New York day 2

Right now I'm feeling very patriotic in Washington DC and I have an overwhelming urge to salute the American flag and eat a Big Mac whilst an eagle flies in the distance. These past couple of days have been incredible and packed full of sight seeing and touristy activities. 

During our second day in New York, we joined a one day tour which took us to all of the typical tourist attractions. It's feels almost surreal being in New York and seeing all of these famous monuments in real life. 

We started the day with a trip to the Empire State Building in Manhattan's midtown area. It was absolutely freezing on the observation deck of the Empire State Building - on the 86th floor!!

My hands went numb as I tried to take photos of the views as my parents gave me the "I'm in so much pain but I have to keep smiling" grin because it was so cold. But the photos and views were completely worth the hypothermia I experienced (thanks 'straya - completely unprepared for the cold)

So beautiful!! 

The snow capped buildings

Selfies atop the Empire State Building 

👍

Afterwards we went to Wall Street where greed is good ;)

My dad was so excited, he'd been asking me when we'd go to Wall Street since we landed in New York. Wall Street = his dream haha

It's amazing to think that billions of dollars are gained and lost each day in this area. 

Afterwards was a boat ride around the Hudson River towards the Statue of Liberty! Although we didn't get very close to her, it was still incredibly surreal to see the statue in real life. 

Also got a beautiful shot of the Brooklyn bridge which connects Manhattan island to the mainland. 

Brooklyn, the hometown of Lonely Boy circa season 1. 

Funnily enough, next stop was the Upper East Side where I met up with my friends Blair and Serena on the steps of the Met. 

Blair and Serena just left to get me my yoghurt ;) 

It was optional entry into the Met which cost $25 per person so my ay-shun parents said 'yer... We're not going' haha

Instead we went and explored Central Park. 

Most magical experience of my life.  Everything was covered in snow and it was just so picturesque and idyllic!! If you guys follow my instagram, just watch the video I posted and you'll understand what I mean ;) 

At this point, I had a sudden urge to become a hobo and live here in the park. 

The famous Bethseda fountain

I could have probably spent an entire day in Central Park. 

New York pretzel 

Final stop for the day was Times Square and Madame Tussaud's wax museum! At this point our camera died (nooooo!!) so our photos of Times Square were all taken on phones :( 

This photo does not do such an amazing place justice :( 

But we did go back during the daylight on day 3 - more clearer photos in the next post. 

There's a reason why New York is called the city that never sleeps. Standing in Times Square, you're almost engulfed in a shower of colour thanks to the billboards and neon signs. It's bright, small and crowded but nonetheless, unbelievably amazing. It was a real 'dream come true' moment standing there. 

There were also lots of people dressed in Elmo, Cookie Monster and zombie suits who essentially walk around fooling tourists into taking a photo with them. It's only after the photo that they find out - "that'll be $10 ma'am". We didn't get tricked but we were pursued by a few though. Never though I'd be chased through Times Square by Elmo. 

Afterwards was Madame Tussaud's wax museum which was actually kinda creepy. Standing next to the figures reminds me of when you see a china doll. You just stare at them, bracing yourself for the moment when they come alive and grab you. Am I the only one who thinks this??? Haha

Rhi Rhi and I 

Other amazing things seen today: 

NYC yellow taxi

And the most amazing sight of the day...

A yellow school bus!!!! 

Mind you, the bus was full of children who were all staring at me weirdly as I took this photo. 

Overall, day 2 = amazing, incredible, surreal, wonderful and every other synonym. I love New York :D 

New York - day 1

24 hours later, we've finally arrived in New York and it is freezing.

Not much happened today, just a whole lot of flying. There was a lot of turbulence from Brisbane to Los Angeles due to cloud patches. Ironic because the night before we flew out, Air Crash Investigations was showing on TV and the episode was about a crash caused by storm clouds. How very reassuring...

Obligatory plane shot enroute to LAX.

Unfortunately I was stuck in the middle aisle during our flight to New York so no scenic shots from the plane :(

New York is just incredible. It's everything I imagined it would be. Flying over I caught glimpses of the suburbs from the windows and all the houses were perfectly arranged with neat square backyards. Everything was covered in white because just yesterday, there had been a large snow fall! SNOW!! At one point during the plane ride I got super excited and shouted out -

'Is that snow?' In a really loud, high pitched voice. The lady sitting in the row across rolled her eyes when she realised that I wasn't a little kid. 

We landed at around 5pm so the sub was already down. The New York skyline is incredibly beautiful. Beats brisbane by 1000000!

Our taxi driver asked us what we wanted to see in New York. My parents said the usual things like - Wall Street and the Empire State Building. 

I said I wanted to go to walmart. 

There was a full half a minute of silence as our driver tried to contain in his laughter. 

Seriously though, for me it's the small differences which I fid so I interesting! In LAX airport during transit, I was just amazed at all the different candy bars available in America. 

There's a chocolate bar called - Baby Ruth. It's next to the Butterfingers bar.

And our accent makes us stand out so much too. I've already gotten quote a few stared in the road and it hasn't even been a full day yet!

So basically all we've done today is fly and settle into our hotel.

Our hotel in NY is pretty small but i guess that's what you'd expect from such a densely populated city. We're staying in the Soho/Chinatown district in Manhattan  and there's lots of really cool street art.

For dinner, I took my parents to an iconic New York food landmark - Katz deli. Katz is really famous for their MASSIVE meat burgers. So I probably wouldn't bring any vegetarian or vegan friends there.

So much meat! Ignore how jet lagged and disgusting I look :S

Father Zhou approves.

Day 1 has been pretty good. I've really enjoyed the brief exploring we've done.

Tomorrow we're hitting all the tourist spots and I can't wait!!!

P.S - my mum is your typical ay-shun mother. She listens to her friends and reveers the opinions of her Asian news papers a bit too much sometimes. She borrowed her friend's adaptor because 'it worked for her' - sigh...

Unfortunately, it doesn't work for us so we have no adapters to convert Australian plugs into American plugs. Except for 1 iPhone charger - because it's from China which uses the same plugs as America. So there goes my laptop. I'll be updating this blog from my phone, so you'll have to bear with really dodge quality mobile phone pics and typos courtesy of autocorrect. Oh well, it'll do :)  

Hope everyone has a wonderful holidays and I'll see you guys tomorrow!

America called and I answered

It's actually happening. Tomorrow I leave for America and I'm kind of sitting here in shock. I'm still in shock from when my mum told me she wanted to go to America. For the first time, my parents are venturing on a holiday outside of Asia... or at least the closest variation.

Most of our holiday is with an asian tour group. :'(
The return of massive tour buses and guides who blow whistles and muster us together like as if we're cattle.

THE GREAT VALUE TOUR! Seems legit

The only 'solo' part of our trip is our brief stay in New York. But I still can't seem to escape the tour bus... However!!! There will be 2 days where it's 100% independent exploring, which I've organised so it basically = 2 days of shopping. Can't wait :)

I've spent WAY too much time in one of these buses 

This blog is basically going to be about our 3 week trip to America and I'll try my best to update as much as possible. But I'll just warn you guys in advance, when I was 10 (I think...), my New Year's resolution was to write in a diary every day. I started off well. I think I got up to 4 entries.
Nek minnet - it's suddenly June. BUT I'll actually try and update this blog :)

It feels weird knowing that I'm flying to New York tomorrow, not Malaysia or Shanghai. And honestly, I'm actually really scared simply because we're going to somewhere so different! 

Entire folder of research dedicated to New York
Dodge photo but you can clearly see that I <3 google maps 

My mum's scared that when she gets off the plane in New York she'll get instant frost bite or something - she's been frantically stuffing woolen jumpers into her suit case tonight. 
I think dad's been watching too much NCIS or something. He's under the impression that as soon as night falls, we need to bolt ourselves into the hotel room otherwise some mafia gang will come and just attack us because New York suddenly turns into this chaotic city. Think 'I am Legend' but replace Will Smith with the Zhou's. 

Me, I'm just scared we'll accidentally piss of our taxi driver or a waiter because we forget to tip. 

BUT, tour or no tour I'm just so fortunate and excited to go to the America and I can't wait to get there! :)