The Village Halloween Parade

This is the video of the Halloween Parade in the West Village of Manhattan. The Parade started at 7 pm. I arrived there at 6 pm but there were already a lot of people on both sides of the parade route. I was fourth in line from the street so I could only see the big floats. However, since I started to go back to the station earlier than the other people, I could see a lot of people with Halloween costumes going to the parade or to a party. It was really fun to see them closely.

↓After the parade

Wetzel's Pretzels!

I love Wetzel's Pretzels. Every time I go to Garden State Plaza I eat the pretzels at this store.

They bake pretzels at the store so we can eat fresh baked ones. I tried other pretzel shops in the mall, but Wetzel's Pretzels are the best. I always see this woman making pretzels with gusto. The above picture is a cinnamon pretzel with cream.

Neighborhood's Halloween decorations

I took a picture of my neighborhood's Halloween decorations. Some of them are really scary.

Presentation

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　↑IFC Center (Movie theater at West Village)

Each student has to do 20-30 minutes presentation about something related to the United States. I talked about the American health care organization, HMO. I found the movie theater which was still playing Michel Moore's latest documentary movie about HMO ”Sicko” and I could see it even at the beginning of October. The movie had been playing at most theaters in the United States since June until August. I made a presentation based on this movie. I had just heard before that the medical costs in the US are very high. I didn't know the US doesn't have universal health care like Japan and other developing countries. 50 million people are living without health insurance and 250 million people have it. 18,000 Americans die every year simply because they are not insured. Also, I knew from this movie how the American HMO system constantly betrays the insured 250 million American people. HMOs are kind of private insurance companies, so they maximise profits and minimise expenses. They are always trying to refuse to pay insurance coverage for whatever reason. Then, many Americans go bankrupt or die for not being able to pay the medical costs. If you are not insured, the average medical cost is USD7,000. Ambulances cost over USD600. An operation for appendicitis costs USD20,000. After my presentation, we had a discussion time. One student who has been living for 6 years in the US told us that she doesn't have health insurance and she had to pay USD7,000 for her operation for heart disease. Hearing this, I discovered how high American medical costs are and it's very difficult to pay them without insurance coverage. The other day, in the Manhattan subway, I saw a person who was writing a denial letter for insurance coverage on the form with the letter head of CIGNA, which is one of the biggest HMOs. It seemed the movie was a real story.

Friendly's at Route 46

I like Friendly's. I feel the interior and menu are really traditional style American. Also, the food is good and the waitresses are speedy. Friendly's was opened as Friendly's Ice Cream shop in 1935 and has a lot of restaurants in the US. It's like a prototype of a Family restaurant. However, it's suprising to imagine Americans have been eating hamburgers and there have been these types of restaurant since before the World War II.

Hank's Franks in Lodi, NJ

We found a good hot dog stand on route 46, NJ. As we said that this was the first time we had visited the stand, the man, maybe he is the owner, kindly explained to us about the toppings for hot dogs. We can choose the toppings; mustard, cheese, hot chilli, hot onions, sour onions, fresh onions, sweet sauce, etc. We ordered hot chilli, hot onions and cheese. They use sausage and rolls. I think this was the first time I had Sabrett's sausage and rolls. The sausage was juicy and light and the roll was soft. The toppings were very good. The hot chilli was especially good! I felt this stand represented America. Checking this stand through Internet, I knew that the stand was established in 1959 and is still run by the same family!

Hank's Franks
210 US Highway 46 E, Lodi, NJ
(973) 473-8589

ESL of BCCAP

The ESL class of BCCAP started today. It's a beginner's class as I wrote on Oct. 6th. The students were 12, 8 from central and south America, one from Iran, one from China and two from Japan including me. The woman next to me was from Colombia. I was wondering when to tell them I understand some Spanish. Fortunately, the teacher asked me what languages I speak so I confessed that I studied Spanish before. Some people turned to me but they seemed not to be surprised. Then I talked to the woman next to me in Spanish and she started talking in Spanish. I sometimes feel that Spanish speakers don't have any special reaction when they know I know some words of Spanish.It's like American people. The common thing between them is people who speak popular languages. Otherwise I had an enjoyable time in the class because of my Spanish even though it is very poor. Since the woman next to me,Sra . E, has far sight, I could help her a lot and talk with her in Spanish and English. Then she took an Ecuadorian girl and me home by car. I think I could be a friend of Sra. E and the girl. They are nice and frank. My Spanish used to not be so useful as today.

ESL of Bergen County Community Action Partnership (BCCAP)

I took BCCAP's ESL test on August 17th and have been waiting for their letter to inform me of the class schedule. The letter finally arrived last Friday, October 6th. Looking at the letter, my level is 2&3, Monday and Wednesday morning. Otherwise I have already started to study at another ESL school on the same schedule, so I had to change the schedule and telephone them. They said that they can't change the day class to a night class because they have already more than 30 people in the night class. Normally the maximum is 25 people. So I asked them if I could change to a lower class on Tuesday and Thursday morning. They said the lower one is beginner's level and it would be awful for me because it start with "How are you?" Otherwise I didn't have any option and thought that I will learn something from the class even it is for beginners and decided to study in the beginner's class.