Happy Monday!

After dodging tourists and NYC bus tours salesmen, a grin pops on my face. Every morning before I go to FAIR, just as I walk to the subway I see a newspaper man. 

I swear, he is probably the happiness man in the city and I started getting the paper from him last week.

He always has a huge smile, laughing and always talking to someone. 

He stands at the top of the stairs, handing out newspapers and wishes me a good day at work. 

"Happy Monday! Happy, happy Monday! Have a good day at work, young lady!" 

Just one nice person can really brighten your day. 

No One Deserves Hate: Discrimination on the Subway

I walked down the stairs to the subway on Friday. I was on my way to see my friend Annie for lunch in Union Square, when I saw a woman yelling.

Her hair was tousled and unkempt, her clothes and backpack dirty. She was yelling. At first I thought she was just yelling in general, about the subway or something, but then I noticed that she was following a family as they went up the stairs.

I don't know how it started, but everyone on the platform was watching, and I was still on the stairs, creeping my way down slowly. The husband walked slowly and spoke back to the woman - distracting her as his wife held their child's hand and headed up the stairs.

The family quickly left and the woman followed them - yelling - and spat in their direction. At that point I was on the platform. Everyone still watching.

You can already tell that she was targeting them, trying to make her presence and feelings known. Just think, you and your family are traveling and someone comes and is very aggressive to you? What do you think would cause such a thing? In this case, it was clear discrimination.

What I didn't tell you, is that the family was Muslim. At least, that's what the angry woman thought. The wife was wearing a light blue hijab and the woman aggressively commented on it. The woman also said something along the lines of "people like you shouldn't be in this country."

Recently at FAIR, I have been looking at how Islam is portrayed in the media. I am not a specialist on religious studies or media, but in a class last semester I learned how the media over time has picked specific groups to, in lack of a better words, "call the bad guys" or consider "the other," meaning that they are not accepted. Media does this by portraying a group as unfavorable which prolongs discrimination. This happened with newspapers in the 1800's - 1900's that promoted lynchings and slavery. People fought against discrimination by creating their own newspapers, like The Liberator, in order to have an alternative voice.

We, the media, have such a great power; we shape society's ideas and ideologies, we inform and educate, and overall send a strong message.

Right now, commentators say intolerant things about practitioners of this religion, and all the while push ignorance and fear onto the public. "Our" message, is a message of hate.

On Friday, though, I saw this hate embody itself in a woman confronting a family on the subway.

I keep playing this scene in my head, and I wanted to jump into action on the platform.

One idea I had went like this: I would confront the angry woman and explain everything to her. The media is lying to you! This family didn't cause 9/11, it was extremists that many believe do not honor Allah. I would tell her that she is perpetuating hate that we are trying to overcome. We live in America and this country belongs to this family as much as it belongs to you and me. 

Probably not the best idea. It is very difficult to try to convince someone that what they are doing is wrong in a peaceful manner. One way to stop this hate is through education, but I am not particularly good at this. It's difficult for me to articulate ideas when under pressure.

I also hate to say this, but Michelle pointed it out last night when I told her about this situation. When traveling alone in NYC, my main priority should be to keep myself safe. Confronting this woman, who was very aggressive, would question my safety.

The second way I could have handled this is more realistic. I imagined myself going onto the side of the stairs that the family was on, and block the wife and child from the woman yelling at them. At the top of the stairs, ask them if they were alright and see if they needed anything. Then, I would head down, and the angry woman would probably recognize me and start yelling. I would tell her, "No one deserves hate, no one deserves to be discriminated against." Yes. That sounds very heroic - like a movie or advertisement, but I believe that statement is true.

But, no. I didn't do a thing. No one did anything, they just watched, shocked at what was happening and then everything just ended. People quietly discussed how weird that was and started talking about the musician sitting on the platform, as if nothing happened.

I saw them at the top of the stairs and watched. They were alright. Upset, but alright. And then they just walked away.

All I could think about was that family; what I should have done. Regret lingered with me all weekend. I knew that it only takes one person to get a group of bystanders to act, but I didn't have the courage at that moment. Now, I think the only way I can change this type of hate is by making sure my work does not promote it.

Citi Bike: NYC bike share program

Citibike stations map of the city.
www.treehugger.com

There are 6,000 bikes and 300 stations in NYC. They're a part of a Citi Bike, NYC's bike share program, that I believe is sponsored by Citibank. People can rent out a bike for a couple of hours and return it to a station.

The program started Memorial Day weekend, which is when I first came to the city. I few things popped through my mind when I first saw them. I was worried, originally, because there are so many cars in the city and a ton of traffic. In my opinion, bikers are prone to injuries, especially in heavily populated areas.  

On the other hand, this could be a good thing. Cities like Portland, Oregon, have successfully implemented bike share programs and increased the number of bike routs throughout the city. This is environmentally friendly.

And I'm not sure how to say this in a non-granola crunchy way, but I go to Ithaca College, you excepted this. There is always the hope that maybe NYC will help "Mother Earth." I can dream, right?

Well, The New York Times published an article today about some technical problems with the bike share. The bike stations sometimes will not process payments or will not allow people to return the bikes. The customer service line, according to the article, has been very busy over the past two weeks and will leave people on hold for 45 minutes. The best thing to report though, is that no one has been injured while riding these bikes.

I haven't used the bikes yet, but everyday I pass empty stations. We'll see if I get tired of the subway.

Citi Bike station. www.treehugger.com

Beauteous [easy] Meals

The tupperware's lid is slightly elevated
so it has more space for larger sandwiches.  

Living in New York City can be really expensive. Eating lunch at a restaurant every day will burn a hole in your wallet, which is why I try to bring lunch everyday. It is cost effective and gives me an excuse to eat healthier.

Last year, my roommate found this cool sandwich tupperware which I use constantly now. The tupperware is really secure, the top part hasn't opened even though I put it in a huge backpack and a clunky purse. (If its made it through committing, it will make it through anything...) I got some of my ideas for sandwiches from Pinterest; here are some meals that I've made over the past week!

This lunch [to the left] was left over chicken salad (same recipe as my May 27 post) on top of lettuce and some asparagus. There are carrots and black berries in the smaller part of the tupperware. The smaller part is good to put fruit in. 

My lunch today was left over rice from Chinese take out, grilled chicken and asparagus. I put slices of cheddar cheese on top of the chicken so it would melt after being microwaved for a minute. Then I mixed up the chicken cheesy goodness with the rice! 

Meal before microwave.

Meal after microwave.

Below an avocado, cheddar cheese and onion sandwich. I made this as a quick snack after work, so I didn't get to use the tupperware. Just throw the sandwich into a pan and let it warm up and toast like a grilled cheese. You'll also need a little salt and pepper for the avocado. 

Avocado and cheesy goodness... 

Here is my final meal. It was my lunch last week when I wasn't at work. I cooked up asparagus, cut some cheddar which just goes well with everything - including warm vegetables, and made a parfait of sorts. There is vanilla yogurt, mango cut into cubes, black berries and almonds. 

Beautiful meal next my city view.

a FAIR rainy day

Usually when I work on long essays for my politics classes, I zip between Pinterest and Facebook to take a breather from reading and writing. Today, I worked so much and couldn't stop. I stayed a little late because I wanted to finish writing! Okay, well let me tell you about what happened this morning before I was writing and being productive.

There is a bus stop right in front of the apartment I'm staying in, and I missed my bus by 10 seconds. It's okay though, because another bus arrived a minute later. I hopped on the bus with my little yellow Metrocard. "Hi, how are you today?" I said to the bus driver, just about to put my Metrocard into the little slot so I can pay my fair. The bus driver put his hand over the slot, saying, "I'm sorry, this isn't the city bus." I was shocked. "Oh, oh I'm sorry," and I scurried out of the bus. The people who got off of the bus chuckled at me. I was so embarrassed, not the best way to start off my city adventure.

Luckily, the correct bus came by a few minutes later. Except there was so much traffic that the usual seven minute commute to the subway took twenty minutes. I was panicking. I can't be late on the first day! What would they think of me? What a foolish intern!  So, when the bus finally reached my stop, I ran off into the subway. Subways are really enjoyable for me. There are so many opportunities to people watch. I didn't see anyone of particular interest today, but if anyone is I will inform you.

Well, I got to FAIR. All safe and sound. Each intern gets their own desk, which is very exciting. To think; my own desk! That isn't all. Who would think that my job at FAIR was going to be to read articles and write about mainstream news coverage? These kinds of studies should be mandatory for all media based degrees because in one day I probably read fifty articles. Consuming media is so important because everyone should stay informed about the world. Something I noticed is that working with a smaller organization also allows interns to dive right into projects. I stayed a little late today to finish writing a short piece that will hopefully be edited this week on the coverage of an event this weekend. One day one I already wrote something.

After a wonderful day consuming vast amounts of media, I went outside to catch my subway in the rain. Yes. It started raining and I didn't read the weather report. Yes. I do go to school in Ithaca and usually look up the weather report, but forgot. So, when there wasn't a spot on the bus for me I walked  back to the apartment. It wasn't bad, it was sprinkling. I couldn't help but look at all of the people with their umbrellas, the tourists running around and people hiding under the scaffolding just to avoid a little rain. It was funny, the way everyone looked at me when I was walking, because I didn't really care about the rain. I had a better than fair first day, and a little drizzle wasn't going to get me down.