Days 6 and 7 in NYC
Gym & free meals in Hoboken, rooftop bar, dimsum, and fun times
I spent most of Friday resting. Took a call with the Durham school board to make sure everything was set for when I start with them on Tuesday.
Not too long after my call, I made a trip to the K Mart in Midtown to buy some sneakers so I could join Elizabeth for a group fitness class.
What wound up happening was I ended up in Hoboken, and we both fortuitously met up. We couldn’t make the class, but we went to this gym called Crunch for a workout.
The facilities were nice, comparable to those at Wilson back at Duke.
Post workout, I told Elizabeth I was craving a burger, so she introduced me to this place that sold a Mac n cheese burger.
As it turned out, a lady sitting in front of us spilled her beer close to where I was sitting. She apologized profusely and offered to buy me a drink. Hence how I got the margarita on the left (called Prickly Pear).
The burger looked like something out of my wildest dreams.. and tasted amazing, too. It was mac n’ cheese, a mac n’ cheese fried patty, and then a burger patty. So many delicious calories.
Then we admired the sunset by the Hudson River.
We went to this little playground by the water and took a few pics before heading back across the bridge to Manhattan.
Not too long after we got back, we met up with Elizabeth’s friend Junaid. We went to this rooftop bar called the Press Lounge. We had to get in line (the line was so long ;o;), and we saw this sign about the dress code. Apparently, you’re not allowed to wear beachwear, flipflops, T-shirts with logos or brand names on them, etc.
I had a Long Island Iced Tea there, a Screwdriver at Stonewall, and a Sex on the Beach at Duplex. We barhopped quite a bit. Stonewall was the most fun, imo. We got to dance, and I talked to two girls. And that’s when I realized it’s awfully hard to hit on girls. @_@ Geez. Guys are so much easier to dance with.
Before we knew it, it was 4 am and we’d wound up at a McDonald’s, where I promptly ordered 4 chicken tenders with all the sauces. A delicious decision indeed.
The next morning was kinda rough. We originally had planned to eat brunch at 11:30, but seeing as we’d gone to bed at 5… we pushed it back to 2:30.
Elizabeth and I got to the dimsum parlor early, so we grabbed a number (to hold our spot) and then went to a nearby bakery. I bought an egg tart and she bought a bottle of water. And Ha and Tina soon joined us.
According to the storefront, the Nom Wah Tea Parlor was the first dimsum parlor in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Which was pretty cool. And then we experienced for ourselves why and how it earned that distinction.
It was pretty cheap for dimsum in America. Each dish ranged from $4–7.50, with the eggrolls as the most expensive item on the menu… but they’re the “original OG eggroll” so… there’s that.
After that, we wandered around Chinatown/Little Italy. We grabbed bubble tea at Vivi’s and walked in and out of multiple cafes. And walked down part of Little Italy, which was quite picturesque.
Then we parted ways. Some of us headed over to Hoboken, to revisit the burger place that Elizabeth and I had gone to the day before. She’d left her credit card there, so… yeah.
From there, we went to a Mediterranean food place because I was craving vegetables. I wound up getting a veggie sandwich and a salad, paired with some mango juice. It felt like a cleanse/detox from everything I’d eaten the day before.
After dinner, Ha left to go back to her friend’s place. Elizabeth and I then went to meet up with her friends, who were hosting a hangout at their apartment.
I had been talking to this one Tinder date who was acting really creepy, and I came up with an idea to troll him: I’d pretend I didn’t know any English and would let the language barrier make it so that he was no longer interested in hooking up with me.
We were all in on the plan, and we executed it perfectly. He wound up leaving of his own accord without “fucking me all night,” which he’d pretty much stated as his intent. -_-’ And although he was quite bold over text, he definitely seemed more squeamish around people in person. So ya really can’t tell what people are like until you meet them in person, I suppose.
We went to a club called Maru, danced for a while, and then hit up a karaoke bar. We had our own private room for about an hour, and we sang everything from Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” to the good ol’-fashioned “Wagon Wheel,” as a throwback to Duke (for all the alumni ;o;).
We got back around 3 and went to bed at 4.
The next morning, I got up at 7:45 to get ready to board the bus back home.
I had to transfer at DC… but I did get a sneak peek of Capitol Hill as we left for Richmond.
The bus ride home was long and tiring. Even just waiting for my transfer was somehow exhausting.
I finished reading When Breath Becomes Air. Nearly cried. Nearly.
And I slept the rest of the way, happy to see my dad once I woke up from my nap.
Coming home finally is nice, but I think my opinion towards New York City has changed significantly since how it was pre-New York. I used to call it my least favorite city.. because I hate rude people. But it’s mostly the mannerisms that make them seem rude; most of them seem to be eager to be helpful. You just gotta look past their spiky, impatient exteriors.
But yeah. I’m tuckered out. Gonna read a little before bed.
Good night!
I’ll post a vlog summarizing my favorite places to go and things to see sometime (hopefully) soon!
