Sooooo let's go through each day////
June 1st, 2011 Wednesday
I got up at 3:30am to take a shower and get ready to leave by 4:10am to LAX. Sweet Susie offered to give us ride so that we don't have to worry about parking at LAX (We meaning my mother and I. She will be coming with me and staying 2 and a half days at NYC to help me settle and to make great memories together as this will be my first time ever having a trip just with my mother!). I struggled to meet the 50 pounds weight limitation on both of my luggages (my sweet mother will be carrying one for me, as I can take 2 baggages for international flights: my flight to Italy after the summer as I will be going there directly from NYC) till the very last minute, and it turns out that both luggages weigh 52 pounds at the check-in, and the kind lady let me pass with 2 pounds overweight.
So off we go, leaving my sweet home behind, which I will miss very much for the coming 6 months.
It was very eerie and mysterious californian early morning. There was a slightest lightening of the sky, getting paler and paler blue as we drove up to LAX. There were barely any cars, and we enjoyed a nice ride up 405, and then 105, finally getting to the airport. Check-in and security was a breeze, although I did not appreciate them touch-checking my mother! Argh, such a violation of personal privacy! but I cannot blame them for just doing their job. Oh one thing I must add: the cute lil top hat that my sweet sister gave me was a sensation! I should have counted the number of compliments I received regarding my hat. It is so adorable and I shall post a picture here:
Anyhooz, after a delay-ish detour around chicago due to heavy air traffic in JFK, we finally arrived at NEWWW YORRRRRK <3 Baggage claim was a breeze, and we took a cab (with a very friendly Indian driver with the last name Singh) to my place in Brooklyn Heights - St. George Weller EHS housing! IT is a housing recommended by my awesome internship advisor back in USC, Penny, and she forwarded me this awesome non profit housing org that basically provides temporary fully furnished units for students and interns. I like my double single room that has two sets of furniture, so it was great for my mom to stay for couple of days.
So after we arrived, we checked in at the front desk (I got my card/key with my ID photo with my adorable hat! yipee) and then we settled down a bit - put the beddings on the beds, unpacked my luggages and organized the place a bit. The EHS gave a lil tote bag with one TP, NYC guide, Metro map...etc and a snack! How adorable! We decided to explore the infamous Korea town @ 32nd street. We took the subway to 34th street, and walked to K town, passing by Madison Square and Pennsylvania hotel, and Greeley (?) square and Manhattan mall...etc. I actually was completely pointing at the wrong direction and we walked quite a while in the very opposite way, and discovered B & H photo and video store that I always buy my electronics things from! haha
First we went to Shilla, the restaurant we went to 3 years and couple months ago when we came to NYC for an east coast college tour my junior year of high school. It was strange to go back there again, and to feel my memory of the past in the present. Mom ordered 칡 비빔냉면 and I ordered 물냉면 and for appetizer we ordered 해물파전. gosh they were really good, and not so cheap! I mean it's nyc. I should get used to the overpriced everything! haha Afterwards, we went to THE FACESHOP and got some goodies, I got my extra sunscreen that i absolutely love that I'm almost running out of, and a very fragrant and light and fluffy body lotion that I also very much love. Mom got some goodies too, aloe spray, which she ended up leaving since she only brought carry on baggage, and extremely good BB cream that she loves. Afterwards, we went to CVS to get some things, Paris Baguette and got some green tea latte action, and got back to our place in brooklyn via cab.
June 2nd, 2011 Thursday
Oh boy, I was tired! I woke up rather late T_T and took a shower (gosh it was sticky hot yesterday!). My mother has already woken up, taken a shower, and got back from a trip to radio shack to get the internet cable cuz mine got broken argh! haha Thank you mommy! We headed to K-Town again to conquer the other restaurants that we didn't get to go to yesterday. First, we went to KyoChon chicken (which my best friend Aisha absolutely loves!), which was, as usual, very very good, went to CVS AGAIN! to get some staple medication things like coldsore ointments, bandages, cold pills...etc.
THEN we headed to SoHo! The wonderful area where my internship is located! I was pleasantly lost in the area, completely passing by Anthropologie.... for some very odd crazy reason that is very hard to understand... haha but I got to know the area well! I found Anthropologie again and went in with loudly thumping heart. Oh what a lovely store! Picture of the outside:
It is a gorgeous store. I love the experience you get by just being in this store. Everything is ever so carefully laid out, all the different colors and patterns and shapes and ahhh! Handmade sculptures add so much more interest in this place. It's a fairly large space too. I was just getting so excited that I will be working here and get to be part of the 'making-of-the-visual-presentation' of one of my very favorite retail store. I actually got to say hi to couple of the interns that already started working. They were painting the window piece, which was a collage of different geometric wood pieces that they were painting with different shades of blue. I cannot wait till Monday, my very first day of work!
Afterwards, we returned back to my place: mostly cuz I chose the wrong shoes for the extensive walking job, and my feet were getting very sore. I took a short nap, and we decided to go watch the musical Chicago! Oh it was very lovely. I thoroughly enjoyed the musical, and it was wonderful to watch it with my mother... Then we went to Miss Korea, as my cousin recommended, for very late dinner (11pm ish?) in K-Town and had the last meal of extravagance ahahaha. It was very very good, and I had a very interesting 쌈 with bunch of diff fruits (Kiwi, strawberry, pineapple - my fav!). Then we went to Pinkberry for a lil after dinner treat. oh it was very delicious! Afterwards, another yellow taxi took us back to our place.
June 3rd, 2011 Friday
After failing to wake up multiple times with my alarm, I woke up at 9:30am ish, and woke up to an already-all-ready mother about to leave to the airport. Oh mother, thank you so so much for coming out here and helping me settle into my new home for the summer, and to get me all the wonderful things and share the unforgettable memories with me in the sparkling city of New York. I had such a great time with you and was so sad to see you go in the yellow cab. I know you don't even enjoy plane rides, and I cannot thank you enough for what a great mother you have been to me for these past 2 decades, and I love you so much!!!
I will be posting more posts on my adventure here in NYC.
Love,
Angela
