A!Me!Ri!Ca!

Yesterday at a cocktail party I met an architect A.R. We immediately found mutual acquaintance: my last boss was working for his company before starting out on her own.

A.R. was born in a small town in South-Eastern England, got an art education and went to US. “I was seeking a better life”, – he said, – “but in my wildest dreams I couldn’t have imagined myself capable to achieve the position I am in now: Principal Partner of a firm with world recognition status. Two years ago me and the wife went back, to visit my home town. A childhood friend became a successful business owner, but he never left the street he was born and grew up in, he never left UK! I can’t understand it. I traveled over half of the world!

What’s that going on in your country, Ukraine?” – [I said- my country is USA, I am an American citizen of 20 years. No, I never returned and I will never go back there] -” OK, but we had a $multi-million project in that capital city ” [Kyiv, – I said] – “No, Do-ni-etz? Do-ni-bass? Well, it’s got cancelled right in the middle of work. What’s the matter with your compatriots? Don’t they know that it is better to build than to shoot? My home town remains the same, all the same, except maybe one or two buildings are now “towering” 6-stories. Ha! Even London is mostly horizontal, never mind few relatively tall buildings of the last 10 years. And even those are much maligned in the press. I wouldn’t outright call them provincial, but it was wonderful to come back home. That vacation was wonderful, too – but coming back to New York afterwards was better. Great city, New York. Fountain-of-youth city.