a) I finally found my memory card during the weekend! Yay :) b) As it turns out, there weren't that many outstanding photos to process when it came to the Museum of Natural History. Hmmm guess I just lost mental count of my photos lol. 

No (natural) historic museum is complete without dinosaur fossils! What I liked about the displays was that they organized the fossils and other related artifacts by their evolutionary taxonomy, so that as you progress further into the museum, you can see how each species has gradually changed. 

We went to the Guggenheim afterwards, walking through Central Park once more. Unfortunately, the weird sensation I felt near my heel back at the Museum of Natural History worsened, and I had no choice but limp all the way throughout to ease the pain. It's funny, the last time I went to NYC, my left calf got overworked with all that walking (causing me to limp) and now it's my heel. *sigh*

I wasn't allowed to take photos of the artwork at the museum, but I at least got to take a photo of the exhibit title, haha. This brought me back to my university days when I had to study about the history of graphic design, in which a brief chapter was based on Italian Futurism. There were some artists that I instantly recognized, and some I had not come across until then. The exhibit allowed me to learn more about the movement itself, as I was exposed to art I had not seen while I was studying about that era, or some of the visual poetry that was popular at that time. 

My boyfriend and I split up after the museum — since I was still in pain and we still needed to grab our luggage from the hotel, I headed to Totto Ramen for dinner right away while my boyfriend headed back to the hotel. We would've had to wait even longer if I went along with him, as I already had to sign up as part of the waiting list when I arrived alone. The cramped space, structure and surroundings of Totto Ramen reminded me a lot of Toronto, since most of the places I went to had limited space too.

Once we were seated, we looked at the menu. I was excited to see that they had seasoned avocado as a topping you could add to your ramen, so I ordered it right away. I had the Totto Chicken Paitan Ramen, less salt, with seasoned boiled egg as well. My boyfriend ordered the Mega Ramen, while his friend ordered the Totto Spicy Ramen.

The seasoned avocado came out saltier than I expected, mostly because of the sauce they marinated it in. I was a tad bit disappointed in that aspect, but that was the only source of disappointment. The noodles were on point with no funky after taste, they had a good supply of meat without my having to order extra toppings. The meat itself wasn't the best, though I'm more lenient about that than my boyfriend would be. It doesn't quite melt in your mouth like Santouka back home, but it's still soft and chewy enough to be enjoyable. My boyfriend's Mega Ramen was huge! The amount satiated him and more, which was good. He even had meat to share among us as he didn't realize he would have enough to begin with (he ordered extra meat). Overall, I enjoyed it and would consider this a good place to go to for value and quality. It doesn't beat Santouka, but it's pretty up there still.

When dinner was done, we made our way back to the underground bus terminal near the subway where we first stepped foot onto NYC. We talked as a group as we waited, and finally parted ways as we made our way back to Toronto...

AW YIS

My blog functions properly again, like it's supposed to... HOORAY :D I just wanted to throw this out there. I'll give the nerdy explanation later if anyone is interested :P

Ep. 25/Season Finale of AoT

Blurb

You know something is really wrong if your blogaway phone app can't even publish a new post remotely...

Finally, this hectic week is coming to a close, and so I shall spend some time this weekend to set this blog right. I've been having some functionality issues lately, which would require me to go back to square one (har har locals who read my blog would get my joke). So if my blog looks a little bare in the next couple of days, you know why.

And I know, some of you may be wondering where the hell the post for the last portion of my trip is, but to be honest with you, I haven't found my memory card yet (I thought I left it at work... that didn't turn out to be the case). I can easily post my experiences with the photos that I have (I'd say I have about 80% of the photo archive saved on my laptop), it's just that I tend to be a perfectionist and I feel that there are some photos I have forgotten to import and process on my laptop that would benefit your viewing experience :P

So hopefully, I a) find my memory card (not only to upload but that's 16gb worth of memory there) b) get this coding shingding worked out c) write up the last portion so that you can finally see (and also for me to be able to write other outstanding posts I've been meaning to write) the last bit of my NYC trip!

Hope you have a lovely weekend out there :)

In an ideal world, I would absolutely do this today...

NYC: Day Three Part 1

First and foremost, I apologize for the delay of this post! It's been a crazy hectic week at work and everytime I come home I either want to sleep right away or let off my steam from the day's events :( So without further ado, here is my last day of NYC...

Much like any vacation or getaway, the last day felt kind of bittersweet. I wasn’t quite ready to face work the next day, especially since I’ve been considerably more carefree the past couple of days and the weather at New York was just wonderful (that rainy day was a bit of a damper but better rainy and warm than rainy and cold right?). At the same time though, what can you do…? I’ll admit, if there’s one thing I don’t miss, it’s the griminess that gets on your skin after a whole day; it’s worse when you have oily skin. 

Anyway, we started our day a little behind schedule, opting to sleep in a bit because our previous night was even later than the first (that’s what happens when you get caught up talking to old classmates!). We went to Empanada Mama, a restaurant that serves Columbian cuisine, for breakfast. I’ve never had Columbian food before, so I was pretty excited. Plus, my Portuguese coworker was talking about empanadas a couple days before my trip. 

My boyfriend ordered an Arroz Con Pollo to share between the two of us. The dish was similar to another one in empanada form but without the hard shell on the outside. It consisted of seasoned yellow rice mixed with sofrito sauce, peas, onions, red peppers and chunks of Colombian styled boneless chicken with fried plantains on the side. I loved taking bites of the rice and accompanying them with some of the plantain, adding a twist of sweetness to the otherwise savoury dish. The food I usually have would never really have fried plantains as part of their dish, so it was refreshing to have something completely different. I think if they served a 5th plantain slice, it would’ve been even better. The ratio of rice to plantains was far in favour of rice, and while I was okay with having about 2-3 spoonfuls of just rice, an extra slice of plantain goes a long way. 

After that, my boyfriend was still hungry (surprise, surprise), so he ordered two empanadas. I wasn’t that hungry but I still wanted to try a bit, so I got a bite out of both of them. The first one he ordered was called the Brasil and it had ground beef, olives, potatoes and sautéed onions. The second one was the Cheeseburger, with ground beef and cheddar cheese inside. We both agreed that we liked the 2nd one better. I would like to think that my preference is attributed to the harmonious mix between the cheese and the meat, giving the empanada a more interesting flavour as opposed to the more bland mix of beef and potatoes. 

We made our way to Central Park next. 

It wasn't too hot, it wasn't too cold, the sun was shining and the scenery was beautiful. There were plenty of runners and cyclists that took advantage of this splendid weather, which made my boyfriend wish we made a bike rental as well. 

We then walked back near our hotel to pack up and eat at the Shake Shack nearby.

What's New York without having a hot dog? Even if it was a regular one, it suited our itinerary as we were scheduled to visit two museums afterwards, so a quick meal was good. And of course, I'd squeeze a plentiful amount of ketchup on my hot dog cause that's how I do...

Originally we planned to visit the Guggenheim first, but my boyfriend greatly underestimated the size and amount of specimens the Museum of Natural History housed. We watched the Dark Universe feature showing because both of us have/had a childhood interest in space. 

 This museum was pretty much the Royal Ontario Museum x3. We breezed through some of the exhibits because we've seen similar things before (i.e. the ecology section) but we couldn't deny our mutual fascination of geology. I used to be one of those kids who would borrow books from the library that explained the properties and history of rocks. Seriously. I loved looking at the different types of crystals and rock formations. If we weren't on such a time limit I would've spent even more time oogling and looking at the vast assortment of minerals, haha.

Stay tuned for part 2! I didn't realize until much later just how many photos I took in the Museum of Natural History (and I think I left my memory card back at work... goddamnit)...