downtown

spent most of the day at the bureau of immigration in downtown newark today with my parents. i didn't take breakfast because i got up at 10 and we had to leave right away. hunger came, hunger vanished. when we finally ordered fastfood at 4pm i knew i was famished! haha.

it was my first time to go to downtown newark today, which is about 30-35 minutes away from home. god bless that employee at immigration who came up to us at the waiting area to ask about our visit's purpose, because he had told us that the receiving floor for our concern had already closed at 10am, and we had been waiting in the wrong room for more than an hour. he was kind enough to lead us to the 2nd floor where we were supposed to be in the first place, telling the folks down there that we were supposed to be with the last batch that came in. he was actually kind of good-looking, probably in his thirties, looked like he was italian, but told us he had some filipino roots in his 5-nationality blood. he said his grandfather was from cebu.

newark kinda reminded me of recto, because newark had a "university plaza", where universities and county colleges stood in close proximity to each other, as well as hospitals, and churches of various religious denominations. there was one church that was in front of the immigration building which looked so gothic, it seemed like it was out of a comic book. the sidestreets had some sidewalk vendors here and there, and there were stores which sold shoes and furniture.