Musings from the Road

My seminar travels so far this week have taken me to Newark, Ronkonkoma (central Long Island), New Rochelle (north of the Bronx) and this afternoon to Fishkill, New York. Some random observations:

• In Newark, the view out my window was of the Continental hanger of the airport. The view out the hallway window was of the New Jersey penitentiary. Great entertainment to watch prisoners play basketball during my lunch hour. Travel is glamorous.
• Although Ronkonkoma (I'm sure glad I don't have to write that as my return address on envelopes!) is in central Long Island we drove considerably farther east to see how the "other one percent" lives. My word! I thought I had seen lots of mansions along Sheridan Road in Chicagoland. Keniworth looks like Podunkville compared to South Hampton! Mega-mansions, either cedar sided or super modern style, hide behind meticulously manicured huge hedges and face the ocean. Even the sea gulls appeared extra white!
• We splurged at a lovely Italian restaurant in the town and sat next to a family with three young kids and gawked at their obviously expensive clothes and the fact that little kids were eating fancy, expensive food on a Monday night! We had our glamour, however. We left South Hampton and checked into our mansion.....the lovely Holiday Inn!
• After the seminar in Ronkonkoma we headed into Manhattan, stopped at "tickets tickets" in lower Manhattan and got half price tickets to the musical "Hair". I don't know why I get excited every time I'm in Manhattan, but I thoroughly enjoyed driving (actually, being driven) across the Brooklyn Bridge, along the FDR, passing the United Nations and then driving cross town on 45th, passing through Times Square during rush hour. It was slow and the police presence was bigger than usual but, man, it feels so alive. Hungry and with only fifteen minutes to show time, we got takeout from a nearby Chipotle and ate it sitting on a curb outside the theatre. More glamor!
• Seeing "Hair" was a real hoot! When it came out the first time I was 21 and, man, did the memories of those years come flooding back: burning draft cards, hippie clothes, early rock music, not trusting anyone over 30 and....horrors!...nudity on stage. My program manager is 26 and knew nothing of most of that "era" but, fortunately, at least pretended to be very interested in all my memories.
• Then it was a short drive to New Rochelle where I was treated to a hotel where, in order to go up to the 7th floor where today's seminar was from the 6th floor where my room was, I had to take the elevator down to the lobby and then transfer to another elevator to go up--carrying two big bags. Lunch meant I had to repeat that double elevator dance.....twice....because, in spite of having late check-out, my key wouldn't work.
  
• This is a really depressing time in foreign language teaching. I've been hearing all week of elementary and/or middle school programs being cut or reduced, wage freezes, teacher layoffs, and bigger and bigger class sizes. In some of the city schools they have classes of 35+. Sometimes - in one class - they have non-English speaking new arrivals, other long-term native speakers, Anglo kids who don't know any Spanish and every possible problem with socio-economic woes and learning disabilities. And I'm supposed to be able to teach them how to differentiate and meet all those needs!! And they remain good natured and enthusiastic!
  
• And then there are some private schools where classes of 15 are considered big.
• Teachers have been incredibly gracious and receptive, but there are always some funny things.
  

1. Two teachers blew huge bubble gum bubbles all day. Do they do that in their classrooms?
2. I designed an activity using obscure countries and capitals so that teachers could get some feeling for how hard some things are for their students. The capital of Israel is Jerusalem. Today, however, someone fussed that the capital is Tel Aviv. When I answered that I had researched this and that Tel Aviv was the capital at one time, but it is now Jerusalem, several people said, "No, it's Tel Aviv." One man with a laptop looked it up. When he said, "It says right here on Wikipedia that it's Jerusalem." they jumped all over him saying that Wikipedia isn't necessarily true. He had to research several other sites, before he finally found the official nation of Israel site which said, yes, Jerusalem is the capital. Yikes! That was ten minutes I had to cut out of my presentation. I wonder how they react when students disagree with something they say?
3. Someone came up to me at the morning break and said, "You're from Chicago, right? I can tell by your "a". " I know I have that awful flat "a", but I chuckled to myself because her question was asked in a strong, strong Brooklyn accent!
4. Two-thirds of today's participants complained that there weren't any muffins. Don't take away teachers' treats.

Tonight's hotel is right next to the Fishkill River. I know that "kill" means "river or stream" in Dutch, but Fishkill River still sounds funny! Of course, "fish river river" sounds weird, too!

What adventures await here tomorrow?