New York: Day 24 and 25

Day 24: Flushing Chinatown

Robert and I went to Flushing, NY.

It took half an hour to go by subway from Manhattan. Longest subway ride in the US to date.

I do think it's cool that the New York subway extends so long. Perhaps I'm being impressed by something very trivial (after all, doesn't the Seoul subway also extend to Incheon, Cheonan, and other nearby cities?), but nevertheless, it was fun looking at the outside view while on the train.

When I first went to the Chinatown at Manhattan, I was admittedly a bit disappointed. I was expecting an actual ChinaTOWN, you know, with Chinese malls, Chinese restaurants, everything looking like a slice of Shanghai or Beijing.

Well, I'm glad to say Flushing delivered just that. For a split second I had a wave of odd nostalgia upon seeing Chinatown.

I thought I was in Beijing for 1.5 seconds. I mean it in all seriousness, not because "lolol everything's in Chinese". It felt like when I used to walk around downtown Beijing twelve years ago.

Food court.

So we walked around malls, looked around Chinatown, and had fun.

And look at the best house name ever:

"WELCOME TO BLAND HOUSES"

"BLAND PLAYGROUND"

Day 25: Galaxy Phones and an Old Friend

First, I went to a Samsung Galaxy S3 launch with Mr. Yoo at the Soho area. Twas a rather small venue to be doing a phone launch, but I suppose that won't be the only launching party. The weather was crazy hot, which me and my formal jacket did not approve. SWEAT DROPPING DOWN LIKE RAIN.

The new phone was pretty cool, had a lot of interesting features, such as a photo-sharing option (via making the two phones touch each other), multiple user sharing of docs, PowerPoint, and games a la Google Docs or multi-player games, and it also had an additional add-on called tap tiles, a tile-like item you can tap with your phone to gain instant access to a given website. We were also invited to play an interactive 3D game (and could keep the 3D glasses).

My only proof of having gone there.

I also said hello to a lot of other Korean journalists working at different newspapers. They (along with Mr. Yoo) also tried to tell me pursuing journalism wasn't a good idea.

"Ah, there are better things to do than come into this industry," one of them said.

"My seniors were also telling me 'Why the hell are you trying to be a journalist?' I should have listened to them more," another one sighed wistfully.

...

Holy shit, does every journalist hate their job? Is this a joke that I'm not getting? Is it just the Korean journalism industry, or is it the same for everyone? What the hell? What am I supposed to make of this?

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT PHONES AND JOB-HATING PEOPLE.

How does one approach a friend one hasn't seen in thirteen years?

That was the situation I was faced when meeting Ga Young in the evening.

She and her sister and I were good friends (perhaps, maybe, best friends) in Shanghai. We haven't seen each other since 1999, but thanks to the power of the Interwebz, I ran into their Facebook profiles by chance, and re-connected. And found out that Ga Young, the younger sister, was attending NYU.

We were to meet at Washington Square Park, and I was a bit late from my internship work. It was there when I realized that I didn't quite know what I should do.

We haven't seen each other in thirteen years. I had friends who I made later on in life that I lost contact with already. We're not eight/nine years old anymore. Would there even be anything to talk about other than the past? Also, despite having seen her most recent photos, I realized I could not immediately identify her. The image kept on being replaced by an eight-year-old girl.

After mistakenly staring at a random Asian lady (she gave me a nervous "hi". I'm so sorry, random stranger), I called her to locate where she was. She was sitting by a bench not far away, holding a book in her hand.

I approached her slowly. We stared at each other in silence.

"Hey," we said nervously.

"Wow, this is so surreal," Ga Young uttered in amazement.

"Have you been doing well?"

"Yeah, have you?... this is so surreal!" she exclaimed again.

Ga Young kept on exclaiming her disbelief throughout the entire meeting. It is rather amazing, to meet a person who you thought would forever be a part of your distant memory.

We had dinner at a tiny pasta place, where we caught up with each other's lives. It was interesting to see that though the location and minor details were different, we had a pretty similar status, what with briefly staying in Korea, returning overseas, spending the majority of teenage years there until attending an American University.

Suffering under the hot weather, we then prowled the streets for an air-conditioned dessert-type place to evacuate, and eventually landed in this chocolate place not too far from the dorm, where we continued to talk. The chocolate drink we got were delicious.

I need to go here again.

It also seemed that by and large, we had similar views and outlooks. Ga Young was chill and down to earth, dressed comfortably and easygoing.

"I'd totally shave my head if I were a man, I wouldn't have to worry about it," she said.

I absolutely adored that statement.

I also felt a sense of familiarity one feels when being with another Third Culture Kid. It's interesting how much relatability comforts you. I am very much at ease and comfort with my American friends, but there is a different sense of comfort when being with a fellow TCK. A sense of comfort where I don't have to explain my experiences of moving around and how it feels. Where I don't have to try to "prove" my identification with culture XYZ, because they know you're an odd mishmash, and it's OK, because they're also an odd mishmash. And mostly it's the feeling that you can be more honest, because you can be the oddball, mishmashed, semi-nomadic, culturally jumbled mess you really are.

(I'm not trying to do a ranking of friends, btw. It's more of an apples and oranges thing. Both are equally delicious, but different. And I just happened to not have had oranges in a long time.)

So yes, it was fun. Seeing as we're both going to be here a while, I think we'd both be okay with meeting up more often in the future to hang out and eat and such. It feels nice to reconnect.


BONUS:

I FINALLY SAW THE NYU HAWK UP CLOSE, AND HAD A CAMERA READY.

I swear, this bird knows he/she's hot shit.

There's two of them! I didn't know. So while one was chiling on a tree branch...

The other flew atop a statue.

Seeing the people surrounding it, it spread its wings: "Aw yeah, you like that?"

"Now let me turn around so y'all can get a good look at me!"

It was glorious.

New York: Day 20, 21, 22

In the second episode of "The Roommates":

1. Isabel, a roommate interning at a fashion place , started sharing horror stories that is working in the fashion industry. Apparently it is just as horrible as what happens in "The Devil Wears Prada", though I haven't read that book.

Some of the stuff included:

• She and the other interns being literally shoved in a closet when a big name fashion editor visited their place because the interns "should not be seen or heard".
• Not being called by name and only being referred as "Intern".
• Accidentally slapped by a rushing boss at a copying machine and being completely ignored, later to be snapped at for being slow after walking four flights of stairs.
• Strategic avoidance of a particularly nasty boss when she becomes angry, because you'll go through hell otherwise.
• Other interns being petty and having divided groups because... I don't know. The born-and-bred New Yorker interns are apparently snooty or something.

"You know, at the end of the day, I can't help but think... we're doing this for a piece of fabric. We're doing all this for fabric, like the one on this blanket," Isabel exclaimed while clutching her blanket and frantically shaking it at our faces.

2. Elsa has found a celebrity spotting website and found that Alec Baldwin and Sarah Jessica Parker live pretty near our dorm. She has already spotted Alec Baldwin, and the other roommates have also spotted several celebrities in New York. Meanwhile, I have not even seen a single rat in the New York subway yet.

3. When Isabel contemplated on whether to go out or stay at the dorm drinking (to ease the stress of being shoved in a closet and all), Elsa cheerfully and promptly said, "You should go out! You don't have to worry about money, there are the boys!"

Anyway,

Day 20: Hi Robert.

Robert came over to New York again! So we spent the day walking around.

We had brunch at a Torta place near the dorm. The food was quite delicious and affordable.

Also, Sangria soda is delicious.

We also looked around Dean & Deluca, a nice produce place at Soho.

We then went shopping, and tried to catch a play that I booked tickets for, but due to various reasons, we ultimately failed. Boo. I really wanted to see Dominatrix!Nella ;_;

And I snapped a random photo.

And we just walked around and returned to our respective places. It sounds really boring in print, but we had lots of fun, I swear. Having adorable times with your significant other just doesn't translate well into a meaningful blog post.

Day 21: Museums

I had lunch with my cousin, who lives in New York working on her PhD dissertation. Robert followed along, as he was interested in meeting her.

After a lunch at Shake Shack, my cousin, who works at the Metropolitan, gave us free admission to the museum and gave us a brief guide on the Korean Gallery, the specific gallery she works for.

The MET.

The Korea Gallery.

We parted afterwards, and Robert and I were left to look around other parts of the Asian gallery.

The Chinese art gallery.

The beginning point of the Chinese part. Pretty!

Hi fishies.

Japanese gallery.

Awesome scroll and writing. Indigo and gold are good color combos.

Cool Crystal deer, right? Spoilers: there is a taxidermied deer under all the glass and stuff.

Part of an Egyptian display.

In addition to free MET admission, my cousin also gave us two free tickets to the Guggenheim Museum using her MET staff benefits. It doesn't cost her, we get two free museum visits. That's a win-win situation if I ever saw one.

Cool spiraling building, like a snail shell.

Break time with mango rice pudding and watermelon lemonade @ the Guggenheim Cafe.

After Guggenheim, we returned to the MET to look at some armor collection. This museum is so freaking large that it is just impossible to view it all in a day. We've barely scratched the surface.

And then it all ended with a dinner + beer night.

Awww yeah samplers.

 A huge thank you to my cousin for making the day awesome for us!

Day 22: Six Flags

Robert's family were going to Six Flags, and they invited me to join. A day to spend in an amusement park? Count me in.

I took the subway to New Jersey to go to meet up with Robert's family. It took about half an hour by subway.

Borough Hall in New Jersey.

After a quick breakfast, it took a 90-minute ride to arrive at Six Flags.

Six Flags was... fun. We mostly rode on roller coasters, due to Robert being a thrill-seeker. It's funny how a seemingly bookish and reserved guy is just so excited to ride scary rides.

The conversation between us while waiting for rides went typically like this:

Me: AAAAAA it looks scary why did I agree to this!?

Robert: You'll be fine.

Me: AAAAAAAAA

Robert:LOL you wuss.

*After ride*

Robert: Whee! That was fun, wasn't it?

Me: *response ranges from agreeing to being stricken by fear from ride, depending*

I do like riding roller coasters. I do. I just fret and worry my way up, and scream my lungs off the entire ride; but I come out of the experience enjoying it.

By far the best ride (that we were able to ride on) was a ride called Nitro. It was a non-looping roller coaster, but don't be fooled; it goes up very high, and plummets down, while providing a scenic view of the trees in New Jersey. Here is a youtube video showing how the experience was like (video is, of course, not mine).

We also watched a sea lion show in the middle.

Seal says nyehh.

We stayed until the park closed (an extended time of 9PM) and returned to NYC. I would also like to thank Robert's parents for inviting me over for a fun day out.

BONUS: DAY 23

I just wanted to mention that I saw the NYU hawk kill a rat and fly off with it while on my way to dinner. It screeched at the photographers after killing the rat and was ready to take off, like it was saying, "Yeah I killed that rat. Now back off, humans, I have to fly away so I can eat in peace!"

After dinner, a squirrel fell out of a tree just a feet or two away from me, from a fight with anther squirrel. Broken bits of twigs and leaves fell on the ground softly. The teenage girls next to me screamed.

It was fun.

New York: Day 12, 14, 15

Day 12: Interview at Philadelphia

We went to interview Professor Franklin Allen of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School. In order to interview him, we went to Philadelphia via a rented car. Apparently renting a car (which can hold 2 or more people) costs less than two train tickets to Philly. I learned something new.

The car trip was less awkward than I anticipated. We mostly talked about the questions we were going to ask the professor, and I helped with Mr. Yoo cancel his tickets to San Francisco, since he can’t drive and have his phone at his ear at the same time.

Photo taken in the car.

 

Being in traffic jams + miscalculating the time it takes to Philly equaled being half an hour late for the interview. Which worked out in the end, because cancelling those plane tickets literally took an hour. There was a point where I actually dozed off a bit waiting for a correspondent to answer.

“If this happened in Korea, they would have been so dead,” he fumed, mumbling swear words in English to express his frustration but not wanting to sound undignified next to a younger person.

We met Professor Franklin Allen after much trouble locating his office. When I had looked him up on the Internet for research, he sounded, as Robert put it, “very fey, like a great economic fairy”. He did sound that airy and fey in real life, too.

Photo used in the actual article.

The interview went smoothly, and I even got to ask a few questions that I was to prepare. I didn’t know enough economic background to assess his opinions on the recent Greek/European/American economic problems, but I couldn’t help but question his overly optimistic economic prediction of South Korea. He seemed especially impressed by Samsung’s achievements and how that had contributed to the economic growth, but where does that wealth go? It doesn’t flow equally among the regular folk.

I’m not saying everything should be shared like communism, but I am saying that the wealth only bolsters the Samsung family and its affiliates, while the regular South Korean citizen has been having trouble affording college tuition and decent wages for jobs. It almost seemed like a game of raising stats in a Sims game at some points, where the stats were what mattered the most.

WHELP WHAT DO I KNOW I’M JUST AN INTERN LOL

Here's a pic of the inside of Wharton School. Yes, that is Mr. Yoo at the left.

After the interview, we exchanged small talk before parting.

“Could you convince her to not pursue journalism?” Mr. Yoo says jokingly.

So, whenever Mr. Yoo had to introduce me to someone else, he keeps joking about how he is trying to convince me not to be a journalist. I get that it’s a joke, but it’s a rather sad way to joke about something. My god, does he hate his job that much?

But all in all, the interview process was pretty fun. UPenn campus was pretty nice to look at, too.

Entrance of Wharton School!

Nice blocks.

Returning to NYC.

Manhattan buildings all laid out in a row. Pretty.

Day 14: Central Park!

It’s Saturday.

Since New York is limitless in things to do, and since I have not been to Central Park yet, I decided to do so.

Because the Park would take forever to walk, I took the subway, which took seven stops from 8^th Street-NYU.

Horse carriages at the entrance of the park!

Area where kids can play.

City and Park.

Sheep Field at Central Park. It's glorious!

Seriously, look at it, just a vast field and open sky. SQUEEE!

Fountain and lake.

Closeup of fountain.

There were people rowing boats in the lake.

Geese!

Attempt to take a scenic pic.

Oh hai Shakespeare.

Statue of a sled dog.

Conservatory Lake.

Central Park is HUGE. There was no way that I could explore all the parts. So I decided to stop at the Alice statue as a checkpoint and head for home, as the sky was growing dark.

The famous Alice statue!

Super close-up of squirrel eating stuff.

 I'm not sure what got into me, but I decided to walk all the way back home. Yes, from 76th street to 10th. WALK ALL THE BLOCKS!

Statue a bit outside the park.

Oh hai Rockefeller Center!

Sunset in NYC. Pretty!

The sun is blinding.

New York Public Library.

I decided to have dinner at a Koreatown restaurant, as it has been a while since I had actual Korean food (that is not spicy fried chicken). I stopped at Kunjip and ordered Kongguksu, a summer dish of soy broth noodles. The noodles tasted OK, but service was rather poor - when a customer next to me asked for salt, the wait staff just took my salt (specific for my noodle dish) and gave it to them! Top service right there.

I like it, but they always give you too much of it. If they only came in small portions.

So it was a fun day.

Day 15: Festivals Ahoy

I am sunburned.

At least, I think I am; my skin isn’t red or stinging, but my entire body is burning hot. And I ran out of aloe.

I still decide to go out and look around, because it’s still better than staying in the room doing nothing.

Isabel had mentioned that there was a festival called “Egg rolls and Egg cream” in Chinatown, where they provide food and tea ceremony and the like. That sounds exciting! So I also decide to head to Chinatown.

 

The trip started out badly, as the location was much further away than I had anticipated. Also, it was crazy hot outside and I was already feeling dehydrated.

After walking for half an hour straight, I arrive at the festival place, and…

 …it was really underwhelming. There was no tea ceremony when I arrived. They had two booths where children could make paper fans or have their faces painted, some food booths and a performance stage. It was smaller than the annual Japan Culture Festival that UM has in East Hall. Sigh.

The titular egg roles and egg cream (made of choc syrup, milk, and seltzer). It tasted meh.

Okay, the performances were impressive.

Sweating, sunburned, and very disappointed, I staggered back to the subway station not knowing what to do next. But then I remembered seeing a program for a Big Apple BBQ Block Party at Madison Square Garden. Surely things would be much better there.

So I headed to the BBQ festival. And they didn’t disappoint.

Barbecue!!!

Angry Orchard Hard Cider. It was delicious.

Merchandise booth.

Long line for BBQ is long.

Salt and pepper beef ribs ohhhh glorious.

Pork ribs with baked beans.

I am happy to announce that the BBQ was delicious. So the day ended well.

And now,

I would like to mention that HELP I AM SURROUNDED BY GIRLY ROOMMATES.

The one chill, casual roommate, Maya, left the dorm to a nearer location to her workplace, as the transit was making it difficult for her to come home and take an online class in time. So it’s just me, Elsa, Clair and Isabel. And these three girls have a lot of common with each other, while not having much in common with me.

They are what I would like to call “honor sorority girls”, whether or not they had actually been in a sorority. I am referring to the girls who have standards, who are pursuing their education and/or employment seriously rather than being MrS’es. However, they still possess the stereotypical traits of a perky sorority girl, sprinkling their vocabulary with “Oh. My. God.” or “Gurl, shut UP! You didn’t!”, swooning over romance, boys, celebrities, fashion, and clubbing.

I am starting to feel this odd sense of alienation and loneliness amidst a crowd. We had to fill in a roommate/lifestyle preference survey before coming in the dorm. How is it that there is no one else who prefers staying in, enjoying cooking, anime, video games and the like? Why am I an odd one out?

So I decided to record some interactions I have with my roommates in a segment called… “The Roommates”. Yeah, I suck at naming things.

So in the first episode of “The Roommates”:

1.

Elsa’s Russian boyfriend who lives in Germany sent her flowers to the dorm. Now that is a sweet, romantic gesture. I mean, who doesn’t like receiving flowers?

What I can’t relate to is Clair and her friends (from her workplace) declaring that flowers are better than chocolate.

“Oh my god, I loooove receiving flowers,” Clair declares. “They’re like so much better than getting silly stuff like chocolates or stuffed animals.” Her friends echo her sentiments.

But, but, chocolate is delicious…

2.

Clair had brought friends over while they were getting ready to go out for the night. One of the friends, upon finding out I am Korean, says, “Oh, my stepmom is Korean!”

“Oh, really?” I ask.

“Yeah. I can barely understand what she says, though.”

I can already think of three different scenarios as to why that would be the case, and none of them reflect well on you or your dad. Thanks for telling me that piece of information.

3.

According to my roommates’ conversation, New York guys are aggressive when flirting with you. Italian men are all over you and won’t leave you alone, but will back away when saying no. Mexican men are also very forward and will call you pet names like “Mi Amor”. But Middle Eastern men are apparently creepy. I couldn’t contribute to the convo because men of various nationalities don’t flirt with me when I walk in the streets.