OFF TO JERSEY WE WENT!





Whenever we stop by in the US, we always manage to visit this family.
Our granfather's relative lives here. This is the front view of their home.
After that they took us out for a dim sum meal near their house.
We haven't returned to the US for 2 years, so there were many people to revisit.





Aunty Helen, mom and Helen's mother, Pauline.



**********


AGAIN, BACK TO MANHATTAN!




Now we are back in Manhattan. That day we decided to
meet up with my overseas employer, whom I've never met
before. Felt like one of the Charlie's Angels -__-;;
So we went to his office in Rockefeller Plaza, I got dragged
to his office and had a great time chatting.
His name is Brian and we were so glad we finally got
to meet face to face after all these years.





After that fateful meeting, we headed downtown on 5th Avenue.
Here is mom in front of the gate of Bryant Park. It was a nice day to just linger
in the park, but unfortunately we vampires just could not take too much
of the sunlight or we will burn and die. We took the bus all the downtown
to where we used to live in the East Village.





Aaa~~~h the beautiful tasty Magnolia Bakery's vanilla cupcakes
we could just NEVER get enough of!! It was like drugs to us @__@!!
I have heard that cupcakes from Magnolia have been famous, but
just never thought they would be THIS GOOD!! Never in our entire
lives we've tasted cupcakes like those. Oh and we never liked the icing
on the cupcakes mind you. When we found out we could buy the
them without the icing, we were SO happy...
We've been converted into the Magnolian religion.





Me and Anna Lee, one of Jennifer Ikoma's dearest friend and co-worker.
Jennifer used to share the apartment with me and we had been having a ball
ever since. Those late nights working, watching TV, and the other typical
college-life-related crazy activities. Priceless memories!





Delphine, me and her best friend Autumn inside a Korean restaurant in Korea Town.
They are one of my friends from the Fashion Design department. Delphine is my
birthday partner. We both have the exact same birthdate, birthmonth and birthyear
... though not sure about our birthhour. But still, pretty wicked hey?
After lunch, we raided a really cute accessories store across the street.





In the evening, mom and I watched our first play in 2 years.
Lucky we went on a weeknight, otherwise we wouldn't be able to
land ourselves some seats.





After enjoying a night out on Times Square, for the heck of it
mom decided to have one of the Chinese street artists drawn her.
Them nasty Chinese, he tried to rip mom off... but later he
agreed to be paid with the kids' rate ($40, while the adult's was $80).
Thank God I didn't get myself drawn that night -_-!





Terrence and I used to join their beginner's session here briefly.





Left to right: Aunty Wei Zhi, mom and I in Columbia University.
Mom met her for the first time on one of our trips back to Asia.



**********


BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS




Boston skyline from within our Greyhound bus.
Finally mom got her wish to revisit Boston after more than a decade.





On the bridge connecting Prudential Center and Marriot Hotel.
The weather was quite grey when we arrived.





The Green House, the building we used to stay in when I was still back
in high school in Massachusetts.





The cozy room interior of Copley Inn, the place we stayed in.





A mini mall called Porter Exchange in Porter Square.
Used to come here when I had my summer school in RISD.





Across one of the gates of Harvard University.





The lush green garden in the middle of Harvard campus.





The view of ... River from within our subway.





One of the junctions to Newbury Street, one of the nice hangout place
for young people to shop, chill, etc.





The entrance of Copley Inn, a place decked up with Bostonian American style.





Prudential Center by night.





Sheila, mom and Sheila's daughter. Sheila was the owner of Copley Inn.





At the landmark of a famous park in Beacon Hill.





The trolley that can take tourists around the Beacon Hill neighbourhood.





At the park gate near Beacon Hill (sorry I forgot the name of the park).





Beacon Hill, the elite neighbourhood in Boston famous
for its hilly cobblestone streets.





Mom and grandma's favorite stationary store.





Me and Boston Public Garden's famous statues, "Make Ways for the Ducklings."





The shady lake view of the Boston Public Garden.





The Samuel Adams statue in Quincy Market.
Had no idea why people put a cap and a pair of sneakers on him -.-





Us at Quincy Market.





Mom *still* in Quincy Market.





The Red Sox stand in one of the food halls in Quincy Market.





The Cheesecake Factory in Prudential Center. Whenever we visit DC,
we never fail to eat at this place. It has an excellent meals and dessert
with super SUPER sized portions O.O



**********


MANHATTAN AGAIN!




All of us at GO, one of the Japanese places in St. Mark's place.
Clockwise from the guy with white T-shirt: Kuni, Sandra, Bryan, Terrence,
me and Jay. Jay was Bryan's temporary roommate from a little town
in Ohio State. He was such a nice and ambitious film maker.
Can't wait to hang out with you guys again. Thanks for your company!





Left to right: Bryan, Jay, Sandra and Kuni in front of Go.





Terrence, Jay and me. Afterwards, I was supposed to meet up with another friend
but alas ... she stood me up. Luckily, they were not gonna desert me anytime soon.
Off we were to Sing Sing Karaoke!







Some shots from the karaoke session. Bryan singing to some Jay Chou songs,
while the rest of us were singing to some oldies English hits.





Jay and his girlfriend from New Jersey.





Strolling down the West Village.





Mom fashionably crossing the street with the dry-cleaned material at hand.
It was so hot that day we were gonna melt anytime soon.





This is it! The Sunday's line for the famous Magnolia Bakery.
The shrine we both visited A LOT during our stay in Manhattan.
The fact that the place was only 2 blocks away from our apartment
still couldn't curb our cravings for more cupcakes.
The woman in the pink shirt on the left side was mom aiming
for the end of the line.





Me at the end of the line, which was on the other side of the bakery.





The view from outside the bakery's window display. Those pretty pretty
little vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. It was amazing to find out that they
still used the old fashioned method to bake these cupcakes. This place
was so high in demand for their cupcakes they were forced to limit each
customer's cupcake purchase to a dozen only. Talk about madness!
We kept coming here every week without fail to get at least 4-6 of the
plain milky piece-of-heaven-that-just-melt-in-your-mouth cupcakes.





After heading to the west, we were chillin' by the Hudson river for some
great views of the bay and ocean. All cupcakes were gone at this point!





Mom at the junction of 5th Avenue and 14th St near Union Square.





Me, mom and Andrea. She was my employer prior to my return to Indo
for good. Those months when I was working for her was one of the great
times of my career. We had brunch at a cute restaurant in the West Village.





The John F. Kennedy Airport, thus this has concluded our stay in the US.
We then took off to the European land, Germany. So stay tune for our adventure
in Germany and Italy. Hope you all have enjoyed my photo essay so far....





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