(Originally published April 29th 2013, after a few short weeks of exploring and observing the city)

Let's talk about nice things. Good things.

Let's not talk about nasty things, like crocodiles in sewers or rats in the alleys types of things.

When adjusting to a new place it is probably advisable to focus on the positives. So here we go.

I love that a night in New York only really gets going at the time a night in London is winding down.

I love that in one city block you can witness every human emotion - laughter, crying, anger, bitterness, and love, young love and old.

I love that as you walk through the streets of the Village, the Empire State building stands like a beacon in the New York sky. Its like a reminder that by being here, you are part of something.

I love that in the city, sunny and sixty feels more like sunny and eighty.

I love that when the wind blows on a spring day, showers of cherry blossom petals cover your hair and their sweet scent temporarily masks the air of the street.

I love that on a sunny afternoon I can sit on a bench in Union Square, while across from me two Russian models smoke, babysitting a young child while in the same moment a male cross-dresser struts by us in 3 inch heels with a boom box over his head singing along to Rihana's "Only Girl". Onlookers gawk, admire, or shake their heads.

I love that in New York there are a thousand, million, tiny wonderful little restaurants with the best food in the world. I hate that in one lifetime it is impossible to sample them all.

I love that New York is actually not a melting pot, but a stew. The city is made up of the old, young; rich, poor; modern, ancient; artists, bankers; black, white, asian; tourists, residents...

I love the view of the New York skyline from Williamsburg.

I love that New Yorkers hold their beliefs with conviction and confidence and don't care who knows it.

I love when I see a limousine on the streets of the city. Their presence is awkward, but not unsurprising.

I love that women in New York will wear jeans, a hoodie and heels.

I love being close to places which have inspired hundreds of movies, thousands of songs and millions of people - the Bowery, Canal Street, Washington Square, Greenwhich Village...

I love that New York is a city full of potential - a state of being that is both so powerful and incredibly fragile. A state of being which lives in the breaths and moments of the now and the near. It is not found in posterity, but exists within each opportunity and the choices we make. Our "Yes" and our "No". And in New York one is faced with hundreds of yes's and no's a minute.