The second week of school just started and it’s starting to get more busy with classes and my own practice. I’m taking more classes this semester so I need to manage my time well, so that I also have time to enjoy everything this marvelous city has to offer!!
Jabez flew in from Singapore for my Winter break so that was nice.. we did a eastern seaboard tour which comprised New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C.
Philadelphia
Unfortunately, we were in Philly from Christmas eve to Boxing day, meaning that most of the attractions and shops were closed! So we actually did not manage to go into the famous attractions like Independence Hall, Barnes Foundation, Betsy Ross house etc. Philly is well-known to be a historical city – it’s where the U.S. constitution was drafted and signed in 1787. The buildings are really cute – short and made of bricks! This definitely gave a rustic feel to the city and it is also really quiet in comparison to New York City.
Baltimore
At Baltimore, Jabez and I stayed with the YST people at Peabody (shoutout to YT, JA, G haha) and it was really nice to have Singaporean company! They were really great cooks and Jabez and I helped to wash the dishes haha
I also learned how to play mahjong here (ma- don’t worry no money involved) and some really fun board games like Catan and Ticket-to-Ride. I feel like I got fatter in Baltimore because YT, JA and G kept cooking/ bringing us to good food.
But yea, Baltimore was one long lepak/hang-out session – we even watched Star Wars Rogue One and Passengers at the local cinema.
Washington D.C.
I really like D.C.! It’s like a more spacious and clean NYC with grander looking buildings. It also has the wonderful collection of Smithsonian museums (which are mostly free entry!) and the National monuments.
We went to the International Spy Museum, Museum of Natural History, Air Space Museum and the Newseum. My favourite was the Intentional Spy Museum – it opened my eyes to the fact that there are actually still spies living among us today :O
But perhaps the thing that I was most excited about in D.C. was getting to see the famous national monuments like the Lincoln memorial, the other Washington memorial, National mall, the Capitol, the White House. But we picked the coldest day to go outdoors to see them and it was FREEZING. I remember my toes started to hurt from the cold after a while.
New York City
Most of NYC was bringing Jabez around the places I frequent, to show him how I have been living for the past few months lol. We went to watch Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette at the MET! It brings back fond memories of Aspen (: Another artsy thing that we did was go to the Modern Museum of Art, it is always refreshing to gaze upon Claude Monet’s Water Lilies once again.
Jabez wanted make his ‘pilgrimage’ to B&H – it is this HUGE store selling EVERYHING related to electronics – cameras, speakers, TVs, laptops, drones, you name it – EVERYTHING. And suspended from the ceilings of the mega-store are conveyor belts that send items that customers want to purchase directly to the cashier to prevent any theft!
But I think the most memorable thing we did was head to Chinatown to try Wah Fung. Wah Fung is this tiny store- no seating room, just a shop front for customers to order – selling chicken, charsiew or duck rice. You can order a single type of meat with rice for only $3.75 (you can never get a meal anywhere else in NYC for this price) and they are really generous with the portions. We decided to go for the set that gives the three type of meat over rice for $6 and we shared it! WOW it was really good!!! I hadn’t eaten good chicken/charsiew/duck rice since I left Singapore and I was so contented and happy ((:
And thus the end of Winter vacation…. next vacation would be Spring break! But for now, it’s back to school!
“Such a high priest meets our need – one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.” Hebrews 7:26-27
Charity Kiew 