Sidewalks of New York
As an epitome of cool, the 'capital of the world' (or the center of the universe), and the cultural/arts mecca, New York is surprisingly unclean and messy. It was the first time for me to go outside Asia, but most Asia's capitals were clean and neat. Even if it's not, no one would be surprised. So, I was hoping of the same thing with New York.New York's streets, somehow, reminded me of Jakarta. People don't hesitate to throw or pile garbage on the sidewalks, there are puddles of yellowish brown water. And the subway stations, oh my god, were soo Stasiun Senen/Kota lookalike (no exaggeration). And don't imagine the malls like Plaza Senayan. Macy's at Times Square, for instance, is messy and looks like they had borrowed the wooden escalators from 1940s movie set.
But the city is sure not Jakarta, and after overcoming jetlag and cold weather (which successfully made me kaligata), I immediately fell in love with the big apple's charm.
Unlike Jakartans and as opposed to the redneck stereotype, New Yorkers were surprisingly polite and warm. They easily said 'sorry, excuse me, thank you'. If you asked for direction, they would explain nicely and in details. In short, very civilized. Plus, they are oh so fashionable, especially in Soho. Fake branded stuff were still apparent, but in many spots..wooo Sex and The City bangget, coy!
I didn't have problems with food, except that it was always, always served in gigantic portion. Hey, I'm a teeny tiny Asian woman! :D
(camera adds 10 pounds, ok?! :P) I don't eat that much!
As this city is packed with immigrants, the cuisines are so diversed, with original taste. I mean, a chinese restaurant is owned by chinese immigrant, not an american, and so on. I tried Italian (exquisite), Afghan (ok), Thai (not bad), but most often, me and my Asian counterparts:), ended up eating regularly at this chinese restaurant called Ollie's. Looking at us going back there all time, the South African colleague sighed in desperation "you guys..". But it's yummy!! And as I didn't eat pork until recently, I was, like, catching up :D So, porky pork all the time! Oink!
The thing I like most about the city, however, is the arts scene. I was artistically charged here. After the course was finished, I saw a new Broadway (not off Broadway, my friend:P) play called In My Life. It was a simple girl-meets-boy story, but really heartwarming and funny. I thought "That's it, don't bother shopping, I will see another play!!". So, I did. I watched Rent, and it was go..od!! Oh, I'm no gay:), but I totally fell in love with musical. I look forward to see Rent the movie, so that I can brag to my friends that I've watched the real one haha.Oh, at the end of the course, we had dinner at a restaurant in Chelsea, and decided to go clubbing afterwards. But since there was no straight club, we went to a gay club instead. It was only 6 of us though, the rest were too freaked out:D
The gay club, of course, was much cooler than Jalan-Jalan hehe. The crowd was much cuter and more cool, the place was nicer and comfier. Our Namibian friend, however, hits homophobic note:) and wanted to go back to the hotel. So, we did after less than an hour.
I went to an arts gallery somewhere in Chelsea to see a photo exhibition,
but the photos were so-so. The crowd, meanwhile, were so chic and stylish.
I nearly cried, however, at the Museum of Modern Arts (Moma) and Metropolitan Museum of Arts (The Met). The artworks were so, so excellent. I mean, seeing Van Gogh's, Renoir's etc with my own naked eyes? It was really, really overwhelming. I completely forgot about shopping, and bought merchandises instead.
Where else did I go.. Soho -- cool, with dozens of artsy small shops and a good houseware and furniture store Crate & Barrel; Queens -- where hardly any Bule in sight; and the UN building (yaaawn). I didn't feel like going to the Liberty and Ground Zero though, so I skipped those. Otherwise, I just walked around, jumping in and out of the subway, just to absorb the atmosphere.
So, to sum it all up:
- I felt intellectually and artistically charged.
- Despite my cool and sophisticated digital camera, my photography skill still sucks, big time! Sigh..
- 10 days were definitely too short to see all of New York. But I'm definitely going back. I know I will.
