The Whale and The Moth

Our New York home exchange hosts, Cliff and Joan, spent a leisurely morning with us and we enjoyed discussing recent travels and hearing their recommendations in the neighborhood.  Cliff set up his camera and took a great shot of all of us.  It almost seem amazing that our paths have not crossed sooner as we have been to many of the same places, got married the same year and have many interests in common.  In looking at photos, one of their close friends, a Turkish woman who now lives in France, could be Dilara in 20 years.  It looks like Dilara will be a stunning 47 year old!

We said our goodbyes and Cliff and Joan left for Long Island today.  We look forward to getting together for dinner before we leave NYC in a couple of weeks.  Once we figured out our plan for the day and headed out, we could see in full daylight what a striking neighborhood we are in.  The ginko trees that line our street (85th) are tall and beautiful with that lilting sparkle that is so unique to their leaves.  The apartment building in impressive and ornate - Cliff had showed us the exit window to the fire escape, but seeing it all from the street level, craning my neck upward, I am hoping for no need for an emergency exit.

Cliff and Joan generously offered us the use of their 3 museum membership cards, so our first destination today was the The American Museum of Natural History, which faces Central Park and occupies an entire city block.  Thanks to the membership, we not only got in free (Dilara cost $10) but the membership also allowed us free entry to the special Whale exhibit.  We did a quick calculation and the membership saved us almost $100.  Grateful!

Here are some of our most memorable museum facts:  Whales and hoofed animals are related.  Whales used to walk on land and still have vestigial hind legs.  Whales can dive as far down as 5000 feet to scoop up prey.  In the Ancient Peoples exhibits Dilara and I were most impressed with the Semai people of Malaysia who abhorred violence and extolled happiness. An interesting Semai saying is  "there are more reasons to fear a dispute than a tiger."  Another saying,  "Unhappiness causes bad luck."  Hmm... we are a long way from the Semai.  Perhaps we Americans also only have vestigial peace-loving tendencies.

In late afternoon we got our subway passes and headed to Soho to find the Housing Works Bookstore and Cafe and to secure our places in line in time to get good seats for The Moth's Story Slam event at 7 PM.   If you are not addicted to The Moth podcasts, I highly recommend you find them online and start listening.  Moth story events are defined as "true stories told live."  Ben got in line at 5:30 - by the time Dilara and I joined him in line at 6:30, the line was to the end of the block.  Once we were allowed inside, the chairs filled up quickly and people lines up on the stairway and across the small balconies.  A festive atmosphere filled the air.  Almost everyone who works at Housing Works is a volunteer - all of their proceeds go to provide housing and healthcare to AIDs patients.   We were surprised to learn that every single book in the bookstore was donated so that all proceeds could benefit the mission.

Storytellers were chosen - 10 out of 22 who put their hats in the ring - and the stories began.  Three small groups within the audience were chosen as judging panels and so each story received  3 scores to be averaged and compared.  The subject was "Rules" and each storyteller told a story that somehow related to this theme.  Our 3 favorites involved a child magician, an Oscar Meyer Weiner truck driver, and finally, a Brit who became a US citizen.  The winner... the Brit!  She will move on and compete in the Moth Grand Slam event at a future date.

Subway ride home, 2 block walk to the apartment, up the elevator 5 stories and we were "home".