On Saturday, we first went to Rose Tea Cafe, a Taiwanese restaurant that I really love. And, according to my Taiwanese friend, they actually are pretty authentic. And even I know their bubble tea is godly. After that we headed over to the Andy Warhol Museum. I hadn’t been there since middle school, so it was cool to see what was still there, as well as new exhibits. After that, I picked up my best friend and we went to the South Side Works and Shadyside to do some shopping.

We went to the Shadyside Apple store to play with the iPads (fun, but would probably still never buy one), and I decided to see if I could get an estimate on how much it would take to fix my poor broken iPod Touch. They squeezed me in on the last appointment of the night, and even though my iPod was out of warranty, they replaced it for me for free because it was in good condition except for the bad headphone jack. And so, if you ever go to to that Apple store, buy something expensive. Haha. I know I will, because they are awesome.

After that we went up on the Duquense Incline to see the night view of Pittsburgh. It was super cold so we didn’t stay up too long, but it was definitely gorgeous.

Sunday, my mom made us a huge pancake breakfast. After that we all lazed around the house, reading manga and playing Wii while everyone slowly took a shower and got ready. By the time we were done, it was after 4, so we just decided to quickly stop by the mall to do some more shopping and after that we went back to Kent. As a thank you gift, they bought me boxes of cereal and a jug of milk, since I really like cereal. They even explained why they’d chosen each particular type of cereal. They are a crazy bunch of guys for sure, but that’s what makes them fun!

My parents are actually both from Chicago, and I have family there, but it’s the first time I’ve been there by myself as an “adult.” On Sunday morning, I went to Millennium Park and ran into a guy taking pictures with his Canon DSLR, and he knew how to use my Nikon FM so we took pictures together for an hour or so. I’ve never really run into people who know a lot about photography, especially film, so it as really fun. Later that night I met up with a friend from school and his friend who was living there. We got dinner together and wandered around downtown. And finally, on Monday, I met up with yet another friend and went shopping on the Magnificent Mile. I love the Forever 21 they have there. It is huge and amazing and omg.

Anyway, I’ve found that I really like big cities. I know a lot of people hate how busy and crowded and fast-paced they are, but somehow all that energy really gives me some sort of inner calm. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. Like somehow I am energized by everything going on around me, and I feel less restless. I really think I am one of those people that needs to have constant stimulation or I go a little nuts. I think that was why I liked Tokyo so much: it was a city that quite literally never slept. It could be 4 in the morning and I could get up and take a walk, pop into a convenience store, go to karaoke, or something.

When I applied to colleges, most of the schools I applied to were in cities, but I ended up going to one that was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. So I’m glad that this go round, I get to go to a school that is pretty much in the middle of Honolulu. I think it might be hard for me to focus at first with everything going, but I’m hoping all that energy will help to keep me going, like it usually does.

(And yes, this means I ended up deciding to go to Hawaii for graduate school.)

On Monday, I arrived earlier than everyone, so I just kind of wandered around downtown Manhattan. Saw the Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street, WTC, etc.

On Tuesday, Sho and I met with his friend who is studying abroad in NY. We got Korean food, then went to Kinokuniya and Book-off (Japanese book stores). Sho bought me a sweets cookbook and two Kanji practice books. After that, we went around Rockefeller Plaza/5th Avenue. After that, Sho’s friend had to leave, so we just wandered around Times Square for a bit before going back to the hotel.

The next day was another busy one. Lunch was $9 total in Chinatown, then we walked over to SoHo and shopped a bit in UNIQLO (I missed that store so much!) and H&M. Sho bought me super comfy pajamas. I cannot do anything but be lazy in them, seriously. After that we went to the Times Square Sanrio store, and he bought me my Christmas present: a super cute leather Hello Kitty bag. We were bored, so then we took the metro out to Flushing and went out to the mall there and bought delicious cakes from an asian bakery there. We came back to Manhattan to go up in the Empire State Building. Bad idea in the middle of winter. Bad idea. But the awesomeness of the view was obviously unchanged by the freezing cold weather. And lastly, we went to East Village for yakiniku and Korea Way for Pinkberry.

On Thursday, two more friends from school came to the city, so we all met up and got lunch together. We went to Pinkberry again (omg, love that place) and then followed our friends around shopping in Rockefeller and 5th Avenue. That night, Sho left for Peru, so I went to the airport to see him off.

All in all, awesome trip! This is my second time there, and I still haven’t been to Central Park or seen the Statue of Liberty, but it’s cool. I like the shopping better, haha. Sorry, there aren’t more pictures. I actually took most of them on film, but one of my rolls is still out being developed. So, I’ll upload them on flickr later.