NYC

Shawarma is probably one of the best foods there is. I had a fabulous chickens shawarma sandwich. We are staying at my aunt and uncle’s apartment now. We walked around for a bit before coming here, as we had been in the car for about an hour from New Jersey.

This morning, before we left, we visited my great-grandmother at the nursing home she is in. It was very nice in some ways, and not nice at all in some other ways. It made me think a lot about how I want to be treated and live when I am that age, and how I want to cope as my parents get towards that age. I think that it is weird that in America we pay people to live with and take care of our old people, rather than just doing it ourselves. If everyone was in a better position to take care of their relatives as they aged, we wouldn’t need to spend so much money on those institutions. Ideally, the government would provide money to anyone who is taking care of relatives to help them cope, but until we are in a position to have that sort of health care infrastructure, we will have to deal with these not-so-friendly institutions. This particular one is rather nice, but it is still an institution, with all of the benefits and pitfalls that implies. It is a tricky situation.

I am glad that my relatives are being well taken care of, but I wish it was a little more personal, and I wish I saw them more often.