5 am!

So New York is definitely the city that never sleeps. I was hanging with
my cousin Andrew, his roommate Su Hak (I'm sure I spelled that wrong),
their budy Bob, and a whole bunch of their friends. It was a wild time.
We had some bad luck at first, because it was raining, and the first
club we went to wasn't their thing. But it would have been "cheap" to be
there. We would have paid $300 for 10 people and 2 bottles of vodka,
mixers included. We had 10 people but the other guys wanted more Asians.
I was perfectly happy with the indian and white crowd that was there,
but hey, I wasn't driving the evening. Another note. I think this was
the first time in my life that I went out with a group that was entirely
Asian. Definitely strange for me, but it worked out ok. After thr bust
at the first club, we went to another club called stitch, and then
finally to a club called bob's. While my cousin and crew were trying to
pick up on chicks, I had a nice conversation with a Swiss girl who's
best friend and boyfriend were ignoring her. We mostly chatted about the
political differences between Switzerland and the US. Apparently the
rest of the world was just as shocked as I was that we re-elected Bush.
Before I knew it, it was 3:45 am. We then cabbed over to a noodle house
in china town, and now I'm back at my cousins apartment at 5 am.

Oh I saw the broadway musical Rent tonight. I know I said I hated the
music, but seeing it on Broadway totally changed my opinion of the
music. I highly recommend seeing this is you can.

And finally, my day was jampacked with activities. I woke up at 6am, got
ready caught the train at 7:50, and was in to the city by 9:00. It took
me about 45 minutes to get to my cousins apartment.

I caught up with Andrew for a while, since I haven't seen him in 8 or 9
years. The details are all fuzzy.

Anyway left his apartment and went to get in line for the Statue of
Liberty and Ellis Island. Wait was an hour and 15 minutes (yeah right,
because is stood there for 15 minutes and the line didn't move. The
weather was overcast and the visibility was poor, so I didn't feel like
spending 3 to 4 hours of the day on that. So instead I walked around the
financial district, checking out wall street and the New York Stock
Exchange.

Next was ground zero. It was very strange to see that site. I never had
the chance to see them, but I can imagine what it was like, and how
empty it is now. People were crying all over the place. The whole thing
was pretty emotional. I didn't expect that I would get choked up, but I
did. Unlike Matt's wedding, I didn't cry, but I was definitely moved. I
also found my neighbor's name on the memorial for those who lost their
lives in the Pentagon. He was one of those on the flight.

After that I met my cousin for lunch, then cruised into chinatown,
little italy. Soho, nyu, washington square park, greenwich village, then
began walking to broadway to see my show.

I'm tired. More to come later...
--Nick

Room Service is evil

So I get back to the hotel from work and I'm really lazy. I mean I don't want to go back into the city, considering I didn't get to bed till nearly 3 am on Wednesday night. So I just wanted a nice evening of rest and relaxation. I throw on some PJs, and what do I think to do? I gave in. I bought the internet and played World of Warcraft.

Now this is an all time low for me. Here I am, in New York. I could be taking the train into the city, and what am I doing, I'm playing WoW. Now as sad as I think that is, I can't seem to care, because it was exactly what I wanted to do last night. I know Alex and Aaron are going to have a field day with this one. I guess its just a sign of an addict. I admit I'm addicted, and I don't care. However, if you think about it, I actually saved money, because the internet cost me $10, but it costs me $40 every time I want to go to the city. Not to mention I think work is going to send me out again, so I technically don't have to be in a rush to see everything...

In any case, since I'm in my pjs, and I haven't eaten, I decide that calling room service is a good idea. I didn't read the fine print that says they will charge 20% for service. Wow. They don't even refill your water and they want 20%? I mean come on? If the person who delivered my food had a cart, and they refilled my water, and had a bottle of wine to pour me another glass, I'd gladly tip them 20%. In any case, dinner cost me $28 for a tiny chicken and goat cheese salad and a glass of wine. And of course I was still hungry. I think its insane that I should still be hungry when I have $5o per diem to spend on food. Oh well I guess it was all for the convenience of sitting on my lazy arse and eating in my hotel room.

I'm not going back into the city tonight either. I'm going to wake up really early so I can be in NY by around 7 am. I would like to get a complete day in, so I'll be getting to bed insanely early, and waking up insanely early as well. Well I may not use my week nights to travel much, but I sure intend to use my weekend!

The ride back...

You know, the way they do the ride back is very strange. Imagine hundreds of people waiting outside of about 5 gates looking up at a screen. You can see your gate, but you don't know which gate your train is gonna be. When the train finally gets here a number flashes under the gate, and the hundreds of people sprint to the gate to get a seat on the train. How bizzare.

Well on the ride down, I had a conversation with a very nice deaf woman. Well, it was a lot of lip reading and writing on a piece of paper. She gave me some advice on where I should visit while I'm here, and we also talked a little about where we lived, what I do, and why I'm here. She was rather excited that it was my first time here. Perhaps she was excited to take my New York virginity...

First order of business, find a place to eat. My lonely planet told me that little korea was in midtown, and there was a nice restaurant serving authentic Korean food. I decided to give it a try. It was a restaurant called cho dang goi and it was incredibly good. I got this spicy tofu and octopus (for you Koreans, they called it mo doo boo nak ji bok kum) and it was heaven on a platter.

After getting stuffed, I head out to explore the town. I went to the empire state building, but decided the wait was too long, so I head out in search of times square. I walked from 34th to 42nd and found myself on broadway I think. Walked around there and checked out what shows are playing. I'm going to get to one of them, but I'm not sure which one, and when I can go. I headed back to seventh and 42nd and there was the beginning of time square. So I saw the nasdaq stock exchange, the mtv building, abc, sports illustrated, and I'm not sure if radio city hall is considered times square but I found that. I also saw where they drop the ball for new years.

You know, in my last post I said that the stores are all the same. In the city, you see the same stores you would expect to see in Cali, except WAY bigger. I saw the biggest Mcdonalds, a huge olive garden and red lobster. Not to mention giant foot lockers and gaps.

Anyway, I'm on the train back. I'm tired and my batteries are about to run out so I'm gonna end this post. Tata for now!

Different time zone, Same Nick

I've always had problems getting out of bed in the morning. I'm one of those guys that love to sleep. I also used to have a problem with getting to sleep, but coming to New York has sure changed that problem. Last night I went to sleep at 10. The night before I went sleep at 11. I usually don't go to bed until 12 or 1 am PST. However, I'm still having problems with mornings. I struggled to get out of bed at 7:15. Nine hours and 15 minutes of sleep, and I still can't get out of bed.

Well I started that in the morning but didn't finish it. I'm now on the train to the city. $10 for the cab, $20 for the round trip ticket, and $10 for the cab back. Not too shabby.

I am both nervous and excited. This is my first trip into the city, and I don't know what to expect. Well I do have an idea of what to expect...

So I'm getting off at penn station, and I'm going to wander. The cab driver told me that will put me near madison square garden! I feel like I'm jackie chan and seeing madison square garden for the first time (rush hour)...

In any case, I'm going to read a little about where I'm going. Bright lights, big city here I come!

First post of NY

Okay, so I've been in NY since Sunday night and my first post is coming now. I know I'm a slacker. But late is better than never right?

I'm waiting for a piece of software to install. I have no network connection (surprise surprise. Andrew, you need to get on T-Mobile's arse and tell them to offer better coverage. Blogger is neat since you can blog by sending an email which is sweet. This email is going to sit in my saved folder until I can send it.

So I haven't much done much since I've been here. On sunday night I passed out around 10. Last night I went to a mall because I didn't know where else to go. It was a mall called Smith Haven mall. You know what I noticed? Malls in NY are pretty much the same as they are in Cali. You can find your Gap, Banana, A&F, AEO, etc. Even the carts you can find are pretty much the same. About the only thing different was instead of those awful Dippin' Dots carts, there was an italian ice cart. I had to get one because it reminded me of getting Italian Ices at the Honolulu Zoo as a kid. I got coconut, and it was better than I remembered it! Maybe they've made huge strides in Italian Ice creation?

As for tonight, I'll work until I've accomplished my goals for today. I think tonight wil be another chill night. I think I'll have a glass of wine, then chill in the hot tub. Tomorrow night I'm heading in to the city! Its got to be better than Islandia.