How are you welcoming summer?

Summer in the city. What are your plans on this longest day (amount of daylight) of the year?

Today is the summer solstice! So what are you up to on this first day of summer? As it’s a beautiful day in New York City, we’re sure you are out and about doing fun things at the beach, the park, or maybe just going here and there running some errands. Is anyone having a barbecue with friends?

• WHAT ARE YOU UP TO? - What are you doing?/What are your plans?
• OUT AND ABOUT - walking around
• RUN SOME ERRANDS - going places to get things done, e.g. the post office, the bank, etc.

You probably know this first day of summer, astronomically speaking, is also the longest day of the year, right? This happens because the earth reaches its full tilt at 23.5˚ toward the sun, and the sun shines directly at the Tropic of Cancer. When this happens, the Northern Hemisphere gets the most daylight in the year. In contrast, the Southern Hemisphere gets the least amount of daylight. 

After today, the days will start getting shorter even as we go through the hot and muggy days of July and August. Considering this, we are so lucky to have this slight cool-down in temperatures this weekend after the warm weather that we had last week. Don’t you think?

So if you’re heading out to enjoy the longest day of 2014, snap some photos and share them on Facebook or on Twitter. Just tag them #ilovenylc so we will find them. 

• MUGGY - humid; sticky
• SNAP PHOTOS - take pictures

Have a wonderful first day of summer!

-- Joe Yu, ESL instructor