I hate hangovers. Everytime I get one I detox and stay off alcohol for a bit. This time, I'm gonna swear off tequilla shots. But as I recover from my hangover in the quiet solitude of my apartment and read my senior's blog, I feel the compulsion to blog as well. The last entry was before I had embarked on my American Adventure. Now I can say that I am glad that I visited the East Coast before I came to LA.
I've been to the airport multiple times to send people off but it didn't strike me too often that one day, people will be sending me off. It's amazing to have so many people at the airport who care enough to travel across the island just for a few hours and for others who would have loved to have been there. When you are going off alone, the last burst of family and friends helps to ward off the frightening prospects of flying 23hours across the world to a place where you don't know anyone.
Thankfully, I met a friend who was on the same flight to NYC and doing a domestic transfer which made the transit in Frankfurt more enjoyable. And so as I collected my baggage at JFK Airport and headed through immigration, I was finally in New York City. Of all the cities I've visited thus far in the US, NYC tops the list of awesomeness. No American Adventure is complete without visiting NYC. Manhattan is such a vibrant place. Down South you have Wall Street, the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. The grid-like development makes navigating so much easier as you pass Union Square and Maddison Square enroute to Times Sq. I can't expound on how amazing Times Sq is the first time you exit the drab subway station to arrive in a myriad of lights.
A mash of everything in a small place is what makes NYC so amazing. You have a whole row of artists setting up shop and selling paintings in SOHO, financial gurus at work in Wall St, musicals and small theatres dotting Broadway, loads of museums, the Brooklyn Bridge, food carts which sell $5 halal food, a very well developed subway network, processions every so often and a huge park to top it off in the middle of Manhattan.
Still, I think that the thing that I've taken away from my East Coast experience is that travelling alone isn't such a bad thing. You do whatever you want whenever you want and you can spend reflection time sitting in the park of by the pier in the cold breeze buffeted by the warm summer sunshine. One thing that I want to try is to find a cafe in San Francisco, order a coffee and bagel while having a book in hand.
Ah, I miss the aroma and taste of coffee. Perhaps it's time I pay Starbucks a visit.
I've been to the airport multiple times to send people off but it didn't strike me too often that one day, people will be sending me off. It's amazing to have so many people at the airport who care enough to travel across the island just for a few hours and for others who would have loved to have been there. When you are going off alone, the last burst of family and friends helps to ward off the frightening prospects of flying 23hours across the world to a place where you don't know anyone.
Thankfully, I met a friend who was on the same flight to NYC and doing a domestic transfer which made the transit in Frankfurt more enjoyable. And so as I collected my baggage at JFK Airport and headed through immigration, I was finally in New York City. Of all the cities I've visited thus far in the US, NYC tops the list of awesomeness. No American Adventure is complete without visiting NYC. Manhattan is such a vibrant place. Down South you have Wall Street, the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. The grid-like development makes navigating so much easier as you pass Union Square and Maddison Square enroute to Times Sq. I can't expound on how amazing Times Sq is the first time you exit the drab subway station to arrive in a myriad of lights.
A mash of everything in a small place is what makes NYC so amazing. You have a whole row of artists setting up shop and selling paintings in SOHO, financial gurus at work in Wall St, musicals and small theatres dotting Broadway, loads of museums, the Brooklyn Bridge, food carts which sell $5 halal food, a very well developed subway network, processions every so often and a huge park to top it off in the middle of Manhattan.
Still, I think that the thing that I've taken away from my East Coast experience is that travelling alone isn't such a bad thing. You do whatever you want whenever you want and you can spend reflection time sitting in the park of by the pier in the cold breeze buffeted by the warm summer sunshine. One thing that I want to try is to find a cafe in San Francisco, order a coffee and bagel while having a book in hand.
Ah, I miss the aroma and taste of coffee. Perhaps it's time I pay Starbucks a visit.