New York Journal Part 2 - Chinatown and Broadway

This is my part 2 of the New York Journal.

Second day in new york the plan was to to the busy crowded chinatown my liaisons said so i could find some kind of heritage around here. first time in a whole year to be see or even be in an Asian community (this is because for 11 months at school I think i was the only south-east Asians in the whole town) and the streets felt like home; crowded, confusing, loud dialects and languages, the smell of fried food everywhere just made me even  more homesick than i have ever been before for the past year. Chinese food was everywhere, so was Thailand and Japanese, suddenly I came across an Indonesian grocery store. i told my companions to come inside. it smelled like  home, the spices, the nutmeg, the pepper, ginger, all mixed together and forming the warmth of home, Indonesian. the vegetables, the live catfish.the first thing to come up in my head was to search for that instant noodles even the Chinese ramen couldn't fight against. it was there, i put it to my nose and smelled it. it was heaven right in the middle of new york, thousands of miles away from that hot humid place. the owner wasn't actually Indonesian, he lived there for 5 years, but couldn't speak at all. he said the shop was given to him from hisgrandfather all he knows was to say brapa, tidak bisa. that was all, and it felt like home.

 So we went around the town and found people busy picking accessories for summer. yes it was the shops right in the heart of Chinatown. This is where all the excitement begins, i was holding two pairs of sunglasses that had fake diamonds imprinted on the side of the lenses. The shop owner or kiosk told me it was $15 for both. i thought it was outrageously expensive. because we Asians have a nack for bargaining i took the challenge, for it was because of my friend from Georgia (Helen) and Mia from Kyrgyzstan wanted to buy a pair for themselves but didn't get a good price. so i did, i asked the owner for the price to go lower. she didn't buy it. so i just hung around for another 10 minutes for her to serve other customers around. and yes the trick worked, she knew i wanted the pair of sunglasses so she took a look at me and i just smiled and then she asked if i was Asian and i said my origins and bam! i got my discount. not trying to be stereotyping but yes when it comes to being Asians we always stick together. i got my glasses for only 2.50 each and i told the owner that my friends are also Asian heritage because she was part  Mongolian somewhere in her black hair somewhere. she got hers at 3 bucks and necklace for only 5. good bargaining i would say.

     the classic Broadway, time square was filled with their ads on every billboard. i had to go see. i didn't care if money would run out in minutes just for the tickets. walking on broad way sorta was a dream of mine, feeling any dream could happen right here right now. yes, i wanted to be a singer, dancer, actress, what little girl didn't have that dream. i went to see the west side story, and the finale with singing with water poured unto the actor was pure classic!

( Talking about Broadway it wouldn't be such a surprise for you to walk into an actor or someone famous and at that time the rumor was Julia Roberts was doing a broadway piece and so was oprah. Because of my love for Julia Roberts the wonderful talented actress I actually made my whole team go walk around just to get a glimpse of her. But as people where gathering around she escaped the back door and went away before I could catch her. Instead we got pictures of Bradley Cooper and Paul Rudd and the other guy who wouldn't smile at the camera (I'll post the pictures) but instead got Paul Rudd to wave at me when I squaled like a little girl as my friends told me I did. The next day I saw Paris Hilton and yes she looks like a doll getting out from a shooting for Saturday Night Live but it ain't that important, but she was nice enough to wave at me as well. )