While preparing for my exchange program at Drexel, I had the chance to connect with my friends back in high school. Unfortunately, there aren’t many colleagues left in New York as they have all graduated and are now working; I could only reach one of my friends.
On Saturday, the 13th of January, I woke up around 8 am and got ready to get on a FlixBus to New York Pennsylvania Station. Luckily, I was able to find a bus around 8 am near my dormitory. It was a 5-minute walk to the bus stop; I got on the bus and was ready for my 2-hour ride to New York. Since there was no traffic, I was able to arrive at New York Pennsylvania Station around 9:30 am. I planned to meet my friend around 1 pm, so I had around 3 hours to spend.
I headed to Macy’s shopping mall and looked around. It was so large and had a lot of stores to look at, but since it was the weekend, it took a lot of effort to get around due to the number of people. So I came out and started walking around the Time Square.
Time Square is famous for all its performances. Since BTS (a renowned K-pop artist) performed on New Year’s on the Red Stairs, I wanted to see it in real life. Unfortunately, because I went early in the morning, there weren’t any performances, and the red stairs were getting a deep cleaning so I couldn’t get a picture of them. I did manage to get a photo of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Batman and a gorilla.
After walking around the Time Square and looking at different stores, it was finally time to meet my friend. We met in front of an Italian Restaurant. The moment when I saw my friend, it felt so weird. She was all grown up but still had her face from high school. My high school was an International school from elementary to high school, so I knew almost everyone in my year, and we grew up together. So seeing her walking towards me with her company ID felt so weird!
We sat in the restaurant, ordered food, and did a lot of catching up. We talked for about 2 hours and went to the Hershey’s and M&M’s stores. Then, grabbing a cup of coffee, my friend took me to Central Park, where I saw horses and a lot of squirrels. I also saw the spot where they filmed “Gossip Girls” (my favorite childhood drama).
After a long walk in Central Park, we decided to grab some Korean food since this was the first time I haven’t had any in the past few weeks. After going to Korean Town, we got some Jeyuk Bokken (Spicy Pork Bulgogi) which was so good, I had to catch my 7:30 pm bus. I wanted to stay longer with my friend; however, it was getting late, and I needed to ride 2 hours on the bus to return to Philly.
I am still being cautious when it comes to walking around Philly late at night time. So, I only had around 5-6 hours to meet my friend that day. I needed more than 6 hours to catch up with what we had missed for five years. We made plans to meet again since she will be living in New York, and it only takes about 2 hours from Philly to New York.
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