The whirlwind tour of the world has officially come to an end. I arrived back in Los Angeles last Wednesday, happy to be back, and feeling accomplished in all that I experienced throughout the past 7.5 months. It felt amazing to walk through the airport at LAX, anticipating the reunion with my parents...to think, it was months ago that I was in the same airport on my way to Vietnam for the first leg of my trip. The first things I enjoyed on my first day home were seeing my parents, grabbing an IN-N-OUT burger, finally having clean laundry, and listening to music in decent speakers in my room.
I had a wonderful homecoming in New York before Christmas, where I spent a little over 2 weeks at my friends' apartment in Brooklyn. I think I was just happy to be in a comfortable and familiar environment, that I really didn't take the time to sight see. We went to Soho almost every other day to have a meal or go window shopping during the Christmas and New Year season. I decided to cook a Christmas dinner for the boys in Brooklyn. One of the dishes was a "Hungarian Mushroom Soup" that I found a recipe for online. It required 2 cups of chicken broth, but I ended up added 2 cups of chicken boullion...which ended up destroying the soup, making it inedible, unless you wanted to develop kidney stones while drinking the salty "soup." Cooking just isn't really my thing...
New Years was spent with my friend EJ at Times Square. We didn't want to camp out in the wee hours of New Years Eve to get a good spot, so we took the subway to the side streets a couple blocks west of the ball. There was no way to get closer since all the streets were cordoned off, and we couldn't walk further away from the ball because once we left a zone, we would not be able to reenter. We spent the 2 hours walking around the block numerous times to keep warm. Luckily, the weather in the city wasn't too cold, despite it being Winter. In the end, we were able to see the ball for about a minute, but once the countdown started and the ball dropped, it was blocked by the buildings around it. It was anticlimactic, but still something I could cross off my bucket list.
After New York, was a one week trip to San Francisco to see some of my other friends before heading back home. It was the last stop on my tour, and immediately entering the city, I already felt like a stranger, even though I'd been to the city numerous times in the past. All that changed once I saw everyone at random points throughout my stay. San Francisco and New York, two beautiful cities I wouldn't mind spending a couple years working and living in...
I had a wonderful homecoming in New York before Christmas, where I spent a little over 2 weeks at my friends' apartment in Brooklyn. I think I was just happy to be in a comfortable and familiar environment, that I really didn't take the time to sight see. We went to Soho almost every other day to have a meal or go window shopping during the Christmas and New Year season. I decided to cook a Christmas dinner for the boys in Brooklyn. One of the dishes was a "Hungarian Mushroom Soup" that I found a recipe for online. It required 2 cups of chicken broth, but I ended up added 2 cups of chicken boullion...which ended up destroying the soup, making it inedible, unless you wanted to develop kidney stones while drinking the salty "soup." Cooking just isn't really my thing...
New Years was spent with my friend EJ at Times Square. We didn't want to camp out in the wee hours of New Years Eve to get a good spot, so we took the subway to the side streets a couple blocks west of the ball. There was no way to get closer since all the streets were cordoned off, and we couldn't walk further away from the ball because once we left a zone, we would not be able to reenter. We spent the 2 hours walking around the block numerous times to keep warm. Luckily, the weather in the city wasn't too cold, despite it being Winter. In the end, we were able to see the ball for about a minute, but once the countdown started and the ball dropped, it was blocked by the buildings around it. It was anticlimactic, but still something I could cross off my bucket list.
After New York, was a one week trip to San Francisco to see some of my other friends before heading back home. It was the last stop on my tour, and immediately entering the city, I already felt like a stranger, even though I'd been to the city numerous times in the past. All that changed once I saw everyone at random points throughout my stay. San Francisco and New York, two beautiful cities I wouldn't mind spending a couple years working and living in...
