A little history of how I became a bookworm:

When I was young (like, elementary young), I was NEVER a fan of reading and books. The school I went to had this requirement to borrow at least 10 books from the library for the whole academic year, and just to accomplish this requirement, I would borrow books but I'd never read them. One time, I borrowed a book and I really didn't care what it was all about, I just picked something up from the shelf. When I handed it to the librarian to check it out, she looked at me like I had something disgusting on my face. It turns out, the book I borrowed was something you would read to a toddler, and not something an elementary student would read! Lol. From then on, I picked books more carefully but I still don't read them. One day in fourth grade, I saw a classmate of mine reading a Barbie novel (a legit small hardcover book). I borrowed it from her although I'm not sure if I ever read it or just scanned through it and stopped at pages with drawings. And like the Barbie fan that I was back then, I asked my mom to buy me one. And that was probably the first book I ever read in my entire life. After that, I found a website for kids where you can read a book online. I started reading Camp Confidential and when I was done with it, I was proud of myself because I finished reading a book that didn't have any drawings in it. But after that, I didn't really continue on reading until the sixth grade when my best friend then influenced me that reading was fun. And indeed, it was. I started borrowing Sweet Valley Twins books and Nancy Drew books and I got hooked. From then on, I never worried about the yearly library requirement anymore because I was already always borrowing one after another and I expanded my genre. I started reading Sweet Valley High and Mary Higgins Clark in high school and eventually started Harry Potter in my senior year of high school. And that's pretty much how I got hooked on reading books, mostly novels/fiction.

Anyway, going back to the main topic, here are the books I would want to read all over again if I had the time.

Manhattan Skyline, Photo by Julia Louisa

"New Yooork! Concrete jungle where dreams are made of..."

Dec. 27, 2015    

At last, I was finally going to New York! The night before my flight, my aunt and her son and our grandpa went out to see the newest sequel of the Star Wars series and I just had to mention that because that, my friends was the last movie I saw in 2015. Oh, I know why I mentioned that. Because it ended late, and I still had to wake up very early next morning for my flight to New York. At 6 in the morning, my aunt I were already on our way to the airport. It didn't look like 6 am at all, it was still dark and there was no sign of the sunrise. By 7am, I was already checked in and was bidding my farewell to my aunt, who I'll be seeing again in a month. Have I ever told you that I really like the airport in West Palm Beach? Yes, it's the friendliest airport I've ever been in and waiting for my flight was not boring at all because of my view of the sunrise (yep, the sun rises at around 7 in the morning). I also video-called my high school friends, who were having so much fun at our christmas party without me(huhu), my best friend, and my parents, to update them about my whereabouts. The 2-3 hours flight to New York was kind of tiring, I don't remember what I did to beat the boredom. I probably slept.

The first thing I ate in New York? Thai food! LOL. My tita and I had lunch at a thai place just near her apartment. After lunch and settling my bags in her apartment, she took me to somewhere between 5th Ave and 6th Ave to buy some gifts for her colleagues. That meant riding the subway. My first subway ride was... normal. LOL. Anyway, we went to the Hillsong church in Times Square after, and you could really tell that I was a tourist. I had my head turning in different directions, there were so many lights... every where. And there were a LOT of people, tourists like me, I suppose, it's crazy! But we made it to the church, even though we kind of got lost for 15 minutes. Before heading home, we stopped by the famous Grand Central Station, where she showed me the whispering arch and its magical wonders. Basically, there are four archways where you and one person stand at opposite ends of the archway and when you talk (normally, no need to shout), the person on the other end hears what you're saying. It's either science, or the wizards from the Harry Potter universe decided to give New York this kind of magic out of generosity. I think it's the latter. My tita also bought mini (yes, MINI) cupcakes from Baked by Melissa for me to try. It's the cutest little thing ever.

Th next day was a Monday so my tita had to go to work. I stayed in all day until my tita got home from work. We had our nails done (naks naman) and had Chinese food for dinner. Can I just say that the Chinese food here is the bomb(dotcom)? The day after, my tita gave me a mission (i.e. errands) to complete. LOL. So while she was at work, I went to Barnes & Noble, which was 13 blocks from her apartment (Of course I googled the place before I went out, duh). I could just ride the subway, but I didn't trust myself yet so I opted to walk 13 blocks! Hey, at least I got to exercise. I survived the walk! Yay me! Of course it took me hours before I left the bookstore, I went looking around for books and cute stuff. There was an H&M store beside it so I went and looked inside too. I got home just before four and here is a picture of me, proud of myself for surviving  the streets of Manhattan...






I can't remember what I did the next day so let's skip that. On the 31st, my tita showed me how to get to the hospital where she's working for me to know how to get there in a few hours because we'll be flying to Las Vegas in the evening for New Year's.

Fast forward to 2016! We got back from Las Vegas on the 3rd of January. The next two days, I did some errands for my tita. By now, you can already tell that I'm her slave. Haha, I'm just kidding! So on the 6th of January, I had already communicated with my aunts in Connecticut about my second visit to their state, so my tita showed me how to ride the Subway to get to the Grand Central Station, where I'll be taking the train to Connecticut, and bought me a ticket. So the next day, I tried going to Times Square... ALONE. Yes, that meant riding the subway alone and figuring out the subway trains alone. But I survived my first subway ride alone! Well, I also had help from google maps, and the Manhattan Subway had helpful signs. I was going to a particular store but when I got out from the station, I didn't know if I should take the left or the right to get to the store. But I trusted my instincts and went to my right... and I was right! I got to the store, bought a few things, went out, admired Times Square in daylight with less people, took a few photos and videos, and went back to Grand Central Station to go back to my tita's apartment. Of course, I had to take a few photos of the place before heading back. I got home satisfied with the photos that I took, even though it didn't have me in it, lol.




The next day was my train ride to Connecticut. Again, I went to the station alone and had to find my train alone.

I think I'll end the part one here. It's been just a few days in the big city, but I already had so much fun walking the streets, riding the subway, admiring the architecture and running errands for tita. I am truly blessed and I'll be forever grateful for my tita for showing me around.

Watch out for the part two of this duology. The adventures are as fun as the adventures that I had here in part one. *wink*