Times Square

Times Square is seriously the most amazing place I've ever been to. Stepping into 42nd Street it is like being transformed into a whole new world. I remember being so captivated by all the life and lights in Shanghai, but omg, this beats it hands down. It's not even my first time at Times Square, and I can't believe I forgot how absolutely amazing it is until we went there yesterday! All the humongous billboards with the lights and advertisements... it's like, the absolute epitome of consumerism. I Actually, it's almost disgusting if you think of it... how much money and electricity actually goes into all these. It's as if every single company and shop located there is trying to outdo each other... Morgan Stanley, Ernst and Young etc... all the big companies have humongous buildings with humongous billboards advertising their big names. But...ahh, I love Times Square, need to go there at least 5 more times before I leave. And the stores there are huge as well... didn't see much, but we walked into Toys R Us..

...if I were a kid, this would be my paradise! I'm pretty sure this is the biggest Toys R Us on earth... 3 whole storeys of endless Toys. They've everything arranged according to magic tricks, barbie dolls, board games, different movies like Toy Story, Pirates etc. That's Cat looking gleeful among all the stuffed toys.

And a 2 storey Barbie House. Serene, if you're reading this, they have a HILARY DUFF Barbie Doll, I'll send you the picture next time.

And Times Square is where the theatres for all the musicals are. Each Broadway Show has its own theatre... and I think I'm going to go broke watching all of them. I was so pleased when I saw that they were showing Les Miserables! I've watched it twice, but I'm definitely catching that one... along with Mama Mia, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Chicago... and I can't believe they're having a LEGALLY BLONDE musical coming in April. Taitong says he doesn't mind catching it, haha... for me, I just want to watch every single thing... it means getting to go to Times Square! We had dinner at some Italian Restaurant yesterday. The green stuff on my plate is some kind of fettucine with cream sauce... and it's the most amazing pasta I've ever tried in my life. The texture was just nice and chewy, and the cream was simply yummy... and it was damn filling, luckily there were guys to help us out.

Singapore's pretty infamous around here, I think. Just the other day, this Taiwanese lady who's here to study English Teaching asked Cat and I, 'What langauge are you speaking?', to which we replied, 'English.' And then, to our amazement, she said, 'Oh the famous SINGLISH? Is that it? Everyone who studies English have heard of it!' Oh my goodness, our English is indeed that horrendous.

That's not all. Yesterday, we met a Korean guy at the laundry and when he heard that we were from Singapore, the first thing he said was, 'Is it really true you can't chew gum there?'

I'm feeling really contented right now. For one, we went to check out the gym at Palladium this morning. It was totally awesome. I've never stepped into such an amazing gym in my entire life. It was 2 storeys with an indoor pool, basketball courts, huge shower facilities... and a lot of equipment. It's at least 8 times the size of the NUS gym and I'm pretty sure it's comparable (if not better) than California Fitness. And it's only a university gym! Each threadmill has an individual LCD TV screen, with remote controls for you to select from various channels... I think sports and exercise are really big over here. I wish I took pictures of the gym, but anyway, check it out at http://www.nyu.edu/palladiumathleticfacility.

Yea, and I managed a 45 minute run on the threadmill. Such a torture staring at the mirror since I didn't bring my own earphones to watch television, but it really felt great to be moving and running after close to a week. Hopefully I can go there often... it's about 12 streets away, so a 15 minute walk just to go there!

Besides gymming, the weather today is fabulous. It's not too cold, just nice for us to all walk about comfortably in about 2 layers with long pants. I'll be a really happy girl if it stays like that everyday. And we found this store called Trader Joe's next to the gym... which sells really cheap groceries. And there's so many kinds of cereals and bagels that I think I could just live on all those... think I'll walk over to gym and buy all my food from now on.

There's so much more to say, like how I found humongous bagels for just 70cents for lunch, but the guys want to go out and Erwin's bugging me, so I need to go get changed...