After leaving California at 7am, we arrived in New York at around 10pm (NY time). 12 hour trip!
This city=insanity! We arrived at around 10:30pm NY time and the city was vigorous, alive, and awake! Nobody sleeps!
The city reminded me of Vietnam. Never asleep and humid by night. It smelled moist, stuffy, suffocating, and polluted. The buildings are HUGE. Think of San Francisco x5 with more space in between the streets, alleys, and buildings. Everywhere has huge advertisement flat-screen TVs, stands to sell hot dogs, candy, magazines, etc, artists waiting for tourists to pay them to draw, horse carriages, everything. About 80% of the cars are taxis! There's also ppl riding bikes as they pull a cart for you to sit in to take you anywhere! There were random groups of friends just chillin at stores, people taking pictures, ppl shopping, couples making out, the NYPD, sirens blaring and echoing throughout the whole city, and much more insanity. Surprisingly, you don't see any homeless people, and no litter. O.o Oh yeah, and stores stay open 24/7. And the first thing that I did after unpacking was take a walk in this city that never sleeps. This was my first time walking into the dead-center of Time's Square.
 
Two things NOT to do in NYC on your first visit:
1)Wear head-phones when roaming around
2)Not looking before you're crossing the streets
There are so many different languages spoken and vernaculars, that not listening would be missing out on an adventure in itself. Cars are crazy there, they make turn even as people are still crossing.
As my dad and I were walking down the street and exploring, it started raining..then pouring!. In the summer!Then there was a thunder storm. But it was humid, so the rain felt nice.
 
What more could you ask for? This was the beautiful view from the hotel room that I stayed at. No need for a clock in the room, this was my source of time! [10:37pm]
  DAY 2
I was completely jetlagged. I had to wake up at 8 (5am Ca time) to participate in a Vietnamese protest against Agent Orange. We were driven to the Asian Society Business Building in NYC to wait in front of the building for the communist Vietnamese-Americans to arrive.
As soon as they arrived, everyone screamed and held up their signs. The communists chickend out and ended up entering through the back door instead =P
Afterwards, my dad and I decided to explore the lovely city of NYC a bit more.
 
A food-stand that was in front of the NYC University.
A view from an indoor bridge of the university...
The feel of NY is much faster paced. It isn't fast, Ca is just slow. The people NY aren't laid back, but they are really nice and down-to-earth. And they don't seem as exaggerated as here.
Count down of a guy trying to beat the record of the longest distance run in 24 hrs (156miles). He didn't beat it. But good job though!
 Day 3
Most of the transportation in NY is by subway. It can get you to places miles and miles away in just literally a few minutes.
As we got off the subway, I walked into a place with writings on the walls many inspiring messages. It was very quiet, but I could feel the powerful aura of something I was not expecting to see... 
I turnd around and saw Ground Zero! What a surprise! Standing in this place, you get a tremendous sense of liberty and pride, yet sadness as why such a horrible thing could happen. This sensation that engulfed me reminded me of why I should serve this country.
We then decided to rest at a park. There was a HUGE line. Turns out, they were waiting for a ferry to take them to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We had to do it. =)
  
I wanted to go on the statue, but I learned that in order to, we had to pre-order the tickets 2 days in advance. Who woulda known?
Liberty Island view. This is the edge of New York City. Supposedly, the twin towers were to the left of the left black tower right there.
Next was Ellis Island-the island where tons of immigrants from cities everywhere in early America settled.
THE AMERICAN IMMIGRANT WALL OF HONOR:
Names of first immigrants who came to America.
My dad signed up to have his name imprinted. If you ever go to Ellis Island after September 2008, look under 'Chuong, Thu Dinh' and you will find my dad's name =)
 That night, I was journaling in the most pimped-out McDonald's I have ever seen. It had 2 stories and colorful lights! (There is literally a McDonald's on every block)
Then, as I was walking back to my hotel room, I accidentally ran into the grand-opening of NYC's Ripley's believe it or not. It was so big that only celebrities were allowed. I heard that Kelly Osborne was there. And these people:
Some buff advertisement dude Smiley from Flavor of Love
 
Dead tired, I came back to the hotel and sat in the lounge. I looked down and saw THIS.
This is a dried gum mark on the carpet. Look closely. Doesn't it look like a girl holding a bag? Creepy. Day 4
En route to continue the Vietnamese protest against Agent Orange. And where else?
Get this. Supposedly there was this hippie lady that's been camping out in front of the White House for 28 years (1979) to prove this:
While waiting for the protest to begin, I went to this cafe.
 A little bored, I walked down the street to explore. I saw a park and was curious. I kept walking and saw this
 The Washington Monument! As I went up close, I turned to my left and saw this:
 The Washington Capital. On the other side was this:
 The WWII memorial. And as I turned to my left from here, I saw a building. I was curious, so I ran for about 7 minutes, trying to avoid some major geese shit. But as I came up close, I saw this:
 Oh Abraham!
After thanking the photographer, I looked up across the steps and the geese-shit lake and saw THIS:
 WOAH.
I came back in time just for the protest to officially begin. There were groups from Virginia, Ca, NY, Pennsylvania, Texas, Oregon . Wow. They had signs, flags, shirts, megaphones. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics from my camera becaues I was too busy running around taking pics and recording for a journalist who could not make it that day. If you would like to check out the pics and article, it is in Tien Thuyet Magazine July 2007. (Or ask me for a copy)
On the ride back, stopped at New Jersey. Check out their gas prices!
More journaling at night...
 (in a nearby cafe) A wall full of guitars in the Hard Rock cafe right across the street (notice the guitar sign)
 Day 5
The reason why we came here-for the 22nd Annual International Cultural Parade held in NYC, there were countries represented from China, Mexico, Sudan, Egypt, Panama, Colombia, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, and more.
I couldn't take pics cuz I was in it!
A farewell dinner for Vietnamese participants in the parade in China-town.
  Sadly enough, this was the best graffiti that I found in NEW YORK! ='(
Left is the Manhatten Bridge. Right is the Brooklyn Bridge.
By day... By night....
 
Day 6
Supposedly they were filming a movie called "Starship Dave" with Eddie Murphy in it. This was the Camera Crew. Eddie Murphy came by later. I didn't see him.
I wanted this shirt! "The Timeless Art of Seduction" XD hahaha, but it was $25
A walk in Central Park...
The Baseball Field
My first canoeing experience!
I caught the camera crew again!
The City outside of the park...
Rockefellar Center...
 Samuel L. Jackson has a 6-pack ^_^ I shook hands with Whoopi Goldberg!!
  Ripley's Believe it or not Odditorium:
This is made completely out of pennies! Which one am I?
 
Last day in NYC
I never thought I'd do this....Appear on the Today Show!
I was holding up a sign that said "SEXY". yep, I appeared on TV =)
 
Matt loved me...
 
The Empire state building vs. my dad (I had to lay on the ground for this angle)
The Empire State Building's view at roughly 1,400 ft
Ever wondered what it looks like to fall off a building?
 And that was the last of my trip....or so I thought.
We were boarding a plane to arrive in Texas to switch to another plane. Well, the weather was rainy, story, and too dangerous for any planes to depart. Our flight was cancelled and we had to wait until the next plane ride was available. This was the line..
Our overnight stay at the airport.
It was so annoying because every 15 minutes I'd wake up hearing "ATTENTION! SMOKING IS PROHIBITED IN THE AIRPORT!" THen15 minutes later.. "ATTENCION! PROHIBE FUMAR EN EL AEROPUERTO!." God I could NOT SLEEP.
Turned out that the next available flight was tentatively the next day (Wednesday), or gauranteed Friday.
Why waste 3 good days at an airport when you could take the Greyhound and explore?
We saw Dallas, Texas (I forgot to take pics. But their burritos were hella good!)
Check out these gas prices!
 El Paso, Texas.
It looked like an ancient Mexico.
New Mexico... A sand-whirlwind or something! There were tons!
 
Hahaha! Looks like he has a blowhole XD
Arizona desert. We passed by a few hotels. Who'd want to vacation in a desert? Phoenix felt like it was over 100 degress!
 
I knew we entered California as soon as I saw the gas prices...
San Luis Obispo
  We arrived in San Jose at around 10am on Friday. What was thought to be a 7 day trip turned out to be 10! This was definately one of the best trips for me. Sorry the entry was so long but I made it the shortest that I could! Hope you enjoyed it! If you are Vietnamese and would like to see New York, I can give you the info on staying in Times Square with paid hotel rooms for a week! | 
