Josh Kim dot Org

Our family hasn’t gone on a trip like this since… well, the last time we moved. When we packed our bags and left California for my current city of residence on all my legal papers, Ohio, we were going on an eight day journey, filled with wonderful sights and places to visit.

[Tangent: I realize now... that the places I've been and the things I've seen are kinda biased to the nature. I think it's because my dad enjoys the mountains and nature in general... hmm.]

Little did I remember what I actually did on the trip. We have pictures to commemorate what happened, and I have all these postcards and doodads from places we’ve been, but I didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have. I remember sleeping a lot.

However, I’m still extremely thankful I had that journey. Sequoia, Yellowstone, Arches, Mount Rushmore… I think those were the big sights.

This Thanksgiving, I think I got a feel for some of those missed experiences. I had the privilege of driving most of the trip, which would help me understand how incredibly ginormous this country is. This was one aspect of travel that I didn’t know until I was behind the wheel.

I’m used to driving long distances, back and forth from Champaign to Cincinnati (Number FOUR since the school year began), and so this isn’t a big deal. But I still dread the fact that I have to drive for 4 hours straight. After this Thanksgiving trip, a couple hundred miles seems like nothing. That, and driving in Chicago. More on this later.

For this trip, I drove from east of the Pennsylvanian border to Philadelphia, which was an exciting 3 hour trip. There was fog, it was raining slightly, and it was a mountain road. Man, was this stressful in an SUV with 6 people in the back. I never had to hold on so tightly on the wheel to make sure that everyone didn’t feel sharp turns I was making at breakneck speeds… I wasn’t driving too fast, but I guess I wasn’t comfortable with the Ford Explorer and the high center of gravity.

After a short meal with my grandparents, uncle’s, and aunt’s family on my mom’s side, we went to sleep, for it would be a long day in NYC on Friday.

I drove from Philly through NJ by the way of the Turnpike (the worst exit numbering scheme ever… why don’t they just do it with the mile numbers…) and then headed into one of the busiest traffic I’ve ever faced. Now, it was the day after Thanksgiving, and NYC didn’t have as many people working, it was still insanity. Taxi cab drivers… actually, NYC taxi cab drivers… are pretty amazing people. They really are skilled at getting you to places really fast… I guess I just needed to adapt. I don’t even remember the incidents where I felt like I was out of place when it came to driving… This might just be because I’m really tired, and just want to get done with this entry…

Moving on from the subject of traffic, I got to see how the streets were laid out in Manhattan. I loved how there was SOME sanity to it all. Street numbers decreasing as I went south, and alternating streets would be alternating one-way’s. Streets in the ones were the streets that would go North and South (except for 4th… I don’t know… it was 5th, then 3 random street names, Lexington… something and something, and then 3rd), while the ones above 10 (I think… I never hit 10th street… if I remember correctly) were the ones that would go East and West.

Broadway. Wow. This street is HUGE. I think it was a five lane one way going south bound where 7th and Broadway met… TIMES SQUARE, which caught me by surprise, is where these two streets meet.

So what did we actually do in NYC. We just drove around to a lot of places, since parking wasn’t really an option. First was Central Park… and all I could remember was Home Alone 2. This park is gigantic… it covers tens of streets, if I remember correctly. How is it possible… that this park even exists… Then to the “MET”, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (just the outside… I guess it just looked pretty enough for a photo stop). Then the obligatory stop at the Apple Store on 5th avenue, while the Today Show was being filmed at that moment. Then to Korea Town, where we picked up some nice 김밥 (Kimbap) from this tiny, tiny store. Then to ground zero. Then getting lost a little bit, but finding our way back through my superior navigating skills and the usage of the sun (little did I know, the car actually has a built in compass… boo… taking the fun out of everything), and then going for the Harbor Cruise to see the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge. Finally, giving up on visiting Empire State Building as well as NYU due to some heavy traffic, and getting the crap out of Manhattan as fast as possible. We even gave up on visiting Princeton because it was getting late. I have pictures, but I wonder if I’ll have time to put them up.

Screw this, I’m making this a two parter. I’ll write what happened on Saturday later.

But no… I didn’t. Freaking.

*Used without permission from Alex Argo.

Man… I should have wrote this earlier… like the NIGHT after it came out… but here it goes. (But I ended up just posting it because I got sick and tired of see this post unfinished…) After a nice meeting for Alex Argo went to watch the OSU Michigan game at Raj’s apartment, with the Dan Janoside. Let me tell you, that game was indeed over, just like Dan and I had predicted before the game had even started. James, a long time hard core Michigan fan (as long as I can remember… his old room still is filled with Michigan paraphernalia), was sad after the game was over. However, this probably passed him by quickly since it would be… Wii Day.

[Sidenote: 5 large pizzas for $30 isn't a bad deal, but it is when you end up eating only 3 slices and pay for a 1/3 of it while someone else ahemJames*ahem freeloads like crazy]

I wasn’t really too sure about buying another game console. I mean, it’s true my bankroll is a bit tight, but I really don’t feel like shelling out $250, and an additional $50 for a game (which would be Twilight Princess for sure). I don’t know, maybe I’m getting older… Regardless, I wanted to be in on the fun.

I remember for Gamecube launch day, Argo and I went in without a preorder… Meijer was unlucky, so we went to a lonely GameStop and we picked two up. The two last ones. This time, though, things would be a little bit harder.

Dan, Argo, James, and I all met at the Cin-day Wal-mart to see how they were doing with the Wii. There was a nice line at the Gardening section. We decided to split up, with Alex and Dan hitting Tri-County Mall, the largest mall in the close proximity to us, while James and I drove around in the outskirts of Hamilton and Mason. From what I hear on the phone, Sears, Toys ‘R Us, Wal-Mart, EB Games, GameStop… blah blah blah… all were out, or had people waiting. It was the same story for us, as we went to two separate Wal-Marts, EB Games (there was a Wii just sitting there… but it was for demo purposes… I wanted to jack it), Best Buy, Target… blah blah blah… all the same story.

One Wal-Mart had a list for 33 Wii’s, but they lost the list. There were less than 33 people in line outside, but I was told that some of the people on the list could be in the story. I had a feeling chaos would ensue here, so this place would be our best bet.

In the end, we went back to Wal-Mart, slightly miffed but not defeated, we tried the Target at my house. Target wasn’t doing a midnight lauch, but a launch at their opening time, 8 AM. The one by my place had NO ONE in line for that 8 AM launch. We were thinking about buying a tent just to use for the night, and then return it the next day. In the end, James borrowed a tent from a neighbor, and Argo and James stayed the night. I had to do an errand run for James (and realized then and there how much closer my house is now to James’s… and I didn’t know that our house was actually in the Lakota East district…).

I went to sleep promptly, and didn’t even return for the launch. After church, James wanted me to go over. I saw the system in all it’s glory… on the little TV upstairs. Sad… I thought he would have set it up on the honkin’ huge projection TV downstairs. Meh.

Wii Sports. Great. Zelda. Even greater. All amazing gameplay, just like I expected… and more.

If only I could get pictures working on this blog…