cpe: day 1 - for real

so my last post should have been titled clerical day one, or something to that effect, at least.  today was my first day actually chaplaining.  we met at sih (seafarer's and international house) and then headed with the director of seafarer's to the newark ports.  when we got there, he drove us around a bit and then we met up with chris, one of the part-time permanent chaplains, at the mall.  then we all headed out to meet the kilian (a ship) since it was in port.  it arrived yesterday and leaves tomorrow night, so the crew had already been visited once and had received phone cards, phones, and a hot spot to use.  we came just to hang out. 

we talked to a few of the crew who were hanging out.  most of them were from the philippines, although there was a cadet from germany as well.  we asked about family and got to see pictures of one of the guy's young son, who is now 1 year old, but who he hasn't seen for several months.  then, there were two decks of cards on the table, so we set about playing two different games, the first was similar to (gin) rummy and the second involved poker hands set up in a triangle shape.  both were fun and were a great way to interact with the men since it didn't rely too heavily on language, though they spoke quite well in english (much better than any of us did in tagalog, that's for sure).  it was also a low stress way of interacting.


after that, we got a bit more of a tour and then were dropped off at newark penn station.  from there we took some time asking about costs for different forms of transportation.  we ended up deciding that the best way to get around would be to take mta (ny transportation) to a path station, then take a path train to newark-penn station, then take the #40 bus to newark port.  the overall cost per trip (since they are each a different type of transportation and don't have transfers) will end up being about $5.05 one way.  multiply that by two, since we have to get there and back, and then by 3 since we'll be doing it three times a week and that ends up with $30.30 spent on travel to the portseach week.  then add into that the travel expenses for cpe the other two days which are $2.25 one way twice a day for two days, and you get $39.30 for travel each week for ten weeks.  this all doesn't include any expenses for other city travel either.

cpe: day 1

today was the first time i wore my clerical collar (is it called a cleric?  a clerical?  or a clerical collar?), because it was the first day of cpe (clinical pastoral education - i am like a chaplain plus i get to do something along the lines of group therapy).  a clerical collar is the either white tab or white collar that clergy wear.  let me tell you, things were most certainly different when i was wearing the collar.

i went to starbucks to get some coffee and use the internet and while i was there two things happened.  first, i met the intern (vicar) at trinity lutheran church of manhattan (where i'll be worshiping this summer)!  she saw my collar and introduced herself and then i told her i knew trinity and then she realized i was "emily" (apparently my name is more unique at trinity than elsewhere in the us).  it was great (and felt completely random) to meet her!  the other thing was that the guy that went to the bathroom before me told me that he made sure it was clean for me (thanks...i think?).

throughout the day i definitely received a few looks (both checking out the whole outfit...i had my chacos on most of the day and just changed when i actually had to look nice), and a few comments "hello, sister" and "hey! how ya doin', sister?" among them...though one was my a police officer outside a catholic school and the other was about a block or two away as i entered the subway at 96th street.

the other unique thing was that as i was checking out at whole foods (having purchased enough food to last me until i leave to visit granny tomorrow afternoon), the woman at the checkout counter asked if i was really a pastor and i said that i was studying to be one and she congratulated me!

i have to say, it is definitely going to take some getting used to, this whole wearing a collar thing.  when i was wearing it, i felt all of this additional pressure to smile at everyone and greet them and not do anything wrong.  wearing the collar automatically identifies me as christian, that means that if i mess up or do something bad, it no longer just reflects on me, it reflects on christianity as a whole.  it's weird.

anyway, those are my thoughts, we start visiting ships next week, so we'll see how that goes!