Train Station, Snow and A Christmas Song

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight...

After another long day of walking,
I stood shivering on the platform waiting for the train headed for
Berkeley Heights. But in the midst of cold winds, I felt warm and fuzzy
watching the soft snowflakes falling from the sky. As I gazed at the snow gracefully floating down a Christmas carol came on through the speakers, 'Have yourself a meryy Little Christmas' by Frank Sinatra..what a beautiful beautiful song.. I thought to myself, this is what is feels like to spend Christmas the New York wayyy hehehee...

I love New York...

Here are some more photoss!!

beautiful greenwich village, see how the stairs decend to the footpath..

this is the Guggenheim museum designed by FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, my favourite architect of all time! the master of risk taking yet constructing beautiful spaces.. it was so sad they were constructing the building cause I was looking forward to seeing the exterior, the wonderful spiral.. masterfully engineered... oh well.. maybe next time..but the inside was just as spectacular.. thank you mr. Wright I really appreciate your works hehehheee 

my favourite favourite favourite museummm!!

my sex &and the city tour buddiess hehehee from far left, she was from perth! what a coincidence! the two middle ladies are from germany, they were soo funnny they had such strong german accents and their favourite destination was the sex shop ahhahaa they went absolutely wild!!! (i think they bought 4 whips) HAHA I felt so awkward but they made me feel silly and gigggly.  I made the drinks look extra poisonous cause it was too strong for meee hahaa so the german ladies drank the rest of mine hahahaa

houses stuck to each other the different facade colours and textures make another artful street in newyork

i found a tiled door leading nowhere..

oh.my.goodness.. i guess the guy was talking about like 'nice' good being kind and righteous and stuff..

pink shop!

drumrolll*** VAN GOGH... *gasp* 'sunflowers' by Van Gogh...created uproar for the artworld at the time but it was worth it... thank you Mr Gogh... I hope you went to heaven...wait were you Christian..?

this is the architecture studio of harvard university.. oh.my.goodnes..i was probably not allowed in but pretended i was a student there and crept inside... I'm not gonna let me head get ahead of me here ehehehee....I could tell it was a wonderful environment to createe...*sigh* I hope hope hopeeeee Parsons accepts meeeeee........................

well... for today...that's all folks!

thanks for readinggg

SO . TIRED

The inconvenient truth

It's a Monday today, and even though I have no obligations or nothing really due,
there's always that "Monday feeling" no matter what part of the year you're in.
I woke up this morning thinking, "I just want to stay home and watch cable tv all day"
I mean what would be better than that right?
I could probably watch cable tv at home for 5 days straight
without a problem, which I am definately not proud of.

A decision;
The decision whether to stay indoors at home, snuggled up in bed (it is fereeeezing outside)
sipping hot chocolate and watching "Big Daddy", "The Devil Wears Prada" or "The Family Man"

OR

Jump out of my warm blanket (7.15am), get changed in the cold, have a shower,
wear cold jeans, wear a cold jacket, pack my bag, put my boots on,
walk for 25 minutes to the train station, then another 45 minute train ride,
get off at Penn station, walk to Columbus circle manhattan and start my
journey for 7 hours. THEN, IN the cold I do the whole thing the way back home
EVEN colder cause it's at night.

GOSH it really is a hard decision.
unlike home (with 5 channels) my cousin has 500 hundred channels on a
huge plasma tv. my cousin's fridge is definately more enticing than the one I have at home
plus I could think of a million more reasons to stay at home.


but if I were to fly all the way to america to simply stay home, then
why did I even make the effort.

and that's what motivated me today. there are times when
even the fact that you're in one of the greatest cities of the world isn't enough
to get me out of bed. even the fact that there's still so much to see
is not enough, and nothing is more important than my needs right this moment.

but I had to force myself,
and so...
I saw the statue of liberty
and toured ellis island.

what seemed like a mountainous challenge in the morning
was a tiny speck of what was waiting for me on the other side.

sometimes I just have to close my eyes, silence my brain and let
my body go ahead of me.


manhattan at my feet

replica of lady liberty

standing at the foot of colossal statue of liberty that guards the gates of ny

ladies and gentlemen; the city that never sleeps.

The Family Man

I just saw a movie called "The Family Man" starring Nicholas Cage andTea Leoni.

Although I've had my fair share of romantic comedies THIS was abeautiful movie,

I wish I had another word than"beautiful" to describe it but my goodness, I shall have to put it up there with one of my highlights of this trip.

I wish I could be as nice and giving like the girl in the movie, you

know a girl that can bring out the best in the man, that is something

so wonderful. People that can bring out the best for each other,

that relationship is awesome :)

new jersey has nice roads and nice houses and nice trees, so

i decided to go on a bike ride today in the neighbourhood,

the sun came out too so that was nice =)

ahhh i should really stretch before i exercise, my muscles are painful...

The Vast Spectrum

Oh my goodness, I am so tired. so very tired my knees seem to be wobbling.

My journey is mostly made up of walking and swirling my head in all different directions.

I do have this greed inside of me to explore every bit of New York city, street to street

building to building, museum to museum...

however time is constantly ticking, a little too fast for my liking.

CENTRAL PARK

all the colourful leaves are falling, leaving the branches bare

my lunch, it tastes a lot better than it looks. hehe

dedicating a bench for adrienne kessler, she seems like an interesting person

let's walk to the end. central park is so serene and peaceful. quite a contrast to

the bustling city that surrounds it...but i think if i were to compare the sydney botanical gardens and central park, sbg is more beautiful. hehe

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM of NY

the epitome of art nouveau, also embedded into furniture.  this is handcrafted ever so delicately, depicting the

natural symbols. this was before the modern movement, when everything started to take on the form of minimalism (box like shapes) wowwww I only studied about this stuff at school and uni, but to see this

in real life is just. too good to be true....

let my chronicles of narnia begin. hehe

drip painting, .............................. by morris

MARK ROTHKOS PAINTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  agh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot believe I am actually standing in front of Mark Rothko's paintint, the painting that HE painted, the painting that HE actually designed, touched and made with HIS hands... WOW, my goodness, I only saw his paintings in textbooks, and the internet but this is IT!  THIS is the REAL THING!  Although the painting does appear rather dull and seems like an artwork that a 5 year old would make... this is modern art. modern art focused on the process of how a painting was made and what the painter was aiming to portray-- rather than the accuracy of what it looks like in the physical world, it was an accuracy aimed to precisely represent the notions that

were inside the artists brain. Mark Rothko was a great artist who passed away tragically by committing suicide, however his theories and seeking to find conclusions were astounding... maybe I would've been his friend if he were alive now..

THIS is crazy, a real column from one of the greek temples.  See how huge that is!!?!?!? The middle section is broken off, but I can only imagine how tall the actual column would look like. If ONE column was this tall and wide, I'm thinking the actual building would be monumental. incomprehensible. wow. and all handmade by the people of the time... it's really beautiful...

hehe, wow, compare my body to that column!!!!!!!! omnipotent-- the greek classical style architecture is so grand. I wish we could make more of them nowadays.  but i guess the labor and the money and materials.. economy have all changed now...

okay one last photo- this room mimicks the pantheon in greece.

These statues were adorned around the bath houses and various places

in a building. the details are amazing and just. mind blowing....

ahhhh I have so many photos...

but just this for nowwww...

This time last year I was heading for a completely different country,

different clothes, different weather, different architecture, different mission

and with a team.  But it's just me now, in a developed world (almost too developed!) .. I guess

it just reminds me of the vast spectrum of this world.

One extreme to the other, and for me to pinpoint myself on that spectrum is

just crazy... hmm what is my purpose? I need details...

It's Only The Beginning

Oh what an exhausting day--- Just got back from a dinner with my cousin's familyand their friends. I did feel rather young and knowledge-less,they were talking about finances, insurance, money-stuff, raisingkids, housing prices...Gosh what am I to do, all that adult "stuff" I'm almostoblivious to it. But I however did my best to fit in.The occasional "nods" the "ah yes"s and the "I see"s didthe trick. hehe! nonetheless it was really interesting, American families aren't very different to the Aussie ones, they care about the similar things and strive for the similarvalues too ... happiness with family.

wow.. I have a long way to go.Well now that I've done all the settling in things during the weekend, I am heading for Manhattan tomorrow!!

OH OH!!! and it SNOWED TODAY!!!!!!!!THE FIRST SNOW FALL TODAY!Apparently snow usually falls during January, but not this year!It is absolutely exhilarating to wake up, look out the window and findeverything to be WHITE!!!!!!!!!!!!The rooftops, the cars, the roads all covered in white snow.hehehe,

Postgrad studies seem to be very common here... maybe it is an option.wow, I see all these paths suddenly being made branching out itdifferent directions!!What am I to do?

It is all for a reason, I do believe.

my cousin's baby, so so so oh so cute

This happened in one night, the clouds are working very hard

the place we had breakfast! beautiful

i woke up to this!

I do love you all, and I wish you all the very best.

ps. Thanks guts for the comment!!! Miss you very much!

Real Christmas boonigi

It's the 1st of December 2007 in New Jersey--

I finally feel a little settled now, thanks to my wonderfully welcoming cousin.  The air is crisp and cold, and each wind brings shivers down my spine.  It's nice to wear a thick fat jacket and not feel like a balloon or

being the odd one out. Unlike Sydney the weather and temperature stays much the same throughout the whole day. hehe.

I am so excited and thankful to know that I have a whole 2 months ahead of me to simply explore. wow...

Although I did visit the US, two years ago... this. Is definately a whole new experience (no parents). Doors are just constantly being opened every second, I'm so nervous and excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have so much respect for my cousin and her husband, they are such driven people (maybe a little too driven hehe) My hyung-boo was talking about the opportunities in New York and what's out there... It's crazy.  In comparison to Sydney, New York is crazy! Come What May I Say!

Well, today was so much fun! hehe

Had breakfast at some bagel place, such nice people and soft bread!

Then drove around the area, the shops are beautiful with lovely tent rooves covering the front. Much of the shopping area is outside so you can walk in and out of the shops, one after the other.

I have to say everything is a lot bigger, the stations are larger, the grass fields are wider, the markets are broader, the food is twice the amount.

Ooh and since it's the first of December, we bought a REAL christmas pine tree! and decorated it with lovely

ornaments~! It really did feel like Christmas, especially with the weather and all.

I guess it's all about choosing your tree, trimming it and decorating it.

See how beautiful it is!!!

Thank you God my provider and Protector, how merciful You are