Chinatown

My last night in NYC I decided to walk around the financial district and see the sights.  I got to see the Charging Bull:

I walked by the beautiful Trinity Church:

And I walked down Wall Street and saw the New York Stock Exchange and walked by Federal Hall where George Washington was inaugurated.

After I toured the financial district I walked to Century 21, a large discount store that carries several designer names.  The place was huge and they had so much stuff!  Of course I walked away with a few new items I just couldn't live without.  :) 

Later I took the subway to Chinatown for dinner and shopping.  I went to Joe's Shanghai to try the famous soup dumplings as I'd never had one before.  Soup dumplings are like regular dumplings but in addition to the meat filling they have a broth soup contained within.  To eat them, you have to open up the dumpling and either slurp the soup or pour it into a spoon before eating the rest of the dumpling.  As I tend to love playing with my food, this was perfect for me.  I also liked that the hostess sat you wherever there was room so I ended up first sitting with a group of three Chinese people who were in the middle of their dinner and then after they left a group of three Italian men were seated with me.  I actually ended up ordering the Italians' dinner for them because they didn't speak English or Chinese.  I left before they received it so I hope they liked what I chose!

After dinner I perused Chinatown and bought a few goodies to bring home, such as moon cakes.  I then ate my way through the rest of the neighborhood.  I enjoyed a boba tea:

And I had some soy milk with a Chinese fruit cake (don't worry, nothing like a Christmas fruitcake):

Oh, and Chinatown is right by Little Italy but I didn't make it into that neighborhood.

After I was sufficiently full and everything was shutting down, I headed back to the hotel.  A couple hours later, I realized what a terrible idea it was to drink boba tea, which has caffeine in it (and I don't drink caffeine much anymore), late at night.  The next morning was an early morning indeed!  I finished up my last day of training and flew back home.  I had such an amazing time in NYC and my training was extremely helpful for my job.  All in all, the trip was a success!