New York Day 4

Playing: Abolish Confusion-Patrick Wolf
Reading: The First Millisecond of a Nuclear Explosion is the True Face of Atomic Death by Jesus Diaz

I started off my day at the 9/11 memorial with my family. It was much larger than I thought it'd be and the last time I was here was a month before 9/11 actually happened, which is a pretty odd thing to think about. I suppose I'm lucky I went when I did. After we saw the 9/11 memorial, my family ran off to SoHo to see some stores I wanted to see (such as the Alexander Wang store).

We stopped off at a trendy Vietnamese restaurant called Bun SoHo and I got the Pho Beef because I was freezing and needed to warm myself up. It was good, but for some reason, I felt like it needed more flavor or something. It just tasted bland after the first few bites.

Then I waltzed off to the Marc Jacobs store to further worship this man's work. The Marc Jacobs store in Hawaii was disappointing, since it only had handbags, so I had to visit the one in New York. I was surpirsed by how casual it was and at first, I thought I went into the Marc by Marc Jacobs store instead. Either way, I still oggled over the clothing and tried some on only to have to give it all up back to the sales person. Definitely worth going back to!

After hearing Lily tell me about Dylan's Candy Bar and seeing it on Food Network quite a bit, I decided that it was mandatory for me to go visit one of the world's largest candy stores. Took awhile to get there from SoHo using the subway, but we got there eventually and the colorful windows certainly helped.

When my brother and I spotted the fudge, we figured why not get something? Fudge is easy to bring back home on plane, so it made perfect sense to get some. We got chewy praline, salted peanut, caramel apple, peanut butter explosion, raspberry chocolate, and chocolate chewy praline of which the best was the salted peanut.

Afterwards, my brother and I grabbed a quick snack at a road stand. The chicken kebabs were actually pretty tasty, but if I were to get another one, I'd skip on the hot sauce. Got too spicy for me after awhile, so my brother finished mine.

Luckily I got to go see How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying before Daniel Radcliffe left. This musical was recommended to me by my musical lover friend, Katrina. It was extremely humorous and Radcliffe blew me away because I never knew he could sing and dance so well. I wish I had seen more musicals, while we were there because there are actually quite a few I would've liked to see.

Since my brother and I were starving after the musical, my parents took us to Carnegie Deli to get a huge meal. To tell you the truth, Carnegie Deli isn't my favorite restaurant in New York, but I like to go because it reminds my parents of when they lived in New York. However, I do like their chicken broth with matzo balls and noodles very much. Usually, my whole family shares one order.

How could you not get a pastrami sandwich there? I shared this with my mum because it's impossible for me to finish one on my own. My grandfather is a rather strong willed person and when he first came to Carnegie Deli, he refused to share a sandwich with my dad, even though my dad kept telling him to share one and when the sandwiches came, my grandfather glared at my dad and said, "We should've shared one. Why didn't you tell me?" Needless to say, my dad just rolled his eyes.

It was quite late by the time we finished dinner. In fact I think it was close to midnight, so we just walked around New York looking at all the Christmas decorations. I especially liked the huge tree at Rockefeller Center. I liked how it wasn't as full as the trees in California, which get extra branches tied to them (I suppose all Californians like plastic surgery.), because it was closer to its natural state. I can see myself living in New York one day, just not when it starts to snow. What do you think?