Mm-hmm

...from what I'm about to say.

But 9/11 became this great leveler for the, for the entire country, maybe the whole world, I don't know.

But certainly for, for the US, and in particular for New York, where a city and a country that sort of had existed thinking that we were one way made us realize this vulnerability that we had, and New Yorkers that have this reputation for being sharp elbows and short words, at the time that I arrived there, all of a sudden those edges became more blunted, and those words became softer.

And so my arrival into this completely new culture happened at a time when New York became this incredibly warm and welcoming place.

When one thinks of New York, you don't think of the term neighborly necessarily.

It's more like someone closes the door instead of holding it open for you, and that kind of...

Mm.