After five years, I just moved out of New York. This titanic city, which is of course the best city in the world, has absorbed me since day one with her cold, angry, and greedy embrace. As a good New Yorker I’ve become to love and hate this concrete jungle, and before I start to desperately miss her (which in a way I already do), I wanted to list a few unique moments/things/thoughts she’s offered throughout these past years when I could call this crazy place home.

• Having a 24h deli in virtually every corner of every block of every neighbor of every borough is one of the main reasons why NY is fantastic.
• My aversion towards AC turns into profound adoration after the summer of 2010.
• I realize that New Jersey is a dark, hidden place where no New Yorker ever wants to go (but when you go it’s actually pretty nice).
• Central Park makes you want to run. Its main loop is the perfect run in all possible ways.
• My hearing ability significantly decreases thanks to subway trains and fire trucks.
• People who walk slowly / stand on the left side of escalators / hold train doors are deplorable humans and should leave the city.
• The Book of Mormon is perfect and can’t be topped.
• The fear of missing out is real.
• An amazing Peruvian girl at an average Peruvian restaurant at the West Village starts talking to me and ends up becoming my partner in life.
• Javier Bardem buys me a beer at Arlene’s Grocery Karaoke after singing The Trooper.
• Brooklyn is the best place on Earth (at least during summer).
• Segregation in the city is pretty fucked up and makes you sad and upset.
• I run my first half marathon in Brooklyn. I run two more afterwards, including the NYC one. Running across Times Square is epic.
• Many friends move at least once a year within the city. I manage to live in “just” three different apartments during these five years.
• I see some Mad Men cast singing at a really small and underground live band Karaoke in the Lower East Side. Littlefinger / Carccetti is also there, drinking, smiling, thinking about his next move to take over the world.
• Brooklyn rooftop parties staring at the Manhattan skyline remind me I am extremely privileged. And of my happiness.
• Now I am a world expert on bedbugs, so I understand that they are, by far, the most terrible creatures of this universe (after humans).
• Monthly Music Hackathons are the best thing you can do in the city if you are into music technology and coding.
• I walk from my apartment to Prospect Park to see Robert Plant singing Led Zeppelin songs. Yes: Robert Fucking Plant.
• East Coast beaches are terrible.
• New York Pizza is fantastic.

You will be deeply missed. Bay Area, here I go. I’m excited.