I love you, New York

What I saw, learned, and experienced in New York City:

We copped a couple of great things from NY. We just had to go shopping. There were way too many stores that we couldn't find back home in Texas... let alone San Antonio.

This blog is quite long, but I promise you it comes from the heart. I bought us tickets for J's birthday as a present and a way to show him how much he means to me. He puts up with a lot. ;) Anywho New York was both calling us and so here starts an array of pictures and memories.... also a disclaimer: this is probably only 25% of the pictures we took throughout our trip. I can't fit everything in my blog, but I hope this will give a good enough account on our experiences!

Museum hopping. Very touristy of us, huh? 

This view was amazing.

Taken from another side of the Empire State Building.

The cake we accidentally left back at home :(

I partly blame it on the unrealistic love stories and numerous sitcoms I watched growing up as a kid in suburban Houston. Perhaps even the copious amounts of wasted time I spent on the Fashion Spot forums and style.com looking up the current fashion trends of the major fashion weeks around the world. The other part I blame on my personality, the independence-seeking-young-individual-determined-to-conquer-success-on-her-own type of personality. Living in the city, the sprawling urban dwelling hold defined by small tight spaces and beyond my budget expenses, was something of a fantasy for me. I thought that perhaps it was already a feat in itself having left League City (heck having left the Philippines for that matter) and moving to San Antonio to live by myself through college, and now and even bigger feat as a young professional living closest to that urban reality by having a loft in San Antonio’s midtown and Pearl area with J. However there’s nothing (and now I can truly say this) NOTHING that compares to living in the City, concrete jungle, call it whatever you like. Nonetheless… New York City.

Lights every where.

And now that I’ve been there, I honestly feel like nothing will ever be the same. And I want more of it. It’s been easy for many of my friends to have moved to NYC, but it’s never even crossed my mind to go out of Texas before. I know for a fact it had to do something with my upbringing. There were so many other factors: fear, being alone, having to figure out everything on my own, finances, the up charge in taxes, living expenses, etc. You think about how you will survive financially, if there is a stable job always available that will tailor to my needs or wont make my life a living hell…. or perhaps a job where the commute won't kill me.

The Bull on Wall Street. There were people posing next to the bull's balls. Really now?? lol 

But then came J, and beginning a relationship with him resulted in a critical turn around point in my life. He surprisingly had the same wont for for the urban life, with him fortunately having experienced it growing up in Staten Island. When we decided to live together we were absolutely bright eyed with the thought of living in the up and coming downtown SA area.

What if I took residence here on the Upper West Side?

I’ve told J this numerous times that I would love to live a lifestyle somewhere in similarity of Carrie in Sex in the City - minus the extravagance of shoes being stored in the oven or designer wear in every corner - being that fiscally I’m more in the conservative end. But I admit I do have a penchant for splurging every once in a while on Anthropologie (among others) for our apartment and I live by the motto that you can never have enough clothes. Because let’s be honest… in J’s words “who doesn’t want a dope apartment and look fresh every day?”

Lol bruh... nice smile. 

Regardless, I’ve always been fond of living an urban life. When we finally landed just seeing the cityscape made me speechless. I wondered at that very moment how in the world was all this possible to even create? One can understand the makings of the earth and the land but to see the manmade sculptures of the city was something beyond I could fathom. You come there with expectations but you never really know how to feel when you set foot.

Our toughest day was our first day on Saturday. Apart from having to work all week at the hospital and J working diligently on SA Fashion Week, packing and preparing, we had spent his birthday celebration at Boston Pub which of course was a bit wilder than usual seeing as how it was his time to celebrate (and yet work at the same time). Unsurprisingly he hadn’t even packed so when we came home around 3 AM he still had to pack for our 7 AM flight. Truth be told…he didn’t sleep at all. It was also amazing how horrible his motion sickness is. Thankfully I’m so used to having a sick travel buddy due to my sister being even worse.

He's actually feeling real sick at this point.

I could write a small novel with my experiences and thoughts, but I'll just give out the highlights instead. I need to be concise with these things!

1. Trying out halal for my first time ever. I'm glad I got to experience it first at the original in NY!

They made me do this pic.

Feeling excited.

This was taken right before attending a show on broadway. We had to get the original on our second try on 53rd and 6th a few days later.  

2. Family time! Meeting J's family was one of the best things I got to experience. They were so welcoming and funny! I just wanted to give a big shoutout to the Yatco's for housing us and being so accommodating with their hospitality. And especially to Hayden who did quite a lot of driving for us. Also to the other cousins for being awesome and his kuya's for being a great influence on J. His family is the best, and I can't wait to be officially a part of it - not that I'm not already, but by title at least ;)

Rhealynn is so cute!!

3. Casinos, casinos!! I'm not a gambler one bit but it was fun watching for my first time. And no, I didn't gamble, seeing as how J's luck was so bad I didn't want to get sucked into that, haha.

We stayed at Caesars. 

4. Visiting Madison Square Garden and Schmurda dancing at the stadium. We got tickets to see the Knicks scrimmage. Needless to say it was a great experience to be in THE Madison Square Garden. Additionally I got to see Swiss Beatz and Nas perform.

It was so fun with these guys!

    

5. Visiting Hillsong New York surpassed all my expectations. I felt so blessed going to this church. This was the first time praise and worship actually made me want to scream and jump and that says much.

I wish I could attend this church every weekend!

6. New York does not play with their fashion. From the age of 17-23 I was a fashion fiend - vicariously of course. I had a sense of what looked great, but I had no money to afford it, nor was there a culture to promote what I saw. Things are a bit more different now that I am on my own. However coming here to New York has given me the inspiration to not care what I wear anymore in San Antonio. If I want to look a certain way back home or wear a trend I like, so be it!

This is iconic! I wish I could of taken pictures of people and their fashion, but at the point I was more concentrated on how awesomely bad my feet were hurting.

7. Public transportation. Enough said. We stayed with his cousin's in Staten Island, but he made me take PT anyway! From walking, to buses, to the Staten Island ferry, to subway... we took it!

Forest gump like picture.

View from the Staten Island Ferry. I also had a pic with the Statue of Liberty behind me, but I can't find it!

By Day 2 I felt like a New Yorker on the subways.

Tourists everywhere!!

From Staten Island.

8. Jersey and Atlantic City. It was pretty neat that we were also able to visit outside of New York for a day.  We had some of the best Korean BBQ with the cousins and we turnt it up for Alvin's 21st birthday at Atlantic City.

Yikes my mouth is watering again. Korean BBQ buffet over in Jersey.

With Hayden and Natasha. What a fun night for Alvin's birthday!

Those shots were so expensive!!!

Passed out from turning up too much.

Our trip couldn't be complete without gelato from the hotel casino.    

9. Central Park. Nothing much to say other than it was amazing to see all types of life. It was such a juxtaposition to see this up kept park in the middle of all concrete.

A view of the Guggenheim from Central Park. We didn't have time to visit the exhibit, but I'll be back for it!

Ooh.. picture was too dark lol.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day when we came to visit the park.

Bright, sunny, but the perfect temperature!

Top of the rock... haha     

10. Touristy things aka Timesquare and areas around it. People watching comes with.

My favorite broadway show!

I'm so glad I got to experience this.

Eating in K-Town!

11. Promenading through the Upper East Side and brunch at Sarabeth's (which we were so surprised to see was quite a famous spot - seeing as we just saw it and decided to eat). Perhaps if I were a millionaire, one day I would definitely live here. HA. Or not. People have often noted that they see me living in West Village or the hipster spots in Brooklyn.

Alongside Madison.

It was an expensive brunch nonetheless.

12. SoHo and West Village. I think this was my favorite place ever!! I have a potential job here with an interview this coming December, and I am so glad it's around this area. The shopping, the fashion, the people... it's the place I've always imagined I'd live in. There's nothing that these people haven't seen. The unfortunate thing is that I can see myself spending like crazy here - you'll most likely see me stuck somewhere between All Saints, Lululemon, and Madewell. Not to mention Alexander Wang has a boutique here...

This was only the beginning of our shopping.

I was so happy that day.

They're finally making a Madewell in SA. 

I love the cobblestones in the streets of SoHo!

13. Shopping at my favorite brands and the best food!! We spent hefty on the shopping at stores we couldn't find in Texas.

J's favorite out of any place we shopped. Kith had his name written all over.

At the Nike store..Wait for it...

Now you see it? I obviously got these.

Ramen time!

Getting "The Reg" = bagel with cream cheese and bacon alongside Arizona green tea to chug it all down.

We went to the wrong Wonton Garden!!!!!!

More food.

Got to have the original bon chon chicken.

Eggs benedict and crab spaghettini at Sarabeth's.

My ultimate favorite dessert could be found within 10 blocks of each other throughout Manhattan.

Man... we ate a lot of Korean BBQ during out trip.

Crepes.

And of course, you can't forget about New York pizza!!   

13. We had this random photo op with Jewel House who Mikey worked for. Kind of embarrassing as it definitely was not my style, but heck how many people can say they were in a photoshoot at Herald Square??

Trying to look fresh...lol

This guy really took it seriously lol.

So... what did I get out of it all in all? For one thing we put our hands (and feet) up to public transportation. J still loves doing it, but being a Texas girl all my life it was fun to experience in the first few days, but it morphed into a cumbersome activity towards the end of out trip. My feet were more swollen than his because I chose to wear flats. Albeit they were still comfy... but not comfy to enough to wear 15+ hours with good walking mileage.

Endless amounts of walking = swollen and tired feet.

 Additionally, I was blessed that I received 2 job interviews with the setting I would like to work in, which both I know will pay considerably well. However everything in New York is super expensive. Just living there, especially in the city, comes with a large price tag (and that's not including the amount of additional taxes that will be taken off my salary). If I sacrifice living in the city and live in Staten then the commute will most likely kill me. I'm honestly still weighing out the options, but now that I am back home in our comfy and spacious loft in downtown I can't help but think I feel very comfortable here, especially with my impending promotion to supervisor. I can't overlook the earnings vs living expenses ratio. Decisions, decisions.... 

Whatever the case, J and I will be in it together.

I had so much fun there, and I really would love to visit again. One week was truly not enough! And now that I'm back home recovering, I feel uneasy. I started getting a fever on the way back home on the plane ride, and I haven't felt good since. I already had to call in for work for Saturday morning, but after a full night of rest, fluids, medicine, and more sleep I finally felt better last night (enough to attend one hour of J's event), and recovering more today. J is already on the grind working for Fashion Week San Antonio. Ah... well NY, see you again soon....

Love,
Jacq