two dollar museum tickets, lychee ice cream, and necrophiliac mallards

What do these have in common? They can all be found in New York.

Another successful trip to the big apple has been completed. I was so fortunate to go during a weekend of absolute perfect weather. The sky was clear, and the temperature hung just around the mid 70s. So much happened, but it's always impossible for me to note everything that took place. Here's my breakdown, and trust me, I'm condensing as much as possible:

Thursday
I arrived early to surprise soulmate. Unfortunately, this plan backfired on me. After fighting through crowds, going up and down staircases, carrying a heavy backpack, and tugging along a large suitcase, I was stuck outside her apartment door while she was shopping at a grocery store 6 blocks down the road. After meeting up, I gave her an unenthusiastic, "Surprise..." welcome right before she started scolding me about arriving early and not giving her enough time to clean up her apartment. That's just the kind of relationship we have.

After settling in, we walked down St. Mark's where there are a bunch of little shops, restaurants, and bars. Soulmate's apartment is around the vicinity of NYU, so we were surrounded by cohorts of students. For dinner, we stopped at a small Japanese restaurant that was packed full of people. Our waiter was a very cute Japanese guy who I was hoping would be kind enough to host a couple of Texas girls and show us the night life of the lower east side. After downing a whole bottle of sake and laughing about the trouble we were probably going to get into, we were plotting a way to give our adorable server a number to reach us at. When this was unsuccessful, I just flat out asked him, "Do you know of any places where my friend and I can go dance and party?" To my dismay, he "work all nights - not sure the clubs here." Sigh. What a shame. I'm certain his affection for us was lost in translation somewhere. I couldn't quite make out the last of what he said.

Soon after dinner, we headed over to my cousin's apartment in Astoria to hang out. We stayed with her until close to midnight before heading back home to sleep. Oh, before getting back to the apartment, we stopped by for a slice of pizza at Ray's and pommes fritas. MmMMmmmm.. heart attack...

Friday
We woke up and started our day at the Museum of Natural History. Soulmate wanted so badly to see the planetarium. What's great about NY museums is that you can give however much you want for admission. They give you a suggested donation price, and then you can donate however much you like. Suggested donation price for students: $15. Soulmate asked if I had small bills to pay for the tickets, and I say sure. I walk up to the lady, and she asked how many tickets I wanted. I said, "Two student tickets please." She types into her fancy schmancy museum computer and says, without so much as looking up at me, "Suggested donation price for two student tickets is $30." I slide her $2 across the counter. She finally looks up at me, looks at the two dollars on the counter, and says, "$2 for one ticket?" Confidently, I say, "No, that's for two tickets." She stares at me a little, and I look to the side of me for reassurance from soulmate. To my surprise, soulmate is standing about 10 feet behind me with her face hidden away from view. I tried hard not to keep a straight face because at any second, I was going to burst out laughing. I mean, I think I go to the museum enough times in NY that my contributions in total have probably added up to more than the suggested ticket price! The lady unwillingly hands over the ticket stubs to me, and we walk around the disappointing planetarium for about 30 minutes taking silly pictures and laughing to ourselves at how cheap we must have seemed.

After the Natural History Museum, we walked through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met is by far my favorite museum in New York. I gave $5 (because I don't mind paying a little more here and also because I ran out of ones). The lady didn't heckle me here. We got to see the interesting Jeff Koons exhibit on the rooftop of the museum and enjoy the breathtaking view of the New York skyline. It reminded me of the last time I was there with two of my other girlfriends. We were taking pictures together, and some girl walked by with her guy friends saying, "I wish I had girlfriends to hang out with like that." It made me feel really happy and lucky. Coming up to the rooftop of the Met always gives me that feeling. I've only been there with the people I love most. It's one of my favorite places in the world to be.

When we were done at the Met, we went to have lunch at Serendipity. The wait was nearly 45 minutes long, but it was worth every minute. We tried their famous frozen hot chocolate and shared a delicious pasta dish. The decor of the restaurant was very interesting. I was trying to think of a way to describe it, but I just couldn't. It's like a sophisticated kind of funky style. Haha. Think Betsey Johnson.

Before heading back to the apartment to get ready for the Jason Mraz concert, we stopped by Crumbs Bakery to pick up a few cupcakes. We were told it was comparable to Magnolia Bakery. Sure enough, they were large-sized cakes, and they were indeed delicious. I will have to make it a point to go to Magnolia next time.

Radio City Music Hall was absolutely gorgeous. I was totally ecstatic to be there. The acoustics were phenomenal, the layout of the stadium was grand, and the stage was impressive. I can't even begin to describe Jason Mraz. He is amazing. I was left speechless, and we all know that doesn't happen often. I love him.

Friday night, we ate at Klong Thai Restaurant just a few doors down from that Japanese Restaurant we went to the night before. It was delicious, and my cousin came by with a couple of her friends afterwards. It was nice. We hung out, chilled, talked, and after they went home, soulmate and I lazed around debating on whether or not we should go out. We stayed in but played dress up by seeing who could put together the most tacky outfit. That was a good time.

Saturday
Early Saturday morning, we went to have brunch with the cousins at Flea Market Cafe. It was delicious. The weather was gorgeous yet again, and we walked around the east village going in and out of various vintage stores. There was one particular store that stood out in mind. I forgot the name of it, but when we walked in, there were piles and piles of books and clutter everywhere. The store was cramped, smelled of antiques, and very quiet save for the soft music playing in the background. As we crammed our way to the back where the jewelry was, Amy Winehouse's song "Rehab" started to play. All of a sudden, I hear this raspy, smoker's voice shout out, "They tried to make me go to rehab..." and then it stopped. I was shaken by the voice and curious as to the source! As I made my way deeper into the store, I saw her. She was an old, eccentric-looking lady who if I saw walking down the street probably would have thought her to be a gypsy woman or mental facility escapee. She got up, walked to the front of the store, and continued to randomly blurt out lyrics to the song, but they were not in accordance with the music. It'd be quiet, and then you'd hear, "Uh nooo nooo no..." It was quite terrifying, really. I thought for a split second she may break into a spastic cough and blow up into fumes. For some reason, I felt like I was in Austin again.

After parting with my cousins, soulmate and I went to the Museum of Sex. Enough said, right? That was basically what it was. We were greeted by an African man wearing a suit who opened up the velvet rope gateway upon our entrance. Walking past him, I couldn't help but compare him to Cerberus. He smiled slyly and told us to "enjoy ourselves." I shuddered.

The downstairs portion of the museum was well lit and full of sculptures and interesting facts about animal sexuality. The most disturbing thing I saw here was a tie between an article about a male mallard who "raped" another male mallard that was killed during its attempted escape (homosexual necrophilia was what it was called) and "Panda Porn." I don't think I will ever be able to look at those cute little furry animals the same way ever again. Nor will I be able to with elephants. Or dolphins.

The upstairs portion was the real climax of the museum (no pun intended). People were piled into this dimly lit section huddled around the celebrity porn monitors or how-to videos. I was quite uncomfortable to say the least. Women gathered in circles and giggled together like school girls learning about puberty, and men hid in corners with their arms wrapped closely around their bodies trying to be as discreet as possible in their excitement. One man, however, was not so discreet about it. He was an old Asian man, probably around the age of 50, dressed in all black, and wrapped in a long trench coat. As he stared shamelessly at the projection of "how to perform oral sex simultaneously with your partner," he took out a camcorder and started taping it! People walked by, pointed, smiled, shook their heads, and kept walking. The girls were thinking, "What a sick perv!" and the guys, "What a great idea!" I was pretty much done with the museum after that. I went downstairs to buy my souvenir mug (I like to collect mugs from museums), and I was confronted by my new African friend again. "Did you like what you saw? Are you waiting for your boyfriend now?" My response, "Yes, it was... interesting. Oh, I'm just waiting for my girlfriend." He raised his eyebrow at me, "Oh?" Before I understood what he was implying, I quickly added, "No no no. Hah.. hah.. no she's just a friend I'm visiting in NY." He says, "I see. Why didn't your boyfriend come?" Guys are so shameless. "Oh, I don't have a boyfriend." Ugh. I hate saying those words. He proceeded to make small talk with me, and after soulmate was done looking around, we left, and I did not look back.

At night, my cousin and friends came over, we had a few drinks at the apartment before going out, and then we left to the lower east side. Imagine 6th street in Austin.. but 10 of those in a row. Just streets and streets of bars, clubs, hangouts. It was so much fun. I will not go into detail about this night because 1.) embarrassing happenings took place and 2.) I don't remember the rest of it. With much chagrin, I'll just skip this and go ahead and apologize again to those that I may have woken up in Texas. If it's any consolation, think of it as me attempting to party with you in Texas... but... in New York. Yes? Still, it was a ridiculously fun evening.

Sunday
Geez, what a waste of half the day here. I didn't sleep until 5am, and I woke up around 1pm. Most of the day was gone because I was just too exhausted to even get up to use the bathroom. When we finally got ready to leave the apartment, we went to the Plaza Hotel and got a private tour of the newly renovated hotel. It was gorgeous. We even got to go up to one of the rooms and see what it is like to pay $1000 a night for a stay there. Worth it? I would do it at least once. Staying one night in the Plaza Hotel in New York has officially been added to my things-to-do-before-I-die list.

Later, soulmate and I went on an adventure in hopes of finding a small pizzeria near Central Park. We walked amidst a herd of people observing some sort of parade on 5th Avenue. I couldn't tell what it was. All I heard was, "Te quiero Peru! Te quiero Peru!" being shouted in a megaphone. I was hoping maybe it was the Puerto Rican Day Parade, but I'm not so sure.

We finally found a pizza joint and ordered a box of pizza here. Marion, our pizza guy, told us "he'd-a make us-a special pizza" because we were "two beautiful ladies." Soulmate scoffed at his remark, but I secretly blushed. No matter how cliche he was or how many times he must've said it that day to different women, it still made me smile. As we left, he insisted I tell him my name. I told him my name (I didn't use my pseudo Bella), and he took my hand in his, looked into my eyes, and told me, "I can tell you have a kind soul by your eyes. Whatever man wins your heart is the luckiest man in the world."

I'm not gonna lie. That really made my heart skip for a moment. It's not uncommon for women to be hit on left and right in New York, but for a moment, just a moment, his compliment sounded so genuine and sincere that I almost believed him. Even if it was just for a second, it was still nice to hear.

We walked back to Central Park, found a nice patch of lawn near Heckscher Field, spread out our picnic blanket, and sat and ate pizza. We brought books to read, but we ended up napping until sunset. It was beautiful. The weather was nice, and the scenery was just remarkable. We were facing the skyscrapers of New York City overlooking a baseball field in the park. As we relaxed on the grass, the sun was setting behind the buildings illuminating the sky and reflecting off the glass windows of the buildings. It was so fairytale-like.

We went home after waking from our nap to get ready for dinner. Our reservations were at Southern Hospitality (JT's comfort food restaurant), and we made it there just in time. Although the service was ridiculously slow, the food was good, and the company was even better. I ate with my three cousins, soulmate, and an old NY friend. He drove soulmate and me around after dinner, and we ended up at a karaoke bar called Duet that the girls and I had visited last year. Good memories. Good times. We stayed out until 4am.

Monday
My last day started off a little slow. I was sad to be leaving, but old NY friend called and asked to meet up for lunch in Chinatown before taking off. We ate lunch and had Chinatown Ice Cream out in a small area called Confucius Circle. It was a good way to end the trip. Before I go any further, let me just add that Chinatown Ice Cream may possibly be the most delicious ice cream I have ever had. The flavors range from lychee to red bean to almond to ginger. My mouth is salivating just thinking about it.

After all this, we headed back for me to pack my bags, and I finally headed back home after an exhausting weekend. While I was ready to go home, it was very difficult to say goodbye to New York and to soulmate. Tears streamed down my face as the subway doors closed and she walked away from me. I wiped them away with my scarf only to look up and see a toothless bum staring and smiling at me. Immediately, my sadness was overcome with discomfort and fear. I was sooo ready to go home.

And that's it! That was my trip. My time in New York is always so short-lived. I do so much during my stay but at the same time it's not enough. There's always something to do which is why I love this city.

As I flew away and watched the New York lights fade into the clouds, I was already trying to plan my next trip back. The city is so familiar yet strange to me. So chaotic yet peaceful. So tiring yet energetic. I can't wait to go back.

A special thank you to soulmate for providing me with shelter and laughs, to my cousins who took me out eating and partying, and to my NY friend who never fails to make time to kindly host me and my friends whenever we are in town. I will most definitely see you all again very soon.