Wednesday, December 28, 2005
"the New York state of mind"
"Some folks like to get away
Take a holiday from the neighborhood
Hop a flight to Miami Beach
Or to Hollywood
But I'm taking a Greyhound
On the Hudson River Line
I'm in a New York state of mind"
Time is passing too damn quickly. Am currently in Lionel's Greenwich Village apartment waiting for my hair to dry. Kind of planning my agenda for tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to catch the 2.00pm Broadway matinee for Phantom of the Opera. I've never seen it live; I know it will be great. But I'm also hoping to do all tt other touristy stuff tt is mandatory for all first-time visitors to New York to do, like go downtown to visit the Statue of Liberty; and walk through the financial district and see Wall Street and the NYSE where my dad remembers his fondest memories of being a young (back then) trader for JPMorgan (way before it merged with the Chase ground). I want to visit Ground Zero - and I haven't even been to Little Italy and Chinatown yet! How sad is tt??? And I also want to visit the NYPD headquarters - I finally found its location on the web! Yay! And it's pretty close to everywhere else I want to visit. The thing now is... How do I fit all tt in when I have to cancel out a block for a Broadway musical in mid-afternoon back uptown at Times Square?
Anyway apart from Lionel's roommate and his gf, whom I haven't seen because they were both asleep/in his room by the time I came back tonight - I'm pretty much alone, so I can finally do a nice long (yes, my favourite) blog entry post while my hair dries. I don't think I can sleep so early anyway. I'm used to sleeping so late every night, plus we had a really really late dinner tonight.
But for my own sake, I'l do a longer recap of how my trip to New York has been so far.
22 Dec 2005 - Day 1:
I woke up at 5.00 am Vancouver Time on Thursday morning. It was imperative tt I catch the 5.55 am #25 to get to the airport early. Turns out the whole bus transfers thing from #25 to the 98 B-Line to the 424 to the airport terminal for me to board my 4 hours and 45 minutes flight to Toronto was a lot faster than I expected. Got there 1 and a half hours early. More than enough time for my fave blueberry bagel with (extra) butter and hot chocolate from Timmie's. All was well until I got onto the plane... and 8.20am came and we didn't move. As in, the plane didn't even MOVE, let alone take off. And it was supposed to have done so BY 8.20am.
OK...
So we all wait. And wait. And wait.
At 8.45am we get the first announcement from the captain who tells us tt there is a SLIGHT problem in the cockpit. He needs to investigate, but after tt we will be off shortly.
10 minutes later, he says tt one out of the *2* problems discovered has been solved, but the cause of the other problem is not yet discovered. So we have to wait for maintenance to come in and look at the problem. The guy sitting next to me finally blurts out: "Oh for fuck's sake", and he's obviously not the only extremely frustrated passenger around.
At 9.00am, he says tt the 2nd problem lies in the air-conditioning vent. And then he says tt maintenance is fixing the problem now and we shall be up and running in 15 min.
Half an hour later, the captain finally announces tt the problem has been fixed and tt we will be up in the air in a "couple of minutes".
We take off at 9.50am.
My only consolation for all the distress caused? At least the guy sitting next to me was a total hottie. Think younger version of Mark McGrath from Sugar Ray. YES he looked exactly like tt. And he was a snowboarder too... Oh man.
But what are the implications of taking off 1 and a half hours later?
Well. I miss my connecting flight from Toronto to New York. That's what. I'm still in the shuttle bus from the domestic flights terminal to the US flights terminal when it's 5.15pm - when my connecting flight LEAVES. The incredibly fucked-up long walk through the US terminal nearly drove me insane with panic. This was only the second time I was travelling alone, but the first time I was travelling out of one country, to the US, and using a connecting flight... And I was missing it! F.U.C.K.
What made it worse was overhearing this couple on the same connecting flight as me calling up their travel agent on the shuttle bus for info on the next flight... and being told tt it was at 11-fucking-43pm. WTF!!! What the HELL was I going to do at the airport for the next 6 hours if tt was true?!
Fortunately my fears were unfounded (and the info tt tt couple's travel agent was wrong). The next available flight was an hour later, and they managed to squeeze me on it (in any case I was feeling pretty pissed off, so if they couldn't I would at least demand some sort of compensation for the time I wasted and all the extra inconvenience caused). Immigration and customs was a bit of a bitch coz the queues were snaking and both were big signs of the US' post-911 paranoia, but I managed to get on this flight on time. At least.
So the flight from Toronto to New York was otherwise uneventful... except for another fucking 20 minute delay on the La Guardia airport runway coz the terminal hadn't prepared any gates to accomodate the plane tt I was on. Talk about more time wasted.
And then came the ultimate challenge - getting into Manhattan itself.
I'd arrive when the New York transit workers were still on strike. Essentially short of cabs, there was no fucking way in hell into the city AT ALL because the buses and trains tt went there ALL weren't running, and I obviously don't have a car. So I had to board this yellow cab at the airport, and apparently coz the cabs were mandated to charge no more than $20 to $30 for a trip from La Guardia to Manhattan, I thought it shouldn't be too bad.
Okay. A few things to say about the cab ride. Firstly, NY cab drivers DO drive like maniacs. Everywhere tt there is space to drive and turn, it feels like a roller coaster ride. Secondly, the drive from the airport to Manhattan took me almost 2 hours. Mainly because the jams were SO BAD I wanted to kill myself. I think the cab driver wanted to kill HIMSELF. We were just going in circles trying to find the best way into the city, and it was absolutely crazy the amount of vehicles tt we were battling with. Thirdy, lastly and most of all, NY cab drivers are FUCKING CUT-THROAT MERCENARIES. My cab ride cost me USD $70. 70 FUCKING US DOLLARS FOR A SINGLE CAB RIDE!!! And it would have cost me $80 coz tt was the cabbie's original asking price. I had to bargain it down to USD $50 before he would bring it down ever-so-reluctantly to USD $70. Even then he was pretty unhappy. Coz I was paying him $10 less than he wanted AND I wouldn't even TIP HIM! Bwahaha. But I wasn't prepared for the sheer expensiveness of cab rides in this city. Oh, and did I mention? The cab driver was Indian. Think Russell Peters and his theory on why Indians and Chinese cannot enter into economic transactions with each other. One will try to get the best bargain out of you; the other will try his/her best to prevent you from making tt bargain.
Bleah.
But tt said, I agreed to pay the cab driver because 1) he DID get me to Lionel's place, and I swear there was NO WAY IN HELL I'd be able to get there otherwise; 2) I did feel sorry for him coz he had to drive all the way from the airport to the city in such appalling conditions and he needed to find his way out again and STILL in such appalling conditions, and I think his wife was waiting for coz he had received 2 calls while driving enquiring as to his whereabouts; and 3) I wasn't about to listen to his sob story about how difficult it was for him to get me from the airport to the city, which I swear he was just about to launch into until I decided to shut him up with a wad of greenbacks.
But FUCK. $70 US is still damn fucking PAINFUL to part with, esp since there is so much more tt I could have done with the money. Ever since then, as Eunice will notice, I have had a huge grudge against NY cab drivers.
Anyway Lionel's got a really nice place in Greenwich. Siyuan and Eunice had been staying with him since the 21st. So there was going to be the 4 of us. It is obviously a pretty tight arrangement, but so far all has been going great and Lionel's been more than a fantastic host. I can't really remember what we did, but I slept kind of late tt night... Oh yar... We hung around a bit discussing what we (Siyuan and Eunice, with me as the tagalong) could possibly do in NY, and Lionel ordered pizza for supper (which was fine with me coz I didn't have lunch/dinner), and Domino's tasted fantastic for the first time.
23 Dec 2005 - Day 2:
Siyuan, Eunice and I went to visit the United Nations Headquarters in the morning. Well, firstly we needed to take the subway there - coz the strike had finally and THANKFULLY ended!!!
...So here is Eunice and I getting our Metrocards from the vending machines. (Note: A few photos are available thanks to Siyuan uploading his photos. The rest I will put up when I am back in Vancity).
We then walked from Grand Central Station at 42nd Street to the UN Building at 46th. There we took the tour through the Security Council, Economic Council and through the General Assembly meeting hall (although there was going to be a meeting between some of the delegates regarding the UN Budget there tt afternoon), and had an earful of the UN's history from our PRC tourguide (the UN really IS a very international body. And although many people, including myself, see the UN as weak and powerfless as an enforcement body when it comes to international law and peace-keeping methods, I have come to respect a lot of what it does, or at least the kind of efforts tt it takes to do what it can).
There was also an photo exhibit on landmines and their effect on the civilian population in places like Rwanda, Haiti and Cambodia, and among other things, one photo tt struck me was tt of a C4 landmine... tt was made in the USA.
That's me, Eunice and Siyuan outside the sculpture of a bent and unusable gun outside the UN Building, which is a symbol of the UN's mission of achieving, for the lack of better words... world peace. Eunice got the security guard to leave his post to help us take this photo. :)
After tt, we met Lionel for lunch at this small Chinese restaurant in one of the small lanes near Bryant Park, which was also on 42nd St. It looked kinda dodgy from the outside, but the food was really not bad and quite reasonable for the price - about $7.00 per person for lunch. NY's expensive for food, but Asian food is cheaper, and lunch deals should ALWAYS be taken advantage of.
We spent the afternoon in Bryant Park ice-skating.
...Basically the photos are all about us putting on our skates. I hadn't skated at all in Vancouver... or AT ALL, in fact, so stepping on the ice for the first time was damn fucking scary. At first all I could do was cling on to the railing for dear life as I dragged myself along, until I gained the confidence to well... walk on the ice with my skates.
Some one hour + later and a bit of falling (mainly hard on my butt) I got a little more into it. Meaning tt I can control my direction... on ONE foot. ARGH. Still can't really ice-skate or do v much, but I INTEND TO LEARN HOW TO SKATE AND TO SKATE ONE MORE TIME (HOPEFULLY) HERE WHILE I CAN.
In any case it's really charming to skate in New York coz the ice-skating rinks are all open-aired and you can take in the city scape around you as you skate. And because it's so easy to rent skates the rink is ALWAYS very crowded, but it is just so Christmassy to ice-skate in the big city. It feels almost like some sort of an oasis in a desert.
After ice-skating, Lionel left to do some last-min Christmas shopping for his parents. The remaining 3 of us wanted to catch some kind of performance on Broadway, so we decided to try for the lottery/student rush promotions. We tried out for the lottery for this musical Wicked, and Eunice actually won a pair of tickets for it! Which was amazing coz she only had to pay $50($25 each) for 2 $110 tickets to a sold-out performance! And after tt, we both got salted pretzels from one of the street vendors, and then she even accompanied me to get the student rush tickets for this Broadway play known as Doubt before her musical started. Really sweet of her to do tt. And for Lionel to accompany to watch the play coz I'd be watching it alone otherwise.
And Doubt was a surprisingly powerful play. Without giving the story away, I would say tt it involved the overall themes of cynism as juxtaposed with idealism, and perhaps age and its properties of so-called practicality and wisdom as opposed to youth and its properties of emotions and bright-eyed hope and all tt; and how one or the other could affect others or bring good or ruin to lives around. And it had a cast of only 4 people, but they - esp the lead actress playing the elder nun and the actor playing the younger priest - gave incredible performances. What had it even better was tt the lead actress had had a panic attack and forgotten some of her lines in the first scene, and she had to break character to recall her lines, and she was really gracious with her apology and her earnesty. And more than tt, she never once disappointed. What's more is tt this play really really makes you think. It always leaves you wondering because all the questions tt it asks are left unanswered when the curtains close.
Lionel brought me to see the giant Christmas tree at the Rockafeller Centre and to walk down a bit of 5th Avenue to kill the rest of the time because our play had ended an hour earlier than Eunice's/Siyuan's musical. We ended up eating fries and cheese sticks and with me drinking hot chocolate at McDonald's. But after tt when we all met up, we queued for over half an hour for this famous lamb kebabs from the Street Meats stall on 7th Ave and 51st St. For $5 per plate, it consisted of generous slices of grilled lamb kebabs served with a really spicy sauce, a white cream sauce reminiscent of mayo, and on basmati (I think) rice. Amazingly good. Even though I wasn't tt after the pre-dinner snacks, I found it very hard to put my food down. Arhaha.
Anyway coz this stall only does take-outs, we ate our late night dinner/supper outside the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), before heading back after tt. I slept around 4.00am tonight, also because I had found the hardcover of Knives of Dreams, the latest instalment in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and I was trying to read as much of it as I could.
24 Dec 2005 - Day 3:
Christmas Eve. I think I woke up pretty late - at around 11.40 am, almost 12pm today. We (the 4 of us) decided to cut ourselves some slack and not wake up so early. We had North Indian food at Greenwich Village for lunch - chicken tikka masala with garlic naan. It was really good but very heavy coz the tikka masala used a very rich creamy gravy. But at 50% off the inhouse menu for lunch it was a damn good deal. After lunch Lionel took us over to Astor Place to try the Coldstone's ice-cream. Which is EVEN BETTER than any other ice-cream, be it Swensen's or even Ben'n'Jerry's (and I kid you not!) around! Basically it's an ice-cream parlour selling a large variety of basic flavours of ice-cream with mix-ins (i.e. extra ingredients like chocolate bits or brownie bits or cookie crumbs) tossed in. I ordered a Cheesecake Fantasy, which consisted of cheesecake ice-cream thoroughly tossed in with generous scoops of crunchy graham cracker bits, blueberries and 4 or 5 whole strawberries. It was INCREDIBLE. I *NEED* to have a Coldstones fix again. SOON. And Eunice and Siyuan shared the Founder's Favourite and Chocolate Devotion. I can't really remember what went into tt, but suffice to say it was both a damn good chocolate fix as well as a culinary trip to heaven.
We wanted to see the Guggenheim Museum today, so we took the subway to 86th St. But upon reaching the place we found out tt it was closing early for Christmas, so we ended up crossing the road and just strolling through Central Park.
So this is Lionel, Siyuan and me with a large reservoir in the background. It's around 4-something but already the sun is setting. Anyway Central Park is another experience to go through. It really DOES give you the whole "big city" feeling coz it really is like all those movies with the park with the large buildings in the background. With the bare trees readying for winter and the people walking their dogs or letting them go free... And everything just looks like how Central Park should look on TV.
It's dark when we finally decide to head back. We walk down from Central Park to pass by the Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts, which is where the NY Ballet and the Opera perform. The Lincoln Centre is another fantastic place to look at, if a little old, but it reminded Siyuan of Toa Payoh Central; what with the cluster of buildings looking like the HDB hub and the Public Library and the apartments in the background as HDB flats. It gets interesting when NY can remind you of home, and not always in a flattering way. All tt we were missing was a McDonald's there, I'd bet.
We have Japanese food for dinner back at Greenwich. They ordered the combination boxes with the sushi, teriyaki, tempura, and other stuff; I ordered the calamari tempura. It was all delicious, but dinner in NY just isn't v cheap. I think Lionel was originally thinking of Ben'n'Jerry's, but the dinner was so heavy tt he changed his mind.
I went for my first Presbytarian service tt night.
It was a candlelight service too! Just like the Catholic midnight masses back in Singapore.
We attended the First Presbytarian Church at 5th Avenue for the 11 o'clock service, and I was amazed at how the service wasn't really tt different from the Catholic mass tt I usually attend, even though this time there was no Liturgy of the Eucharist and some part of the service was approached a little differently in terms of procedure from the Catholic way. But tt being said, the message is no different, at least not to me. The hymns seem no different, and I suppose this was due largely in part to the choir and the traditional way in which they sang and in how the service itself was conducted; sometimes I don't see why differences should exist or why assumptions are still being made between the denominations and the Catholic church. I mean, it is after all, the same God. And Jesus' message to us is Love, not division. I could have gone to a Catholic church on my own if I really wanted to be fastidious about it, but I figured tt Christmas was a time for sharing and for being with friends. And it is not a choice tt I regret one bit.
We adjourned to the Black Fat Pussycat for drinks. Except tt most of us - okay, at least some of us, weren't tt keen on drinking. We were, or at least Siyuan was more like hungry. So we decided to go grab pizza from Ben's Pizzeria instead, which according to Ben (if tt is the owner, I think) is "world-famous". I don't know about tt of course, but it was not bad. We had 1 hungry guy and 2 people with itchy mouths. I was one of them. I discovered this night tt when in NY, you do not order pizza with your mouth.
You point.
After some argument with the server at the pizzeria about what I wanted which resulted in all-round confusion on both sides, I settled on a sausage pepperoni. We took tt back to Lionel's apartment, and thus spent our early hours of Christmas having supper and talking cock till late into the night. Again. Slept at 4.00am. Again.
25 Dec 2005 - Day 4:
Christmas Day!
And yes. On Christmas, even the city tt does not sleep... has to go on holiday. Most of the attractions like the museums were closed today, as were most of the stores and restaurants. So we woke up late - I woke up around 12.30pm - and Siyuan, Eunice and I decided to pass our time away by catching a movie. It was raining today, so we braved to rain to catch King Kong at 14th St. We had lunch 2 blocks away at this small Viet restaurant tt was really good. I ordered a bowl of Pho, and it cost me around $7.00 for a lot of noodles, beef slices, and tasty beef broth. Oh! And the chilli was free! And good! Eunice can testify to how much chilli I stirred into my soup. :)
At the restaurant!
The cinema was REALLY REALLY crowded. Made us wonder how on earth New Yorkers spend Christmas. When we got to the cinema for our 3.30pm show we only had seats starting 3 rows from the screen. Watching tt movie for 3 hours resulted in me having this huge crink in my neck after tt. But tt said King Kong was a movie tt surprised me - it was a lot better than I expected! Naomi Watts played a beautiful and spunky damsel to the big monkey's erm... "knight", and both Eunice and I were actually moved by the monkey, even if our views aren't always shared by the majority. And it is SUCH a trip to watch a movie set in the city tt you are currently in, even if there is supposed to be a time lag of 60 years. Seeing Broadway and Times Square looking like the Broadway and the Times Square tt you were walking through just a couple of days back; seeing the Empire State Building again; seeing those damn yellow taxi cabs... Man.
The movie ended really late though. Around 6.45pm/6.50pm. Which meant tt we were going to be late for our dinner appointment. Tonight the 4 of us would be meeting the 4 other Singaporeans from Columbia University - namely Adrian and his guests Sandra, Bryna and Michale Tang.
There was a slight glitch in bookings, but we settled at the Pennyfeather Cafe. The waiter seemed to find it funny to give Siyuan a hard time, which was ironic coz Eunice was celebrating her birthday (or rather we were celebrating her birthday for her) there this night. But yeah, we ordered the calamari, which was really good. And I had the shrimp scampi for my main, which was pretty yummy too. The restaurant provided Eunice with a yummy chocolate mousse cake decorated as a face with a candle on top for her birthday. It was really nice. And the waiter kept paying special attention to her and calling her by name. That was funny.
This is the whole group at the Pennyfeather Cafe.
But moving on... Once we were done with dinner, we took the subway back up to Times Square to join some of Lionel's other friends for drinks at The Living Room in W Hotel. It's an upmarket chill-out lounge, and the drinks really are quite pricey. My maguerhita set me back US $15. UGH. But it was incredibly strong. Just a little over half of tt and I got so sleepy i just wanted to sleep. This was SO not good. Not only was it incredibly embarassing coz this time I had drunk so LITTLE it just wasn't justified, but the thought of just toppling over and falling asleep while in mid-walk in the middle of Times Squre just didn't appeal to me.
Fortunately, Lionel, Siyuan and Eunice let me stop by McDonald's to get a drink to wash down the alcohol. Actually, I got more than tt. I got a hot chocolate; mozerella cheese sticks, and because Lionel's fries weren't enough to fill me up; a cheeseburger to go with tt.
But the most interesting thing about the Times Square McDonald's, is tt it has a 3-D of New York City on its second floor.
How is this for fascinating???
Suffice to say, we got back to the apartment pretty late once again. I slept pretty damn late. But the thing is...
26 Dec 2005 - Day 5:
I had to wake up at 7.00 am today. Fucking early. But tt's coz today I was joining the Columbian Singaporeans - Adrian, Sandra, Bryna and Michael, at Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, this factory outlets shopping hub outside NYC for a shopping day-trip. We took the 8.30 am bus one hour + out to Central Valley to the place, and boy was it HUGE. It was almost twice the size of the Seattle Premium Outlets, I think. Maybe coz this is NY.
And it was so FUCKING CROWDED it didn't feel like a sale; walking into a store felt like going into battle. People were EVERYWHERE and blocking every aisle and corridor; clothes were strewn all over the place, and the queues were MASSIVE. When it came to the stores like Coach, Calvin Klein, Guess and Armani Exchange, you would queue to go in, use the fitting room to try on clothes, and of course to pay for your purchases. I walked into so many stores only to scoot out almost immediately coz I couldn't stand the thought of being trapped in those stores. Explains why I don't have any purcheses from Guess, Banana Republic or Gap.
I did however, still manage to spend a HELL lot of money anyway. FUCK. Talk about lack of restraint. I walked around the entire place 2 times over before 3.30pm. And I had bought SO MUCH STUFF. I bought this G-Unit skirt from Ecko Ultd, not because I needed it, but because I've become a G-Unit convert ever since watching 50 Cent in concert and I want to do more than just learn how to say "G-G-G-G-G-G-UNIT!". And the skirt originally priced at US $64.50, only cost me $15 +. I also needed to buy a pair of jeans so I walked into Levi's, and got a pair for $24.99. And THEN I wandered into DKNY Jeans, and bought *2* more in impulse at $24.98 and $34.99 respectively. Actually, I was swayed by the fact tt these pairs of jeans were named after places in NY like Astor Place and Downtown Brooklyn, which I thought made them damn cool souvenirs, plus they were SO comfortable and they were selling for a lot less than their original prices of $89.00. But I managed to get Christmas presents for my parents from cK - 2 really nice long-sleeved shirts for my dad, and a pair of jeans for my mom. I was supposed to get more stuff, but I lacked size info.
So after a really fruitful time, I had to curb myself for the rest of my day. Just tagged along with Adrian and Bryna, which was highly entertaining coz the two of them are always insulting each other in a good natured way, and it's very funny. Plus they both make you feel v comfortable around them, so tt makes it even easier for me. And oh, my feet were clearly ACHING by this point in time.
We caught the 5.30pm back, all of us. And we had dinner at this fast food pizza joint at the bus terminal. Coz Lionel, Siyuan and Eunice weren't back at the apartment yet and I didn't have the key, I decided to hang around outside a bit more. Sandra, Bryna and Michael kindly accompanied me around Times Square. We had a post-dinner ice-cream feast (actually, just me and Bryna) at Ben'n'Jerry's. She ordered the Chunky Monkey; I ordered the Gone Phishin' core sundae, which is 2 scoops of Phish Food topped with a lot of caramel and hot fudge with whipped cream and chopped almonds. Yummy. But oh so sinful. Yes yes I know I am fucking fat and I have put on A LOT of weight since I came over here... But dammit I have to be decadent! It's New York! And Ben'n'Jerry's (tho not as fantastic as Coldstones still, imho)! Oh yeah. Keep coming with the excuses.
After tt, we walked through Times Square, took photos of the many billboards and stuff, and entered the Hershey's store. Bought some stuff from there. I still need to go back to buy more stuff... like more Hershey's chocolate. Oh, and tt giant Hershey's kiss. Finally, a kiss tt is the right size. Heh.
Came back to the apartment after tt to pack my stuff and catch up with Eunice.
27 Dec 2005 - Day 6:
Woke up at 5.15am today. Lionel, Siyuan and Eunice were leaving for 2 days in Washington DC today, so I woke up to shift my stuff out of his room mate's room and to see them off. Went back to sleep after tt and promptly overslept a bit having to meet Sandra and Bryna.
We were visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art today. I needed half an hour of grace to make up for the time delay. But it was all good... except tt the Met was so fucking CROWDED!!! Damn holiday season. GRR.
But oh man... It was so big!!! Now I understand why they say tt you need 1 whole day to see the Met, and one Met is enough to last you one day. I've never been a museum fan but I made an exception for the Met coz it's world-famous and I wanted to see what all the hoohaa was about. And now I have and I must saw tt the Met really does live up to its reputation.
But I am STILL not a museum fan. (Speaking of which, I took quite a lot of photos of the exhibits, so you'll get to see them when I put them up).
We walked through almost the entire place; all 2 and a half stories of it. We went through the European art section, the Modern art section (my fave, actually. I like vibrant colours and wondering what goes on in the minds of Pablo Pixasso and Salvador Dali), the Asian art section, the Arms and Armoury, the Sculptures section, the Renaissance paintings section, and the Egyptian section, which was REALLY COOL! They had real tombs and real mummies (I'm talking mummified bodies of people who had died thousands of years again!) and I was looking at a restored temple front and engravings on the insides of pyramid walls. Oh, and they had carvings of the Egyptian gods and I was amazed by how similar to all those books and movies the carvings of the sons of Horace and Anubis are. The Egyptian gods have always fascinated me on some level.
But anyway needless to say, we were all DEAD TIRED from all the walking through the museum. When we left it around 3-something 4 pm we didn't really want to go anywhere else. Oh, but we stopped by City Market Cafe, this small cafe on Madison Ave. We were just supposed to get drinks, but I ordered a large brocoli and cheese quiche with my hot chocolate. And Sandra ordered this mississipi mudpie bar and Bryna this cheesecake bar, and we shared everything. It was oh so good, but really really heavy.
After tt I decided to follow them back to Adrian's place since I didn't want to go back. We ended up playing game after game after game of daidee from tt time till 8.30 pm, when dinner came. But it was so much fun hanging out with them too. Even though they uncovered my secrets tt 1) I am a lousy daidee pkayer; and 2) I am the LOUSIEST shuffler of cards in the world. Not to mention the absolute slowest.
We went to Carmine's for dinner. It's this famous diner tt according to Adrian, has fantastic calamari. He's right. The calamari IS fantastic. Unfortunately the portions feed *10* people, not 4. The plates were so big tt we ended up taking away EVERYTHING tt we ordered, from the calamari to the garlic bread to the penne alla vodka to the ravioli with cheese. They were fantastic of course, but really just too much to eat. But dinner was really great. And I'm glad I got to try Carmine's.
Took the #1 back home. It was supposed to stop at St. Christopher St, but after 34th Station the conductor suddenly announced tt the train would bypass tt st, so I had to get off at 14 St and walk down 10 sts to Lionel's place. My sense of direction getting out of train stations still causes me to walk in the wrong direction for at least 2 streets before I realise tt I have to turn back, but hopefully tt problem will subside in time. In any case, the walk back was relatively uneventful, except for me being propositioned by 2 black guys on separate occasions. But they were otherwise harmless, so tt was ok and I made my way back safely.
Now, I need to get a good rest. Let's see what is in store for me tomorrow. I do hope I have a chance to go chionging here at least once though. I hear it's expensive, but how can you come to NY and NOT go chionging in the city tt never sleeps?
now playing: hotel costes - cafe de flor
Take a holiday from the neighborhood
Hop a flight to Miami Beach
Or to Hollywood
But I'm taking a Greyhound
On the Hudson River Line
I'm in a New York state of mind"
Time is passing too damn quickly. Am currently in Lionel's Greenwich Village apartment waiting for my hair to dry. Kind of planning my agenda for tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to catch the 2.00pm Broadway matinee for Phantom of the Opera. I've never seen it live; I know it will be great. But I'm also hoping to do all tt other touristy stuff tt is mandatory for all first-time visitors to New York to do, like go downtown to visit the Statue of Liberty; and walk through the financial district and see Wall Street and the NYSE where my dad remembers his fondest memories of being a young (back then) trader for JPMorgan (way before it merged with the Chase ground). I want to visit Ground Zero - and I haven't even been to Little Italy and Chinatown yet! How sad is tt??? And I also want to visit the NYPD headquarters - I finally found its location on the web! Yay! And it's pretty close to everywhere else I want to visit. The thing now is... How do I fit all tt in when I have to cancel out a block for a Broadway musical in mid-afternoon back uptown at Times Square?
Anyway apart from Lionel's roommate and his gf, whom I haven't seen because they were both asleep/in his room by the time I came back tonight - I'm pretty much alone, so I can finally do a nice long (yes, my favourite) blog entry post while my hair dries. I don't think I can sleep so early anyway. I'm used to sleeping so late every night, plus we had a really really late dinner tonight.
But for my own sake, I'l do a longer recap of how my trip to New York has been so far.
22 Dec 2005 - Day 1:
I woke up at 5.00 am Vancouver Time on Thursday morning. It was imperative tt I catch the 5.55 am #25 to get to the airport early. Turns out the whole bus transfers thing from #25 to the 98 B-Line to the 424 to the airport terminal for me to board my 4 hours and 45 minutes flight to Toronto was a lot faster than I expected. Got there 1 and a half hours early. More than enough time for my fave blueberry bagel with (extra) butter and hot chocolate from Timmie's. All was well until I got onto the plane... and 8.20am came and we didn't move. As in, the plane didn't even MOVE, let alone take off. And it was supposed to have done so BY 8.20am.
OK...
So we all wait. And wait. And wait.
At 8.45am we get the first announcement from the captain who tells us tt there is a SLIGHT problem in the cockpit. He needs to investigate, but after tt we will be off shortly.
10 minutes later, he says tt one out of the *2* problems discovered has been solved, but the cause of the other problem is not yet discovered. So we have to wait for maintenance to come in and look at the problem. The guy sitting next to me finally blurts out: "Oh for fuck's sake", and he's obviously not the only extremely frustrated passenger around.
At 9.00am, he says tt the 2nd problem lies in the air-conditioning vent. And then he says tt maintenance is fixing the problem now and we shall be up and running in 15 min.
Half an hour later, the captain finally announces tt the problem has been fixed and tt we will be up in the air in a "couple of minutes".
We take off at 9.50am.
My only consolation for all the distress caused? At least the guy sitting next to me was a total hottie. Think younger version of Mark McGrath from Sugar Ray. YES he looked exactly like tt. And he was a snowboarder too... Oh man.
But what are the implications of taking off 1 and a half hours later?
Well. I miss my connecting flight from Toronto to New York. That's what. I'm still in the shuttle bus from the domestic flights terminal to the US flights terminal when it's 5.15pm - when my connecting flight LEAVES. The incredibly fucked-up long walk through the US terminal nearly drove me insane with panic. This was only the second time I was travelling alone, but the first time I was travelling out of one country, to the US, and using a connecting flight... And I was missing it! F.U.C.K.
What made it worse was overhearing this couple on the same connecting flight as me calling up their travel agent on the shuttle bus for info on the next flight... and being told tt it was at 11-fucking-43pm. WTF!!! What the HELL was I going to do at the airport for the next 6 hours if tt was true?!
Fortunately my fears were unfounded (and the info tt tt couple's travel agent was wrong). The next available flight was an hour later, and they managed to squeeze me on it (in any case I was feeling pretty pissed off, so if they couldn't I would at least demand some sort of compensation for the time I wasted and all the extra inconvenience caused). Immigration and customs was a bit of a bitch coz the queues were snaking and both were big signs of the US' post-911 paranoia, but I managed to get on this flight on time. At least.
So the flight from Toronto to New York was otherwise uneventful... except for another fucking 20 minute delay on the La Guardia airport runway coz the terminal hadn't prepared any gates to accomodate the plane tt I was on. Talk about more time wasted.
And then came the ultimate challenge - getting into Manhattan itself.
I'd arrive when the New York transit workers were still on strike. Essentially short of cabs, there was no fucking way in hell into the city AT ALL because the buses and trains tt went there ALL weren't running, and I obviously don't have a car. So I had to board this yellow cab at the airport, and apparently coz the cabs were mandated to charge no more than $20 to $30 for a trip from La Guardia to Manhattan, I thought it shouldn't be too bad.
Okay. A few things to say about the cab ride. Firstly, NY cab drivers DO drive like maniacs. Everywhere tt there is space to drive and turn, it feels like a roller coaster ride. Secondly, the drive from the airport to Manhattan took me almost 2 hours. Mainly because the jams were SO BAD I wanted to kill myself. I think the cab driver wanted to kill HIMSELF. We were just going in circles trying to find the best way into the city, and it was absolutely crazy the amount of vehicles tt we were battling with. Thirdy, lastly and most of all, NY cab drivers are FUCKING CUT-THROAT MERCENARIES. My cab ride cost me USD $70. 70 FUCKING US DOLLARS FOR A SINGLE CAB RIDE!!! And it would have cost me $80 coz tt was the cabbie's original asking price. I had to bargain it down to USD $50 before he would bring it down ever-so-reluctantly to USD $70. Even then he was pretty unhappy. Coz I was paying him $10 less than he wanted AND I wouldn't even TIP HIM! Bwahaha. But I wasn't prepared for the sheer expensiveness of cab rides in this city. Oh, and did I mention? The cab driver was Indian. Think Russell Peters and his theory on why Indians and Chinese cannot enter into economic transactions with each other. One will try to get the best bargain out of you; the other will try his/her best to prevent you from making tt bargain.
Bleah.
But tt said, I agreed to pay the cab driver because 1) he DID get me to Lionel's place, and I swear there was NO WAY IN HELL I'd be able to get there otherwise; 2) I did feel sorry for him coz he had to drive all the way from the airport to the city in such appalling conditions and he needed to find his way out again and STILL in such appalling conditions, and I think his wife was waiting for coz he had received 2 calls while driving enquiring as to his whereabouts; and 3) I wasn't about to listen to his sob story about how difficult it was for him to get me from the airport to the city, which I swear he was just about to launch into until I decided to shut him up with a wad of greenbacks.
But FUCK. $70 US is still damn fucking PAINFUL to part with, esp since there is so much more tt I could have done with the money. Ever since then, as Eunice will notice, I have had a huge grudge against NY cab drivers.
Anyway Lionel's got a really nice place in Greenwich. Siyuan and Eunice had been staying with him since the 21st. So there was going to be the 4 of us. It is obviously a pretty tight arrangement, but so far all has been going great and Lionel's been more than a fantastic host. I can't really remember what we did, but I slept kind of late tt night... Oh yar... We hung around a bit discussing what we (Siyuan and Eunice, with me as the tagalong) could possibly do in NY, and Lionel ordered pizza for supper (which was fine with me coz I didn't have lunch/dinner), and Domino's tasted fantastic for the first time.
23 Dec 2005 - Day 2:
Siyuan, Eunice and I went to visit the United Nations Headquarters in the morning. Well, firstly we needed to take the subway there - coz the strike had finally and THANKFULLY ended!!!
...So here is Eunice and I getting our Metrocards from the vending machines. (Note: A few photos are available thanks to Siyuan uploading his photos. The rest I will put up when I am back in Vancity).
We then walked from Grand Central Station at 42nd Street to the UN Building at 46th. There we took the tour through the Security Council, Economic Council and through the General Assembly meeting hall (although there was going to be a meeting between some of the delegates regarding the UN Budget there tt afternoon), and had an earful of the UN's history from our PRC tourguide (the UN really IS a very international body. And although many people, including myself, see the UN as weak and powerfless as an enforcement body when it comes to international law and peace-keeping methods, I have come to respect a lot of what it does, or at least the kind of efforts tt it takes to do what it can).
There was also an photo exhibit on landmines and their effect on the civilian population in places like Rwanda, Haiti and Cambodia, and among other things, one photo tt struck me was tt of a C4 landmine... tt was made in the USA.
That's me, Eunice and Siyuan outside the sculpture of a bent and unusable gun outside the UN Building, which is a symbol of the UN's mission of achieving, for the lack of better words... world peace. Eunice got the security guard to leave his post to help us take this photo. :)
After tt, we met Lionel for lunch at this small Chinese restaurant in one of the small lanes near Bryant Park, which was also on 42nd St. It looked kinda dodgy from the outside, but the food was really not bad and quite reasonable for the price - about $7.00 per person for lunch. NY's expensive for food, but Asian food is cheaper, and lunch deals should ALWAYS be taken advantage of.
We spent the afternoon in Bryant Park ice-skating.
...Basically the photos are all about us putting on our skates. I hadn't skated at all in Vancouver... or AT ALL, in fact, so stepping on the ice for the first time was damn fucking scary. At first all I could do was cling on to the railing for dear life as I dragged myself along, until I gained the confidence to well... walk on the ice with my skates.
Some one hour + later and a bit of falling (mainly hard on my butt) I got a little more into it. Meaning tt I can control my direction... on ONE foot. ARGH. Still can't really ice-skate or do v much, but I INTEND TO LEARN HOW TO SKATE AND TO SKATE ONE MORE TIME (HOPEFULLY) HERE WHILE I CAN.
In any case it's really charming to skate in New York coz the ice-skating rinks are all open-aired and you can take in the city scape around you as you skate. And because it's so easy to rent skates the rink is ALWAYS very crowded, but it is just so Christmassy to ice-skate in the big city. It feels almost like some sort of an oasis in a desert.
After ice-skating, Lionel left to do some last-min Christmas shopping for his parents. The remaining 3 of us wanted to catch some kind of performance on Broadway, so we decided to try for the lottery/student rush promotions. We tried out for the lottery for this musical Wicked, and Eunice actually won a pair of tickets for it! Which was amazing coz she only had to pay $50($25 each) for 2 $110 tickets to a sold-out performance! And after tt, we both got salted pretzels from one of the street vendors, and then she even accompanied me to get the student rush tickets for this Broadway play known as Doubt before her musical started. Really sweet of her to do tt. And for Lionel to accompany to watch the play coz I'd be watching it alone otherwise.
And Doubt was a surprisingly powerful play. Without giving the story away, I would say tt it involved the overall themes of cynism as juxtaposed with idealism, and perhaps age and its properties of so-called practicality and wisdom as opposed to youth and its properties of emotions and bright-eyed hope and all tt; and how one or the other could affect others or bring good or ruin to lives around. And it had a cast of only 4 people, but they - esp the lead actress playing the elder nun and the actor playing the younger priest - gave incredible performances. What had it even better was tt the lead actress had had a panic attack and forgotten some of her lines in the first scene, and she had to break character to recall her lines, and she was really gracious with her apology and her earnesty. And more than tt, she never once disappointed. What's more is tt this play really really makes you think. It always leaves you wondering because all the questions tt it asks are left unanswered when the curtains close.
Lionel brought me to see the giant Christmas tree at the Rockafeller Centre and to walk down a bit of 5th Avenue to kill the rest of the time because our play had ended an hour earlier than Eunice's/Siyuan's musical. We ended up eating fries and cheese sticks and with me drinking hot chocolate at McDonald's. But after tt when we all met up, we queued for over half an hour for this famous lamb kebabs from the Street Meats stall on 7th Ave and 51st St. For $5 per plate, it consisted of generous slices of grilled lamb kebabs served with a really spicy sauce, a white cream sauce reminiscent of mayo, and on basmati (I think) rice. Amazingly good. Even though I wasn't tt after the pre-dinner snacks, I found it very hard to put my food down. Arhaha.
Anyway coz this stall only does take-outs, we ate our late night dinner/supper outside the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), before heading back after tt. I slept around 4.00am tonight, also because I had found the hardcover of Knives of Dreams, the latest instalment in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and I was trying to read as much of it as I could.
24 Dec 2005 - Day 3:
Christmas Eve. I think I woke up pretty late - at around 11.40 am, almost 12pm today. We (the 4 of us) decided to cut ourselves some slack and not wake up so early. We had North Indian food at Greenwich Village for lunch - chicken tikka masala with garlic naan. It was really good but very heavy coz the tikka masala used a very rich creamy gravy. But at 50% off the inhouse menu for lunch it was a damn good deal. After lunch Lionel took us over to Astor Place to try the Coldstone's ice-cream. Which is EVEN BETTER than any other ice-cream, be it Swensen's or even Ben'n'Jerry's (and I kid you not!) around! Basically it's an ice-cream parlour selling a large variety of basic flavours of ice-cream with mix-ins (i.e. extra ingredients like chocolate bits or brownie bits or cookie crumbs) tossed in. I ordered a Cheesecake Fantasy, which consisted of cheesecake ice-cream thoroughly tossed in with generous scoops of crunchy graham cracker bits, blueberries and 4 or 5 whole strawberries. It was INCREDIBLE. I *NEED* to have a Coldstones fix again. SOON. And Eunice and Siyuan shared the Founder's Favourite and Chocolate Devotion. I can't really remember what went into tt, but suffice to say it was both a damn good chocolate fix as well as a culinary trip to heaven.
We wanted to see the Guggenheim Museum today, so we took the subway to 86th St. But upon reaching the place we found out tt it was closing early for Christmas, so we ended up crossing the road and just strolling through Central Park.
So this is Lionel, Siyuan and me with a large reservoir in the background. It's around 4-something but already the sun is setting. Anyway Central Park is another experience to go through. It really DOES give you the whole "big city" feeling coz it really is like all those movies with the park with the large buildings in the background. With the bare trees readying for winter and the people walking their dogs or letting them go free... And everything just looks like how Central Park should look on TV.
It's dark when we finally decide to head back. We walk down from Central Park to pass by the Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts, which is where the NY Ballet and the Opera perform. The Lincoln Centre is another fantastic place to look at, if a little old, but it reminded Siyuan of Toa Payoh Central; what with the cluster of buildings looking like the HDB hub and the Public Library and the apartments in the background as HDB flats. It gets interesting when NY can remind you of home, and not always in a flattering way. All tt we were missing was a McDonald's there, I'd bet.
We have Japanese food for dinner back at Greenwich. They ordered the combination boxes with the sushi, teriyaki, tempura, and other stuff; I ordered the calamari tempura. It was all delicious, but dinner in NY just isn't v cheap. I think Lionel was originally thinking of Ben'n'Jerry's, but the dinner was so heavy tt he changed his mind.
I went for my first Presbytarian service tt night.
It was a candlelight service too! Just like the Catholic midnight masses back in Singapore.
We attended the First Presbytarian Church at 5th Avenue for the 11 o'clock service, and I was amazed at how the service wasn't really tt different from the Catholic mass tt I usually attend, even though this time there was no Liturgy of the Eucharist and some part of the service was approached a little differently in terms of procedure from the Catholic way. But tt being said, the message is no different, at least not to me. The hymns seem no different, and I suppose this was due largely in part to the choir and the traditional way in which they sang and in how the service itself was conducted; sometimes I don't see why differences should exist or why assumptions are still being made between the denominations and the Catholic church. I mean, it is after all, the same God. And Jesus' message to us is Love, not division. I could have gone to a Catholic church on my own if I really wanted to be fastidious about it, but I figured tt Christmas was a time for sharing and for being with friends. And it is not a choice tt I regret one bit.
We adjourned to the Black Fat Pussycat for drinks. Except tt most of us - okay, at least some of us, weren't tt keen on drinking. We were, or at least Siyuan was more like hungry. So we decided to go grab pizza from Ben's Pizzeria instead, which according to Ben (if tt is the owner, I think) is "world-famous". I don't know about tt of course, but it was not bad. We had 1 hungry guy and 2 people with itchy mouths. I was one of them. I discovered this night tt when in NY, you do not order pizza with your mouth.
You point.
After some argument with the server at the pizzeria about what I wanted which resulted in all-round confusion on both sides, I settled on a sausage pepperoni. We took tt back to Lionel's apartment, and thus spent our early hours of Christmas having supper and talking cock till late into the night. Again. Slept at 4.00am. Again.
25 Dec 2005 - Day 4:
Christmas Day!
And yes. On Christmas, even the city tt does not sleep... has to go on holiday. Most of the attractions like the museums were closed today, as were most of the stores and restaurants. So we woke up late - I woke up around 12.30pm - and Siyuan, Eunice and I decided to pass our time away by catching a movie. It was raining today, so we braved to rain to catch King Kong at 14th St. We had lunch 2 blocks away at this small Viet restaurant tt was really good. I ordered a bowl of Pho, and it cost me around $7.00 for a lot of noodles, beef slices, and tasty beef broth. Oh! And the chilli was free! And good! Eunice can testify to how much chilli I stirred into my soup. :)
At the restaurant!
The cinema was REALLY REALLY crowded. Made us wonder how on earth New Yorkers spend Christmas. When we got to the cinema for our 3.30pm show we only had seats starting 3 rows from the screen. Watching tt movie for 3 hours resulted in me having this huge crink in my neck after tt. But tt said King Kong was a movie tt surprised me - it was a lot better than I expected! Naomi Watts played a beautiful and spunky damsel to the big monkey's erm... "knight", and both Eunice and I were actually moved by the monkey, even if our views aren't always shared by the majority. And it is SUCH a trip to watch a movie set in the city tt you are currently in, even if there is supposed to be a time lag of 60 years. Seeing Broadway and Times Square looking like the Broadway and the Times Square tt you were walking through just a couple of days back; seeing the Empire State Building again; seeing those damn yellow taxi cabs... Man.
The movie ended really late though. Around 6.45pm/6.50pm. Which meant tt we were going to be late for our dinner appointment. Tonight the 4 of us would be meeting the 4 other Singaporeans from Columbia University - namely Adrian and his guests Sandra, Bryna and Michale Tang.
There was a slight glitch in bookings, but we settled at the Pennyfeather Cafe. The waiter seemed to find it funny to give Siyuan a hard time, which was ironic coz Eunice was celebrating her birthday (or rather we were celebrating her birthday for her) there this night. But yeah, we ordered the calamari, which was really good. And I had the shrimp scampi for my main, which was pretty yummy too. The restaurant provided Eunice with a yummy chocolate mousse cake decorated as a face with a candle on top for her birthday. It was really nice. And the waiter kept paying special attention to her and calling her by name. That was funny.
This is the whole group at the Pennyfeather Cafe.
But moving on... Once we were done with dinner, we took the subway back up to Times Square to join some of Lionel's other friends for drinks at The Living Room in W Hotel. It's an upmarket chill-out lounge, and the drinks really are quite pricey. My maguerhita set me back US $15. UGH. But it was incredibly strong. Just a little over half of tt and I got so sleepy i just wanted to sleep. This was SO not good. Not only was it incredibly embarassing coz this time I had drunk so LITTLE it just wasn't justified, but the thought of just toppling over and falling asleep while in mid-walk in the middle of Times Squre just didn't appeal to me.
Fortunately, Lionel, Siyuan and Eunice let me stop by McDonald's to get a drink to wash down the alcohol. Actually, I got more than tt. I got a hot chocolate; mozerella cheese sticks, and because Lionel's fries weren't enough to fill me up; a cheeseburger to go with tt.
But the most interesting thing about the Times Square McDonald's, is tt it has a 3-D of New York City on its second floor.
How is this for fascinating???
Suffice to say, we got back to the apartment pretty late once again. I slept pretty damn late. But the thing is...
26 Dec 2005 - Day 5:
I had to wake up at 7.00 am today. Fucking early. But tt's coz today I was joining the Columbian Singaporeans - Adrian, Sandra, Bryna and Michael, at Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, this factory outlets shopping hub outside NYC for a shopping day-trip. We took the 8.30 am bus one hour + out to Central Valley to the place, and boy was it HUGE. It was almost twice the size of the Seattle Premium Outlets, I think. Maybe coz this is NY.
And it was so FUCKING CROWDED it didn't feel like a sale; walking into a store felt like going into battle. People were EVERYWHERE and blocking every aisle and corridor; clothes were strewn all over the place, and the queues were MASSIVE. When it came to the stores like Coach, Calvin Klein, Guess and Armani Exchange, you would queue to go in, use the fitting room to try on clothes, and of course to pay for your purchases. I walked into so many stores only to scoot out almost immediately coz I couldn't stand the thought of being trapped in those stores. Explains why I don't have any purcheses from Guess, Banana Republic or Gap.
I did however, still manage to spend a HELL lot of money anyway. FUCK. Talk about lack of restraint. I walked around the entire place 2 times over before 3.30pm. And I had bought SO MUCH STUFF. I bought this G-Unit skirt from Ecko Ultd, not because I needed it, but because I've become a G-Unit convert ever since watching 50 Cent in concert and I want to do more than just learn how to say "G-G-G-G-G-G-UNIT!". And the skirt originally priced at US $64.50, only cost me $15 +. I also needed to buy a pair of jeans so I walked into Levi's, and got a pair for $24.99. And THEN I wandered into DKNY Jeans, and bought *2* more in impulse at $24.98 and $34.99 respectively. Actually, I was swayed by the fact tt these pairs of jeans were named after places in NY like Astor Place and Downtown Brooklyn, which I thought made them damn cool souvenirs, plus they were SO comfortable and they were selling for a lot less than their original prices of $89.00. But I managed to get Christmas presents for my parents from cK - 2 really nice long-sleeved shirts for my dad, and a pair of jeans for my mom. I was supposed to get more stuff, but I lacked size info.
So after a really fruitful time, I had to curb myself for the rest of my day. Just tagged along with Adrian and Bryna, which was highly entertaining coz the two of them are always insulting each other in a good natured way, and it's very funny. Plus they both make you feel v comfortable around them, so tt makes it even easier for me. And oh, my feet were clearly ACHING by this point in time.
We caught the 5.30pm back, all of us. And we had dinner at this fast food pizza joint at the bus terminal. Coz Lionel, Siyuan and Eunice weren't back at the apartment yet and I didn't have the key, I decided to hang around outside a bit more. Sandra, Bryna and Michael kindly accompanied me around Times Square. We had a post-dinner ice-cream feast (actually, just me and Bryna) at Ben'n'Jerry's. She ordered the Chunky Monkey; I ordered the Gone Phishin' core sundae, which is 2 scoops of Phish Food topped with a lot of caramel and hot fudge with whipped cream and chopped almonds. Yummy. But oh so sinful. Yes yes I know I am fucking fat and I have put on A LOT of weight since I came over here... But dammit I have to be decadent! It's New York! And Ben'n'Jerry's (tho not as fantastic as Coldstones still, imho)! Oh yeah. Keep coming with the excuses.
After tt, we walked through Times Square, took photos of the many billboards and stuff, and entered the Hershey's store. Bought some stuff from there. I still need to go back to buy more stuff... like more Hershey's chocolate. Oh, and tt giant Hershey's kiss. Finally, a kiss tt is the right size. Heh.
Came back to the apartment after tt to pack my stuff and catch up with Eunice.
27 Dec 2005 - Day 6:
Woke up at 5.15am today. Lionel, Siyuan and Eunice were leaving for 2 days in Washington DC today, so I woke up to shift my stuff out of his room mate's room and to see them off. Went back to sleep after tt and promptly overslept a bit having to meet Sandra and Bryna.
We were visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art today. I needed half an hour of grace to make up for the time delay. But it was all good... except tt the Met was so fucking CROWDED!!! Damn holiday season. GRR.
But oh man... It was so big!!! Now I understand why they say tt you need 1 whole day to see the Met, and one Met is enough to last you one day. I've never been a museum fan but I made an exception for the Met coz it's world-famous and I wanted to see what all the hoohaa was about. And now I have and I must saw tt the Met really does live up to its reputation.
But I am STILL not a museum fan. (Speaking of which, I took quite a lot of photos of the exhibits, so you'll get to see them when I put them up).
We walked through almost the entire place; all 2 and a half stories of it. We went through the European art section, the Modern art section (my fave, actually. I like vibrant colours and wondering what goes on in the minds of Pablo Pixasso and Salvador Dali), the Asian art section, the Arms and Armoury, the Sculptures section, the Renaissance paintings section, and the Egyptian section, which was REALLY COOL! They had real tombs and real mummies (I'm talking mummified bodies of people who had died thousands of years again!) and I was looking at a restored temple front and engravings on the insides of pyramid walls. Oh, and they had carvings of the Egyptian gods and I was amazed by how similar to all those books and movies the carvings of the sons of Horace and Anubis are. The Egyptian gods have always fascinated me on some level.
But anyway needless to say, we were all DEAD TIRED from all the walking through the museum. When we left it around 3-something 4 pm we didn't really want to go anywhere else. Oh, but we stopped by City Market Cafe, this small cafe on Madison Ave. We were just supposed to get drinks, but I ordered a large brocoli and cheese quiche with my hot chocolate. And Sandra ordered this mississipi mudpie bar and Bryna this cheesecake bar, and we shared everything. It was oh so good, but really really heavy.
After tt I decided to follow them back to Adrian's place since I didn't want to go back. We ended up playing game after game after game of daidee from tt time till 8.30 pm, when dinner came. But it was so much fun hanging out with them too. Even though they uncovered my secrets tt 1) I am a lousy daidee pkayer; and 2) I am the LOUSIEST shuffler of cards in the world. Not to mention the absolute slowest.
We went to Carmine's for dinner. It's this famous diner tt according to Adrian, has fantastic calamari. He's right. The calamari IS fantastic. Unfortunately the portions feed *10* people, not 4. The plates were so big tt we ended up taking away EVERYTHING tt we ordered, from the calamari to the garlic bread to the penne alla vodka to the ravioli with cheese. They were fantastic of course, but really just too much to eat. But dinner was really great. And I'm glad I got to try Carmine's.
Took the #1 back home. It was supposed to stop at St. Christopher St, but after 34th Station the conductor suddenly announced tt the train would bypass tt st, so I had to get off at 14 St and walk down 10 sts to Lionel's place. My sense of direction getting out of train stations still causes me to walk in the wrong direction for at least 2 streets before I realise tt I have to turn back, but hopefully tt problem will subside in time. In any case, the walk back was relatively uneventful, except for me being propositioned by 2 black guys on separate occasions. But they were otherwise harmless, so tt was ok and I made my way back safely.
Now, I need to get a good rest. Let's see what is in store for me tomorrow. I do hope I have a chance to go chionging here at least once though. I hear it's expensive, but how can you come to NY and NOT go chionging in the city tt never sleeps?
# posted by Kitana @ 12/28/2005 02:07:00 PM 
