紐約遊記060813(in Eng) - 紐約

taken from my own blog: http://www.wretch.cc/blog/springfly
direct link to this article:
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/springfly&article_id=9864518
I am now still at NYC, and will keep recording everything I see and feel
these days.




A lot of people love traveling. But it seems that not a lot of Taiwanese
girls love traveling alone. This time a treasure opportunity is given again
to visit a city, for one whole week. Now, I am in New York City.

Getting out of the plane, seeing some guards with guns, advertisements
in English, I started to feel a thrilling excitement from the depth of my
body. Passing through the immigration office was a little bit painful today
as the officer asked too many questions. I could not figure it out why he
wanted to ask me so many questions, which was the first time happening
to me. Do I look like an illegal immigrant?

From JFK Airport to Manhattan, I was taken by a shuttle bus service
arranged by the organization holding the activity I will attend.
Weirdly I had a travel sick in that shuttle and it was so strong that I
felt as if I was got shattered. New York City, a city as a memory
in my childhood, which I visit again after 18 years, has wonderful
weather, blue sky, and smooth breeze. I took a short nap in the hotel
and then headed to the “Aston Place Theater” for the show “Blue Men Group.”

Checking the map and find the road on my own is an adventure. I came
to know that my confidence arises mostly not from my performance at
school or work, but from the independence I have cultivated gradually
through traveling experience again and again. Taking NY subway is not
that difficult, but it is very easy to get lost. Unlike MRT in Taipei
which has two directions with the same entrance, here, you got to find
out which way to go before buying the ticket. It happened to me today once
merely after I inserted the card did I find that I reached the wrong platform.
The cost for this mistake is not high, 2 US dollars. From my hotel (96th St.)
to Aston Place needs two transits and takes about 40 minutes.
And, it is exhausting to pretend a New Yorker, but I cannot but do it for
my own safety. For instance, never watch the map, walk steadily and quickly,
and never look others randomly. In the beginning I did not know how to insert
the card to enter to the platform, and I just followed a guy to pass through
(the way using the Metro Card was like paying the credit card) and learned
it rather then asking the information.

After arriving at Aston Place station, I had about one hour to walk around.
Got to solve my hunger problem, I thought. There are restaurants of every
kind, and I picked one Japanese restaurant to have my first meal in NYC.
I was soooo hungry. The combination meal was with sasimi and roasted chicken
slices. I sat right before the cooks, three, two Japanese, and one unknown.
They communicate in Japanese, interestingly. I felt as if I am not in New
York but in certain corner of Japan. The cooks are pretty nice to me, and
smiled and laughed through my dinner. And it was my first time to tip over
2 dollars (overall it was about 15 US dollars). The Blue men show, honestly,
is not that striking as my imagination. The most interesting thing was
the audience. Americans are Americans. They love shouting, yelling, laughing
and interacting. That was the main point of the show. Some ideas of the show
are great, for instance, combining 3D technology, computer
technology, and human body languages. Three blue men made performance of a
variety of methods, special skills like getting the thing thrown by another
from a long distance by mouth, playing drums with different materials
(the same with what I saw in Nanta show in Korea). But what made the
performance so joyful, actually, was audience. To watch a good show needs
good audience watching together. The show itself was about 75 points, but
excellent audience made it to 90 points.

Generally speaking, it is a good show, but not a remarkably excellent show.

The show finished at about 10:00, so it was a little bit terrifying to get
back to hotel with a majority of blacks in the trains and platforms.
I remembered that two black guys sat beside me, with me between them and one
keeping looking at me, made me very very uneasy. When I saw a train
approaching, regardless of not knowing if that was a correct train, I just
jumped into it to refrain from ongoing uneasiness. Fortunately, that was a
right train.




--