NY Adventures w0-w4

Dear jumjum...

Fact: Students on exchange are always more adventurous than the full time kids. For my three months in NY, I promised myself that I would go 'adventuring' at least every Saturday. So here's my one month log:

Week 0

It was my first day in NY, and Raphie brought me downtown to shop. Our first stop was to visit the three level Victoria's Secret store. I entered with no intention of buying anything, but...undergarments are a necessity! We walked past the Empire State Building (it was less grand that I expected, at least on ground level). We also visited Trader Joe's for groceries. It is my favourite grocery store (cheaper goods and great environment), and we now go there every fortnight.

Crazy shoe shopping

The next day, Will brought us around the Columbia campus. That was nice but not really interesting, except for the huge and fancy library.

On Friday, my computational lab supervisor invited me to a duanwujie party at his apartment. I was really touched and surprised, since he had only known me for a week. He has the cutest little daughters, and the elder one is so friendly- she dragged out a huge bag of all her artwork and made me go through it with her one-by-one. It's cute because she speaks in a mix of English, Mandarin and Spanish. The other Chinese students from our floor were also there, and I wrapped dumplings for the first time along with all of them who seemed to have been doing it all their lives. Their zongzi is so different from the ones I'm used to- instead of the savoury ones we get in Malaysia, they only have sweet red dates in theirs (and it's pretty good!). I've just Googled it to see what Wikipedia has to say- apparently savoury zongjis are from Southern China, and the Northern Chinese like it sweet. Makes sense now. I didn't think Malaysian Chinese left China long enough to alter a dish so drastically!

Week 1

I needed more clothes, so we checked out Century 21. It's a department store that sells discounted branded and non brand goods, but it isn't really my style of clothes. We also visited the World Trade Center memorial site since it was nearby. 

We then walked half an hour up to a famous bakery that sells cronuts, only to be told that they usually are sold out by noon =.= We then walked through Greenwich Village to get dinner, and I got to satisfy my Princess Diaries fascination!

Week 2

The moment my HK aunt knew that I was going to NY, she highly recommended that I shopat The Mills at Jersey Gardens. It's build on a tax free area or something and all the branded stores there are on crazy discounts. I took a bus to cross over to Jersey. It was one of the most satisfying shopping experiences.

On Sunday, I finally went to Times Square (smaller and smellier than I expected) and a tiny portion of Central Park.

Week 3

I took the free Staten Island Ferry that goes past the Statue of Liberty (I'm too cheap to pay for the ferries that lets you off on the island with the statue). Since I was already there, I wanted to explore Staten Island too. It was super quiet compared to the city. I had lunch at a highly-rated Sri Lankan restaurant and visited my first brewery. 

When I needed to take a bus to the beach, I realised that (1) my Metrocard was out of credit and (2) the buses only take coins. I bought some Mediterranean pastry at a shop and asked for change in coins, but the cashier insisted that she can only give me a dollar in coins. So I popped into the next shop to buy a Twinkies for the remainder (at least I had something to eat on the beach). It was worth it, though. They had a huge stretch of sand and even though there was so many people, a large portion of the beach was unoccupied. It was my first time alone at the beach and I really missed my family and friends, looking at the happy groups of people around me. 

On Friday, my wetlab supervisor (I just realised that most of my social events happen to be on Fridays) invited me to have a drink with his family at a nearby bar, after he found out that I have not been out after 9 pm in NY (he assured me that the area I live in- his area too- we live on the same street; is generally safe enough). It was a very fresh experience for me. His wife is super friendly, and from what she knows, I know that my supervisor talks to her about me. They were chilling with their 11-month old toddler in a noisy bar, completely unfazed. In fact, when I first walked in, the baby was happily crawling around the bar floor. My parents would have freaked out! My supervisor has a more laid-back style of parenting, which I admire but doubt that I will be able to achieve. Later into the night, a whole group of their Spanish community showed up, and I had my first double-cheek-kiss greeting (oh, except from the late Father Leo Chang, who kissed all the kids after church), and met some interesting people; all while the baby slept soundly in her stroller! I think for my parents, a huge portion of their social events were cut out once they had babies xD

Week 4

Per my supervisor's wife suggestion, I visited Willamsburg, Brooklyn. It's the hip part of town, with artists' flea markets and little hipster shops. 

Oddly, I was looking for a gaaidanzai + ice cream shop. Odd because gaaidanzais are a HK food, but I saw a video someone shared on FB that morning and I was craving it. :) Anyway, this 'shop' was in the middle of a park, and when instead of a shop, I found that it was the Brooklyn Flea, which is like a mini food festival thing held in the summer. There were so many people and cute and funky food, exactly the kind of food I fancy. For the first time ever, I joined a long-ass line and waited 45 minutes for the gaaidanzai + ice cream thing. 

 

For the price and the wait, I don't think it was worthy; but it was a matcha gaaidanzai, and YA KNOW my knees go weak for matcha. The park had a nice view of the NYC skyline across the river, and since I was already acting so basic, lining up for trendy dessert and all, I decided to take my first ever food pic (that I didn't prepare myself):

*atm*