danielle abroad: to the orient

Thursday, November 12, 2009

to the orient

Good morning beauties, hope everyone had a great night's sleep. With the aid of Nyquil, I slept a solid nine hours... take that illness that's been on the brink of taking over! Anyway, I thought I'd take a few steps back to talk more about why I went home last weekend: Chinatown.

The boy and I woke up bright and early on Saturday to head down. This neighborhood has experienced some economic damage since September 11th, and yet was still busier than ever.

While I was there, I took many pictures, but not through the eyes of a tourist. I wanted to capture some visuals for my news article which is due about a month for now.

Many people flock to the area for deals on knock-off luxury goods or authentic food.

What they don't realize is that there's also a rich and historical experience to be had in a place that had been settled by Chinese immigrants, right along the Italian immigrants (Little Italy) in the 1800s.

And it is precisely that that led me to MOCA, the Museum of Chinese in America, a sampling of the stories of Chinese and Chinese-Americans throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.

I read about it in the New York Times on September 22nd, after it's official move, and it was more fascinating than the article had described, seriously so well done. Plus, to my surprise, I actually was able to interview the assistant curator. Such a wonderful opportunity!

My enthusiasm could not mask my hunger, however, so the boy and I dropped in for some "grub" as Gloria, calls it :). Who says Chinese food has to be greasy and unhealthy? I had this vibrant plate alongside a big bowl of Miso soup.

And that's all folks :). I have a busy class day and a night of girl talk ahead of me so I'll be seeing you tomorrow, most likely with the boy since he'll be here for formal. Until then, please take a look at some other pieces I've been working on around the blogosphere: