On the way back home

Date: 16th June 2016, Thursday 

Start: 9am (Malaysia time, but I'm still on the plane so) 

Assalaamu'alaikum, everyone! Good morning? I'm currently on the plane back home now. That vacation really passed by fast.. 

I remembering promising to update the 2nd day I was in NY, and I apologise for the empty promise.. hehe. Looks like I wrote on the first and last day xD 

In my defence, when we come back at the end of the day I am too pooped to write anything. There's only so much time between when we get back and suhur. 

Anyway, let's get to what I did during my vacation. 

Firstly, let me describe where we stayed. We stayed in this one basement-house place, that had a gate with the sign "Prohibido el paso" in Mexican. (No trespassing in English). At first I was sceptical it would be nice since the outside was so dirty, but when we went inside it was actually really pretty! There were 3 rooms, and small living room, a small kitchen and one bathroom. The beds were really soft and comfy uwu 

Day 2

I remember that all we did was drive around, I think. In the evening we drove to New Jersey to visit Dad's childhood friend. He brought us down the neighbourhood to this park that overlooks the Manhattan Skyline. It was very beautiful! (Although cloudy) When it started to drizzle, everyone started to leave. My sister and I made it to their house just in time, because for some reason it started to rain very heavily very quickly. It was surprising how heavy it became so suddenly. 

While my sister and I were nice and dry inside, the others were soaking wet. Afterwards, we talked and had dinner. Dinner was good! Wait.. 

Wait a minute. 

I've written about this, haven't I? Silly me. 

Day 3

On the third day, we basically spent two hours in the morning driving to SixFlags in New Jersey. It was extremely fun, but I do regret going ^^' It was extremely hot, the rides reminded me of BTS, the tickets were super expensive and not to mention it was the first day of Ramadhan and we were fasting. 

Not the best way to start Ramadhan, huh. 

Anyway, I suppose disregarding all that, it was fun. The most noteable rides we

went on were 'The Nitro' and this other twister-style ride. Sky-something. 

SixFlags, NJ is home to the best rollercoasters in the world, I think. It has the world's highest (and only?) vertical rollercoaster, and the Nitro. Nitro apparently is the 3rd best rollercoaster in the world, according to my mom. 

It was super scary but super fun. 

At first we were going up, up, up- overlooking the whole park- and then we were going down so fast! It felt like we were going down vertically for how light I felt. The ride was really fast and had a lot of twists and turns and ups and downs.. //sigh I just love rollercoasters <3 

The other ride was a twister kind of ride, but it brought us up ~250ft in the air, overlooking the whole park and spun us at 40 miles an hour. It was very fun as well! Afterwards we got dizzy and too hot so we decided to go home. I was asleep the way home but apparently we stopped at the Bronx (?) to get some meat and my mom really hated the place.  We all crashed when we got home amd I had a headache because of how dizzy all the rides were. 

Day 4 

Today we just drove around to almost all the iconic places. We drove through Wall Street, Queens, Fifth Avenue, went on the Brooklyn Bridge and drove to Long Island, I think. The scenery was definitely very pretty. It kind of amazed me that this was the daily life of the people that lived there. 

Day 5

Today Mom and Kakngah went to go pickup Kaklong in Chicago because she was taking just too long to get to New York already. So Dad, my other 2 siblings and I drove around the airport for most of the morning (not on purpose) and didn't go out till after Zuhr. We decided to go to the Natural History Museum. 

Unfortunately for us, when we went out it was raining, windy and cold! I regretred not bringing my umbrella. It was a struggle trying to get to the nearby subway because of how windy and cold it was >< Some locals were wearing quite short clothing, and I could only wonder how they managed. 

We had some trouble at first getting a MetroCard, and then we got into the wrong side of the subway, but eventually it was all good. It was my first time on the subway! At first I felt a little nervous, afraid something bad would happen to one of us, but the people were totally.. normal? I don't know what I was so paranoid for. The subway wasn't so bad either, save for the loud noises the trains make. 

When we went out, it was still cold, windy and rainy. In fact, it was so cold, when we blew out air, you could see our breaths! Crazy. Anyway, so we walked quite far through the streets and through Central Park, and eventually we arrived at the Natural History Museum of New York! 

My dad said it's the largest in the world. 

I don't like learning history as a subject, but I do love history museums. Everything amazed me! Well, almost everything, but we'll get to that later. 

We saw the different dinosaurs first, like the stegosaurus and the T-Rex. It's interesting to think they used to live on this Earth before we did, that they actually lived. 

Hrmm, I can't remember in order but we saw some galleries of birds (they were extremely lifelike!!) and walked through different culture's histories, like the American-Indians, the Asians, etc. To be honest, learning about the people made me sleepy. I couldn't keep my eyes open ^^'. We also saw the different animals and their habitats of the world, which was also very fascinating! 

We also went to this one place that showed exhibits about natural cycles and phenomena in the environment, saw the biggest tree stump-thing I've ever seen, and looked at the rainforest section (a very colourful and diverse section ouo). 

Weirdly, when we exited the museum it was extremely blue and sunny! Still cold, but very blue and sunny. Summer in NY is very weird, indeed. 

Overall, it was definitely interesting. 

(It was only later that I was told that they shot Night at the Museum here, by my mom. Should've guessed that when I saw the stonehenge-like object.) 

Kakngah and Mommy returned that night while I was sleeping, and they brought Kaklong with them. I was happy to see her, but it felt like she never even left. 

Day 6

Dad kept telling us how annoying it was to find parking for the car (they're always ready to hand out fines, and there're so many restrictions and it's just so much trouble), we took the sub to Battery Park instead. It was really sunny and windy! Battery Park was very pretty and green, and I managed to see the Statue of Liberty from a distance xD 

We walked for a long time, going down Fifth Avenue and Wall Street, and ended up going into this one store called Century 21, after Mom saw the 'Up to 70% off!' sign. At first I think we weren't really going to buy anything, but when we looked at all the shoes (most of them were branded!) and how cheap they were  (in comparison to their original price), we were in there for quite a while. I bought a pair of Fred Perry's, my sister Adidas, Levi and my brother Polo's. They were nice shoes xD 

Then we went to go pray Zuhr and Asr at the Islamic Centre in NYU, which had a very pretty view of Washington Square Park. 

Then we tried walking to the Empire State Building (which was ~20 streets away), but Mom got tired so we headed home. Empire State doesn't actually look that tall, to me. There's this one rectangular building (reminds my brother of a french fry) that looks taller than it. 

Day 7

For most of the morning, we drove through NYC and saw Times Square for the first time! It's a very pretty place, but too many people. We also drove past this one avenue that my dad told me is called 'Fashion Avenue'. I thought that was cool. 

Then through the afternoon and evening we drove to Connecticut to see Anastasia (!!) at night in Hartford. 

Okay, about the drive to Connecticut: it was such an amazing scenic view. Wow. The countryside of Connecticut is just so breathtaking. There were so many beautiful houses and they had such green grass and wide gardens and it was just.. !! I honestly hope that I get to experience living somewhere like that somehow, in sha allah. 

Anyway, we arrived in Hartford an hour early for the musical, and I was way too dressed-up. -.- If I had known I didn't have to change into a dress, I wouldn't have. Oh well. 

Now about the musical: It was amazing!! I loved the singing and dancing and it was just so captivating, but what really made me excited was the royal family. I just got so excited everytime they appeared, probably because their crowns and tiaras and beautiful dresses and clothing just took my breath away. And probably because I think being royalty is pretty cool <3 

I liked how there were still songs from the movie, and how they made it pretty realistic (unlike the movie) in terms that the Romanovs got overthrown by the people and government. 

The singing was all very amazing, but I didn't really enjoy the love between Dmitri and Anya like how I did in the movie. There was just no spark, no development. But I suppose they did their best, and that's good enough. 

I'd definitely try to find a chance to watch it again in the future. It's so enjoyable to watch :D 

Before we headed home, we ate at a halal restaurant nearby, called Al-Addin (I think). I had my first  slice of pizza in America xD 

Day 8 

We left quite late, and basically spent most of the day (before Iftar) at the MET. Some things bored me, some things really interested me. I also, again, was amazed at the fact that real people made the artifacts we saw- that they had the knowledge and skill even without the technology we have. I was particularly intrigued by the armoury exhibit. 

We also saw all sorts of very old and valuable art, such as by Van Gogh. 

Unfortunately for me, I don't really know how to appreciate art (like the Korean vases or most of the paintings or sculptures) so I couldn't really be amazed. Ah well, at least I got the experience x) 

That night, we ate dinner at this place called EAT as my 'birthday' dinner. Thankfully they didn't sing happy birthday to me or something. Dinner was okay. 

There was a mirror in front of me, and I could see this woman sitting next to us who kept glancing and smiling at us, as if embarrassed or something. I wanted to turn around and ask her "Yes? Do you need something?" but I reminded myself that maybe she wasn't even looking at us, or maybe she was saying something good. I didn't have the courage to do that anyway xD It still did make me annoyed that she kept glancing at us, though. 

Oh yeah! At noon today (which was 12 June back in Malaysia) I got a lot of birthday wishes which really made me happy :) Someone who wasn't my best friend wished me at 12am on the dot, which I thought was sweet. I was really

touched by all the birthday messages :3

Day 9

Happy Birthday to me! We didn't go out till after Zuhr (because I wanted to jama' at home). Our destination was Central Park, but we stopped at a Flea Market first. There were all sorts of cool things! There were very pretty pocket watches, hats, clothes, cute jewellery, etc. 

Eventually I didn't want to deal with the heat outside, so my sister and I went into Barnes' and Nobles. (I love browsing bookstores) I enjoyed looking at the stationery and books and little gifts. Eventually my whole family came in and they started choosing stuff they wanted. I

bought a Dr Who kit for a friend who wanted it. Kaklang took a long time, so we had to wait for her. 

Eventually we walked to Central Park because Mom wanted to see the Bow (?) Bridge and this other thing. Apparently Enchanted was filmed at the Bow Bridge, so that was interesting. The park was extremely pretty! A lot of lush, green trees and a very pretty scenery of the lake. Along the way, my sister, my Dad and I had to wait for my other siblings and my mom who were taking a looongg time to catch up with us. Eventually I managed to grab my 2 siblings and we just left my sister and my mom to catch up with us later. 

We took a lot of pictures on the bow bridge, and the scenery from it (it overlooked the lake) was gorgeous. At one point, as I walked towards my family who was standing at the end of the bridge, they started singing happy birthday to me. It was a surprise 'birthday celebration' xD I was very touched to say the least. They handed me a card, my sisters gave me a necklace (I'm going to try to wear it often) and my mom got me a Japanese calligraphy of my name in Kanji! (Nice, right?) 

My mom told me that my birthday present was 'going to Japan', which I honestly can't believe. I'm blessed to have such sweet parents who are supportive of the things I like x) <3 

I think it just might become a family holiday in the end, though xD 

Day 10 

In the late morning, we sent Kaklong off to India. Then, we drove to the New York Centre of Art Supplies to get, obviously, art supplies for Kakngah. Then, at Kaklang's request we went into Grand Central Station (which indeed, had a very pretty ceiling). It felt very posh. 

Then Mom wanted to see the Nanny's house, so we did that. 

Day 11 

We spent most of the morning packing and cleaning out the kitchen, then left to do Mom's 'errands'. We stopped to do some last-minute shopping in Bloomingdale's, and I bought trackpants, cool sunglasses and a cool watch. The mall was like an American version of Alamanda. 

Then we stayed at an airport inn while waiting for our flight, and left NY at around one in the morning. We arrived in Dubai at around maghrib, booked another hotel while waiting, and now we're on the plane home. 

The trip to not only NY, but New Jersey and Connecticut as well, has been fun. I thought that there'd be anyone who'd tell us we were terrorists or pickpocket us (which is why I was scared to come at first) but the people in America have proved me wrong. They've been so nice to us! It was great :D 

In sha allah I'll get to visit the US again someday. 

This marks the end of my vacation to New York. 

End: 10.45am