Hong Kong wants you to know how clean it is.

Hong Kong and Singapore are two of the cleanest cities I've ever been in, but they also rival each other for the sheer number and topics covered when it comes to PSAs. Warnings about dengue fever are how I learned that mosquitos are attracted to dark colors, and that hoarding will lead to your entire house burning down while you stand in your dim, crowded living room yelling "Aiya! Aiya!" and cradling your stubbed toe.

Things you don't need to be afraid of anymore: holding the handrail, pushing elevator buttons, or touching door handles.





The second picture was taken in an elevator while on a tour of empty restaurants with great views with one of my aunties. I was stopped when I tried to take a picture of another handle that was sanitized eight times a day. Eight times!

Hong Kong Superstar Tutors

A few weeks before I left on my recent trip to Asia, a friend told me about the superstar tutors of Hong Kong. (Then when I saw that Slate reported on it, I knew I was years behind the curve.) I didn't realize just how pervasive the phenomenon was though, until I got to HK, stepped into the train and then out, and took all of these photos within a 5 minute stretch.









I've always heard that the best way to learn a language is to get a girl/boyfriend, but in lieu of that I guess a major "idol" crush will do just fine.

I don't know if you can make it out on the picture, but Joseph Li is "often held up as Exam Prophet." I think it's gone to his head though. Head/hair.

Sigh of relief!

Cafe Zaiya is back! Maybe I'll celebrate by eating carbs, i.e. leaf pies.

Cafe Zaiya, wtf!!!

via Midtown Lunch

Cafe Zaiya, how could you do this to me? Where am I going to get my leaf pies now? Apparently they were closed today because of nonpayment of taxes. Midtown Lunch called for more info and they were told that the store could be back in business pretty soon, but IDK, that SEIZED sign looks pretty scary to me!


thanks, Baker Bibi!

Cafe Zaiya calls these "leaf pies," and I always knew them as butterfly or snail cookies, but apparently they're palmiers. And wow, they're so easy to make. Maybe I don't need you after all, Cafe Zaiya!

Accidental Chinese Hipsters

I saw these old grannies and tourist groups so often in China that I forgot they're funny.



Check out the full site, Accidental Chinese Hipsters.

Leucojum

Germany, 1796



Central Park, 2011



It's such a beautiful day out, we took a golf cart and took some pictures of spring blooms. This flower was my favorite! My coworker looked it up and found out it's a spring snowflake, or Leucojum. I'd love to embroider this all over somewhere, maybe with fuzzy mohair yarn for the green dot!

This is how New Yorkers live.

We make space for our Shrinky-dink art. We store laundry in our stoves (or fridges, in my cousin's case). We store bananas in the toaster ovens.

I actually once went to see and almost rented a place even smaller, if you can imagine it. It was very similar in layout but with a much smaller closet and the ladder to the bed stuck out too much, so you couldn't use that space for anything really. There wasn't even enough room for a desk and a chair. Her space is downright luxurious for her $700 rent, honestly. I mean this is New York! The space I looked at had a little tiny stove (quite the fire hazard in a space that small) and didn't have a bathroom; it was down the hall and you share with the three others on the hall. It was also right near Lincoln Center and that side of Central Park.

Trapped

Don't fall in to the hipster trap!

Happy weekend!

Seen before brunch at Rosewater Restaurant, which was a thoroughly disappointing experience. There was a string in the pork sandwich Rosa got, and the manager's response was, "Oh, we use that to cook the pork. We're usually good at making sure that doesn't go in the sandwich."

Across the street

More Christmas lights!

Christmas is coming

The goose is getting fat!

Christmas lights on the Lower East Side:



Columbus Circle:





Time Warner Center:

Brooklyn Bridge

Lots of construction happening right now on the bridge.

Free for the Taking

A selection of books for the average Park Sloper. Public Middle Schools, The Library Card, and Chris Angel's Mindfreak.

Big Bambu

They used a lot of this:



and this:



to make this:



It seems amazing at first that these two guys (twins, no less!) Doug and Mike Starn, could make a structure that groups of people can walk in using only bamboo and bungee cords. But having lived in HK and China, to me it's amazing that two white guys did it. In Asia, buildings are demolished and reconstructed within a matter of days, and they don't waste time on the scaffolding. Once a small base is built, they send a guy up there with bamboo and some cable ties and he straps a few on, climbs up them, and repeats. For about 10 stories. It's amazing!

Thong th-thong thong thong.

Seen in Miami.



Also loving the Glee version:

I want to be a lobster for Halloween.

My inspiration:



Last year's Tompkins Square Park Dog Halloween Parade.

Street Scenes, International Version

Seen in Barcelona. Spaniards love Spongebob as much as we do, apparently.

Taken by Rosa.

This is getting out of hand

Don't know where, don't know when. I do know why.......