The second trip I made was on March 19th. This time it was slightly warmer nearing 50 degrees and almost all the snow had melted. This time Anton, Diana and I were going to take a walk down the streets of Brighton Beach. The morning started with Diana and I meeting on the intersection of Ocean Ave and Brighton Beach Ave, the beginning of Brighton Beach. We had an idea to ask the people that we saw where they immigrated from and create a small test. Brighton was nicknamed “little Odessa” so we wanted to see if a large mass of the population was from Odessa. We thought that it would be a perfect day to ask people because it was a Sunday which meant no one was rushing to get anywhere. The first person I asked did not even hesitate to stop, they just kept walking and completely ignored me. Great start to the project. We continued walking further down into Brighton and asking people walking by where they came from. Some people, in better moods than others, wished us luck or even stopped and had small conversations with us. About an hour later Anton showed up and after a brief encounter he went to go take pictures of the stores and of the boardwalk. While asking people about their origin we also wrote down what types of stores we saw on Brighton, whether they were Russian or American chain stores or pharmacies, etc. One person we approached was a man selling books on the street. We asked him where he was from and immediately stuck a conversation with him, we spoke for roughly 30 min and he told us all about himself. Where he lived, what he used to work as, what his kids do, where his kids live and a bunch of interesting information about the books that he sells. Once we finished with him we decided to talk to the lady selling Pierogis. She also gave us some insight on her life and old us more about her customers and what the most popular item is. Then Diana and I both got a beladje, fried dough with meat inside. After a quick snack, we met up with Anton and updated each other on what we had each done. The experience had been much more exciting than when Lauren and I went because the stored where much more energetic. Everyone was doing their shopping for the week, it was nicer weather and a lot of the stores where playing music out onto the street. Reaching the end of Brighton, Diana and I decided to go to the boardwalk to walk home. We were shocked to see how many people where not only strolling on the boardwalk but also the vast amount of people walking on the sand, next to the water. We decided to get closer to the water so that we could hear the waves crashing into the rocks. I didn’t want to get sand in my sneakers so I took them off. The cold wet sand did not feel good on my feet at all. It was as if i was walking through the swamp. We approached the water and I let it cover my feet. Oh boy was that a mistake. the water felt like i had dunked my feet into a bucket of water. I decided to put my sneakers back on because the beach did not feel so good in the winter. We finally walked all the way back home and as we were heading back to the boardwalk to get off we noticed a lady in a swimsuit getting onto the beach. We decided that we would wait a little longer and see what happens. The lady and her younger male friend started to get ready to go swimming. We watched as the man ran into the water and ran out. While he was drying off we asked him a few questions and he was more than happy to tell us about his life and why he swims. He also told us about the lady that was with him and that she swims every other day, no matter how cold it is. After talking to them we decided to call it a day and went home.
