New York Journal - Part #4

This part of the Journal is a little messy in other words not day by day written. It was pretty much writing down whatever was in my head.

We then went to the port on the Hudson river to buy our tickets. The ferry was big with seats to fill maybe 200 people or more, the sun was going down as we hopped on the boat. The announcement from the speakers said this is the last boat that will not go to the island in other words getting on the wrong ferry. Shocked and dumbstruck, the five of us was hoping to see the freedom mark of the united states and the whole reason we came here at the first place just stood there in silence.
Our liaisons with pity on her face tried to comfort us by saying we would pass near the statue even though we couldn't go up close. yes the ferry made turns for the tourists on board to see the magnificent statue presented by the french for the liberty of the America as a country. A little history, Frédéric Bartholdi gave this statue as a gift to the united state to mark its freedom on 1876. so yeah, we tried to zoom in for a picture to the beautiful lady that gave a chance to see the country. I wished I could touch her, hoping and believing she would grant me another year here, everything was amazing about what I saw from afar.

As we got off the ferry back to Manhattan we were surprised by this giant horse with a policeman riding. it was maybe ordinary for the people of new york to see this sight but i had to capture the moment. So we asked the nice man to take pictures with us. He was glad and asked us what our purpose was; we told him we were exchange students and he gladly gave us a tour of the place.

There is a museum located in the port that had a big old book with lists of names of the first immigrants coming for every corner of the world to seeking freedom in this new country at the time. Our liaison Beth told us to look for our surnames and maybe just maybe we would find our relatives or ancestors  trying to find a living in those days. We did find someone, it was my friend Mai who was from Georgia (the country) she said it would probably her great-great uncle that came to seek freedom from Russia in those days of war. We went about looking at the photos and memorabilia and trying to picture the scenes of this place in those days. Yes for these 5 exchange students it was something we wanted too, to have freedom, to live in this place as we fell in love every step of the way in this big city but it was time to go home, soon (like the lyrics to the song Fergie - Big girls don't cry).

We went down the subway waiting anxiously for the train to come, it wasn't boring; the people gave me entertainment; the tired and restless workers, the lovers, the pimps, the woman in the most fashionable state, the homeless, the ordinary, the geek it was like looking through a movie that these people exists in one spot waiting for the same train for the same reason, to go home wherever home is. If i wasn't so shy and afraid somebody tried to rob me I would probably take pictures of every person there.
We were back up on the roundabout where the big globe statue stood were streets were jammed up and cars, buses honked everywhere. Next to it, the glorious park the biggest in the world perhaps,the white carriages and horses were lining up waiting for people to take a ride. A romantic ride through the park? hell yes but not with the budget in my pocket so yeah just a picture. The night has taken place but at least the life of new york had just started as we strolled through. Cafes were opened, bars filled with people talking about their day. its as if the people had come together sharing the city was alive with people sharing their day with their loved ones. Tired from our walk my liaison Beth and her husband took us to a cafe or bar. we sat down ordered some fries and chicken wings and talked about the experience.

One of the exchange student and also a friend of mine David was from Germany, he saw people taking glasses of beer and he wanted one, he first asked for permission because we were under aged but he wasn't because the law in his country at the age of 15 you would be allowed to drink. So our liaisons looked at us and we had that curiosity on our faces so she bought us one glass to taste. It tasted amazing, it wasn't bitter like wine, but sweet and fizzy. Time was getting late for 17 year olds to wander around and it was time to sleep but we were too excited so thewhole night went with us telling stories of the past year and what was waiting for us when we went back home.

So our eyes still wide in amazement no matter how tired we are we girls still wanted to talk wanted to stay up. We all have the same thoughts; what will happen when we go back to a country? What is there to be done? What kind of planning is install for us? Well first off, my friend Mai had a boyfriend waiting for her back in Kyrgyzstan she said she would probably live together with him and find a job suitable to make a living. For a friend of mine from Georgia all she needed to do was work and take her bachelors degree. I had to go home and repeat senior year.  the three of us wasn't close, i never really spoke to them when there was a gathering for the exchange students. we had our own group and i understood why couldn't blend together, we had different perspective in things, the rich kid, the poor kid, the religious kid, the atheist.

Speaking about our differences We (my friend from Germany and I) were having a discussion about evolution. He believed in the theory I did not. I knew we were never going to have a conclusion so I just told them the mere facts that if there was some kind of evolution humans from apes why would the apes still stay the same. Yes we have evolved since the dawn of time from being large broad shoulders to being small statures but again depends on the food and habitat of where we came from. for centuries research has been made to prove the existence of our evolution. We went around and around about the theory and it had to end about the existence of god. I do believe I had to make him believe and probably I did make him believe that blessings don't just come from thin air, there was always karma around the corner and the earth wouldn't make itself. well it wasn't such a good argument but that's all I had. It really depended on how we could actually interpreted it,  like what Einstein would say that darkness is just the absence of light so you had to believe in something or a higher power to know that light would eventually come what about when this world ends it doesn't always depend on what the world thinks have we  seen them thinking or even see the brains of the people we believed they made a difference in the world so everything we ever believed had faith in something bigger than us. Life ain't easy to predict or plan but yes we do put hope on something to make us relieved that tomorrow will be alright and according to plan. He had nothing to say when i put it that way so either I lost or he lost we would never know. I never asked him what he really thought in the matter after that but to me god does exist he always did in many forms and in many believes. 

All this discussion or debate actually happened while we were taking a stroll in the biggest park the green in the middle of the skyscrapers. Central park has a lot to offer not only recreational to play around the park, but boats, drawing artist that drew Mai's face in caricature. the beautiful carriage with beautiful horses to carry you around to see this wonderful place. yes we went to the place where the fountain ends up in a flight of stairs beautifully crafted walls, where Kevin from home alone ran away from the wet bandits and also where Stuart little flew his yellow plane above the pretty fountain. Well that's all I got in my head when it comes to central park.

New York Journal Part 3 - Home Alone, Apartments and WTC

 I think I might have mixed up my days so I wrote this according to the places even though it wasn't on the same day this events happened. Please comment if there is mis-types or wrong defenitions. I wasn't pretty sure anyways but I wrote it down. So here it is.

        4th avenue like a dream, i wouldn't even dare peek and look at those clothes displayed on the windows of those  high classed branded shops, guess, luois vuitton and such. It feels like touching gold. The designs around the avenues were incredible, I love the "love" statues settled on the streets; the thinker in the middle of the fountains. So many workers busy  with their busy schedules and smart phones. I wish I could work here one day.

         So my group headed for the Rockefeller building, another dream coming true for a true home alone lost in new York fan, I made them go see. (There's a particular reason for that, all my kid life I have been exposed with awesome movies and the one that was popular in those days and it was Home Alone. Dad would record some movies on the tape for us to watch including Home Alone, Baby's day out, Dunston and such enough and appropriate for kids to watch. But my all time favorite was Home Alone (you would even catch my siblings and mouth every scene as we know it by heart). )My favorite was and is till today is the scene where kevin was lost and praying to the big christmas tree asking for him to get back home and regretting all the decisions he made and finally meeting his mom right in the middle of the iced angels. I wish  it was christmas, i totally wanted to see the big christmas tree and the pond filled with ice and angels dancing.

I got my wish but it was June, the wind was warm and i was in a tee. Taking pictures here and there, at the statue of Rockeffeler and the beautiful angels, it was purely a wish that came true I sat taking every moment in to remember what happened so I could tell this and make my siblings jealous, that I could go and see it in person, to feel what it was like "lost in NY".

         Night was getting to us soon but not the craving to keep walking around this big city and see everything in it.  My liasson had the group split in girls and guys, because we had to stay in different apartments and hotel. So we went to an apartment of a friend of my liasson, and it was filled with art exhibition along the hallway, more like an art studio (a little description: it was like apartment in movies; with brick walls unpainted, dim lighting, empty. wooden floor) with bed bunked in corners of the room, unfinished paintings (as I recall the guy is a professor in one of the universities there) and a kitchen bar on the left, with windows across it outlooking the pavements below, straight to the heart of the city where people walking, bistroes, cafes, and shops just barely full with customers.

         The girls (including myself) wanted so much to be in this apartment but the owner was a man. so we had to stay in a motel that was hidden for the wondering eye to see. it was much like a mini apartment but built for tourists like myself.  There were local and foreign tourist walking about in that small apartment. I loved (the view of) my windows, i got the one looking out the alleys of New York. it was not as creepy as i thought it would be, it was bright and neatly placed. There was even a garden behind of the buildings, a basketball court was there too. 

 It didn't feel like New York at all. A regulation from the mayor to make all alleys safe was made and one way was to make a house in the middle of the city, that peered through skyscrapers; a mini neighbourhood in the alley. I even saw  some kids still out (it was at least 9 o'clock at the time) and sitting by their porch talking the hours away. so no more gangsters and robbers in the alleys of New York it was peace. really cool idea for Jakarta i would say. (you probably have guessed where I come from now)

           The next morning was hot, we woke up a tad bit too late to go and catch the ferry to staten island. so we moved the plan down to the afternoon. We walked from the apartment down to the subway to get to the monuments of the world trade centre which was at Downtown manhattan (as I recall, correct me if I am wrong). We  passed the cathedral just two blocks away as we got out of the subway from the monument or was the World Trade Centre.

             The Cathedral stood tall but its former color wasn't there anymore, it was filled with black back  from back on the D-day (well a part of it). if you could recall the day of the disaster struck NY, where terrorists as they claimed to be muslims crashed three airplanes unto the two former tallest buildings in the world. Walking passed it already gave me a story of what happened here 5 years ago. We walked passed the hilton hotel, i still wonder though was it there when the accident happened? Standing, watching as the two buildings collapsed with bodies around them? Not trying to sound freaky but the aura as i would say was filled with memories of pain as I walked and watched where the two towers used to stand with fences and a gigantic hole, i think was the basement filled with roses and posters of grieve from families of lost loved ones. The eiry feeling (because everyone there was either weeping quietly or was in silence and so were we) crept but also the feeling of sadness. You could still feel like you were there when it happened the screams the cries of lost ones, the ambulance and the firetrucks trying to get a hold of the situation. Yes it felt real. as if the spirits of the lost ones are still trying to get justice as if God trying to give some kind of justice a part of the steel henges was left there forming a cross as if telling us there is still hope somewhere.

           We walked a bit more to go see the monument of the WTC, a giant golden or maybe bronze ball in front a kind of torch with fire burning says " for the spirit of the lost loved ones"( I don't think it literally said that but close). That's was all it said and the six of us walked in silence since we walked past the cathedral. It was quite amazing for us these foreigns to feel the loss of people we didn't know and fall in utter silence as we walked through the park maybe lost in thought.

         We got into the center of the park and there were street performers, stunt people actually. They were dressed in reds consisting of 7 people; 2 women and others all men. They had the boombox filling the place with music.They were tourists or travelers when they introduced themselves spread across the globe, some from france, brazil, Japan and also from the states as well that joined in a group maybe to raise money for them to travel. they didnt feel out of place, yes this was the city of dreams, people and things  (they introduced themselves this is why I knew where they came from) becoming one. It was the tourist destination for every person to come. the stunt the performers were a mere jumping over 5 people bent over, the brazilian man did a capoeira dance before starting to jump. He made it in all the 3 tries taking all the people watching’s breath away. Not far from the performance was springs that comes out the ground, I saw little boys running back and forth trying not to get wet, i couldn't resist not to take a picture and it was pretty yet blurry because of the lack of me being an amature photographer at that age. But the happiness of those kids took away the eiry feeling from today and made it somehow nice to be thankful for what is still breathing and alive today.

Dedicated to the victims and family of the 911 incident, be strong.

Peekz

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. )

Timesquare as I promised pics

Timesquare the first day I arrived in 2005, mesmerized I was, trying to close my mouth in wonder

Timesquare at night with all the advertisements

another pic but instead of the ads flashing the road sign is much brighter.

New York Journey part 1- Timesquare and subways

So this is my entry on getting to New York as an exchange student about 7 years ago.

I can't really say it was expensed free, but i had only 300 dollars in my pocket, the last of my dollars and counting the last days in this free country. Yeah I had to leave because my year as an exchange student was going to be over (BOO! :( ). It was customary for expensed exchange student (by the government) to go to New York and maybe do a little studying of the culture, but for me it was more like sightseeing. Here is what I wrote back in the day so please excuse my grammar and the left behind information because this was written as I remembered from 7 years ago (not that I am getting better at it right now). It might not be a source of information for travellers because I couldn't really remember all the stations and stops and the expense of things. It is merely just a journal I wrote before going back to my home country. I will add comments written in brackets, (inspired by Eli from the itsjustgetsstranger.blogspot.com) because he is awesome! (if you ever read this Eli, yes I blogstalk you!)

 So as I step down out of the train from new jersey to new york, went straight to do heart of  the city of apples. The subway was more incredible than i thought it would be, yes it was exactly like the movies. the morning was filled with bustled people, running, pacing trying to get to their train before it leaves. There were people off all kinds; blue collars, white collar workers, couples, tired people, hangovers, party people, the homeless, the shameless, the eccentric, the artists, travellers like myself. We were just people trying to find the meaning of life one way or another. 

There were street performances right in the heart of the subway lines. i couldn't really remember where i was at that moment it was more like a dreary dream, I arrived in new york at three in the morning. it was perfect, people was just getting started with their busy mornings. The performances welcomed me with hip hop beats, the guy was street dancing, twirling here and there right on the floor. it was awesome. Somewhere along the other line was another performer finding his way with his old awesome guitar.

 First was buying the passes for the subway was easy, just like an atm click here click there and the ticket was yours. i took the 3 day pass for $15. the subway was cleaner in this part  of town. I saw the train when i first arrive at the buzzing street of Timesquare, the first daylight I saw in new york was loud, crowded and felt like a dream. There were some performers playing guitars bare naked in the middle of the street singing some country songs. People especially guys were gathered around the lady either trying to see some cleavage or butts behind the guitar covered body.  The billboards some light up with advertisements, olive garden the restaurant, leading the way to  broadway, hard rock café, the original sports station, surf’s up, ads for jeans with big butts showing the brand and stuff.

This reminded me by the hard rock café incident (a funny and annoying story). so yes, my mates (the other exchange student) from germany had the guts to come in and booked us a place for the bar down on the basement of hard rock cafe, when  we actually wasn't old enough ( reminder: I was 17 at the time) until it was our turn to go in security whom finally asked for id. We were petrified and tried to tell him we were too young but the security already had us by our arms. So this German kid ran, leaving us, the tiny girls inside the waiting room speechless and led outside by security for being a minor. I was mad yet he just laughed at us making reasons up like, " I thought we were allowed in but when I saw the sign saying 18+ I panicked" like oh come on, so you had no guts to tell the 3 girls waiting at all and just told us to go in. Urrgh! (He continued trying to lead us in incidents the whole 4 days in New York, Just keep reading)

So, we went to NY in June so the place was crowded with people in summer dresses, yet it was windy in the big apple. Yes, fashion had a statement here in the big capital.what caught my eye was the walks in the middle of timesquare,  and yes the ones people always shoot in movies, outlooking the times building where on new years eve the big silver ball would drop. with digital screnes across the whole building ever changing from one ad to another. I wasn't big on  shopping so no shops actually crossed my mind. but yes i had to get a postcard, that originally came from this big ever buzzling street. i bought 12 in total. (I collect postcards, what? I like it!)  but what caught my mates was the nike shop, and yes who wouldn't want to actually try the original shoes this outlet had to offer, so yeah we went in trying every pair that this heart desires and not looking back when we know we don't have the money to even pay for half the  price. We tried walking out of the store without being seen yet the pile of shoes we tried actually caught the staffs attention so we were pretty much was looked on with hateful eye until we vanished unto the streets of Timesquare. Can't wait for tomorrow!

This is all for part 1. Wait for Part 2. I wish I could post some of the pics I took of timesquare and some of me looking so geeky and also the postcards I bought but not sent. Well till then, tatataa my friends.

Pica