Maybe I wouldn't be that deprived after all

We found Chinatown yesterday evening and it was amazing! You can't really see it very clearly in the picture...but those are century egg porridge (mmm), charsiew wanton noodles and fried rice! I couldn't ask for a better meal after walking from school to Chinatown in the terrible cold. And there're stores after stores in Chinatown selling these things...I think I'll hang around there often. The bakeries there sell pork floss buns, tau sar piah, the kind of bread you use to make kaya toast... all at inflated prices relative to what we're used to, but I'm learning to ignore it because it's already so much cheaper than all the western food which are essentially cheese, cheese and more cheese. I must say, there are barely any veggies, but when there are, they're really yummy... all the grilled carrots, zucchinis, potatoes etc... the potatoes here are really different, very sweet and all.
Look, roasted pork and duck! (not that I eat duck though) I wonder if there's steamboat...


Found this in a pharmacy. I don't believe it, low carb sneakers, protein sneakers... and they have other assortments of completely ironic health products, like no-fat chocolates, diet chocolates, diet chocolate muffins... basically, all the chocolates masquerading as health food. Are chocolates really such a must-have? Thank goodness I don't eat chocolates at all, and it wasn't even that hard to give up chocolates. So many other yummy things to eat...like ban mien, I need a hot steaming bowl of ban mien, right now!
I've been meaning to take a picture of this- that's Washinton Square Park. I think that's the kind of 'central area' around the NYU campus. Quite pretty and I'll probably pass it everyday on the way to Stern.

Anyway, we spent the greater part of our day at the Office for International Students and Scholars (OISS) Orientation. It was great because of the free breakfast and free lunch, haha. Well, they just spent time telling us about how to socialize the American way, safety, health services, academic culture blah blah blah... but I must say, the OISS really put in a lot of effort into these things, with the free food, snacks and all... and they even had a lucky draw, someone won an iPod Shuffle, wow.

The day's programme was supposed to end with a trip to Brooklyn Bridge, but the 4 of us decided to take a walk down to Chinatown instead and got pretty distracted by the shops along Broadway on the way. Really, can you imagine passing by humongous Swatch, Gap, Guess, Espirit, Levis... stores on the way to school and in between classes? Like...

...this! I saw parts of NYC that I remembered from my last trip here... like HnM, Old Navy... all along the same stretch. It was really hard to resist walking into every store, but we wanted to actually get to Chinatown and save shopping for today. Well, I got a new pair of Levis Jeans at USD 19 though... it's practically a sin not to buy it, haha. (Honestly, I just needed more pants) I wish I was here in summer... all the thick clothing kind of kills the joy of shopping. I'm almost too lazy to try clothes half the time. It'd take at least 15 minutes to remove all the layers of clothes, thermal wear and all. :S

Besides, I wouldn't be so miserable in summer. If I didn't like New York City, I'll probably be sobbing and dying to go home right now. It seems to get cold, colder and even colder everyday. And there's so much walking in the streets to be done... we waled from the Subway back to 26th Street yesterday (that's where I live)... just 2 streets and I couldn't really take the wind already, sigh. I feel like hiding in my room everyday... but there're still so many things we haven't ventured out to see- times square, the statues of liberty, wall street etc. I saw pictures of Times Sqaure on Christian's camera yesterday... WHOA.

Now I'm even cold in my room, bleah. :(