A NEW YORK MINUTE.

There are only a couple of things left on my NYC bucket list, and last week I ticked a couple of things off - the Guggenheim, eat a NYC pretzel, and buy an I love NY t-shirt.

Today is the start of my last week in NYC and although I'm sad to be leaving, I'm just as excited to be flying away to explore a new place. It does feel strange to be getting onto a plane that isn't bound for Australia, and I'd be lying if I said I haven't thought about getting onto a flight home. Even though, technically, I'll be closer to home in London that I am here in NYC - in distance and time - I feel like I'm going to be further away. I feel like every day I spend exploring a new place is another day that I slip a little bit further away from my friends. I worry that it'll be harder for keep in touch, harder to connect, harder to find something to talk about. I worry that things will have changed so much - both in myself and in the people I left behind - that things won't be the same, and that makes me sad. Although this adventure is a great new beginning (and I'm not saying that things were bad at home, just that I needed to make changes in my life, attitude, and behaviours) it's really hard to let go of the past. I thought that being halfway around the world would make letting go easier, but it hasn't.

I don't want to sound ungrateful for the opportunity I have to travel like this and go on an incredible adventure. I know that I'm doing something that many people will never be able to do and I'm so lucky that I can and am. I can't stop myself for feeling like this and I wanted to write in down, after all, this is a journal.

I didn't start this post with the intention of writing what I have, but I want to write as honestly as I can here - the good, bad, and ugly - and today I started writing and just kept writing and this is where I ended.

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME.

I went to the Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays game last week and despite knowing nothing about baseball and having no idea what was going on most of the time,  I had a great time. I sat in the bleachers with a bunch of Yankee fans, ate cheese fries and drank soda, and heckled the left field.

THE TOP OF THE ROCK + AN AMAZING SUMMER'S NIGHT.

Equals an a-freaking-mazing view of New York City.

DEAR DIARY: I'M NOT SORRY THAT I HAVEN'T WRITEN.

A quick snapshot of what I've been up to in NYC this week. I took the Staten Island Ferry and admired the Lower Manhattan skyline, spent a good chunk of time walking up and down the fabric lined aisles at Mood, soaked up that bookstore smell in Strand Books, and took a walk through the Park Avenue Tunnel.

I've been living in NYC for two months now and I still have those this-isn't-real-I-must-be-dreaming moments. Even more amazing than the tourist bucket list moments are the moments when I'm doing something mundane - like juggling my groceries on a busy sidewalk, trying to get my metrocard out of my pocket without spilling my Americano* - and I catch a glimpse of the Empire State Building. I'm in New York City. I'm actually in New York City. I could say it a thousand times from the top of the Empire State Building but it still wouldn't feel real.

I was worried that if I didn't keep a journal throughout my time here that I'd wouldn't have any way of remembering the time I spent here, but I know now that I won't. Sure, I won't have a record of what I did each day, but I'll always remember the moments that took my breath away, the moments when I fell even more in love with the city, and the moments when I was so so happy that I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. 

And even if those memories start to fade away, I'll still have the Instagram snaps.

* An Americano is a black perculoted coffee that I have come to absolutely love. Something that I never thought I would say. It's true that New York City changes you.

A SHORTCUT THROUGH CENTRAL PARK.

I like shortcuts. And I like taking shortcuts on a sunny Sunday morning. And I love finding myself still wandering around Central Park hours later.

A LAZY SUMMER AFTERNOON.

I won't ever forget how lazy summer afternoons in NYC feel. The feel of the sun on my shoulders, the chill of the iced coffee you grab from a street vendor on the corner for a dollar fifty, and the smell of the night as it rolls in as the sun sets.