.
Today I had class only. Yes, I am teaching three hours a day. I also take the kids on excursions and do activities in the evening. But today was class, then I was free. I decided to go to Liberty Park. It is about the size of Central Park, has a science center, IMAX theatre and lots of trails. And the waterfront. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are closer to New Jersey than New York. It was very exciting to walk along the trail and see the Statue of Liberty on my right. After I took plenty of photos of her and Manhattan, I walked over to this odd abandonded/still-being-used-looking building. It was the old Central New Jersey Railroad terminal. Apparently before the PATH and other subways, you took a train to the waterfront and got a ferry to New York. Now the terminal is used for Statue of Liberty ferries. It has been designated an historic site. The railroad tracks out back and the roofs covering them are abandoned, but the main building is still in use. Also the docks are still standing, though they are in disrepair, which makes for very cool black and white photos. Take a peek:

Now for the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan skyline and Jersey City skyline.
The big building under construction is being built at Ground Zero.
Jersey City skyline.
Statue of Liberty with the Brooklyn Bridge at her base.
This picture looks like Lady Liberty is walking on Ellis Island.