Love & Aloooooha New York City!!

Yes, it has come the time to say, "Farewell!" to the city I've called my home for last 4 months - New York City...

For Thanksgiving, I got to stay with my Cousins in the Bronx!  It was so nice to stay with family over the holidays.  And it was equally great to re-connect, watch TFC (with Auntie, Uncle, and Cousin Elvie), and eat Cousin Elvie's delicious cuisines.  I love your adobo Cousin!!

I even got my own little apartment!  It was absolutely grrrreat!!  I forgot how much I loved being a vegetable in front of the TV.  AMC was running a "Godfather" marathon over the Thanksgiving weekend!  Yippee!!

Then it hit!!!!!!  Finals!!!!  The all important (not really) rite of passage where you sit in your room for hours reading over your notes and trying to understand the stuff you should've been trying to undertand over the semester....  

Lucky for me, NYC is pretty random.... I mean, our residence hall observes a "Quite Zone" through the end of finals and here comes a Parade celebrating, what seems to be, a Mexican holiday??  Mexican Pride Parade perhaps??  Nonetheless, very interesting and certainly not something you see everyday (and you SEE A LOT of things everyday here!!)

Also during this home stretch til I come home, I had dinner with my UJam Chicas!!  Had to fit in a Girls Nite (and some exercising too!!)

First, it was my last day of law school EVER, in my entire life...  Next, it was saying good-bye to my job at the Brooklyn DA's office...  Here's the "Intern Cave" where me and my office-mate, Jeremy Francis, spent most of our days slaving over motions, memos, discovery requestes, drafting subpoenas, and (our personal favorite) calling witnesses (just to name a few things we had to do)...  His desk in the the foreground and my desk is in the background...

And, of course, had to take pics with all the Brooklyn DA peeps!!

As I am writing this Farewell Blog Post, it is approximately 2:40am on Wednesday, 12/12/12...  I have been slowly packing and being a veggie in my room, but not before I did one more thing to check off my bucket list...  That was to visit the Brooklyn Bridge...

I walked over from the DA's, which was a short 15min walk away...  By this time, it was already dusk, hardly any light, but still beautiful...  Here's me with the Brooklyn Bridge and Freedom Tower in the background...  (BTW!!  My pink, UrbanEars headphones a total Must for walking around the City!)

Can't You See the Statue of Liberty???  (Look to the left...)

Here's the Empire State and teeny tiny Chrysler Building... 

And, of course, lower Manhattan...

This has been quite an experience!  One I will never ever forget...  

Aloha Oe, New York City!!

Filled My Quota of Bad Shizzz

Ah Yes...  My first blog since the ordeals of Hurricane Sandy, the Nor'Easter, and, let's just say, Life and the Loss of Love...  I am three for three of truly sh*tty weeks.  I think I've filled my quota of bad sh*t to deal with this year...  Let's start from the beginning shall we...

HURRICANE SANDY

The Friday before Sandy hit NYC, 10/26/2012, my friend Jadean (aka "J"), came up for her very first visit to the City.  From that Friday until Sunday, when the storm hit the east coast 10/28/2012, we busted out as many touristy things as possible.  We visited Times Square (and snapped a pic with the Naked Cowboy!), watched the Broadway musical, Chicago, went to Rockefeller Center (complete with ice skating rink), the Top of the Rock, Carnegie Deli (you must try the infamously delicious and huge Reuben), Lombardi's (SO SO YUMMY), and Canal Street (what was left of the open stores anyways before the City evacuated lower Manhattan below Canal) - just to name a few...

We even had the pleasure of enjoying a frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity and sit in the exact spot where Michelle Pfeiffer's character sat in "One Fine Day" (also starred George Clooney).

Then the storm hit.  At first, we were fine.  We still had power in my apartment.  On Sunday evening, however, we, along with all of lower Manhattan, lost power due to the storm and also due to some transformer blowing up near the 14th Street power station.  On Monday, we lost water and it became exceedingly clear that we needed to also evacuate.  We ended up seeking shelter at a friend's house in Brooklyn...  

While in Brooklyn, J and I decided to make the most of her vacation.  We visited the Brooklyn Museum, which was totally awesome (and free because of the storm).  We also visited the Promenade where I snapped this picture... 

This picture is the stark contrast of lower Manhattan in the dark and Brooklyn with all the lights on.  J left that Friday, but not before we got a peek at the devastation while driving into New Jersey: fallen trees on cars, a little bit of flooding, and, not to mention, the longest line I've ever seen at a gas station.  Our driver nearly crash into the center median trying to snap a pic of this enormous line!

After J left, I got a visit from another set of friends, the Domingo clan!  They came in the Saturday after J left and the next day we went to a Giants game.  It was unbelievably COLD!!  But, nonetheless, an experience none of us would ever forget... 

Here's a pic of me at the game...

Here's a pic of me and the peeps about to board the bus on our way to MetLife Stadium.  Because of the storm, the subway trains, the main mode of transportation for most attendees, were inoperable...  So, naturally, we ALL had to take the buses.  The bitch part of this evening (besides the 30-degree, almost freezing temperature) was the lack of organization the bus system had when we needed to return to the City.  We literally waited for more than 2 hours in the freezing cold to board a bus and get back home.  That sucked major ballz!!

The Domingo clan was the luckiest of the peeps that visited because they just missed Sandy and barely missed the Nor'Easter.  They left the Tuesday before the Nor-Easter hit, which was the next day, Wednesday 11/7/2012.  My next set of friends weren't so lucky (somewhat).  

Yet another set of friends came up for a visit, the KSG clan...  (KSG was a law firm I externed at this past summer.)  They came up that Tuesday evening, which just so happened to be Election Night!  And we just so happened to be in Times Square when it all went down!  This pic below is of the ticker announcing the election results.  I managed to get Hawaii's results as it scrolled by!!  Alooooooooooha!!

Here's Thao, Sarah, and I (rocking the geek look) in Times Square!  Yes, it was very, very cold.

NOR'EASTER

The next day, the Nor'Easter was predicted to hit at around 6pm.  While I was at my internship at the Brooklyn DA's, the storm actually came early at around 1pm.  I got to see snow fall for the first time in my entire life and it was amazing!  Out of the 2 storms, this was by far my favorite!  (I also dressed rather appropriately that day because the wind was making the cold worse!)

I knew that the Nor'Easter was coming and was bringing the potential of snow.  So, since then, I had my camera at the ready...  I was snapping pictures everywhere I went.  I couldn't seem to wipe off the enormous smile on my face.  I played and walked in the snow, I threw a genuine snowball at a wall and it stuck, I was probably the only person actually enjoying the snow while everyone was totally over it!! HaHa!!  I snapped this pic of this bike while I was getting out of the subway.

This is a pic of my street with all the cars covered with snow...  It was amazing!

The next day, the peeps and I enjoyed a night out on the extremely cold town.  The girls and I had dinner at Balthazar (yummy French food).  Afterwards, we had drinks at a lounge, 1537, which was on Prince Street.  Judging by the hangover I experienced the next day, it was a fun night (and not so fun morning)...

LOSS OF LOVE

"Every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction."  And my loss of love is a testament to this quote.  When I leave NYC, I will have gained a lot of experiences, but I will return home to Hawaii without Love...

Yes, I am purposefully being vague with this last part of the "3-shitty-weeks-in-a-row" bit.  First week, Sandy.  Second week, Nor'Easter.  Third week, heartbreak.  Out of all of the weeks, this third week has been the worst of all...

Love & Aloha Peeps...  I cannot wait to come home finally!

When in Rome...

...do as Romans do.  When in New York City...

...visit the 2nd best pizza restaurant in the U.S. of A, especially when it's just a couple blocks from your apartment.  My roommate, Naheed, and I did just that.  Naheed saw on Yahoo! that Motorino Pizza was voted the 2nd best pizza joint in the nation.  She also noticed that this particular pizza joint was on 12th street (and we live on 3rd street), which was a quick, brisk walk away.  We had to judge for ourselves if this place was worthy of such a prestigious title.  We ordered the Margherita pizza with olives, and Boy! was it Delizioso!

I also sampled their Mexican Coca-Cola, which, I'm told, is made with sugar cane instead of corn syrup like in the U.S.  I tried to keep the cute bottle it came in, but the waiter didn't get the memo and threw it away by accident.

Then we stopped by Veniero's for some awesome New York cheesecake (and an eclair for me), which was also Delizioso!  

This was the damage I did to it...  I had to take a quick pic before the box was empty!

So, the moral of the story, Boys and Girls.  When in NYC, try Motorino and, especially, Veniero's!  LOL!

Love and Aloha Peeps!

Randomness

There is one thing about this city you may never get used to - the Randomness of it all.

Everyday, as I make my way to my regular subway entrance (to the F train), I see this man selling belts and other leather goods on a fold-out table on the sidewalk.  At first, I thought this guy was a bum.    However, I was curious enough to scope out his belt selection to see if there was one I'd fancy.  Turns out, after talking with him (and to my surprise), he was very articulate, nice, and dextrous (he made the belts himself).  Needless to say, I was quite happy with my purchase.  Now, I say "Hi" to him from time to time.  (Warning... You definitely can't do that with everyone here...)

On another day, my roommate Naheed alerted me to a graphic poster that our neighbors, the Hell's Angels, put up in a bar two buildings down from our apartment...

By the looks of the poster, that party is either going to be a rager with topless women or a sword fight (e.g. a bar full of bearded dudes...)

One yet another day, while walking to my friendly neighborhood Rite Aid, I caught a glimpse of another one of these random quotes (check out a previous blog post with a similar quote)...  Apparently these quotes are litered all over the East Village.

Oh yes, to complete my story of Randomness, I just threw in a photo of the school I'm visiting...

Love and Aloha Peeps!

A Friend('s) Request

This post is dedicated to my friend Gen who had a special request...  To post pictures of touristy things of NYC...  Of course, I haven't done any touristy things to date, but I most definitely did when my parents were here...  So, here are the pictures of my parents and I playing (or actually being) tourists in NYC!!

Here we are on our way via subway to the World Trade Center site, the E train's final stop.

Here we go...

Here we are in front of the Survivor Tree, a tree that was crushed to a stump during the collapse of the towers, then nursed back to life.

This is the site of the South Tower (or North?)...

Protect and Serve, Gentlemen...  (Double shaka for my Hawaii peeps!  Alooooooooohaaaaa!)

Of course, we had to snap a pic in front of The Wall Street Journal.  My dad loves his newspapers!

Here's my mom about to grab a hotdog in Times Square...

Here we are enjoying those hotdogs (and a not-so-enjoyable lobster roll) on the Times Square bleachers...

(I think this one's self explanatory.)

If you've been living in the modern world, you'd know what this pic is...  (+ the New Years' Eve countdown ball!)

My Auntie Carrie (and my acting coach, Scott Rogers) recommended we purchase tickets from here "tkts"...  This is a great source for show tickets at majorly discounted rates.  It can be found both in Brooklyn and, of course, Times Square under the bleachers.  You can't miss it!

This is the jumbo-tron in Times Square.  Can you spot us in this picture...?

How 'bout now...?

This should get Gen excited!!  It's M&M world!!  And the largest wall of chocolate (so they claim)...

I told you we did a lot of touristy things...  Here's Radio City Music Hall where my parents and I watched Zarkana.  

This is Rockefeller Center.  During the winter, this becomes an ice skating rink and the place where they erect the Rockefeller christmas tree.  Movies love to show these places!

Here we are about to watch Zarkana!

And...  Who can forget?  The most touristy thing of all the things to do in NYC.  Eat some New York City pizza!!  Yum!

Love and Aloha Peeps!

Psst...  Mucho Mahalo GEN for the care-package (Kim-Chee ramen, Hawaiian Sun mix, and Men of the Islands calendar, Oh My!!)