Just about to leave the US after my first trip here in nearly 10 years. It has been fantastic. I’ve been to San Francisco and New York so have had the West Coast/East Coast experience.

Here are my parting shots before my flight gets called:

• Healthcare Capitalism - I never knew I potentially had so many ailments and afflictions. Luckily, the friendly drug companies have a pill for nearly everything…including ladies with PMS (seriously!). You can’t watch TV for more than a few minutes without seeing a healthcare related ad. It is big, big business here.
• Beer - The local stuff “sucks”
• Capitalist Backlash? - I heard a few people now talk about not being “venture funded” and just planning to retain ownership of their companies and grow them aggressively, but in modest terms (i.e. not grow from 10 to 200 employees overnight). When you consider how popular the Michael Moore movies have been and then books/movies like Fast Food Nation, The Corporation, An Inconvenient Truth, and Who Killed the Electric Car? have been, perhaps there is starting to be change in thinking. Maybe not everyone here wants to be the next huge multi-national like Google. How very un-American. Maybe they just got turned down for funding?
• Times Square - It isn’t really very square, which makes it quite confusing when you’re pressed up against a few thousand tourists.
• Big - Nothing new here, but it is just an overriding impression of the US. Everything is big, the meal sizes, the roads, the cars, (some of) the people.
• Blackberry - They are everywhere. They completely dominate this market in terms of PDA/handheld devices.
• Optimists - In general, Americans are “glass half full” people, even the more serious New Yorkers. There is an overwhelming feeling of positivity and high expectations for the future. They are also prolific networkers and easily introduce themselves to strangers. It is quite engaging and infectious. I like it.
• A new Die Hard movie! - Released 27th June 2007
• New York (Manhatten) - Everything I had expected…and more.

I hope to come back soon.