Ah…New York; The home of the some of the richest and most influential people in the world and also home to some of the poorest. We, the CASA board, walked in with our hearts bursting with excitement, our smiles beaming, and our wallets loaded with cash. Yes, us college students were on a trip, a bonding trip, to the Holy place that is Pinkberry. You see, everything else is great in New York, but all superfluous and meaningless to us young, Asian folk. We want our Pinkberry and we want it NOW.
Mood music:
The train ride was marginal at best. We talked about stuff that really didn’t matter so I will not waste your time typing it our here. Probably something about New Jersey being the ugly cousin to New York, or something useless like that. Whatever, beside the point. But you know the feeling with someone for a long time cramped like crazy cause your legs fit like puzzle pieces cause you’re sitting right across from them? Yea. That’s what it was like for an hour and a half. Now, THAT is bonding.
Now, we get off the train and begin meandering around the city, looking for a restaurant, somewhere famous apparently called, Carmine’s? Italian. Yes, Italian like the Guidos from Jersey Shore. Well, you know when you’re from out of state when you walk through the city looking all the way up like there’s money falling from the sky. I could feel my neck elongate as I stared at this cool architecture. Of course, the guy from Oklahoma has never seen anything higher than wheat so this was probably extra special. Anyways. Lunch was good, but the bread was cold though. I guess we didn’t mind cause we were all famished.
We got our Pinkberry! YES! And that obligatory picture, which will be updated soon. DEFAULT.
Walking walking walking. OO something I have to add. The subways in New York are really expensive! $8.50 for a day?!? WHAT?!? That’s like a Chipotle Burrito(even in New York!) and like 8 McChickens! So it was a difficult decision between pulling cash or using a credit card (that would get paid by my parents). I chose plastic.
You all have seen those Asian tour groups in which there’s some late 40s Asian lady wearing bright yellow and speaking on a loud-speaker, something along the lines of “ This, McDonalds.” And everyone would oo and ah. Our tour guides were not so informational. I think a mouse could run a maze faster than they could find the nearest subway station. And the funny thing is, they’re from New York City. I now see why they’re the 51st happiest state in the US. CAUSE THEY’RE SPENDING ALL THAT EXTRA MONEY ON CABS CAUSE THEY’RE GETTING LOST ALL THE TIME! New Yorkers: Pish Posh.
So after lunch, we went ice skating. We were all prepared for the worst because only one of us had previous training on this slippery surface. We were all like new born giraffes as we stumbled around (some more than others) except for this particular individual, who taunted us with his every move. Backwards and forwards he went. Round and round and round. But those kinds of people are boring. So there’s another individual in the group who didn’t pick up on it so quickly. Of course, me being my nice self decided to give her some words of encouragement. But instead of contributing to her improvement, my words startled her and she fell. I take this time now to apologize. But it’s too late to apologizeeeee, it’s too lateeeeee. Ice skating was fun, and tiring. And for the rest of the day, we hobbled like we had a wooden leg.
So en route to our next destination, we pass some tables and chairs lying on the side of the road. So of course we decide it was a good idea to hold our first meeting there. Under the bridge, in 40 degree weather. It wasn’t actually a meeting ( we played mafia, in which I was the cop and I was killed because, apparently, they like to kill people with the same name). Oh, and I guess it was raining so it wasn’t THAT random of an idea. On a side note, rain in a big city is no good. The stairway to the subway stations become all muddy and nasty and it’s just not a pretty situation.
Then, we went to KTV or for those non-Asian fold reading this, Karaoke. This part showed a lot about everybody. Music choice is often a good sign. If they choose songs like “I’m on a Boat”, then we know that they really can’t sing and that they are just trying to cover up, as was the case. Of course, in every group of Asians, there is someone who can actually sing and sound good. As much as I want to claim that title, it doesn’t below to me, but rather to my colleague with a lovely voice. Of course, she had some qualms about the song choice of the person who couldn’t sing and was like “WHAT?!?” Some of the lyrics in that song are questionable as well. Mermaids are nice. So we bonded as we sang the last song in unison, which was some now popular song that I can’t remember, probably had something to do with wintry tomatoes.
When the night was over, and we were waiting for the metro to take us back to grand central, we opened up our wallets and realized that we were probably the poorest people standing at the station. Zero dollars was in my wallet. That is ZERO chipotle burritos, ZERO McChickens, and LOTS of hours of work to make it all back. But I was content, as I hope were my fellow board members, because it was a great trip, full of fun and mirth and great people and better laughs. I will remember this trip for the rest of my life and some of the people on board will probably become my closest friends here at school.
Just to reward those who read this in its entirety.
I have learned a moral from this trip, a moral already realized by someone of fame: “New York is a Luxury Product” and definitely NOT like Wal-Mart.