The Other Side of New York

When I say the word Chinatown, what comes to mind? Food, Mandarin, Stolen/knockoff items, and probably NYC. The Chinatown that many tourists have come to know and love in NYC is located in lower Manhattan, and despite the name, is very much Americanized. Yesterday, some friends and I visited Flushing Meadows, Queens and as I walked up from the subway, I entered a world completely different of that from Brooklyn and Chinatown Manhattan.
Our goals in visiting Flushing Meadows included seeing Arthur Ash Stadium where the U.S. Open Finals are held, Citi Field where the Mets play, and walking through the 1,255 acre park, known as Flushing Meadows Corona Park. (Side note, Central Park is arguably the most well known park in NYC, yet it is far from the biggest park in NYC. In fact, it comes in 5th at 843 acres.)

However, before reaching any of these sites, we walked right into Chinatown Queens. Massive amounts of Asian people, signs predominately in Mandarin and discount, off brand products made it obvious that we were in Chinatown. After exploring up and down Main Street, we walked into the City Hall building and read about tigers and their prominence in Chinese culture. James, a fellow friend and intern, began to color a man/dragon/tiger picture with crayons and did so with a preciseness to be envied by any boy or girl who calls coloring a hobby. Unfortunately, James's coloring extravaganza was cut short due to our hunger and a lunch recommendation given by the receptionist. Being that we were in the heart of Chinatown, we thought it only fitting to eat at an authentic Chinese restaurant, so we visited the "Little Pepper". O yea, did I mention that the receptionist, an Asian man, said with little concern the restaurant was a "little" spicy.

The awning above the restaurant had only Mandarin characters, with a little pepper man eerily smiling at any visitor that dared to enter and brave the Asian cuisine. We sat down and instantly noticed that we were the only Americans in the restaurant. The waiter poured us tea as we perused the menu and i eventually noticed that almost every dish ended saying "with chili pepper", or "hot pepper sauce". I blame our ignorance, but we each quickly realized after one bite the huge mistake we had made. Most notably, my good friend and fellow intern Nathan ordered Lamb coated in seeds from some type of hot pepper and within 5 minutes, was profusely sweating from his face. To put this in perspective, Nathan is a football player at Truman State University. If i were to guess, he stands 6' 3'' and weighs about 270LBS. If anyone could handle this food, I would guess it to be Nathan, so when I saw the extensive sweat on his face, I knew i was screwed. Despite the intolerable spiciness, Nathan cleaned his plate and proved his manliness to each and every onlooker.
Another note about the Little Pepper. The waiter did not give us water, not did any other table have water. We had hot tea, and that was the extent of our drinks. I'm not sure if this is standard with authentic Asian cuisine, but that changed quickly. Within minutes of eating our meal, the woman at the register noticed our misery, began laughing and brought us an entire picture of water. We swept through 2 of these for lunch, making this one meal i will never forget.

After lunch, we visited the newly built Citi Field where the lesser known and arguable less talented New York Mets play. The field was closed, so we were only able to look in through gates, but look forward to photos from a possible future game i attend.
Next, we visited Billie Jean King Arena where the U.S. Open is held each year. We walked through the maze of courts, mainly focusing on Arthur Ash Stadium where the final match is held. I believe i even included a picture of us with Arthur Ash and little children.
From here, we wondered the enormous park, visiting such sites as the Unisphere that you may recognize from the popular blockbuster hit Men in Black along with the concrete saucers, built for the World Fair NYC hosted in the mid 20th century.

After a full day of exploring new cultures, foods and architectural wonders, I gained a new appreciation for the other side of New York. The side off the the beaten path, away from 5th avenue, Central Park, Rockefeller Center and Time Square. Not to say these aren't great places, but I think most people tend to forget that their are 4 other boroughs within New York with just as much to offer and if you happen to take that leap of faith in exploring one, you might just be pleasantly surprised.

This is Nate, saying "Repetition breeds familiarity".

Spring Break

When you think of college spring break, the first thing that comes to mind is Cancun for a week in the sun. Not for Mike and I here at Belmont East. Just because colleges get the week off does not mean that the companies we work for just shut down for the week. So after putting in my 40 hours at work Mike decided that we should go to Philadelphia for the weekend. It was supposed to be the rainiest and windiest weekend that we have had up north. So we went anyways. On friday night we got very little sleep and work up at 7:30 Saturday morning to start our journey. First was the 45 minute subway ride up to midtown Manhattan and then the wait for the Bolt Bus, followed by the just over 2 hour ride to the city of brotherly love. when we get there it is pouring down rain with the wind blowing us sideways. Neither of us had an umbrella, not that it would have helped anyways.

Mikes friend Rachel picked us up at the bus stop and we started our tour of the city at a little french restaurant. I had a really great lamb sandwich with french bread and some awesome french fries. After the filling lunch and a nap that promptly followed, it was time for our walk around the historic city where a vast majority of our nations history takes place. Still pouring rain and sweet wind gusts we walked through all the old sites. We walked down South street and through Washington Square, past the liberty bell and over to the location where Washington crossed the Delaware. Even in the rain we saw a lot of the living history of Philly taking place through thousands of green clad people filling the streets and the pubs. Mike and I learn quickly of the Irish history here after seeing a huge statue showing the many Irish immigrants starving in Ireland and their journey here and getting off the boat in this great city. The best part of this Saturday night was the cheesesteaks. We were told to order it "wiz-wit". This means steak on a hoagie bun with cheese- wiz and onions. Fantastic! Cheese-Wiz never tasted better than it did that night.

Sunday after sleeping in a little longer than we had planned Rachel drove us down town and dropped us off. We walked right around the corner and found ourselves in the middle of the biggest St. Patrick's Day Parade I've ever seen. We just started walking with the parade and saw dancers, Irish bands, clubs, teams and many people that had been drinking before i thought about getting out of bed. We walked with them for a few miles, all the way up to the Rocky steps. Of course we could not resist walking up them and taking pictures of the steps and parade and the statue. (side note: this is the only real statue of a fictional character that I have ever had the please of seeing) Mike wanted to go into the museum at the top which was having Picasso exhibit. We were told that it was free on Sundays so we went in only to find that it was free on first Sundays and this Sunday was a $20 entrance fee and being the very poor college students we are, we left. The rest of our day in town was filled with wandering and looking for food to eat. Yes we did some other cool thing and I may discuss them later, but as far at this post goes, we hit up a random taco bell near where we were staying and headed back to the bus. The bus took two and a half hours to get back into the city and when we got off Mike and I looked at each other and both said that Philly was really cool but we were really glad to be back in the real city. New York continues to be the best city in the U.S. You can argue but you're wasting your breath.