But, I got ahead of the story again.
Let me introduce myself: my name is Annamari and I grew up on the Balaton's shore. My parents little village was close to Badacsony, so our blood had mixed with wine when we grew up.
We moved to Pest when I was about 8 or 9, and there I went to school and college. It is not much I can say about those times, all I remember is the lake and the wine that shines in glasses as the warm summer sun over our skin when we laid in the dust...Those were my handsome years.
My time started when I came to US to get my MBA, it is here that I met Mona and her friends. It is here that I met Anaïs and started this conversation without finality, this one about beauty.

I came around Mona while I was working as an intern for a consulting agency. She was one of the bosses and , in spite of being one of those that keeps her distance , she befriended me. Why she chose me, I could not know... Maybe we discovered a common language or maybe there were her own memories about Balaton. So she invited me one day to dine at her house, and that became our routine even after I finished the internship and returned to school.

Mona lives in one of the city neighbourhoods, where rich and poor mix. She chose it because it is the only spot in this whole metro area where you can find real diversity -the Europeans, the Hispanic, the Africans , the Asians and the African Americans living near by the older Hebraic and Anglo-Saxon families, she says. " You come to appreciate this: being able to interact with people from the your part of the world without trying on purpose. Especially after you have lived here for so long. Plus I am too lazy to walk for the sake of walking, here I can walk to places, to meet people and that keeps me in shape." (There is a certain fullness in her beauty indeed). Her house, the call it here a Craftsman, not to large, not too posh, but with unique features that had been restored to their original beauty: the marble mantle, built in bookcases and the exquisite woodwork of the banister and railings. The kitchen, however, it is new and modern, with a sleek elegant look accentuated by its stainless steel appliances and tall cabinets. It is in the kitchen where you would find Anaïs, on a tall kitchen stool her notebook on the counter top. It is her favourite place, by what was once the hearth of the house.