Martin Luther King Day

Guess I knew who Martin Luther King was, but I never really knew much about him until it was Martin Luther King Day today and I felt I should take a moment to understand this man who gave me my 1 day holiday break. :)

Part of doing so meant exploring Harlem, and I used the internet to search for some famous landmarks that should put me on the right track... At the subway station, this series of Diesel ads caught my eye and I couldn't help stopping to look at them:

Being stupid is cool. How's that for a change?

I managed to find my way to Harlem and was a little apprehensive initially given how people have told me "it's a rough neighborhood...make sure you go there with a friend". But how to have a friend when I've just moved to NYC? Actually I have tried my best to make friends from all sort of channels but none have materialized - hai... Just got to let go, let flow. Sometimes it makes me wonder if there's anything wrong with me - I think I'm a fairly interesting person with a fairly good personality... but.... where are my friends??? Guess this is just part of having to contend with being overseas and moving every so often. The roots of such a tree never grow deep.

Oh, this brings to mind something I have been thinking about a lot today... I think there's a lot of wisdom in the following 2010 goals:

• Heart to heart
• Purity of heart
• Guarding your heart
• Having a heart

Anyway..I've digressed. Here are some of Harlem's landmarks - the Apollo Theater, Lenox Lounge and then there's Blumstein where Martin Luther King was nearly assassinated... but nobody seems to know where that is...

I also had my life's first SOUL FOOD today. Now I finally know what's Soul food, and what's Soul music. Soul food = food eaten by African Americans in the south. :) Turns out to be a bunch of oily fried stuff... but well, I justify the calories by the new experience!

Interestingly, my subway line connected to the Museum of Natural History and I decided to hop off and check the museum out. It was afterall, part of my 6 hours of planning over the weekend of where to go, what to eat and things I want to explore in NYC within the month that I'm here. FYI- food is high on my priority list! I now have my own list of the TOP EATING SPOTS in NYC! :) Ask me if you'd like that list! :)


Again, by coincidence, the subway I have to take to get home makes a connection at Times Square...so I got off and bought my Broadway tickets to Lion King (click for video) and In The Heights (click for video)! :)

I thought it was funny to see the T-Rex in Toys'R'us when I've just seen its genuine predecessors at the Natural History Museum... LOL :) It was an unexpectedly good day, and this post has also taken unexpectedly long to create & post... I've gotta cut down Facebook and blogging time to start concentrating on CFA studying which starts TODAY!!!