Hudson (5.4.12-6.4.12)

     I didn't post anything yesterday because I wasn't in the mood and I just wanted to sleep. I actually cried myself to sleep. (People WILL think I'm attention-seeking here, seriously but I'm not. I just need somewhere to let it out, so you can stfu and gtfo like NOW)

     I have no time right now to post long posts so I'm just gonna list the things that I did. And some pictures.

5.4.12

• Hudson River Cruise around Manhattan Island and saw the Statue of Liberty

6.4.12

• I went to visit Columbia University which is so flipping amazing. I will blog a whole post about it after I get back to Malaysia. 
• Bed, Bath and Beyond for the first time.
• Saw the most perfect human being on earth at the Mandarin Oriental.

     Columbia is such an amazing university and yes, it's the only university I've visited but it's definitely gone to the top of my list. I know, it's stupid because it's the only one I've seen and 'went into detail with' but you go on the tour, find out more about Columbia (I had opinion from a student's point of view) and you tell me why it's not as amazing as I think it is.

     The perfect human being was this dude at the Mandarin Oriental. He was a brunette with literally clear blue eyes. Like Ian Rush's. They were so clear and light blue. And he had a good fashion sense. And his bone structure was perfect. Kill me. Metaphorically.

Nothing

I'm not gonna post anything today. Nothing much happened. Just went on a cruise around Manhattan Island. Not really in the mood. Kinda pissed off with someone, who's actually not my mom.

Lights (5.2.12)

     Not gonna be a long post even though quite a lot happened today. Actually, no, not that much happened today but this post isn't gonna be long and/or descriptive anyways because I'm tired and I'm going to flop like a fish.  

     6:00am, I woke up, shut the window, dragged myself to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, slouched back to my headquarters a.k.a. the living room couch, fall back asleep. 8:30am, wake up, rolled around on my throne, ate my Trader Joe's O's, got ready and left for the 9/11 memorial in Brooklyn.

     The drive there was really cool. We passed maaany places namely the Brooklyn Bridge. That bridge is absolutely amazing. Ahh I loved it. The 9/11 site was emotional, I guess even though I didn't really feel anything. The thoughts going through my head were: 'Wow, countless people died where I'm standing right now.' 'The two buildings just collapsed right here in front of me 11 years ago.' They are building four new buildings and a memorial right now so the site was sort of closed. You COULD go in but you needed passes and I was too lazy so ye. We looked at the buildings, took a few pictures and then left for Wall Street to see the New York Stock Exchange and initially wanted to see the Wall Street Bull but ended up being too lazy to walk to it.

     The walk to Wall Street was so nice. The weather was perfect. We passed so many beautiful buildings. Ahh the architectures hits me again. When we reached Wall Street, the first thing I saw was this bronze statue of George Washington and it turns out that that was the site of the first inauguration of the United States. That was where Washington took the oath as the United States of America's first ever President. I was in awe, to be honest. I didn't expect that. HAHA. Then I saw the New York Stock Exchange and that building is great. And I don't mean like 'Your work is great' sort of great, I mean GREAT. The architecture was just so amazing.

     We walked down Wall Street thinking the bull would be further down the road (LOL) but instead, we walked into Hermes LOL and the person who served it. WOW. So hot haha. Blonde, blue eyes and tall. I died. He seemed like a bit of a dick in the beginning haha but he was nice. Left Hermes, made the decision to not see the bull and just go to The Village for lunch. After hailing down a cab and sitting in it for approximately 20 seconds, we pass the bull HAHAAAA. It was big.

     We basically walked around Bleecker Street until we found a place called 'August' which served really good food. I had baked chicken on a bed of potatoes (protein + potatoes, mm healthy) and then we walked around Bleecker Street even more after lunch. Such a beautiful day, really.

     Juicy Couture was one of our stops and we bloody splurged lol. Bought so many beautiful pieces of clothing, ahh! Then we came home. I was wrecked but I had the strength to go down for a manicure wee. Dinner was on Columbus Avenue and 78th Street, the Ocean Grill. The place was cool. I had some fluke sashimi and grilled sea bass. I didn't care too much for the sea bass even though it was cooked very well and it was truuuly fresh.

     After dinner, we went to TIMES SQUARE! Ahh, the lights were amazing. They were so bright it actually didn't seem like it was at night, as unrealistic as it sounds.... We passed by Broadway in the cab and wow. The lights. HAHA. I loved the lights. Loved. Them. They were just so vibrant and colorful and lively. Excuse my lack of vocabulary. M&Ms World was where I first hit. That place smelled like chocolate heaven. I couldn't escape the sweet smell of milk chocolate. I probably gained 20 pounds just walking into that joint. I bought cool as rainbow toe socks. Then I hit Hershey's world but I didn't get anything...sigh.  I liked M&Ms World better though. More colorful, bigger and all in all just more fun.

     After all that went down, we walked around Times Square completely unaware of the time and took pictures and eventually entered the huge Forever 21. I normally would've gone crazy but I was tired and there really wasn't much ahah. There were great tops but I just would've looked like a cow in then anyways. I got a couple tops and by couple I mean two and a bunch of hair ties because I always seem to be 'misplacing' them. By the time we got back it was 12. HAHA.

No pictures today, not that you care.

Highlight: Juicy Couture where I got my first trench coat and striped tracksuits.
Tomorrow: Semi-circle cruise around Manhattan and shopping.
Friday: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AHH!

Tourist (3.4.12)

     My day started officially when I walked out of my apartment building and walked in the direction of one of the world's tallest buildings and one of the most spectacular buildings ever, the Empire State Building. We've already gotten out CityPasses so we got to skip the almost non-existent line outside (LOL, because we went at like 10:05 and that place opened at 10). BUT, we walked into the building, there was a line. Joy. But the line was pretty fast-moving so that was good, I guess. K, gonna skip the boring part about the line, security and elevators and I'll get to the main part. The observatory. The 'main' observatory is on the 86th floor where I went and there's a higher observatory on the 102nd floor but I didn't go to that. It was super cold due to the strong winds outside. Ahh, I loved it but my fingers were numb, felt like they were going to fall off and felt like frozen fish sticks. I didn't care, I needed good photos and I wanted to take New York City in.

     The view was breathtaking. Central Park, the Hudson River, the Chrysler Building, 1st Avenue, THE WHOLE OF MANHATTAN. I don't know what else to say. The view was just amazing. I'll put up a few pictures. After the Empire State Building, we went over to THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. That place is not your average museum. It's located on 5th Ave and E82 Street. The building's architecture left me flabbergasted. I don't know what to say about it. It was just so amazing. 

     Now, the MET isn't just a museum, it's the Met. Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Ancient Asia, Ancient Egypt, Modern Art, Contemporary Art, European Sculptures, Medieval England, Medieval France, Byzantine Time, ahh everything. I didn't know where to start. But we did anyways. At the Ancient Rome/Greece section. The marble sculptures were very, very well preserved and very pretty. Sure, hands, heads and sadly some penises were broken off but they just added to the history element. I love these types of art, I don't know why. They didn't just have sculptures of people, they also had pieces of remarkable buildings then and I found it absolutely fascinating. Go ahead, call me a nerd.

(Okay, I'm gonna give a quick summary of everywhere I went in the MET so if you don't want to be bored skip to where I tell you to stop. You'll know where because I'll exclaim STOP HERE out of your speakers I'll type 'stop')

Ancient Rome/Greece

I saw a sculpture of Aphrodite/Venus, Hercules, some imperial members and some pieces of some Ancient Roman buildings. They were all really well crafted and preserved.

Ancient Egypt

I basically saw some mummies and some of Cleopatra's jewelry. No big deal. The mummies were really fascinating because the thought of having a mummified dead body in front of you in a clear, glass case was just so...scary yet great at the same time. There were two types of mummies that I saw. 1. The normal mummy - a wooden painted case. 2. The mummy when the Romans ruled Egypt - a wooden painted case but instead of a moulded face, a portrait of the deceased's face was slotted in.

Ancient Asia

My mom told me that most of the pieces on display in the China section were actually smuggled out of China. They weren't smuggled out by the museum. They were smuggled int he 19th/20th century. For example, some of them were smuggled out by Chiang Kai Shek when he escaped China and collectors bought the art pieces off of him. I know right, isn't it saaa cool. Oh, and also, I saw this HUGE and I mean HUGE painting of the Buddha of Medicine, which was about 40ft wide and at lest 15ft tall. It was painted on clay and the thing was actually cracked at some parts but they were restored and pieces back together. WOW. 

Contemporary Art

I love contemporary art and this section of the Met just added more reasons as to why I love this genre of art. Ahh, the edginess of it all. I saw more of Andy Warhol's great pop art pieces and I was still in awe of it all. I saw 'Nine Jackies', which was basically a pop art piece of Jackie O, the widow of JFK. Another one was a huge portrait of 'Mao' that was pop art-ised. As much as I don't know how I feel about Mao, the piece was great. I've really come to love Andy Warhol's work. They're so colorful and funky. Not to mention, what he did with Marilyn Monroe's shots were amazing. Lastly, my favorite piece in the Contemporary Art section was this wall art piece. It was basically a few panels of basic colors arranged in such a way that it was a spectrum. Actually the colors were very, very shout-able. Idk, something about them that's just so appealing. I love the piece regardless of it being so simple. Simplicity. Simple but effective.

STOP

After the Met, we hailed a cab and went to 5th Avenue where Barneys was and we walked around Barneys but bought nothing. We then walked over to DKNY where I got a jumpsuit ahhh. But after that, we came home and did nothing. It was 6-ish but oh well. 

1

2

nine jackies

Photos from yesterday:

van gogh's the silent night!

Highlight: Contemporary Art at the MET.

Tomorrow: Semi-Circle Cruise around Manhattan, Wall Street, the New York Times Building and Ground Zero.

Contemporary (2.4.12)

      Today I woke up not knowing what time it was. I guessed it was about 7:50, checked my iPod, it was 8. Big difference. I lazed around until about 9 and started getting ready to go out, yes, I did eat breakfast. My initial plan was to go to the Empire State Building and then head off to the Museum of Modern Art but the Empire State Building's line to go up to the observatory was as long as my intestines. So, we bailed that location and headed over to MoMA. MoMA is such a great museum, and I mean great. The design and architecture of it is so simple yet so mesmerizing. I was in awe of how simple it was. The moment we entered the museum, we went to the photography section but it was close for some kind of installation so we went to the contemporary arts level and I was amazed. I spent about 30 minutes on that floor, which was quite big to be honest. Colors everywhere. Random sculptures everywhere. Distorted faces everywhere. Disfigured bodies everywhere. Simple geometrical designs everywhere. It was art. I don't know how to appreciate these kind of things but the simplicity of it all captured me. The colors captured me. I saw Andy Warhol's work and I love him.

      After the contemporary arts section, we went to the sculpture garden, which was beautiful. Yet again, so simple but it all just fits. As the name suggests, the place was full of sculptures and the weather added to the already existent beauty. Blue skies, fluffy-ass, white clouds, sunshine and a light breeze. I can't believe I saw Picasso's work. We went to have lunch after we were done with the sculpture garden. I had a mushroom soup with chorizo baked ravioli for my appetizer and a homemade sausage paired with sauerkraut and some mustard sauce as my entrée. The food was really good omg. Lunch was done, off to paintings and sculptures I. Right outside the restaurant was this vibrant, colorful, just so pretty piece of artwork that spread out on the about 20ft long wall. It was at least that long and at least 7ft tall. I loved it. It was basically colored bricks going in different directions. The bricks were red, yellow, green, blue, purple and orange. Ahh, so pretty. And I love color so shut up. At some pieces, I admit I went HKDLSAJDKSAL, at some, I went 'I could've done that', at others...I pokerfaced.

     The rest of the museum wasn't as interesting as the contemporary art part. There were people just admiring some pieces that I just didn't know how to appreciate, lol shame on me I guess. I just loved that museum LOL. And the shop was sooo cool ahh. No words. We left the museum at about 430 and we started walking on Fifth Avenue towards F.A.O. Shwarz, the best toy store in the US, apparently. I agree. It's HUGE. It could be like Hamley's but their floors are sooo big even though they only have three as opposed to Hamley's' 6 floors. BUT OH WELL THAT PLACE IS AMAZING. I didn't bother to visit the toy sections so I walked my sorry little ass over to the candy section TROLS. That place is incredible to say the least. They had 2ft tall Wonka Nerds boxes, 2ft long Twizzlers, 3ft wide Rice Krispies, 3ft long Sweetarts tubes, a foot tall gummi bears, holy shit I almost died. I initially went there to look around not intending to get anything but their gummi variety was just too great. I made my mom, who was standing at some corner (LOL) of the toy store and I dragged her over to the candy section and the first thing she said upon entering was 'omg diabetes'. She saw these little chinese takeout like boxes that were really cute and said 'fill one of those up with candy. go. now.' Guess what I did? I filled that box. It cost 60 bloody ringgit, FACKEN LAWL. But oh well.

     We rode a taxi cab home and went out for dinner at some korean/japanese place and food was goooood. I had edamame, a small green salad, clam soup and some grilled beef hot rice bowl. LOL IM SOOOO FAT RIGHT NOW.

No pictures because I'm half-dead, I'll put 'em up tomorrow.


Not like you care.


Tomorrow I'm waking up super early to line up for the Empire State Building and then going on a cruise around Manhattan Island.

Chill (1.4.12)

     There's really nothing much to write about today. It was a rather chill day to say the least. My morning started at 8:50 in the morning and I had Trader Joe's cereal nut and honey O's for breakfast. We left the apartment at about 10 to Bloomingdales again. Mom was getting some shirts for my uncles and at 11, we crossed 3rd Avenue to Dylan's Candy Bar! I was planning to go crazy but I held back a little because my mom was watching. And my body was...already fat so. But I basically got a jar of candy (a rather small one), four bars of chocolate (not ALL for me haha), personalized chocolate bars and pajamas! Then I went back to Bloomingdales and mom walked around as I tagged along. We then had lunch at David Burke's again but this time I had the soooo bloody sinful mac & cheese but I had a salad too so..meh.

     Mom decided to shop more and I had nothing else to do so she allowed em to walk over to Dylan's again alone. So I did. I crossed the roads and shit alone like a badass. But today's weather was amazing. It wasn't as chilly as yesterday but it wasn't....'warm' per say. I got more candy...but I intend to share it so. I won't eat a lot of it HAHA. But I had to pay it with my own money so my mom is at no loss, weow. After I got back to Bloomingdales and met my mom, she sent me home and then her and her friend went out to Saks Fifth Avenue and shopped until about 7. Meanwhile, I chilled at home doing nothing, yay. We left for dinner at about 8 to Momokawa on E 328th street. The food there is really, really good and it's Japanese btw...HA. I shared the beef shabu-shabu with my mom's friend and me and her finished it. LOL. I'm such a fatass...I need mixed touch. I WANT IT. NOW. Anyways. The food was really good aaand I didn't take any pictures of the food LOL. But make sure to visit it if you ever come to New York!

     That's it. That was my day. I've either not written well or my brain's deep fried.

Backpack from Urban Outfitters from the first day

Keds from Bloomingdales from yesterday

From Bloomingdales yesterday

From Bloomingdales yesterday

Dylan's Candy Bar

Cambridge Satchel

Lexington Ave. (31.3.12)

Today's post isn't gonna be a long post. I'm writing this at 12:23am and my brain is absolutely FRIED.

     Majority of my day, more like from 12pm to 6pm. was spent at Bloomingdales on 3rd Avenue. Oh lord, that place is full of stuff. I ventured to the second floor with mother. It was where the shoes and other designer clothes were located. My mom basically walked around the whole floor and I just tagged along. But I got ....three pairs of shoes form that floor, WOO! A pair of Tory Burch flats and two pairs of Keds! Then, on the same floor, I went to the other side where they had younger fashion and I got a Pink Floyd off-shoulder sweater and a New York City tank. Don't worry, it's not the typical tourist shit you'd expect.

     Next, the ground floor for lunch at David Burke @ Bloomingdales. It was such a nice place. It was sort of like an American Diner. I had a Kobe Hot Dog and a Caesar salad. After lunch, I went to the fourth floor with my mom and she went around the floor to shop while I was sat at the seats in DKNY waiting for her, reading. We then made way to the first floor because my mom was looking for handbags. But I actually found THE CAMBRIDGE SATCHEL OMG. And I got a black one! And also a MBMJ sling bag hehehe. After that, we went up to the sixth floor to chill and have some coffee and the B Café. B for Bloomingdales I guess. I had a hot chocolate annnnd the most sinful chocolate chip cookie ever.

     It was 6pm before we got a cab and came home. I had to get ready for my dinner at 240, Central Park South. Well, the restaurant next to that address, Marea. Marea is a modern Italian restaurant with two Michelin stars and has absolutely scrumptious food. I loved it but the servings were a little big and I just couldn't finish my food....ha. I had some frog legs for my antipasti and pasta with housemade pork sausages and kale for my main course. They also gave us this salad with lightly tossed blue crab with some citrus and also a perfectly cooked pasta with tomato based sauce. The sauce was cooked to perfection. It didn't possess that sour-y tangy feeling that you normally get after having some tomato-based sauce. And the pasta wasn't too cooked or undercooked. It was perfect. Ahh, I loved it but I just couldn't finish anything.

     I didn't take any pictures today, sigh. Except for some of my food but oh well, I'm lazy and it's late.