Sunday: Lower East Side, Chinatown, Little Italy

Sunday I explored the area around the old lower-class district in the city. Lots of tenements, merging into a small immigrant jewish neighborhood, a large chinatown district, and a tiny tiny but very cool little Italy that seems to be shrinking as chinatown invades. It was funky: cross a street, move from chinatown to italy, turn a corner, back in chinatown. cross the next block and you're back in italy. From this trip now I know where to get the best knishes, corned beef on rye, or pastrami in New York. But I didn't actually eat there yet, I noshed all day on things I picked up in Chinatown. And pickles.

Coolest things: (1) watching people (and watching people watch people) play Shogi in a park (chinese chess). (2) See places were famous gang wars and gang ambushes took place, including a street with a nasty turn known as bloody angle (based upon the number of gangsters killed there by each other). (3) I tried to go to a place called the wall of democracy (in chinatown) that has postings of lots of articles on the situation in china. But I couldn't find it. It looked like the building that all the postings were on the wall of was being renovated and they took them down. This almost merited the title of this entry: Capitalism Defeats Democracy or Symbol of Democracy Disposed of by Capitalism.

Last night my new apartment-mate arrived. He'll be staying for a week. We went out drinking with some other googlers to a place in greenwich village. It was fun getting to know them, though they're all just visiting (like me) and will be gone in a week or two (unlike me). The drinks were cheap (at least the ones on special) but weak.

Fried soft shelled crabs are good. :) (dinner tonight at a place that appeared to be called "Hong Kong Noodles Sushi")

Today was sunnier and more humid than before. Perhaps real New York weather is returning?