回京见闻之地铁与人

之前有一段时间我挺不理解为什么北京的朋友要买车,尤其是开车上班的。就北京这交通状况,非要买个车连车带人堵在路上那不是和自己过不去么?那时候我自己天天坐地铁,后来变成周末坐坐地铁,觉得好像还可以忍。

在纽约住了大半年,也是天天坐地铁,那边就没人开车上班大家都坐地铁坐的挺好。回来北京之后昨天(周六)坐了两次一号线,今天拎着些东西坐了趟五道口到朝阳门。我突然开始理解为啥要买车了,堵在路上就算慢点,舒适感可能也比坐地铁强……

北京这地铁站搞得很光鲜也还不太热,但地铁里面又热又闷。纽约是地铁站里面巨热,但车厢里面冷到你觉得冷气扑面而来那样。纽约地铁人也挺多,比北京少点但也有一趟上不去的时候,关键的区别在于:纽约地铁里即使人多,人和人之间很少有接触的,更没有推搡什么的,偶尔碰一下都要说个sorry;北京这边人稍微多点就感觉这儿碰一下那儿擦一下的,进出门挤来挤去,出站的时候也是都走得特密集,跟街上的车流风格完全一致。我觉得这个距离习惯的差异可能是因为美国人胖子太多!

周六的时候还在西单逛了逛。站在天桥上的时候下面密密麻麻的人潮真的挺壮观。我要是写Lonely Planet,对西单的介绍就是来天桥上看看这人就行了,其他的哪个国家都有。

中友和大悦城各有一个星巴克,其队伍长度和上座率完爆麦当劳KFC等一干快餐店。试图蹭wifi的我也站进长龙里,结果直到排到都没连上!只好心不甘情不愿的买了一杯。排队的时候后面俩人还交谈:“你说咋这么多人来买星巴克呢”“因为大家都有钱了呗”。说得太对了。还有一点就是外国品牌在中国的价值真是太大了,什么都是假的,牌子是真的。

买完了我还是没连上wifi。。。不能上网你开个毛的星巴克啊!

Published
Categorized as Uncategorized Tagged ,

回京见闻之四川办

跟一帮朋友去吃四川办。上学的时候老听说新疆办巴州办,貌似也都去吃了。川办应该是听过但是还真没去过。这次一去才发现就在建国门附近,住在旁边一年多都不知道……

菜做得还挺好吧,据在座两位四川人鉴定勉强可以算正宗,就是普遍偏咸。这不是本文的重点。

席间我们打算点一盘叶儿耙。一个看起来很敦厚的小姑娘服务员问“是不是要甜的”,全桌的人一起说“要咸的”。过了一会儿上了一盘,六个,三个人夹起来一尝。得,甜的。。

这事儿也没啥,也就是小姑娘糊涂点儿。我们就叫服务员过来说换了吧。旁边一个小男生服务员也过来了,两个人都表示很为难,厨房不给换什么的。到这儿已经有点2了。我们表示我们那么明确的告诉你是咸的了还搞错,凭什么不换。这时候他们居然提出我们已经吃了三个,于是最多只能换剩下的三个……而且他们还是表示不确定能不能换。

事情就此陷入僵局。两个小服务员私下嘀咕了一会儿,啥也不说就出去了……我们都愣了,也不知道这是怎么个意思。于是继续吃等人来再问。然后就有人说现在这个服务员是很难招,她们单位门口的饭店服务员都换了好几茬了,一茬比一茬差,现在这茬已经到了有点呆呆傻傻的程度了,让她怀疑是不是都是饭店给这些人下药了让他们来做服务员……

过了一会儿经理来了,居然还说不好换厨房不给换,这真nm是个厨房统治下的饭馆!然后又说我们已经把甜的吃到只剩一个了,于是只能换一个!@#$ 我们当时就很无语,说你换一个吧那就,你做得出来就行。

过了20来分钟还真上来了,明显现蒸的,一个大盘子里面孤零零一个叶儿耙。。之前剩下那个甜的他们也不拿走,到最后也没人吃就扔在那儿。

Published
Categorized as Uncategorized Tagged ,

Broadway on Broadway

We went to “Broadway on Broadway” free concert last weekend. It was a public show in Time Square, right at the cross of 46 St and Broadway. The performers are all from broadway musicals, basically one song for each show. There are more than 10 songs this year.

We arrived there 10 minutes before the show started. It was quite crowded already, and we could only stand by the TKTS glass stairs. From that place we could barely see the stage, but had to watch LCD screens all around us. The streets and audience area got much much more crowded after the show officially began, because so many passengers and tourists stopped for it. This is how it looks

<a href=”http://imgur.com/yiaSN”><img src=”http://i.imgur.com/yiaSNl.jpg” title=”Hosted by imgur.com” alt=”” /></a>

The TKTS stairs are actually a good spot to watch the show. But at first it is only open to some people. I guess they were members or bought some ticket. After the show started for about 10 minutes, the staff began to let other people in because there was still lots of space on those stairs and probably no one will buy ticket anymore. We were pretty lucky and got 2 seats :)

The show was very nice. It’s not an anytime opportunity to take a peek of lots of famous musicals on the stage. Though most performers are not wearing the costume, and the stage was not specially designed, it’s still a quite different experience to watch them there than on YouTube. I mean, much better. It’s a smart advertising way.

One of the most impressive shows that day for me was “MoTown”. It’s about to hit the stage in NYC in 2013 spring, so now it’s just a preview. The black girl singers and dancers were so energetic and vivid. It’s not easy to stay immune to their radiant performance, if possible. “Once” and “Spiderman” seem targeting teenagers. The female singer of “Scandalous” has an amazing voice. “Mamma Mia” and “Chicago” are 2 shows I watched,  which I still recommend.

Published
Categorized as Uncategorized Tagged , ,

吃热狗大赛及其他

周三独立日放假一天,去Coney Island看了有名的美国吃热狗大赛。这比赛从小就听说,现在才发现就在离家一小时地铁的地方。也不用买票,比赛就在一个比较宽阔的路口搭的台子上,下了地铁循着声音过去就是。到了那儿我拍了张照想上传,然后就发现instagram上有张几乎一样的照片。四处看了看,在左边两米的地方发现师弟一位。。

这比赛在美国相当受欢迎。现场观众怎么也有几千人,ESPN还有转播。同事扯淡的时候张口就说出了这比赛纪录保持者的名字,就好像提到的是乔丹这样的体育明星一样。我觉得可能是因为这比赛够平民够无脑,虽然据说ESPN的解说还会煞有介事的分析参赛选手的技术要领。

今年男女夺冠的都是蝉联冠军,悬念不大。比赛是十分钟,男的冠军吃了68个热狗,女的吃了45个。基本上前五分钟还有人能勉强跟上他们,后五分钟差距就拉开了。这些人吃的时候还是有些小技巧的,有些人是沾湿了吃,有些是捏碎了吃,还有些人会小跳貌似要把东西颠下去。大部分选手的吃相是很努力甚至有点痛苦的,尤其是吃68个的奇人Chestnut。有点意外的是这个决赛的选手几乎没有很胖的,前几名都很苗条。难以想象那么多热狗是怎么装进去的。

这个比赛是Nathan’s Famous办的,结束之后立刻就有无数人去买这个店的热狗吃。我们在附近惊奇的发现一家Grimaldi’s,就是Brooklyn很有名的那个pizza。吃了一下之后不得不说和桥下那家总店味道差距很明显。

Published
Categorized as Uncategorized Tagged ,

Breakneck Ridge, Again

Went to Breakneck Ridge to hike again this Saturday with lots of friends (7 people in total). It’s almost an exact replicate of my one-man hike 1.5 years ago: Breakneck Ridge loop => Little Stony Point => Cold Spring. The difference is we took a smaller loop this time, and had some drinks in Cold Spring.

The fun part of Breakneck Ridge is at the beginning. The first 0.5~1 hours, depending on how fast you hike, can be pretty challenging for people who don’t hike often. After that there are many trail choices, and you can plan a loop of almost any length. This time the 7 of us split to 3 groups: riki couple was really fast and went ahead a lot; Jack/Sharon/Xiang took photos and fell in the middle; xw and I were really slow and took the shortest possible loop…

Little Stony Point park has small beaches. It’s warmer this time so we hang out there for a while. Most of my photos on Instagram of this trip were from here.

The whole team rendezvoused at a French restaurant in Cold Spring. It’s an interesting feeling to walk into this beautiful town after 1.5 years. I saw those nice buildings, yards, bench by the river which had been so clear in my memory stayed exactly the same, only the season changed. Such a quite and timeless town.

It was actually my dream to revisit all these beautiful places I had been in US with xw again. Breakneck Ridge and Cold Spring are the first step!