THE ultimate trip of U.S. Exchange – Cliché New York Part 1

After this 10 days trip (that included an unfortunate tiny accident at the end as usual), it took me an ENTIRE week to catch my breath and catch up on schoolwork. Now that school is FINALLY coming to an end (2 more SNOWY DAYS ONLY), I better start getting back on my writing spree because there is so much to note down before they slip away from my memory…weeeee 🙂

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First part is New York and I think we did a pretty good job covering everything we wanted to see together, Chicago The Musical, MOMA, Time Square, Staten Island (Statue of Liberty), SOHO (which essentially just means GROM!) and NY at night.

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Like any other trip, of course the spotlight is straight on food. And this is just what heaven would look like if translated into cake…ok may be that doesn’t make sense, but the cakes at Cheesecake Factory are just so delicious (although really really overpriced too :P) the melted marshmallow clings closely to the chocolate cheesecake and it was so velvety and smooth and sweet and dreamy ahhhhh…IMG_3905

Right, now I shall tick off our checklist one by one:

Chicago – absolutely checked. It was just so exciting and glamours, the band were so professional and the choreography was excellent. It was humorous and very entertaining. However there technically wasn’t a set and don’t expect much from the costumes. The special effects were sparse but spot on. What makes it even better was the rush tickets we bought at 30 bucks. We sat right in the front row center seats on the balcony. SO worth it.

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MOMA – yea just.. checked. Yes the atmosphere and the space is really something. But both of us are not very artistic. And the art there, which I’m sure must be pretty darn good because of the famous names (Picasso, Matisse etc.), just made it even HARDER for us to appreciate compared to say Musee d’Orsay or The Louvre. At least those paintings look like SOMETHING (lotus, bridge, sky, woman etc.)

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But these? These were just SO abstract: RED painting = art, PINK Plank = art, White background scribbled with words = art, Phallic object chair = art…Anyway, it is probably us, and not you, so it’s okay…I guess we will just stick with food which we are so good at appreciating.

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Then of course there is me acting like I completely understood what the artist is trying to do there 😛 and attempting to look artistic..elegant even (everything I’m not XD)DSCN4570

And this, my friend, is art.

Time Square – checked! Of course, how can a girls trip be one without shopping? The giant Toys R Us, Disney store, chocolate stores and F21 etc. are must go. It was so much fun because who doesn’t like some sizzling heat in the chilly winds of New York? 😉

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And, no, we are not too old to be taking photos with giant MnM. (With glasses! 😀 although my favorite is probably the short Red one)

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Asking strangers to take our photo has proven to be one of the toughest challenge yet. After picking someone whom we think we can outrun (just in case they steal our cameras), we also need to make sure that they are adequate with technology…More often than not, the photo is not the angle we want it to be (I know…it’s a favor…I shouldn’t be too demanding but I just can’t help it :P). Eventually we are just happy that it’s not blurry, it’s a straight photo and at least it is ACTUALLY TAKEN. Sometimes we just stand there for 5 minutes and no photo was captured LOL. This below is actually an A+ capture (y)

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Washington Square Park / SOHO – ICE CREAM CRAVING checked. This is a pleasant surprise because the best gelato place we tried in Milan/ Venice actually has a branch right here in Greenwich Village. It was just as good :’) so happy that we thought we will never get to try it again yet ended up running into it so soon. DSCN4524

I guess this is life sometimes. When you think you lost something, look closer or hang on a little longer because the miracle might be just around the corner. It has happened to me a few times now and yes, the losing part will be devastating, but don’t lose hope because all of that is necessary to get to the rediscovery part. Not one tiny detail, however seemingly insignificant, can be skipped in order to arrive at the exact right place.

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If you follow the Humans of New York page, you probably will remember this scene 🙂 Another pleasant surprise of running into them in Washington Square Park!

Of course last but not least, this posture must look familiar ❤ yes how lucky and fated this is that this year we get to spend our respective birthdays TOGETHER :’) since she has given me the best meal experience ever (the gorgeous twinkling lights view and good food) I had a high benchmark to follow.IMG_3884

But Cramine’s has lived up to the standard. It has REALLY good food and generous portions for the price we paid. The cherry stones were very fresh, the riggatoni with sausage and broccoli in white sauce smelled so good and was so flavorful that we forgot to take a picture of it. Lastly, the Tiramisu was HUGE and I just loved the chocolate “skin” 😛 We finished it before our musical as dinner as well 😉 kind of.

To be continued…

Madrid Day 2

We got up early and started our day with leftover tortilla. With Siu lee, we were finally free from reading maps. (And being lost) Spanish supermarkets made us realize how expensive chez moi is.

Museum del Romanticismo

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Another market

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Fountain 🙂 and some other things, problem with Spain is most buildings looked like they were meant to be touristic spots…

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For lunch we had tapas again at an even cheaper place, 8.5 euros for a mojito, a beer and enough food for 2. I was literally in heaven. It was not just about the price, but the quality of the food the generous portions and sizzling heat. YES I burned my tongue…but the meal was oh so filling both literally and emotionally. My happy level spiked every time I eat in Spain and I was glad that I don’t live here, or else I might end up doubling my size.

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Church: we got kicked out by the priest :p and I spilled water… Long story

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Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza, we were supposed to go to Prado too, but after 3 hours of seeing arts, I realized that’s just not my thing :p

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Well there were tears in my eyes, perhaps the paintings touched my heart, or I was just yawning too much :p

We took a break for churros dipped with chocolate and I could not stop eating them despite how fattening they were. Spain IS heaven.

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Then we shopped again and unfortunately men section was either on the top or bottom most floor and Siu lee was pissed off, I quote “so men do not need to wear clothes or shoes, right? They just go around naked.”

Walking for 12 hours straight was exhausting so it was time to go home at 10. But wait we haven’t had dinner! No worries, this is Spain, and we are in one of the largest cities, so after a miracle of fitting all I bought into my backpack, we went for dinner!

Note to all: make sure you come with luggage space, sale is EVERYWHERE and you can always buy ham 🙂

We went out for tapas again and frozen yogurt (I still haven’t seen any in Nice 😦 and since I have been living in a small town, I was so surprised to see so many cars at 12 am and 6 parallel lanes. And most importantly there were no dog shit here.

The next morning, we headed straight to airport, to our next destination – Barcelona! The hostel receptionist was kind enough to escort us to the check out place at 5:30 am 🙂

Feb 1 6:50 am stuck in airport for another 2.5 hours due to captain being sick, at least I got 5 euros free food

C for Cannes (A for Antibes, B for Biot lol and so on)

Off to Cannes today. Weather not that nice unfortunately :/ but the place is fun nonetheless. There were many Cruella De Vils 😛 (Old ladies in fur with big dogs) and so many nice cars and yachts. (One was called Nonetheless, and one called Knot To Worry)

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We arrived at 9 am and just walked around to get the map and figured out where to go. Then we ended up roaming around the old town and the Castle Museum. Free entry for etudiants. I love France.

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It was donated by several rich aristocrat, rich man’s daughter and a journalist/soldier from many years ago and there were exhibits from Arctic, Latin America, Himalayan and Oceania etc.

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This photo below is a currency they used to use to buy WIVES and FINE PIGS in Solomon Islands. YES, wives and pigs. I had to laugh at that. The brighter the color, the higher the value of this currency, so whoever has the sharpest one gets to buy the wife or pig that he desires the most.

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There were also paintings from the 19th century and they were just like photographs. The castle itself holds all these exhibits and is a lot of fun to tour around too.

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We climbed up 109 stairs to a clock tower that over looked the whole of Cannes. (These are old stairs only for display, thank god haha they have newer ones now)

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Too bad the sun was on a strike today (haha french thing) if not the view would be 10 times nicer.

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Then we started looking for the marches around (flower and grocery markets) and we passed by so many petit restaurants and shops “SOLDES” (On sale) until we made it there. Then we finally started shopping yay. And then we tried looking for another museum that is unfortunately closed today. It only opens on 2 days a week from 3-6pm. WHAT kind of musee does that? -_-

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Anyway we have to come back again to the 2 islands outside of Cannes so we weren’t too disappointed. Then we walked around the port and down the beach for the sunset. Each beach is completely different: the Nice one was black rubbles, the JLP one is whiter and softer sand but this in Cannes, is darker and harder, with many many seagulls. The sound of waves tapping the coast was angelic. The sunset could have been better if the sun wasn’t on strike haha but we will return 🙂

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What really touched my heart today was that 2 old couples approached us so genuinely when we were looking at our map-turning-it-constantly-not-sure-where-we-are-lookng-puzzled-and-confused. They spoke to us in French which I could only guess that she meant her husband has some Chinese blood too and she blessed us. Who knows that French people (especially elderlies) are that nice? People’s stereotype and misconceptions should really be reassessed.

One last joke: We can always run and make it to a bus. Even when we see it coming all the way from the other side of the street, we can still catch it for sure.

WHY?

Because more than often, the people boarding the bus are old and they move r-e-a-l-l-y-s-l-o-w. Lucky for us 🙂 And I love old people in France. They are lovely.

Jan 9 9:40pm