New York City: Day Six

Well, originally we were going to bike around Central Park in the morning, but everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

{Or, you know, we missed a bus}

In the end we went to the Discovery Museum on Times Square, and although te Lego exhibit my baby brother insisted on going into was decent, I'm convinced that the Avengers exhibit would have been much, much cooler. (They charge you thirty dollars for a ticket but only let you so one exhibit??? I mean we have city passes but what)

As a form of revenge (?) I took no photographs of the Lego art but snapped one of the Captain America prop shield displayed in front of the gift shop. Good enough.

To kill time before the show, we explored a weekend flea market we found nearby! I bought a nice dress and a pair of shorts, and also grabbed a book {Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce} which has already proven to be a great comfort on the subway and bus. {I mean, I swear, I resisted when it came to actually hauling books along with me, but I'm fairly certain that at this point I'll die if I don't hold a physical book in my hands like 5 times a day.}

Of course, after that we went to see the musical Wicked at the Gershwin theatre, which was amazing!! I've essentially been listening to the OC recordings since elementary school, and it's been a big bucketlost goal of mine to watch the show on Broadway. The cast gave an awesome performance, and it was just really cool man. Really cool. 

For dinner we went to a little Japanese place a couple of blocks away and had this amazing meal. The ramen was seriously huge?!! We kind of overate and I'm still feeling sluggish but ah well. Totally worth it.

To round off the day, we went to Dyaln's Candy Bar (near Central Park.) I didn't get much, because wow, expensive??? But my brother got a jar full so I'm going to rob him while he sleeps.

That's all for today loves! See you soon. :)

♥ The Sweater Giraffe 

New York City: Day Five

Today was an easy day. :) We went for our scheduled tour at Columbia University, which for whatever reason I didn't take any photographs of,  then grabbed pizza a few blocks down and spent some time getting lost on the subway while trying to find the Museum of Natural History. 

Yoooo

There's a Museum of Natural History in LA, too, but I must say, this 6-story behemoth far outclasses the LA branch! I have a weird fascination with taxidermy displays, and the ones here are fantastic; very well preserved and arranged. Is it weird that that's my only comment? It's probably weird.

After spending a few hours in the Museum, we headed back to Jersey, picked up some pastries, and are resting up until tomorrow--Wicked on Broadway and bikes around Central Park! Until then, loves. <3

♥ The Sweater Giraffe 

New York City: Day Four

Woke up early today {around 6} to hit Liberty Island and get an up-close look at the Statue of Liberty. We didn't get to go inside the statue {you'll need to reserve several months in advance if that's your plan} but we got some good shots! Or my family did. My selfies were not nearly ridiculous enough to satisfy.

Then we did a quick look through the immigration museum on Ellis Island (ha) then shipped back to the mainland, shopped about a bit, and visited the 9/11 tribute center. It was a brief visit, but the two fountains were beautiful, and there were hundreds of people there honoring those lost on September 11. I overheard one woman complaining about the number of people taking photographs, saying 'it wasn't the place.' But honestly, I feel like it's important to remember that everyone who died was human, as well, and I'd like to think that they'd be rather pleased to see so many people taking away memories of the memorials made in their honour. I don't know if that makes sense, but it's just my belief that we should remember the dead as people, and not just as martyrs. 

Other than that, we spent our last day of bus tickets hopping rides and seeing neighborhoods like Harlem from the top of the bus before going in early to rest our tired feet.

Tomorrow is a tour of Columbia University, so stay tuned! 

New York City: Day Three

Another lovely day in the city! We started out with a quick brunch at the Chelsea Market, then headed off to walk across the High Line for a great view of the city. 

Then we went to the Museum of Modern Art after touring uptown, grabbing some good ol' greasy wurst with various vegetables heaped on top before heading into its glorious, air conditioned facilities. 

Once inside, we found loads of famous and iconic works of art, including these:

{Van Gogh, Lichtenstein, Warhol, respectively}

Aaand then we headed off to the observation deck of the Empire State Building, where I took fear selfies. {And some skyline photos, but, like, whatever.}

For the last part of the day, we wandered Times Square {which was just. Absurdly busy.} and ate a bunch of food along the way.

Guess what? New York pizza is delicious. And also THE SIZE OF MY FACE WHEN UNFOLDED. !!! I WAS VERY IMPRESSED.

For dessert, I tried a cannoli for the first time. Turns out, cannolis are also delicious. Not too sweet, but sweet enough to feel like dessert. Perfect.

New York City: Day Two

As I said before: big day today!

I had the pleasure of getting to catch a glimpse of two city icons for the first time: the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. We spent the entire day hopping tour buses (and one ferry), but don't worry; they were really just a way to get a quick lesson on the layout and workings of the city. And also to snap a bunch of photos with strangers' body parts in them. 

Oh yeah, we also crossed the Manhattan Bridge via tour bus and sailed underneath a few other bridges. Loads of bridges.

For lunch, we stopped by the famous Shake Shack for some classic American food. New York wins with its hot dogs, but California's burgers still trump all. {Sorry :c}

And finally, we also went through Madame Tussad's and saw some familiar faces, immortalized in creepy pseudo-realistic wax. 

All in all, a great day! Tomorrow we'll actually be going up the Empire State Building (yes, I know but #yolo) and walking around Chelsea. Until then, bye!

♥ The Sweater Giraffe 

| New York City: Day One |

Okay, technically we're staying with friends across the Hudson, in Jersey. We're still technically seeing NYC. Shoo.

Not much happened, really. Woke up at 4 AM, LA time, then bustled over to LAX for the 8 AM departure. The flight was fine, no sudden death or anything, and we even landed on time; around 4:30 PM here. 

Stupid landing selfie with my mother.

We spent the rest of the daylight hours hopping around from public transportation system to public transportation system, and, after settling in, took a nice, huge Korean dinner.

So far, so good! Even just seeing the city skyline from the bus and plane was amazing, and I got that tingly adventure feeling in my toes. I'll have tons more photos soon, more than enough to make up for the rather sad spread here !  </3

(I'll be reformatting and editing all of these posts when I get home and have computer access. Promise !)

♥ The Sweater Giraffe 

| Korean Food Collection |

I'm Korean American, so I basically grew up eating exclusively Korean food. Still, while I was in Seoul and Busan, it was fantastic trying some of my favourite dishes in their country of origin. I spent a lot of my time in Seoul walking around with my father, who actually had friends who were restaurant owners and knew all of the secret hidden cafés and restaurants nestled within the metropolis. He was even friends with some of the restaurants owners and employees, which I found particularly impressive. 

In contrast to that were the huge malls {aka Shinsegae} in Busan that loaded their eateries with everything from delicately crafted French pastries to traditional Korean kabobs and donuts. Of course, these would be much more expensive.

I probably would have more pictures of food to show you, but the majority of my time in Korea in a Buddhist temple, and everything was strictly vegan. {We did sneak out on occasion to buy ice cream, but I'm still an American in my stomach and probably would have died without it}

To me, food is one of the most important things to experience when traveling. I'm romantic like that. 

♥ The Sweater Giraffe