New York is too cold

Or so I thought as I left the house this morning at 10 for the Arsenal-Chelsea match. For some reason, my body doesn't seem to be adapting to the cold as well as I hoped, and I've had to layer on more clothes to prevent myself from freezing to death. Oh, and the match was just an occasion to spend more time with Stan, Sean and Kevin, a fellow Singaporean studying at Columbia. We headed down to a pub and had to pay friggin' cover to watch footy but considering the quality of the goals and some of the drama, I suppose it wasn't bad money. Oh, and there was the token bunch of Germans watching the Bundesliga in one corner and singing like a bunch of drunkards. At 12 in the afternoon no less.

So after watching Arsenal pretty much perform at their usual inept selves (sorry Jem, it's the truth), the Chelski 2-0 victory was undoubtedly deserved...*sigh*. Anyway, we headed to a nearby Ukrainian restaurant, only to find out that it was too crowded and thus had to head next door to another Ukrainian restaurant. Unfortunately, we found out why the next door restaurant had so much less business - personally I think the food was pretty average and for Ukrainians' sake, I hope they get better stuff to eat than what was offered. Too average, really.

We headed back to catch some very much needed sleep - especially for me. Headed down to West Village for dinner, meeting up with Becca, a fellow SMU student who is on a university-organized trip to New York. The place of choice, Pepe Verde, was a recommendation by Meghan, and to put it in her words, the place was very affordable. For those who are in the region, do check it out - good pasta for under $12, and self-service, so no need to tip. It's at 559 Hudson Street, near the stops at 14th Street. Look out for it.

So, West Village is supposed to be the Gay Central of New York. This kind of helps to explain why Joon thinks that there are way too many gay people in NYU, which is kind of next to West Village. But interestingly, for a place that's supposed to be buzzing with life, it's really kind of dead for a Sunday night, at 8pm no less. Personally, I was interested in checking out the Village Vanguard or Blue Note but those places are kind of expensive so it looks like a possibility for another night. Anyway, dinner was good and being poor students, we did what poor students do - walk down the streets of NY in search of places to go that were cheap. The final result was just sitting down at various MacDonald's and Starbucks joints, very uneventful. It was nice though to talk about all sorts of random things (you'll notice that I'm quite the yakker).

Time flies when you're in New York. I'll probably head down tomorrow to Central Park and walk around some of the museums. Chances are, more queuing for Ave Q - let's hope that works out man!

And I need more sleep (it's 4am! Argh).