Roy's visit

mood:

May 28th – NYC Tour with Roy

Roy used to be an officemate in the Philippines. I haven’t since him in more than 5 years I guess. He went to Canada when he left the company and not long enough, he moved to California. He came to the US on November 2001 which was just 5 months before I got here. Anyway, he called me around 2 weeks ago to let me know he’s coming to NY for a family reunion. We agreed to meet and I made a promise to take him for a tour in the city.

I met him in Grand Central Terminal at around past 8AM. We took the No. 4 train to go to Battery Park. This is where we took the South Ferry to go to the Statue of Liberty. There were so many people in line wanting to see Liberty. While we were at the Ferry, Roy was busy talking to 2 Japanese ladies. I, on the other hand, was busy taking pictures of the view. We didn’t get the chance to go inside though. We didn’t know there are 2 kinds of tickets. The ticket which will allow you to go in will have to be purchased at least a day before the visit. We enjoyed the view anyway. It was also a good thing Roy brought a tripod for the camera. At least we didn’t really have to bother someone else to take a picture of us.




Then, we went to Chinatown. We took the same train going there. This is the place for cheap stuffs and oh well…imitations. It felt like I was in Divisoria. Too many vendors on the sidewalks…too crowded…people were loud…so many bargains. We headed next to Little Italy which is just 2 blocks away. There you can see a lot of people eating outside the restaurants enjoying the nice weather. We had lunch at Benito One. Roy was craving for the traditional spaghetti with meatballs. It was good though. I made the wrong choice though. I was looking for the Seafood Linquini in their menu but I couldn’t find it. I ordered something with seafood then not realizing it doesn’t come with pasta. It tasted good in fairness. We had Starbucks coffee before we headed to Times Square. Roy accompanied me to scout for fabric swatches. We had a hard time locating those stores considering I didn’t find the exact fabric shade that I was looking for.

Our day together ended at 4:30pm. It was nice to have been with a former colleague…that I haven’t seen in a long time. He’s scheduled to go back to CA on Sunday.