This was taken some time in July on my first and only visit to Central Park. I remember it has been scorching hot and the park was packed with tourists and locals alike. One thing I noticed was the amount of people playing the Pokemon Go app. The contrasts stuck out to me the most.. how Central park itself looked like a wildlife reserve, a huge landscape of green and rocky hills. Then if you looked behind you all that was seen was towering buildings and you could hear the familar noises of New York, beeping cars and concrete. Megan and I only saw less than ten percent of the park but I can see why it has been the location of many scenes in films. This is the place where people come to do early morning yoga. Visiting it seems almost like a rite of passage to tourists yet for some New Yorkers this is their local park. That's what intrigues me. Some day I will spend more time in this place.


The sky is just phenomenal in this photo, one of my favourite things to photograph is the sky at different times. Be it nightime, dusk or the sun's rays lighting up the blue sky. This beach is Robert Moses Beach,  a beautiful location near Fire Island. This beach is absolutely heavenly during the day when the sun lights up the pale sand. However.. my favourite time has to be when the beach is near deserted, the sun is beginning to set and all you can hear is the crashing of the waves against the shore. I went once with someone, just the two of us and it was honestly a really lovely experience, talking about growing up; how we had grown up on opposite sides of the world and had extremely different childhoods. I think I'll always remember it. One of the great things about Long Island is the fact that the sea is never too far away for me, someone who feels at peace by the ocean.


One of the few museums we got to see in New York. Despite living 45 minutes from NYC it is actually hard to get to see all you want to visit in a few hours every Sunday. My wish to visit the Museum of Moving Images hasn't been fulfilled. The Met or The Metropolitan Museum of Art was one of our stops. What a building. It was gigantic and again myself, Patrick and Megan only saw a small piece of it. But what we saw was just intriguing, educational and beautiful all at once. We passed through the Ancient Egyptian section, Modern Art section, Photography section, Met Gala Fashion section and the Byzantine section. So many priceless artefacts were on display.. including an Egyptian tomb. I kept the map of the Museum for my scrapbook. My brain honestly hurt from trying to take in all the beautiful sights. But I also felt so inspired. The excellent thing is that this museum is suggested donation so you can pay as much as you can afford to enter the museum. My friends and I were lucky as the fact that we were college students meant that our suggested donation was a reasonable $12 so we decided to pay in full.


An area within the Met. When we stepped into this room I was immediately awestruck. There were so many glass windows, allowing the natural light to shine in. It was amazing to see the different art displays. Humans are visual beings so if I had to pick my favourite section from the exhibitions that I got the opportunity to visit it would be this one. I think we need to appreciate more just how phenomenal these artworks are, some of them centuries old. These artists were living, breathing people and these works were created in times where the materials we have available today were not in existence. I don't lose my sense of wonder for these things because it shows us a world that we can never experience.


One thing that strikes me about America on a daily basis is how patriotic its citizens are. An American flag adorns every house, the pledge was said on a daily basis in the camp that I worked at. The American flag symbolises so much. The pledge speaks of liberty - freedom of all. The America of today is a very interesting place. I can't help thinking as an outsider.. how so many Americans are persecuted for being themselves -members of the LGBTQ community, the African American community. These people are killed for being who they are.. in the land of the free. This is what I think about every time I see an American flag. I think of my own country's flag. I often see it in this country and it invokes such a sense of pride in me. So many Americans that I have met have Irish ancestry and speak of wanting to visit my beautiful little country. The American flag is a symbol of a nation that can and should be better.


This is such a familiar sight to me now. I have spent many an afternoon lying on a recliner watching the water ripple in the wind. I am very lucky to live in a beautiful house while I'm in America. I come out to this place when I want to relax and when I want to think alone. Lately I've just been giving too many chances to people who don't deserve it and I'm trying really hard to maintain a positive attitude about life. I think I am stuck in a bit of a rut but I am going back to Europe soon and that thought alone makes me smile. There's something terrifying and amazing about being left alone with your thoughts. It's important to train your mind to be positive and I spend a lot of time outside in this spot listening to music that makes me happy, just thinking.

You can't help but think.. COLOUR when you see this. I am obsessed with colours. The shade of someone's eyes.. the colours of the sky. Every so often I like to remind myself how beautiful the world around me is. I look up and see the blue sky above me... the brightest blue. Blue is a colour that remains special to me. Each person here on earth brings their own colours to the world.. no two colours are alike. It's easy to get lost in the every day and not appreciate the world around you. The brightest art on a building in New York city can capture my attention.. or the grey limestone of the Burren back home in my lovely Ireland. People see colours in a different way. I really want myself to focus on the brighter colours... I want to make a conscious effort to do so.

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Thanks so much for reading! If you managed to get the whole through I salute you. This was a rambly blog and an insight into how my brain works. I am such a visual person.. despite being devoted to words and I do appreciate every bit of support on this little blog. Sometimes I forget why I write this blog in the first place... but I think.. if someone gets some sort of enjoyment from this then I am happy. Someone told me recently that I was cursed with a poet's mind. Blessed or cursed I don't know. Thanks so much again :)

It hasn't quite hit me that I will be staying in this country for the next three months. I'm still not used to the American accents or seeing big flags wherever I go, but I suppose part of the J1 experience is learning to adapt. I'm still shy to speak loudly in case people notice I'm different or tell many people what my name is because it will be impossible for others to understand. I haven't explored much of the place yet but I wanted to document the journey from my little part of Ireland all the way to Bay Shore, NY.