I am thankful for the opportunity to speak with people, listening, eating, awe-inspired, sensing enthusiasm

In school today we learned from economists about how immigrants are very good for the world economy, the nations which receive them, and the nations they leave.  Even if your motive is money, the mixing of peoples and differences is, after all, a very strong force for good.  I think this proves the world was onto something when it made the USA, the country in which we learned such truths this day, and all the other lands where diverse mixtures of people love and play

I am very happy to be here and aware of the magic everywhere and to keep believing in what I love, and I am very happy that you are here, and I wish you well in finding magic as you traverse life's paths, whether they be dark or bright, and plentiful strength in spreading light to those who just might have been thinking of starting a fight.  People spread love when love is spread to them.  We can only sometimes influence how life treats us, but we can always influence how we treat the living. If people are loved and allowed to be their true selves without being made to feel ashamed or as if they are sinful, and if they work toward shaping societies where people celebrate love made possible by diversity of appearance and spirit, then God will smile with them as much as they please to see

So many thank you's to the gods of music, art, poetry, saving the day

1 of my favorite activities in the advanced listening class is to play them interviews with famous artists and other humans of note from the "blankonblank" series.  I'll print out a transcript with missing words that they have to fill in purely through listening, and then we'll watch the animated video with subtitles the second time around so they can fill in the parts they missed.

I was feeling pretty good as I left for work this morning.  My plan was to arrive on time (foreshadowing), have the students get started on an activity, and use that time to delete some words from the transcripts I'd already copied into files.  Of course, the 1 train was backed up.  I got my normal train, but there were twice as many people on it as usual because the previous train hadn't come.  Then we started waiting at stations, and I realized I was going to be a little late.  When we got to 96th, I attempted to transfer to the express train.  My hopes rose briefly when I saw that there was an express 3 train coming in 1 minute.  Oh man, they sure got me good!  A minute after the 1 train closed its doors and moved on slowly down the track, the sign for "3 train - 1 minute" disappeared from the list.  The next 1 train would arrive in 3 minutes (it was really 5), and the express train wouldn't come for 10 minutes.  So I'd just delayed myself unnecessarily based on false information.  Nevertheless, I think I'm getting better at this train frustration thing.

I started off pretty well when I first got to New York, having no expectations, taking things in stride.  But the longer you live here, the more crap you have to put up with, and the more "capital of the world's" public transport system starts to get to you.  Eventually, mostly because of fatigue, you start to accept the inevitability and repetitiveness of the process, and remember not to fret about that which you absolutely cannot control, and focus on something else.  Having a philosophy book helps.  In fact, today the middle-aged woman next to me peered into my lap and saw the headings "MODERN PHILOSOPHY" and "LOCKE'S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE" and broke the sacred code of not talking to strangers on the subway in NYC by saying, "Now there's some light subway reading for ya..."

Eventually I did get to work, and I didn't even bother running, because somebody's shirt in the crosswalk on 39th street said, "AHHHH, NOBODY CARES."  So I got to work on time, and the students were talking happily, and once again a supposedly random shirt I'd seen turned out to be prophetic.  Besides, the students seem to enjoy my animated descriptions of the subway's antics.

The thing was, I still needed to delete some words from the transcripts, and needed to buy some more time.  I use a laptop connected to a television in class so that we can watch and listen to all sorts of things, so I figured I could work on the transcripts while they did something.  However, I'd already missed 10 minutes, so telling them to chill for a couple minutes wasn't going to cut it.  So I thought fast and paired them up with partners for topical conversations, rotating partners every five minutes.  The first topic was free talk, the second was talking about music, and the third was talking about whether they prefer to plan or improvise when they travel.  Why did they spend so much time talking?  Because it turned out the wireless internet was down!  Of course!

A good summary of what happened next would be that I improvised a lot to get those interviews available and playing in our room while simultaneously finalizing, printing and stapling transcripts before returning to the room twenty minutes later, and learn that the wireless had started working one minute before.

The improvised topics flowed smoothly into the interviews, as the interviewees I had selected were none other than John Coltrane, Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz, Nina Simone, Maya Angelou (she was a dancer and singer before she was a writer and poet), and Satchmo, Louis Armstrong, all of whom are masters of improvisation, more or less related to the jazz genre.

Before John Coltrane, I played them the song "Giant Steps" and had them write stream of consciousness.  Then I played them the interview, first on the boom box, then on the television.

After that I played them Brubeck's classic "Take Five" and had them describe whatever relaxing scene they had in mind.  Then we had a break.

When we came back, I had intended to play them "Girl From Ipanema" by Getz and some others, but the internet went out again, so I had to make use of my previous improvisation and play the interview a different way.  Then we listened to Nina Simone talk about how her dress would win her audience before she even played a note or opened her mouth.  That's interesting, because her voice had won my approval before I saw her wear anything.  In between listens I asked them to write about what made them feel good while we listened to that song she sings about feeling good.  I think it was called "I am Well Enough"

This all paved the way for the grand finale, an interview with Louis Armstrong.  Did you know he wore boxers?  Well, we all do, now.  We watched Muhammad Ali get interviewed Monday, so I guess that boxers are en vogue now.  After the interview, I played them "What a Wonderful World" and had them write about why the world is a good place.

In fact, that's why I got inspired to share this experience.  I do similar things in class quite a bit, but this time the writing was especially uplifting with its grand simplicity.

I'll share a few of them with you now.  Life is good because:

We can spend time with people who make us happy

There are many places to discover, people we like, food, beautiful music, surprise of art, and dancing

We can talk and express our opinion to each other and we can understand each other.  We create "the answer" for difficult problems together

Because we have friends in the world, Disneyland, nature and it's really relaxing forms, we can see scenery around the world, there is very different place to go, really different culture, language, building (or did the writer mean 'really different culture language building' in the present progressive, and simply overused commas?)

I can breathe and drink water, enjoy lots of things.  Sometimes living is hard, but it's okay because you can share your feelings with your friends and family.  What a wonderful world.

A lot of amazing places to visit and a lot of things to taste, touch, feel and smell

Because of pretty rainbows, all the gorgeous people who make me laugh, all the delicious food!!, all the interesting cultures and religions.  Love

Also, pizza

KEYS

Keep Expressing Your Self