Phone Number!

Yay! I now have a somewhat local phone number! Brian and I signed up for an unlimited phone plan through Skype that lets us make and receive calls from anywhere in the US. It's (845) 605-4555. The number is out of downstate New York, so it costs the price of a regular call. 

This week I saw a really cool South American custom that I think the US should adopt. This Saturday I was reading my book in the park, when I heard a bunch of people behind me start clapping. I looked around and saw a man with a little girl on his shoulders, and  figured it was her birthday or something. More and more people in the park started to turn around and clap, (even though they were completely engulfed in their own conversations and park activities) and then at once the clapping was over. I asked my students the next day what that was about, and they told me that when there is a lost child in the park, an adult will put the kid on their shoulders and start clapping. Everyone here knows the drill, so when people hear one person clapping, they start doing it too until the whole place is doing it. When parents hear clapping they look for their own kids, and if they notice them missing, they can see if he/she is on a pair of shoulders. Really cool.