5 Fab Days in NYC

Time: 12:51am
Mood: Tired
Song of the moment: The Cardigans - Carnival

And 5 fabulous days it was! Jimmy and I took a trip to the Big Apple during our extended long weekend. It was a weekend of fun, shopping and meeting my future relatives.... most of it was spent shopping though (poor Jimmy!)

Day #1: The first day was crazy! I was living on 2 hours of sleep (we had to get up at 4am to go to the airport.. and of course I was too excited to sleep!). We had a 2 1/2 hour layover in Detroit, where I happend to catch a glimpse of Jesse McCartney, the singer/actor who I guess is pretty popular in the States (but not too much so in Canada). I saw him at the McDonalds.. he was infront of me in the lineup. Haha... so star sighting #1. After getting to Newark and waiting an hour for a bus to take us into Manhattan (the buses are so unreliable!), we finally arrived @ Grand Central Station. June (Jimmy's cousin) met us at the bus station, then we were wisked away to meet Jackie (June's sister) for lunch. I forgot the name of the cafe we went to, but it was kinda like Marche's, where you buy your food in a "marketplace" and then u pay for it. After lunch we headed to June's place, dropped off our luggage, then headed out again! We walked over to Ground Zero and caught a glimpse of the site and all the construction going on around there. It's so hard to believe that just 4 years ago those twin towers stood up tall and proud. It was really sad and I guess it made the tragedy more real. We then headed across the street to the Century21 mall, which was a large discount store. You get all the name brand stuff for cheap. And that's where I picked up my very first purchase.. a Chinese Laundry purse! Oh shopping was intoxicating.. esp since I havn't done it in so long. And with that.. it began (the shopping I mean! haha). After browsing shoes and purses for a good hour (I stress again.. poor Jimmy!), we walked over to the Sea Port (which is also within walking distance of her place.. June lives right near Chinatown), then headed over to the Staten Island Ferry to get a drive-by look @ the Statue of Liberty. It was good cuz the ferry was free! The sun was setting at this point so we decided to grab some grub. We went to this Mexican Restaurant called El Cantinero located at 86 University Place. It was so festive in there! And the food was great for a reasonable price! After dinner we rushed home, changed into something nite-life-like and hit the town! June's friend's sister was holding a birthday bash @ this club near Chinatown (again.. I forgot the name!). The clubbers were almost all asian.... it was like azn nite @ any T.O club. The club was nice though! Drinks were pricy but mines came w/ a blinking ice-cube! We stayed out until 1.. and that's when I had to call it quits... I was so tired!

Total purchases: 1 Chinese Laundry bag

Day #2: Jackie and June took us out for lunch at a Chinese diner, grabbed some icecream at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory on Bayard St. (they had really good flavors.. I went w/ the almond cookie). June took off cuz she had to study, so Jackie showed us around. She took us through little Italy, which really reminded me of Italy, and to Soho for some more shopping fun! I bought quite a bit that day.... I don't even remember which stores we went into! But I do remember going into Sephora to get some eye makeup because of star sighting #2. I don't know her name, but she was in one of the episodes of Sex and the City, the one where Carrie lost her shoes at a party. The lady we saw played the host of the party.. and apparently she won an Oscar for her work in the movie "Paper Moon" (these are facts according to Jackie and June.. man they are just full of knowledge! haha). After a whirlwind day of shopping (Jimmy did buy something... he bought the Seinfield S4 DVDs haha) we met up with June again, along with Jimmy's other cousins Natalia and Elaina, who came in from Queens. We had dinner at this Thai restaurant called Klong, located at 7 St. Marks Pl. It reminded me of Springrolls in Toronto... good food, big portions at a great price. After dinner, we decided to catch a movie.. Star Wars Ep 3 to be exact. We headed to Times Square where we watched it in this HUGE AMC theater (I think we had to go up 4 stories to get to our theatre!). Before the movie, we walked around Times Square, where I marveled at the bright lights and huge flashy display screens.

Total purchases: 1 Stila Eyeliner, a t-shirt from Armani Exchange, a fun-dressy tanktop from Banana Republic, 1 short summer skirt from Forever21

Day #3: Started the morning with brunch w/ June, Jackie and Natalia at Cafe Orlin (41 St. Marks Pl.). Then Jackie and Natalia took us to Bloomingdales. Man these department stores are just massive! You just can't walk the whole thing.. it's impossible! We did more shopping that day with some sight seeing squeezed in between. It started raining half way into our day but that didn't stop us from seeing Trump Towers, Tiffany's, Rockafeller Center and the outside of NBC studios. But it did stop us from walking around Central Park :S After a day of walking, we headed to Queen's with Natalia to have dinner with her family. The subway ride was pretty long. They live out in Flushing, Queens in the Chinatown area. I got to meet Jimmy's other uncle and aunts and his cousin Richard. After dinner, Jimmy's cousins gave us a tour of Flushing, and we went out for bubble tea :)

Total purchases: a nice top from H&M.. which I later returned b/c it didn't fit right (the change room lineups were too long)

Day #4: June took us to this restaurant for lunch called Republic, which was located at Union Square. It's a trendy noodle house that feels sort of like a cafeteria (you sit on these long benches). She took us around to 34th street, where we caught a glimpse of the Empire State Building and Macy's. We actually went into Macy's... damn it's massive! June took off to study and Jimmy and I suddenly found ourselves alone.. with no guide. Since it was a nice and sunny day we headed to Central Park and walked around the lower half the the park. It was nice to get away from the city within the city. I always find it bizzare to find yourself at a park surrounded by trees, then you look up and you see skyscrapers (I had that experience in San Francisco too). Central Park was really nice! After, we headed back to June's, where Jimmy's aunt was preparing a dinner for us. Actually, we headed back, then went back out again because I wanted to buy something @ the Sea Port (I wanted to go to Victoria's Secret.. need I say more? haha) so we headed out again. I had only intended to stay there for a half hour but I ended up staying for an hour (I bought more things than I intended to.. oops! haha). We ended up just chilling that night... and ordering more stuff from Victoria's Secret (June's gonna mail me my purchases! haha)

Total purchases: nice summer tank from Aeropostale, 2 sleep camis from VS, 1 bra from VS, capri pants from Express, stuff from Bath and Body works.. and oh yes.. underwear from VS (bought online)

Day #5: We met up with Mei Ling, Jimmy's other cousin from his dad's side (all the cousins I had met where on his mom's side) for dim sum before she headed to work. Dim sum was good, but it's better in Toronto! After eating and walking her to work, we headed back to Century21 for some last minute shopping. I ended up buying 2 purses and a make-up bag :S Hey! At least I didn't get any shoes (my mom woulda KILLED me if I did! haha). We headed back to June's place to pack up our stuff, then Jimmy's uncle walked us to the bus stop to take the bus into Newark airport.

Total purchases: 1 Guess purse, 1 Kenneth Cole purse and 1 XOXO cosmetic bag, 1 Cherry-patterned tie-belt from Chinatown (hooray cherries!)

And that was my trip to NYC :D I did a lot of walked.. and a lot of riding the New York transit line (the subway), shopped quite a bit and got to hang out with some really kewls people. The city is quite intoxicating and you can really get sucked into the lifestyle and the culture. Although I'm $400 poorer, I can't wait to go back!