Braving the Cold [or Fusion Food is Awesome] (#Blogmas: Day 29)

We woke up a bit early (though late is the norm in my family. our internal clocks were probably outta whack) around 7 am and spent the morning lazing around for a bit. Sleeping in the States is so comfortable, because it gets so cold that snuggling under the covers makes for an excellent good night's sleep. In the end, me and my sister and my Dad ventured out into the cold to get some breakfast. We stopped by this little store called Pret A Manger, and they sold the best organically grown sandwiches and stuff. They had this egg and mushroom brioche which was so on point, and even had some pretty decent miso soup.
 
 Have some adorable sculpture of reindeer.
The next few building shots were taken by my sister, Tania.
Gurl knows her angles.
This pic of my bro tying his shoe with my mom and
her high-end bag at the side looks like it belongs in
a fashion spread.
Can I just say this pic my sis took is really on point.

Rustic lamp over in the corner.
  
Eventually, though we were kinda dreading it because of the cold, we decided to put on some layers and get back on the streets of New York. Food trucks are a thing here, and so of course, we just had to try one of the best trucks out there. My brother found a truck called Korilla, which was a truck that sold a fusion between Korean and Mexican food (stay with me here, guys). You could choose between a burrito or a Cho-Sun style rice bowl (which basically means lots of veggies) and the fillings were Korean BBQ, like bulgogi with kimchi.
 

City streets and food trucks.
Heaven on wheels.
 
Though the burrito was easy to eat while walking, the rice bowls were a bit trickier. We decided to find some place to sit down and eat. Unfortunately, any park available to us was a bit of a walk away. We did, however, run into this cute little pavilion instead by the International Center of Photography (so wanted to go in there) and safe to say, we had one of the most unique lunch experience as a family. It was cold outside, so cold that our hands were freezing until we couldn't feel our fingers, not to mention it was so windy. My hair was flying everywhere and we were trying to eat this unique food truck dish (which was amazing btw strongly recommend everyone try it) and failing miserably. We laughed at ourselves and just had a good time over lunch.
 
My sister being a derp face at the pavilion.
 
Then, we spent the rest of the day basically shopping. We went to a department store to buy my Mom some new sneakers (high-tops to be exact, my mom more hip than me) and even came across this video game store. I finally found this game on the 3DS that I've been dying to get my hands on, Virtue's Last Reward. And let's just say I could die at happy at this point.
 
Also went souvenir shopping. It's a bit painful to have to think about this sort of thing, especially since I like to guilt trip myself and feel obligated to buy something for everyone (i.e. the circle of friends that my life currently revolves around, but who may most probably not even be in life much anymore in the next few years). Just save yourself the trouble and don't make any friends, because friendships are honestly so much pain, even more pain than a relationship.
 
Anyways, moving on from my pessimistic/sarcastic mood.
 
The highlight of our little shopping excursion was definitely visiting Nintendo World (yes, that is an actual thing). It's basically this huge Nintendo store in the middle of Manhattan, and they carried all the latest Nintendo consoles and games, and also some really cool official merchandise. They had a bunch of plushies, from Pokemon to Mario. They even had this little Pokémon corner, where they had 3Ds on display with the games Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire and they had these prints of Pokémon illustrations printed on canvas (idk they just looked so cool and amazing and gave me all these pokemon feels).
 
Suffice to say, I geeked out pretty badly and bought some stuff, like some gaming swag in the form of a tanktop and a t-shirt. My sis even bought these adorable plushies of baby Mario and baby Luigi.
*squeals happily* I was THIS CLOSE to buying a Pikachu plushie for myself (not sure what stop me tbh)
Nintendo World had this small exhibition showcasing
the evolution of their game consoles over the years,
from the Gameboy Color to the DS. So nostalgic.

Huge Donkey Kong display with the words
"Happy Holidays!" in the sand you can't really see.

Giant-ass Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza.
And yeah, basically my day in a nutshell. I didn't take many pictures to day, because well cold. I couldn't be bothered to take my hands out of my pockets to snap any and being in crowded stores (even as awesome as Nintendo world) makes you a bit hesitant to take photos with so many people around.
 
So far I am loving being in Manhattan and seeing what it has to offer. We're not doing the typical touristy sight-seeing thing, but I am definitely getting a feel of what it might be like to live in New York, with lots of amazing things around you in like walking distance. I kinda got a sense of being back in Singapore, which is pretty the same in the city-life, fast-paced vibe it gives, though New York is indisputably larger and more sprawling of a city.
 
Hopefully, I have many more pics and experiences to share with ya'll tomorrow.
 
'Till the next post then.
 
--Karin Novelia, Glad She Regained Feeling In Her Fingers 

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