1. How are you exploring your essential question; is it different from what you expected? If you don’t feel like you’re answering your essential question, what is happening that’s different from what you expected? 
2. Are you surprised by any of the challenges that you’ve faced so far? How have you met those challenges and what can you do going forward to deal with them?
3. Writing on your essential question: What have you learned about your essential question so far? What further questions do you have? and/or Has your essential question changed? If so, how?  What do you want to know more about?

So far, I have really enjoyed exploring my essential question. I have watched, read, and listened to many podcasts, articles, and videos about the histories of the locations I’ve been visiting. I wish I was talking to more people, but I think I can do that more as I visit more places (talk to managers or creators/artists or bystanders). I think I’ve been surprised about how much I don’t know and how easy it is to not know things and stories that now I can’t imagine not knowing or remembering as I walk around the city. I feel like I could take more photos of my journey to the locations and journal a little bit more, but I will keep that in mind as I continue.

One of the challenges I’ve faced is the procrastination to travel far on gloomy days, especially alone. I’ve started to ask a few friends who also have a journalling aspect of their project to join me on a few visits. I’ve been a little surprised by how hard it is to not stay on schedule, but I keep reminding myself that if I don’t I’ll need to catch up later on which motivates me. I think keeping a consistent routine for myself and making a schedule that I know is reasonable will fix the procrastination issue. I also know if I have a buddy to travel with, it will motivate me to stick to the plan I have.

While talking to Yukie, we discussed how New Yorkers don’t tend to look up; not just from their phones, but in general. It takes energy and effort to stop and look up and New Yorkers are very headstrong while walking. We all need to get somewhere and most people want to get there as fast as possible. And since the subway is underground and is one main public transportation system, people miss a lot in between point A and point B. After our talk, I listened to a podcast on water towers, which Yukie shared was a passion of hers. It was interesting how many different water towers they are and how easy they are to miss and forget the importance or value.