A Man. A Plan. A Trip. New York.

Last Friday we all decided we wanted to go to New York.  

Monday 0:59 AM we bought 5 bus tickets and booked a hotel for New York. 

Monday 8:45 AM our bus departed for New York.  

Yep. We were gonna drive, but Hiroko's mom required that we take public transportation @___@. Anyways, yeah, woke up around 5:30 Monday morning, took shower, dad drove me to pick up Robin (his mom also required he be picked up by adult), went to Yisheng's house, Quan's dad drove us to the bus station. Sketchy B-more. Slept on ride up.  

Arrived in NYC, walked around Chinatown...went to Times Square and did more walking around...Went to Rockefeller center and tried walking around but got stuck in mob...went to check in at hotel which was located a block outside Chinatown. After we left Chinatown, we were like...are we in the ghettoes? On the corner of a building I saw the name "Sohotel," and was like "crap. I can't believe we got a hotel in the ghettoes." (this picture is across the street from our hotel).

Once we got to the front door, it was better, the interior was well decorated, not Chinese-owned. Anyways, check-in was like this: We had 5 ppl, but we registered for 4, so Yisheng and I checked in while the 3 of them waited outside. First off, she saw my ID, and prolly saw that I had just turned 18...and I was checking in with a girl. Next thing I know, Hiroko walks in and also comes up. So I just turned 18, and am checking in with 2 girls. We get the room, and manage to get all 5 of us into the room, even though at one point a maid came in and I had to hide in the bathroom.  

For dinner we were going to eat at Quickly, which I had only heard of a while back as an awesome bubble tea chain. Also, they had shabu shabu. Unfortunately, there was a wait, so we kept going. We found another shabu shabu/hotpot place, so thats where we ate! Food was okay, didn't really like the sauces, nor the broth, which was just mala mix + water (the plain broth hiroko, yisheng, and robin got was basically boiling water). Anyways, I hadn't had hotpot since summer so I was okay with it. We were supposed to go ice skating afterwards, but were too tired, so we went to buy some cards and azn drinks (I got a lemon tea?) and went back to the hotel. 

Hahah stomach wasn't feeling so well, and didn't want to go to the bathroom in our room with no lock...so went downstairs to the lobby to find one. But there wasn't one. So I went outside, trying to find a restaurant or something, but couldn't find one. The street was literally deserted. All the chinese stores closed shop, there were no restaurants bc it was still outside Chinatown. So I found a hotel about 2 blocks away from my hotel, went in, told the Chinese man at the counter "my hotel's kinda far away....can I use your bathroom?" and he let me use the employee bathroom. Hahaha. The toilet couldn't flush. Left the bathroom, said "thanks" and ran back. What I just said was prolly incredibly disgusting but OH WELL. xD  

Playing cards didn't work out so well. No one was in the mood. So we played Meow. As in, turn off lights, touch other people, when you get touched you meow. Yeah. thats what we did. Then we just did nothing. I was doing karaoke from Hiroko's iPod, and yisheng and quan were reading the chiense magazines they bought earlier. robin and hiroko were uh...i dont even know? Then we slept. Umm so...i wasn't sure of the reasoning, but we slept guy girl guy girl guy. @____@. My mom flipped out when she found out later ("DID YOU GUYS HAVE SEX??") Tried telling ghost stories, tried playing contact, but all failed.  

I woke up first next morning (although apparently Hiroko was imsomniac all night long), and took a shower. Then we spent a while taking photos, including ghost photos with Robin's DSLR, and finally cleaned up and checked out. Ate a chinese breakfast! was uber happy about that! 豆腐脑~ yummy yummy 美味すぎた~ Also had a 油条 but it was disgusting. fried to a crisp, each bite was oil gushing into my mouth. But yeah, was very pleased with my tofu. so pleased i ate some of hiroko's sweet tofu. (mine was savory).  

After breakfast we went ice skating! Was fun, I hadn't ice skated since sophomore year I believe. But yeah, the five of us were holding hands, and going really fast, and I fell on my butt. It hurt...it was definitely going to bruise...and I didn't want to get up...and when I got up, Yisheng and I stayed along the wall while everyone else continued skating. And then I noticed that everything in my vision was turning really bright... I thought was that there was too much light from the sun being reflected from the ice. Thought I was just getting sleepy or something, tried shaking it off but it wouldn't go away. Then my hearing started to go as everything started sounding distant. Told Yisheng that i felt like i was about to faint, and she was like "yeah..your lips are white..." so i started skating along the wall towards the rink entrance, but luckily yisheng called these 2 rink guards to take me off the ice. Anyways, the woman was being pretty bitchy, like "Now that you're in here you need to go to the hospital." I was thinking "well....i'm leaving NYC in a few hours, there is no way im going to the hospital." So I asked her, "Can i just sit here for a few minutes? It's not as bright in here and I think I'm getting better." "Well, I'm on my break time, so no you can't stay here unless you're going to the hospital." Yeah, so Yisheng and I left the room and went to go get somethign to drink. Anyways, after some sugar (the orangeade had 70 some grams of sugar @___@) my vision went back to normal, and I didn't fell lightheaded anymore...almost thought I was diabetic....but then realized sugar helps normal people too xD. Anyways, went back to skating. [Edit: Later the woman and also one of the rink guards asked me if i was feeling better. aw they actually care D:] 

After skating we spent quite a while wandering around trying to find a restaurant. Eventually, like an hour later, we found Momo Sushi ("hey hiroko, it's momo! like your dog! let's eat there!" "my dead dog.") and had dinner. I ordered 鰻丼...yummeh yummeh.

After that, around 5, we rushed back to Chinatown to catch the bus. Robin and I really wanted some last minute bubble tea, so we went to run off around the bus stop area to find it. After about 20 minutes of searching we found it, it was 5:50 by this time and our bus leaves at 6. Anyways, rushed back, found out bus was late...