New Friends and New Food

  Our first leg of our journey is done. We're tucked away in what can only be described as a nook. Instead of a roof- they went with trellis. The communal bathroom taunts my bladder but we are loaded down with everything a human could need on vacation. Our flight went well and we met more pleasant human beings than objectionable, so I would call that a success. My favorite was a plucky lady who was in remission from ovarian cancer and the illness she felt from chemo. She was on her way to Israel for three weeks to tour and visit family. She planned the trip in between her last chemo appointment and having her breasts removed. If anyone deserved a vacation...

Skyline! Hello NY!

  We took a Taxi from JFK with the nicest man from Jamaica- the actual Jamaica and not Jamaica queens where he now lives. I suppose his parents figured if they had to leave home they ought to move to a place with similar nomenclature. Creature comforts. He knew our mayor of Sacramento and we had a nice talk about the Kings maybe leaving and how terrible that would be for the mayor. Small world and all.

Why are our apartment buildings not this awesome?

  I also found out Californians are jerks. If anyone cut us off the way these people do, there would be so many road-rage induced homicides, man oh golly. Also, why the hell don't we have houses like this? Giant city blocks where thousands of people can live and work? Super efficient- always people there to make friends with. Nope, gotta have our fences and our own pools.
   On a similar note about personal space. I would like to share some pictures from our hostel experience.

The view is nice. Oh, and look out the window too! ;)

Heeelllooo New York!

P.S. this is outside our room.

Tiiiiiiineeeeyyy space. (mostly occupied by out things)

Look, enough room to jump in bed!

Look ma! No roof! Just latticing.

  Aside from being the dirtiest city I have ever, ever seen, it's nice so far. The sad faced posters in our room beg to differ though. Seems the Bowery may have not always been so prosperous. We ventured out after we got settled and sought food in China Town. Colorful place. Stinky place.

Hello lobsters!

Good bye eels and ugly fish (smell ya later! ;)

Durian Sack!

We got harassed for rubbernecking and saw so many odd things in so few blocks. The cabbie said this wasn't a tourist area, and I am not sure why. How cool is all this? Our dinner was what I think most would call "authentic". We ate at a Cantonese place a few blocks down the street. They were offering salt-baked softshell crab, but were out much to Tarra's chagrin. We opted for the baked pork and duck, an order of scallion pancakes, and pork and fish maw soup.
Pancakes were fantastic despite probably being a whole days worth of calories. Duck and pork were suuuper fatty and amazing. Fish maw is not a part of a fishes face which was my original guess. It is fishs' swim bladder and has a texture like tendon or tripe. The soup was the consistency of snot. Tarra could barely eat it. It wasn't the flavor, it was the mouthfeel. We both agreed a swift swallow was the only way. I caught on but Tarra had to "practice".  Pretty funny stuff. Also, moon cakes are not as delicious as their name promises.

We ate here!

I am a tired mess of blonde, sparkle, and warms. 

This is derpin' delicious! 

"You are tasting the sweets of success" Delicious!

All in all, we're pooped. We only got two hours of sleep before our 6am flight and a few cat naps on the plane. We've got a big day of Broadway, Time's Square, The Met, deli foods, subways and a whole lot of walking. We bid you goodnight!