Two days after I turned 21, I flew out to Newark, New Jersey. Here I met my cousin "Michelle" at the
airport, who escorted me to her home in Manhattan, New York.
I chose New York to celebrate the "rush of diverse cultural art," and to visit my cousin. New York reminds me of San Francisco, except bigger, more crowded, dirtier, and more to do.
Before my trip, my dad was telling me how he heard that a lot of people in New York are rude lol. After one week of visiting there, I kind of know what he's talking about. Not everyone is rude lol, but many are. I observed that a lot of people looked mad while working their jobs.
While rushing through the streets of New York, you feel the adrenaline rush, there is so much energy from all around you, everyone is in a rush and constantly on the go, so much ambition and drive, no one has time to stop for bs. This is what I love about the metropolitan city.
The first day I arrived, my cousin got us tickets to the Jimmy Fallon Show! It was so fun kicking it off the night with comedy, behind the scenes of broadcasting journalism, and hip-hop. I was so excited to see his band "The Roots," I love them!
Mich and I in front of Radio City Hall.
Toasting it up with Mich's homeboys after the show, they are hilarious!
Meet Marques, Michelle's old co-worker, he is an art director for Skittles. Here he is with the beer sampler, they look like jumbo shots lol.
Times Square reminds me of Vegas, all of the bright lights flashy ads.
Where the New Years, ball drop, countdown is held. This was interesting to see in person finally, I always see it on television or movies.
I love urban art.
Mich and I in Soho, omg my favorite. Soho is the art community with cute boutiques and fun restaurants. I love it so much that we went there twice during my stay lol.
So much to choose from....
I love her.
She took me to a delicious Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown.
Little Italy Fair, when we were walking through here, the various aromas where captivating! There was cute out door restaurants, games, booths, and scrumptious Italian food, drinks, and deserts for cheap!
The various flavors of Cannoli...
The desert was so yummy!
Brooklyn Bridge
The first tallest building to the left of the tall building in the background, is the World trade center.
You can see it here again...
Mich and I finally got a picture together on the bridge, the guy I asked before the one who took this one, said "no" when I asked him a couple times if he can take our picture, me and my cousin just laughed lol.
Right after we finished walking the Brooklyn Bridge, we could see this pretty sign hanging on one of the buildings "DUMBO," my cousin told me that it stands for Down Under the Manhattan Brooklyn Underpass.
omg...Brooklyn Pizza, I can't even explain it, its more then great lol, my cousin kept checkin on me and asked why I was so quite lol. The pizza was so good, I couldn't even talk, I was so busy savoring each bite lol.
World Trade Center under construction.
This is Shareen's Closet, Mich's fave underground, vintage store. Shareen is a famous fashion designer and has her own reality fashionista dress show.
Mich introduced me to Gyro, which is like a salad on top of beef wrapped with pita bread.
She invited me to her job's networking party, booze cruise event, such a marvelous experience to see the city lights and views of ny at night.
A picture with the bar tender of the booze cruise lol.
World Trade Center lit up at night, gorgeous
Mich and I with Connie she is so sweet! She works in marketing for GameStop, so cool.
My mom asked if I purposely took this picture like this lol. Mich and I tried like 50 times, but couldn't get a still picture, due to the boat moving lol.
Mich introduced me to some of her co-workers, they are so fun!
Lol I bought this Cheetah umbrella, and only had it to escort me to a restaurant. There they make you leave your umbrella in the front. After we were finished eating, we went to go get our umbrellas and my umbrella was gone! Instead of stressing off the stolen item, I just laughed it off. We don't have time to worry about that...plus I can always get a new one. I ended up using the left over cheetah umbrella holder I had, and cut it up and turn it into a luggage tag....turn negative into positive.
I forgot what this place was called, but the mussels were amazing, reminds me of the bay's original "Cioppino."
At my cousins apartment, for breakfast I usually ate natural Greek Yogurt with granola, banana nuts and honey.
Grand Central's ceiling...
The clock in the background is so classic.
view from the stairs...
artsy glass pendants
We had to do a Little Italy fair round number two lol.
Italian sausage, taste beautiful lol.
The art is so unique.
I love the poetic decor!
cheers to poetry
In Nolita...which stands for North of Little Italy.
Manhattan street fair, instead of shopping we ate the whole time, round after round lol. The booths had good deals on cultural food, it was hard to stop lol.
Music melodies in Central Park.
Belvedere Castle
Romeo and Juliet
Skyline
She said this castle was featured in the Sex and the City movie, fabulous.
Serendipity is a famous, classy ice cream parlor and restaurant. I love the movie too btw, one of my favorites!
Lost in thought in the signature frozen, hot chocolate.
October's Spot Light: Michelle Agpoon
Michelle Agpoon is my first cousin from my dad's side of the family. When I was younger she used to baby sit me and her younger brother during the summer, back in the bay. My dad used to drop me off so early in the morning, before he would go to work. Michelle was always the type who can go on sleeping for a long time lol.
I used to arrive in the morning, and go straight to her room (where she was sleeping of course) and grab her tennis racket to use as a microphone to sing Spice Girls and Britney Spears in front of her mirror lol. I would do this until she woke up. Its crazy how time flies by so fast, and now we are both grown, she's in New York and I'm in Hawaii.
I admire her so much, she is naturally beautiful, she doesn't even need make-up. Her personality is like one tough cookie, blunt in a good way, she is a true New Yorker. On my last night at Serendipity, she noticed how I always said "thank you" to the waiters and said to me "Deanna you are too nice for New York." I agree with her, in order to survive, rise, and live in New York one must have an attitude like hers, or else you will get knocked down in the concrete jungle.
Michelle inspires me so much. She attended San Jose State University and majored in Marketing. She also studied abroad in Thailand (she's the one who bought me the Thai earrings I am wearing in the Universal Lush photo shoot). After she graduated from college she went straight to New York and has rose in marketing since. She started off buying commercial spots in television, then got promoted to selling the commercial spots.
She now currently works for Carat Agency as a national broadcast buying supervisor for Disney Resort. She is only 27 years old, and continues to rise young, independent, and successful. I love her so much!
A solo photo of Mich at the Brooklyn/ Manhattan look out, I love her cute style.
I'll always be her baby cousin <3. I love how in the background you can see the words "Manhattan, Up, and Beautiful." Michelle's beauty rises up in Manhattan.
The World really is small after all! Last year Michelle attended a television networking party in New York and the cast of Hawaii 5-0 was there! (I see them randomly sometimes through out Honolulu, filming at my friends apartments lol) Anyways, Michelle has an exotic beauty, and is highly attractive, she caught handsome, Alex O'loughin's(the main character in Hawaii 5-0 and plays Jennifer Lopez's love interest in my favorite movie The Back-up Plan) eye lol. Here are some pictures of her and the cast from the party, and a picture she took of him while he took a picture of her lol. Hopefully serendipity will re-unite these two together when she comes to visit me in Hawaii next year!
Overall I had such a lovely experience, I love New York, and already know I will be back for round two lol. I have my cousin to thank for hosting me. Thank you so much Michelle I love you!
New York, Michelle, and I don't have time for bs, and so shouldn't you,
Deanna
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