Why I love tourists in New York City

Hello all!

I upgraded to the new WP 2.0 and it’s quite nice indeed. I thought I would share what happened to me yesterday. I braved the crowds and went to 34th street to buy my last minute New Year’s Eve shirt with my brand new Amex gift card. My co-workers gave it to me. ) I could barely get through the crowds, but I pushed my way into Nine West. I found these super cute boots, but they did not have my size. It was a little too big and I debated for a few minutes if it would be worth it. They were 50% off. I decided on not getting them.

After feeling like I was going to vomit outside from all the people, I decided to head to Union Square to find my shirt. I ventured to the store that everyone denies ever stepping foot in: Forever 21. I was desperate! I found an okay shirt and waited 20 minutes to try it on. It fit okay, so I just went for it and bought it. I then went next door to see if I could score some boots at the huge DSW. I didn’t find anything that caught my eye. I then headed to Filene’s Basement to see if I could find a good deal. To my disappointment, there was absolutely nothing that looked cute and pretty.

At this time, my parents called me and said they would be in Chinatown soon, so I headed to yet another huge tourist attraction. As soon as I got out of the subway at Canal Street, I walked to the nearby Washington Mutual so I could take out some money. I felt adventurous so I selected “Chinese” as my language of choice at the ATM. During this, two guys come into the bank and one guy says, “Oh shit, everything’s in Chinese!!” The ATM next to me had Chinese characters and I’m sure he saw me withdrawing money with the Chinese characters flashing by. I turned around and informed them that they could change the language to English. His friend, then said, well I guess I could help out. The obvious tourist said, “Dude, you studied Chinese right?” Anyway, I left the bank and laughed to myself. I’m sure the tourist thought he was actually in China and not the great city of New York. )

My family and I went to New Green Bo and only had to wait 10 minutes. I prefer their noodles over their competition and my personal favorite, New Yeah Shanghai Deluxe. Since my parents never went there before, I thought it was time. There were a ton of tourists inside because I guess they read all the reviews and Chowhound posts about it. We had some soup dumplings, fried seaweed battered yellow fish, rice cakes with pork and spinach, beef noodle soup, sticky rice shumai and some bean curd with snow cabbage. It was quite delicious.

After our dinner, we went to the West Village to buy some delicious Beard Papa cream puffs. My mom bought three delightful chocolate ones for my roommates and I. I came home and wanted to photograph my cream puff before I devoured it, but I discovered I had left in my parents car ( . Anyway, there will always be next time.

Lastly, did you know you can report noise disturbances to your local police precinct? I wish I had known that during the four hours my upstair neighbors blasted some late night hip hop and r&b music. I could feel the ceiling shaking. If this happens again, I’ll definitely be calling my police department. I can’t wait. Yes I’m a tattletale, but I tried to go to bed for 3 hours before they finally turned off the music!

I’m off shopping. Have a great New Year’s! D

Merry Christmas 2005!

There’s only 30 minutes left of Christmas, so I decided just to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and Happy Kwanzaa.

I spent my Christmas Eve at the wonderful Foxwoods. It was nice even though it was in the middle of nowhere Connecticut. Jessica and I were sleeping peacefully when we were rudely interrupted by someone pounding on our door at 2:30 am. I opened it and there was a hotel guy saying he was just wondering who was staying here. Then 10 minutes later, our phone rings. I refuse to get it. Then another five minutes go by and there is knocking on our door again. I open it and there’s another hotel person at the door. He tells me that my dad has to put the room on his credit card and that we can’t stay here. I’m like well my parents are at the 2am concert, what do you want me to do? He basically said we were going to get kicked out due to their OWN mistake. It was really messed up. I called my dad and left him a message about this craziness.

Today we had an expensive Sunday brunch. It was pretty decent considering it was $42 per person! We made it back to the city around 6 pm so I could pickup my dirty clothes. Then we stopped by Flushing and had a great Christmas dinner. Now I’m at home doing our laundry! )

Oh by the way, I finally saw King Kong yesterday and it was quite long. I admit I fell in love with the huge ape. I even cried at the end. I had trouble taking Jack Black’s character seriously since I’ve only seen him in comedies.

Now I just want to see Colin Farrell’s “The New World” with Jewel’s loosely related cousin playing Pocahontas. It’s supposed to be really good.

I hope everyone ate a lot of delicious food! I’m excited for dim sum tomorrow!