I'm Back!

Hey look, it's July already. My birth month! Hey, that means my birthday's coming up.... *suggestive wink* Er, anyway, on with what I really wanted to say.

Whoo! NYC was great! The weather was just perfect - I'm glad all the rain finally went away. We were only down there for two days, but we got to do quite a bit. On Sunday, we went to Kinokuniya. It's this awesome Japanese bookstore that's quite large and has tons of books in Japanese and about Japan, and stuff. And the whole second floor was dedicated to stationery and manga! My, but there was a lot of manga. And all completely unreadable (for me, at least), but I was still in heaven for a little while. It could only have been better if all the books weren't all shrink-wrapped and unopenable. :P Anyway, I was quite torn between buying a big magazine with lots of pretty posters (that I could hang up in my room next year!) and getting a manga and trying to read/translate it. Which is amusing because I know next to no Japanese. But in the end I settled for the manga, and now I have some authentic Digi Charat manga! Oh, it is excellent - it's totally meant for little kids and so it's all in hiragana (which I can read!) and it's very silly. But at least it's not too hard to follow the storyline and I've got my mom to help translate, thank goodness. It's going to take me a while to get through the whole thing... Which is perfect. ^^;

So yesterday we went to Chinatown for Dim Sum (it was really really good) and then we walked over to see Ground Zero. There's not much to see - just a big fence, lots of construction workers, big hole in the ground, and 10,000 tourists (all taking pictures). Seriously though, what is there to take pictures of? All the graffiti scrawled all over the fence? The construction workers driving their trucks and backhoes around? Oh well, it's not my film. It was pretty fascinating to be in the area though; to walk through the streets, wondering how thick the ash fell there. It was especially sobering to walk by the fire station right next to our hotel. That fire station is the most annoying thing in the world - there's never a night that goes by when it doesn't have to send all its engines out, wailing at full blast (I counted 3 such episodes Sunday night). Fires just don't happen during the day - they're all at night. That's when the arsons come out of the woodwork. :P Anyway, they had a big flag with all the names of the men they lost on 9/11. Quite a few. o_o And there's a lovely little memorial garden/area with benches nearby, memorializing the men lost from that station. Kinda sobering, hm?

The rest of Monday consisted of my sisters and I wandering around Central Park (Mom went to Kinokuniya again, Dad stayed in the hotel to do work). Usually, in the park, we count dogs, but this time there was something more interesting to keep track of. Brides. Yes, you heard me right - there were married couples everywhere in the park! It was the funniest thing ever - first we watched this Asian couple out in a rowboat with the bridesmaids and stuff - the cutest thing ever. Then they left, and we eventually headed onward, grinning as we saw them getting pictures taken. Then we turned a corner, and there was another bride and groom getting pictures taken! And we looked down a side path and there was another pair! And then another bride in a white gown came out of the bathroom of the lakeside restaurant! All in all, we saw five newly-wed couples that day. In the same general area. All Asian. Beating the weekend rush, hm? I figure they were all related and decided to make one big party out of it. :P We played on the Ancient Playground a bit (well, my sisters did - I just sat down and massaged my blisters). Alissa claims that the playground has shrunk since we last saw it. ^_~

Anyway, the highlight of yesterday was going to see the Phantom of the Opera. We've seen it before, the last time we were in NYC. That's about three years ago. So we saw it again. It was fabulous, as always, though Christine was rather disappointing, and Meg was beyond annoying. Still, I loved Carlotta - she was hilarious, and Andre and Firmin made a fine, comic pair. Raul was easily the best Raul we've ever heard before - he was perfect for the part. The Phantom was interesting - he had a much deeper voice than what we've heard before. He put a lot of character into his part. It was very good, though I think he could have worked on the 'angelic' part a bit more. Still, it was a great show. I cried at the end... again. I'm such a sap. :D

Today was just the drive back. I didn't have to drive, yay! I mostly read (Princess Bride, and Digi Charat). Of course, for Digi Charat, it was mostly reading meaningless (to me) hiragana and getting the occasional explanation from Mom. ^^; Now I'm back, and it's still nice out, and Kelsey wants me to go swimming with her. Maybe I should. Maybe I will. In any case, that's enough writing for now. See you later.

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Delerium & Sarah McLachlan - Silence
Current mood: Euphoric