New York Trip

I scored some free tickets on megabus.com, this was a very limited promotion way back, so Andrew and I went to New York on  Jan 24th! We had to be at Union Station by 6 AM in order to get to New York by 11. For those who haven't used bus travel from Union Station, all you have to do is walk through the building, go up one floor and then just head out into the parking garage. There should be some signs guiding you where to go as well.
The bus wasn't bad at all. It was a double-decker bus with free wi-fi, plug-in outlets, bathroom and reclining seats. There were also windows on the ceiling on the 2nd level of the bus which looked very nice. One of the coolest things about the bus is that on the first level, there are two tables up at front and four seats around it. So a group of four could play cards together, chill out and be super comfortable. I'm not sure if all megabus' have that though.

No one else in line!

Not the best picture but hopefully you get the idea.

There was just about 10 - 15 other people from DC taking the bus in the morning and Andrew and I were 3rd in line so we got a head start on where to sit. He wanted to sit up top and in the back -_- Oh and I'm not sure if it was because our bus ride wasn't too long (5 - 6 hours) but we didn't have any stops except to pick up some more people from Baltimore.
So we got to New York around 11. Andrew and I were pretty hungry so we headed to this place I found online called Food Gallery 32 in Korea Town.

Food Gallery 32 is like a mini food court. It's so clean and so cute that I wish I took more pics to show you all!! It was three levels; one level had all the food, a mini frozen yogurt stall, and a couple of tables. The second level had another mini store where you sign up for a cellphone contract. I think it might have to do with international calling but I wasn't sure. The second level also had more tables to eat. Then the third level had even more tables to sit and eat and I think a crepe making station? I read that online but I didn't really look at it because I felt awkward under the workers stares. Plus it wasn't open so I couldn't really tell from a glance.

I love it.

Anyways, there was probably only nine stalls to get food from. A lot of the workers were Korean but some sold pho, japanese food, or chinese food. A lot of noodles were on the menu though, I noticed. Andrew got the bibimbap and I got seafood pho. Our meals were both about $10 but worth it. We had to wait for our food to be ready so we got one of those buzzer things that go off when it is.

The drink on the right was delicious. The left was okay.

My pho was pretty good, everything on my tray was included in it which was very cool. I wish I was given more hoisen sauce to add more flavor but it still wasn't bad for the price. I like how I got kimchi with my pho, Andrew said my kimchi was better than his. Also both foods were wrapped in saran wrap which was different for me but it did help me not spill my soup when I walked up the stairs.

After our lunch we went to a bunch of different stores. These stores were around Broadway St downtown, soho area.

Pearl River Mart - Huge Asian store that sold a bunch of Chinese items. They had outfits, stationary, books, food, paper lanterns, dishes, and other bunch of other stuff you'd expect to see if you've already been in an Asian supermarket. There was this book there however, a sort of writing journal and on each page had a different scenario that asked you questions like, 'you are at a cafe and a man approaches you... do you know him? what do you say to him?' So it was like a journal that would try to help you get ideas if you were to write a story. I forgot the name and I really wish I got it!!!!!

Uniqlo - it just seemed like a more expensive H&M. I think it's clothing from Japan as well.

Also, for those with kids, if you come out of Uniqlo, make a right coming out, and walk up a bit then you will see the Scholastic book store!!! It was across the street but it is clearly visible. I totally wanted to go in and find Arthur books (because they are impossible to find anywhere else) but since it was across the street, it was a little discouraging. I was on a schedule, hehe.

Supreme - Small store. It was shaped like a box and I was kind of disappointed that they barely had anything up. I wanted to get something back from here the most but ended up with nothing.

WesC - near the Supreme store. Much more of a selection. Everything in the store was 50% off as well!!! Didn't get anything though :(

Flight Club - I didn't care for this store!!! Andrew really wanted to visit this store and we almost walked past it because there was no sign.. if you looked inside then you would know it was flight club because of all the shoes on the wall. It was all on one side of the wall and it was an pretty long wall too. There were some rare shoes on display but they were behind glass. Some shoes cost up to $5000! Ridiculous!!!

After all the stores there, we went up north near Times Square. The first store we went to was the Nintendo World store! The last time I went here in the summer, I grabbed a ton of stuff. They have little mini pokemon plushies there for $10 and the last time I was there, I picked up four plushies. This time I got none because I had no idea who any of the pokemon were. I think they were from the Black/White season and I've never played the game or watched the episodes so I wasn't in love.

The Nintendo store looked just about the same as it did six months ago when I was there. A bunch of the same stuff too so that's probably also why I didn't buy anything.

There were more displays like the picture above with more Legend of Zelda stuff but there was also this worker hanging around so I felt very uncomfortable trying to sneak taking pictures. >_<

When we left the Nintendo store, we walked a few blocks down and into a store called Book-Off. Book-Off is a cool store that sells mainly books, movies, CDs and video games. There were even some systems on sale! We saw an NES for $20! I'm not sure if they test their systems before selling it but I would've totally bought it if I wasn't taking the bus back home. They even have games from Japan so if you're the lucky one who understands it then I'm sure you'd have more use with those games than me. :( Each different section would have dollar deals. All the DVDs were $7 that day, they had some CDs on sale for $2, and books and manga had its own $1 sale section!!!! It was glorious!!! I didn't check the regular prices of other stuff, I just hung around all the sale sections, haha. The lower floor had all the manga and there was a lot more manga in Japanese than in English but there was still a good amount of manga in English. Book-Off is a store I'd definitely check out if you're into manga and video games.

Then we walked down a few more blocks and went into Kinokuniya. This is a store I'm always excited to go into. It's right across Bryant Park and next to two shoe/urban clothes stores. Kinokuniya is a cool store with a bunch of items from Japan. 

There are three floors. Basement floor had a bunch of stationary and I think reference books? I never venture far off from the stationary so I haven't fully explored the whole area in the basement. The first main floor has a bunch of books, some tokidoki or domo apparel. A papercrafting book section and mini little cute randoms. The third floor had more books, DVDs from some anime and some Asian movies. There's also a little cafe on the right side as soon as you enter. They sold some drinks from Asia, regular drinks like coke, tea, pastries, sushi and some sandwiches. It was pretty hot up there so the chocolate from my pastry melted onto my fingers. 

Green tea pastries

It was actually yummier than it looks. I wish I bought two.

I didn't buy anything for myself here. I bought my friend some cute stationary though. :)

When we were done with that store, we headed to the Times Square area and the first stop was the Sanrio store!!

But I didn't get anything here either. -_- It was kind of like the Nintendo store, I came here six months ago and everything seemed kind of the same. They had some new collections on sale but I wasn't really into them so I walked away with nothing which I'm sure made Andrew happy. 

A store I really wanted to go to was the Disney store and the Toys R Us. Didn't go to the Disney store but definitely stopped by the Toys R Us. It was probably the biggest toy store I've ever been into. It had three floors and a ferris wheel (tickets for ferris wheel are $4.50 per person btw). There were two different candy sections in different places, one was Candy Land and the other had all Willy Wonka candy. There wasn't much shocks or surprises at the store. They did still sell some Powerpuff Girl stuff which I thought was cool. 

The purple thing on the left is where they had Willy Wonka candy.

Barbie's House filled with so many damn Barbies. I expected pink furniture or a Barbie-esque home decor but Toys R Us didn't come through.

It was around 4:45 - 5 PM when we left the store. We decided to head to place where we were supposed to meet up for our bus departure. We were also getting hungry so we decided to find out where the bus stop was and then eat around there. 

The place closest was Cloud 9 Diner. Andrew got a cheeseburger and I got a veggie burger. My veggie burger was not great, it kept falling apart and I was almost tempted to just mix it together and eat it by itself without the bun. It was a nice and cute diner though.

Good size burger though.

Finally, it was time to leave. New York was fun and I was glad I got to go with Andrew. I only spent $40 on things and $20 on food! Then probably like $10 - $15 on cab fares. I'm definitely going to go back but this time, I think I'm going to spend a night there so I won't have to feel too rushed doing everything.

Here's some eye candy now!

Hello all!

This is my first blog post! I've had a wordpress but there were some slight problems and annoyances so I switched over here.
I'm just going to start off my first post with some pictures of my mini-journey with my boyfriend.

On Tuesday, we went out to eat at the Village at Shirlington. It's a cute little area which a bunch of restaurants and some little shops. Theirs also a library and a Harris Teeter because there are apartment buildings right in the area.

A lot more restaurants down this way.

 Our first stop was Busboys and Poets! Since we had walked by some small shops to get here, I was so surprised to see how big it was inside! This place had a bar, an area in the back (I think) where they host their open mic nights, and a mini shop on the side with a bunch of eclectic items. They had regular tables, booths and then they had long tables where you could do work on like if you want to bring your laptop you can comfortably work there because their is space and other people are doing it so you don't look like the douche hogging up a table with his Macbook! I really liked that place. The menu also had some vegetarian and vegan items which I was so excited about. I really wanted to try the veggie burger but I also wanted the avocado panini so my bf and I rock-paper-scissored it and the panini won. -_-

Mussels dipped in lemongrass sauce and garlic bread

Avocado Panini

Homemade meatloaf. My fresh fruit.

water and a lemonade raspberry drink

REVIEWS: The mussels were extremely good. I wanted to eat them all but my boyfriend liked them too so I had to share. u_u
The Avocado Panini was okay... there was so much avocado in it that it would always find its way out of my sandwich whenever I'd squeeze it or hold it. Also, I don't know if it was because of how much avocado was in it but the sandwich tasted a little bland. I'm glad I had it to try but it's not worth me getting again. I enjoyed the wheat bread more than the sandwich altogether.
The Homemade Meatloaf was 'good' as said from the bf. He wasn't descriptive with his words. -_-
Lemonade raspberry drink was very good just a little tart.
Our total came to $40. Not too bad for a full meal.

Next, we headed to Yogi Berry. It's a cute frozen-yogurt shop. Yogi Bear was no where in sight though. But right next to Yogi Berry was this cute toy shop called One, Two Kangaroo Toys! The only reason why I dragged him inside was because of the Mario racing set. I've never seen the one with Peach on it so I was fascinated.

Check that Mario race set on the side. Hot shit.

Once inside, I was overwhelmed with toys and dolls. Most of it were toys like Playmobile and colorful building toys. Not a lot of regularly recognized toys so I enjoyed looking around. I forgot to mention, what also drew us inside were these cute animal erasers from Japan. My bf and the shop owner were talking about the prices and I swear he said, '$1.75 for one, $3 (and some change) for the pack'. So when I looked at the erasers, I just had to get them!!

But when I was on the car, I looked at the erasers more closely and I see that it was actually $7.50!!!

How disappointing!!! Those erasers probably can't even erase well! Not worth $7.50!!

Anyways, after the toy store we went into Yogiberry.

It's a nice-sized shop for a frozen yogurt shop but theirs little seating so that probably helps it look bigger. Theres a long couch there with round tables in front accompanied by clear colored chairs. This place could probably seat 10 - 15 people so if you don't like crowds, come early. I suggest weekdays opening - 5:30, maybe later but Andrew (my bf) and I got there around that time and there was about one other couple there. I once came here at night with my cousins and siblings and it was really busy. Had to wait in line and everything!! So day time is good, night time is bad unless you're patient and don't care about that stuff.

I absolutely LOVE frozen yogurt. I don't discriminate, I'll eat frozen yogurt from any fro-yo shop I see!! (There is one opening up next to my favorite pho place, I can't wait till I do a blog on those two!) I always get either green tea fro-yo or plain yogurt. I really like to get plain yogurt and then have all my berries and fruit add the flavor. I love adding mango, as you can see from the picture above, lychee and coconut jellies. They all taste so good together!

The prices aren't bad. Altogether, it cost me $12 for both fro-yos. The cup sizes are pretty big and I filled my yogurt half-way and then filled it up with the fruit and that only cost me about $5 - $6. Not too bad.. of course I would've been happier if it were cheaper but oh well.

After that, we left Shirlington and made our way back to my house.

And we end the day with Andrew watching his favorite family the Kardashians. (watching Kendall's Sweet 16)
Until next time!!!